Ever since Vistara took wings, one of the questions I’ve been asked is how does the loyalty program, Club Vistara, work? I’ve been able to piece together the earning part of Club Vistara. Eventually, since there were no hints or announcements about how does redemptions on Club Vistara work, I reached out to Vistara executives to ask about the redemption plans for Vistara’s loyalty program. To put it in context, there are 3 kinds of loyalty program models prevailing in the industry: Mileage based: Where you earn miles basis number of miles you fly, usually 100% of miles flown, and redeem on the airline metal or other airlines using a chart which calculates what is the price for a redemption.…
Hyatt’s Stay More Play More promotion till April 30, 2015
Hyatt has been offering their first promotion for the 1st Trimester of 2015, since January 15 now. The promotions are customised, like is the trend in hotel promotions now a days, and you can receive one of the following options when you punch in your Hyatt Gold Passport number in the page provided in the link above: 2,000 points after 1 stay 5,000 points after 2 stays 20,000 points after 10 nights (my offer) 50,000 points after 20 nights (5,000 after 5 nights + 10,000 after 10 nights + 15,000 after 15 nights + 20,000 after 20 nights for a total of 50,000) 65,000 points after 25 nights (30,000 after 15 nights + 15,000 after 20 nights + 20,000 after…
Air India’s Maharaja getting new clothes? Not really!
Everyone seems to have picked up the story from the Times of India yesterday, where they gave the spin that the Air India had decided to give its Maharaja mascot a makeover to look more like the common man. Here is how they portrayed the comparison: Of course, in the battle of clicks, many stories came out calling this Maharajah hideous. I have to admit he looks hideous, but what the stories conveniently forget to tell you is how there are so many adaptations of the Maharajah and this is just one of them. Take a look at some of his other adaptations: Of course, it was left to Air India to clear up the mess. And they had…
Delta shutting down Mumbai route?
Ever since American Airlines withdrew their Delhi-Chicago non-stop back in the day, I’ve wondered which American airline will be the next to go away from India. United has non-stop services to Mumbai and Delhi, while Delta has a one-stop service between NewYork JFK/Mumbai via Amsterdam operating for a very long time. While this announcement was out on AirlineRoutes.net for a while, I somehow seemed to have missed it. DELTA has closed reservation for Amsterdam – Mumbai service, for travel on/after 28MAR15. The Skyteam member currently operates this route once a day, and planned to be operated by 767-300ER from 29MAR15. Clearly, the JFK-AMS flight continues, but AMS-BOM is no longer available for sale beyond the winter schedule. I tried playing…
Jet Airways’ 24-hour cancellation facility fails me!
Update: Jet Airways did pick this up from Twitter and called me to resolve the issue. They informed me there was a glitch due to the coding of the Non-Refundable Rules however the policy was valid for my fare and hence the ticket would be manually cancelled. I have been going to town about the greatest thing on earth since the Swiss Knife: called 24-hours free cancellation by Jet Airways. When the facility was launched, it said that all passengers on domestic or international itineraries would be able to cancel their tickets within 24 hours if they had a change of plans, no questions asked! Yesterday, I was booking up some firm plans with Jet Airways, since it was the last…
Back at the Lounge: January 18, 2015
It has been a busy week around here. I hope you’ve all started to plan your travels for 2015, with all the multiple sales that have been out there. Here is a recap of the last week, in case you missed something. Deals: Air India kicked off a domestic fare sale earlier this week. Sale Fares available till tonight. Jet Airways followed suit, and also has sale fares available till tonight on domestic sectors. GoAir has just launched a fare sale, and these fares will be available till January 21, 2015. Jet Airways & HDFC Bank’s co-branded Debit Card is now available for INR 500 per annum, along with upto 3,500 JPMiles. Vistara: Reader Vishal Mehra checked out the Economy…
GoAir offering a fare sale till January 21, 2015
After Air India and Jet Airways’ fare sales which are still on going till tonight (January 18), GoAir is now coming into the fare war as well. As per this sale, you are going to be able to book tickets across India domestic sectors by January 21, 2015 for travel till April 15, 2015. These tickets are being sold in the GoSmart bracket, and date change and cancellation charges are INR 1,500 each as per the airline. The fares under this sale are bookable at the GoAir website, and also with travel agents such as Yatra.com, MakeMyTrip.com and Musafir.com. Join over 4000 people who check-in daily to find out about the best in travel.Free emails (once-a-day) | RSS Feeds |…
Review: UK 996, Mumbai – Delhi, Vistara, Premium Economy (Guest Post)
Vistara is the only Indian carrier to offer a three class config on domestic routes. While everyone offers an economy and a business class product, this is Vistara’s Premium economy review on the Mumbai to Delhi sector.
Club Vistara points are posting
Club Vistara, the frequent flyer program from Vistara seems to be getting off the ground. I took a paid flight with them last week, the inaugural flight for the airline, and they added up the points for the flight and the welcome bonus pretty quickly. However, the points for booking on the web took about a week to post. The interface for the website is pretty rudimentary at the moment, and I hope the airline is working on making a better website. For instance, I can’t even see which flight I got the points for, and all I see is the sector. I hope this gets better and quicker. And while we know how to earn Vistara points, there is…
JetPrivilege HDFC Bank Debit Card now available for INR 500 annual fees
HDFC Bank and Jet Airways have offered the only mileage earning co-branded debit card in the Indian market since 2013. Here are the salient features of the card: 1000 JP Miles as enrolment bonus, 2000 JP Miles on first use. INR 750 as discount voucher on round-trip booking. 2000 JP Miles on renewal every year. 2 JP Miles for every INR 150 spent and 4 JP Miles for every INR 150 spent on Jet Airways. MasterCard Lounge Access. 5% off on domestic & international air tickets booked on jetairways.com The fee for this card was INR 1000 per annum, and free for the first year to HDFC Bank’s Premium Banking members (Classic, Preferred and Imperia). However, HDFC Bank has now…
USA pre-clearance at Abu Dhabi now for all Etihad flights
One of the USPs for Etihad is to have Abu Dhabi airport as their home airport. Actually, they go hand in hand. Back in 2013, they managed to get approval for a Customs & Border Protection outpost from the USA, commonly known as preclearance. What this means is that the immigration & passport control formalities for arriving into the USA are completed at Abu Dhabi itself, and you don’t have to wait in a queue for a few hours after you arrive in the USA. I did, and it was a total buzzkill for my Abu Dhabi – JFK First Class flight experience. Ever since EY acquired a stake in Jet Airways, they’ve been offering a second flight to the…
