ICICI Bank

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Altitude Lounges: The good yet empty lounges in Mumbai and Delhi

Altitude lounges are the lounges established by American Express in Mumbai CSI airport’s terminal 1 and Delhi Airport’s Terminal 3 on the domestic departures side. These lounges are operated for the credit card franchises of American Express in India, such as the ICICI Bank Jet Airways American Express card and the IndusInd Bank Jet Airways American Express Card. I reviewed the Mumbai lounge and the Delhi lounge last year. Now, both these lounges are excellent in terms of the quality of food and services, much on par with the American Express Lounges operated by Amex for Amex Plat card holders in the two cities. However, they both don’t get any traffic, in spite of being in business for a couple…

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My Credit Card Strategy 2014 update

In the beginning of the year, I wrote my credit card strategy for 2014. I’ve been meaning to give a mid-year update, but not been able to do so far. Anyhow, lets take a look now at how things are going, and what may be the plan ahead. Here are the credit cards I already have, and my view on them. Citibank PremierMiles Visa (Keep): This is my favourite credit card all around, and if you’ve poked around this blog, you would have noticed I love this product. I intend to keep it and use it as my primary card to book airline tickets and make use of all the special Citibank promotions that come 3-4 times a year, such…

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Free Ticket codes very good reason why you should keep your Jet co-branded credit cards

One of the query I receive frequently from readers has been about the renewal for their Jet Airways co-branded credit cards issued by HDFC Bank, American Express and ICICI Bank. Most readers find it attractive to receive the card in the first year with 15,000 to 30,000 JP Miles as sign-up bonus, and want to cancel it after the first year because the second year renewal benefits are not as good, and they are paying the same amount of fees. While everyone who likes collecting miles across the globe loves to look at the US banks and the ability of US residents to churn credit cards every 3-6 months for big sign-up bonuses, it is a heartbreak indeed that the…

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My 2014 Credit Card Strategy

Last week, I wrote about my 2013 Mileage Credit Card strategy, where I told you guys I managed to get something about 264,000 miles basis credit cards issued in India for the full calendar year. For 2014, here are the credit cards I am looking at having in my wallet. Take note that while I intend to publish full reviews for each product at some point of time, it may be a while before I would be able to bring them all in the fold. To make it simple, I’ve updated my Mileage CC calculator for 2014 numbers, so have a look and see which is the best one for you. Here are the cards I already have, and I’ll…

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My 2013 Indian Credit Card mileage wins

I know it is a little late in the day to put out a round up for 2013, but I thought I’d do it anyways. I did not get the time to put a post earlier than this, but all I can tell you is we are lucky to be living in times when the mileage earning game is just about getting started in this country. And I am happy to be on board earlier rather than later. For the rest of you, miles and points are not just a silly hobby, but they can finance a lifestyle if you did all the right things. For the longest time, for 10 years or so actually, India just had one major…

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ICICI & Citibank PremierMiles mileage earning changes for 2014

I wanted to put out this post so that I could remind all of you of certain changes that are supposed to kick in as of January 1, 2014 for Citibank PremierMiles and ICICI Bank Jet Airways credit cards. Citibank PremierMiles had waived off the cap of INR 5,00,000 per annum on Airline tickets spend to earn Accelerated mileage (10 PremierMiles/INR 100 spend) last June as a special promotion. However, this promotion was valid only till December 31, 2013. From January 1, 2014, any airline spend as defined below, will earn 10 PM/INR 100 spend till you reach the limit of INR 5,00,000 for the year, and then you earn 4 PM/INR 100 for airline spends on an on-going basis as…

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Unlimited lounge access on ICICI-Jet-Amex credit cards, and extra JP Miles

ICICI Bank’s Jet Airways co-branded credit cards have now completed about a full year in the business. When they started, they had a lot of issues with putting out credit cards, most of which are now resolved. Very recently, they offered a special promotion where there were extra JPMiles going out for signing up for the Visa version, or spending on the Visa version of the ICICI Bank 9W credit card. Now, a few important changes made to the product offering. Earlier, there were only 4 complimentary visits allowed per annum to the Altitude Lounge in Mumbai and Delhi. Now, this changes from 1st November 2013 onwards to make it unlimited trips to the lounges. Here are the reviews of…

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Bonus miles on the ICICI Bank Jet Airways Visa credit cards for sign-up and use

ICICI Bank and Jet Airways, when they launched their co-branded cards last year, had a huge focus on pushing the American Express versions, and they were (still are), offering upto 9 JP Miles for regular spend. This is a promotional offer limited till October 2013. ICICI Bank, a couple of days back, however, launched a new promotion, where there is a higher sign-on bonus for the Visa version of their credit cards, in case you sign up till October 31, 2013. Here is how it works: Sapphiro (highest): 15,000 JP Miles for sign-on instead of 10,000 JP Miles. Also, 8 JP Miles/INR 100 spend till October 2013, and a free economy ticket code on Jet Airways domestic flights. Rubyx (medium):…

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Something New: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Delhi Terminal 3

Introduction Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Mumbai Terminal 1A Airborne: Flight AI 660 (BOM-DEL), Air India, Economy Class Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Delhi Terminal 3 Airborne: Flight AI 657 (DEL-BOM), Air India, Executive Class After a leisurely few days in Delhi, it was time to go back to Mumbai. I’m usually trying to look away from early morning flights, because I do my fair share on work travel, but this time, I was a little bit greedy to spend some more time at home with the family, so I booked up an early morning flight back. I arrived at the airport in good time, and proceeded to the Air India counters to collect my boarding pass at Terminal 3.…

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Something New: ICICI/Amex Altitude Lounge Mumbai Terminal 1A

Introduction Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Mumbai Terminal 1A Airborne: Flight AI 660 (BOM-DEL), Air India, Economy Class Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Delhi Terminal 3 Airborne: Flight AI 657 (DEL-BOM), Air India, Executive Class I arrived at the Mumbai Airport in time for the flight, in spite of the fact that it was a working day and I had a late-afternoon flight. This involved arriving at office a couple of hours earlier than usual, and skipping lunch to make the one hour plus trip across town. On arrival at the airport, I proceeded to Terminal 1A, which is currently full of banks of empty counters and only has Air India occupying the terminal. Heck, even with that, they were…

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Something New: Introduction

Introduction Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Mumbai Terminal 1A Airborne: Flight AI 660 (BOM-DEL), Air India, Economy Class Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Delhi Terminal 3 Airborne: Flight AI 657 (DEL-BOM), Air India, Executive Class One of these times in the past couple of months I was going to visit the family in Delhi, I thought of trying out something new, or rather different from my regular experiences in the past months which usually would be Jet Airways and the regular lounges which would include the Carnations Lounge at Mumbai Terminal 1C and the Plaza Premiere Lounge at Delhi Terminal 3. Since this trip was personal and I had to book up in advance, I decided to use a couple…

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