British Airways brought their Silent Picturehouse to Mumbai earlier this week, the second country after the UK that it was organised. The intention of this event was the familiarise people about the on-ground and in-air BA experience, considering India is one of the 3 biggest markets for BA globally. I popped in yesterday to see the show myself, and I was pleasantly surprised at the magnificence of the event. See, I’ve loved BA from the time I visited their headquarters a couple of years back, and that was the airline that introduced me to the Champagne Taittinger, something I still look forward to when transiting London at the BA Terminal 5 Lounge. And it was the free flowing beverage of…
Air India offering 1000 miles for opening new frequent flyer account
Air India’s Flying Returns might be turning into an important program to look up again because of their recent in-principle acceptance in the Star Alliance, and the ability to earn these miles with credit cards as well now. For those of you who do not have an Air India Flying Returns account, this might be a good time to start-up on one. Air India has been offering 1,000 miles towards opening a new account for a while. All that it requires of you to be doing, is to go to this link, and generate a new account for yourself. Miles will post on taking the first flight. Related Posts: Air India finally gets invited into Star Alliance Credit Card Review:…
Get Rs. 75 Cashback on booking an OlaCab
OlaCabs is offering a cashback opportunity via Cashkaro.com, where all you need to do is book your OlaCabs for Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai or Bangalore via their website and click through to the Ola Cabs website. This is an easy way of saving some of the costs of travelling with an OlaCabs provided taxi. All you have to do is go to Cashkaro.com, register, and then look up Ola Cabs on the website. After you have selected Ola Cabs, just click through the website to go to the Olacabs website. Your cashback tracks within 48 hours usually, and you get paid within 3 months usually. Not bad for the regular users I say. If you are a first time Olacab…
Uber launches in Hyderabad, get 2 free rides!
Uber has been finding its way around India pretty quickly. In September, Uber launched in Bangalore, its first Indian city. In October, they launched in Delhi, and now they’ve launched in Hyderabad. To me, pricing comes across as very reasonable across these cities. Take a look: Bangalore New Delhi Hyderabad Hyderabad is at a SecretUber stage at this moment, which means a few limos on the road and Uber is ironing out the issues. I’ve worked with Uber in the past to be able to offer you all two free rides this year on Uber in India. You could still try out this promocode BOARDINGAREA till December 31, 2013 on a new account and you can get…
Air India finally gets invited into Star Alliance
It has been a nerve-wracking journey for Air India, but they finally made it. Okay, inspirational speech over. Now time for the real thing. Back in 2007, Air India was invited to join the Star Alliance, with Lufthansa sponsoring its entry. The Government of India practically dropped their pants to make concessions for Lufthansa group to get Air India into the alliance. And then, in July 2011, at the last minute, Air India’s entry into the Star Alliance was put on hold. Ever since then, there has been push and shove, and Jet Airways was also invited to join the alliance. In the backdrop, Air India kept pursuing the alliance again and again. Star Alliance may have been forced to…
Is Indigo offering 72% of their seats on pay for seat selection?
I travel Indigo on and off, and my airline-neutral parents don’t mind travelling on them since their choices are dictated by convenience of time and pricing. I must admit we haven’t given much business to Indigo this year. However, checking them in on a flight on Indigo now, I discovered some anomalies with the recently prescribed unbundling norms of the DGCA. The DGCA has clearly prescribed norms for charging for premium seats which they brought out in 2013. You can look at the PDF here. When they initially notified unbundling, Indigo would ask you for INR 200 for a window/aisle seat, INR 500 for a premium seat (Row 1,2,3, emergency exit), and Rs. 100 for all other seats to be…
Jet Airways 10% off on all international flights till 8th December
Jet Airways has been frequently running fare sales of late, however this one is an unconditional one and hence I put it up here. There is a 10% off on all fares for international travel on any route for JetPrivilege members for today and tomorrow (i.e. 7 & 8 December 2013). These discounts are valid for travel from 20 January 2014 onwards, and on business as well as economy fares. For once, the discount is also clearly marked on the website. For instance this is a random date in January for BOM-BRU-BOM travel while I am logged into my JP account. The fare shows a discount. When I am not logged into my JetPrivilege account, it shows a full fare.…
Citi PremierMiles 50% transfer bonus to Hilton HHonors till December ‘13
Citibank is on a roll with transfer bonuses over the past couple of days it seems. After signing up new transfer partners in IHG Rewards Club, Hilton HHonors, Taj Inner Circle, Malaysia Airlines & Eva Air last month, they are now running a transfer bonus with Singapore Airlines. And now, they are running another transfer bonus with their new partner Hilton HHonors. This time around, if you transfer 10,000 PremierMiles, which convert into 15,000 Hilton HHonors points (due to the 1PM=1.5 HHonors conversion rate), you get an added bonus of 5,000 HHonors points as well. There are no limits to the amount of PremierMiles you can transfer under this promotion and the amount of extra 5,000 HHonors points you can…
20% bonus on Citibank miles conversion to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles
One good part about earning miles neutrally is the choice of transfer partners offered, and the bonuses they run sometimes. For the past two years, we have seen transfer bonuses from Etihad & British Airways on Citibank products, and Jet Airways as well, for Citibank credit cards ex-PremierMiles. Just yesterday, Citibank and Singapore Airlines have begin to offer a 20% bonus on conversion of Citibank points/miles to your Singapore KrisFlyer frequent flyer account. Now while I won’t be able to post a full review of the KrisFlyer program at this moment, but like most programs in Asia, they charge fuel surcharges, and lots of them. However, the Singapore Airlines product is usually top notch, and you get access to a…
Winner for the ITC Culinary Plus voucher
Earlier this week, I had put out an ITC Culinary Plus discount voucher for a giveaway. All you had to do was to tell me where would you like to dine if you received the voucher to yourself. This morning, I used Random.org to select a winner. This was Saurabh, who said: ITC Maratha, MumbaiFingers crossed to be licked! Congrats Saurabh, and there are more such giveaways coming soon, so the rest of you should look out for them! Related Post: Giveaway: Upto 50% off for your meal at an ITC Hotel on us! Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.
American Express offering 30,000 JPMiles signup bonus for Jet Airways co-branded credit card
Last year, when American Express and Jet Airways launched their co-branded Jet-Airways American Express Credit Card, they offered a special sign-up bonus of 10,000 JPMiles over and above the welcome gift of 20,000 JPMiles which is the standard on-going offer. However, the sign-up bonus was only available to those who paid the INR 10,000 + taxes as first year fees, hence, I chose to pay the fee in spite of being a JetPrivilege Platinum member and eligible for the credit card free of cost. I was getting miles at INR 0.33 per JPmile, and it was hard to beat that value. On my last Jet Airways flight earlier this week, I saw flyers around the cabin talking about the special…
