A few days ago, I reported that the promised tier upgrades and status matches for Air India, which are available via their co-branded card with SBI were not going through. There was either a technology problem, or there was a snap of relationships between both parties. We don’t know. However, I’ve been hearing since yesterday days, that people have started to get their upgrade confirmations via email, for status earned via spend on Air India. This looks like it is sorted now. However, for me personally, something seems to be off, as my account is locked out. Which definitely points towards a technology upgrade of some sorts that may have happened at the back end. For those of you who…
Back in town!
I’ve had a crazy week at work, and this has led to no posts this week. Like I mentioned earlier this week, I sort of believed that the Brits would commit to efficiency, however they did not. So, I had a delayed start to a long week of a work trip. When I was sure that I was good to go, I did make the trip, and here was the routing. I did all of these segments in 4 days, apart from the zillion work commitments which took me there, and yes, there was another 6-7 hours of driving which you of course do not see because this is an airline map. I flew Jet Airways on the way to…
When the visa dragons decided to red tape me
I write this post from the Mumbai Airport Terminal 2 lounge, where I am finally comfortable after a long few days of feeling like kicking myself in the backside. You will perhaps read it after a few hours when I will be airborne. You see, I was trying to be loyal to the Royal airline (i.e., the British Airways), and for this, I need to get a visa every now and then, even to transit through the UK to go to a Schengen country. God help me with why do I need a visa for transit to Schengen countries, when I don’t need one to travel to the USA, Australia and some other places via the UK. The visa costs…
Jet Airways redemptions problematic, still include fuel surcharge
One of the cornerstones of Jet Airways’ JetPrivilege revamp was the abolition of Fuel Surcharges. This change was supposed to come into effect from September 1, 2014. Fuel Surcharges are usually similar for all classes in a flight, and hence I’ve always recommended premium cabin flights because for double miles and similar fuel surcharges where applicable, you get much higher comfort. However, it seems Jet Airways is either not doing this right yet, or they still intend to charge Fuel Surcharge for premium cabins. Have a look at this. For instance, on BOM-LHR First Class, the number of miles required is now an astounding 127,500 for a one-way flight from the earlier 81,000 for the same segment. However, there is…
Earn upto 25,000 PremierMiles with Citibank PremierMiles referrals
Apart from the existing referral program, where Citibank is offering INR 2000 as cashback to referrers for sourcing new members till September 30, 2014, there is another referral program going on through out September 30, 2014 for sourcing Citibank PremierMiles cards only. Like with the other promotion, you need to use the link (in this page above) to generate custom links for everyone who you want to invite for a new Citibank PremierMiles Credit Card. Once this is done, they have a month to apply using the custom link sent to them. If the card gets approved, you get 5000 miles for each successful referral, up to 25000 miles.For each new applicant, you get 10,000 PremierMiles for opening a new…
AI SBI Card having trouble processing tier upgrades on AI
One of the differentiating features of Air India’s co-branded card with SBI Cards is the tier upgrades you get on Air India Flying Returns every time you spent another INR 5,00,000 in the membership year. You get Silver Status for the first INR 5,00,000 and Gold Status for the next INR 5,00,000. This is now equivalent to Star Alliance Gold status, with Air India having joined the Star Alliance. SBI Cards in fact also launched a status match program for the holders of other airlines status in the meanwhile, I am assuming with Air India’s approval. Everyone who hits the INR 5,00,000 mark receives a kit automatically, because these were processed straight through back in the day. But recently, a…
Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Pune
After a nice stay at Hyatt Pune, I decided to hop across to Hyatt Regency Pune, the older and bigger brother in the Hyatt family in Pune, which is 1 kilometer away across the road for the second day of my Pune stay. As a Hyatt Diamond, they offer free airport transfers, and I asked them if they could replace it with a ride from Hyatt Pune. They were okay with it and sent a car along at the appointed time. I pulled into Hyatt Regency Pune, and it was every bit a five star hotel, in terms of size and facilities. However, in the end, it turned out that they went as much as the distance they had to…
Citibank adds Jet Airways as a conversion partner for Citi Prestige India
When Citibank launched the Prestige Card in India, they did not have Jet Airways listed as a conversion partner. The initial list of airline conversion partners were the following: AI Flying Returns SQ KrisFlyer BA Avios Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus Malaysia Airlines Enrich Eva Air Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles Delta SkyMiles Etihad Airways However, a comment from a reader, Manish Singh, got me curious if Jet Airways was brought on board, and this afternoon I managed to check up the Citibank Prestige website, which does include Jet Airways as a conversion partner now. While I am personally rolling in more JPMiles than I perhaps need at this moment and won’t use this conversion partner, I figure some of you may…
Tiger Airways offering almost free tickets to Singapore for HDFC Card Members till September 7, 2014
Tiger Airways is offering almost free one-ways on purchase of a return fare from Indian stations to Singapore, in case you book by September 7, 2014. You need to be able to book with an HDFC Credit/Debit/Prepaid card to be able to get this promotion. The fares are offered from Bangalore, Hyderabad, Trichy, Chennai and Kochi to Singapore for travel between 16 Sep-5 Dec 2014 and then 26 Jan-25 Mar 2015. To be able to benefit from these fares, all you need to do is to follow the following steps: Visit tigerair.com/promo/hdfc and key in the first 6-digits of your HDFC Bank Credit/ Debit/ Prepaid Card Select a flight for 1 or more passengers under the fare labelled ‘fly out…
Award Booking Assistance: Now in Beta
Its been a fun 3 years at the blog, and I hope you’ve had as much fun reading it as much as I’ve had writing it for you. When I looked around in 2011, I found no resources to help travellers like me, based in India, so I decided to make one right here. I hope you’ve learnt enough about earning and burning miles on this blog, apart from some of the tools and databases created along the way. While some of you may be able to now help yourselves to those fantastic business and first class seats on award redemptions, I figured this is also a good time to launch a service for those of you who may require…
SpiceJet enhances meal service to encourage pre-booking
SpiceJet has been working on turning their airline around for quite a while. Some of the things include the launch of the new SpiceMax product, an On Time Guarantee, and new meal options with a new caterer on board. Towards improvising their meal service even further, SpiceJet has made some changes to their meal service sequence as well. Remember, SpiceJet does not have meals included on board, but a buy-on-board concept. From their website, they’ve added new service guarantees, where people who pre-order their meal on the website (while booking/using Manage my booking), will be served the meal they ordered, which should be a sitter. However, they will also be served first, which is I think a better proposition because…
