Been off the grid for a short while, sorry folks! I just decided to take off to the USA for a last minute trip/mileage run and be here for a bit of the holiday season. And in the prelude to taking off from work, there is also the need to close out lot of things before going away. I’m writing this post from a hotel room in Los Angeles. And I have been here all of about 12 hours now in the city, but the interesting bit is, I left from my home 2.5 days back. So, it took approximately 28 hours of flying and 20 hours in transit, layovers, and whatever else to get here! Is this the correct…
Citibank Ultima & Jet Airways parting ways
Things are going sour very fast between Jet Airways and Citibank. Earlier in May 2012, they parted ways on the Jet Airways/Citibank credit card and things have never been the same again between the two. Jet Airways ended up partnering with 3 banks to counter their earlier partner Citibank: HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank & American Express. However, the statement at that point of time was that Citibank Ultima – the super premium luxury card product from Citibank, was not going to be affected with this turn of events. Ultima is an invite-only product, and one of the benefits of the product is that it comes with Jet Privilege Platinum tier membership, a heapload of Jet Airways miles and vouchers. Turns…
Double Miles on JetPrivilege for Hyatt hotels in India & Southeast Asia
Jet Airways is one of the 3 airlines which is running a local tieup with Hyatt for a stay-based promotion valid till February 28, 2013 (it started on December 1, 2012). You need to use promotion code SWADBL while making the room reservation and you will be able to earn 1,000 JP Miles instead of the usual 500 JP Miles earned on your reservation. Here are the participating properties from India: Hyatt Regency Chennai Park Hyatt Chennai Hyatt Regency Delhi Grand Hyatt Goa Park Hyatt Goa Park Hyatt Hyderabad Hyatt Regency Kolkata Hyatt Regency Mumbai Grand Hyatt Mumbai Hyatt Regency Pune. Here are the other properties participating in the promotion: Hyatt Capital Gate, Abu Dhabi Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Resort…
Is phone booking the new way to avoid credit card convenience fee on Spicejet?
I’m slightly foxed and I have no answers since last evening so I am crowdsourcing this one to ask and tell if my assumption is true or is this just fluke. Last evening I was trying to book a flight for my brother on one of his upcoming trips. We picked a flight, and decided to go with SpiceJet since that worked best for his schedule at that point of time. Here is what the fare looked like online. Of course, what they were not showing here was the convenience fee of Rs. 125 which is now another tack for all credit card fees being passed on to customers, which would have made the total cost of this ticket to…
Reminder: 1 week for bonus miles with Jet Airways Amex
A quick reminder for those of you who are planning to take up the new co-branded card Jet Airways launched with American Express 2 weeks back. American Express and Jet Airways are offering the new shiny plastic for a fee of Rs. 10,000 per annum plus taxes, and you get a welcome bonus of 20,000 JP Miles. In case you make an application before December 25 this year, you also get another 10,000 JP Miles as well. American Express has clarified that Platinum JP members and winners of the “Wheel of Fortune” contest will get the card free of cost, however, in case they choose not to pay a fee (i.e., get it complimentary), they will not receive the welcome…
Jet Airways deal with Etihad Airways
News of a strategic partnership between the airlines has been discussed since September 2012, and of late the news is hitting the peak, also helping the stock price of the listed entity Jet Airways in the meanwhile. While there was a lot of discussion earlier in the past week that grounded carrier Kingfisher was taking away the funding cake from Etihad, with the lollipop of handing out operational control to Etihad (along with a 46-49% equity stake), Kingfisher categorically denied the news. However, the board of Kingfisher airlines met last week as well, to limit investments by institutional investors to create space for an airline to take stake in it. Remember, time is running out for KFA who may have…
Indigo starts going into losses too?
Indigo, the 6-year old low-fare carrier, which became the largest Indian domestic airline, a very professional and cool one at that, and the only profitable Indian airline might be slipping up as well. It seems their dream run seems to be finally coming to an end. As per a newsreport published in the Economic Times today, Indigo has lost the plot. India’s civil aviation minister, in an address in the Indian Parliament, states that the airline made a nominal loss of Rs. 88 Crores ($15 million) in the period April 2011-March 2012. In the preceding periods of 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11, the airline made a profit of Rs. 18 Crores ($3 million), Rs. 447 Crores ($80 million), Rs. 603 Crores…
Jet Airways brings in new Business class on their new Airbus 330-300s
Jet Airways, earlier this week took delivery the first of its 4 new Airbus 330-300s (VT-JWR) which are on order, and are scheduled to join the fleet over the coming months. Coming up next later this month is VT-JWS. The first two planes will replace Airbus 330-200s which are being returned to their lessors, and the next two will add to the capacity of Jet Airways on the international network, perhaps on their new routes out of Bangalore, or wherever else. The new A333s are a step-up on the A332s on capacity, and will contain 259 Y seats, and 34 J seats, as compared to 190 Y seats on the earlier A332s, and 30 J seats in the herringbone configuration.…
Club Carlson offers complimentary status to JetPrivilege members
Jet Airways, in a tie-up with Club Carlson, the loyalty program of the owner & operator of the Radisson, Radisson Blu, Park Inn, Country Inn & Park Plaza brands, has a new enrolment offer for Jet Airways’ JetPrivilege Members for fast track status with Radisson, valid upto 31 March 2013. For Platinum & Gold Members of the JetPrivilege Program, the status offered is Gold Elite, and for Silver & BluePlus members, the status offered is Silver Elite, and status will be valid upto February 28, 2014. While usually it takes 15 Nights/10 Stays per year to get the Silver Elite status and 35 Nights/20 Stays per year to get Gold Elite status, using these links, you can enrol for a…
India makes visa policies easier for tourists
A couple of years back, India made a big change to its visa policies for tourists for additional security measures. There was some abuse found of the tourist visa, with unscrupulous visitors making multiple trips. Policy was changed to not allow tourist visa holders back into the country within 2 months of making their last visit. Unfortunately, the policy did lead to a drop in tourist traffic to India, and now there is a rollback. Last week, India changed the policy to allow visitors to the country to travel on the same multiple entry tourist visa multiple times without a 2-month gap between their visits. Which means, if you wanted to make a landing in India and go around the…
Citibank PremierMiles revises lounge access benefits
I’ve been a big fan of the Citibank PremierMiles credit card, ever since it landed in my wallet almost a year back now. However, the product features have been changing and I’m not exactly impressed by all of them. Overnight, there is a reduction in the lounge access policy, which quietly underwent a change. A reader Gagan pointed this out to me in the comments, and got me to have a look. While the MasterCard version did not have too many lounges to start with, on the Visa network, there were a lot of lounges in India and outside India to go for. However, I cannot blame, but thank Citi for having keeping the lounge access alive. This is because,…
