It is time for me to start passing around the goodies I brought back from last month’s BoardingArea Conference in Las Vegas. One of the necessities in today’s smartphone toting life is a continuous need to charge the phone. And being an iPhone user, I need it all the time. In fact, sometimes I need two to go through a day on the road. Today’s goodie going away is a brand new silver-colored 2200 mAh powerbank, which i picked up during my trip to Las Vegas for the BoardingArea conference. All you need to do, is to put in a comment below before 2359 IST tonight (30 October 2014). Tell me what is your favourite mileage currency in India, and…
Lots of AwardWallet+ codes up for grabs
It is that time of the month again, where I am putting out my stash of AwardWallet codes for all of you. Like you’d know, AwardWallet 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…
UK to allow Indians transit without UK Visa
Regular readers of the blog must remember the incident where my passport got stuck with the British consulate in Mumbai and I could not make it to a meeting in time in Europe. This was the result of a long time policy of the UK, which ensured that Indians had a transit visa or a visa of some sort for the UK, if they were just transit through the country, and were not going to enter the borders. The policy did not apply if you were transiting to go to the US/Australia/New Zealand, or had a valid residence permit in the EU. This morning, I got word that the need for a transit visa for the UK is being withdrawn…
The Lufthansa A380 that did not make it to India
A380s are clearly the newest attractions for Indian flyers, ever since they were cleared for take off from select Indian airports. Singapore Airlines took the lead, then Emirates brought in their A380 to Mumbai. Earlier this year, Lufthansa had stated their intention to start operations for the A380 in India from the winter schedule, which got into effect from this past weekend. Lufthansa’s original plan was to start flights to Mumbai and Delhi on the A380, however they got a rude shock when the Mumbai slot was allocated to Emirates instead, after being promised to them. Mumbai at present only has 1 gate which can handle the A380 since the terminal is still under construction, and hence, capacity is limited.…
Low fares do exist contrary to APAI’s belief
I’ve been reading tons of publicity that an association called Air Passengers Association of India is getting over the past two days, due to their claim that Low Fares in India are a hoax/fraud. Now, this organisation, which I’ve heard on and off since the past 4 years, is someone based in Chennai. They don’t even have a website in today’s day and age of the internet since the website www.apai.in goes to a holding page. Anyhow, their claims in the media over the past few days, I’ll quote from the report for the Hindustan Times (bolding is mine): Flash air tickets witnessed almost every month indicates that domestic airlines have formed a cartel, a non-profit fliers’ body has reported…
JetKid: earning JPMiles for your kids travels
A couple of hidden features of last week’s announcements of JetPrivilege launching MyFamily+ was the surge in pricing award travel for kid tickets to adult levels, and the official change in policy to allow earning JPMiles for being a kid traveller as well. For the longest time, JetPrivilege, which is Jet Airways’ frequent flyer program, did not allow kids aged between 2 and 11 years to earn miles. So you had to be over 12 years to have a loyalty program account with them. This changed last week with the launch of JetKid. JetKid: earn mile for 2-11 year old kids JetKids allows you to enrol kids between the age of 2-11 years into the JetPrivilege program, and they get…
FlyDubai offering 25% off on round trips from India
FlyDubai is a low cost carrier based in Dubai, and owned by the Government of Dubai. FlyDubai operates a Boeing 737 fleet to 83 destinations around the Middle-East, Central and South-East Asia. FlyDubai operates from Mumbai (today onwards!), Delhi, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kochi, Lucknow and Thiruvanthanapuram to Dubai (and onwards). Now, FlyDubai is offering a special 25% off if you book a roundtrip from India to Dubai, and register on their Facebook page, from where they send you a special 25% discount code. Now, tickets to Dubai from India are usually cheap, and FlyDubai is selling them for about INR 15000 from Mumbai without discounts. With the discount code, you can further make it INR 12000, which is a very good…
Altitude Lounges: The good yet empty lounges in Mumbai and Delhi
Altitude lounges are the lounges established by American Express in Mumbai CSI airport’s terminal 1 and Delhi Airport’s Terminal 3 on the domestic departures side. These lounges are operated for the credit card franchises of American Express in India, such as the ICICI Bank Jet Airways American Express card and the IndusInd Bank Jet Airways American Express Card. I reviewed the Mumbai lounge and the Delhi lounge last year. Now, both these lounges are excellent in terms of the quality of food and services, much on par with the American Express Lounges operated by Amex for Amex Plat card holders in the two cities. However, they both don’t get any traffic, in spite of being in business for a couple…
British Airways offering First Class upgrade on Club World cabin
British Airways, from time to time works out promotions where they offer travellers in the Club World cabin a one-way upgrade in their First Class cabin when you book a round-trip in business class. This promotion has recently returned to India. How does this work? All that you need to do is to book a ticket on one of the following itineraries: Delhi and Mumbai to New York (Outbound travel must commence before 20 November 2014) Delhi and Mumbai to London (Outbound travel must commence before 31 December 2014) This promotion does not work if you book on the BA.com website, because you need to request the upgrade at the time of booking and it is subject to availability. Hence,…
Air India gets on to Twitter
Air India has been taking baby steps into the world of social media. Last year, they worked to get their presence on Facebook established. This year, seems Twitter is the project for them. While there are multiple handles on Twitter which claimed to be Air India, Air India has now established @airindiain as their official Twitter handle, and this is now a verified handle as well. What kind of inputs to expect from Air India here right now? It seems clearly this handle is being operated by a social media agency on behalf of Air India at the moment, so they sporadically reply at the moment and issue apologies on behalf of Air India, but no real information is shared…
Cathay Pacific unveils a brand refresh
Cathay Pacific is one of the better airlines out there, and they know it as much as the world does. Airlines are a customer facing business as much as they are a behind-the-scene show, and airlines continuously work to catch eyeballs, which they would like to convert into butts in seats going forward. Cathay Pacific has just started to roll out their brand refresh, which is something they are doing after a gap of 20 years. As a part of this roll out plan, the first instance will be the refreshed brand identity, which will be rolled out over the next few days across the network, and will last into the next 18 months. First step, the logo, addressed as…
