American Express is trying to step up their product offering in India after a very very long time (say 5 years!). In 2012, they came up with the American Express Jet Airways co-branded credit card, which has been in my wallet since, and now they are adding some serious muscle to their existing offerings. American Express cards did not offer much of Lounge access in India, apart from access to the Mumbai and Delhi Platinum lounge, that too, not for everyone, only Platinum and Centurion Card holders, and Jet Platinum Credit Card holders without any guests. Of course, Platinum Card holders and Centurion Card holders get Priority Passes as well, but this did not have the convenience of having a…
Virgin Atlantic goes big on Bollywood with an innovative discount
Clearly the movies and flying have been interconnected for a long time, but Virgin Atlantic is trying to make an interesting twist on the Indian movies business, by riding a discount promotion on the Bollywood plank. They’ve announced a new promotion called “Feel like a Star”, where they are offering discounts to people with the 12 first names listed below, since the airline says these are the 12 most often used names in Hindi movies: Karan Anthony Vijay Arjun Rahul Rohit Simran Tina Pooja Priya Kiran Sonia While the process of getting this list out is debatable because my first name is not on this list , the airline is offering a 5% discount on economy fares and 10% discount…
Passport Control changes for travel to/fro India since March 2014
The Bureau of Immigration, Government of India made some changes to the requirements for travelling to and from India for Indian as well as Foreign passengers from India. Considering there was no widespread education campaign about this, earlier this month, I still filled up this form because British Airways gave me one, and at the Mumbai Airport Terminal 2 they still collected the customs counterfoil of this Disembarkation form from me. This is the statement from the Bureau of Immigration: It has been decided to do away with the filling of Departure (Embarkation) Card by Foreigners and Arrival (Disembarkation) Card by Indians w.e.f. March 1, 2014. Indian nationals are not required to fill in Disembarkation (Arrival) Card w.e.f. March 1,…
2 Free Uber rides for LiveFromALounge readers
It is no secret that I am a Uber fanboy, if there is a term like that. I’ve been waiting for these guys to come to India and give us a little respite from the flagging a cab and waiting for a cab to come up. Ever since they’ve launched in Delhi and Mumbai, two cities I call home, I’ve seen myself in many of their cars, which include everything from a BMW X1 to a Mercedes E-class to a Toyota Innova, but not the broken 20 year old Mumbai cabs for the least. The pricing is slightly high, but the money is worth it. In my numerous trips from the Airports recently, I’ve largely tried and used Uber to…
SpiceJet gets into trouble for celebrating Holi on the plane
SpiceJet decided to be a little excited about the festival of colours, Holi, which was celebrated around the country earlier this week. Not a bad thought in its own right, except this attracted the attention of the aviation regulator DGCA who thinks they have not done the right thing by organising some song and dance on board. Here is a video of the dance on board SG 876 between Goa and Bangalore as captured by a passenger. The same performance was conducted on 8 flights of the airline on March 17. As per the airline, the cabin was staffed with three extra cabin crew members and the cockpit was manned at all times during this 2.5 minutes performance. However, the…
Air India offering double miles in March–April 2014
Air India put out a new promotion earlier this week, where they are offering double miles for flying on select routes from March 15, 2014 to April 30, 2014. These double miles are double for your eligible class of flying, and hence if you’re booked deep discount economy fares (E class, for instance), you will only get double of 25% of miles for the distance you fly (in case of domestic flights). And yes, Air India does offer 500 miles per sector as web booking bonus as well. Personally, I don’t find this a very attractive offer, since booking the same segments with Jet Airways would give me 100% of flown miles as credit, and 500 miles as online booking…
Citibank to launch Prestige Credit Card in India
Citibank has been working on two new products to replace the existing Citibank Ultima, which has been their lifestyle and travel credit card in India for about five years or more, and was their product equivalent of the American Express Platinum. Over a period of time, the Jet Airways and Priority Pass privileges went away and the product proposition was vastly reduced. Since American Express launched their Centurion in India, Citibank will be relaunching the Ultima to compete with the Amex Centurion, and Citibank Prestige will be launched in India at INR 20,000 plus taxes to be the lifestyle credit card for Citibank. My guess is this product will be issued as a Visa product in India, while it is…
Hyatt offering 3000 bonus points at 2 hotels in India
One of the two hotel currencies that are much wanted around the world are Hyatt Gold Passport Points, and for the lack of a co-branded credit card, they are pretty hard to earn in India. Hyatt does take to the bonus route on new hotel openings, and at this moment they are offering bonuses of 3000 Gold Passport points at two of their latest Indian hotels. Firstly, there is the Hyatt Regency Ludhiana, which has recently opened and is offering 3000 bonus points for stays between March 1 and May 31 2014. The offer code for this is 3KGP and needs to be put on your reservation before you check-in. There is also the Hyatt Raipur, which has opened a…
Your Citibank Double Miles have posted
Citibank had launched a Double your Miles promotion in November 2013, where the top 5000 registered spenders were going to get upto 50,000 extra PremierMiles. The miles were going to be credited to the accounts of the top 5000 spenders by the 15th of March 2014. So, last night, I checked into my account by sending a text message “Rewards xxxx” to (+91 9880752484) where the xxxx were the last four digits of my Citibank PremierMiles credit card. And I noticed a bounty of an extra 49,000 PremierMiles in my account. So, if you registered for the Citibank PremierMiles Double Miles promotion in 2013, check your accounts and you’ll find out if you were the top 5000 spenders or not.…
Status Match available on Air India Flying Returns
SBI credit cards started to issue Air India co-branded credit cards last year, and they are maybe one of the best airline credit cards out there from an Indian perspective. Take an example, if you get the Signature version of the card, you get: 20,000 Air India miles to start-up on payment of first year annual fees 1 Air India upgrade voucher on sign-up 20,000 Air India miles bonus on spending INR 3 lakhs in the year 20,000 Air India miles bonus and Air India Silver Club status on spending INR 5 lakhs in the year 50,000 Air India miles bonus and Air India Gold Club status on spending INR 10 lakhs in the year Air India / SBI Cards…
Amex Platinum Reserve and Jet co-brand cards available at INR 5,000 for first year
One of the less widely covered American Express Credit Card on my blog is the American Express Platinum Reserve Credit Card. Originally meant to be the credit card version of the American Express Charge Card, the Credit Card comes with some limited but still useful benefits. While a full review of this product will have to wait, here are some of the benefits of this card: 22,000 Bonus Membership Rewards Points on signup 1 Membership Rewards Point for every Rs.40 spent Access to the American Express Lounges at Delhi and Mumbai Dosmestic Airports Complimentary membership to Taj Epicure Plus Gold Tier in the Taj Inner Circle program Priority Pass, with two complimentary visits per annum Now, the usual fees for…
