American Express Platinum is one of the foremost cards from the privileges perspective around the globe, backed by the well-known American Express customer service. I remember when they launched the card in India about 6-7 years back, it was an invite-only product, with tonnes of privileges, but also some solid signup gifts such as Longines Watches & Membership Reward Points for signup, to justify the INR 50,000 + taxes membership fee per annum. Amex’s sole competitor in this lifestyle card space was the Citibank Ultima, which till last year, provided 50K JP Miles, 5 JP Upgrade vouchers and JetPrivilege Platinum status, however, the proposition got significantly diluted, and as a result, I personally cancelled my Citibank Ultima credit card recently…
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Credit Card Review: Air India SBI Visa Signature
With this post, I am reintroducing the Credit Card Reviews series in India, which I had to stop a while ago due to paucity of time. Air India & GE/SBI Credit Cards recently teamed up to launch co-branded credit cards which could earn you quite some miles, making me think of calling it perhaps the best credit card to earn miles in India at the moment. They’ve launched 2 credit cards, one at the Signature level and one at the Platinum level, and I will review both separately. Sign-Up Bonus: This credit card offers a tidy sign-up bonus of 20,000 Air India miles to start you up with the credit card product. You also get an upgrade voucher from Air…
Review: American Express Lounge, Mumbai Airport, Terminal 1C
Just this past long weekend, I was headed out to Goa for a vacation. Usually, I am accompanied by people, so I do not end up using the American Express Lounge at Terminal 1C, but the Carnations Lounge instead. However, since I was alone, and I had access to the lounge via my Jet Airways Amex, I decided to give it a go this time around. The lounge is set inside the Carnations Lounge itself (as a separate enclosure), The same lounge also houses Jet Airways & Go Air passengers, Priority Pass, MasterCard & Visa Access, and the recent Diners Club bearing passengers. In short, it is a crowd out there and hence I’d anyday prefer to access the Amex…
Going RTW: Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, Central Terminal, LaGuardia
Introduction & Trip Index <Holiday Inn, LGA UA 343 (LGA-DEN), United, First> I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this on the blog before, but I’ve actively started to avoid early morning flights. I’ve done my fair share in the past, and maybe I’ll do more, but I try and plan around them as much as I can. However, this was one of those days when flying early morning was unavoidable, and hence I went over to LGA, groggy! After collecting my boarding pass, I walked over to the security check area. I needed a quick coffee and something to start my day,…
A sneak peek into the Diners Club space at the Mumbai Carnations Lounge
This past weekend, I happened to hop on to a flight from the A-gates of the Mumbai airport after a couple of months. And I was in the Carnations Lounge, which I have access to thanks to my Jet Airways status, as well as with the Priority Pass. I’ve seen this lounge shrinking over a period of time, first to accommodate the American Express Lounge which opened up for American Express Platinum members. And now, the Diners Club lounge which is open. Unlike the Amex Lounge, the Diners Club lounge is an open area and not a glass enclosure. It seems the food and drinks are going to be the same as for the regular access available to the lounge…
Finally, you can buy lounge access on a one-off basis
One of the largest set of queries I notice on my blog is that for accessing lounges in India. While I know it makes life easy, airlines & airline alliances offer it to their elite customers only, and credit cards as well extend it to their card holders who hold certain varieties of credit cards. Here is the list of MasterCard and Visa cards based lounge access in India. For those who did not have lounge access via any of the other modes, membership to the Priority Pass or similar programs were necessary. These usually come complimentary along with credit cards, however, users would have to pay a $27 fee per guest per use, unless they had the highest version…
Review: Clipper Lounge, Terminal 2, Mumbai
Introduction Check-in: Clipper Lounge, Terminal 2, Mumbai Airborne: Flight 9W228 (BOM-BRU), Jet Airways, Premiere (A332) Hotel Manhattan, Rotterdam Hotel Sheraton Brussels Airport, Brussels Check-in: Jet Airways Lounge, Brussels Airborne: Flight 9W227 (BRU-BOM), Jet Airways, Premiere (A333) Update: New Lounge as of February 2014 is covered here. I intended to arrive at the Mumbai Airport Terminal 2 in good time for this trip. Part of the reason for that was that I had just gotten done with a long day with a client, and I wanted to relax and be at ease on my flight, since I was going to slip into work as soon as I landed up in the Netherlands post my flight. However, the whole expectation of having…
Citibank Ultima, now just another credit card!
Citibank Ultima is was one of the best lifestyle credit cards in the market, and now it seems that it will be losing the edge soon. The invite-only Ultima card has premium proposition that includes an unlimited Priority Pass, a membership to the ITC Culinary Plus program, Golf privileges, an international medical cover for $50K and other stuff. The reason a business traveller would get interested? Till last December, they used to have a product variant, which used to let you get access to the Jet Airways’ Jet Privilege program Platinum Tier, along with the upgrade vouchers and complimentary 50K JPMiles (used to cost INR 50K per annum in fees!!) Like I reported a couple of months back, this partnership…
Mileage Earning Credit Cards 101 – India edition 2013!
I met a fairly well travelled bunch of people this past weekend for a coffee in Mumbai, and I was very surprised at the end of this conversation when we pulled out our wallets to pick the tab. The payment was split between two of the folks, and I was not allowed to pay. However, both the cards used for payment were not mileage earning or anything close! The scene was repeated later that evening with a bunch of friends. Someone beat me to reaching out for the check, and another non-mileage earning credit card went into the payment mode. Look, I have nothing against non-mileage earning credit cards. I was using them at a point of time (when there…
Reminder: 1 week for bonus miles with Jet Airways Amex
A quick reminder for those of you who are planning to take up the new co-branded card Jet Airways launched with American Express 2 weeks back. American Express and Jet Airways are offering the new shiny plastic for a fee of Rs. 10,000 per annum plus taxes, and you get a welcome bonus of 20,000 JP Miles. In case you make an application before December 25 this year, you also get another 10,000 JP Miles as well. American Express has clarified that Platinum JP members and winners of the “Wheel of Fortune” contest will get the card free of cost, however, in case they choose not to pay a fee (i.e., get it complimentary), they will not receive the welcome…
Breaking: Jet Airways American Express Platinum card launched
The news I’ve been waiting for. Like you know, Jet Airways parted way with Citibank for their decade old co-branded credit card and tied up with three partners instead: HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and American Express. I’d talked about the imminent launch of this product last month. HDFC Bank went first with releasing their product, and ICICI Bank went next. These have been in the market for a while now. American Express seemed to take some time, since they had to first disengage with the Kingfisher co-branded credit card they already had in operation to launch the new product with Jet Airways co-branding. Anyways, all the hard work is behind us and the new credit card has now been launched.…
