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So here's a scenario...you need to travel to two (or maybe more) different countries at around the same time. Your plans have also come up within a few days of each other, and you don't really have time to apply for each of the visas that you need, separately. Basically, you're $crewed ! I was in such a position last September, and had to make a conscious decision to decline one of those trips, which was rather sad. Thankfully, if one of the visas you need is from the UK, you'll be able to keep your passport with you (and use it to get other visas that you require) for a majority of the period of the visa application process. Here's what a  UK government website says: Passport pass-back is a user-paid service that enables customers to retain their passport for the majority of the application processing period. We anticipate take up by frequent travellers, particularly business visitors, holiday-makers planning tours around multiple countries and settlement applican

In December 2013, Star Alliance announced that they were working with Air India to integrate AI into Star Alliance, and that Ai would be joining them as a member airline. At the time, I wrote about what effects this could mean for us fliers, as well as AI and Jet. The first update on this front is that Star Alliance seems to be happy with AI's progress on the integration, as this piece  from the Economic Times reports. Christian Klick of Star Alliance's corporate office is quoted as saying...                  ...Integration of Air India with our network is on track.                  ...it's up to the airline to decide when to join the club, which currently has 28 members,                      including  Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and United.  and                  ...Air India will formally announce the joining date, as this is their prerogative. But what really surprises me is that it is expected that an official announcement may come in June, during the group's boa

GHA is running a flash sale that is likely to end tomorrow (28 March 2014). Others have written about this, so I won't talk about the sale itself; instead, I'm pointing you to Loyalty Lobby (one of my favourites). As advertised on the landing page for the sale, Asia properties are on discounts of up to 40%. However, this blog being India oriented, did some more research here, with some rather nice results. Firstly, the flash sale page shows you this. It would seem that the Kempinski Ambience Delhi is the only hotel in India that is participating in this sale. I've stayed at that hotel at relatively throw-away prices. However, what's not being shown is that there is a 50% of greater discount on many other India properties of GHA. For instance, this one at The Leela, Mumbai, where I plan to use these rates and stay next week. I think some of these rates, particularly the B&B rate, are quite fantastic! The above rates are for early next week, but I did check for fut

There are currently two ongoing, independent offers for a stay 3 nights, pay for 2 promotion, both available only for payments made using American Express. However, if we scratch the surface, there seems to be a bit more to these offers. I wrote about the Trident Hotels offer earlier. This post deals with the offer from Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), which is valid for stays till 31 December 2014 . LHW has 117 hotels affiliated to it across the world, that are participating in this promotion . This includes 3 in India, - the Taj Mahal Palace and Taj Lands End in Mumbai, and the Taj Mahal Palace in Delhi. Receive a complimentary third night when you book and pay for a two-night consecutive stay with any American Express® Card by 12/31/14. The nightly rate is pre-discounted 33% off the daily rate. The offer is subject to availability. Terms and conditions may vary by participating property. Blackout dates may apply. Terms and Conditions: • Offer valid when you book the Leading Extra

There are currently two ongoing, independent offers for a stay 3 nights, pay for 2 promotion, both available only for payments made using American Express. However, if we scratch the surface, there seems to be a bit more to these offers. The one I'm covering in this post, is the promotion by Trident Hotels in India, valid for stays between 1 April and 30 June 2014 . The other is with Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), which I'll cover separately. Firstly, this isn't really an Amex exclusive. Trident runs a virtually identical promotion, which doesn't require payment using Amex Cards . There are, however, some small differences (breakfast free on all days on the non-Amex offer, but shorter happy hours at the bar, etc), but nothing that you'd consider as a significant deviation from the Amex offer. Secondly, here are the most important inclusions and exclusions of this 3-for-2 promotion, which is valid only at the hotels below: It is important to note, that the third

I've just now received an email from Jet Airways that reads as below: The means that tickets will now be costlier either on account of Optional Payment Charges (OPC) for bookings made at Jet Airways' offices (including at the airport) Convenience Fees for bookings made online Charges are Rs 105 (I suppose that is Rs 100 of charges and Rs 5 of taxes), which is how much more each ticket - domestic or international - will be more expensive by. As of now, these are for each ticket , as opposed to each sector of travel. I do understand that for many readers, this may not be such a big amount, but the growing number of air travelers in India might find this to be a bit of a dent in their pockets. Also, as you can see from the excerpt above, there will be no more 250 miles bonuses for web check ins, or 125 miles bonuses for kiosk check ins at the airport This is a bit of a bummer. 250 miles for web check-ins has been there for the longest time, and easily adds at least 20% (if not mo

Over the last year or so that I've been writing this blog, I've realised that my hotel reviews and other trip reports have been rather random, and very much influenced by my own priorities and preferences. Now while that might give my perspective to things, it may not be ideal for a regular reader who'd be expecting a rather objective view. So here on in, I'm going to attempt adding a set of key pluses and minuses as part of the report, and you'll find this at the end of he report. I'll also try and update all my other trip reports in this manner. So, I spent a couple of days at the Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel earlier this week. This is part of a larger property that includes serviced apartments and residences, and if you come in to breakfast early enough, you may even run into kids of families staying at the residences, having breakfast before they leave for school. Last September, I'd written about complimentary Marriott Rewards Silver sta

I flew Indigo a couple of times in the last 2-3 weeks, and one of those was a rather long flight. Now, Indigo's in-flight magazine Hello 6E (6E being a near- homophone for "sexy") isn't exactly a literary prize winner. Mostly, it is a Burlingtons-esque marketing catalogue for a variety of lifestyle and travel products, and also has the menu for the in-flight F&B services (that menu, BTW, hasn't changed much over the years). So quite obviously, it isn't a very engrossing read. You can imagine how bored I was, when I tell you that I actually began taking some interest in the magazine. That's when I noticed this image peddling a wallet...and what looks to be a Jet Airways membership card! It is quite teeny, and doesn't really catch the eye unless you're looking for it. Obviously, someone wanted a very realistic image, I suppose! And I'm positive I've seen this product advertised in Hello 6E for many months - if not years - now, so this mu

Air India is currently running a promotion for double the eligible miles on all its metro-to-metro city flights within India, for flights till 30 April 2014 . This offer is a redux of the promo that Air India ran in Q3 of calendar 2013, for 2x miles on metro sectors. Earning miles generally is hard enough, and Air India makes it harder by letting you earn miles based on your booking fare class (something that Jet used to do up until a couple of years ago). However, any miles are good miles, so if you fly AI a little (or a lot), then do look out for these extra miles because they will certainly help. The offer is valid on flights between pairs of the following cities: Delhi  Mumbai Hyderabad Kolkata Chennai Bangalore I've said this before, that AI isn't the best airline around, but I have the feeling that they're trying quite hard to shed their negative image. Also, I'd like to have some AI miles in my bag in case they eventually do get into Star Alliance - but that'

Visiting Kolkata last week, I stayed for a couple of days at the ITC Sonar (previously, the Sonar Bangla), thereby fulfilling a long-standing desire to stay at this hotel. And while the hotel is in a minor state of both disrepair and revamping, the stay was much of all that I had hoped for. I arrived well past midnight, thanks to a significantly delayed Indigo flight (which is rather surprising in itself, right?). It must've been close to 1.30 am, which explains the very dim lighting at the entrance to the building and also some of the interiors. I had an Executive Club room booked, and those rooms are in a separate wing at one end of the hotel, having to pass through these rather long corridors. To be honest, the time of arrival plus my state of tiredness together didn’t give the appearance of a well-occupied hotel, but I was assured by the agent at check in that it was almost fully occupied.  I've mentioned earlier that the hotel was in a slight state of disrepair. What surpr