Back in July, Starbucks was giving out FlightTrack Pro as its App of the Week complimentary in their North American stores, something which is usually $9.99 to buy. A reader Jagadish Gandhi was kind enough to send over a stack of codes to me yesterday, and I am sharing these with you. The only thing you need to remember, is that these work only if you’re in the US App Store. Here are the codes: W7P4WFNXTW6W AHN9F73KNJA7 RFJ366K3HJL9 FLHYLKNX3P73 FEK6F3FE67Y3 6PN63JEE3TJJ WXX33YXNLP3R Please feel free to send me along some more codes if you have any, and I’ll be happy to post them here. And if you are able to use one of the code, please let everyone know via…
Singapore Airlines & Tata join hands to launch an airline in India
I was travelling all day yesterday and hence could not bring you the good news! The Tata conglomerate, some of whose family members have been really passionate about aviation, put their hat back in the Indian aviation game earlier this year. First, they signed up to be a 30% shareholder in Air Asia India, which plans to launch a low cost airline in India by early 2014. And just yesterday, a new press release from the Tata group announced that they have signed up to make a 51:49 joint venture with Singapore Airlines, which will aim to launch a full-service airline in India with an initial investment of $100 million. While I am totally surprised by the move to cover…
Instant Hilton HHonors Silver & Gold after 4 stays
There is a new link which is available for Hilton members to sign up, which gives members HHonors Silver status instantaneously, and HHonors Gold status after just four stays within 90 days. Status availed is valid till March 2015. You can use this link here, and get instant upgrade to Silver status. On upgrade to Silver status you get the following benefits: 15% HHonors bonus points 5th Night free on standard room rewards of 5 nights or more Complimentary access to health club Complimentary water On becoming Gold, you get the following additional benefits: 25% HHonors bonus points Complimentary internet You also get eligible for breakfast & upgrade benefits You can find out the details of HHonors benefits here by…
Air India offered oneworld invitation by Qatar Airways?
This is just a news report at this moment, but it looks like Air India has grown tired of insisting upon Star Alliance to let them into their group, and is now using other tactics to try and get them to make up their mind. Air India’s application to join Star Alliance was put on hold at the last moment in July 2011. As per this news publication, Qatar Airways is ready to sponsor the entry of Air India into oneworld. What beats me, is that they aren’t even a full member themselves yet (will be inducted on October 30), but they’re going around promising airlines their support for membership. A senior Air India official said that Qatar had approached…
Jet Airways to move hub to Abu Dhabi after effecting the alliance with Etihad
With rapid progress being made on the Jet Airways equity alliance with Etihad Airways (the deal is expected to go through by September 30), details have begin to emerge about the commercial cooperation between 9W and EY. The fear of this being just one-sided and everyone travelling on EY metal after changing planes at Abu Dhabi seem to be unfounded. Here are some pointers into the game plan which will emerge going forward: Jet Airways will develop Abu Dhabi as an exclusive hub for flights to North America, South America, Africa and the UAE. Jet Airways will have to route its services to Dubai & Sharjah via Abu Dhabi when it becomes economically viable. However, it seems exceptions can be…
American Express Gold Charge Card changing Membership Reward points earning
It seems there is quite some amount of rework happening with the American Express Gold Charge Card offered in India. The card was being offered for free for the first year, and a fee of Rs. 4,500 (plus taxes) from the second year onwards. One of the key benefits of the card was the ability to earn a 1000 Membership Rewards points bonus by just making 4 transactions for Rs. 250 each per month. However, quite some things seem to have changed now. First, the card does not come free for the first year, but for a fee of Rs. 2,500 (plus taxes). And secondly, the feature to get 1000 bonus points after 4 uses of the card in a…
How am I supposed to keep up with some lousy Hilton HHonors service?
I’m kind of beginning to wonder what exactly happens at the backend of HHonors which sometimes makes it so lousy. Regular readers would remember that I had a disappointing experience with the Hilton Shillim a couple of months back, and the hotel’s General Manager offered to refund the points & money for the stay. Now, while the credit card reversals did happen in due course of time, I’m quite surprised that the credit back of HHonors points has not, in spite of the fact that the reversal was supposed to take only 30 business days after the order was placed. I’ve written several reminders to the Hilton team at the hotel, and thereafter I also tweeted HHonors about 10 days…
Qatar Airways to be part of oneworld from October 30
The oneworld alliance has just put out an announcement on their website, which indicates that Qatar Airways will become a full member of the alliance with effect from October 30, 3013. The announcement reads: Qatar Airways will become a full member of oneworld® with effect from Wednesday 30 October 2013, adding one of the world’s fastest growing and most highly rated airlines to the world’s leading quality airline alliance. One of just seven carriers worldwide rated five-star by the Skytrax airline quality agency and the organisation’s Airline of the Year 2011 and 2012 and runner-up 2013, Qatar Airways is the only one of the “Gulf Big Three” carriers slated to join any of the global airline alliances. It received clearance…
Shangri La no more in Mumbai
I’d heard about this piece of news last month and then it even turned up in the press, but I am still surprised that Shangri La, who was operating a property on top of the luxurious Palladium mall in Mumbai, has moved out of the management contract only 9 months after getting the property up and running. The website of the Shangri La hotel had this notice a few days ago: As of September 2013, Shangri-La hotels and Resorts will no longer manage Shangri-La Hotel Mumbai And as of this morning, the hotel was gone from the Shangri-La website. And last night, while driving by, I did notice that the hotel had renamed itself to the Palladium hotel. The hotel…
250-10,000 JP Miles for a financial planning session
Between 1 September 2013 to 31 October 2013, JetPrivilege is offering 250 JP miles for a 15 minute financial planning session with Aegon Religare Life Insurance. Also, 1 lucky winner every month gets to win 10,000 JP miles as well. Now, there is no obligation to buy insurance, but I’m sure you’d be getting followed up for one sooner than later. If you think this is worth the chance to win 10,000 JP Miles, feel free to participate by leaving your details here. You can schedule multiple meetings,but you’re only getting the 250 JP Miles only once. This tie-up is valid for the following cities: Mumbai Delhi Bangalore Hyderabad Chennai Kolkata Ahmedabad Lucknow Chandigarh Pune Related Posts: JP Miles to…
Air India launches a revamped website (?)
Air India has launched a good-looking website just yesterday, which seems to be a huge step-up from their previous effort which looked totally unprofessional to me. Like is the usual, their two emblems are right there: the swan logo and the Maharaja, who is their mascot. And while all this make over looked nice, when you go to make a reservation or try logging into the frequent flyer program, you’d notice that things are still the same, because that is powered by SITA and hosted externally. Let me know how do you feel about the new Air India website in the comments section. Related Posts: Show Air India some Facebook love A visit inside the relics of Air India Live…
