English

Category Archives for English.

7 Weeks to the oneworld MegaDo: Preparing for seat 33A!

Yeah, the days to rough it out in coach on the charter are coming closer šŸ˜‰ In case you were wondering where did this weekly update vanish last week (week 8), well, nothing much moved so I thought it would be better to not bore you with the ramblings šŸ˜€ Some interesting developments have happened over the last week, which I think I should tell you about theĀ OWMD. I noticed that the earlier schedule confirmed that Cathay Pacific, American Airlines and British Airways was going to participate in the program (some at JFK, some at DFW, some at LHR, and some more than once). But in a new development when AA announced their auction for 2 seats on the sold-out…

Continue Reading »

When Lufthansa became Jet Airways

Being the inquisitive soul I am, I was working on another blogpost for the readers today. This one concerned Lufthansa in India. Now, out of pure guess work and intuition, I typed away http://www.lufthansa.co.in/ in my browser to check my facts. As you all would know, .co.in is the domain registration for corporations in India. But, I quickly hit F5 and then again, because I could not believe what I saw… Yes, I thought it could be the 3AM effect when I am wide awake due to the last Gingerbread Cookie Latte I had a few hours back with a huge helping of Carrot Cake. So, I tried it on another browser, and then on another computer. Same results…. End…

Continue Reading »

And Now, Like Marriott on Facebook and get 1000 Marriott Rewards points till December 31, 2011

Facebook seems to be catching the fancy of almost all hotel chains now a days, and this makes an excellent opportunity for all of you to rake in some free points with them at a click. Hyatt is running a big Sweepstakes on Facebook with all its brands, and giving away 100,000 GP points to those who participate and win. Now Marriott has entered the game and is offering the chance to winĀ Marriott Rewards points to everyone who participates. You got to log into your Facebook account, head up to Marriott International’s FB page and Like them. That enables you to participate in the Marriott Sweepstakes which are valid till 31st December 2011, once per day, everyday! That gives you…

Continue Reading »

Buy AAdvantage Miles with upto 33% bonus all the way till 31st December 2011!

This just in. I am not the one to be tracking AA too much but I guess with the OWMD they got me interested. Good for them to add another customer into their fold with the close association with the OWMD! šŸ˜‰ Anyways, the main news for the day is that from the 1st December 2011 till the 31st December 2011, AA is offering 2,000 free AA miles when you buy 6,000 miles with them, and in multiples. This means, for 60,000 miles to be bought, you get 20,000 free AAdvantage miles. Yes, that is true! Now usually AA allows you to buy or receive gifts of upto 40,000 miles per calender year. For this month only, that limit has…

Continue Reading »

3 more seats found on the oneworld MegaDo 2012! One is coming free of cost!

In case you have been interested in hopping on board the oneworld MegaDo charter which will be found in the air Jan 26-28, 2012, and were not able to pick a seat during the great sellout race, you just got lucky to try your hands at winning an all-expenses paid trip on the charter! Or if you are super-rich in terms of AAdvantage miles, you could also bid your way on for 2 all-in seats on the MegaDo. Here is how to win the Free Seat on the OWMD (from 1st to 14th Dec 2011)! Randy Petersen, the co-founder of Milepoint and BoardingArea, announced a contest last night called ‘December to Remember‘. All you got to do, before the noon…

Continue Reading »

Conde Nast Traveller gives away Readers Travel Awards from India, Singapore Airlines and Emirates are our best airlines!

Conde Nast Traveller’s India team set out to give away their Readers Travel Awards 2011 at a grand function in New Delhi last evening, and there were some surprises and then some non-surprises which happened out there.Yours truly, being an avid supporter of allĀ  things travel in India, did put in his vote too for the RTA 2011. Here are some key highlights from the Award Results that came out last night: – Airlines for Best Business Travel outside India: Singapore Airlines and Emirates – Airlines for Best Leisure Travel outside India: Emirates and Singapore Airlines Now this is not surprising at all, given that Emirates and Singapore Airlines both take traffic from India very seriously and use the hub-and-spoke…

Continue Reading »

And we have a winner…

A few days back I announced a small swag giveaway on the blog, and asked you all to head to Facebook to drop your suggestions there about what you wanted to see more on this blog. And here we go with the winner of the BoardingArea t-shirt who dropped a suggestion on the Facebook wall. Thank you Indranil for your suggestion, and I will be in touch with you shortly to deliver your swag. Also, I’ll be covering redeeming award flights with Jet Airways and my own experiences very soon. So look out! I also promised a couple of pens to a couple of ‘Likers’ on FB. For this, I used random.org to figure out who came up with the…

Continue Reading »

Save 25-33% on Hilton stays till 8 January 2012!

Hilton has recently launched a ‘Winter Holidays Sale’ on its website, where it is offering 25-33% on hotel stays at HiltonĀ properties and other HiltonĀ brands across the globe. The sale went up 25 Nov 2011 onwards and lasts till 1st Jan 2012. The stay has to be completed between 8th Dec 2011 and 8th Jan 2012. The offer is available on pre-paid rates, which need to be booked at least 7 days prior to the stay date, and turn out to be cheaper than the advertised Advance Purchase Rates also. Hilton’s website states that the sale will be broadly 25% off for American properties and 33% on European and Asian properties.Ā Plus, for each stay of at least two nights, Hilton HHonors…

Continue Reading »

Pay for Jet Airways tickets with your Amex and get 5000 JP miles!

Jet Airways recently hopped on to the American Express bandwagon. This meant you could now transfer your MR points to Jet Airways in India. Although, like always with any card tieup in India, Jet Airways JP miles are priced higher than the other conversions like Kingfisher or Air India Flying Returns. However, to celebrate their alliance,Ā Jet and AX have come together to make a new online offer for booking ‘revenue’ tickets on Jet Airways. From now until October 31, 2012, if you booked tickets on JetAirways.com using your American Express card, you could potentially earn 5,000 JP Miles in your Jet Privilege account. All you got to do is to book tickets worth INR 100,000 (USD 2,000) on your AX,…

Continue Reading »

Bye Bye Citibank Jet Airways Platinum Credit Card!

I just got off the phone with Citibank. This was one long tiresome negotiation we put each other through. And my misery is finally over. A few months ago Citibank and Jet Airways started taking away the benefits on the Citibank-Jet Airways Credit Card offered in India. I wrote about them and also contacted the Airline and the Bank to have a hard look at the whole setup and see what the competition was doing. As expected, I drew a blank there.I used to love this card since it contributed quite a bit to giving me my free round trip to the USA in Jet Airways Premiere Class this year, but the new terms did not look attractive anymore. It…

Continue Reading »

What makes the Taj Mahal hotels so special!?

I must admit I have never stayed at the Taj Mahal Palace Mumbai, but every time I’ve walked in for a client meeting, or a lunch, or an event being hosted, or just a casual drink after work, I’ve felt the warmth more than any other hotel I’ve stayed in around my travels so far. At the Taj Mahal Palace, which was under siege for about 3 days from 26th November 2008 to 28th November 2008, it was a different picture than it exists today.Ā Having been very close to one of the venues of this unfortunate event, I only feel lucky to have not been sucked into the tragedy by a whisker. Rated as one of the best hotels of…

Continue Reading »