Hey, its Jet Airways’ 20th and they’ve been extremely kind to be giving away all their frequent and non-frequent flyers 20% miles for their last 20 flights. I’ve been meaning to give away some stuff as well, however, just not been able to lay my hands on it.

Last night, on one of my Jet Airways international flight, I picked up a few of these. Too bad they were not on board the last time I flew Jet Airways international from Brussels to Mumbai.

One Jet Airways’ silicon baggage tag set for one of you who share with me your best travel experience with Jet Airways. Just make sure you’re putting in your correct name and email address in the comments, along with your travel experience and your location.

One of you will receive this luggage tag, after a random drawing of all the entries received till 25 May 2013, 23:59 IST. I’ll ship it to you anywhere in the world.

Happy 20th Jet Airways!

P.S.: I just hope you’d keep it civil below, so bring it on! And while we’re talking freebies, have you checked out the free AwardWallet account you could receive?

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While I am not totally accepting this news as fait accompli just yet, however, James Hogan, the CEO of Etihad Airways has made an announcement at Amsterdam, at the press conference to launch the airline’s Abu Dhabi – Amsterdam route, that Jet Airways will be moving its scissor hub from Brussels to Amsterdam.

Jet Airways, at present has two flights, which operate from Delhi and Mumbai, go into Brussels, and one goes forward to Toronto and the other to Newark. The scissor hub allows passengers to switch in Brussels, and has been in existence since 2007.

In this statement made to Dutch website LuchtvaartNieuws.nl,  further picked up by the Business Traveller, Hogan said that Schipol would take over the routes which were earlier being serviced by Brussels.

This would be a great move for Jet Airways, because Schipol is a way bigger airport than Brussels, and gets much more traffic and more long-haul routes than Brussels. In terms of travel times, it should not be affecting travel times at all, because the two airports are about a 100 miles apart.

No time tables have been set for this move, and it will be subject to regulatory approvals, but it seems like the logical thing to do, specially with Jet Airways’ cooperation with Etihad, and then Etihad’s cooperation with KLM.

Let’s see how this works out, I’m keeping my eyes peeled. Also because then I don’t have to take the train or the KLM Cityhoppers to reach the Netherlands.

Related Posts:

• Jet Airways to sell 24% stake to Etihad Airways as well as JetPrivilege

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Earlier in the month, when unbundling was notified by law for Indian airlines to be able to charge for services, I wrote a blog post which mentioned how I expected it would work out. One of the statements I made was:

a) Preferential Seating: I am looking at you Indigo, and I am thinking, you will try to sell almost all window and aisle seats as preferential seats maybe. Because you’re so money minded.

However, in my wildest dreams, I had not thought that imagination at Indigo would run so wild as to charging for assignment of a middle-seat on the plane as a preferred/privileged seat as well. In doing so, they were not charging for preferred seating, which was what the government notified, but for the privilege of choosing your seat before everyone else does. Way out of line from what the intentions of the government were meant to be.

This move, kind of got the nerve of the government who started making noises about regulating the unbundling bit (something they were supposed to do anyways!). Uh oh, and now quietly, without as much as a whimper, Indigo has withdrawn that middle seat charge. As of today, their latest Seat Plus offering looks like this:

The interesting bit to note here, you can now pre-assign yourself the middle seat, if you prefer.

I hope Indigo does not start to lose the respect of the flying public it worked so long to gain and get to be known for their nickeling and diming more than their on-time services.

Related Posts:

• How will unbundling work out for India?
• Unbundled airfares begin to take off: Indigo, Air India and Jet Airways go first
• India, welcome to unbundled fares!

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