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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
