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That's right. Effective tomorrow, ie 1 May 2014, SriLankan Airlines will be part of oneworld , making it the 15th and newest mainstream airline member of oneworld (I'm excluding affiliates of oneworld here). This also makes SriLankan the first airline from the Indian subcontinent to actually join (unlike AI threatening to ) a global aviation alliance. To be honest, SriLankan hasn't been on my radar much till date, because they don't offer a lot in terms of connections to my usual places of travel. Having said that, aviation fuel costs in Sri Lanka are apparently a lot less than in most parts of the world, which is great news. In fact, I recently spotted a MAA-DXB r/t business class fare for under Rs 35k, via Colombo. It is also the airline with the most options to fly to the Maldives (3 flights a day, if I'm right), which makes it an interesting proposition. SriLankan operates a 2-class configuration on most of its aircraft, offering economy and business class optio...

Starting today, I'll be playing around a little bit with the look and feel of the blog. Not all of it will be pleasing to the eye, but I'm just trying to figure out what I like best. Right now, I'm trying out dynamic views, but do let me have your feedback, and tell me what you think I should stick to. You obviously know by now Miles & Even More is hosted on Blogger. So with that in mind if you have any specific suggestions (I'm not a tech person, btw), I'm really grateful for your inputs. Much thanks!

I read in a couple of newspapers last week, about SpiceJet and Indigo "simplifying" their fare displays to make them more user friendly. For the longest time, I've had issues with transparency by airlines, in how they price their tickets and, more importantly, how those prices are displayed. Earlier this year, in January, I wrote about demystifying the fees and charges on a ticket , and much of that continues to hold. However, it is important to know that the newspaper reports aren't entirely true, as is the case with transparent fares. It does matter, how each airline projects their ticket prices. And what the news reports didn't mention, was that the new fare displays by SpiceJet and Indigo still aren't up to the standards of transparency that the other 3 "major" airlines in India (Jet, Air India, Go Air) seem to follow. Which is the background to this post. Now, let us take a look. SpiceJet As you can see, the base price from the choices includes ...

I had occasion, quite recently, to write about earning miles from flights but without the bother of flying . In that post, I mentioned (obviously as a joke) about identifying sectors of delays, to see if I could earn more AI miles using cancelled flights. The problem was, that this escalated to somewhat of a mini-obsession. But if I had to do that, I would first have to get a hang of what the overall timeliness factors were from each location, and then identify which specific flights are routinely delayed excessively. Which got me researching, and I found enough first-level information to figure out which domestic airline you should choose, which is what this post is all about. Recent trends in Indian aviation - at least from a customer angle - all point to a focussed pitch towards on-time performance (or OTP). While Indigo has always flaunted about its "Indigo Standard Time", SpiceJet has recently taken to this, with their all-time high (and best among peers) on-time perfor...

It is finally working! IHG had some issues tracking the "Book with us" hurdle / challenge that was a part of the Big Win promotion that IHG ran (and runs till 30 April 2014). LoyaltyLobby wrote about the issues and what actions to take. I normally don't get to stay much with IHG, but when I learnt that there was one stay coming up at the Crowne Plaza , I decided to make my move. I also registered for a pile of promotions (though to be fair, not all were successful, and even those I could register for haven't necessarily posted). Then one thing led to another, and I had stayed at the Holiday Inn Mumbai International Airport , as well as the Intercontinental Marine Drive, Mumbai . In effect, I'd completed three of my Big Win hurdles, and the fourth (which involved booking at least two stays using the IHG website or from a mobile device) hadn't yet been recorded by IHG. As it turns out, they had some technology issues, which they admitted in response to my poin...

Using electronic devices in the Indian skies can be confusing. After the seat belt signs go off, you can use "approved" personal electronic devices - this usually means personal music players like iPods, and laptops. In theory, that could've included tablets too. However, lately there's been a bit of confusion about the use of devices that have wireless capabilities - this includes smartphones. Having said that, this position was a bit inconsistent as regards tablets - are they more akin to laptops or smartphones? For all that, they forgot that laptop computers came with wireless connectivity too! In a word, CONFUSING! This also led to some inconsistent application of the rules: you could use your iPod but only after the seat belt signs went off depending on the traveler, and also the crew, you were or weren't allowed to use your smartphone to listen to music, in flight in general, the rules tended to be relaxed a bit more in the forward cabin than in economy some...

I'm not a big fan of Hyatt - if only for the reason that I rarely stay with them (in the last couple of years, I've stayed at a Hyatt just once). But that hasn't stopped me from receiving an email, offering 1000 bonus points on my next stay with Hyatt. This seems to be a targeted offer, but there's a way to find out if you've been targeted, or if you haven't received the email yet. Just go here , and enter your Hyatt Gold Passport number to see if you're eligible for this offer. I understand that others have received such emails offering up to 5,000 points on their next stay. I can understand the limited offering to me - as I mentioned before, I've hardly stayed with them. Nonetheless, there are people out there who use Hyatt a lot more than I do, so please do check your mail boxes. In addition, if you were able to get in on the complimentary upgrade to platinum in the Hyatt Gold Passport program ( I wrote about this in passing), then this may be quite ...

It is election day in Chennai tomorrow (24 April 2014) . Uber is offering 2 free rides per user, to get to the polling booth and back. Here's the email from Uber that I received: Afte r months of obsessing over political news, heated debates over filter-kaapi and fervent arguments around your individual political leanings, your chance to participate in the real deal is finally here- VOTING DAY! This election, we want you to think about what issues are important to you, but not how you’re going to get to that polling booth. Which is why, during polling hours (7am-7pm) on April 24th, Uber is offering two FREE rides to get you to that polling booth and back. You simply need to enter the promo code "VOTECHENNAI" into your Uber app to avail the free rides! We all love our thathas and paatis, so ride with them to the polling booth in the comfort of an Uber and make it easy for them to participate on this crucial day! For more details check out our blog . Finally, keeping with ...

This isn't the first time an Indian airline has used OptionTown to provide add-on benefits to fliers. Kingfisher used it to sell potential upgrades to business class, that would have otherwise been unused seats. SpiceJet uses OptionTown to sell a variety of options , like multiple booking, empty seat, preferred flight and flexible flying. Several international airlines also use OptionTown, but none of them are the big names - naturally. This also isn't the first time Air India is using OptionTown - they attempted it in 2010 (about the same time as Kingfisher), but then something happened pretty soon, and AI stopped option upgrades. It now seems that they have resumed their offers for upgrades using OptionTown. I haven't tried this yet, but it seems to only be for international segments as of now. [Updated] Domestic upgrades start at Rs 4,675, but I'll reserve comments on these till I see the full list of destinations and costs, before commenting on their value. Internat...

There's been a spate of offers from various hotel chains, though some have come and gone. I tend to focus on Hilton HHonors and Starwood (and a little with IHG), so I thought I'd summarise some of the live offers in one post, for readers' benefit. Here you go: Hilton HHonors Hilton's summer promotion offers a choice of 2x points or 2x miles (obviously I picked points, and for many reasons, I'd suggest you do too) Complimentary HHonors Gold status for HP employees, valid till March 2015 (HP email ID required) Complimentary HHonors Gold status for Visa Infinite cardholders Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) Complimentary upgrade to SPG Preferred Guest Plus , which offers 4 pm late check out and room upgrades upon check-in SPG Earn Away, Get Away Summer promotion for 2x points (3x if your stay includes a Saturday in the Middle East, or Sunday anywhere else) Complimentary SPG Gold status if you complete one stay in Asia-Pacific and pay with a World MasterCard IHG IHG ...

Hilton's summer offer is out, where you can earn twice the normal rewards, for stays between 1 May 2014 and 31 July 2014. You have a choice of 2x points or 2x miles, but the choice is irrevocable, so do be careful when you select. Registration is required - here's the link to the sign up page for this promotion. If you choose double points, also make sure that your earning preferences are set to Points & Points . As always, there are some hotels that aren't participating . However in India, that only means the DoubleTree by Hilton, Pune , so there are lots of other earning opportunities.

I used Mumbai's new Terminal 2 rather recently, and had the opportunity to write about it last week. I was generally impressed by the new terminal, which opened for operations in February this year - just over a couple of months back. However, a video has been floating around the Internet, these last couple of days, showing a rodent happily gnawing away at what appear to be bakery products kept in a display shelf. While that's bad as it is, the tags on the videos online suggest that this was taken at Mumbai's new Terminal 2, in the early hours of the morning. Here are three Facebook shares from my friends, on this: One of the comments (not shown in the pics) to those videos is " Unreal ". And you know what? That is exactly it. This is unreal. It isn't true. Well, obviously the rodent eating stuff is real, but it is not at T2 Mumbai. A simple Google search reveals the following video posted on Youtube in January 2012 , which is the same video that's being ...

The Starwood Preferred Guest program has three well-known and published levels - Preferred, Gold and Platinum. This is what you can expect to see on SPG's landing page about member benefits. What's not all that well known, is the SPG Preferred Guest Plus level. While it does reflect the basic Preferred level in most respects, there are two significant add-on benefits that come with it, which are otherwise available only for SPG Gold and Platinum members: 4 pm late checkout , and a room upgrade upon check-in (based on availability). If you don't believe me, take a look at this: And here's how you get it. If you're new to SPG and don't have a membership yet, use this link and sign up . And if you're an existing member, go here . These links are offered by AMI Healthcare Inc, but appears to work for all registrations, and there is no verification required to see if you're an employee of that organisation. Having said that, as with all such things, do this...

Following on from the post on his itinerary, Vinay wrote about his trip. While this is not entirely India-oriented (which is the principal theme of this blog), it's great to share some experiences for the benefit of readers. So here's Vinay's trip report (more like a journal), in his own words. Makes rather interesting reading, I must say! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Day 1 : 30th May, 2013 – MAA – CCJ/ SPICEJET/ BOMBARDIER DASH8 Q400/ 313 miles Head off to Calicut on my maiden flight into this airport. Pretty excited as it’s an airfield I’ve never flown into (and 1 more to add to my lists). And it’s rated as one of the more trickier airfields to land into based on its precarious position atop a plateau of sorts. We were booked on one of SG’s Bombardier’s and the approach into CCJ was certainly interesting. We could see the tops of rows upon rows of coconut trees that are resplendent with Keral...

Starwood's new promo for May-July of 2014 is the Earn Away Get Away promotion, which will earn you 2x the points on all eligible stays, and 3x points if that stay includes a Sunday (Saturday in the Middle East). That means 4 Starpoints (or 6 for Sunday) per $1 of spend. At a time when SPG earn rates are rather low, and some redemptions have been made more expensive (ie, devaluing poinf), I think this is a good time to earn some points. This promo comes into effect as soon as the Bring On the Nights promotion ends on 30 April 2014, though registration for that promotion ended in February. Registration is required by 30 June 2014, and you can register at the landing page here . I think this is a rather good promotion, particularly given that India hasn't been affected much by the recent changes to the redemption part of the SPG program. Also, I've recently been contemplating my loyalty , so it is promos like these that perk up my day. In fact, I might well have one stay co...

Indigo keeps doing these things...seemingly little things, but significant in overall impact. All for bottomline. The most preposterous change Indigo brought in was a few months back, when the regulators allowed unbundling of fares, and Indigo (for a while) took to charging passengers for all window and aisle seats as well as the first couple of rows . And if I'm right, Indigo was also one of the first to embrace the reduced free baggage allowance from 20k to 15k. So it should come as no surprise when I say that Indigo has upped some of its fees - for no practical reason that I can see. Premium Seats - All seats in rows of 1, 12 and 13, aisle and window seats of Rows 2 & 3 will now cost Rs 600 compared to Rs 500 earlier. Aisle (Rows 4-11) and Window (Rows 4-7) seats will now cost Rs 300, up from Rs 250 previously. Baggage - Similarly, there are new fees for excess baggage over the basic free limit of 15 kgs. I've never had occasion to check in more than 15 kgs, so I admit ...

India has been seeing airfare sales since January, usually led by SpiceJet. It started with this , then led to this , and this , before I stopped tracking these sales! And there's a reason for these sales. Calendar Q1 in particular, and Q2 to some extent, are the dullest periods for travel in India. Even business travel - blame it on a March 31 fiscal year end and a lack of budgets. Fare sales therefore help shore up cash flows, if not bottomlines, for the airlines. So that means one must be prepared to see new airfare offers, and the next one is already on, though I'm not sure if Spicejet has started it this time around. Some brief details and links below, though it goes without saying that there are T&Cs attached to each of these, and that there are very few seats available on each flight, under the sale. SpiceJet's sale is in partnership with the travel portal goibibo.com. Fares starting Rs 1,849/- for bookings till 18 April 2014, for travel between 10 June and 10 A...

Sometimes I believe we travel aficionados really do strange things just for the experience of it. Case in point, my flight a few days back out of BOM. I had the choice of two flight but I chose the later one simply because it departed from the new international Terminal 2. I just had to take a look at this new terminal. Reaching the airport itself was pretty smooth, with the dedicated expressway that leads you straight to the departures section on the first level (arrivals are at ground level), just as it was earlier. The biggest difference was the number of lanes for vehicles, thereby minimising the chaos that used to exist. The next sight that greeted me was the vast amount of space for the lobby and check-in areas - again a stark contrast from the days of yore. The finish of the check in counters are also a welcome sight. Of course, if there's one thing that hasn't changed, it is Air India's ground service. Anyway, after about half hour at check in (and I was flying Busi...