Live From A Lounge: The 7-year itch

Seven years ago, the first post on Live From A Lounge went out. It did come across as innocuous, but it was the start of something big, something that would change my life for good! I’m someone who likes doing a lot of things at the same time, reason I’ve always worked in strategy-shaping roles at banks and financial firms for 15 years!

Back in the day, I started the website out of the frustration that there was no resource available for maximising travel for Indians. I was 50-100 days on the road, and all I was getting was a nought on all that money I was spending. Since then, it’s taken a life of its own. I meet tonnes of people at airports, in conferences, and many other places, who turn out to be readers and it is always amazing to say hello to a new face and be a part of their travel aspirations.

In 2018, Live From A Lounge completes seven years, which is the time when the 7-year itch has officially come to a close, and there is a lot more in store from here on. We just moved into an office we call the LOUNGE (hey, how long we could be working out of the bedroom or the airport?) and have had millions of people visit us in the online world. We started building our offline community last year, and we had some great people we met in Mumbai and Bangalore.

Mumbai Meetup

From here on, we are working on some great things to take our vision further of being the one-stop shop for all your need-to-know, want-to-know, good-to-know about travel and all things related: Cards, miles, points, value, tricks, tips, news and everything else. A few weeks ago, we started the process of adding more writers to our team. An upgrade is on the cards for the site (taking time, sorry!), and we are working on getting it right. I’ll keep you in the loop as we make more moves towards building our community.

While I consciously kept off from organising a giveaway on this momentous occasion (for us!), we do need all the inspiration we can to build out LFAL for you in the days ahead. I’ve opened up a form, where you can privately share with us your feedback and your LFAL moment. Send us a picture, send us a story, send us a kick in our ass, whatever you feel is needed. Or drop me a note at ajay@livefromalounge.com if you work better on email.

But most importantly, I want to share my gratitude and thank YOU, our readers, for supporting me over the past seven years. There have been nights when I’ve tuned into announcements at 2 in the morning on my vacations to make sure you get your update on time with your morning coffee. When I hear you were able to fly for free or whisk your better half away to an island on points, all of this feels worth the effort.

Like always, we will continue to get you the best information we can every day to keep your travel experience maximised and you can stay updated by following us on social media: FacebookTwitter and Instagram.

via GIPHY

Here’s to seven (and many more) years! Onwards and upwards!

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About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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Comments

  1. Congratulations Ajay & Shipra. Way to go! Your blogs are part of my daily reading and almost morning ritual. The helpful info you put out has helped me bag many a mile and your offline award booking service is great! Thank you and wish you even greater success in your next 70.

  2. Well done Ajay , Shipra and LFAL team! I have surely got new promotions , ways to earn more miles and points and news updates on Travel and everything around it.
    Happy Birthday LFAL and many more to come!

  3. Happy Anniversary to the Whole Team. I also travel almost 100+ days for work and regularly check your posts. It has been great help to me and found some good deals as well.

    Regards

    SPS Chauhan

  4. Congrats folks! Thanks for running this on the side and making travel and cards easier for so many Indians!

  5. Happy birthday to LFAL and its founder(s). Indeed reading your blogs / mailers with my morning coffee is what I have been doing for the past year and a half. The blog is hugely readable and I am a fan. Best wishes to all the great work you two are doing in this area.

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