maem

Hilton has just announced their promotion for the winter of 2014. Although I hadn't written about it, Hilton HHonors fans would recall that the program asked members to vote on the promotion they'd like to see for the last quarter, ie November 2014 to January 2015. The options were: Double starting with your second stay 1,000 bonus points every night Thursday through Monday The votes have been counted and it looks like members have voted for double points, and so that will be the promotion. Note, that double points kick in only after the second stay, so unless you have enough stays coming up, an MR might be in order here.  Registration is required - you can do that here , or just click on the image above. You will need to register for the promotion before 31 January 2015 and also stay at a participating hotel or resort before that date, to count for 2x points starting with the second stay. [However, it does appear that registrations are being accepted even before 1 Novemb...

Earlier this evening, reader Aditya drew my attention to what seemed like an error - Jet Airways flights showing as bookable on www.premiermiles.co.in , which is Citibank's exclusive travel booking portal for Citi PM cardholders. I think he was searching for tickets to Ho Chi Minh City (SGN), and stumbled upon it. It is public knowledge that there's no love lost between Citibank and Jet Airways after their partnership with a co-branded card ended over two years ago. Since then, Citibank generally hasn't allowed direct bookings on Jet Airways on the Premier Miles website, either for cash or PM redemptions (although they do have a slightly roundabout way to redeem premier miles, after making a cash booking in the first place). So it is indeed surprising that Jet flights would be bookable on the PM website. So I decided to check it out. Sure enough, it was there for the DEL-SGN route that Jet Airways will start operating effective 5 November 2014. What's more, there was...

I spent a week in Warsaw , and it was rather disappointing to leave so early. I really do wish I could've stayed a bit longer. But life calls... I was booked on the 6.40 am flight from Warsaw to Frankfurt, and connecting to the Lufthansa A340-300 service to Chennai later that Saturday morning. While I will write about those flights soon, here's a quick look at the LOT / Lufthansa Business lounge in Warsaw. Except for a bit of introduction, this post will be mostly pictures. The lounges are located after security. When you pass the business class security line, there's a Ballada Executive Lounge on the left, which is used by certain airlines but not Star Alliance.  The Star Alliance lounge is not very clearly signposted but is located on the first floor, when you turn left after passing the Ballada lounge - in fact, it is almost right above the Ballada lounge. Large lounge, lots of seating spaces Varieties of beers and soft drinks ... fully stocked at 5.30 am Seating areas F...

It's been a while since  Vinay , who is my miles-and-points co-conspirator of sorts, wrote. The last (and first) time he did, he wrote about  his 20+ segment trip over 3 weeks  that involved a flat aircraft tire, beers, dolphins, Freddie Mercury and a train ride  (a must-read, BTW!). Vinay is an Accor Le Club aficionado, and was recently in Mumbai and stayed at the Novotel Juhu Beach. At my request, he's kindly agreed to write again, so without further ado, I'll leave you to read his trip report in his own words. Having stayed here on multiple occasions, thought it would be apt to write a little review for this hotel. The Novotel Juhu Beach is situated as the name implies in the Juhu region of Mumbai and getting there from the airport is pretty easy. It's never taken me more than half hour at varying times of day and in varying weather and traffic conditions, and so by Mumbai standards, it’s pretty good. Check-in The hotel is pretty busy for the most part from what i...

When JP made some serious changes to their program in July 2014, I anticipated more action in this space . These were being driven by 2 major factors - Etihad's acquisition of the JP program, and JP's stated intent of making the program more user-friendly and consistent. And as expected, some of these are coming true, evidenced clearly by the recent changes that have been made. And also, to be fair, I believe these changes are connected. Let me explain. MyFamily+ accounts and miles pooling for award tickets JP now allows pooling of miles within a family, with their new MyFamily+ account . This requires family members (only one degree of separation permitted ie spouse, children and parents) to complete a verification and confirmation process, post which the head of family can activate the MyFamily+ option. This enables the head of family to use the miles in the accounts of all the registered family members, towards awards redemption. Up to 7 members can be added to the MyFamily+...

There's a lot of do's and don'ts around tipping, and customs across the world. In all, tipping for various services depends on the custom and nationality of the tipper, as also the practices in the country in which one is traveling to. There are a lot of resources online, about how much to tip where , so I won't get into that. Regular readers may know that I recently traveled to Warsaw , and spent a week there at the Intercontinental Warsaw . One of the evenings that I was there, a colleague (a local, ie Varsovian) and I went out for dinner, which turned out to be a lesson for me in local tipping customs. Before I proceed, I must mention that I try to take a reasonable interest in my surroundings, particularly when I travel overseas. In part, this means that I try to learn (and remember) key words in the local language. In this case, that meant knowing that  dziękuję ( Jen-koo-yeh ) was for Thank You, and proszę ( pro-sheh ) was for Please. To cut a long story sh...

I can't tell you just how much I loved Warsaw as a city, when I was there a few weeks back on a business trip. A walk around Warsaw is a breathtaking yet painful experience - particularly on the Jewish aspects, what it was and what it has come down to. The people are wonderful, and the weather was awesome (at least when I was there)!. So, in spite of this being a points and miles blog, I think I'll write about Warsaw itself, sooner than later. But I digress... I'd been traveling for close to 16 hours, first on Lufthansa's new business class from MAA to FRA , and then (after a brief reunion with my favourite split-flap display !), on Lufthansa's Euro Business class from FRA to WAW . My hosts suggested that I stay at the Intercontinental Warsaw. They were footing my bill in any case. Since this was going to be a 5-night visit, and the IHG Into the Nights promotion was/is currently on, I wasn't going to look this particular gift horse in the mouth! The hotel is l...