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The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has downgraded India's aviation safety ranking from Category 1 to Category 2. This means a lot of things, including  Indian carriers cannot increase flights to the US Indian carriers are likely to undergo additional checks for existing flights to the US. The Indian carriers we're talking about here, as of now, are Jet Airways and Air India.  I'd written about this possible downgrade earlier, in November 2013. Both of these limitations are significant. Air India is looking to join Star Alliance soon, and while that may only help Star Alliance increase its India footprint, there is likely to be collateral effect of the FAA's downgrade of the DGCA, on the timing of AI's joining Star Alliance. As to additional checks - these can be undertaken at any time that an Indian carrier's aircraft is in the US. This could have huge effects on airline schedules, making their flight timings unreliable. The Indian authorities trie

So, earlier this morning I wrote about SpiceJet launching a new round of sales - 30% off on tickets booked between today (31 Jan) and 2 Feb, for 30+ days advance bookings, valid for flights till 15 April 2014. As with Round #1 last week, Indigo is already beginning to match SpiceJet, but without much publicity. For this test, I've tried ticketing for MAA-DEL on 4 March and DEL-MAA on 6 March.   As you can see, there's absolutely nothing to choose between the two. Same goes for bookings on yatra.com. and makemytrip.com: The only thing (so far) is that Jet and Air India haven't joined the sales. However, the interesting bit is that AI is priced lower than Jet, which is quite different from what I've experienced generally, which I also wrote about here . It will be interesting to see how this develops.

Did you miss out on the madness unofficially called the Great Indian Airfare Sale last week (January 21)? If you did, don't fret. SpiceJet has announced another sale, though not as good as the earlier one. Did the 2 ladies in the image give away the point that this was their sale #2??? The offer is a 30% off on bookings made between 31 January and 2 February 2014 , valid for travel on Monday through Thursday, with a 30 day advance purchase. This is for a limited number of seats. To be honest, there's no great conceptual difference in these key terms, between this round 2 and the earlier one, but for the fact that this round is only for 30% off and not 50%. This isn't a great period for airlines in India, so any way to build capacity and generate some cash may be a good idea. On the one hand, I think this round 2 has come back way too soon. On the other, I'm not sure if the other airlines will join this with a round 2 of their own, to match SpiceJet's offer. Let'

The Ministry of Civil Aviation in India today approved the operation of Airbus A380 aircraft into India. The text of the press circular is below: This is indeed great news, particularly for Emirates, Singapore Airlines, and Lufthansa, which operate a fleet of A380 aircraft globally. It is also good news for Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports, which are the only airports equipped to handle aircraft as large as the A380 (another matter, that all of them are private airports!). More importantly, this move may well be connected to Air India's imminent entry into Star Alliance - possibly even a bargaining chip by Star Alliance at this stage, to let AI in. Do remember, that SQ and LH are part of Star Alliance. But (and it's a big one, perhaps as large as the A380 itself), will any of those airlines fly to India any time soon? One must acknowledge that the A380 is the latest offering from the Airbus stable, and is supposed to be the world's quietest aircraft. Also,

A typical ticket issued by an Indian airline can be quite confusing, given that the base fare is often just a fraction of the total ticket price. This is particularly true of some airlines, which lump in all the base fares and charges into one single value. Also, some airlines (like Jet Airways) will show you the entire ticket price in the search results, like this: (though the break down is less than helpful): However, the final pricing is clear - if you check the radio button next to the fare, that's what you're eventually paying for. Just remember that on Jet, they automatically add travel insurance - be sure you select "No", if you don't want the insurance. Others, like Indigo, go all out to confuse you: A Re 1 base fare ticket, for a round trip (that's Rs 2 total), translates to ta total fare of Rs 9,326. What's worse, is this: And contrary to logic, round-trip fares on Indigo actually cost more than 2 one-way fares! Anyway, that's an off-topic ra

Last week, I had work in Mumbai, and was glad to "open" my account for 2014 with SPG at the Westin Garden City in Mumbai. To be honest, I had a choice of that, the Hilton Mumbai (International Airport), and the Sofitel at BKC. Nonetheless, the Westin worked because it was relatively closer to my place of work, compared to the other two, even if it involved a little bit of travel along both the morning and evening rush hour routes. And as I was going to spend only one night, it was fine, really. I found the hotel to be an imposing building (even by Mumbai's standards), set it its own lush gardens. That the hotel overlooks Mumbai's only national park is a bonus, though my room had a road view, albeit on a high floor. The first thing I noticed was this at the entrance lobby, and to be honest, it reeked of class! I checked in, and selected 250 SPG points as my SPG Gold gift - I was headed out anyway for drinks and dinner, and so I also had no need to access the internet.

The 50% off airfare sales started off by Spicejet on 21 January closed last night, as did matching sales by Indigo and Go Air. Air India joined this a day later, and its fare sales of up to 50% off is valid till midnight tonight (24 January 2014). A couple of days back, I'd written about when Jet would join this, and I predicted, about 6 hours later. I was wrong. It was more like 24 hours later. But they did join - in a twisted way. You won't find these low fares on Jet Airways per se, but you can find them on JetKonnect.com. JetKonnect offers all of Jet Airways' flights but as codeshare flights (marked as S2, and with a 3 digit flight number instead of 3). Also, the fare sale is only for today. So, if you want to hit it, head to JetKonnect's website . The only gripe I have is that fares are marked on G class, which means only a 50% mileage earning, instead of 75% or 100% that you'd normally get on JetKonnect or Jet Airways. But with a 50% fare waiver, lower mil

I came across this from Loyalty Lobby's post on a possible targeted offer for 100 bonus points in the Hyatt Gold Passport program. This offer is to celebrate the Chinese New Year, the year of the horse, and is open / valid till 15 February 2014. I know 100 points isn't much, but I suppose every little helps. All you need to do is visit the promo page , and enter your Hyatt Gold Passport number in the space provided, and click on "open my gift" . The terms & conditions say that "You must be a recipient of this offer to participate in this promotion" . Though I was not targeted, I tried this out, and was lucky because it seems to have worked. It may take 4-6 weeks for these points to be posted. I'm now hoping they will actually post these points. Hyatt has the following hotels in India, if you want to use your points: Grand Hyatt Mumbai | Hyatt Regency Delhi | Grand Hyatt Goa | Hyatt Regency Mumbai | Hyatt Regency Chennai | Park Hyatt Goa Resort

Hilton's latest promotion for Q1 of 2014 is the weekend promotion - which is called either Weekend Getaways or Weekend Rewards. I'm not too fussed which name you use. This is for stays up to 30 April 2014, and registration is required - click here . Under this promotion, you could earn bonus points as follows: 1000 bonus points per night of stay, and an additional 5000 bonus points for a weekend stay of 2 nights or more A weekend is defined as Thursday through Sunday. So that means you could earn up to 9,000 bonus points, if you checked it on Thursday and checked out on Monday (4x1000 plus 5000 points). That doesn't mean that if you check in before Thursday, you're ineligible. But only the "weekend" (as defined for this offer) stays will count for the bonus points promotion. This, of course, is in addition to whatever normal points you will earn for your stay based on your portfolio. There are quite a number of hotels that are not participating in this promo

So it all started yesterday morning, with SpiceJet announcing a surprise 3-day sale for up to 50% off on all flights till 15 April 2014, booked at least 30 days in advance, between 21 and 23 January 2014. A couple of hours later, Indigo joined, followed soon by GoAir - though these two did not make it official, they were matching SpiceJet's fares. By end of day, it was a mini-bloodbath ! It is now reported that starting today, 22 January 2014, Air India will be joining this fare war, offering 50% off on much the same terms - travel till 15 April 2014, 30 days advance booking. The only difference, is that tickets will be on for sale till 24 January 2014 (the others' are up to 23 January 2014). More blood on the battlefield. But maybe that's not entirely true. This is a rather lean period for airlines, at least till March 31, so if they can fill up more seats, why not? I'll post updates today if I can, on AI's expected offer, which will bleed their financial statem

If you're looking for a great deal on travel ex-India to locations that SpiceJet, Indigo or GoAir fly to, then today would've been a day of your dreams. And its not all over, there's 2 more days to go, though I don't know how much you'll be able to snag, in terms of a great deal. Earlier this morning, I first heard on the radio, then read, and finally wrote about SpiceJet's 50% off on domestic fares for travel till 15 April 2014, booked at least 30 days in advance. Then later in the day, I tweeted about how Indigo had joined the bandwagon. And finally, GoAir also joined them. I didn't check GoAir's website direct, but ClearTrip.com, the online aggregator sent out emails announcing the 50% off deal on all three airlines (SpiceJet, Indigo and GoAir). I promptly tweeted about this too! Unlike Spicejet, neither Indigo nor GoAir have launched these fare reductions officially. However, if you try and book on their portals, you'll be able to access the low

SpiceJet is offering a 50% discount on all its direct flights , for tickets booked on 21, 22 and 23 January 2014, as long as it is at least 30 days in advance of travel, and travel is on or before 15 April 2014. I heard this on the radio this morning, but at that time there was nothing on Spicejet's website. From what I've seen and heard, there are no capacity controls - all seats are on offer. But do remember, it is 50% off on the relevant fare bucket, so not all fares are equal! SG's website shows the following indicative fares, though I'm not sure they're "suggestive" ;-)...Nonetheless, this should be a good deal. This follows similar offers they had in 2013, including the one where they sold tickets at Rs 2,013 a pop, irrespective of sector. And as happened in those instances, the spicejet.com website has taken a beating - what with all those visits! If you do get lucky, here are the full T&Cs: Super Sale is valid on all direct flights on the Spice

I know its been a couple of weeks into 2014, but (and so) I thought I'd take stock of my status on the loyalty programs important to me. To be honest, almost all my travel is official (read: paid for by clients), which means I don't get to decide what airline I fly or where I stay, as often as I'd like to. Also, there are no co-branded credit card programs in India that will offer you status with airlines or hotels (in fact, it is usually the other way - airline status gets you fee waivers on high-end credit cards). Therefore, much of my status is through special promos or status matching, or in one case, simply good fortune in 2013. Also, you'll find that where I do have some level of elite status, it is usually mid-tier and not top-tier. This is a natural consequence of relying on promos. Read on, see if you've missed something, and equally importantly, see if I've missed an offer for elite status (in which case, do leave a comment; my thanks in advance!). Air