Hotel Review: Hyatt Pune

by Ajay 2 Comments

a pool in a garden

A few weeks ago, Hyatt launched a Monsoon promotion in India, where they offered a flat 50% off on room rates. This forced me to do some advance planning for some of my future travel plans, and I gladly gave them away to Hyatt since it gave me an opportunity to try out properties at significantly less than publicly available prices. One of the places I headed up to was Pune, for some quick rest & recuperation and meeting my brother who currently lives in Pune. Me and my fiancée got into Pune about mid-day from Mumbai, and we checked into the hotel straight away, after trying out Uber for the first time in Pune. Hyatt Hotels is a full…

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When Air India lies to you…

by Ajay 6 Comments

I’ve been a little annoyed with Air India over the past few days. Here is a post I wrote yesterday about how Air India employees don’t consistently implement benefits they are supposed to offer to their elites, including lounge access. This morning, they’ve gone public with an Air India Day sale, where they are claiming to offer INR 100 + taxes tickets. The PR machinery has been in an overdrive, and the website has been down since last night because everyone wants in on these fares. Here is their claim, which conveniently skips the fact that fuel surcharges are not a part of the INR 100. What takes the cake for me is an email I received from them last…

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Air India’s INR 100 ticket promotion till August 31, 2014 is just one big gimmick!

by Ajay 3 Comments

Air India has decided to offer INR 100 base fare tickets for travel between August 27, 2014 to September 30, 2014 on domestic sectors. These tickets can be booked between today to August 31, 2014. You can only purchase these tickets from the Air India website, which currently has this state on: Anyhow, unless the INR 100 Air India Day promotion includes Fuel surcharges as well, I don’t think these tickets are really different from what Air India has sold quietly in the past. In April, I was able to book AI tickets for INR 2500 one-way approximately between Mumbai and Delhi, which included INR 49 or so as the base fare. So, this must be much ado about nothing.…

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Air India’s Frequent Flyer program not known to AI

by Ajay 6 Comments

Sigh, I’ve just wasted a whole productive hour of my life this afternoon, and I need to vent it out. So, bear with me for a bit. Domestic Flight Cancellation Charges One of the advantages of the Flying Returns program is that at elite tiers, such as Gold and Maharajah Tiers, you get almost free domestic ticket cancellation/rebooking, as compared to the INR 1600-1900 which is the going price these days amongst Indian airlines. They charge you a modest INR 200, which also allows people like me to take a bet on fares long out and lock in some tickets subject to our schedules. Here is a snapshot of the benefits for Air India Gold Club: Now, the trouble seems…

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Uber may need to Indianise payment solution sooner

by Ajay 13 Comments

Trust your competitors to bring you down. I would file this under the dirty tricks department. Uber has been expanding pretty fast around India, and now offers services around ten cities. Cashless transactions and on-demand services are their differentiators, and I love the fact that I don’t have to deal with cash when I get out of the car, and it goes automatically on my credit card. In India, all credit card transactions are supposed to go through a 2-factor authentication. For offline purchases, this is Chip+PIN (+Signature as well, yet!). For online purchases, this means a One Time Password or Visa/MasterCard online authentication. Uber bypassed it by using a gateway based in the Netherlands. All the homegrown services such…

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Air India offering free domestic tickets

by Ajay Leave A Comment

Air India is running a promotion on their website, called, umm, the Get Lucky offer. This promotion offers every 100th ticket booked on Air India’s own website www.airindia.in, a complimentary domestic ticket, and the winners get notified at the end of their ticket booking process itself. The promotion runs between August 15, 2014 to September 30, 2014. The complimentary tickets are valid only after you travel at least one segment on your journey, if you booked an international ticket. If you booked a domestic ticket, it will be valid after you complete your entire journey. If you book a one-way ticket, you get a one-way ticket as your gift, and if you book a round trip, you get a round…

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Some AwardWallet+ Codes for all of you

by Ajay 15 Comments

I’ve done AwardWallet upgrade giveaways in the past, but seems it goes out like hotcakes. For those of you who don’t know, AW is a website that allows me to track my points and miles totals across loyalty programs in a one-view format. AwardWallet provides a free account, which tracks all your accounts for free, but only displays upto 3 expiration notices. There is also AwardWallet Plus, which costs you $5 upwards for 6 months (you choose the price), and allows for details on all your accounts to be tracked along with the expiry notices. Now, if you haven’t had an AwardWallet account ever, you could sign up for a free 6-months usage of AwardWallet Plus with this link. Otherwise,…

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Citibank, Axis Bank & American Express Credit Card Referrals in India

by Ajay 3 Comments

Citibank offering up to INR 9999 for member referrals in India Citibank ran a pretty lucrative member-get-member promotion earlier in the year, where they offered the originating member (who made a referral INR 2,500) per card referral which was successful. Citibank is now back with a new promotion, where you get INR 2,000 per card referral which is successful, up to 5 cards for INR 9999. I think the INR 9,999 limit comes into play because at INR 10,000 or more, they’d have to start doing Tax Deductions and issue TDS certificates as well. You need to have an existing Citibank Credit Card or Citibank Savings Account to be able to make a referral. The person you refer to, should…

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Hyatt Gold Passport rolling out targeted promotions: Upto 50K GP Bonuses

by Ajay 3 Comments

Hyatt Gold Passport is perhaps a very very good program, except I don’t always get to appreciate them because of their limited availability where I am present. Now, Hyatt is back with promotions for the September – November 2014 quarter, a time which is usually packed with business travel. This is a rehash of the Hyatt New Possibilities promotion, which ran same time last year. Except, this time around, they are doing targeted promotions. Here are the few offers I’ve heard of so far: Offer 1: Upto 50,000 Bonus Gold Passport Points Stay 5 Nights: Get 5000 Bonus Points Stay 10 Nights: Get 10000 Bonus Points (Total 15000 Bonus Points) Stay 15 Nights: Get 150000 Bonus Points (Total 30000 Bonus…

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Uber launches in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Kolkata & Jaipur today

by Ajay Leave A Comment

Uber has been growing fast in India, just like they’ve been doing around the world. Last year, around the same time, they launched in Bangalore as their first Indian market. Since then, they’ve launched in Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai & Pune. Just today they’ve launched in the four cities mentioned above, all at one go. Interesting mix indeed, and this also makes a statement that India is indeed one of the bigger markets Uber is targetting to get a sizeable marketshare in. Here is a look at the fares: Ahmedabad Chandigarh Jaipur Kolkata What is interesting for me is that the base fares are very low, and so are the per minute charges, which are at INR 1 instead of…

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My Credit Card Strategy 2014 update

by Ajay 8 Comments

In the beginning of the year, I wrote my credit card strategy for 2014. I’ve been meaning to give a mid-year update, but not been able to do so far. Anyhow, lets take a look now at how things are going, and what may be the plan ahead. Here are the credit cards I already have, and my view on them. Citibank PremierMiles Visa (Keep): This is my favourite credit card all around, and if you’ve poked around this blog, you would have noticed I love this product. I intend to keep it and use it as my primary card to book airline tickets and make use of all the special Citibank promotions that come 3-4 times a year, such…

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