Review: GVK Business Class Lounge Mumbai Terminal 2

by Ajay 18 Comments

a bar with people behind it

Yesterday, I wrote about the inauguration of the new GVK Lounge at the Mumbai Airport Terminal 2, which came after months of anticipation. I had some work in Delhi today, so I was supposed to take an evening flight from Mumbai to Delhi to get here. The power of mileage tickets, I could just call Air India and swap the ticket from most of their A321 BOM-DEL flights (from Terminal 1) to get a seat on their B77W which flies BOM-DEL-JFK, and hence I could head to Terminal 2 to check out the new lounge. Air India provided me with an invite to the Business Class section of the lounge, located on Level 3, since I am a Flying Returns…

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A Jet Airways’ crew tries to sell a business class meal to an economy passenger

by Ajay 12 Comments

Sometimes I hear travel stories that are about going above and beyond, and sometimes I also hear about the rotten apples that bring bad reputation to a brand. Here is one of the latter. Jet Airways’ is all set to go back to being a full-service carrier. For them, one important part of this as per their plan is the on-board meal experience, which is something they are not performing well on, according to me. Vishal Mehra, an aviation hobbyist, recently took a trip from Delhi to Jammu and return on JetKonnect, and he was hoping the free meals were back earlier than expected. However, the on board buy-on-board concept was still active at the date of his travel. No…

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#FreeUberWeek across India: 5 Free Uber rides

by Ajay 4 Comments

Uber has been on the rise in India. Just last week, they activated a new city in their portfolio, making it 11 Indian cities in 13 months of operations here. Recently, they added the capability to pay with a digital wallet in India, and this week they are all out to promote it across the country. Here is what you need to do… Step 1: Add an UberWallet (via Paytm) to your payment account. Step 2: Add at least INR 100 in funds to your payment wallet. Step 3: Select your wallet as your payment method Between now and November 30, 6 pm IST, whenever you get a ride via the Uber app and choose to pay with Paytm, you…

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Mumbai’s Terminal 2 now has new First & Business Class lounges

by Ajay 3 Comments

Mumbai’s Terminal 2, when it was open for business in February 2014, had started out with a temporary lounge, which was in itself a step-up from the earlier airport’s lounge. I wrote a full review of the interim lounge here. The airport, unlike its earlier version, was going to disallow airlines from operating their own brand lounges, and the airport operator was instead going to offer one First Class and one Business Class lounge each for all airlines to share, owned by the airport operator. There was much discussion about when these lounges were going to be open for the public. The news is, now! Just a couple of days back, the new lounges were inaugurated, and now they are…

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Write off cash or save award ticket for future?

by Ajay 12 Comments

Be careful with your money, Ajay! is not a phrase I have to hear often, but sometimes I wonder myself if I am doing the right thing or not, so I look to you guys for suggestions and experiences. For an upcoming trip, I had held award tickets on Jet Airways and Air India both, thinking I would be able to take a call on which one to use as I came closer to the travel date. The whole travel plan happened on a whim, so I was not sure about how my schedule was going to evolve closer to the travel date. One thing was for sure, I did not want to be on an early morning flight, but…

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Using Etihad miles to fly Jet Airways around India

by Ajay 23 Comments

One of the most attractive award charts out there for travel around India, is that of Etihad Airways, which offers some sweet redemptions on Jet Airways. Check out this PDF here which lists the routes and mileage requirements per sector. I have had the intention to use this chart to book tickets on Jet Airways, but never had any sectors to try it out on, since revenue tickets are usually cheap enough. Recently, however, I was in a situation where I needed to book up family for an up coming trip, and revenue tickets were expensive, and this was the perfect time to try out this method. I call the Etihad award chart sweet, because it has some real gems…

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Huff-puff, and I reach AAdvantage EXP

by Ajay 3 Comments

In July, I wrote a post about how I was having trouble moving forward with my quest for AAdvantage status. I had done the required number of points, but somehow AA did not take a view on it. It turns out, AAdvantage is strictly implementing a particular clause this year, which is a pre-qualification for any elite qualification with American Airlines. They are also implementing a no soft-landing policy this year, which led me to go down to base member tier in the first place. Usually, I’m able to comply with this 4 legs requirement early in the year itself, however, this year, business travel and personal travel was slow during the beginning of the year.It came later in the…

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India’s best loved miles are Citi & JetPrivilege

by Ajay 3 Comments

A few days ago, I did a dipstick survey with my readers about which were the miles they liked to accumulate and use most. I did get a fair number of responses, and on tabulating all of them, it looks like Citibank and JetPrivilege miles are the most popular ones, neck to neck with each other. The odd entries were the ones for AAdvantage and Emirates Skywards with one entry each. Air India Flying Returns miles showed up, but not in as many numbers as Citi and JP. Citi (PremierMiles & Prestige) Citibank offers the PremierMiles card which allows you to earn 10 miles/INR 100 spent on air tickets directly with the airline, as well as with certain other partners…

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Jet Airways adds functionality to see your upcoming trips online

by Ajay 3 Comments

One of the things I like to see on my frequent flyer profile for any airline is my upcoming reservations with that airline. And I have been able to see these with all the airlines I frequently travel with such as British Airways, American Airlines and Air India, but not with Jet Airways. The thing is, I have so many reservations out there, that sometimes it can become a little hard to track it all (although I do religiously try and add everything to WorldMate the minute it is booked!) It is a very simple thing to do. You make the name and frequent flyer numbers as your keys, and pull their upcoming travel information in their frequent flyer profile.…

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IHG India offer: 1 free night globally for 3 paid nights in India

by Ajay 7 Comments

The Intercontinental Hotel Group came up with a great promotion yesterday for members in India. Called India Free Nights, the promotion offers you a free night across the world in IHG’s 4700 hotels for staying 3 nights in any IHG Hotel in India. Between November 17, 2015 and April 30, 2015, for every 3 nights you will spend at any IHG hotel in India or Nepal, you get credited with one free night, up to a maximum of 3 free nights. The free nights can be redeemed across any of the IHG hotels across the world till December 31, 2015.  You need to register for this promotion here. The significant terms and conditions for this promotion state: The three qualifying…

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Free Uber ride for linking Paytm (Act fast)

by Ajay 8 Comments

Last week, I wrote about the addition of a digital wallet to Uber in India, done largely with the intention to comply with Indian payment guidelines. The additional benefit of course, is that you get to use debit cards and net banking to pay for your uber rides. Now, they have brought out a promotion across India to promote usage of the new payment option. As per Uber, if you add a Paytm wallet to your account by November 19, 2014 (23:59 IST) and recharge it (procedure described here), you get a free ride upto INR 500 which you can use up to November 23, 2014. Remember, the minimum recharge is INR 100, and even a minimum recharge should be…

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