Short eats

I've been up to my eyeballs in work this past week, and this trend will, I am sad to say, continue for the next few months. So I don't expect to be posting much of detailed stuff. But I do hope that this new "column" called Short Eats - quick news - will help.

Here's what made it to my personal headlines this week.






SQ and SilkAir Australian offer


There's a lot of Australia bound traffic these days, from India. For instance, Air India plans two parallel circle trips, that go DEL-SYD-MEL-DEL and DEL-MEL-SYD-DEL, 15 minutes apart! And those are on Dreamliners, fares starting at just over Rs 40k in Economy.

However, flying into Australia (via SIN of course!) on SQ or SilkAir offers you up to 50% off on domestic flights in Australia, going as low as Rs 2500 per sector (all in, one-way, though this price is for some of their shortest routes). Valid for bookings till 31 August 2013, travel till 31 March 2014. Here are some route-specific fares:


Virgin Australia Sector
(Either Direction)		All-in One-Way
Add-on Fare (INR)
Sydney-Canberra
Sydney-Gold Coast
Melbourne-Sydney		Rs 2,500
Brisbane-Sydney
Brisbane-Melbourne
Melbourne-Gold Coast		Rs 3,500
Adelaide-Gold Coast
Brisbane-Cairns		Rs 4,500
Melbourne-Cairns
Sydney-Cairns		Rs 5,000

You could also consider the Singapore Airlines Visit Australia Airpass, if that works for you? This is in partnership with Virgin Australia. These are codeshare flights, so your Krisflyer miles are safe, and will add up too!

In addition, flying SQ or SilkAir to SIN offers a $40 credit voucher for use at shops, restaurants and lounges.

SPG deals - one old, one new


SPG Triple Treats closes 30 September 2013. I'd written about this earlier.



There's also a new deal - Elevate your Experience - offering a 20% discount on villa and suite bookings in Asia Pacific (India included).


FlySmiles double miles offer (and some others)


FlySmiles is the loyalty program of SriLankan Airlines (UL). The current promotion is for 2x miles in business and economy, on MAA-CMB (not the return, though). They operate 4 flights on this segment, including 3 on the A330. Business class on a 1 hours flight such as this isn't worth the money, but if you are planning to fly business anyway, or want to try something new, do give UL a shot. The business class product in particular, is far superior to Jet Airways' offering. And the only other airline operating this route is SpiceJet, which doesn't have a business class.

While on the topic, an identical 2x offer is available on TRZ-CMB (again, not on the return segment). There are also bonus miles offers on UL ex-MLE, to MAA, BLR, BKK, SIN and KUL. Oh, and UL isn't a bad airline! And there *IS* warmth in their service, for sure!

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