As a part of the switch to the domestic schedule from 26th March onwards, Air India has made the following changes to its schedule and capacities: Added 3 new flights: Delhi – Bahrain – Delhi Visakhapatnam – Dubai – Visakhapatnam Hyderabad – Kolkata – Hyderabad In addition, services on the following routes have been increased: Delhi – Tokyo – Delhi : From 4x to 5x per week Delhi – Dammam – Delhi : From 2x per week to 7x flights Delhi – Riyadh – Delhi : From 2x per week to 3x per week Mumbai – Cochin – Mumbai : From 1x daily flight to 2x daily flights And while it was upto it, it upgraded its equipment on a…
Birdwatch: Photo # 6 (Thai Airways)
Reader Sonal Gaurav sends in this picture of the Boeing 777-200ER parked at the Kuala Lampur International Airport. In the background you get to see the Malaysia Airlines B747 as well! Thank you Sonal Airline: Thai Airways Location: Kuala Lampur International Airport Airframe: Boeing 777-2D7 / HS-TJE If you want to share a picture of a plane, an airport, or anything aviation related, please send it across to aj@livefromalounge.com with the details and I’ll put it up here. Thank you! Live From A Lounge is also present on Facebook, Twitter and available via RSS. 0 5share1share6
Holidaying in India? Taj offers Early Bird rates [Book by 15-Apr, stay by 30-Sep]
The Taj group of hotels, owners of some of the most iconic hotels such as the Taj Mahal Palace Mumbai and Taj Falaknuma Palace Hyderabad, has brought out a new vacation promo at some of their properties at tourist hotspots in Kerala and Rajasthan. Wrapped under the Taj Holidays brand, it offers a package for stays and meals at some of their off-beat properties. The promo, available for a single- or a double-occupancy stay offers 2 nights of stay, breakfast + 1 day meal and a 20% discount on F&B across the properties participating in the offer (taxes inclusive). You can extend the stay on a pro-rata basis and the weekday/weekend rates offered are the same. None of the palace…
moneylife: My column on Opaque Fares
This week, I wrote up my views on Opaque Fares being offered recently in the Indian market recently, and you can read it here! You can look up the previous columns here! Live From A Lounge is also present on Facebook, Twitter and available via RSS.
JetPrivilege 20% discount on redemption pulled for international sectors
If I earned 1$ for everytime I picked up a mistake Jet Airways makes, I’d be a millionaire by now. A few days ago I wrote about the very generous Jet Airways redemption offer where all redemptions on Jet Airways metal, made online, were going to be priced at a 20% discount on miles. This offer was made to tie-in with the recent enhancements of the Jet Airways JetPrivilege program. As a part of the offer, all JetPrivilege redemptions made using the website jetairways.com would attract the discount. The offer page as well does not limit the benefit only to domestic flights (see screenshots below): For the first few days you could book tickets to go on international sectors with…
Video: The Boeing 787 Dreamliner test program
“If its not Boeing, I’m not going” is the common adage you learn while you’re in the Washington state of USA, and it gets louder the closer you get to Seattle. I’ve been a great fan of Boeing airplanes for a very long time and hence keenly looking over the various phases of the B787’s development. I recently discovered a video that Boeing uploaded a few days back, encapsulating the various tests the Boeing 787 airplane went through to get the new plane certified and upto safetry standards. Turn up the volume, get the popcorn, at 11:32, this is a mini-movie in itself. All of it is fascinating, some more than the others at 4:20 where you get to see the high-speed…
Readers Question: Using Jet Airways upgrade vouchers
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:…
