Kingfisher had announced to the world that it was going to be a oneworld member, and then, a familiar scenario happened which reminded of Air India stopping short of joining Star Alliance last minute. In a not so surprising move, Kingfisher Airlines entry to the oneworld alliance, which was supposed to become a full-member as of 10th February 2012, has been put on hold. What this means is that the airline and alliance have agreed to postpone the entry into OW till the time Kingfisher could find a way out of its financial mess. While the whole situation around Kingfisher was known long back, I cannot figure out what takes such decisions to come out at the last minute? This…
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First glimpses of Kingfisher Airlines sporting the oneworld logo
I was over at the Mumbai Marathon 2012 like every year, and came across an interesting visual that caught my eye. Kingfisher Airlines, for whatever bad shape they are in, is on its way to joining the oneworld alliance. Now, speculation has been on all this while if they will join or not, or will they survive that far. I hope you signed on for your free Ruby status via Kingfisher. However, Kingfisher seems to be confident. They are supposed to be on board on 10th February 2012. However, a month out, they already are putting out promotional material advertising their oneworld connection at the Marathon today. Have a look: Kingfisher Elites to receive new cards If you’re a Kingfisher…
Jet Airways follows Kingfisher Airlines and Air India downhill
Airlines in India have really been taken on the downward spiral, for their own reasons. But the common thread of going down for all of them was having to offer low fares which did not even cover the cost of fuel. Everyone in the Indian aviation market blamed Air India for the predatory pricing, where they were keeping ticket prices really low, and hence everyone else had to follow suit to be competitive.The US Dollar/Indian Rupee moving 20% in the USD’s favour did not help them either, because all of a sudden, fuel costs, unhedged for all of them most of the time, were up 20%. Jet Airways, the classiest and best Indian airline for domestic travel for long, and…
Kingfisher Airlines a prime case for shutdown: DGCA
I don’t intend to be soothsayer on this blog, but at the same time not a doomsayer either! I’ve been trying to be very positive about Kingfisher Airlines in my head for a very long time, and something tells me, that if they survive this ongoing phase of problems, they will come back as a stronger service-oriented institution in the new changed environment. However, for the time being, the troubles seems to be getting bigger and bigger for them, making them perhaps a case for being jilted from oneworld before they get to join, just like AI got the boot from Star Alliance. I love those guys, seriously. They gave me 2 free domestic Kingfisher First class tickets last year, on…
Star Alliance and Air India can’t seem to make up their minds…
Back in July 2011, Star Alliance put a lid on Air India’s ambitions to join their little coterie, by stating that the majority of the member airlines were against AI joining on the back of security concerns. Business seems to have taken over that logic now, and the media is reporting that Star Alliance and Air India are now back in talks again. This opening is clearly a nice choice of words since AI’s membership was ‘suspended’ and not completely withdrawn at that instance. Reportedly, AI and *A met up in December 2011, and members are ‘reconsidering their stand‘ on AI. This is closely to be read with the fact that a new CEO is taking over *A (Mark Schwab),…
Status for free and discounts with Kingfisher KingClub till Dec 31, 2011
Kingfisher’s loyalty program KingClub is offering free status to premium MasterCard holders all the way uptil December 31, 2011. To register, you should have an eligible MasterCard (Platinum, World, Titanium Credit Cards or a Premium Debit Card), and you have to plonk the first 6 digits on the Kingfisher website here, to get your upgraded status. Titanium and Platinum tiers get Kingfisher KingClub Red tier, but World MasterCard users get KingClub Silver. Please note, this promotion works when you open a new account with Kingfisher Airlines KingClub, and not on existing accounts. You also get 250 miles credited for opening your account, and if you fill up your details to complete the profile, another 500 come your way. In the…
A comprehensive update on Kingfisher Airlines route network due to withdrawal from 12 cities
Since I published my last travel update on the situation at Kingfisher Airlines, there are a lot more changes emerging on an ongoing basis at Kingfisher Airlines. They had earlier announced the withdrawal of 31 flights till November 19, which then turned out to be 50 flights per day on an ongoing basis. Turns out, some of these changes might be permanent. I round up for all of your benefit the routes which are going to get affected and any updates till what time these cancellations/withdrawals may be valid. International Routes The following services are cancelled till further notice: Kochi (COK) – Colombo (CMB) [IT079/IT080] Thiruvananthapuram (TRV) – Colombo (CMB) [IT077/IT078] Mumbai (BOM) – Bangkok (BKK) [IT023/IT024] Delhi (DEL) –…
Reminder: Earn 20% more KingClub Miles on transfer before 30th Nov 2011
Just a quick reminder for those who intend to be making some bookings on Kingfisher Airlines in the award category. The special promotion which has been running this quarter to offer 20% extra miles free is going to end on 30th November 2011. Like I mentioned earlier in September 2011, this offer is valid till November 30, 2011. Here is what you have to do to avail 20% bonus KingClub Miles. Transfer worth 5000 miles worth from your credit card program or hotel programs to the King Club, and Kingfisher will add a 20% on top of it while crediting the miles. Take note, that different programs have different equivalents for the KingClub Miles, and hence you have to use…
1800 Rupees, a 1 hour long phone call and a couple of free round trips in Kingfisher First!
For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, you would have figured that I am usually a Economy passenger on the domestic legs, and I’d like to be in Business on my long-haul flights. Essentially, I got into the aviation game when I moved base from Delhi to Mumbai about a decade back, and started being a regular on the morning flights for business! While initially I’d travel on the overnight train to get to Delhi to visit family, over a period of time I converted to Economy air travel as it became more affordable, and today, here I am, trying to share my bag of tricks with all of you. I remember very clearly…
Red Alert: Kingfisher plans to slice away 31 flights daily till Nov 19
Update as of 10 Nov 2011: It turns out that Kingfisher is cancelling upto 50 flights a day instead of the earlier announced 31. The DGCA has issued a notice to the airline to clarify why it is cancelling flights and what is it doing to take care of the passengers stranded because of its acts. This should be some justice to the flyers booked on those Kingfisher flights which got cancelled. —- Gulp! Hate to bring the bad news but I was just going through my Twitter timeline for @Livefromalounge where I spotted a couple of rants about Kingfisher Airlines. It is well-known that the airline is cancelling flights left-right-center with a brutal axe that only the ‘Guests’ know…
Why I stepped on a Kingfisher plane yesterday!
So I got on a Kingfisher Airlines plane for the first time in lets say 3-4 years yesterday evening, unless you count the 45 minute GOI-BOM flight I took on Kingfisher Red last year in August. The reasons I’ve abstained from Flying Kingfisher have been many. Here are a few: They are flashy! I am not just referring to their choice of Red as their color, but all the flying models, personally chosen by the CEO bit and all their eagerness to please appeared over the top. I felt hurt when the owner went all out to get Air Deccan down to their knees and bought them out with their flanking strategy. And yes, I am an M&A guy myself,…
