I’ve been planning to start a review of all the travel credit cards in India for a while now, but various things have kept me busy to be able to commit some time to this. But, it is a go now and I hope to update it as frequently as possible. I will start the series with The American Express Gold Charge Card this week. I got this card when the benefits on the Kingfisher First American Express card were modified. American Express revamped the Gold Charge Card in 2011, and made it one of the most competitive charge card products in the Indian market. Except for people who get their company-sponsored American Express cards way back, people usually did…
Delta Airlines to discontinue partnership with Jet Airways
And Kingfisher Airlines as well, but that is not so important! Buddies in crime for a while, Delta Airlines is terminating its frequent flyer partnership with Jet Airways from 15th October 2012 as per an announcement put out on the Delta Skymiles website. While Jet and Delta both have had a reputation of their own as good airlines, both have had one big problem area where they could give each other a good fight, the worse redemption capabilities ever. This is where the parallels have been drawn all this while. According to this thread on FT, Delta fired Jet Airways because Jet had even more restrictive rules than them on redeeming rewards. I am sure they could not take that…
The Citibank Premier Miles Credit Card: It Works!
Last December I’d written about how I was mighty pissed about the Jet Airways Citibank Credit Card, since they key benefits were devalued. The upgrade vouchers were drying up and that was a key reason for me to keep the card. Keeping that in mind, I’d switched to the Citibank Premier Miles Credit Card, which enabled a more ‘secular’ earning and burning I felt. I could earn 10 PMs per INR 100 for airline-related spend made directly with the airline or via a special portal called premiermiles.co.in. This is still better than earning 8 JPMiles per INR 100 for booking tickets only on Jet Airways, since I get 10 JP Miles if I chose to! On top of that, I…
Lufthansa offering 2,000 discount codes for return flight bookings from India [May 31]
Lufthansa is offering 2,000 travellers the chance to get discount codes worth INR 2,500 valid for discounts on their next flight bookings from India to a Lufthansa destination. You must log onto this website to collect your coupon code. The deal produces a discount coupon which can be applied on your account when you are trying to make a booking from India to fly on Lufthansa to Europe or an onward destination, via lufthansa.com. You can download the coupon code and make bookings between 1st May 2012 to 31st May 2012, and travel can be valid till 31st December 2012. Also, they are offering one discount coupon per person during the entire promotion. They reserve the right to cancel your…
moneylife: my column on new planes coming to India
This week, I wrote up on the various new Boeing planes coming to India thanks to Lufthansa and Japan Airlines, 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.
Japan Airlines becomes the first to fly the B787 to India
While Air India is preparing to receive its Boeing 787 Dreamliners from Boeing, which should be finally arriving somewhere in May 2012, Japan Airlines seems to have stolen the thunder from Air India by being the first airline to operate the 787 services to India. The picture you see above is from JAL’s 787 first approach at Delhi’s Airport. Japan Airlines recently received its Boeing 787 planes, and used the first one to start a Boston-Tokyo service which is a new route, with effect from May 1, 2012, they’ve also pressed this plane into service on the Tokyo-Delhi-Tokyo route, making JAL the first operator to bring the 787 planes to India commercially. There is good reason to believe this makes…
moneylife: my column on travel benefits with credit cards
This past week, I wrote up on the various travel benefits on offer with your credit cards, 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.
Amex bites the bullet on the Kingfisher Amex Credit Card
The Kingfisher First American Express Credit Card was my first American Express Card ever and I had picked it up for all the good flying benefits that came with it in late 2010. You got a KingClub Gold tier membership straight away, and the ability to earn American Express MembershipReward Points which you could use to transfer to Kingfisher’s KingClub. All this was adding up well till the good times lasted and Kingfisher Airlines was going to join oneworld. Down the line, last April (2011) Kingfisher and American Express decided to take the co-branding a step further, and compulsorily transfer all the accumulated MR Points every month to the KingClub Account. So, my rant on this was that I could…
Now, get an American Express Card at a discount via LinkedIn referrals
How I love my American Express plastic is something I have talked about in the past. I’ve been using them only for a year and a half now almost, but along with my Citibank Premier Miles Credit Card, the American Express Gold Charge Card is my go-to card. I’ve written about my views on the American Express Gold Charge Card customer service and will do a full review on this card in my upcoming series on Travel Credit Cards for India. LinkedIn and American Express India had tied up in September 2011 to source referrals for new American Express Kingfisher First Credit Cards and Platinum Reserve Credit Cards via existing LinkedIn members. Now, they are back. Under the new promotion…
Why I am loving AAdvantage all over again…
When American Airlines knocked out the ORD-DEL flight a short while after they entered Chapter 11 protection, I was slightly crossed with them. And I had good reason to be, I had just started to earn top-tier status with AAdvantage due to the OneWorld MegaDo, and was planning to make American Airlines my regular flight for travels to the USA, and switch to the oneworld network for going places outside my base at BOM. With this move, I was still going to be able to use the oneworld benefits, by taking a one stop flight via London on BA or Brussels on Jet Airways, but I was going to be unable to use my upgrade benefits fully, which are valid…
Jet Airways 48 hours Business Class Sale on April 25/26 (for International Travel)
Jet Airways is offering a 15% off on business class travel from India to select Middle East and South East Asian markets, for booking your tickets on JetAirways.com and travel commencing by 30th June 2012. The terms and conditions of the sale state that tickets need to be issued on April 25/26 for return travel from India to UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Malaysia. There is also a condition stating, discount applicable on specific flight numbers only, where my guess is that the discounts are valid on all the operations with the Boeing 737 narrowbody planes. Jet Airways had run a similar promo offer in February, however at that point of time they were…
