Err, I know the sense of entitlement this post evokes, but stay with me, and hear my story of le-sigh and disappointment. The title of this post the exact words I heard from the TSA this evening at JFK. I am flying the American Airlines First Class in their 3-class Flagship Service First Class today, in fact this post is being written somewhere up in the air right now. This made me eligible to use the brand new Flagship Check-In service introduced by American Airlines earlier this month at Terminal 8, New York JFK. After a red carpet experience with American’s staff at JFK, the agent at the check-in counter hands me back my Indian passport and my boarding pass,…
Miscellaneous
Tag Archives for Miscellaneous.
Tough luck getting Delhi ADF refunds: Air India, Jet Airways & Indigo are a no go
Like I mentioned about two weeks back, flyers from Delhi are supposed to get a refund for their domestic or international flights, booked before January 1, 2013 and flying after. I did not get quite the enthusiastic response which I was not expecting anyways. Here is how various airlines and travel agents responded: Indigo, booked via GoIbibo.com (enquiry for 3 PNRs) Air India, booked via PremierMiles.co.in (3rd Attempt) Jet Airways, booked directly Like you can see, the airlines and the Online Travel Agents are passing the buck to each other and no one is either clear on this, or does not want to take on the responsibility. The total impact of all these tickets I am chasing up is Rs.…
Airlines cannot charge transaction fee anymore
Beginning of this week, the regulator of Indian aviation DGCA and the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) were slammed with a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of India, asking them to explain all the charges that are imposed on top of the base fare of the ticket, such as the transaction fee which pops up just when you are ready to enter the payment details on the credit card page, something like this: The industry and its regulator were asked to explain the extra charges, and whether these had the backing/approval of the government. For instance, even the Mumbai and Delhi airport were asked to explain the extra User Development Fee charged. Here is an excerpt from the full newsreport:…
A few reasons to hop on board…
Over the months and the years, we’ve grown on from a single post a day to multiple posts a day blog, with some giveaways and time bound information coming your way. Some of them like the recent SpiceJet sale and the $600 fares to USA were specially of time sensitive nature. To help you get this information across in a timely fashion, here are a few ways of keeping in touch with me: Web: Hit up www.livefromalounge.com on your browser and save it in your favourites! RSS Feed: If you are an RSS reader kind of person, use Google Readers and others, you could subscribe to the RSS feed here. Email: If you like a copy of the day’s posts…
Miles make memories, o yeah!
I usually take commercials with a pinch of salt, but sometimes they do strike a chord somewhere. The MasterCard Priceless was one of those. And I’m writing this on a travel and mileage blog for the precise reason that there are slice-of-life priceless moments that your miles make possible. One of these happened with me less than 36 hours ago. Ever since I moved out of Delhi somewhere in the 2000s, I try and meet up the folks as much as possible, however, sometimes time and sometimes circumstances limit the occurrence. We still try and come together on special occasions. I was just back from my mileage run earlier in the week, and I was not even thinking of getting…
Access Indian airports without ticket printouts
A few months ago I’d blogged about how airlines had started to exploit the need to use an airline e-ticket print to access the airport concourse. Indian security regulations required a manual scan of the ticket by airport security to ensure only genuine passengers get to the airport. However, for whatever reason, they wanted paper, nothing on the phone or the iPad or the laptop. Entrepreneurial, airlines started to charge Rs. 50, and then hiked it up to Rs. 100 per printout of tickets, which they would earlier give out for free. The uproar this move to charge money created did force the sleepy bureaucracy to update the rulebook. Now, many a newspapers and websites are reporting that the Bureau…
I must be growing too old for this stuff!
Been off the grid for a short while, sorry folks! I just decided to take off to the USA for a last minute trip/mileage run and be here for a bit of the holiday season. And in the prelude to taking off from work, there is also the need to close out lot of things before going away. I’m writing this post from a hotel room in Los Angeles. And I have been here all of about 12 hours now in the city, but the interesting bit is, I left from my home 2.5 days back. So, it took approximately 28 hours of flying and 20 hours in transit, layovers, and whatever else to get here! Is this the correct…
India makes visa policies easier for tourists
A couple of years back, India made a big change to its visa policies for tourists for additional security measures. There was some abuse found of the tourist visa, with unscrupulous visitors making multiple trips. Policy was changed to not allow tourist visa holders back into the country within 2 months of making their last visit. Unfortunately, the policy did lead to a drop in tourist traffic to India, and now there is a rollback. Last week, India changed the policy to allow visitors to the country to travel on the same multiple entry tourist visa multiple times without a 2-month gap between their visits. Which means, if you wanted to make a landing in India and go around the…
Sometimes, I can goof up!
I’m sure this is not the first time in recent history I’ve done this, but I am just wowed at my capability to leave some miles on the table. I just happened to be checking into my HDFC World JetPrivilege account, and you can see for yourself what did not go right here… The lack of coffee is all that I can blame this on. If you haven’t found out what is wrong, your clue is hidden here. Related Posts: Sunday Plastic: Jet Privilege HDFC Bank World Credit Card Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.
Travel advisory if you’re coming to BOM today
Mumbai is under a sort of shutdown today due to the death of a political figure, due to which vehicles are off roads and public conveyance such as taxis have withdrawn from the roads and airports. Things are peaceful out there, but you could be stranded if you’re landing in the city today without a vehicle to pick you up. Airport authorities have organised shuttles to drop people to the nearby suburban train stations, but that is the best they could do. The following travel advisory from my airline for a flight I am supposed to take today, should give you perspective. If you have friends or family in Mumbai, ask them to pick you up from the airport. If…
Diwali wishes, and keep travelling…
Since the lone writer at the blog (yours truly), prefers to come home to the family during the Diwali festivities, you may notice a reduced posting frequency over the next few days. However, wanted to wish all of you in India and around the globe, a Happy Diwali. May your windfalls not just come in terms of cold cash, but also lots of miles and points to travel! If you’re travelling, safe landings and cheers! Live From A Lounge is present on Facebook, Twitter & available via email, RSS.
