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When I wrote about Etihad's 2-for-1 promotion earlier today , I was only half-joking about Jet Airways following suit, as they have done quite consistently in the recent past, thanks to Jet being a member of Etihad Airways Partners . And they haven't disappointed, announcing a business class sale of up to 50% discount (in essence, a 2-for-1 offer), valid for return-trip  bookings till 24 October 2015 . The discount is valid on flights to the following select destinations in Africa, Australia, Europe, the Gulf and Middle East: The key Terms and Conditions are:  Offer valid for two guests booked on the same booking reference (PNR) and traveling the entire journey together Special fare is available from selected points in India to Europe, Australia, Africa, Gulf and the Middle East  Valid on return flights operated by Jet Airways and Etihad Airways  Offer not applicable on Jet Airways direct flights from Mumbai/ Delhi to Brussels, London, Paris, Dubai, Jeddah  Date...

Etihad announced a 2-for-1 business class seats sale yesterday, which requires booking by 24 October 2015 , for travel till 18 October 2016 . Being a 2-for-1 offer naturally means that you pay for 1 ticket but actually get 2. The reason I find it not-so-wonderful is that the offer is only on select sectors, with the return journey to be performed within 3 months of the onward, and the booking period is rather short. The important thing about this sale is that the tickets booked will be under the fare class called Business Breaking Deals. Now, the reason this is relevant is that in August 2015, Etihad made some significant changes to its program (dubbed Fare Choices) , which means that amongst other things, a booking made under this offer will: be a Z class booking earn 115% of base miles date changes will be permitted for a fee offer no refunds not have the ability to upgrade to first not come with chauffeur service. The other big thing about this sale is that the available routes var...

Air India isn't really known for innovative promotions, though the AI-SBI credit card that they came up with continues to be one of the best mileage earning cards , in my view. The Flying Returns program isn't spectacular, with relatively higher earn to burn ratios than, say, Jet Airways. However, occasionally, they do come up with what they call "schemes", which are really promotions of sorts, that can be interesting. Here's the latest. You can now earn an economy return ticket for every 10 sectors flown in economy, or a business class return ticket for every 6 sectors flown in business class, with all of the earning related flying taking place before 31 December 2015. Here's the deal, in AI's own words: Buy Economy Class tickets through the Air India Website and travel on 10 domestic sectors (e.g., Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi will be considered as two sectors) in economy class within the validity period i.e., 15Oct’15 to 31Dec’15 and get one FREE return ticket (2...

Starwood has opened 19 hotels in Asia recently across various brands in its portfolio, and have an offer running at the moment where you could earn double Starpoints for a stay. The only condition is that you need to book a stay within the first 6 months of the property opening, though even that seems to have been relaxed for some of the properties. The landing page includes all the properties where the promotion is valid. This includes the following properties in India: Le Meridien, Gurgaon, New Delhi Sheraton, Hyderabad Le Merdien, Mahabaleshwar Le Merdien , Nagpur St. Regis, Mumbai Four Points, Vadodara (Opening 1 November 2015) There's nothing yet on T&Cs, around minimum stay, date by which stay should be completed etc. Also, it appears that not all rooms at all these hotels are eligible for 2x Starpoints. So your best chance of finding out the eligibility under this offer is to go to the landing page and actually attempt a booking at the hotel of your choice. What do you...

In case you didn't know already, Starpoints under the SPG program expire if there is no account activity in the last 12 months. So it is critical that you have some activity or the other, to keep your points from expiring - activity that can come from earning or redeeming points in any way. Fortunately, here's a quick way to earn up to 350 Starpoints and stop all your Starpoints from expiring. 200 Starpoints if you opt for e-Statements SPG will credit you with 200 Starpoints if you opted for e-Statements. Head here . Alternatively, you can login to your account at spg.com, click on your name in the top right hand corner, and head over to "My Profile" under the "Manage my account" tab. Scroll down to Communication preferences , click on edit and add Starwood Preferred Guest E-statements to your preferences.  If this is already there, be sure to delete it using the edit option, then log out and log in back again at the link I've provided above, and opt-in...

SPG is currently running two promotions for bonus points, that I thought would be relevant in view of the upcoming vacation season. As far as I can tell, these are stackable, but YMMV, and I’ll explain why, later in this post. Stay for More The Stay for More promotion offers 2x points for stays of 2 or more nights. Also, a stay of 3 or more nights earns you a further 500 bonus points. Registration is required ( access here ) on or before 6 December 2015. I strongly suggest immediate registration, because it won’t hurt. There are some non-participating hotels, which are listed here . For India, these are: Four Points by Sheraton Ahmedabad  Sheraton Grand Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway  Sheraton Hyderabad Hotel  The Westin Chennai Velachery  The Westin Gurgaon, New Delhi  The Westin Mumbai Garden City  The Westin Sohna Resort & Spa  The full T&Cs are here . Bonus points promotion SPG is also running a targeted bonus points promotion offering ...

Jet Privilege is currently running a promotion, expiring 15 October 2015 , that offers you the ability to convert reward points you accrued on various other loyalty programs, into Jet Privilege miles. You can convert from specific credit card programs, as well as loyalty programs such as Payback and those from the Tata Group. There is also a bonus of 20% available for conversions beyond a threshold. The conversion ratios, minimum points to earn bonus, etc vary by card, so I've tried to summarise them here: The conversion rate in the above table is the number of JP miles you get for converting points from another program. So, taking Payback as an example (which has a 20% conversion ratio), you will get 20 JP miles for every 100 Payback points converted. There is a minimum number of points that need to be converted in the first place, to be eligible for this promotion, which varies by loyalty program that you're transferring from. There's also a bonus of 20%, if you end up c...

Sheraton have a reasonably interesting offer running, though targeted at AMEX card holders. You get 40% off the second night, when booking 2 or more consecutive nights. Bookings can be made from now all the way till 31 December 20015, for stays till 29 February 2016. The 40% off promotion is a fully prepaid rate and is non-refundable.You can access this offer here . A quick look up revealed only 2 participating properties in India - the Sheraton Grand Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway and the Sheraton Hyderabad Hotel , which if you ask me, is a bit disappointing.  This seems to be a global promotion, but with limited participation and not all Sheratons have taken part in this. Nevertheless, you might be able to snag a good deal if it’s a 2 night stay.  Here are some of the key T&Cs: Offer is valid at participating Sheraton® Hotels & Resorts booked between September 18, 2015 and December 31, 2015 and consumed between September 18, 2015 and February 29, 2016.  O...