The Jet Airways alliance with Etihad is quietly taking shape, with Jet Airways & Etihad awaiting approval from the Indian Government to take the deal forward. Jet Airways has already restructured its equity capital to be ready for the Etihad investment for 24% equity stake. The cooperation between the two airlines is already beginning to take shape, however. Jet Airways has asked for newer codeshare arrangements, to market Etihad flights to European cities such as Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Milan, Geneva, Istanbul and Dublin. They have also sought permission to codeshare on flights to Nairobi, Johannesburg and cities in the USA. On the other hand, however, Etihad is gunning for top management changes to make sure Jet Airways is fit and…
Hilton plans to scrap room service
Room service has been synonymous with full service hotels for the longest time. However, it seems the paradigm will change soon, at least that is the Hilton’s plan for the summers. As per a Reuters report, Hilton CEO stated at a hospitality conference today, that the 2000-key full-service Hilton New York Midtown will scrap away room service this summer, and instead open an onsite eatery which will offer gourmet take-out. I expect this to be a pilot for such an effort, because Hilton is not planning to roll out the change at its other properties just yet. Other hotels, such as the Marriott chain also have no intentions of eliminating room service for the time being. I guess this move…
Something New: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Delhi Terminal 3
Introduction Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Mumbai Terminal 1A Airborne: Flight AI 660 (BOM-DEL), Air India, Economy Class Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Delhi Terminal 3 Airborne: Flight AI 657 (DEL-BOM), Air India, Executive Class After a leisurely few days in Delhi, it was time to go back to Mumbai. I’m usually trying to look away from early morning flights, because I do my fair share on work travel, but this time, I was a little bit greedy to spend some more time at home with the family, so I booked up an early morning flight back. I arrived at the airport in good time, and proceeded to the Air India counters to collect my boarding pass at Terminal 3.…
Reminder: PremierMiles website undergoing maintenance June 2-4
A quick reminder for those of you who maybe did not read this post before. Citibank will be performing maintenance on the PremierMiles website from Sunday June 2, 2013 0000 IST to June 4, 2013 2359 IST. This means, for the 72 hours period you will not see the website live and won’t be able to make any travel bookings, redemptions or cancellations to your existing reservations. What is really happening at the backend, common sense says, is a switch of vendor who powered the ticketing (Cleartrip). There may be more changes but I don’t know about these yet. Anyhow, if you are a Citibank PremierMiles user, and you want to be making any travel reservations or changes to existing…
Review: Flight AI 660 (BOM-DEL), Air India, Economy
Introduction Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Mumbai Terminal 1A Airborne: Flight AI 660 (BOM-DEL), Air India, Economy Class Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Delhi Terminal 3 Airborne: Flight AI 657 (DEL-BOM), Air India, Executive Class After an enjoyable experience in the Altitude Lounge at Mumbai, it was time to board my first Air India domestic flight in months. I’d picked to fly an Airbus 321, because these are the newer planes for Air India on the domestic segments, and I guess they use these on the regional segments as well. I’d pre-blocked my seats for months, as the Air India web-booking system allows you to do so. I suspect this would change after the unbundling guidelines coming into effect, and…
Summer Flights Giveaway worth INR 4,500 for Citibank Premiermiles members
A generous reader, Priyansh Modi, contacted me this afternoon with two very valuable Citibank PremierMiles Complimentary Ticket codes. Another reader, Vinay Deshpande, contributed one. They are not planning to use them this summer, so I thought what better than help someone else travel for their summer vacation. So, this is a very quick giveaway, valid one night only, so that tomorrow evening, I can email the codes to the winner and he/she can book up the tickets by the day after. I will draw randomly using random.org from all the qualified entries to pick a winner. The Prize: (1) Win 2 PremierMiles base-fare discount vouchers worth INR 1,500 each, (2) Win 1 PremierMiles base-fare discount voucher worth INR 1,500. Details: If you are…
Show Air India some Facebook love
Air India has been one of those airlines, which has never had social media presence before. Taking advantage of this, multiple lookalikes have sprung up on Twitter and Facebook. But looks like they’re upto getting their act together now, so if you’re interested, do like them on their official Facebook page which seems to be growing fast. I came by for the first time when it was only a few 100 likes old, and here and now it was 36K likes when I returned. They promise a response Monday – Friday 10 to 5 IST. Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.
Is Jet Airways in-flight catering getting better again?
It is no secret that I have not been impressed by Jet Airways’ consistently falling quality of meals over the years. In my experience, the quantity and quality had been going down, as I described here, first in 2011. Then, last year, on an international (regional) dinner flight, all I got for dinner on the plane was a plate of rice. Though, early 2013, I was noticing the eye for details returning. Now, I’m hearing recently, the domestic meal service is getting beefed-up, and this is the Facebook post of a friend who recently travelled on a domestic economy flight with them. There is exotic food on the plane (Thai, anyone?) and everyone gets ice creams, even in economy. I…
Winner: Jet Airways Luggage Tag
Earlier in the week, I announced a giveaway for one reader who’d share their best experience with Jet Airways, since it was a Jet Airways baggage tag. The following entries qualified as the entries which could take part in the contest: Comment # 3: Aniruddh S Comment # 4: Abhinav G Comment # 5: Yash R Patel Comment # 8: TheflyingSikh Comment # 9: Akshay Comment #14: Aditya Comment #15: Vikram So, I put Random.org to work, and pulled a result hoping it was one of the above digits. And it did, pick #14. Congrats Aditya, please send me a email with your mailing address at aj [at] livefromalounge [dot] com, and I’ll send your present along. Stay tuned for…
GoIbibo flash sale today offering discounts on Jet Airways/Air India (10-12 PM IST)!
Goibibo.com has a flash sale which will be starting up a 4PM India time, and will go on till midnight today (26 May 2013). During this timeframe, they will be doling out different discount codes for different airlines during the day. Here are the discounts being offered: 4-5 PM IST: Rs. 1000 off on GoAir, on a minimum booking value of Rs. 4000 (roughly 25% off), and tickets can be booked for any dates. The promocode for this one is GOS1000. [Over] 8-9 PM IST: Rs. 250 off on Indigo and SpiceJet on a minimum booking value of Rs. 4000. The promocode for this one is GOS250. [Over] 10-12 PM IST: Rs. 300 off on Air India, Jet Airways and Jet…
Few more hours for the Jet Airways luggage tag giveaway
Earlier this week, I’d put out a giveaway for Jet Airways silicon luggage tag, for one of the readers who could tell me about their memorable experiences with the airline. I just wanted to remind you all that there are still about 12 hours to go for the giveaway to close, so you could head here and put your answers in the comments section to be eligible. Remember, you have to tell me about your best travel experience with Jet Airways. And if you’re off topic, you are not qualifying. For everyone else, there are free AwardWallet accounts. Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.
