Lufthansa had a partnership with IndusInd Bank for the Miles & More co-branded credit card, something they got as a legacy of IndusInd inheriting Deutsche Bank’s credit card portfolio in India. However, this partnership is coming to an end on 30th June 2013, as per a new notice put out on IndusInd website. Like I mentioned above, the new partnership for the LH Miles & More credit card is materialising with Axis Bank. As an outcome of this, if you don’t switch to the new credit cards, your earlier earned miles on the IndusInd M&M cards start expiring. Axis is bringing out their M&M card in two variants, the M&M World Select & the M&M World card. The Select variant…
Amex releases a rather small list of partners for their Jet co-branded CC
American Express’ recently launched co-branded credit card with Jet Airways, has a few new benefits from the Platinum tier of American Express, such as the Platinum Concierge service and access to the American Express Platinum Lounge in Mumbai and Delhi Airports. However, one benefit of the Amex Platinum card which was not offered initially is the about 300 long list of 10x partners. These are places where you could get a nice boatload of MR points. This used to be a feature of their Kingfisher First Platinum Credit Card which was recently withdrawn. Now, however, a very very small list (PDF) has just popped up on the American Express website for upto 20 JP Miles/ Rs. 100 spent. I really…
I seem to have found the root cause of Air India’s frequent flyer mess
Yesterday, I wrote about how disappointed I was with the Air India frequent flyer program. It did not stop there. I went about doing some digging into the whole affair. Air India has outsourced the entire management of their frequent flyer program to a South African loyalty management company called LoyaltyPlus, to the extent that the program is hosted on external servers and not Air India’s own. Now, I assume here that a loyalty solutions company helps draw up a program and run the program and would be very involved with the on-going affairs at Flying Returns. So, I decided to have a look at their roster of clients, and it turned out that I could not find one top-notch…
A Grand Giveaway of free AwardWallet Accounts
Literally! A frequent question asked always is how to keep track of your multiple accounts which one has over multiple frequent flyer and loyalty programs. There are tonnes of options out there, but I usually go with AwardWallet, which is perhaps one of the best products out there. I first flirted with MileageManager for a year, paying the $15 fee, but updates were not as dynamic as I expected and not all the programs I worked with or was a part of, were included. I then discovered AwardWallet after this, which is quite the king of the miles & points tracking websites for me. Some of the top reasons for using it: It allows me to track the mileage balance…
Is Air India Flying Returns the most miser frequent flying program?
Last year, I spent some time investigating the Air India frequent flyer program “Flying Returns”. At that point of time, I kind of started to appreciate the program a bit, because they finally had some structure to it, and they have much better availability over other Indian airlines. Earlier, the tier hurdles were not clear and no one had a clue as to who got their top tier and who did not. Seemed like in the process of getting ready for Star Alliance membership, they came up with a process because they needed to. However, this post on FlyerTalk seems to have raised a few valid pointers about how the program still sucks, and in my own personal experience, that…
PremierMiles adds GoIbibo.com as earn/burn partner
Citibank PremierMiles has been working quietly behind the scenes on getting the product to be competitive. They frequently add earn & burn partners who offer 10 PremierMiles per Rs. 100, instead of the normal 4 PremierMiles per Rs. 100 that all non-airline transactions earn. As a part of this, the newest 10 PremierMiles / Rs. 100 to be added is GoIbibo.com, an online travel agent which has signed up to be giving away 10 PremierMiles for every Rs. 100 spent on their website towards airline bookings, hotel bookings, bus tickets & hotel packages. As a part of this tie-up, all reservations made via GoIbibo will automatically be credited with 10 Citi PremierMiles in the same billing cycle. However, the promotion…
Review: Jet Airways Lounge, Brussels
Introduction Check-in: Clipper Lounge, Terminal 2, Mumbai Airborne: Flight 9W228 (BOM-BRU), Jet Airways, Premiere (A332) Hotel Manhattan, Rotterdam Hotel Sheraton Brussels Airport, Brussels Check-in: Jet Airways Lounge, Brussels Airborne: Flight 9W227 (BRU-BOM), Jet Airways, Premiere (A333) Like I mentioned in the earlier post of this trip-report, I was intending to rush it in the morning to beat the long queues that tend to form up at the Brussels airport counters of Jet Airways. Even as an elite, you can be waiting for a while because all the counters would be full. Having made it early, I walked up to a bank of empty Jet Airways counters, which was the first time in years I’d seen it like this. I walked…
Bye Bye Air Mantra?
Air Mantra, a regional carrier in India, which was launched last July using Beechcraft airplanes, seems to have ‘suspended’ bookings and not operating their flights. I was, a few days back, thinking of taking a joyride on one of their planes, and hopped on to their website to check fares. The fare search did not turn up anything, so I thought it was an annoying website or just an annoying Internet connection and moved on. However, today the press reports, Religare group-promoted Air Mantra has suspended operations and stopped taking bookings, citing technical reasons. I tried again, and the website still did not show any tricks to help make a reservation. On checking the flight operation details for yesterday, it…
Air India advised to axe in-flight meals
Another zillionth committee was set up by the Government of India to see how costs could be controlled in its pet loss-making project Air India. And predictably, they have come back with the same recommendations which are the low-hanging fruits for any airline to save costs, Unbundle. Something that competitor Jet Airways has made noises for a long time about but hasn’t gone ahead with so far. According to the press, Air India will likely have to follow the Low Cost Carrier model, without having to shed its full-service tag to survive. Obviously, the first suggestion, right there on the top, is to axe in-flight meals. It has been recommended that only tea, coffee, cold drinks, peanuts and biscuits be…
Review: Hotel Sheraton Brussels Airport
Introduction Check-in: Clipper Lounge, Terminal 2, Mumbai Airborne: Flight 9W228 (BOM-BRU), Jet Airways, Premiere (A332) Hotel Manhattan, Rotterdam Hotel Sheraton Brussels Airport, Brussels Check-in: Jet Airways Lounge, Brussels Airborne: Flight 9W227 (BRU-BOM), Jet Airways, Premiere (A333) After my few days in Rotterdam, I headed back to Brussels on the train network. Luckily, I was only making one stop transfer this time around, and made it to Antwerp with 20 minutes to spare before I was going to get to my train to the Brussels National airport. This was good enough time to catch a helping of Fritters, which is something I make it a point to have when transiting via BRU and staying overnight. There are various hotel options…
Is this how flight dreams break on a middle seat?
Sigh, and sorry for the cheesy title if it looked like one. I’m resurfacing from about 40 hours of hibernation now that I am in Delhi and I landed here for being with family over the long weekend. I was flying in the afternoon, since I needed to be in Delhi by the evening, and I had run a quick day at work, because I needed to firm up some things at office rather than work from home. Missed lunch in the hullabaloo that ensued, and arrived at the airport early. Still, my time management sucked, since I wanted to try out two new lounges at the Mumbai Airport for you guys, and I only had time for one now.…
