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Hello from Paris, where my business-and-vacation trip is coming to a close. Vinay is in KUL on work, an Sam has been largely incommunicado. And I've had a fabulous week in Paris, the weather being fantastic (coming here from a rather long Indian summer)!!! Meanwhile, here's a round up of the week that was - a summary of posts on this blog as also other things travel, aviation, points and miles that we found interesting.Hope you had a great week, and here's wishing you the very best in the next one! Paris trip reports Here are the reports I've published so far, from my Paris visit. Bonjour Paris: Introduction and summary of posts Review: Chennai to Colombo on Sri Lankan A320 regional business class Review: Serendib Lounge, Colombo airport Review: Colombo to Paris on Sri Lankan A330-200 international business class Review: Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile Review: Le Meridien Etoile, Paris Airline news and offers Here's how your travel to, from or via Mumbai could be affect

I checked out of the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile yesterday morning, and checked into the Le Meridien Etoile, just around the corner from the Hyatt, in the evening after a day's sightseeing. Hyatt was kind enough to hold my bags for the duration of the day (which is a surprise in today's world of terror threats), and I'm grateful to them for that. The Le Meridien has standard and chic rooms as two of their base category rooms. As I mentioned in the introduction post, I booked a chic room on an award. Here's a review of the hotel and room, but not breakfast (that didn't come with the room, and we planned to head to the airport a little early in any case). Index of posts Bonjour Paris: Introduction and summary of posts Review: Chennai to Colombo on Sri Lankan A320 regional business class Review: Serendib Lounge, CMB airport Review: Colombo to Paris on Sri Lankan A330-200 international business class Review: Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile Review: Le Meridien Etoile, Paris Re

SPG has announced its latest list of Hot Escapes hotels, which are basically a selection of hotels hand-picked by SPG and made available at a reasonable to significant discount. Hot Escapes hotels are usually available at a discount of at least 15-20%, and going all the way up to 30-35% (and some times as high as 40%), but need to be booked by the Saturday. The deals are usually open for stays up to 6 weeks from the date they are announced. This week’s Hot Escapes list has 89 hotels , with a country-wise list here . This time there are: 61 hotels in  North America , 1 hotel in  Caribbean and Central America , 1 hotel in South America , 11 hotels in  Europe , 2 hotels in  Africa , No hotels in the  Middle East ,  1 hotels in China , 10 hotels in  Asia , and 2 hotels in  Australia and Oceania . There are no hotels from India this time around. SPG Hot Escapes are published every Wednesday (evening, India time), and are available to be booked by 10.30 am the following Sunday morning India

Citibank UAE's Premier Miles card is currently offering a 20% bonus on all transfers to Etihad Airways Guest Miles Program. Is this a good offer? Let's find out. Citibank's PremierMiles card is one product that is available in many countries, with locally variant terms, earnings, etc. I don't know of many banks that have such a common product available in multiple countries. I happen to be a customer of their UAE product. The list of airlines and hotels you can transfer your points to, differs from country to country. But by and large they are the same for India and UAE (except of course, that in India, Citibank and Jet Airways don't really see eye-to-eye much). Anyway, Citibank is currently offering a bonus of 20% on all miles transferred to Etihad Airways between 1 and 31 October 2016. This the same as the promotion that Etihad is currently running , with multiple transfer partners. It's weird that Citi has sent me this offer, when more than half the time peri

I flew Sri Lankan Airlines' Airbus A330-200 service from Colombo to Paris, in business class. I'm not a big fan of lie-flat beds (that's fodder for another post), yet for a change, I slept decently well on the flight. Here's a review of the flight. Index of posts Introduction: Bonjour Paris Review: Chennai to Colombo on Sri Lankan A320 regional business class Review: Serendib Lounge, Colombo International Airport Review: Colombo to Paris on Sri Lankan A330-200 international business class Review: Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile Review: Le Meridien Etoile, Paris Review: Sri Lankan's lounge at Paris CDG Review: Paris to Colombo on Sri Lankan A330-200 international business class Flight review CMB-CDG UL563 | 11h 00m | 5273 miles | A330-200 | Business Class  We were called in to board at around 1.00 am, scheduled departure being 1.30 am local time in Colombo. We completed the security checks at the gate, and proceeded to the gate hold area to await departure. Unlike any oth