My question seems to have been answered. Via the Mint newspaper, it seems like the CEO board of Star Alliance finally voted to receive Air India in their network, and Air India will be joining the network formally about 20 days from now: State-owned Air India Ltd will join the Star Alliance grouping on 11 July … The person cited above said the airline will join the alliance on 11 July and one of Air India’s Airbus A320 will be painted in Star Alliance colours for the event. As per the Wandering Aramean, Air India has begin to show up on the Star Alliance internal websites as well, and you can check out this information at www.starallianceemployees.com. There is a…
Star Alliance
Tag Archives for Star Alliance.
Air India to be finally a part of Star Alliance soon?
I guess there is not much suspense left in this one, but I am still not saying it is done till it is done. If you remember, one of the earliest posts on this blog was about Air India being jilted from the Star Alliance. Now, their is much begging, pleasing and a lot of backroom action that has happened in line up to today’s meeting of the CEO board of Star Alliance, where Air India’s membership for the Star Alliance will be voted upon the second time in seven years. Word is expected later this evening about the outcome. Air India joining the Star Alliance not just gives Star Alliance members access to facilities and flights of Air India…
Air India looks all set for Star Alliance this summer
Hot on the trails of SriLankan Airlines joining oneworld, Air India seems to be working on all frontiers to get set to join Star Alliance. While there have been a lot of news reports in the past couple of days, this interview with the CEO of Star Alliance, Mark Schwab seems to nail the date down to June or July 2014 after an endorsement from the CEO’s of other Star Alliance members as of 23 June 2014. Our CEOs get together in London on the occasion of the new Star Alliance terminal at London Heathrow on 23 June where we expect an endorsement vote to be taken up on Air India joining Star. And we are just beginning to coordinate…
Air India expected to join Star Alliance by Summer 2014
This has been the subject of discussion since 2007: the inclusion of Air India in Star Alliance. Like I discussed in December 2013, Air India had finally got its second invitation to be included in the Star Alliance, with the first one having been put on hold in July 2011. While it seems far fetched that Air India will move in such a fast speed to be included in the Star Alliance, the Alliance CEO Mark F Schwab, who visited Air India last week in Mumbai, seems to be confident that the airline would be included in the alliance as per Summer 2014. Here is a quote from the Aviation Week: Without giving a specific date, one can say that…
Peeping into 2014 for the Indian skies
I’m back at my desk early this morning thinking and all excited about how 2014 would shape up for work, personal life and my travel plans. As an aviation geek, of course, I am looking forward to trying out new products in the skies and trying to decide what goals should I work towards in 2014. This year might just be a very exciting year for Indian aviation. Here is why: Air India might get accepted into the Star Alliance this year. Air India has been trying to get into the Star Alliance for a long time. After much back and forth, last month, they got invited to join the Star Alliance the second time over. Whether they will join…
Air India finally gets invited into Star Alliance
It has been a nerve-wracking journey for Air India, but they finally made it. Okay, inspirational speech over. Now time for the real thing. Back in 2007, Air India was invited to join the Star Alliance, with Lufthansa sponsoring its entry. The Government of India practically dropped their pants to make concessions for Lufthansa group to get Air India into the alliance. And then, in July 2011, at the last minute, Air India’s entry into the Star Alliance was put on hold. Ever since then, there has been push and shove, and Jet Airways was also invited to join the alliance. In the backdrop, Air India kept pursuing the alliance again and again. Star Alliance may have been forced to…
Air India offered oneworld invitation by Qatar Airways?
This is just a news report at this moment, but it looks like Air India has grown tired of insisting upon Star Alliance to let them into their group, and is now using other tactics to try and get them to make up their mind. Air India’s application to join Star Alliance was put on hold at the last moment in July 2011. As per this news publication, Qatar Airways is ready to sponsor the entry of Air India into oneworld. What beats me, is that they aren’t even a full member themselves yet (will be inducted on October 30), but they’re going around promising airlines their support for membership. A senior Air India official said that Qatar had approached…
Avianca LifeMiles offering a 100% bonus on buy miles promotion
Avianca, one of the latest airlines to join the Star Alliance, is offering a 100% bonus on buying miles for miles bought through August 30, 2013. They last offered a similar promotion in April. If you choose to buy miles through this promotion, you basically get to buy miles at 3 cents per mile, for up to 75,000 miles. What you get eventually is 2x of the miles @ 1.5 cents per mile. Why is this program turning out to be important, and mentioned on a India-focused frequent flyer blog? Hey, they have a reasonable award chart for flights in the premium cabins. An India to USA roundtrip in business class on Star Alliance costs 130,000 miles plus some taxes.…
Deal Alert: LA –Mumbai flights on Turkish for $785
Via Airfarewatchdog, there is a fare out there on Turkish Airlines for travel between Los Angeles and Mumbai (round trip), which is pricing out only at $785 for Economy travel. There are quite some dates available in February 2014. Just turn up on www.turkishairlines.com and look out for the fare with various dates within the specified dates above. While there are $785 fares, there are also other fares for a little upwards of $800 in case the lowest fare does not work for you. I’ve usually flown this route at an average price of $1300 on other airlines in the past, so it looks like a great deal coming if you’d like to fly over to India. And while you…
Air India’s attempt to sneak into Star Alliance
Air India seems to be making all the right moves while its competitor for the Star Alliance membership Jet Airways is busy trying to make a strategic alliance with Etihad. What I cannot figure out is, why was the Indian Civil Aviation ministry’s unnamed officials making all the noises about the conversations between 9W/EY before it was formally announced. Anyways, as per more noises from the said ministry and a newspaper report published today, seems like Air India and the ministry (the owner of Air India) are reaching out to the member airlines of the Star Alliance to get them to vote in favour of Air India joining the alliance. They also insist that airlines are conveying to the civil…
Reinstating your Turkish Airlines (*Alliance) Gold Account
A couple of months back I wrote about the cancellation of Turkish Airlines accounts, perhaps those which used services like AwardWallet to keep an updated balance. Turkish has been out there issuing a status match to Star Alliance Gold level status for everyone who has top-tier status with Star Alliance, OneWorld and Skyteam, something I first wrote about in May. Now, Turkish ‘suspended’ my own account as well due to the same reason, and I had to work on fixing it. Reason I say same reason, is because my mom’s TK account is not on AwardWallet, so her account survived while mine went. The first few emails did not work. Then I eventually got a response saying my account was…
