I don’t know if the timing of this bit of news was timed such, but the formal announcement of Jet Airways seeking Government of India’ permission to join the Star Alliance came out in the open exactly a year after Air India’s joining the alliance was put on hold. A news report published in the Mint (an editorial collaboration with the WSJ) last night puts out in the open what has been long known to be Jet Airways’ and Star Alliance’s secret ambition. After Air India’s attempts to join *A faulted and Kingfisher Airlines shrunk rapidly to keep out of oneworld, this is the third attempt of an Indian carrier to join an airline alliance. A meeting between Jet Airways…
Star Alliance
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Turkish Airlines’ still status matching to Star Alliance Gold
A couple of months back I wrote that Turkish Airlines was freely matching top-tier elites from SkyTeam, oneworld and even Star Alliance to their own program Miles & Smiles. While we would have expected that this opportunity would have quickly closed out, it turns out that Turkish is still out there matching up folks to its program, though various people report a hit and miss scenario. Some have received their status match confirmation in a day while others have not heard for over a few weeks. My brother, who is an elite on another airline and ends up flying Star Alliance to and around the USA a couple of times a year, received his match earlier this week within 24…
ANA to return to Delhi after a decade
As per AirlineRoute.Net, ANA is going to be return to Delhi with a daily service which starts from 28 October 2012. ANA last flew to Delhi directly in 2001, with a one-stop service via Bangkok. The service will be operated with a Boeing 767-300ER, while it used to be serving with a Boeing 777-200ER earlier. This will be the second destination in India for ANA, which already serves Mumbai on a daily service on the Boeing 737-700ER. Bookings will open on the ANA website and via travel agents on 12th July 2012. This should sure make life easy for frequent travellers between India and Japan. Live From A Lounge is also present on Facebook, Twitter and available via RSS.
Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles now offers a Family Club
I recently wrote about the status match opportunity for Star Alliance Gold & BMI that was being offered by Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles. Turkish has now upped the game some more and is offering a Family Club sort of program where miles from the entire household can be credited to the account of one family member (above 25 years of age) and the family will receive their status miles in their own accounts. This facility has been made available to all their status holding members (TK Classic Plus/Elite/Elite Plus). As per the official release: Family membership consists of your spouse and single children under the age of 25. As an Classic Plus/Elite or Elite Plus card holder, you can…
Star Alliance Gold Status Match for Star Alliance, oneworld and Skyteam elites
A few days back I wrote about the Turkish Airlines Star Alliance status match, which has been going on for a while now. A lot of people have mailed in enquiring if they could get a Star Alliance status match for themselves. Usually, any alliance will not match members from its own alliance, however, looks like with Turkish, it is different. As per a MP member Jimgotkp who posted on the MP thread I started in this regard, Requested mine last night but was told only *G, ST E+, and OW E get status matches So, this is good news for all those who want to get a *A gold status and do not travel too much. If you are…
Turkish Airlines status matching up to Star Alliance Gold
Turkish Airlines, as a member of the Star Alliance, has started to status match members of the BMI Diamond Club program on the announcement of BMI getting sold to IAG (British Airways) and hence breaking away from the Star Alliance. However, as it is now turning out, Turkish is also status matching into other alliances. As of today the following status matching is being done: Silver on another carrier (BD/Another alliance) –> TK Miles and Smiles Classic Plus (*A Silver) Gold on another carrier (BD/Another alliance) –> TK Miles and Smiles Elite (*A Gold) No status match to the Miles and Smiles Elite Plus (TK’s top tier) Status is good for 2 years from the date of status match. Requalification:…
Air India back in the running for *A, taking Jet Airways along?
Just a couple of days back I was flipping through the Star Alliance magazine, and was wondering where were they going with Air India because there was no mention in the magazine of AI. However, it definitely was not a closed chapter since AI definitely needs to get into an alliance (amongst other things), to be able to get more traffic on its planes and shore up its finances. Last year, *A left AI on the altar when the airline was grabbing all the wrong headlines for safety issues, financial issues and the systematic failure that it was going to become. There was also news that the Government of India did not appreciate that *A wanted a second partner in…
Ongoing travel contests for your benefit!
I thought I’d pop by to give all my readers a quick reminder on the contests that are underway right now courtesy of the various travel services, which could help you get yourself some privileges or free nights in case you choose to participate. a) IHG Memorable Weekends contest: Like I mentioned in my post last week, Intercontinental Hotels Group is running a fantastic contest for its patrons in India, Middle-East Asia and Africa, where they are giving away free weekend packages for a family and 25 free nights at Holiday Inn and InterContinental properties in the regions. You could use the packages anytime up to December 31, 2012. As of now, only 50 entries are being voted upon at…
Spanair frequent flyers to get status-matched on other Star Alliance carriers
Late January, the Spanish regional carrier Spanair ceased operations. Spanair was a member of the Star Alliance. In a goodwill move by Star Alliance and Spanair, the airline is offering its Gold and Silver tier members of the Spanairstar program, a onetime opportunity to match to another Star Alliance carrier. Eligible Spanair members would have received an email from the airline in this regard. However, if you qualify and you haven’t heard from Spanair yet, Star Alliance advises the following action: If you are SpanairStar Gold or Silver member and still haven’t received the email from Spanair about the SpanairStar Status Match by 23 February, please contact us at status.match@staralliance.com and we will direct your concern to Spanair. Please include…
Your shot at Star Alliance Gold status and Round-The-World Business Class trip
Star Alliance has a new contest up and running for all of us, called Picture your Upgrade where the grand prize offers Star Alliance Gold status and a couple of Round The World Business Class tickets on Star Alliance carriers. The contest, open for participation till 4th April 2012, has a series of tasks where iPhone, Android and BlackBerry phone owners can find themselves using their phones to make entries using a special app for this contest, available for download on your respective App Stores. There are 7 weekly tasks on offer, and each task started last for two weeks. For instance, the first task was to click pictures of three airport departure boards using the app described above, and…
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),…
