It is Friday evening, and that time of the day when loyalty programs roll out enhancements. But this time they are real enhancements! One of the programs under restructuring, and in final laps of restructuring perhaps is the Jet Airways loyalty program JetPrivilege. Over the past 6-8 months they have launched a lot of changes, including the ability to earn higher JP Miles for flights. Coming to today’s changes, JetPrivilege is making some solid enhancements in my view. Until now, to qualify for a tier upgrade, you either could earn it by doing segments (earn tier points) or by miles. In terms of tier points, you had a very flat structure in terms of earning, you got 1 tier point…
SpiceJet ‘Cheaper than train fares’ flight tickets INR 599 onwards
File this under the steal deal section or make good use of it. SpiceJet, the airline which started the concept of aggressive sales in India last year, is back with another sale which looks great. This is their third sale this year (2015), and is valid for flights between July 2015 to October 2015. Named the ‘Cheaper than train fares’ sale, the sale is on till 13 February 2015, for flights between July 1, 2015 to October 24, 2015 across SpiceJet’s domestic and international network. The flights are non-changeable, non-refundable so you can either take them or don’t bother cancelling them, except if huge taxes are involved. Domestic fares start at INR 599 while international fares to SpiceJet’s limited international…
Air India passenger opens the door of the flight!
Err, ehm! I’ve kept quiet on all this business of passengers opening doors of flights. However, this time, it was one of our own, at Air India which had to face the consequences. As per the news, Air India’s Moscow flight was ready to take off to New Delhi, when they had a passenger seated in 14A open the door of the plane. Here is why: The incident took place minutes before the scheduled 8.30am (Moscow time) departure of AI’s Moscow-Delhi flight. A passenger, seated on 14A, had returned from one of the washrooms and was on his way to his seat. “I was about to take my seat when I heard a staffer knocking on the window asking to…
Air India giving away free tickets on various spends
Air India has launched a new promotion yesterday, called My Dream Destination. Under this promotion, when you make cumulative domestic spends on Air India for various amounts over a period of 3 months (February 9, 2015 to May 9, 2015), you will be eligible for free Economy Class tickets on the Air India domestic and international network. Here is how the free ticket offer works: Bill tickets worth INR 75,000 – INR 100,000: INR 75,000 spend earns you a free economy ticket one way on Air India’s domestic network/regional network including Singapore, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dubai & Muscat. For INR 100,000 spend you get a free return economy ticket. Bill tickets worth INR 200,000: You get a free economy return ticket…
When is JetPrivilege announcing bonus miles on Delhi-Hyderabad and Delhi-Goa then?
One of the tools in Jet Airways’ armour against upstart airline Vistara is a well-established loyalty program JetPrivilege. Jet Airways is offering 2x base miles for economy cabin and 3x base miles for business cabin flights on BOM-DEL-BOM, BOM-AMD-BOM and DEL-AMD-DEL segments, the 3 routes that Vistara is flying at the moment. Now, Vistara has started to accept reservations between Delhi-Goa-Delhi and Delhi-Hyderabad-Delhi for flights starting later this month. The question then is, will Jet Airways counter these routes with a promotion as well, or not? Interesting to me because Jet does not operate direct flights between Delhi and Goa anyways. Join over 4000 people who check-in daily to find out about the best in travel.Free emails (once-a-day) | RSS…
Back at the Lounge: February 8, 2015
Hello from Mumbai, where I’m writing in from my new pad where I moved in last week. Since I was in the midst of moving homes, I was not able to put out a recap of the week. Hence, a double week summary for all of you. I hope you’d be able to find the posts of your interest: The Novice Perspective Say hello to Shipra, who is the first contributor to the blog. She has written in her second post about airport lounges. Do encourage her with feedback and comments. Air India Flying Returns Air India became a member of the Star Alliance last year. However, they can’t seem to get it right about how to use Air India…
The Novice Perspective: Getting used to Airport Lounges
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 I am the person who likes to land at the airport exactly 60 minutes prior to departure, check-in, drop my bags and head straight to board the aircraft. If I had a little extra time in hand then I’d pop into the airport duty…
Best Hotel Promotions Q1 2015: Indian Perspective
The Hotel Promotions for 2015’s first quarter/trimester are out, and some of them are really sweet for the India focus. I thought this would be a good time to summarise all the hotel promotions, and analyse them from the Indian perspective so that you can pick your affiliations for the first quarter. IHG India Free Nights (Get 1 Night free for 3 nights in India/Nepal) + Set Your Sights: IHG is running a superb promotion for their members in India and Nepal. For every 3 nights you spend in India/Nepal, you get a free night certificate which you can spend at their hotels across the globe in the whole of 2015. The promotion runs till April 30, 2015. This can…
Vistara to fly to Goa & Hyderabad from Delhi
Vistara, the new full service airline, had initially planned out schedules till February 15 only. However, in the new schedules, which are now open, at least till March 30, 2015, they are adding Goa and Hyderabad as the two new stations from Delhi. Vistara will add Delhi-Goa-Delhi direct flights 1x daily from February 20, 2015, and will add Delhi-Hyderabad-Delhi direct flights 2x daily from March 1, 2015. Both these flights are now available for booking on www.airvistara.com and other travel portals. Here is the schedule Vistara will offer till the end of the Winter Schedule. I flew Vistara on the day of its launch, and I find it to be a good economy product if you can find a reasonable…
Booking Star Alliance tickets with AI Flying Returns: it’s buggy & complicated
Ever since Air India joined Star Alliance, the interest in being able to redeem Air India Flying Returns miles for Star Alliance tickets has been well known, but somehow, it has been so complicated that no one has bothered to figure it out. Even in the award reservation service I am offering in beta right now, there has not been much interest in using AI miles for Star Alliance tickets. One part of the reason is that the award chart is inflated, and the other is the myth that only Air India elites can access the Star Alliance inventory. Reader Deovrat tried to crack the code, and went about making a dummy reservation. He used a request to redeem for…
Convenience Fees going away on Jet Airways redemptions booked online
One of the smaller details of the changes announced at JetPrivilege yesterday, was the going away of the Convenience Fees on award tickets. Convenience Fees really is the fee charged for being able to book a ticket sitting in your bed in your pajamas really, and an easy way to pass on the cost of using a credit/debit card or another payment instrument to the passenger. Though I wonder why does Jet Airways charge it per passenger and per sector, because it is no fault of the passenger if the airline does not offer a direct flight to a remote airport, lets say DED in India. Anyhow, as per JetPrivilege, there is no convenience fee applicable for award bookings made…
