V/S One of my posts about the conversion from Citibank PremierMiles to Citibank Prestige quite set the cat amongst the pigeons out there. While everyone does want to double their miles with the arbitrage, I was inundated with email over the weekend about the differences and the similarities. I just thought I’d put my perspective out here: Citibank PremierMiles in my opinion, is the card targeted towards the travellers. You earn PremierMiles towards various purchases, and earn very high number of PremierMiles for airline purchases. You also get higher number of PremierMiles if you buy from certain brands or websites. Alongside, there are acceleration offers where Citi offers additional miles for certain category spends from time to time. You can…
Resisting the urge for Hyatt Diamond Trial
I’m torn here and this is not a good feeling. Sometimes I feel the golden criteria for being a blogger based on BoardingArea should be that you have Hyatt’s Diamond status. And I haven’t had that for most of the 3 years I’ve been around. See, here are the key benefits of being a Hyatt Diamond: 30% point bonus when choosing points Best room available upon arrival, excluding suites Access to the Regency Club or Grand Club lounge featuring complimentary continental breakfast and evening hors d’oeuvres. Daily complimentary full breakfast in hotels without a club lounge. 4 Suite Upgrades annually on eligible paid nights (valid for 7 nights each) A welcome point bonus or food and beverage amenity during each…
Hotel Review: Four Points by Sheraton, Jaipur
Flight Review: Indigo, BOM – JAI, 6E 207, Economy My trip was going to be just an overnight one, because I had other commitments back in Mumbai on Sunday. Hotels in Jaipur, even the chain ones, are pretty cheap I’d say, and at the time of making this reservation, Four Points was working out to a very cheap deal of about INR 3000 inclusive of breakfast. While it is not all the way in the centre of the city, one could easily get conveyance from here to the old Jaipur areas. We arrived into Jaipur pretty early, and had requested early check-in ahead of arrival. The hotel was not very full, so I did get a confirmation that early check-in…
Airfare sales: Indian airlines going for each others jugulars?
Considering this is my personal blog, this could be my op-ed piece this weekend. I’ve been noticing two trends this year. Firstly, a certain red airline has been putting out a lot of fare sales across the board this year. I have lost count and I haven’t even put out all the sales on the blog but only a few of them. Have a look: Jet Airways, Indigo and SpiceJet offering Indian fare sales till August 4, 2014 Spicejet & Indigo offering sale fares for travel between August to October 2014 SpiceJet INR 999 sale for 2015 dates SpiceJet and Indigo 40% off sale fares till June 19 Selective Fare Sales on Jet Airways and SpiceJet today SpiceJet selling tickets…
Jet Airways, Indigo and SpiceJet offering Indian fare sales till August 4, 2014
A fare sale a week keeps the customers happy and flying, while the airlines, they keep ‘em drying out of cash. Yet, this is the reality of the Indian market and somehow we are back to the days 2-3 years back when airlines would drop their prices frequently to get each others’ customers to fly on their airlines. How they call it, is stoking demand, but I guess mostly it is the same people who’d have flown anyways moving their business elsewhere. SpiceJet, as usual, brought out another bout of fare sale this week. These sales have given them marketshare. They are selling discounted tickets till the end of August 3, 2014 (India Standard Time), for travel between September 1,…
Hyatt Flash Sale: 19 India properties at 50% off
Take a break, airfare sales. Hyatt is out with a flash sale, open from today till August 15, 2014 where they are offering a straight 50% off Daily Available Rates as a part of their Monsoon Flash sale in India. Here are the salient Terms & Conditions: Book between 01AUG14 00:00 Hours and 15AUG14 23:59 Hours , Indian Standard Time Stay between 01AUG14-10JAN15 Blackout Dates: 01NOV14-15DEC14 Full Prepayment, non-refundable, no changes Now, Hyatt has a total of 19 properties around India, and this promotion is valid across the 19 properties as long as you book within the timelines. Take a look at this rate on the Hyatt website, for instance: Here is a list of the properties along with the…
Citibank doubling miles on PremierMiles to Prestige conversion
I have to admit I love it how things work out sometimes. I’m a Citibank PremierMiles fan, and I have been one since November 2011. We’ve had a little bit of our love hate in 2012, but I’ve come to terms with it and moved on to live with the new reality ever since. Now, I’ve earned a lot of PremierMiles over the years, but the only true redemption I’ve made has been last year, when I flew Singapore Airlines LAX-SIN-BOM in Business Class with them. Otherwise, the PremierMiles just lie in my account, and I transfer them whenever needed, since they never expire. Anyhow, so, last month I finally decided to apply for the Prestige, which I’ve loved since…
So how long does it take to upgrade an AAdvantage account again?
That is the question I am looking for an answer for, seems I can’t find it. See, I started with American Airlines AAdvantage program a few years back, and I’ve been an Executive Platinum for two years in a row. Last year, hardly travelled with them, and also this was the year they killed their policy for a soft landing, so I went straight to Member level as of March 1, 2014. Sigh, as much as I hate to let it go, I love my AAdvantage miles too much and also the program. I think it is one of the best out there in terms of mileage value. So i decided to see if I could crawl back from being…
Jet Airways nickel and dimes me for INR 50
I’m not a sucker for excess payments to any sort of travel and hospitality providers, yet, this past weekend I saw myself shelling out about a whole INR 50 to Jet Airways for no good reason. <Rant> You see, a couple of years back Jet Airways had this very nice idea that they should be charging customers for delivering printouts of the ticket at the airport. Maybe they were overburdened with these requests, and hence it made sense at that point of time. For the uninitiated, at a point of time it used to take the inspection of a hard copy of the ticket/boarding pass for same day travel, along with a Photographic ID document to access any airport in…
Have you won yourself our birthday giveaway?
Earlier this week, I realised a bit late that it was the blog’s birthday, and I decided to open up a small giveaway for all of you for your continuous support to this blog over the past 3 years. I asked you a simple question… your favourite post from the past three years? I got some common threads in the reply: My proposal in Paris planning trip My 2014 Credit Card Strategy Comparison of the best mileage-earning credit cards in India Goa Park Hyatt Review AwardWallet, of course At random, from the 35 entries received, I chose a winner with Random.org And the winner is Vivek, who said: Ajay,I am considering getting myself a Citibank Prestige card, and therefore my…
JetPrivilege changes mileage earning w.e.f. August 1, 2014
Yesterday, I had a lot of highs and lows throughout the day, specially, when Jet Airways almost gutted the international redemption chart, and then withdrew their act later, commenting that it was a mistake and genuine enhancements are coming to the program. Jet Airways was the first domestic airline to offer 100% miles on domestic sectors, a move they initiated in 2012, and offers these on all fare classes except maybe one. Air India has still not followed suit, and they frequently offer 25-50% of flown miles on most fare classes except the highest ones. Anyhow, after yesterday’s snafu, I got a mailer last night, which I’m sure a lot more members would have also received. This discussed the new…
