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Accor's Le Club program has always struck me as a rather laid back program, not over-eager to please the customer. But I do like some of the rates they offer when they have their twice-a-year 50% off sales, and the occasional one-off, as well as the predictably frequent complimentary sign-up for Platinum Tier ( the September offer is still open - see here ). However, as of this morning, I see that they've significantly upped the ante, and their offerings in the Le Club program. A lot of new and improved benefits have been introduced, many of which are comparable with top / elite tier benefits that other major chains like HHonors, SPG, etc. These changes also have the effect of making the program way more compelling to use now (I'm not much of an Accor guest), than before. More importantly, I really like their new interface . Here's a quick update on what's changed, though I'm not sure I've captured all changes. But I hope I've identified the most interes

Many years ago, in a personal world that was devoid of the pleasure (and pain) of any interest in miles and points and things of that ilk , I'd stayed at the Marriott London County Hall for about 3-4 days, which was an amazing property as I recall it. Though it was a corporate rate booking, the friendly hotel staff suggested I register for the Marriott Rewards program, and since there was no apparent downside to it (there still isn't), I did sign up. That stay netted me a few thousand points. And since  I don't stay with them, these points are (were?) still lying in my account that I had signed up for. Now, late last week, I had written about an offer for complimentary Marriott Rewards Silver status upon sign up, and going by mantra of Any Status is Good Status , I just had to signup for it. But it applied only to new accounts. So now I was left with two accounts - one Silver with no points, and the other - just a base category - with some points which would get me a nigh

Mumbai seems to be the second most honest city in the world, after Helsinki, Finland!  In a study of ethics, morals and responsibilities by researchers for Reader’s Digest, conducted across 16 cities, Helsinki in Finland topped the list, which involved dropping 12 wallets containing the local equivalent of GBP 30 in each of the selected cities, and tracking the return rates.  The cities considered for this study, and the overall results are as below. You can read more in this report from the Daily Mail , which also provides some interesting sidelights about the study, including the consideration of the relative value of GBP 30 in each of the countries sampled. Now, this rating sounds great for India. And a good part of the results seem to reflect the general perception of honesty in each city.  But being the skeptic that I am, I wonder if the relative rankings of some of these cities could have been different, had the sampling of cities and countries been different. For instance, I do

Marriott is offering a 50% off for a single night, till 31 July 2014, in exchange for registering for / subscribing to their eNewsletter. I'm not sure what the connection is, but I think the fact that it is for a single night's stay may well be suggestive of promoting Thai tourism, if you know my meaning... But well...its there to be had. I know this isn't exactly an India-focussed deal, but I'm looking at another trip to BKK soon, and I think there could be others who might benefit from this. The 50% off is on the highest available rate. Bookings cannot be done online. Instead, it will have to be done by emailing bookmarriott@marriotthotels.com or by calling the hotel and quoting your cluster code (which is D58) and the voucher number (see steps below for getting the voucher). Do remember to carry a print of the voucher and present it upon check in. Participating hotels are: BANGKOK Renaissance Bangkok Ratchaprasong Hotel Bangkok Marriott Hotel Sukhumvit Marriott Exe

I recently wrote about the Air India-SBI co-branded credit card , which has some rather unique features. In particular, this includes the uniquely high level of threshold bonuses. Now, reader Deepak MV has an ongoing spreadsheet on Google Docs that he keeps updating, and at my request, he has been most kind in updating that spreadsheet to include the AI-SBI card as well. Thank you, Deepak! You can find that spreadsheet here . I'd only like to add, that the spreadsheet shows you results for an annual spend of Rs 300,000. But as I had reported earlier, higher spending thresholds lead to much higher bonuses, more than proportional. And if you want to reach Deepak, then  you can contact him here . I do hope this helps you in your search for the optimum credit card in India!

Though some of them are really smart and efficient, in general, Air India's crew isn't known for its friendliness, and certainly won't be winning any popularity contests. They're usually surly, and also been known to occasionally protest, and strike work if the need arises. So it should come as no surprise that AI's crew - the one that flies to Australia on the new Dreamliners - has complained to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) in Australia, that they don't get much rest on that flight, and that they won't be responsible if there are violations or safety mishaps on that route (DEL-MEL/SYD). WHAT? This newspaper report  from the Mumbai Mirror states, that the crew had written to the DGCA a couple of weeks back, demanding that they be allowed to rest in a scientific manner . What science, I wonder! Significantly, the report also lists out the rest related terms forming part of an agreement between CASA and DGCA, dated November 1, 2010. The entitleme

I'm a blogger purely for personal reasons - mainly because I love to travel and I love to want to write! This blog helps me do that, and I'm encouraged by your readership, so I'd like to thank you for that. With this in mind, I've activated my presence on Facebook, which you can reach by clicking here . I'd love for you to follow me there, or on Twitter @miles_even_more. Given that the Facebook page is being launched now as opposed to earlier, I realised it is pointless to replicate some of the posts on this blog, which have likely lost their value, being time-bound in nature. So, as of now, I've updated the Facebook page with posts of some continuing relevance or permanence. See you there!

Image courtesy: The Hindu Business Line I’ve written in the past about how under-matured the Indian market is, as regards loyalty programs. You can read more about that here , and as a friend of mine mentioned earlier today, the India scenario is probably 15-20 years behind most mature markets. I can’t disagree. But here’s a little something to perk up your day, particularly if you fly Air India. Now, I used to detest flying AI (OK, detest is probably too strong, but you get the general drift, right?), but of late, I’ve found them to be pretty OK, considering that in the full-service airline market in India, their only competition is from Jet Airways, who are trying their best to compete with AI as to who’s worse! Plus, Jet's FFP - Jet Privilege - isn't exactly the greatest loyalty program around. So when Air India and State Bank of India recently launched their co-branded credit card, the Air India – SBI Signature credit card, I was definitely interested. At the time it was an

It’s raining elite status! It has been a week of free elite status deals, beginning with the instant  Hilton HHonors Silver (with complimentary Gold after just 4 stays) , to the free Marriott Rewards Silver status on signup . While both of these were targeted at Accenture employees, both programs seem to have no process for verifying employment status, and so in a sense, these are quite freely usable. Caveat emptor, though! LoyaltyLobby  is to be thanked for the next in this line of statuses, which is the Platinum with Accor LeClub. Now, Accor keeps coming out with such free Platinum status deals every once in a while, which could be useful. Here’s the link to the signup page . Just remember, that this is applicable to new accounts only. You cannot use this link to upgrade an existing non-Platinum account to a Platinum account. I know that’s a shame, but that’s what it is. But Accor does have 13 properties across India, at these locations: Ahmedabad Bangalore Greater Noida Gurgaon Hyd

It was a quick visit - and I mean it when I say QUICK! No more than 20 minutes. I had recently received my Amex Jet Airways Platinum credit card , and for some reason that I can't recall now, I couldn't use it in BOM the last time I was there. So naturally, I was quite keen and excited to use it in DEL when I was there last week. The lounge is in the domestic terminal section of Terminal 3, and located just near where the main concourse splits (to the right for Air India flights, mainly; and to the left for all others). The agent at the front desk asked for my boarding pass (I was flying AI, not that it matters), and my Amex credit card. He invited me in, and mentioned that he'd return the boarding pass and credit card in a minute. The lounge itself is rather small - possibly no more than 20 seats - and there was a small round table for two that was free, so I parked myself there. Almost immediately, the hostess came over with a menu card, and asked if I wanted something to

 To me personally, every stay in a hotel is usually at one end of the spectrum or the other – pretty good or pretty bad. And even the ones that start off on the wrong foot, more often than not, end up being a good stay because the hotel considers it important and does what it takes to ensure that the overall experience is positive (and no! I don’t mention that I’m a travel blogger, or do the DYKWIA act!). You can read about some of my recent hotel stays here . So it is not often that I’ve come back from a hotel stay, unsure of my opinion. My recent stay at The Westin Velachery in MAA is something I can’t really straitjacket into a simple opinion. I stayed there for just one night, to attend a wedding in MAA. The two-day event was quite hectic, and I was tired through all of it after having woken up at 4 am on a Saturday morning. I’m beginning to think that might have been the reason for my petulance. Anyways… The hotel itself is rather new – a property that was recently opened. From th

Hot off the press news for today is that the TATAs are looking at a joint venture with SIA (the company that owns Singapore Airlines / SQ) to set up a full-service airline in India. The proposal is for Tatas to own 51%, and SIA 49%, with a projected investment of US$ 100 million (and I'm sure there will be lots of debt involved!). The proposed airline is to be headquartered in New Delhi. For this blog, this is an interesting development, given that I had recently written about how many airlines operate in the Indian skies . Readers may be aware that the Tatas are one of the Indian joint venture partners with Air Asia, to set up Air Asia India, based in Chennai. Air Asia India was announced in February 2013, and they expect to start operations in the first quarter of calender year 2014. It is interesting, that this is the Tatas' third attempt at the Indian Aviation sector, after the aviation sector was opened up for private participation in the early 1990s. Their first try was a

I think in today's times, it helps to be an Accenture employee. I'm only talking from a miles and points perspective, of course!!! A few days back, I had written about complimentary Hilton HHonors Silver status (with upgrade to Gold in 4 stays) , which was intended for Accenture employees - not that employment was ever verified by Hilton. Now (and I'm not sure if it is just a case of following suit in the spirit of competition), Marriott is also offering complimentary Silver status for Accenture employees. Normally, Silver requires 10 qualifying stays. Here's the link to the sign up page . So, what does Silver with Marriott get you? You can see the benefits for Silver here , and the entire set of benefits for the Marriott Rewards program here , but to summarize the key ones: 20% bonus points free internet access at participating properties in Asia-Pacific late checkout (YMMV) weekend discount of 10% at specific brands / properties access to elite-only rewards some level