A few days ago I wrote about the recent arrangement between Spicejet and Optiontown to offer a few of Optiontown products on Spicejet. A few days later, the PR machinery of Optiontown went about town talking about the services and possible pricing. Here are some quotable quotes: On the Flexible Rewards Option, where you could surrender your seat on a potentially full flight and get another flight ticket to your destination, along with a small reward: A passenger can earn up to Rs 1,500 by agreeing to fly on a different time and enabling the airline to make money by selling the seat to a last minute passenger. From Spicejet’s own website on the Flexible Rewards Option: If Optiontown moves…
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Comparing @Jetairways, @Indigo6e and @flyspicejet
I recently discussed the new presence of Indigo on Twitter, which makes it the fourth domestic airline from India to get on Twitter. The other ones, in the order of their Twitter account being established are/were: @JetAirways (2008), @FlyKingfisher (2008), @FlySpiceJet (2009) and now @Indigo6e (2013). Now, I am no social media expert, but I thought I’d share my thoughts and experiences with you on all the Indian airlines on Twitter. Twitter, in my view, is a broadcast-engagement channel for individuals and businesses now. It came a long way from being microblogging, where one put out one-liners about what they were feeling or doing. Maybe my views are colored by my great experiences with @AmericanAir and @DeltaAssist, with whom I…
Spicejet introduces Flexifly: optional add-ons to your flight
Spicejet has worked up an interesting suite of optional services, labelled FlexiFly in a tie-up with Optiontown and launched them publicly a couple of days ago. For those of you who don’t know about Optiontown, it is a US-based company working in the field of travel options, i.e., helping travel providers maximise revenue, and travellers buy add-on services at a lower cost. Here are the options that have been brought in: Multiple Booking Option: Hold confirmed availability on more than one flight, and choose upto 24 hours before departure Empty Seat Option: Get a confirmed extra seat next to you, upto 24 hours before departure Preferred Flight Option: Book a different flight if your preferred flight is not available, and…
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…
Kuwait Airways in the fray for Spicejet?
I know it is easy for names to be thrown around, but this one seems to be from a credible source. Spicejet has changed hands and names quite a few times, with the last being the change of management control, when Spicejet was sold to the Sun Group of India. Rumors going around were that Qatar Airways will be investing in the airline. However, Qatar Airways has rubbished this in the past. Last evening, Indian dealmaking website VCCircle however talked about a new participant in the deal, and they say Kuwait Airways may be interested in picking up about 25% of the airline, for a sum of Rs. 1,000 Crores (about $166 million). Unlike Jet Airways where the deal also…
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…
Philippines refuses Jet Airways, Myanmar says hello to India
Jet Airways, which has been wanting to launch a flight to Manila for the longest time, has recently been refused permission to fly to the airport by the Civil Aeronautics Board of Philippines, as a result of growing congestion at the airport. According to the Philippines CAB official, 9W had applied for landing slots between 07h00 and 19h00, the busiest time of the day for the airport and the possibility of using other airports in the country was ruled out as most were not night rated and are limited to day time operations. On the other hand, Myanmar has granted India fifth freedom rights, which means that Indian airlines will now be able to operate revenue flights between India and…
GoIbibo flash sale today offering discounts on Jet Airways/Air India (10-12 PM IST)!
Goibibo.com has a flash sale which will be starting up a 4PM India time, and will go on till midnight today (26 May 2013). During this timeframe, they will be doling out different discount codes for different airlines during the day. Here are the discounts being offered: 4-5 PM IST: Rs. 1000 off on GoAir, on a minimum booking value of Rs. 4000 (roughly 25% off), and tickets can be booked for any dates. The promocode for this one is GOS1000. [Over] 8-9 PM IST: Rs. 250 off on Indigo and SpiceJet on a minimum booking value of Rs. 4000. The promocode for this one is GOS250. [Over] 10-12 PM IST: Rs. 300 off on Air India, Jet Airways and Jet…
How to work the current fare sales in India: a primer
I thought I bored you guys enough with the barrage of fare sales that hit yesterday. There were one too many: Jet Airways, Indigo and then Spicejet. I know all of you are not being able to get through, so I will try and do the best I can to help you. First, lets go with Jet Airways. In the post I wrote yesterday, I told you the basics of their offer. There was a small footnote there, which I was not sure of at that moment, and hence not in the main text. Small tip: look for one-way tickets. Round-trip will not show the correct fares! It turns out that Jet Airways has now included this in their terms…
Spicejet enters the fare war with Jet Airways
I’ve had a long day full of meetings, and I’ve been not exactly in front of the computer all day long. So to recap, Jet Airways made the biggest fare sale in recent times this morning, and if you haven’t got in, there is time ahead. Next, Indigo matched it and undercut by a small amount. Now, Spicejet took it upon themselves to be in the game as well. So, as if the 2013 INR fare sale they made in January was not enough, they announced the new sale a short while back on Facebook. While I am not clear at this moment if this covers all their sectors, I checked randomly and I found some good deals on a…
Spicejet is all set for Guanghzou
Spicejet has been working on a maverick strategy to open up new routes rather than just operating on the tried and tested ones. They were the first ones to set up operations to Pondicherry with a Bombardier Dash Q400 a few days back, and opened up ops to Kabul, Male and Riyadh, places not frequented by your everyday airline in India. The strategy to work with new airports is working out for them it seems, with profits back in place this year. Now, they fly a Boeing 737 fleet (800 and 900ER series), and a Q400 fleet. They are going with a Boeing 737 to Guanghzou (South China) with a Delhi (DEL) – Guanghzou (CAN) flight ready to go this…
