Things have an interesting way to move around in the Indian aviation sector. Air India took 4 long years to be ready for the *A, and eventually their membership was put on hold. Last week, a full year after the Air India membership being put on hold, I wrote about Jet Airways’ formal invitation to join the Star Alliance being made public, and how it would work out for Jet Airways. In a press report by a major Indian financial news paper, which is actually an interview with India’s civil aviation minister, it now comes to light that Star Alliance has responded last week to Air India in the negative and the Government of India will be supportive of Jet…
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Star Alliance and Jet Airways – 3rd time lucky?
I don’t know if the timing of this bit of news was timed such, but the formal announcement of Jet Airways seeking Government of India’ permission to join the Star Alliance came out in the open exactly a year after Air India’s joining the alliance was put on hold. A news report published in the Mint (an editorial collaboration with the WSJ) last night puts out in the open what has been long known to be Jet Airways’ and Star Alliance’s secret ambition. After Air India’s attempts to join *A faulted and Kingfisher Airlines shrunk rapidly to keep out of oneworld, this is the third attempt of an Indian carrier to join an airline alliance. A meeting between Jet Airways…
Turkish Airlines’ still status matching to Star Alliance Gold
A couple of months back I wrote that Turkish Airlines was freely matching top-tier elites from SkyTeam, oneworld and even Star Alliance to their own program Miles & Smiles. While we would have expected that this opportunity would have quickly closed out, it turns out that Turkish is still out there matching up folks to its program, though various people report a hit and miss scenario. Some have received their status match confirmation in a day while others have not heard for over a few weeks. My brother, who is an elite on another airline and ends up flying Star Alliance to and around the USA a couple of times a year, received his match earlier this week within 24…
A Thai Vacay: British Airways Galleries Lounge, Mumbai (BOM)
Introduction Check-in: British Airways Galleries Lounge, Mumbai Check-in: Clipper Lounge First Class, Mumbai Airborne: Flight CX 750 (BOM-BKK), Cathay Pacific, Economy Millennium Hilton Hotel, Bangkok Around Bangkok Hilton Hotel, Pattaya Around Pattaya Radisson Suites, Bangkok Check-in: Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge, Bangkok Check-in: British Airways/Qantas First Class Lounge, Bangkok Check-in: Cathay Pacific First & Business Class Lounge, Bangkok Air-borne: Flight CX 709 (BKK-BOM), Cathay Pacific, Economy Conclusion My flight on Cathay Pacific was a 5:20 AM flight, which basically meant a night without sleep to make it to the plane. So, instead of screwing up sleep totally, I decided to arrive at the airport early enough to be able to grab a bite at the airport for a late-night dinner, and…
So whats up at Kingfisher Airlines?
It has been a while since Kingfisher Airlines came in the news, so I thought it was a good time to post an update. For most who remember, Kingfisher Airlines was in a state of implosion a few months back and I wrote about it. While I was sad to report that the international operations were shut down, I am glad I did not have to write a second part of the obituary about domestic operations shutting down. Over a period I have realised that Kingfisher Airlines, for the flashy branding I had in my head, has been lucky to have a passionate set of crew who has stuck with the airlines in the bad times. I also consider them lucky…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Kingfisher domestic schedule cuts 51% flights, pulls out of 18 domestic routes
I promised an update on the Kingfisher schedule inside India. The schedule that went up on 5th February 2012 became permanent for Summer 2012 when it went up on the GDS systems this week. AirlineRoute.net did an excellent analysis already, which I quote below: Bangalore – Chennai 2 of 6 Daily service Cancelled Bangalore – Hyderabad 2 of 5 Daily service Cancelled Bangalore – Kochi 10 of 24 weekly service Cancelled Chennai – Coimbatore 2 Daily service Cancelled Chennai – Hyderabad 1 Daily service Cancelled Chennai – Mangalore 1 Daily service Cancelled Chennai – Tiruchirapally 1 Daily service Cancelled Chennai – Vishakapatnam 1 Daily service Cancelled Delhi – Ahmedabad 1 Daily service Cancelled Delhi – Amritsar 2 Daily service Cancelled…
Kingfisher Airlines pulls out of London, Bangkok, Dhaka and Kathmandu
The bad news seems to not stop rolling for Kingfisher Airlines. I previously discussed the truncated schedules uptil March 2012 for Kingfisher Airlines international operations. A couple of days back, Kingfisher Airlines was let go from the IATA interline clearing house and the billing settlement plan, thereby taking away the revenue lines from them. Via AirlineRoute.net, the new summer schedules of Kingfisher Airlines were updated on the global distribution systems. Kingfisher Airlines has discontinued operations from London, which was its only European destination. Here is a comprehensive update: London: Delhi-London Heathrow cancelled from 10th April 2012, Mumbai – London Heathrow cancelled from 16th April 2012 Bangkok: Like I wrote before, Mumbai – Bangkok and Delhi – Bangkok was already cancelled,…
