Etihad is quickly turning into one of my favourite airline and mileage program as well. Not just a great airline First Class product, they are also part owner of Jet Airways’ frequent flyer program in India, and have some great domestic redemptions on offer. Apart from that, they are partners with Citi PremierMiles and Prestige, which ensures you can get Gold Status as well as miles on tap. Of course, there are bonus offers as well off and on. And one more generous promotion just came our way. Etihad has announced that if you book your mileage tickets before December 10, 2014, for redemptions on Etihad metal, you get 25% of your mileage back into your account, after the completion…
Have you won yourself a Powerbank?
Last week, I opened a small giveaway for a PowerBank. My question was simple… what is your favourite hotel around India? There were 27 entries, and they ranged all over the place from Luxury to basic. But I did love them all. It was hard to be subjective on this one, so I went back to my crystal ball, a.k.a. Random.org for an answer… The winner is Amitjivan, who said… The Oberoi, Mumbai – Awesome location, spacious rooms with modern amenities, stunning and serene sea view, friendly & polite staff, exceedingly delicious food (be Italian or Indian) at its restaurants. Its suitable for business as well as leisure. Now, I’ve certainly never stayed at this property, but I go there…
Travel is not the cohort of the rich
While my government (of India!) continues to look at air travel as a cohort of the rich, due to which they are keeping aviation turbine fuel so highly taxed for years, I recently happened to notice a great inspiring story on the Internet about a Tea Vendor, who has been saving diligently to fulfil his travel ambitions… As per NewsMinute, which originally carried the story, a gentleman called Vijayan, based in Cochin, has been a Tea vendor for over 40 years, and he has been saving diligently an amount of INR 300 ($5) everyday for his travels. Not only has he been able to travel around India, which I believe is full of scenic places to go, he has been…
SpiceJet Cancellations Summary
Spicejet has recently been cancelling a lot of flights over the past couple of weeks, or merging flights. As per the airline, this is the result of a restructuring going on at the airline where they are returning planes or having them come back at lower leases. A lot of travel plans have gone awry as a result of these cancellations and there is no commentary on the SpiceJet website about cancellations and how to resurrect your travel plans from there. Initially, the airline promised to resurrect these flights over a week, which are over 50 in number. However, it does seem it will take longer to do so, perhaps even all of December. I happened to recently notice an…
Get 3,000 JP Miles for signing up with Scripbox
Sometimes, there are pretty easy offers out there to get yourself some JP Miles or other mileage currencies. One of the newer ones these days is from Scripbox, an online mutual fund investment platform for investors in India. Scripbox is currently offering 3000 JP Miles as signup bonus for just setting up an account with them. While the promotion was sent out to members much earlier, I wanted to check this out myself to see how complicated this would be, before advising my readership. So, a few days ago, I filled up the online form and complete registration. One needs to take a hard copy printout and enclose some bank paperwork before your account is set up. Once you get…
Claim your new benefits from Jet Airways’ Amex
About 4-5 weeks ago, American Express implemented some changes on their Jet Airways American Express co-branded card. While they marginally reduced mileage-earning, like they do almost every now and then, they did add some new benefits for card holders. Firstly, they added lounge access in some cities where there was none. You can check the details in my earlier post here. Gold Tier Membership for Trident Privilege One of the other changes was going to be the addition of Gold Tier Membership for the Trident Privilege program, along with two upgrade certificates. Now, I don’t really stay at Trident hotels around India, but since they are offering a benefit, I’d love to pick it up for the rare day when…
Buy LifeMiles with 125% bonus only on December 1, 2014
Update: As of December 2, 2014, it is still possible to buy these miles with a bonus of 125% Lifemiles is the frequent flyer program of Avianca, and one of the Star Alliance programs which allows you to make some reasonable award bookings. They are currently holding one of their sales where you can buy miles @ USD 33/1000 Miles, and they give you 2000 miles for the price, all the way up to 75000 miles purchase. While I don’t write about all the Avianca mileage sales so often, here is an old post which makes you aware of why it is an important program for people who love their mileage tickets. I’ve previously purchased miles with their buy1-get1-free promotions…
Only today: Club Carlson 20,000 points for $70
Club Carlson is offering a 24 hour promotion on the occassion of CyberMonday in the USA, where members can purchase Club Carlson points for 0.35 cents per point instead of the usual 0.70 cents per point. This promotion is only valid for the purchase up to 10,000 Club Carlson points, which usually cost $70, and you get a bonus of a matching number of Club Carlson points up to 10,000 points credited to your account. Why does it make sense for my Indian readers to buy these points? Because there are about 50-70 Club Carlson hotels in India, and these are located across the country. Sometimes, it can make sense to use points over cash to stay at one of…
oneworld enhances benefits for Sapphire & Emerald tier travellers
One of the benefits of travelling with an airline which is the member of an alliance is the fact that your benefits as an elite member span across airlines. Till so far, as a oneworld Sapphire member, you had access to the following benefits: Now, priority handling of baggage was not a guaranteed benefit for oneworld Emeralds, but most carriers would offer it anyways to Emeralds. With effect from December 1, 2014, this changes as a notified benefit to be offered to Emeralds as well as Sapphire members: Most oneworld member airlines already aim to deliver as a priority checked baggage for their own top-level frequent flyers, along with other passengers flying in First or Business Class. Now, this benefit…
Mumbai: INR 150 Amazon voucher for booking a cabride via Olacabs
One of the new things that Ola has taken from the Uber playbook is to help hail regular licensed cabs via their app. A few weeks ago, they started to offer the ability to hail black-yellow cabs which are licensed cabs in Mumbai, via the app. Ola has apparently seeded the market with a lot of devices with taxi drivers that help the taxi drivers get a ride via their app. Except, in this case, the ride is metered like a regular cab ride, and paid for in cash. Ola has gone about town popularising this service, and putting in a good amount of cash in the hands of drivers to make sure they accept rides via the Ola app.…
December 1: Jet Airways goes back to Full Service Carrier!
This is just a quick reminder call for all of you who travel (in)frequently around India with Jet Airways. A few months back, Jet Airways decided that the Jet Airways/Konnect/Lite branding was not really working for them, so they decided that they had to go back to being one airline, Jet Airways. The commitment from the airline’s top management was to get this done before the year 2014 ends, and they’ve beat themselves to it by implementing it a month in advance. As a customer, for you, this means the following things happen: No more 4 digit flight codes or troubles with flight codes on S2 or 9W. Everything would be a 9W xxx flight in the days ahead. Complimentary…
