maem

You can earn 3,000 JP miles for referring friends for subscribing to the  Jet Airways American Express Platinum credit card . This is subject to an upper limit of 15,000 JP miles. The referred friend receives a further bonus of 2000 JP miles. In theory, not bad. Click on the image below for the offer page. The real question is... Given the relative worthlessness of JP miles , other than for domestic redemptions, do you really want to risk losing up to 5 friends???

Finally some good news...Citibank PremierMiles can now be redeemed with four new redemption partners. The new partners and the redemption rates are as follows: Hilton HHonors - 1 PM = 1.5 HHonors points IHG Rewards Club - 1 PM = 1 IHG Rewards Club point Malaysia Airlines - 1 PM = 1 IHG Enrich mile Eva Air - 1 PM = 1 Infinity Mileage Lands mile I'm not sure of redeeming for HHonors points, after their recent devaluation. I'm neutral on IHG points and Enrich miles. The only thing I'd really like, if I could do it, would be to fly Eva Air's Hello Kitty service!!! On a more serious note, you will be aware that in general, Citi PM miles carry an airline redemption value of 1 point = Rs 0.50, which rate is used to price out redemptions against award ticket. This includes fuel surcharges, and so makes the award booking a bit simpler. In addition, there are also some other redemption partners, and the complete list of redemption partners and redemption rates is available here .

SPG's latest promo - Bring on the Nights - is about earning 2,500 bonus points for every 5 eligible nights stayed between 5 January and 30 April 2014. This is capped at 10k points, or 20 eligible nights. There's also an additional 5,000 points when you hit 25 stays. Registration is mandatory, and should be completed here on or before 28 February 2014 (registration is not yet open, starts in mid-December 2013). There seem to be no non-participating properties. You can opt in for information once registration opens. To opt in, text "BOTN" to 44264 in the U.S. or 447950080394 in the U.K.(typical rates apply). Here are the full T&Cs . To be honest, SPG's latest promo - Bring on the Nights - doesn't excite me. In effect, it comes down to 500 points a night (10k points for 20 nights), and at best, 1000 points a night (if you spend 25 nights), which I find to be too much effort for too little reward. Nonetheless, bonus points are bonus points! Do you think this

Air Asia is celebrating 5 years of operating in India, and so has launched a sale, for tickets starting at a base fare of Rs 500, ex-India (Chennai/MAA, Kochi/COK, Bengaluru/BLR, Tiruchirapalli/TRZ), to a list of cities across its network. Do remember, that Rs 500 is the base fare , and naturally there will be taxes and fees. However, it does seem that even on an all-in basis, the total fares may be quite good ! Click image to go to the landing page for the offer The real hitch, is that the booking period is from 25 November to 1 December 2013, for travel between 5 May 2014 and 31 January 2015. This will require bookings to be done really well in advance, which is not something I can personally commit to - I find the travel period to be quite far out for my schedule and type of work. However, if you have fairly firm schedules then this may be the one for you. The fares are also not available during an "embargo period", though I can't find any information on what that peri

According to this report , it looks like the FAA may downgrade India from Category 1 to Category 2, in its safety rankings. The FAA conducts the International Aviation Safety Assessment Program assessing the Civil Aviation Authority of each country which has carriers operating to the US. This is because the FAA cannot evaluate a foreign carrier within its own sovereign state; each country is responsible for the safety oversight of its own air carriers. Category 1 means the air carriers from the assessed state may initiate or continue service to the United States in a normal manner and take part in reciprocal code-share arrangements with U.S. carriers. However, Category 2 means the air carriers from the assessed state cannot initiate new service and are restricted to current levels of any existing service to the United States while corrective actions are underway. But here's the best bit! Because this will affect existing India-based airlines that fly to the US (AI, 9W) and the plan

Accor is coming up (or by now, has come out) with a Super Sale, with 30% off rates, and a free breakfast thrown in. The good part, is that Accor Le Club members are eligible for a higher discount - 40%! (Signing up for Le Club membership is free -  click here  if you want to sign up.) The offer is valid for stays between 15 December 2013 and 12 February 2014 . Stay period is also extended for specific countries: Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece: till 31 March 2014  United Kingdom and Ireland: till 27 April 2014  Belgium and Luxembourg: till 28 February 2014 Free breakfast is not available for stays with ibis, ibis budget, Adagio and Adagio Access brands. This seems like a rather good deal, and I suppose this is a direct promotion targeted at the end-of-year holiday crowd (like me, perhaps???). This offer is valid for reservations made: Between 19 and 29 November 2013, for Accor Advantage Plus members  Between 20 and 29 November 2013, for Le Club Accorhotels members Between 22 and 29

In August this year, I had written about a promo that Citibank was offering, which offered 50% bonus premier miles on all spends between 1 August and 30 September 2013, if you registered for the promo. This was a reasonably generous offer, and a couple of days back, I received confirmation that my bonus miles had been posted. You too should check if you've received yours, and if not, maybe take it up with Citi. Have your miles been posted? You can check your total PM miles balance, by texting "Rewards xxxx" to +91 9880752484 from your registered mobile number (where xxxx is last 4 digits of your Citi PM card).

I've been working on a comparative analysis of AI and 9W. Now I do realise that 9W has the Etihad deal going for it, getting one good thing after another (read government approval). And on the other hand, the Aviation Minister himself is saying that privatising AI wouldn't be a bad thing at all. Having said that, is 9W really the better airline out of India? I wanted to verify this myself, and so I started comparing them on several parameters. Very soon, I propose to do a multi-part post on the results, but what I don't have (being a JP member and flying very little AI till recently), is input on AI's Flying Returns mileage plan and redemption options. So any input on that front will be most welcome and appreciated. But if you have something to add on any other parameters, please do let me know, and I will try and incorporate that into my comparative analysis. Looking forward to hearing from you - just leave a comment below. Thank you!!!

I recently came across this article in the Business Standard , about Singapore Airlines' Asia Airpass targeted at ex-India fliers. It speaks about the introduction of a pass for Indian customers to enable them avail special fares for flights to US, Australia, NZ, Japan and China. To be clear, this is different from the Asia Airpass that Star Alliance offers , or even SQ's own Asia Air Pass , which are focussed on travel inbound into Asia. {I also don't understand the logic of two different promotions with virtually the same name.} Hoping for a good deal, I did more research, till I came up with info on SQ's website. Here's what I found. The offer is with SQ and SilkAir , valid in conjunction with long-haul travel out of India, valid for sales up to 31 March 2014. It is really meant for side-trips out of SIN, when you're otherwise flying India-SIN-XXX-SIN-India (that's what qualifies you under this offer, XXX being an airport that's not in South East Asi

Starwood is offering a rather decent stay for 3 nights, pay for 2 offer on select properties in Asia Pacific, provided all charges are settled with a Mastercard credit card. The offer is valid for eligible stays booked between October 28, 2013 and March 14, 2014 with the stay (including the complimentary third night) to be completed between December 2, 2013 and March 31, 2014. The complimentary third night must be used in conjunction with a fully paid consecutive, eligible two night stay in the same room. To make sure you get the promotion, Starwood advises that reservations are required through the spg.com/mastercard3for2 website or by calling the nearest Customer Contact Centre (refer to spg.com/contact ) and requesting promotion code “M3C”. However, you should note that not all Starwood properties are participating in this offer. The list of participating properties is here , and for my India-focussed readers, I've listed out the India-specific properties below. The Westin Gur

Over the last few months, Air India has had some unusual and some terrible experiences. In particular, their Dreamliner operations has been the one to routinely be in the news, although that seems to be more of an issue with Boeing's Dreamliner aircraft than AI themselves. And some of these may be serious issues. But there are also the ones that make you cringe, chuckle or laugh out loud, without compromising airline safety! So I thought, why not put together snippets of some of these recent events, if only as a comic relief from the otherwise boring (?) and mundane lives most of us lead ! And therefore, here goes...and you'll agree, that AI never ceases to amaze! Pilot locked out of cockpit Well, that's the hilarious upshot of it! Seems more like a maintenance issue, though. Stealing crew members Apparently, they stole alcohol (the miniature bottles) and some caviar from the flight. The article also begins with an incident of a pilot claiming flying allowances, even though

There's a long-running promotion from Hilton that I realised I haven't written about. However, given that it has a validity that isn't expiring any time soon, I thought I'd write about it today. The promotion is for 2x HHonors points on all stays at participating Hilton properties, for stays from 19 June 2013 (that's right, this is about 5 months old), but continues to be valid for bookings done till 1 November 2014 (you read right, its 2014). This offer does not require registration, but it does require specific booking against this package, which can be done here . The important point here is that it is valid only for stays with Hilton Hotels and Resorts, and not any of the other brands brands in the HHonors portfolio (like Conrad, Hilton Garden Inn, etc). From an India perspective, this means there are only 5 properties that will qualify for this offer, and 2 of them lack availability for the random dates I'd chosen to test out the pricing (21-23 November, 20

In the recent past, Hilton HHonors has offered both immediate status and fast track status, on a targeted basis to employees of specific organisations. One recent example was the one for Accenture employees, a little less than 2 months back. There's a similar promotion now for employees of GE, which gives you immediate HHonors Silver status, and a fast track to HHonors Gold status after completing 3 stays within 90 days. Here's the link to the promo . Registration is required before 31 December 2013 . The Gold status will be valid till March 2016 , which is great! Looks like there were a lot of technically ineligible people who signed up for their earlier offers, so this current promo is valid only where you register with your GE email ID...Smart !!! So, if you're a GE employee, this may be worth registering for. And if you're not, why not try and see if you have been targeted for a short cut to HHonors Diamond status ? Here are the full T&Cs: Offer only available

Hiya...You may or may not have noticed, but there's a functionality that I've added, for immediate feedback (reactions?) to posts on this blog. I'm really grateful for your readership, and so I'm requesting your assistance to develop this blog and make it better. I'm into this entirely for my personal reasons (you'll notice no ads, except the ones that google automatically inserts) and to talk about some points/miles information relevant to India. It only takes a moment to tick one of the boxes, but has the potential to give me immense insight into my readers' needs and reactions. You can see see this at the end of every post, and it looks something like this: You can tick one of the options - Wow! , Interesting , and So-so . As always, thank you for your readership and your support!

Hilton HHonors is offering a targeted promotion - short cut to Diamond status - on completion of only HALF the number of required stays. What they're doing is giving you double credit for the number of stays (mind you, its 2x for stays only, not nights / base points / etc), till 31 December 2013. If you've been targeted, hopefully you would've registered for this by now (or check your spam folder!). Or you can also try registering here . LoyaltyLobby reports , that sometimes calling customer service could help get registered, even if you weren't targeted. Remember to register before check-out date. What this could get you, is HHonors Diamond status benefits valid till 31 March 2015. Here are the full T&Cs: This exclusive offer is open only to the HHonors member who received the email from Hilton HHonors™ announcing this promotion. Offer valid for eligible stays completed between November 1 and December 31, 2013 (“Promotion Period”). HHonors members must first regi

Now, I know that this isn't entirely India oriented, but a deal is a deal, and any status is good status, right? So, Star Alliance has launched a promotion / game, that tests your knowledge of their Alliance and the benefits of Star Alliance Gold, with the prize being complimentary Gold status in one of their participating programs. There are a total of 36 prizes on offer. The offer is valid till 13 December 2013. You can play the game here . The winner/s is/are the one/s with the least time take to finish all activities and answer questions correctly. Some basic information: The game requires you to answer 5 questions One of the activities to complete is to rearrange a jumbled up suitcase - rather like a jigsaw puzzle. Do note, that if you choose to skip this activity, as with any other question that you choose to skip, there is a 30 second penalty. In reality, the time taken will depend on the speed of your connection, and the time they note is what is as per THEIR record, not YO

Close on the heels of the Citibank Premier Miles offer for a 2x points earning opportunity , HDFC Bank has announced a bonus of 1000 JP miles for spends of Rs 50k and more, during the period 22 October to 22 November 2013. Unlike the Citi PM offer, this is a direct earning, not an opportunity. This isn't much of a deal, and to be honest, its JP miles they're giving out , for goodness sake! Nonetheless, a little more to the kitty doesn't hurt. No registration required. So if you're planning on spending an extra 50k anyway (without affecting earnings on other cards), this may be something to keep in mind. Here are the full T&Cs : Offer Terms & Conditions This offer is valid on retail spends from 15th October, 2013 to 15th December, 2013 and on purchases made through JetPrivilege HDFC Bank Credit Cards This offer is not valid on cash withdrawal and loan products like EasyEMI spends Dial-An-EMI, Cash-on-Call, Balance Transfer, Balance Transfer on EMI, Jumbo Cash, et