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It is that time of the year that I take a 2 week break from work and virtually everything else (including blogging). Normally, I travel (usually overseas) on vacation, but this year has been (so far) and will be a bit different. I'm actually not going anywhere, and instead, have chosen to focus on some of my other hobbies and pursuits, such as photography and reading a few books that I've always wanted to. Which is also why I haven't been posting for the last week or so, and that will (likely) be the case up until the 2nd week of January 2014, unless of course there's something really interesting. In the mean time, I happened to come across these links for up to 33% off on various Hilton promos (specific to regions close to India), that I thought I could share with my readers. In the interest of full disclosure, please note that if you use any of these links to make a booking, I receive a small commission from Hilton. I appreciate your using these links. Thank you, and ...

Just the other day, I was thinking about what it was that made me hooked to travel and flying (and the hundreds of thousands of miles and points along the way). I mean, I've been a fan of travel programs, Air Crash Investigation and all of that over many years, but those really didn't cut it. And then it occurred to me, that it was probably the thrum of the split-flap display at Frankfurt airport on my first ever overseas trip. I'm talking about one of these. A split-flap display, sometimes simply flap display, is a display device that presents alphanumeric text , and possibly fixed graphics , often used as a public transport timetable in some airports or railway stations , often called Solari boards, named after display manufacturer Solari di Udine from Udine , Italy (Source: Wikipedia).  In today's more technologically advanced age, these manual split-flap displays have been replaced with electronic screens. Nonetheless, I've had some recent experiences with...

A few weeks back, I'd written about SPG's promotion for the first quarter of 2014 - Bring on the Nights . Registration is now open. Click on the image below to head to the landing page, and signup. Do remember, that booking on third-party travel sites (such as Orbitz or Expedia) will not earn Starpoints. As a refresher, here are the full T&Cs: SPG BRING ON THE NIGHTS TERMS AND CONDITIONS Member must register online at  spg.com/bringonthenights  by February 28, 2014, midnight EST. Member can earn 2,500 bonus Starpoints® after every (5) eligible paid nights, up to a maximum of 10,000 bonus Starpoints after 20 eligible paid nights. Member can earn an additional 5,000 bonus Starpoints once he/she has stayed 25 eligible nights. Member may earn a maximum of 15,000 total bonus Starpoints for nights from January 5, 2014, through April 30, 2014 (the "promotion period"). An eligible night is a night at any of the over 1,100 SPG® participating properties paying an eligible p...

The Indian skies (figuratively, of course) are full of news about the latest on Air India joining Star Alliance. The Board of Star Alliance decided to re-induct AI into *A earlier this week, and the official press release is here . AJ (Live from a Lounge) writes about it very succinctly,  here . A plan that was aborted in various stages - at least twice in the last 10 years - now looks more promising in terms of fruition. Star Alliance will take steps to integrate AI into the alliance, in terms of systems, processes, etc. This article from LiveMint suggests that the integration may well be completed in the next six months. However, I'm not entirely sure I agree with this piece in DNA , about AI pipping 9W to the post, in terms of joining Star Alliance. Yes, there was a time a few months back, when there was talk of 9W joining Star Alliance. However, in retrospect, the most charitable thing I could say about them at the time was that 9W was simply casting the net to find (a) suita...

A few months back, I had written about the Hilton Premium Club , a membership option that offered a set of very decent benefits for a reasonable price. I'd gone on to write this post on my request for a complimentary membership , which they acceded to. One of the benefits was a certificate for complimentary night's stay at a base category room at the Hilton Chennai (which is the hotel affiliation I had picked). So I decided to use this certificate, for an occasion that was coming up. I called them a week in advance, and had to give them my credit card number (for charging taxes), and the email confirmation arrived within minutes. In fact, it had the usual options for a room upgrade at - what I thought - was a reasonable price, but I didn't take it. The hotel is situated not too far from the airport, making it convenient for those arriving late in the evening. However, the area around the hotel is being developed for construction of the local metro, and I had a road-facing r...

The last few weeks have been relatively hectic in terms of travel, with quite a few (and different) hotel stays thrown in. This includes stays at the following places for which I've written up trip reports: The The Oberoi Grand, Kolkata The ITC Windsor, Bangalore The Radisson Blu Temple Bay Mamallapuram The Westin Velachery, Chennai The ITC Grand Central Mumbai The ITC Rajputana, Jaipur and the following pending ones, that should see the light of day pretty soon: The Hilton, Chennai The Hilton Garden Inn, Baani Square, Gurgaon. But recently, I was part of a corporate offsite event at a rough-it-out back-of-beyond outpost, and stayed in a tent like this one, with 12 of us to a tent! And can I tell you, it was awesome! After all those hotel stays, it was most definitely a change. At the end of it all, a few of my colleagues - who know how much I love traveling and staying at different hotels - asked me what I missed most at the campsite that I could have easily taken for granted at h...

Hilton today announced a preview for HHonors members (will go public on 16 December), for up to 33% off on most Hilton properties in Europe, Middle East and Africa, valid on weekend stays till the end of 2014. Booking period is 16 December 2013 to 31 January 2014. So the sale period is the same for HHonors members and non-members, but it does give members a couple of extra days to work out their plans. The discount will be between 15% and 33%, is on the easy cancellation rates (usually called Best Flexible rate, and includes the easy cancellation Bed & Breakfast rate) for weekend stays (Friday, Saturday & Sunday). The weekend is defined as Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the Middle East. I searched for rates at one property in each of Europe, ME and Africa and found the following results: Hilton Tower Bridge, London Conrad, Cairo where the cheapest room was actually this: Hilton Johannesburg, South Africa In all, the 33% discount does seem to work. Full T&Cs of the offer a...

Citibank's Premier Miles recently updated its program to add new redemption / transfer partners, which I wrote about a few days back . This included transferring PM miles to HHonors, at the rate of 1 PM = 1.25 HHonors points. The interesting update to that, is a bonus 5k HHonors points when you transfer 10k Premier Miles to your HHonors account. This is valid for transfers done till 31 December 2013, which must be done over phone. In effect: So what's the deal and the value proposition here? Citi PM miles are redeemable for flights across airlines, when you book through their portal. The conversion rate is 1 PM = Rs 0.50 - since they actually buy the tickets by using up points. Therefore, 10k Citi PM miles is clearly valued at Rs 5,000. And so you're effectively buying HHonors points at 1 point = Rs 0.25, under this offer. Now, you will need between 5k to 40k HHonors points for a one night stay at various Hilton properties in India, compared to a cash cost of Rs 5k and up...

Tripadvisor recently conducted a survey of airlines in India, and covered various parameters including: Best and worst airlines, Which carriers are perceived safe and unsafe, Ratings for each airline on a list of criteria, Areas of improvement, Price / service preferences, Social media connect, In-flight requirements and preferences. Survey results and my thoughts The results of the detailed survey were published by The Economic Times yesterday , and I'm summarising the graphics below. Click on each image for a larger view. All images and survey copyrights belong to Economic Times and Tripadvisor.  Overall, I think the results are fairly representative of the Indian market. After all, that is the purpose of a survey, isn't it ;-)?  For ease of readability, I'm including my own thoughts and perspectives after each image below. I'm not sure of India has a " favourite " airline as such. The survey suggests that it might be Indigo, but it isn't so by an overwh...