One of the disadvantages I’ve found India to deal with is the lack of self-drive car hires such as the Avis and Hertz offerings globally. The traditional preference in India used to be of a chauffeur-driven car, and most fleet owners/operators still offer those options only to their clients. However, last year, Carzonrent, which is one of India’s oldest car fleet operator, decided to shake things up a bit, and launched a new self-drive offering called Myles which started up from Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, and now is offered across 16 cities in India for the moment. I’d been keeping an eye on them for a while, and I thought now is a good time to talk about them. …
Air India gets set for Star Alliance
The big day is still about 12-15 hours away, but Air India seems to be ready this time to join the Star Alliance. In 2011, they were jilted at the altar, and now Star Alliance and Air India have kissed and made up. Here are a couple of pictures of the Air India A320 VT-ESF, which is painted in the Star Alliance livery for tomorrow’s induction ceremony. At a later date, there will also be a Boeing 787 painted in the Star Alliance livery as well. Pictures courtesy OmniFlyers’ Facebook page. It seems at least two other airlines will fly their Star Alliance livery planes to India tomorrow, and there will be a star formation at Delhi Airport for the…
SpiceJet INR 999 sale for 2015 dates
We are just half way into 2014, but it is time to bring to you the first edition of the July fare sales. SpiceJet is at it again, having launched a sale for travel between January 6, 2015 to October 24, 2015 offering fares from INR 999 plus taxes and onwards. I was able to find INR 999 fares in the case of Mumbai – Goa for instance, however total ticket costs were way ahead at INR 1669 because of the various fees and taxes which SG needs to pay over and above their own costs. Sale fares are tagged, and makes it easier for you to find them. If you think there is a travel plan you have for…
Indigo launches automated early check-in
Indigo has launched a new feature yesterday, called Advance Pass. A complimentary facility, which you can select while booking your ticket, will make sure you are automatically checked-in and your boarding pass is sent to you on email when check-in opens (48 hours prior to the flight departure time). Indigo allows you to pre-select your seats at the time of booking or after booking your flights, and charges a premium to book the first 3 rows or the emergency exit rows. Also, the first 7 row window and first 11 row aisle seats are charged for booking. However, you can get all these seats, if not bought out by anyone else, free of cost when check-in opens 48 hours prior.…
Air India Star Alliance ties begin to emerge
While I have not been on an Air India plane in about 40 days or more now, Air India is now about 4 days away from getting inducted into the Star Alliance, and first pictures have begin to emerge of how they are sporting the logo on their livery and around the airline. This looks real now, and official in 4 days I presume: This is a picture taken by OnePassenger and posted on FlyerTalk. Of course, I am looking forward to sighting the A320 and the B787 which will be painted and unveiled in the Star Alliance livery on July 11, 2014. Related Posts: How will the Indian flyer benefit with Air India joining Star Alliance Air India to…
Giving away AwardWallet codes
It is birthday month for the blog, and I thought it would be a good idea to kick it off with a little warm-up giveaway for all of you. Like all of you know, I am a fan of AwardWallet, 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,…
Jet Airways offering 50% off on mileage redemption across India
Jet Airways is upping the redemption game which they started a few years back, offering a 50% off on mileage redemption tickets across India for this quarter as of today. For the past two years, Jet Airways offered a 20% off on mileage redemptions, if booked online, something they discontinued in April 2014. Now, for travel between July 7, 2014 to September 30, 2014, they are offering a 50% off for redemptions across their domestic sectors in economy and Premiere class if you choose to make the redemption online. The promotion is valid for JP redemption bookings made between July 07, 2014 to July 21, 2014, only if you issue your tickets using the online redemption engine on www.jetairways.com. So,…
India to provide electronic visa clearance to 40 countries by December 2014
Earlier this year, I wrote about the planning to offer electronic visa clearances to travel to India for passport holders of almost all the countries. Now, the initial plans talked about implementing it in October 2014. However, the government changed about 45 days ago, and it is a respite that this new plan is still on, and implementation details are beginning to roll out in a phase-wise manner. In the first half of this week, it was decided that by December 2014, at least 40 countries will receive their electronic visas/ travel clearance. While the list of countries has still not been decided, you could expect the regular suspects to be all there, such as USA, UK, Netherlands, Germany, France,…
Jet Airways offering Double Miles on Delhi–North America routes in Business Class
Jet Airways is offering double miles on the business class (Premiere) fares they are offering for flights from Delhi to their two stations in North America, which are Newark (EWR) and Toronto (YYZ) between July 1, 2014 and September 30, 2014. Now, this is clearly done for increasing business class traffic on North American routes, where I am guessing they are facing competition from Middle East and European carriers. For travelling in Premiere, you would get JP miles credited as per the direct routing for DEL-YYZ-DEL, which is 7244 flown miles as compared to DEL-BRU-YYZ and back which is 7750 flown miles. On top of this you get a bonus of 7244 miles as double miles bonus, and 3622 miles…
Air India confirms benefits for elite members on joining Star Alliance
Air India has been working to get ready for the Star Alliance, and one of the common question I have been asked over the past few days was about the benefits that members will be able to get as Star Alliance elites. I had made a post last week about my expectation on what will be the benefits for AI flyers on joining the Star Alliance. One of the remarks was on the expected outcome of status equalisation with Star Alliance tiers. Here was what I wrote: Air India elites will now be Star Alliance Elites: Air India has 4 membership levels: Base, Silver, Gold and Platinum called Member, Silver Edge, Golden Edge and Maharajah Club. You cannot earn elite…
Air India set to fly to Moscow from July 18, 2014
Air India is on a roll these days expanding its international network, on the back of the 787s that are coming into their fleet. And I like it, purely because they are an international airline and need to be connecting to various countries to be able to be called on. Yes, they are losing money, but if they have a fighting chance to try their way back into being the preferred airline for Indians, they had to go international. After moving many of their loss-making routes to the 787s, they are now focussing on starting new ones. They recently launched flights to Italy, and are now going to launch flights to Russia again. This route was served long time ago,…
