Kingfisher Airlines shut down in 2012. There are employees who still await salaries, and customers who still await a refund. And banks, who still await billions of dollars back extended as loans to the airline. Will the customers also have their money back with the employees and the banks, whenever it is?
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ICICI Bank withdraws Kingfisher Airlines co-branded credit cards
This has been long coming actually. Back in January 2013, American Express withdrew their co-branded card partnership with Kingfisher Airlines. It seems ICICI Bank followed closely after but in a not so public manner, and has now announced the plan of action to discontinue their partnership with Kingfisher Airlines, due to discontinuation of the said airlines’ services. As per their announcement: We wish to inform you that the ICICI Bank and Kingfisher Airlines co-brand Credit Card program has been discontinued due to discontinuation of Kingfisher Airlines services. As a result, the ICICI Bank Kingfisher Airlines Credit Card will be valid till March 31, 2013. For your convenience, an ICICI Bank Platinum MasterCard Credit Card will be issued to you in…
American Express withdraws the Kingfisher Credit Card!
With the airline no longer in existence, Amex finally pulled the plug on their co-branded credit card partnership with Kingfisher. All existing cardholders have been sent out individual letters (not emails, not announcements on the website…) about the decision of Amex to part ways with KFA. This could partly also be the influence of their recent partnership with Jet Airways for a credit card. Here are the key details of what will happen now on for the existing KFA credit card holders: Amex is replacing all the KFA cards with the Amex Platinum Travel card and all the card holders will receive the new card in their mail in a few days from now. Here are some details of the…
Kingfisher is no more, officially!
There was a lot of discussion going on about reviving Kingfisher Airlines in the past months, after the airline stopped operations in October 2012. Over the past few weeks and months, it made noises that it was serious about getting back in the aviation game, and was going to pay its employees as well before it could get started again. Employees were given some bit of their salaries, 3 months of the 7 months outstanding before they returned to work. Eventually, the Indian regulator got into the act and ‘suspended’ Kingfisher’s airline operation license. They also refused to approve the winter schedule of the airline. Vijay Mallya has been trying to offload his stake in the airline to another investor,…
Kingfisher employees get their salaries and get back on the job!
I initially thought that Kingfisher was not going to get out of the latest mess they got themselves in, but looks like finally the airline owner Vijay Mallya is more than eager to get it back on track. He was initially missing in action, and got branded an absconder by the media because he just wouldn’t come back to India on the next day of the crisis brewing into a lockout and grounding of the airline. However, when they seriously promised the 7-months unpaid employees 3 months salary within a month, like most of India, I believed this to be a hogwash so that Mr. Mallya did not have to face an embarrassment at the Indian Grand Prix, the Indian…
Do you still have a Kingfisher reservation?
Kingfisher might be gone, but there are people who have Kingfisher Airlines reservations out there. I had one for a couple of weeks back, and it took me a while to get it refunded because Kingfisher won’t pick the phone and the online travel agent I booked the ticket with was not going to make a ‘full refund’ till the airline did not update the ticket with instructions. Kingfisher, being in the dire straits it is, will not offer to put you on another airline if you booked their rock bottom fares and now don’t have a flight. So, you are best up booking on your own on another carrier. How to get your refund? Kingfisher was being proactive this…
So Long, Kingfisher!
I’ve got reader mail in the past few days about what was going to eventually happen to Kingfisher Airlines. I have to admit I’ve been very busy offline to respond, but like I wrote in my last post about this airline, their license was at stake a few days back. And now, it is finally over. Yesterday, the Indian aviation regulator DGCA, which had given Kingfisher Airlines 15 days to respond, finally went ahead and suspended the airlines’ aviation license. On October 5, Kingfisher Airlines received a notice from the regulator, with a 15-day timeline to respond. On October 19, Kingfisher responded back, asking for more time to respond to the notice. They had tried to convince the employees a…
Finally, Kingfisher’s license maybe at stake
Since the past ten months, Kingfisher Airlines has been in crisis mode and it has only grown worse over the months. Since the last weekend, there has been industrial action at the airline for the nth time, and the management grounded the shrunk fleet, first till October 4th and then till October 12th. All these days, it seemed the influential promoter was getting a free hand because of the political connections he had, and because the airline is too big to fail for all the banks who have doled out the debt to the airline in good times. At numerous times, the aviation ministry clarified, including earlier this week, that the airlines’ license is not at stake. However, there are…
Kingfisher: its not over yet?
My previous coverage of the Kingfisher Airlines and disruptions Kingfisher Airlines could just have been that lucky child which has been pulling off a lucky streak for the longest time. I am sure you’ve already read quite a bit on its current disruption, where unpaid employees have caused industrial action, which has been quoted as a reason by the management to ground all flights till October 4. While they may have had their reasons to not pay salaries for 6 months, I still don’t appreciate the management calling their employees’ actions Illegal, while not commenting on their own where they have not paid salaries for half a year (See press release here) The airline management, which was holidaying away, was…
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…
moneylife: My new column on tips for Kingfisher travellers
This week, I wrote some tips in moneylife for people who are booked to travel on Kingfisher Airlines amongst the current situation the airline is in. Check out my column here! Live From A Lounge is also present on Facebook, Twitter and available via RSS.
