Long long time ago, I discovered AwardWallet, and I’ve been using their services ever since to access my own and my family’s mileage balances in one place. 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. Here is a summary of the differences. Now, if you haven’t had an AwardWallet account ever, you could sign up for a free 6-months usage of AwardWallet Plus with the following Coupon Code while signing up: LiveFromALounge (case-insensitive). If you have…
Review: Hotel Intercontinental Marine Drive, Mumbai
Last weekend was an overwhelming one, mostly for reasons that a strenuous travel schedule for this year was coming to an end, and it was the birthday of my partner and I’d decided to surprise her. I was just off a 9-hour flight less than 12 hours ago, and while I don’t get jetlagged, I was running on 2 hours of sleep. So, I thought checking into a hotel was going to be a better bet than staying home or going out, also to give vent to some of my own intentions, that I never get to stay in a hotel in Mumbai! Coming to the hotel, I missed the mark with catching the 7-day out rate, and got inside…
Jet operationalizes the Abu Dhabi scissor hub, to reintroduce JFK
While Jet Airways is working its way on starting up the alliance with Etihad, some baby steps have already been taken in regard to activating the scissor hub at Abu Dhabi. As per AirlineRoutes.net, one of the first flight to have taken on from the new scissor hub is going to be a new flight which flies from Chennai to Dammam via Abu Dhabi from 15 January 2014. The flight details are as below: Chennai – Abu Dhabi – Dammam daily service9W526 MAA2015 – 2325AUH0145+1 – 0210+1DMM 73H D9W525 DMM0650 – 0915AUH1045 – 1615MAA 73H D The Kochi – Kuwait service is also being retimed to allow scissor hops at Abu Dhabi. The service would now operate as a Kochi…
Giving away 2 passes to the British Airways Silent Picturehouse Gala in Mumbai…tonight!
British Airways brought their Silent Picturehouse to Mumbai earlier this week, the second country after the UK that it was organised. The intention of this event was the familiarise people about the on-ground and in-air BA experience, considering India is one of the 3 biggest markets for BA globally. I popped in yesterday to see the show myself, and I was pleasantly surprised at the magnificence of the event. See, I’ve loved BA from the time I visited their headquarters a couple of years back, and that was the airline that introduced me to the Champagne Taittinger, something I still look forward to when transiting London at the BA Terminal 5 Lounge. And it was the free flowing beverage of…
Air India offering 1000 miles for opening new frequent flyer account
Air India’s Flying Returns might be turning into an important program to look up again because of their recent in-principle acceptance in the Star Alliance, and the ability to earn these miles with credit cards as well now. For those of you who do not have an Air India Flying Returns account, this might be a good time to start-up on one. Air India has been offering 1,000 miles towards opening a new account for a while. All that it requires of you to be doing, is to go to this link, and generate a new account for yourself. Miles will post on taking the first flight. Related Posts: Air India finally gets invited into Star Alliance Credit Card Review:…
Get Rs. 75 Cashback on booking an OlaCab
OlaCabs is offering a cashback opportunity via Cashkaro.com, where all you need to do is book your OlaCabs for Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai or Bangalore via their website and click through to the Ola Cabs website. This is an easy way of saving some of the costs of travelling with an OlaCabs provided taxi. All you have to do is go to Cashkaro.com, register, and then look up Ola Cabs on the website. After you have selected Ola Cabs, just click through the website to go to the Olacabs website. Your cashback tracks within 48 hours usually, and you get paid within 3 months usually. Not bad for the regular users I say. If you are a first time Olacab…
Uber launches in Hyderabad, get 2 free rides!
Uber has been finding its way around India pretty quickly. In September, Uber launched in Bangalore, its first Indian city. In October, they launched in Delhi, and now they’ve launched in Hyderabad. To me, pricing comes across as very reasonable across these cities. Take a look: Bangalore New Delhi Hyderabad Hyderabad is at a SecretUber stage at this moment, which means a few limos on the road and Uber is ironing out the issues. I’ve worked with Uber in the past to be able to offer you all two free rides this year on Uber in India. You could still try out this promocode BOARDINGAREA till December 31, 2013 on a new account and you can get…
Air India finally gets invited into Star Alliance
It has been a nerve-wracking journey for Air India, but they finally made it. Okay, inspirational speech over. Now time for the real thing. Back in 2007, Air India was invited to join the Star Alliance, with Lufthansa sponsoring its entry. The Government of India practically dropped their pants to make concessions for Lufthansa group to get Air India into the alliance. And then, in July 2011, at the last minute, Air India’s entry into the Star Alliance was put on hold. Ever since then, there has been push and shove, and Jet Airways was also invited to join the alliance. In the backdrop, Air India kept pursuing the alliance again and again. Star Alliance may have been forced to…
Is Indigo offering 72% of their seats on pay for seat selection?
I travel Indigo on and off, and my airline-neutral parents don’t mind travelling on them since their choices are dictated by convenience of time and pricing. I must admit we haven’t given much business to Indigo this year. However, checking them in on a flight on Indigo now, I discovered some anomalies with the recently prescribed unbundling norms of the DGCA. The DGCA has clearly prescribed norms for charging for premium seats which they brought out in 2013. You can look at the PDF here. When they initially notified unbundling, Indigo would ask you for INR 200 for a window/aisle seat, INR 500 for a premium seat (Row 1,2,3, emergency exit), and Rs. 100 for all other seats to be…
Jet Airways 10% off on all international flights till 8th December
Jet Airways has been frequently running fare sales of late, however this one is an unconditional one and hence I put it up here. There is a 10% off on all fares for international travel on any route for JetPrivilege members for today and tomorrow (i.e. 7 & 8 December 2013). These discounts are valid for travel from 20 January 2014 onwards, and on business as well as economy fares. For once, the discount is also clearly marked on the website. For instance this is a random date in January for BOM-BRU-BOM travel while I am logged into my JP account. The fare shows a discount. When I am not logged into my JetPrivilege account, it shows a full fare.…
Citi PremierMiles 50% transfer bonus to Hilton HHonors till December ‘13
Citibank is on a roll with transfer bonuses over the past couple of days it seems. After signing up new transfer partners in IHG Rewards Club, Hilton HHonors, Taj Inner Circle, Malaysia Airlines & Eva Air last month, they are now running a transfer bonus with Singapore Airlines. And now, they are running another transfer bonus with their new partner Hilton HHonors. This time around, if you transfer 10,000 PremierMiles, which convert into 15,000 Hilton HHonors points (due to the 1PM=1.5 HHonors conversion rate), you get an added bonus of 5,000 HHonors points as well. There are no limits to the amount of PremierMiles you can transfer under this promotion and the amount of extra 5,000 HHonors points you can…
