One of the key reasons for me to have signed up with the Citi Prestige Credit Card which was launched in India earlier this year, was the plethora of status it comes with in terms of travel. Some of it I need, some of it I don’t. One of the first requests I filed in to get a Status upgrade was on Etihad. Etihad offers Gold status, which is their second-from-top status to Citi Prestige Members. This could be useful for members in India since you are getting an alternative to Jet Airways’ Gold status, and it comes with pretty much similar benefits on Jet Airways as Jet Airways’ Gold status, apart from being useful on other airlines such as…
My fastest Gold Status achievement till date
I am not talking about Aegean Gold which could be achieved with 20,000 miles of Star Alliance flight credits, that anyways changed this month onwards. Back in August, Starbucks India finally launched the Starbucks Rewards program in India after building up their franchise over the past 2 years. It is a pretty simple program. Buy a Starbucks prepaid card, and register it at card. starbucks.in. There on, use the card to make payments for all your Starbucks across India. For Every 300 INR spent, you get 1 star. When you run out of credit, reload the same card. You can even have multiple cards on your account, like I have two added at the moment. There are 3 tiers: Welcome:…
Oberoi Advantage 2014: 1 complimentary night for 5 paid nights
The Oberoi Hotels, which is one of India’s luxurious hotel chains, does not have a loyalty programme per se, but they do offer from time to time, a free night after you’ve stayed with them for a few nights. For the Winter of 2014, they have formalised this program as the Oberoi Advantage 2014. For 5 nights that you stay at various Oberoi Hotels between the period October 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015, you get one free night at any Oberoi Hotel in India, Indonesia, Dubai, Mauritius and Egypt. Complimentary night stay includes accommodation in a standard double room and is inclusive of taxes. Your paid nights have to be at Oberoi Hotels in Gurgaon, Bangalore, Mumbai and Dubai…
British Airways’ “The Welcome of Home” campaign
British Airways loves the Indian community. No wonder, they come up with a campaign or few every year to show their love for the Indian community. Some of the nice ones in the past include the one for Valentines Day this year, and one of the best was the The Ticket to Visit Mom campaign which they put out last year. Now, they’ve just come out with a new one, which chronicles the journey of an Indian expatriate in Canada, coming back home. And it is another great one! India is the second largest market for BA outside of the UK, so no wonder they keep up the engagement with these tearjerkers. I personally have no issues flying BA,…
Etihad Guest offers 20% bonus on Amex & Citi points to miles conversion
Etihad Guest is the loyalty program of Etihad Airways, and I am trying to get a hang of it ever since they have been associated with Jet Airways. The thing is, Etihad is not such a great program on its own for mileage earning and burning, because the burn on Etihad’s own flights is dynamic and too darn expensive. However, Etihad Guest offers some hidden gems for those of us in India. Etihad, just like for all their Etihad partners, offers a redemption chart of Etihad Guest miles on Jet Airways as well. Here is the chart in PDF for Domestic and International Routes. This can be a pretty useful chart since you get to travel with lesser number of…
Now, you can order a cake on board your next Indigo flight
I’ve always been a fan of the quirk factor of Indigo, however I don’t travel them much since I don’t get a cut of some sort from them (read a loyalty program). But other people I know don’t have any hangups flying Indigo, and that keeps me busy with their website at least. Which brings me to last night’s chance discovery. I had booked some tickets on Indigo, and I was doing seat assignments via the manage booking section on the website. One of the new features I could notice was the ability to send cake for someone on the flight. Basically, you will be able to add a 1/2 kg chocolate brownie cake, which can be delivered to your…
Taj Hotels to offer free wi-fi globally
While Taj Hotels are not a global hotel chain of the size of Starwood or IHG yet, they are the foremost Indian hotel chain going global. With 125 hotels in India and across the world, they are one of the best known Indian hospitality brands as well. Now, with effect from November 15, 2014, the Taj Hotels have decided to offer free wifi to all their resident guests. This includes guests at their luxury properties (Taj Brand), business hotels (Vivanta by Taj) as well as the Gateway properties. Of course, this is a progressive step since this brings them at par with other hotel chains such as IHG and Hyatt which already offer free wifi (albeit to elite members…
Winners of #spglife swag and power bank
Last week, I put out a couple of giveaways from my recent trips. While I was gone for most of the week, I did put out a post declaring the winners last weekend. However, it seems the post did not make it online due to whatever reasons. So, here is the repost. The winner of the giveaway for the portable powerbank was chosen by random.org. Out of the 42 responses, it went right down to the middle of the pack… That will be Sachin Gurnani, who told us the following about his mileage preferences in India: I prefer jet airways as they cover many destinations of the world including within India. And also our favorite way of earning points is…
Lufthansa’s A380 to Delhi takes off from today
A few days ago, I wrote about the teething troubles Lufthansa was facing with starting their A380 operations to India. First, their Mumbai plans got nixed with Emirates getting the slot. Then, someone threw the rulebook in their face and the paperwork to bring the A380 flights to Delhi was not completed in time for the winter schedule cutover, which was implemented a week ago. Anyhow, I’m glad to report the mess is now sorted, and Lufthansa is all set to fly their maiden A380 flight to Delhi today. Here is how the schedule will look like going forward for Lufthansa’s Delhi service with the A380. LH760 FRA1340 – 0130+1DEL 388 DLH761 DEL0330 – 0720FRA 388 D That makes Emirates,…
In which, a buffalo rams into a plane on its take-off roll
I sometimes wonder if I have seen enough of life, or do I need to see some of this stuff I keep hearing about. What I heard about today was totally bizarre and unimaginable. At the Surat Airport (STV), in India, there was a stray buffalo, which hopped on to the runway in the dark, right when a Spicejet flight was on its take off roll, on its way to Delhi. This incident happened last evening at about 7:30 pm. The plane, a Boeing 737, has had some gruesome damage, however all the passengers on the plane were fine. Not surprisingly, Spicejet decided to discontinue their flight operations from Surat after this incident. Here are some pictures, courtesy the Twitter…
Hotel Review: Sheraton Kuwait, A Luxury Collection Hotel
My go to hotel, while I am in Kuwait, is the Sheraton Kuwait Hotel. The Sheraton Kuwait, is a Starwood hotel, a Luxury Collection property which is somehow a splatter of almost all the Starwood brands out there. I’ll come to that in a moment. However, it is a hotel which has been very nice to me over my 5-6 stays with them over the years, in spite of the fact that I am only a SPG Gold member.
