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…
A first look inside the Boeing 787 Dreamliner which will go to Air India
There has been a lot of talk and speculation on Air India and its fate with the Dreamliners, but looks like it is all falling into place now. Boeing made a massive publicity stint with bringing the 787 to India Aviation 2012, one painted in Air India livery and ready to be given to the airline once the certification is complete, and Air India and Boeing can settle the tussle over the compensation to be paid to AI for the delay. Yours truly was one of the few invited to have a peep inside, and I gladly took the short hop to Hyderabad to explore what AI and Boeing were cooking up together. The plane made a 14 hour flight…
The Virgin visits India, again…
About 3 years after Virgin Atlantic last flew out of Mumbai, its making a comeback. From 28th October 2012, Virgin Atlantic plans to offer an Airbus 330 service from between Mumbai and London Heathrow. The airline will fly from London in the morning at 10 AM and from Mumbai at 3 AM, thus following the same schedule as Jet Airways and British Airways offer on this city pair. The announcement popped up on the Virgin Atlantic website today, and reservations will be offered from 4th April 2012. Clearly, this decision must have been taken much before wannabe Richard Branson (Vijay Mallya’s) Kingfisher Airlines decided to pull out of the London market. There is a lot of traffic on this route,…
I’m off to Hyderabad for India Aviation 2012
Actually, I am already here in Hyderabad and typing this post via my iPhone. India Aviation is the bi-annual airshow organised in India, and is in its 3rd edition now. I really wanted to go, but I wasn’t sure thanks to multiple professional commitments which were not sorting themselves out. The airshow is on from 14 to 18 March 2012 in Hyderabad, but it made sense only to come in one of the days of today (15 March) or tomorrow (16 march) since these are the days the Boeing 787-8, will be around. Although chatter is on about if and when Air India is getting these birds, the one that has come to the airshow is the 787 that is…
Its over – Part 1. Kingfisher International Operations closed down
A couple of days ago I wrote about Kingfisher Airlines closing down most of their international routes. London, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dhaka went off the map first, and then soon after Hongkong went off the map as well. No news they were in bad shape. However, they were maintaining a thin operation to Dubai,Colombo and Singapore which were serviced by the A320 and they still have a few of those planes left. via AirlineRoute.net, I just got an update that the remaining international operations are also going out of the window from the 25th March 2012, when the airline switches to a Summer schedule (SIC!). Bangalore – Dubai 1 Daily service Cancelled eff 25MAR12 Chennai – Colombo 1 Daily service Cancelled…
