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A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to experience the best flight of my life so far - LHR-AUH on Etihad’s First Apartment on the A380 morning service. Because of a variety of reasons that I won't get into, I've not been able to write about that experience, but I will...soon. But here's something else. Credit: AirlineTrends.com Now that I was flying Etihad's First Apartment, the next thing was to try and get a peek at The Residence, Etihad’s (and the entire premium flying experience’s) over-the-top exclusive first class offering, touted as  Your Private Three-Room Suite in the Sky !  As it happened, The Residence on that flight was going empty, and so courtesy the Savoy-trained butler who was to serve The Residence (who was assigned to my apartment and who, for reasons of his privacy, will remain unnamed), I got a dekko. The only condition was, no pictures, which I was OK with at that time as I didn’t plan on returning to blogging. So the pictures you see below are c...

In a move that’s sure to make life a little easier for folks flying in on an Air India Domestic Flight and connecting onwards onto an Air India International flight, the airline has shifted all domestic operations to T2, effective tomorrow, ie 1 October 2015 .  Air India's website also carries this announcement . This should make transfers much smoother and should thereby allow one to relax a bit more and not factor in a massive transfer times between flights.  Having done this route numerous times this year itself, it’s safe to say that the transfer from Domestic – International could take anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour, sometimes even more.  And I have found the International – Domestic transfer to be much worse. In fact on my last international arrival there, post collecting bags and clearing customs, we had this huge serpentine line of passengers waiting to drop off luggage and check-in for varying domestic AI connections. This took nearing 45 mins by itself ...

There are currently some great Hilton promotions going on, targeted at those that have not stayed with Hiltons in a while. These "Win-back" promotions offer a decent number of bonus points, for relatively few stays. However, as these are targeted, not everyone will be able to signup for these offers. Either 5k or 10k bonus points on your next stay You can earn either 5,000 or 10,000 bonus points for your next stay with Hilton HHonors properties, as follows: 5,000 points for a stay one of Hilton Garden Inn™, Hampton by Hilton®, Homewood Suites by Hilton™ and Home2 Suites by Hilton™ 10,000 points for a stay at one of Hilton® Hotels & Resorts, Waldorf Astoria™ Hotels & Resorts, Conrad® Hotels & Resorts, DoubleTree by Hilton™ and Embassy Suites by Hilton™. For this promotion, a stay is of 2 nights minimum . You will need to register here before 7 January 2016 , and stay within 90 days of registration . 25k points on your next stay of 4 nights or more You can earn 25,...

I should've guessed. When Etihad announces a promotion, can Jet Airways be far behind? An hour or so ago, I wrote about a 4x / 3x miles promotion on Etihad Airways Partner (EAP) airlines , for Etihad Guest members. Jet Airways now follows suit with an identical promotion for JP members. Jet Privilege members can also earn 4x miles on First Class and 3x miles on Business Class international travel on any of the Etihad Airways Partners - Jet Airways, Etihad Airways, Alitalia, airberlin, Air Serbia and Air Seychelles. The offer is valid for bookings made between 15 and 28 September 2015 , for travel between 25 September 2015 and 15 December 2015 , same as for the Etihad promotion. Registration is required, here . The full T&Cs are here .  Bear in mind, that the flight should be marketed by Jet Airways as a codeshare with one of the EAP airlines. One point of difference is that for flights on Jet Airways, the 4x / 3x miles will be on the base JP Miles only, and not on cabin b...

Continuing with its spate of bonus miles offers in 2015 (this is the third one, if I'm right), Etihad has launched a new promotion that offers 4x miles for travel in first class, 3x for business class and 2x for economy class. The conditions are different for each promotion, so do read on below. And there's a similar promotion for Jet Privilege members also, to earn JP miles . 4x miles in first class, 3x miles in business class Etihad Guest members earn 4x / 3x miles for travel in First and Business Class respectively, with Etihad Airways Partner (EAP) airlines - Etihad Airways, airberlin, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles, Alitalia and Jet Airways. This offer is open to all new bookings made between 16 and 28 September 2015 , for travel between 25 September 2015 and 15 December 2015 . Members will earn bonus miles on codeshare international flights where the operating and marketing airline is an EAP. So it has to be an international flight, necessarily, to qualify for this promotio...

In the last week of August 2015, IHG announced Accelerate, its promotion for Fall of 2015 . Under the earlier offer, I could earn up to 51,500 bonus points for completing all of my offers / goals. This has been updated to reflect an additional promotion for September, which includes 10,000 bonus points for having just ONE stay in September. Plus more bonus points for additional stays. From an India perspective, there are several IHG hotels that you could stay at, to benefit from this promotion. Many of them offer rooms at a per-night rate in the region of Rs 5,000++, and that's for certain Crowne Plaza properties! Conclusion While I'm not keen on staying 18 nights for a total of 58,000 bonus points, it makes far more sense to earn 10k points with just one night's stay. Having said that, this promotion may be better for new members who sign up now for the program, which earn up to 2 free nights (1 free night for every 2 stays). You can read about that in my  original post o...