It has been a nerve-wracking journey for Air India, but they finally made it. Okay, inspirational speech over. Now time for the real thing. Back in 2007, Air India was invited to join the Star Alliance, with Lufthansa sponsoring its entry. The Government of India practically dropped their pants to make concessions for Lufthansa group to get Air India into the alliance. And then, in July 2011, at the last minute, Air India’s entry into the Star Alliance was put on hold. Ever since then, there has been push and shove, and Jet Airways was also invited to join the alliance. In the backdrop, Air India kept pursuing the alliance again and again. Star Alliance may have been forced to…
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The SBI Air India Signature Card adds an upgrade voucher!
When I first started out to review the SBI Air India Signature Card, I was basing my review on the information that was provided by SBI Cards in this respect. Now, just like all other new products, I’ve had my fair share of sparring with SBI Cards as well, but yesterday, I got third time lucky and finally managed to submit my application to SBI Cards after two time-wasting attempts by them before. As I was trying to find more information on this credit card, I came across this on the Air India website: Premium privileges include 1 complementary domestic upgrade voucher Complementary lounge access (emphasis, mine) This is not information that was put out by the credit card company.…
My botched up experience applying for the SBI AI Card
After launching a good product, it seems like SBI Cards is running their SBI Air India card just the same way like ICICI Bank did with the Jet ICICI Cards last year. I placed a request for an appointment for the card in the first couple of days it launched. I never heard back from the SBI Card team for an appointment till the first 10 days or so. And then, I started getting all sorts of calls, emails and messages on my own post, with SBI Cards asking me for information. I replied to them on email, on FlyerTalk as well. No one bothered to respond. And then, I messaged a friend who worked for their company. I was…
Credit Card Review: Air India SBI Visa Signature
With this post, I am reintroducing the Credit Card Reviews series in India, which I had to stop a while ago due to paucity of time. Air India & GE/SBI Credit Cards recently teamed up to launch co-branded credit cards which could earn you quite some miles, making me think of calling it perhaps the best credit card to earn miles in India at the moment. They’ve launched 2 credit cards, one at the Signature level and one at the Platinum level, and I will review both separately. Sign-Up Bonus: This credit card offers a tidy sign-up bonus of 20,000 Air India miles to start you up with the credit card product. You also get an upgrade voucher from Air…
Air India offered oneworld invitation by Qatar Airways?
This is just a news report at this moment, but it looks like Air India has grown tired of insisting upon Star Alliance to let them into their group, and is now using other tactics to try and get them to make up their mind. Air India’s application to join Star Alliance was put on hold at the last moment in July 2011. As per this news publication, Qatar Airways is ready to sponsor the entry of Air India into oneworld. What beats me, is that they aren’t even a full member themselves yet (will be inducted on October 30), but they’re going around promising airlines their support for membership. A senior Air India official said that Qatar had approached…
Air India launches a revamped website (?)
Air India has launched a good-looking website just yesterday, which seems to be a huge step-up from their previous effort which looked totally unprofessional to me. Like is the usual, their two emblems are right there: the swan logo and the Maharaja, who is their mascot. And while all this make over looked nice, when you go to make a reservation or try logging into the frequent flyer program, you’d notice that things are still the same, because that is powered by SITA and hosted externally. Let me know how do you feel about the new Air India website in the comments section. Related Posts: Show Air India some Facebook love A visit inside the relics of Air India Live…
Air India Awards to Australia now available
Air India is launching a new flight from Delhi to Melbourne & Sydney on their B787s later this month. Air India has just opened up the award availability on this segment, and like it is with Air India, there is ample award opportunities in Business as well as Economy. For dates closer to the launch, here is the availability on a random date. You see 2 seats in Economy & Business each. I went in a little further into October And then into next March I find this to be an extremely reasonable pricing for award tickets both on the economy as well as business class of the plane, considering that this would be about 12 hours of flying time.…
Using Air India Flying Returns to get 10 Kgs extra baggage allowance free
I truly think that Air India Flying Returns is not a great loyalty program and I’ve said it before. However, in the wake of Air India, Jet Airways, Go Air and Indigo dropping their free baggage allowance to 15 Kgs, it seems to have become an inconvenience to some travellers who still feel the need for more baggage allowance. Baggage allowance seems to be going at Rs. 250 (~$4) per Kg above the allowance, and it pinches pockets to pay. SpiceJet is the only Indian carrier offering 20 Kgs at the time of writing this. Anyhow, there is a simple trick for the heavy travellers who choose to book with Air India. Most airlines with a loyalty program offer their…
Air India won’t charge for seat selection
While all the carriers in India jumped on the opportunity to charge for seat selection to shore up their revenues, Air India seems to be opting out of the game, at least for domestic sectors. When fare unbundling was announced in India, all the carriers rushed to charge for seat selection. Indigo went ahead and wanted to charge you for every seat, including the middle seat. Then, the regulator realised its mistake, and limited the seats on a plane, which could be charged as special seats to 25% of the cabin. As per the news, this is their logic: The aviation regulator has directed that airlines can offer only up to 25% of seats for pre-booking. So at most, we…
Air India offering double miles on metro sectors till September 30,2013
Air India is offering double miles on its Flying Returns program if you fly between metro sectors around India between July 15, 2013 and September 30, 2013. The list of sectors which count as metro sectors is below: There are no elaborate terms & conditions, so the only thing I’d like to remind you is that Air India grants miles sparingly on low-fare tickets, for instance, 25% of flown miles on an E class ticket. Here is their earning chart. And here is my view on the program. Hey, this promotion is exciting only for those who are flying in business class I guess, or full fare economy. Related Posts: Is Air India Flying Returns the most miser frequent flying…
It is a good time to book your festive travel now
Airfares have been hitting the roof, or that is what I have been hearing for a while now. And it has to be the case, with inflation and oil prices both heading upwards, and the instance of Kingfisher going under, that airlines realised they can’t keep on dishing out discounting tickets and hope to even break even, forget making profits. However, sales come out from time to time, and this year we saw SpiceJet, Indigo, Air India and Jet Airways all throwing their hat in the ring every time one of them dropped prices. For my personal travel, as long as I have visibility on various travels, I prefer to book it far out during one of these sales of…
