Reader Abdullah posted a question on the Reader’s Questions page which I thought was more appropriate to answer here since every once in a way I receive queries on Jet Airways upgrades. Here is a quick Q&A explanation: Question: I keep visiting your page as i am too a FF of Jet Airways, though its mostly domestic flights. I need some advice, i have these upgrade vouchers to business class around 6 of them and my status is Gold card holder of jet airways. Whenever i fly i look for best fares but then these best fares dont allow a upgrade to business class. How can i use these vouchers? 1 of this voucher expires april 30 next month. I…
Guest Post: Bidding adieu to The King of Good Times on Kingfisher’s final Dubai flight
Kingfisher Airlines has received many a good word from their frequent flyers, and almost all of them feel sad that the airline is progressively going down. I invited Arun Rajagopal, a Kingfisher loyalist based in the UAE to write a trip report on Kingfisher’s final flight to Dubai when I heard the airline was shutting down international operations. Turning over the mike to him without further delay… I’m a loyal customer of India’s Kingfisher Airlines. I first flew Kingfisher in Jan 2011 but since then I have flown them 15 times. I fly them as much as possible. I often pay a premium to fly them even when I have cheaper or non-stop flights available. I even recommend it to…
moneylife: My column on the best use for Kingfisher miles
I recently wrote a column in moneylife on how to make use of the Kingfisher miles you have, which is now available on their website. Check out my column here! Do take note that things change with Kingfisher everyday, so ping me back if you need current information you may not see there! You can look up the previous columns here! Live From A Lounge is also present on Facebook, Twitter and available via RSS.
Jet Airways offers 20% off on reward redemptions till Sep 30,12
A couple of days back I wrote about the new benefits that Jet Airways was going to announce in the JetPrivilege program, and the official mailer went out last night to most members on the new program benefits. Most of the benefits are in line with the benefits I highlighted a couple of days back, except that the Priority Baggage Tagging benefit for Silver members was not there when the final mailer went out to members. In one stroke, from being a not-so-generous program for domestic flyers, it has become a good program to earn miles while flying across India, considering earlier you could only earn a paltry 142 miles on a BOM-DEL flight if you booked into the lowest…
SPG reneges on the $20 upgrade offer in Asia-Pacific.
A couple of days I wrote about the SPG offer in the Asia-Pacific, where the promotional mailer and the website stated that if you booked by March 31, 2012, you could get an upgraded room for $20 over the ‘standard rates’. As the offer is made out to be, it just needs to be prepaid. However, when I tried comparing, all I could come up with was 60-80$ upgrade offers, no less. The Loyalty Traveler had a similar experience with this promo. I wrote to SPG to bring this aberration to their notice, and here is what I heard back a while back: Here is the response I received today: I immediately contested this: To which SPG responded with finality:…
Jet Airways revamps JetPrivilege program (in a good way!), adds benefits across the board!
I’ve dried enough ink criticizing the Jet Airway’s Jet Privilege program, with the constant devaluation that has been going on for the past few months. First, they sized down the benefits from the Jet Airways Citibank Credit Card (forcing me to move out of the card), then the lounge access was pruned. Some Jet-lovers, including yours truly, saw it coming and petitioned Jet to rethink their strategy w.r.t. JetPrivilege again. However, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel seems to have arrived yesterday when some new benefits of the JetPrivilege program went up on the website. I’m sure we will hear more of it in the days to come, but right now Jet Airways seems to have aligned…
New discounts with Spicejet for booking and travel till April 16
Recently, I wrote about a deal-of-the-day promotion which was being put out by Indian domestic low-cost carrier Spicejet. The promotion got over recently, and to replace it, Spicejet brought out a new promotion called My Number My Discount, where your cellphone number gets you discounts on your tickets booked on the carrier. Here is how it works: Select the cities you want to fly between, select your flight, and confirm your travel details. On the Contact page, fill in all the relevant personal details including your 10 digit mobile number. If your flight selection matches the list of flights on which this offer is valid, you will be eligible for the daily discount. The discount will be revealed only on…
$20 upgrades at SPG properties across AsiaPac (Book by 3/31, use by 12/31)–Works or not?
If you’re looking to visit any of the Asian countries in 2012, SPG has been offering a promotion valid till March 31, 2012. The chain is offering a 20$ upgrade on publicly available best available rates to Club Rooms, Suites and Villas on the use of promo-code: DALYUP. Here is a link to the promotion from Starwood Asia Pacific. What do you get? An upgraded room as per the category you choose, access to the club lounge, which also means free complimentary breakfast and evening hors d’oeuveres. Essentially, an upgrade which would usually be offered to the platinum elites of SPG, and sometimes, depending on the hotel front-desk, to the Gold elites as well. How does it work? If you…
SPG offers 1000 bonus Starpoints for staying at newly-renovated hotels in the USA
I love SPG’s Starpoints. Who doesn’t? And SPG just decided to give away some more of those with all your stays at 25 recently renovated properties in the USA and Canada via this new promotion Simply stay from March 20, 2012 to June 30, 2012 at these participating properties to get 1000 bonus Starpoints per stay: CANADA British Columbia Four Points by Sheraton Kamloops Ontario Four Points by Sheraton Toronto Mississauga UNITED STATES Arizona The Phoenician, Scottsdale California Sheraton Delfina Santa Monica Hotel The Westin Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, Los Angeles Colorado The St. Regis Aspen Resort Florida Four Points by Sheraton Orlando Studio City Sheraton Lake Buena Vista Resort Hawaii Sheraton Kauai Resort Illinois…
moneylife: My new column on Air India’s 787s
This week, I wrote a column in moneylife on my views on how Air India is (not) going to make the best use of the Boeing 787 planes that are lined up for delivery to them. Check out my column here! You can look up the previous columns here! Live From A Lounge is also present on Facebook, Twitter and available via RSS.
Jet Airways consolidates brands, JetLite is now JetKonnect
Recap: The wisdom behind Jet Airways’ 3 airline brands lies in the 2009 period when air travel went down with the downturn. Jet Airways (9W) was always a full-service carrier on the domestic and international traffic out of India. JetLite (S2) was called Air Sahara, till 2007 when Jet Airways bought it out and converted it into a low-fare carrier (branded JetLite). Jet Airways always wanted to integrate both the carriers, except that there was a tax liability which hasn’t been settled 7 years down the line, and hence S2 has not been folded into the main carrier 9W. Jet Konnect was the new brand from Jet Airways, which was launched in 2009. Jet Airways wanted to create a temporary…
