InterContinental Hotels’ parent company IHG has come up with a new hotel brand called EVEN it plans to launch in 2013. The focus of this brand of hotels is on healthy travel, and it intends to make everything in the hotel up to speed with the wellness aspect of travel. According to IHG, they made a study over 18 months and observed and talked to over 4,000 guests, and found the common thread that the need was there for a hotel which could help them with their health and wellness even when they travel. They have identified 4 priority areas – exercise, eat, work and rest. The approach towards these aspects sure seems unique and lateral, which may be a good thing.…
Air India to reduce business class on intra-India routes
Considering the speed of decision making and the soup that Air India finds itself in with every decision these days, I am not surprised it took an entire Board of Directors to come to a decision such as this one. In a meeting of the Air India board this evening, the airline has decided to fall in line with the same strategy that Jet Airways has been following for a while. Essentially, the number of business class seats will be reduced from 34 Airbus planes of the airline, which will include the A320 and A319s, which are primarily used for domestic flights in India. The number of seats is not known yet. Air India, which has managed to get its schedules…
Ongoing travel contests for your benefit!
I thought I’d pop by to give all my readers a quick reminder on the contests that are underway right now courtesy of the various travel services, which could help you get yourself some privileges or free nights in case you choose to participate. a) IHG Memorable Weekends contest: Like I mentioned in my post last week, Intercontinental Hotels Group is running a fantastic contest for its patrons in India, Middle-East Asia and Africa, where they are giving away free weekend packages for a family and 25 free nights at Holiday Inn and InterContinental properties in the regions. You could use the packages anytime up to December 31, 2012. As of now, only 50 entries are being voted upon at…
Earn an extra 500 SPG points per night during your stay at the Sheraton/SPG properties
Update: Reader mileflyer confirms this offer is valid at other SPG properties as well. Maybe you should ask for it on your next check-in. During my last stay at the Sheraton Gateway LAX in January, I was presented with an interesting offer which I thought I’d share with the readers. For your stays at the Sheraton hotels and resorts at participating properties in the USA and Canada, you can earn a F&B credit of $5, or 500 SPG points in your SPG account for every night of your stay you decline housekeeping services, except the day of departure. At the Sheratons, this is an attempt to promote conservation efforts by encouraging you to use your housekeeping supplies and amenities for…
Review: Flight 9W228 (BOM-BRU), Jet Airways, Economy
Introduction Clipper Lounge, Mumbai CSI Airport Terminal 2 Jet Airways Economy Class Mumbai to Brussels British Airways Galleries Club Lounge, Brussels National Airport American Airlines Business Class Brussels to New York JFK and Five-Star Arrival American Airlines Premium Check-in and Flagship Lounge, New York JFK American Airlines Economy Class JFK to London LHR American Airlines Arrivals Lounge, London LHR Sheraton Heathrow Hotel, London American Airlines Flagship Check-in and Flagship Lounge, London Heathrow American Airlines Economy Class London to Chicago American Airlines Flagship Lounge at Chicago ORD American Airlines First Class from Chicago ORD to Dallas Fort Worth Hyatt Regency Hotel, DFW Hyatt Regency Hotel, Bellevue Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles Sheraton Gateway Hotel, Los Angeles American Airlines First…
Air India plans to launch 787 service on Delhi – Melbourne late 2012
The gloves are off and Air India finally seems to be getting into network planning mode. Maybe they now see a realistic chance of getting some Boeing 787 planes, while the controversy about who will fund this purchase goes on, and whether Boeing owes Air India a compensation of USD 1 billion. So, an Australian delegation hit up India earlier this week for trade talks, and at the end of this trip, the famed Delhi – Melbourne dreams of Air India were revived. Air India has been planning to launch this money-sucker route since 2010, and has postponed the launch dates two times already from 2010 to 2011 and now into 2012. The initial plans were supposed to make it…
Kingfisher’s new International schedule
Further to all the noise about the grounding of Kingfisher’s fleet last weekend and further cutbacks in service, there is now an update from Kingfisher Airlines on the trimmed down schedule it is now operating. With the 28 aircraft the airline has kept in the air right now, they are expected to fly about 170 flights a day. I’m breaking it into two parts and posting the international operations first. London: 1 daily service from Delhi and Mumbai daily now on the A330. Singapore: Mumbai – Singapore – Mumbai downgraded to A320 till March 24, back to A330 from March 25 onwards. Dhaka: Kolkata (CCU) – Dhaka (DAC) – Kolkata (CCU) continues on the ATR-66. Colombo: Operations only from Chennai…
Win free nights in the IHG contest for India, Mid-East and Africa
Free nights everywhere, and now in your part of the world. Intercontinental Hotels launched a new contest in February which offers its patrons in India, Middle – East Asia and Africa to win weekend packages and free nights in these countries. As always, a social media contest like this is pretty easy! They want you to log on to Facebook, and you can choose between www.facebook.com/HolidayInnIMEA, www.facebook.com/crowneplaza and www.facebook.com/intercontinental. Once there, hop on to the Memorable Weekends tab, upload a picture, describe why it is a memorable weekend for you, and get your friends to vote. You could upload pictures to all of the brand pages as well, but the prictures can’t be the same on all of them. Pictures…
Spanair frequent flyers to get status-matched on other Star Alliance carriers
Late January, the Spanish regional carrier Spanair ceased operations. Spanair was a member of the Star Alliance. In a goodwill move by Star Alliance and Spanair, the airline is offering its Gold and Silver tier members of the Spanairstar program, a onetime opportunity to match to another Star Alliance carrier. Eligible Spanair members would have received an email from the airline in this regard. However, if you qualify and you haven’t heard from Spanair yet, Star Alliance advises the following action: If you are SpanairStar Gold or Silver member and still haven’t received the email from Spanair about the SpanairStar Status Match by 23 February, please contact us at status.match@staralliance.com and we will direct your concern to Spanair. Please include…
Do you rate airlines good or bad because of pretty airhostesses?
We all have our airline preferences and good reasons to be liking them or not. One of India’s mainstream newspapers DNA published a column by one of their regular columnists titled “A frequent flyer’s notes on airlines and airports.” The columnist is a French citizen based in India, and has some quirky views on the airlines of India. It seems he has good reason to believe that Kingfisher Airlines is still the best airline in India, in spite of whatever trouble they are going through right now. Here is his reasoning: Whatever has been said about Kingfisher, it’s the top airline in India: it has the newest wide-bodied planes, the prettiest airhostesses, the best service on the ground and aboard…
A|Club goes Places to give you bonus check-in points
I admit I don’t know too many enthusiasts of the Accor hotels, but they do have a good brand in Sofitel and Novotel hotels, and the Ibis chain on the mid-end. Since it is easy to get a status match on this program, I have been a Gold member of their program for a long while. A|Club has now launched a new social app on Facebook, where it promises to give you bonus reward points if you signed up for it. All you have to do is to Like A|Club on Facebook, get access to the A|Club Places App, and fill up your details to sync your app with FB. Once done, your check-in at Accor club hotels will get…
