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…
Delhi Airport may become cheaper again for fliers
Delhi Airport is one of the better airports around India, but one of the most expensive ones as well. The airport charges about INR 232 – 550 to domestic passengers, while they charge between INR 518 to INR 1270 for an international passenger. These are called the UDF (User Development Fee). Compare this with Mumbai, where you pay about INR 300 for a domestic departure. It seems that the Airport regulator in India, AERA, has now asked the Delhi Airport operator GMR Group to reduce the charges at Delhi Airport by about 78%. In the past few years, Delhi was allowed to charge astronomical rates because they had done a lot of capital expenditure in bringing up the airport, which…
JetPrivilege upgrades restructured for good!
Last year, Jet Airways’ loyalty program JetPrivilege restructured their earning and burning structure, and did away with fuel surcharges on award tickets. On the back of a higher mileage required for an award ticket in premium cabins (a BOM-BRU business class o.w. moved from 54,000 JP Miles to 85,000 JP Miles, but no fuel surcharge now), there was a sweet spot that existed, called mileage upgrades. You earn miles for your ticket, and you pay lower number of miles for your upgrade as compared to a business class redemptions, hence it was a great deal, since you really had a much less net outflow in terms of number of miles for a premium cabin travel. The standard benchmark for an…
Can Jet Airways harmonise their Boeing 737 fleets please?
Just last week, I was away to Vietnam on Jet Airways’ latest route, fully aware that Jet Airways operates a Boeing 737 flight, via Bangkok. Now, as a 22 year old airline, I can appreciate that Jet Airways has inducted planes over the years. But to have a zillion uncoordinated products, is not really giving customers on the international segments a harmonious experience. For instance, when I flew from Mumbai to Bangkok on 9W70, I got a plane (VT-JBY), which had a leatherette business class, however, with no Audio Video on Demand. There was a simple overhead screen, playing a video. However, there was no audio channel to hear out the video on. There was no in-seat power, so, my…
Uber continues to offer INR 600 for new signups around India
A few days ago, Uber around India, started to offer INR 600 credit for new signup, instead of INR 300 which is the usual credit you get on another day. Initially the promotion was valid for people signing up till February 1, 2015. This has now been extended to an indefinite period. Uber is present in 11 cities in India now: Mumbai Delhi Pune Bangalore Hyderabad Kolkata Ahmedabad Chandigarh Chennai Jaipur Kochi If you want, can use my referral link, and I would be thankful for your support. Join over 4000 people who check-in daily to find out about the best in travel.Free emails (once-a-day) | RSS Feeds | Facebook Updates | Twitter | Instagram
A cheap way to extend validity of your JP Miles for 2 years and earn some in the process
One of the new enhancements that JetPrivilege rolled out for members a few weeks ago was the extension of their miles validity from 3 years to 5 years, as long as you had one co-branded debit or credit card, and one activity on the card in the past year. I think it is a great feature to offer, and I personally benefit from it if I drop off from my Platinum status sometime. Now, just very recently, HDFC and JetPrivilege’s co-branded debit card, dropped fees to INR 500 per annum (free for first year for Classic,Preferred and Imperia banking members). In this case, you’re getting 1000 JP Miles, to set up your debit card, 2000 JP Miles for your first…
March 2015 onwards, you can earn KrisFlyer miles for Vistara flights
This was a no-brainer to have happened. As one of the parents of Vistara, Singapore Airlines was always going to use its own reach to allow for Vistara to gain traffic in India. And one of the tools for that is the frequent flyer program. Last few weeks, I’ve covered the earn and burn aspects of Club Vistara, which is the loyalty program for Vistara. Just this morning the airlines (Singapore Airlines and Vistara) have announced that the flyers on both the airlines will be able to earn miles/points on taking flights on the other partner with effect from March 2015. For redemptions on the other partner, it will be possible from May 2015 onwards. KrisFlyer members will be able…
Hogwash Update: BA Executive Club making available cheaper Avios redemptions on BA/Iberia flights
Earlier today, I wrote a post on British Airways Executive Club introducing changes into the earning side of the program. The summary is that if you buy cheap tickets, you get less miles and less tier points, however if you buy a high fare or a premium cabin ticket, things get better for you. Here is the official statement from BA. All these changes come into effect April 28, 2015. From a burning perspective, the changes have gotten positive, not!. One of the sweet spots for BA’s program is redeeming for Short Haul flights, where they charge as less as 4500 Avios for an economy flight. This is due to their distance-based award chart. Business Class & First Class in…
