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I don't stay much at Hyatt, but there are readers out there who do, and this is for you. Hyatt is running a couple of targeted promotions right now, which might be of interest. Both of these are valid for stays between 1 September and 30 November 2014, and by the look of it, they may well be stackable. The first is a targeted bonus depending on the offer you're eligible for (which in turn is based on your extent of past stays with Hyatt). You could be eligible for one of six offers, as follows: 2000 bonus points for one stay 2000 bonus points per stay for 2 stays max (ie 4000 bonus points) 5000 bonus points for a stay 2000 bonus points per stay for 3 stays max (ie 6000 bonus points) 8000 bonus points after 2 says 10000 bonus points after 3 stays All of these are, naturally, in addition to the base points. You would have received an email from Hyatt with the offer targeted for you, so do check your mailbox. Or simply click on the links in the bulleted list above, input you...

Let me begin by clarifying that I'm not a technology person. I barely understand anything beyond latching on to an available wifi signal, that too, provided I have a password! So you might want to disregard any ignorant statements that might follow. Having said that, I'm a great fan of innovation and technology, and what you can do with it. At first, it was just the booking engine getting online, followed by travel aggregators and comparison sites. Since then, we've moved to smartphone apps for individual hotel chains, discounts for using those apps to book rooms, and any number of variants from there that you can think of. I visited a friend at one of the newer, larger hotels in Chennai last year, and I was stunned by the technology that enabled the guest to control everything from an iPad. And I mean everything ! The lights, the TV, room service orders. Heck, even the keyhole in the door was now via a camera, that streamed images to the iPad. [Much of this might be old in...

Jet Airways, along with Etihad, is currently running a promotion (Freedom Sale) that offers 20% and 68% off on tickets booked between 15 and 19 August 2014 , and travel between 15 September 2014 and 30 June 2015, for both international and domestic sectors, in both economy and business class! The discount is applicable on: Base fare + Fuel Surcharge, for domestic economy class Base fare only, for domestic business class  Base fare only, for international flights on both domestic and business classes I checked out some of the fares, and they certainly are heavily discounted in economy - though unusually for Jet, they aren't showing the extent of discount (they normally do this by showing the original price cancelled, and the new price). So it isn't possible to figure out easily as to how much the discount actually is. Also, there seem to be capacity controls, so only limited seats, that too only on specific booking classes, are eligible for this offer. Based on what I...

Marriott has announced MegaBonus its promotion for fall 2014, for stays between 15 September 2014 and 15 January 2015, at participating properties. There was a lot of expectation that this would be like the MegaBonus promotion earlier in 2014, that offered 1 night's stay certificate for every 2 nights' paid stay, but Marriott has disappointed to that extent. The promotion now is a base offer of 2x points starting with the second paid stay, going up to a total of 25,000 bonus points during the promotion period. This is identical, at least conceptually, to the summer promotion that they ran, called Getaway bonus . However, Loyalty Lobby reports that there are multiple versions of this promo, and while the above is a base level offer, there are other offers that are targeted, being: 2,500 bonus points per stay starting with your second stay for up to 25,000 bonus points. 25,000 bonus points after 12 paid nights + additional 5,000 bonus points after 18 paid nights for total maximu...

I simply love Madras. They say it's called Chennai, but that's what they say, right? Anyway, This year, Madras (or Chennai, if you wish) celebrates its 375th birthday, and Uber has a couple of offers lined up. Neither is ultra-valuable, but they relate to iconic landmarks in Chennai, so I thought it would be useful to put up these for readers. Till 17 August 2014, you can use the promo code MADRASBEACH to get 50% off on one ride , to or from the covered beaches (Marina and Besant Nagar). Or if you've got a train to catch, you can use the promo code  MADRASRAIL  to get a free ride to either Central Station or Egmore Railway Station. If you don't have a Uber account yet, you can  sign up for it here . If you wish to, you can also use my promo code -  ubermilesandevenmore  - and get a further credit of Rs 300 (as will I). You don't need to do this, but if you do, I'm grateful for your support. As I said before, neither of these is a really valuable offer (in mone...

I didn't say that. Jet Airways did! And here's proof. Close on the heels (in fact, just a few hours later the same day) of Tata-SIA announcing the brand name of their new airline - Vistara - Jet Airways held a press conference where they announced a lot of things. Lately, no press conference of Jet is complete without James Hogan having to make a few (or many) points, and this one was no different. The upshot of all of this is that Jet Airways finally realised that they were complicating their brand identities. After acquiring Air Sahara a few years back, they effectively ran different brands - Jet Airways, the full service brand, and JetKonnect / JetLite, their low-cost brand. They had JetKonnect as the no-frills offering, since that's what the Indian market seemed to be burgeoning with! They then further confused the market by adding Jet Airways flight codes on some Jetlite flights and vice-versa, since technically JetLite was a codeshare partner. Then a few days back, t...

Tata-SIA's new venture will be called Air Vistara, and I'm guessing their tagline is "Welcome to the world of limitless possibilities" . Courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/AirVistara This is after a lot of media speculation on the name of the airline, though the name "Vistara" came up in the media and other travel blogs a couple of days back. Pictures of the logo and renditions of aircraft in the Vistara livery are up on their official Facebook page . You can also follow them on Twitter . Also check out this tweet from the launch event, from a director of the Tata-SIA venture. Tata and SIA come together in unveiling 'VISTARA'. Redefining air travel in Indian aviation. pic.twitter.com/XMBTmXKUdj — Dr. Mukund Rajan (@Mukund_Rajan) August 11, 2014 From this picture, it looks like the female FAs will be wearing trousers, and not skirts! (I'm not sure if they have or don't have male FAs). Vistara means expanse, expansive, wide - you get the gener...