maem

When I said I was going to be off the blog for a few days, I didn't expect so much to happen. I'll write about some of these soon enough, but just so you know: Jet Airways is now a mileage-earning partner on Rocketmiles - that's one more reason to use them, now . There's a double JP miles promotion promotion for bookings up to 6 October 2014, on Jet Airways and Etihad, for travel up to 15 December 2014, that you need to register for . You can now get a 10% extra discount and 5 Extra JP Miles for shopping on amazon.in with your Amex credit card, under the Teen-Do-Paanch promotion . Valid till 30 September 2014, on transaction of Rs 15,000 or more. The 10% discount is via an Amazon Gift Card, capped at Rs 5,000 per Amex Card. SPG is JetPrivilege's new partner , so you can earn JPMiles on your stays with SPG (instead of SPG points, that is!). You can also earn 2x miles till 31 December 2014, by registering here . Oh, and you can also get 5000 bonus JPMiles for every ...

Hey folks! I've had a feverish travel schedule over the last three weeks, which culminated with a MAA-FRA-WAW-FRA-MAA in business class on Lufthansa, which I plan to write about. However, I had a discussion with my clients yesterday, and I realise that the next few days - at least till the first week of October - are going to be quite exacting, work-wise. Plus, no travel - which after 3 weeks of being on the road, isn't a bad thing at all! So I'm going to be largely off the radar as far as this blog is concerned, though if there's a quick news update, very good promotion or such, then I'll certainly try my best to post that. However, it is more likely that I'll be tweeting about it, so if you're interested, you may want to follow me on twitter . See you on the other side of 7 October! PS: Btw, did anyone manage to snag any good deals on Jet Airways' business class fare sale  last week?

UberX, being Uber's low cost option, is finally in Chennai - 8 months after the regular Uber full-service started operations there. I've been a big fan of Uber , and I think even though most of the initial excitement with the luxury sedans has since worn off, I find Uber extremely convenient for weekend nights and for their non-cash payments. The only problem is availability, since they now use Toyota Innovas almost exclusively (yes, gone are the days of the Mercs and BMWs!), and there are often times when there just isn't a good number of available vehicles to go around. So it is no wonder that I'm glad they've launched UberX. At first sight, it doesn't appear to be significantly less expensive than the regular Uber, but with the traffic situation as it is in Chennai, this does look like a great option to have in the medium- to long-term (in terms of number of rides). The reasons for that are mainly: the per minute charge - Rs 1 - is half of the charge for Uber...

With effect from October 20, 2014, you will no longer earn 6 JPMiles on every Rs.100 spent on all categories (except for bookings on Jet Airways website) and 12 JPMiles on every Rs.100 spent for bookings on www.jetairways.com or www.jetkonnect.com . Whenever I hear something on the lines of "you will no longer...", I start to worry, because you can rarely expect a positive surprise after that. And it was no different in this case. Spends on Amex JP Platinum card will now earn 8/16 JP miles on every Rs 150 spend, as opposed to 6/12 miles for Rs 100 spent. That's a 11% devaluation on earnings. Here's the revised JP miles earnings schedule: 8 JPMiles for every Rs.150 spent on all categories, excluding those listed below 16 JPMiles for every Rs.150 spent for bookings on www.jetairways.com or www.jetkonnect.com No JPMiles on insurance, fuel (ncludes petrol, diesel, CNG from Oil Marketing Companies) and utility services (Includes providers of household/domestic electr...

Jet Airways is currently running a couple of promotions, but the one that's started today (16 September) and runs till 18 September 2014 has the potential for a few "steals"! This is a promotion for business class travel, valid for both domestic and international flights. The advertised prices are for fares starting Rs 4,233 for domestic travel, and Rs 6,639 for international travel, with travel dates on or after 16 October 2014. There are significant capacity controls, so you've got to try really hard to get a good deal. Nonetheless, I was able to locate a BOM-SIN return trip for Rs 42k+, which in today's times is great! You can access the deal on this page , look under "The Great Premiere Experience" . Here are the T&Cs: For domestic travel: Valid for travel in Première on flights operated by Jet Airways and JetKonnect Tickets must be purchased on or after September 16, 2014 and on or before September 18, 2014 Travel must commence on or after Octob...

We're chugging along nicely through September, and within a few short months, 2014 will come to a close. Which also means that for most loyalty programs - particularly hotels - that means reassessing your status, since virtually all of them are based on a calendar year assessment. And this is also the time for loyalty programs to offer fall promotions, many of which I've written about (at least the ones that interest me personally). In India, it is the start of most holidays - Diwali, Puja holidays, Christmas and New Year's Eve. All of that means potentially a decent amount of travel that might be coming up. So here's a summary of what's on offer by some of the programs, so you can plan you travels in order to (a) attempt to retain status that you may have with programs, (b) maximise your bonuses and points, or both. IHG - Into the Nights Register for IHG's  Into the Nights promotion , and find out your customised offer. You will need to complete a defined numbe...

Late last night (India time) SPG announced its fall promotion for 2014, for stays between 15 September and 31 December 2014, the "More for You" promotion that offers Double Starpoints on stays of two or more eligible nights Triple Starpoints on eligible stays that include a Friday or Saturday night (Thursday or Friday night in the Middle East) An eligible stay is defined here as two or more consecutive nights paying an Eligible Rate in the same hotel regardless of the number of check-ins or checkouts that occur. You'll need to register here, by 31 October 2014 . Oh, and remember, Sunday night's don't count as weekends ! Under this promotion, you'll earn: 4 points per $1 spend (or 6 points for weekends) if you aren't SPG Gold or Platinum (including the 2 base points) 5 points per $1 spend (or 7 points for weekends) if you are SPG Gold or Platinum (including the 2 base points) As always, there are some non-participating hotels , including the following in...

There are several promotions that are currently on, but I found these three to be of interest to me. Triple JP Miles with Hilton Worldwide Hotels Jet Airways is offering triple JP miles on stays at any Hilton property worldwide, between 1 September and 30 November 2014. This means you earn 3 JP miles per $1 of spend, as opposed to the normal earning rate of 1 JP mile per $1. Since this involves selecting your earnings style as "points & miles", it means you won't be eligible for any bonus points promotions that Hilton themselves offer. You can register for the promotion from the landing page  here , which needs to be done before your check-out after the stay. The T&Cs can be found at the bottom of the landing page. I'm in two minds about this offer - on the one hand, I love HHonors points, because for many of their hotels that I'd like to stay at, the redemption requirements are quite low at the moment - starting 5k points a night. On the other hand, earni...

I was at the JW Marriott in Bangalore thrice in a span of 8 days. My first stay was for just one night - in fact, just about 5 hours or so - but I  wrote about it here . This post is about my second and third stays together, since (a) there was gap of only one day between these stays (the first was for 2 nights and the second for 1 night), and (b) they were on the same floor - in fact, in adjacent rooms. So this time, I had a much better experience overall. On both stays 2 and 3, I got my Marriott Rewards Silver amenities delivered to my room like clockwork, and there were no issues at check-in either. What's more, this time, my stays were on the 12th floor, in rooms that had balconies overlooking Cubbon Park and the state legislature. Also this time, I was able to get some amount of time in the room, in daylight hours! I can’t tell you just how much of a difference that can make! Again, I appreciated the large king-size bed with an excess of pillows (well, I don’t think there’s an...

Yesterday I wrote about IHG's next global promotion, Into the Nights , with registrations opening 4 September 2014. I can now confirm that registration is indeed open, here . If some of you can't reach it just yet, please do try after some time. Here's my offer: What that means, is that I could potentially earn 48,400 points if I complete the above challenges, and completing at least 5 of these 6 would earn me another 17,000 points or 2 nights. Therefore, this makes it a potential earning of 64,500 points. And I'm an IHG Rewards Club Platinum member that got in by status match, with a total of 4 nights (3 stays) this year. Compare that with what  LoyaltyLobby reports here . So, the offer you get is clearly based on some sort of algorithm, depending on your status and also stays. Also note, that some offers require completion of x out of y offers, and others require all offers to be completed, to earn the extra bonuses. Or you could choose 2 (or whatever is your offer) n...

IHG will launch its next big global promotion in a couple of days, ie on Thursday, 4 September 2014 (mind you, this will be US time, so in effect it will be on 5 September in India). This promotion - called Into the Nights - is expected to be not unlike their last global promotion earlier this year - The Big Win . In effect, it is like a challenge, where you need to have a certain number of nights/stays, number of hotels stayed at, weekend stays, etc. On offer are potential wins like 2 free nights, 50,000 IHG points, or 10,000 air miles - and those seem to be the baseline winnings , meaning there could be more. You should be able to check your offer here , once the promo opens for registration, which is mandatory. Offers are targeted / customised, so please do write in to tell us what your particular offer was. You can also track your progress at the same link. The offer (and by extension, the qualifying period) will run from launch date up until 31 December 2014 . On a related note, i...

A couple of weeks back, and over 8 days, I had three - that's right, three - stays at the JW Marriott, Bangalore. It just so happened that I was having recurring, but unrelated, work in Bangalore, and strangely all my clients were in and around the area that the hotel is located in. The hotel opened in late-2013, and has close to 300 rooms including a suite. One floor - the 12th - is a smoking floor, and has rooms with balconies, that overlook Cubbon Park and the Vidhana Soudha (legislature building) which can make for a wonderful view in the mornings. While all my stays were at least for one night, stay #1 was for a very short while - no more than 5 hours ( not unlike the 4-hour stay at the Ritz-Carlton Bangalore in February this year ) and stays #2 and #3 were for 2 nights and 1 night respectively. Also, the last two were in adjacent rooms, whereas the first one was in a different room and a different floor. So I'll review these as 2 stays - one here and one in a subsequent ...