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…
Uber launches in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Kolkata & Jaipur today
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…
My Credit Card Strategy 2014 update
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…
Regarding the Delhi Points & Miles Meetup this weekend
I’ve been out of action for about 3 days now, chilling out in a pool at the Park Hyatt Goa, not drinking beer, but having some good wine and Long Island Iced Teas. Anyhow, time to be back in action. Before I left, I put out an announcement for the Delhi meetup which I am hoping to organise this Friday. I was told there is a technology issue in RSVP’ing. So, I’ve fixed that up, and you can RSVP here. Also, I am inviting suggestions for the place to organise this. I’m out of touch with the places to go in Delhi, and Q’BA at Connaught Place comes to mind. Any other suggestions? Update: I’ve firmed up Q’BA and blocked…
Delhi NCR Reader Meetup August 22, 2014
I’ve not been up to too many reader meet-ups in the past few months. However, it is time to get them re-started. I think Delhi might be a good place to start. I’ll be in Delhi next week, and I’d like to have some AvGeekish or not, travel and points and miles company to chat up with over drinks/dinner on the evening of August 22, 2014. Thank God It’s Friday. The venue is not decided yet, but I’m planning to keep it to Central Delhi or South Delhi, to make sure people can make it. And we start about 7:30-8:00 PM onwards. Pay for your own food and drinks, and we get you awesome company. To get me a fair…
I finally get my first Best Rate Guarantee claim. Yay!
With the penetration of the Internet, one of the enabling factors for the various travel providers such as hotels is their ability to cut out the middle-men, i.e., the travel agents. The only way the can afford to do this, or they claim to do this, is by promising that they are putting out the best available rates on their websites, and no one else is going to be lower. The hotel business does have a lot more commissions as compared to the airline business, which works on wafer thin margins for the agents now. Hence, the ability to discount for a travel agency is much more, and they do it all the time. What do I stand to lose,…
A great gesture from Park Hyatt Goa
We all live in an ever changing world, right? Plans change all the time, but usually for business travellers. Once upon a time I did not make it to NYC in time because I had a flat tire on my plane. I had to spend a few days after trying to convince the hotel about the fact they should not charge for no show in that case. A few days ago, I was tossing and turning, trying to talk myself out of a Hyatt Diamond Trial. And I signed up anyways. Like a lot of my readers or followers on Twitter may have known, I’m back at the Park Hyatt Goa Resort and Spa later this week. These guys are…
A few more days to book Marriott 3-for-2 in India
A few months back, I had posted about a very good promotion offered by Marriott in India, where you could get 1 free night for every 2 paid nights at a Marriott hotel in India. The free night could be used in the same trip, or you could come back to the same hotel later and use the voucher separately (however, on a 2 night stay). At a later point of time, I discovered that the promotion is not just valid via Expedia, but also on directly booking with Marriott on their website. You need to use the Code SPJ to be able to get this offer. Here are the rate rules: Booking window 1st April to 31st August, 2014…
Your Citibank PremierMiles International Spends bonuses have posted
Citibank PremierMiles Credit Card was offering a 2x bonus on International Spends during the period May 1, 2014 to June 30, 2014. Here, for all your spends in International Currencies during this period, you got double the miles. So, for buying air tickets outside of India, you got 20 miles per INR 100 instead of 10 miles per INR 100, and regular spend got 8 miles per INR 100 instead of 4. I did take part in this promotion, and made good use of it over my travels in these months, however I recently converted my Citibank PremierMiles to Prestige, and hence left a lot of these miles on the table. I think I left about 6000 miles behind, but…
Jet Airways going full service again
A few hours after Vistara, the new full service airline from Tata/Singapore Airlines showed its first look, Jet Airways made an announcement, which sort of made their life come full circle. A few years ago (7!), Jet Airways bought out Air Sahara, and rebranded them to run them as JetLite. Then, during the economic recession a few years back, they figured people did not want to pay the fares of a full-service carrier, so they used the same planes to offer JetKonnect, an all-economy offering which did not serve food. Then, some years later they took away the JetLite branding and called all their non-full service operations JetKonnect. Complicated much? Yes. This has created a brand manager’s nightmare with so…
Tata SIA unveils its brand identity: Vistara
Last week, I discussed about the newest full-service carrier in India revealing its identity today. Just about an hour back, they confirmed what we discussed last week in this post. Today, at Hotel Taj Mansingh in Delhi, the new airline which will launch within the year came up with its new identity. Here is the logo, which is in the shape of a 8-pointed star, which is actually a maths symbol, called Yantra. The airline livery was also unveiled today, will have the purple as its brand colours with golden edges to go along. Here is the tweet which showcased the livery. Welcome to the world of limitless possibilities. Say hello to #Vistara pic.twitter.com/1w4VlR9Qhi — Vistara (@airvistara) August 11, 2014…
