-
Etihad Airways First Class A380 London to Abu Dhabi
Introduction Etihad Airways has one of the most luxurious First Class offerings (called the “Apartment”) in the world on their A380 aircrafts. We got a chance to experience the flight recently and we had a great experience. Let’s get started! Booking The cash fare for a one way journey on this sector is a ridiculously expensive INR 300,000 (USD 4,000) per person. Luckily one of the sweetest spots to book this incredible First Class is via the American Airlines AAdvantage program. It cost us approximately INR 100,000 (USD 1,300) per person to book this using miles. Click here to find out more. Flight Details Route – London, UK (LHR) to Abu Dhabi,…
-
Taj Innercircle – Status Extension & More
Introduction Taj Innercircle is the loyalty program of the Taj Group of Hotels. Given the coronavirus situation, hotel chains globally have been extending status and halting expiry of points in a bid to retain their top loyalists. Taj Hotels in my opinion often set the benchmark for hospitality in India and yesterday they announced a series of measures for their Innercircle loyalty program. Lets check it ou A Brief Intro on Innercircle Taj Innercircle has 4 tiers with the base tier as Copper which goes up to Silver, Gold and Platinum. Silver tier requires 10 nights or INR 100k in spends, Gold requires 40 nights or INR 400k in spends…
-
Etihad Arrivals Lounge, Abu Dhabi
Introduction Etihad Airways operates their hub from the city of Abu Dhabi in UAE. They have an Arrivals lounge at Abu Dhabi for Business & First Class passengers who are entering the city. Let’s have a look. Location The lounge is located after the baggage claim area and just before the exit. There are plenty of signboards throughout to guide you to the lounge area. The lounge always has some crowd as all incoming premium passengers wait in this area for their chauffeur. All revenue tickets on Business & First are eligible for a drop in the city. Even if you have not pre-booked it, the staff should take care…
-
Traders Hotel, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Introduction The Traders Hotel is part of the Shangri La chain of hotels and we love staying in them whenever possible. We had a 20 hour layover in Abu Dhabi and decided to stay at the Traders Abu Dhabi. The Hotel is located around 20 km away from the Abu Dhabi airport and it found it to be an ideal mix of proximity to both the Airport and City attractions. We booked this Hotel in cash for AED 321 which is around 90 USD / INR 6,500. Check In Large Lobby Area The Lobby is grand and super spacious. We arrived at the Hotel at around 7 AM as our…
-
Etihad Airways Business Class A320 Abu Dhabi to Mumbai
Introduction Etihad Airways is the flag carrier of the UAE and the second largest airline in the UAE (After Emirates). The Airlines hub is located in the city of Abu Dhabi and we booked an award travel from London to Mumbai with an overnight stop in Abu Dhabi. We traveled from London to Abu Dhabi in First Class (Review coming soon) and Abu Dhabi to London in Business Class and the entire journey cost us 62,500 American Airlines Miles + 279 USD in taxes per person. It effectively cost us approximately INR 100,000 (~1400 USD) per person for the one way journey which is almost one third of the cash…
-
Ritz Carlton, Pune, India
Introduction The Ritz Carlton Pune, is the latest Marriott Property in the city of Pune in Maharashtra, India. It is a brand new property which opened in October 2019. It is a category 4 Marriott property which can be redeemed for 25,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for a standard award. We stayed here for one night in March 2020 are were really delighted with our experience. We booked this property using a free night award upto 25,000 Bonvoy points (Click here to learn how you can earn a free night too). The property is located close to the Airport (5km away) and gets a lot of business travellers with so many MNC…
-
Aviserv Arrivals Lounge, Mumbai Terminal 2
Introduction Aviserv operates the only arrivals lounge at the Mumbai International Airport, Terminal 2. Guests can use these lounges when they have a layover at Mumbai. The lounge has food, massage, shower, cloak room and sleeping facilities and is a great addition to the Mumbai Terminal 2. Location The lounge is located at Terminal 2 of the Mumbai International Airport. All International flights and domestic flights (Except most Indigo and Go Air flights) use this terminal. The lounge is located just after baggage collection and customs clearance but inside the terminal just before the exit on Level 2, P6 on the West Side. A lot of cab booking offices are located close…
-
Taj Swarna Amritsar, Punjab, India
Introduction Taj Swarna Amrtisar is a newly constructed (only 3 years old) hotel based in the centre of the holy city of Amritsar. This is the only 5 star hotel in the city and is rated number one on Tripadvisor. We stayed here for 2 nights and booked using the American Express promotional offer which gave us 25% off when booking with our American Express Platinum Charge Card (Link here). We booked the room for approximately INR 7,000 per night compared to the regular fare of INR 10,000 per night which was an absolute steal. Check in We hotel is located around 12 km from the Airport and it took…
-
Indigo launches 6E Rewards – their first co branded credit card with HDFC Bank
Introduction Indigo airlines is the largest airline in India and has last week launched their first co branded credit card in partnership with HDFC Bank and Mastercard. The card is called Ka-ching and comes in two variants viz 6E Rewards and 6E Rewards XL. This is an interesting development and lets look at the details below 6E Rewards I guess the only disappointment here is that this is not an Indigo frequent flyer program. That would really have been something and let’s hope it happens somewhere in the future. 6E Rewards is a reward program for spends made on the co-branded credit card. Each 6E Reward point is worth 1…
-
Club Vistara Double Dip – Unlock Incredible Value
Introduction Club Vistara is the frequent flyer program of Air Vistara which is a full service carrier in India which is a JV between Tata and Singapore Airlines. Club Vistara has been regularly introducing offers in order to promote their airlines like Bonus points for 4 flights in a month, status match with other airlines etc. They are running two great promotions currently which can unlock incredible value with a stunning double dip opportunity. Let’s have a look at how do we plan to achieve this. Upto 50% Bonus on Points Transfer Vistara is currently running a promo which will allow you to earn a maximum of 25,000 bonus reward…
