If you read the visa word and came over, take note this is not a credit card hawking post. Just a simple rant! Now that we have that out of the way, lets begin. For the upcoming oneworld MegaDo, I signed on for the optional segment across the pond in London. A few days ago, while flipping through my passport, I realised my UK visa had expired and I needed a new sticker. Usually, since I travel often on work, I count on the office to pay for my visa expenses, but this being a personal trip, I started to read the rules. Here is what came up at the section for visa charges: Now here is my problem. This…
The lifeline for Indian airlines is on its way
A lot of ink has been spent worrying about Indian airline companies in the past few months, with all the $ costs of their plane leases, jet fuel and other expenses going up 20% on one side for no fault of theirs, and they being forced to sell tickets on a low cost to compete with the government-owned underdog. All these blokes who fly planes in India do not have a government lifeline from my tax money as Air India does, and evidently, have been priming for a shutdown (at least speculation is such!) Everybody out there believes there is a huge market in India for aviation. If only 5.5 million passengers out of a billion+ population flew inside India in…
The new Virgin Atlantic Salt n Pepper Shakers are here!
Remember these? Some of you might do and have a pair at your homes. These are the famous Aeroplane design Salt and Pepper shakers Virgin Atlantic put out in the Upper Class of their flights for 12 years. Designed by an in-house team, thousands of them got pinched and it became a collectible item. I for one never got one (sigh!). They became so popular that VS had to put out the pinched from Virgin Atlantic stamp on these, but they still kept going. Now October 2011, VS decided to discontinue them. But the good news is, they’ve replaced them with a new brilliant Cocktail designed Salt and Pepper shakers which are now on board the Upper Class. Have a…
Are you booked on American ORD-DEL/DEL-ORD AA292/293 after February 2012?
I’m jumping into the customer care domain for a bit to inform all of you about your options if you are booked to travel on the service from the soon to be defunct Chicago Delhi service of American Airlines. Like you know, the last flight into Delhi from Chicago (AA292) flies on Feb 28, 2012 and arrives on Feb 29, 2012. On Delhi to Chicago (AA293), the last flight takes off on Mar 1, 2012 and arrives in Chicago on the same day. Now, a lot many of you may be booked on the flight after these dates and may have already heard from AA on rebookings. If you have not, please do contact your travel agent or American Airlines…
1 Week to OWMD: Preparing for Seat 33A
Its almost looking in my face and I think I am excited for my first MegaDo this coming week. Yes, going away from work for a whole ten days means I am having to do the extra hours over the already extra hours I put in at work everyday. So, I am just trying to make sure everything is in order when I finally leave home for the airport. The next update on the oneworld MegaDo I’ll post is most probably going to be when I get started with my MegaDo journey, but I sure do have something exciting for you all and I am waiting for some confirmations before I post it out here 😉 Lets catch up with…
First glimpses of Kingfisher Airlines sporting the oneworld logo
I was over at the Mumbai Marathon 2012 like every year, and came across an interesting visual that caught my eye. Kingfisher Airlines, for whatever bad shape they are in, is on its way to joining the oneworld alliance. Now, speculation has been on all this while if they will join or not, or will they survive that far. I hope you signed on for your free Ruby status via Kingfisher. However, Kingfisher seems to be confident. They are supposed to be on board on 10th February 2012. However, a month out, they already are putting out promotional material advertising their oneworld connection at the Marathon today. Have a look: Kingfisher Elites to receive new cards If you’re a Kingfisher…
Jet Airways to add 17 Boeing 737-800 planes to the fleet
It is not all so gloomy out there, or so it looks like. Jet Airways, the market leader in India, has ordered Next Generation 17 Boeing 737-800 planes this month from the Boeing company. And this, after it already has 10 737-800s which are still due to be received from Boeing as per the last order they placed aeons ago.The current order is a confirmation of a 20-B737-800s options that Boeing and Jet Airways guys had announced in 2007, but did not go ahead with at that time. For Jet Airways, this means they have 27 Boeing 737-800s on order now, and which means that the next 1.5 years when these planes will come on-stream,Jet will perhaps replace the leased…
‘Tis the season of withdrawals. Air Asia X out of India and Europe
Just while I was trying to get over the loss of American Airlines ORD-DEL, the bad news seems to be just starting to roll in. Just today, Air Asia X, the long haul carrier of the low-cost Air Asia group, decided to pull out of India and Europe. Air Asia used to operate an A330 service to Mumbai and Delhi from Kuala Lampur, and an A340 service to Paris and London. They recently scaled down these services in the Winter 2011 schedule. Now, with effect from February 1, 2012 Air Asia X will stop flying to Mumbai, and from March 23, 2012, the Delhi service will stop. Why? Its the economy, and the high fuel prices, and the low tourism industry,…
Jet Airways finally has some international seats for redemption
Alright, I did not intend to trick you all with that statement, but you sure do know how frustrating it can be to look out for awards to fly on Jet Airways metal. They have the suites in F but these are never available, and the herringbones in J come right at the end if there are any left. Heck, of late even the Y seats are hard to find. But it looks like you finally have some redemption opportunities this summer and you should see if you want to use your JP Miles or partner miles to book up these seats.Some folks on FT managed to look up lots of availibility this afternoon (India time) and managed to snag…
Dinner with the Leading Hotels of the World
Last night, I was over at one of my favourite places in Mumbai, the Chambers Terrace of the Taj Mahal Palace, at the invitation of the Leading Hotels of the World. The LHW invited me over for their annual India Showcase, which is a cocktail evening they hold every year for clients, potential clients and some media publications. And this was thanks to the fact that I have patronised some of their hotels for a while. The last I stayed at was the grand Hotel Hessischer Hof in Frankfurt in 2010. This last evening, a total of 41 hotels were going to be over. This included names like the Capella (Singapore), Orient-Express, Hotel Okura (Tokyo, Japan) and the The Datai (Malaysia).…
SPG Contest on Facebook to giveaway 2 nights in their Asia-Pacific properties for 2!
SPG is conducting a voting-based contest on its Facebook page to give away two nights at one of their 60 Asia-Pacific properties. The contest is called ‘2 days of Happy’, and runs through till January 26, 2012 23:59 (UTC+10). Here is what you got to do to get your ‘two days of happy’! Like them on Facebook, give them your personal details and SPG membership number if you have one, make an entry in the contest by selecting which property you’d like to go for the ‘2 Days of Happy’ and put it up for voting. The member with the maximum votes at the end of the contest gets the Grand Prize of airfare plus 2 nights stay at the…
