I’ve recently been trying to use Air India off and on, given their Star Alliance membership, to try and test how they react in various circumstances and whether it is in line with Star Alliance requirements or not. Sometimes it is, sometimes it is not. For instance, back in August, when I went with AI for my flight to Goa from Mumbai Terminal 2, AI offered me only one lounge access card, which made sure me and my fiancée could not go into the lounge together. As AI Golden Tier member and Star Alliance Gold, I was good for 2 passes due to the *A guidelines. Just this past Saturday, I made a trip to Delhi on one of Air…
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I’m coming home…
Oh boy. I hate going quiet on the blog but sometimes life takes you places where you take a plane and go, and there is just so much going on that your laptop is perpetually starving for battery and hence the posting has to wait. So, the past few weeks, while I’ve been trying to post, I’ve been over to Europe, the USA, and then after a quick trip to Kolkata, I found myself again on the road for two weeks in a row… which was essentially supposed to be one trip to start with. I was over to the Netherlands for a week, and while I was supposed to do some more meetings in other parts of Europe while…
Air India status upgrades via SBI Card are back
A few days ago, I reported that the promised tier upgrades and status matches for Air India, which are available via their co-branded card with SBI were not going through. There was either a technology problem, or there was a snap of relationships between both parties. We don’t know. However, I’ve been hearing since yesterday days, that people have started to get their upgrade confirmations via email, for status earned via spend on Air India. This looks like it is sorted now. However, for me personally, something seems to be off, as my account is locked out. Which definitely points towards a technology upgrade of some sorts that may have happened at the back end. For those of you who…
AI SBI Card having trouble processing tier upgrades on AI
One of the differentiating features of Air India’s co-branded card with SBI Cards is the tier upgrades you get on Air India Flying Returns every time you spent another INR 5,00,000 in the membership year. You get Silver Status for the first INR 5,00,000 and Gold Status for the next INR 5,00,000. This is now equivalent to Star Alliance Gold status, with Air India having joined the Star Alliance. SBI Cards in fact also launched a status match program for the holders of other airlines status in the meanwhile, I am assuming with Air India’s approval. Everyone who hits the INR 5,00,000 mark receives a kit automatically, because these were processed straight through back in the day. But recently, a…
When Air India lies to you…
I’ve been a little annoyed with Air India over the past few days. Here is a post I wrote yesterday about how Air India employees don’t consistently implement benefits they are supposed to offer to their elites, including lounge access. This morning, they’ve gone public with an Air India Day sale, where they are claiming to offer INR 100 + taxes tickets. The PR machinery has been in an overdrive, and the website has been down since last night because everyone wants in on these fares. Here is their claim, which conveniently skips the fact that fuel surcharges are not a part of the INR 100. What takes the cake for me is an email I received from them last…
Air India’s INR 100 ticket promotion till August 31, 2014 is just one big gimmick!
Air India has decided to offer INR 100 base fare tickets for travel between August 27, 2014 to September 30, 2014 on domestic sectors. These tickets can be booked between today to August 31, 2014. You can only purchase these tickets from the Air India website, which currently has this state on: Anyhow, unless the INR 100 Air India Day promotion includes Fuel surcharges as well, I don’t think these tickets are really different from what Air India has sold quietly in the past. In April, I was able to book AI tickets for INR 2500 one-way approximately between Mumbai and Delhi, which included INR 49 or so as the base fare. So, this must be much ado about nothing.…
Air India’s Frequent Flyer program not known to AI
Sigh, I’ve just wasted a whole productive hour of my life this afternoon, and I need to vent it out. So, bear with me for a bit. Domestic Flight Cancellation Charges One of the advantages of the Flying Returns program is that at elite tiers, such as Gold and Maharajah Tiers, you get almost free domestic ticket cancellation/rebooking, as compared to the INR 1600-1900 which is the going price these days amongst Indian airlines. They charge you a modest INR 200, which also allows people like me to take a bet on fares long out and lock in some tickets subject to our schedules. Here is a snapshot of the benefits for Air India Gold Club: Now, the trouble seems…
Air India offering free domestic tickets
Air India is running a promotion on their website, called, umm, the Get Lucky offer. This promotion offers every 100th ticket booked on Air India’s own website www.airindia.in, a complimentary domestic ticket, and the winners get notified at the end of their ticket booking process itself. The promotion runs between August 15, 2014 to September 30, 2014. The complimentary tickets are valid only after you travel at least one segment on your journey, if you booked an international ticket. If you booked a domestic ticket, it will be valid after you complete your entire journey. If you book a one-way ticket, you get a one-way ticket as your gift, and if you book a round trip, you get a round…
Flight Review: AI191 Mumbai–Newark, Air India, First Class
A friend and regular reader of the blog, Parag Mehta, recently took a First Class flight on Air India recently to travel between Mumbai and Newark, and I requested him for a Guest Post for the blog, since long haul Air India is not on my radar in the coming days. He came back flying Etihad First Class, booked on 9W miles, but try getting two trip reports from a busy investment professional You can read my review of EY F here. Over to you, Parag! I was planning a trip to New York for the longest time, and when the time came I looked at my pile of miles, and decided to try Air India and Etihad for the…
Why are Airlines of India lying about flying over Ukraine?
I’m still a little bit shocked at the way things played out last week in the air, and realising I won’t have a different point of view to offer, I restrained myself from pouring out on the tragedy that happened over the Ukrainian airspace last week. However, one of the things on my mind has been the reactions that have been made by other airlines to assuage their customers about the situation. Many an airlines went about clarifying that they did not fly over the Ukrainian airspace for a while, but lets stick to the situation closer home. The Government of India issued a statement a couple of days ago about India’s airlines not flying around Ukraine. In the same…
Air India offering double miles on the Delhi–Moscow flight
I recently wrote about the launch of Air India’s flight between Delhi and Moscow, which started operations from yesterday, on their Boeing 787 planes. Now, Air India is offering a double miles promotion on their frequent flyer program Flying Returns for those who choose to fly between India and Russia, for flying with them between July 18, 2014 to September 30, 2014. If you will be connecting from anywhere in India, you won’t get double miles for your intra-India flight, but on your India-Russia or vice versa route you should clock double miles. AI has not updated the mileage calculator on their website yet, but Delhi-Moscow should earn 2679 miles one way (base). Remember, Air India does not guarantee 100%…
