Vistara, the new full-service Indian carrier, just took off less than 2 months ago, but they are launching destinations with a fast speed, and they are receiving A320’s pretty fast too. Just earlier this week, on Sunday, they started to fly between Delhi and Hyderabad, and for a limited time, which is somehow unmentioned how long, they are offering 1000 bonus Club Vistara points on the route for making a round-trip. Since there is no news on how does the redemption chart work on Vistara, I am not fully convinced yet on the value of accruing so many Vistara points, but I am sure they come handy some day soon. Any one of you flying Vistara on the new routes…
Hyatt Diamond benefits: now transferable from March 1, 2015
There are two very good reasons I try to stick with Hyatt Gold Passport as one of my primary hotel loyalty programs: The very well known 4 Diamond Suite Upgrade Certificates every year, which allow me to apply a certificate a revenue/cash+points booking on a published rate and get a confirmed suite for up to 7 nights Upgrade to the best room on arrival and complimentary club lounge access or full breakfast for up to 4 people There are of course other reasons as well, including a welcome amenity or bonus points at check in and usually good treatment by the hotels. Sometimes they do upgrade you to suites as well and pamper you. Over the past few days, however,…
Back at the Lounge: March 1, 2015
Hello from Mumbai. Its gorgeous weather around here so I decided to stay in the city itself and lounge around. Here is a recap of the posts from last week, just in case you missed something: News: Vistara has big plans. They will soon offer IFE on their planes, and hope to fly long haul all the way to the USA someday. Hotel Programs: Starwood has announced their 2015 category changes. India will get lot many downgrades hence cheaper award stays. Starwood has also entered into a partnership with Uber. Great way to earn SPG points. Tips & Tricks: I made a massive mistake by booking a wrong ticket. Here is how to get out of such a hot soup.…
My oops moment: booked a wrong ticket!
Just a couple of days back, I was watching a rerun on Up In the Air, and there is a part where George Clooney a.k.a. Ryan Bingham says I do not do anything till it does not affect my mileage balance And I think just the next morning I felt inspired to take on some more on my plate. I got a call requesting me to book a ticket for someone’s international travel, since they knew I could get them a good deal within a short amount of research, and this one was willing to let me book it on my credit card. WOW! The next thing I know is a time crunch, and between meetings and all of a…
Earn hotel stays at Starwood while riding with Uber
There was a great new association announced in the loyalty marketing space yesterday. Starwood’s loyalty program SPG tied up with Uber to offer SPG and Uber members the potential to earn SPG loyalty points for their Uber rides. On the face of it, this is great news for regular Uber users who may also be frequent guests of Starwood hotels. Here is the lowdown: You earn 1 StarPoints every time you spend USD 1 on an Uber ride, approximately INR 63. You earn for Uber rides around the world When you are staying at a SPG property, between those dates, you earn between 2-4 StarPoints depending on your status with SPG (2 points for base members, 3 for Gold and…
SPG announces 2015 category changes: India gets lots of category downgrades
It is that time of the year when hotel loyalty programs make adjustments to their hotel categories. The category of a hotel depicts how many loyalty points should your be charged to stay at the hotel, or how many points required for cash+points and so on. Very recently, Hyatt adjusted their category charts, and a lot of India hotels dropped a category down. Here is a full list of all the hotels [PDF] which are going to be adjusted. I read that 22% of the hotels are going to be impacted by this move, which means if you have an award stay upcoming you should be interested in this. The new prices go into effect as of March 10, 2015,…
Vistara’s plans ahead: IFE & flights to USA/Europe
Vistara is perhaps one of the most keenly watched airline in India in a long while, all because they are the only new full-service carrier to have launched in the past few years in India. One of their innovation is the launch of a Premium Economy class, which I consider an Economy+ category. Now, I’ve reviewed the first flight of Vistara as well, and gone into the details of their frequent flyer program over and over again. However, two new pieces of information have emerged about their plans over the weekend. Firstly, the SimpliFlying blog reports that Vistara is almost ready to make an announcement on provision of Inflight Entertainment on their domestic segments: There will also be an imminent…
Back at the Lounge: February 22, 2015
Hello from Mumbai, where I just got back in after a quick overnight trip from Pune. I hope everyone enjoyed the nice victory of India in the Cricket World Cup today. Here is a recap of the posts from last week, just in case you missed something: The Novice Perspective: Shipra wrote this evening about how she is enjoying maximising hotel promotions. Miles & Points: Etihad Airways is offering Gold Elite tier status matches Etihad Guest offering 25% bonus on transfer of Amex Reward points Club Vistara is offering 2x Club Vistara points to try out their Premium Economy class News: Jet Airways is trying out the implementation of Mobile Boarding Passes at the Bangalore Airport. Air India: Air India…
The Novice Perspective: Maximising hotel promotions is a fun game!
Shipra is my fiancée and the first of contributors at the blog. She has worked with one of the largest airline conglomerates in the world, and is now based in Mumbai. Shipra has lived, worked and travelled across 4 continents. We travel often enough, together and separately. These are her perspectives, as she gets used to the world of business and leisure travel and our hobby! The Novice Perspective: Initiating my Fiancée to Points & Miles The Novice Perspective: Getting used to Airport Lounges The Novice Perspective: Benefiting from hotel loyalty programs This writing is a sequel from my last week’s post on how I am learning about hotel loyalty programs. Like I mentioned, I have spent the last couple…
Jet Airways trialling mobile boarding passes in India
While I love me a paper boarding pass for my #avgeek collection, they are a dying breed. Except in India so far, where paper boarding passes are used to go through the abuse of the security check, with stamps to signify that a security screening was done. However, there is change coming through. Jet Airways has recently partnered with the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, the people responsible for security of the civil aviation flights in the Indian skies. Along with BCAS and the Bangalore airport, Jet Airways is running a pilot to trial the use of barcoded boarding passes on passenger mobile phones. This is a good move after the security requirement for a printed ticket was shot down.…
Why Air India did not accept those passengers?
A few days ago, I posted about a few passengers who arrived at the airport late, and Air India refused to check them in since they were beyond the cut off time. Now, much has been said about why they should have been on the plane or not, but I just thought I’d bring you perspective about why they should not have been on those plane. I asked Shipra, my fiancée, to chime in, since she has worked in ground operations for an international airline out of two major airports, and would have been able to give perspective on why this was not a done deal to get them on board. In the last few days there has been too…
