Indigo has been one of India’s best run airline operation, with typical LCC discipline running in their blood. I’ve written a bit about them in the past and how they grew to be India’s biggest domestic airline by marketshare about 6 months back.

Yesterday evening, the Wall Street Journal reported that Indigo and British Airways were in talks for an interlining agreement. Media quickly ramped up the discussion to an investment deal by BA’s parent IAG into Indigo, talking about how Indigo was the best deal for an investment into Indian aviation.

Here is what is apparently happening as per the news report, already moving into speculation. The same reporter filed a report with Reuters, where he stated, an interlining agreement was being discussed, where tickets can be booked on both carriers on the same ticket, along with a smooth baggage transfer between both of them. This could lead to codesharing, and obviously an investment because that is the latest fad, to invest in Indian aviation.

While I am not totally rubbishing that these talks happened, I assume making them materialise is a far call. IAG, before Indigo, had taken Kingfisher under their wings, and also gotten them ready to join oneworld. However, the dream crashed before it started when Kingfisher’s membership was put on hold and then the airline went out of business.

Indigo works on a point-to-point principle, which means, it does not interline with any airline to be able to maintain its own schedule integrity. That translates into, no connecting flights, and hence no wait for incoming passengers or their bags to be loaded, or no stress of running around to transfer bags to an outbound carrier and deliver the passengers in time. Plus, at some stations, like Delhi, this is a big issue in theory, because Indigo domestic operates from a separate terminal and British Airways flies from Terminal 3.

If this were to go through, Indigo’s biggest USP is at risk, its on-time performance, which is the reason it has gained respect in the travel circles in India. Not to say LCC’s don’t do such deals. Emirates and Jet Airways both have deals in the USA with JetBlue, apart from 10 other carriers, where JetBlue carries passengers from their point of arrivals to their final destination. But with Indigo’s fanatic obsession about on-time performance, this may be a different ball game.

Obviously, we all know this will be a big discussion for days to come. Let’s see how long this carries on, and what other aspects get discussed. Avios for Indigo flights anyone? Or, do you foresee an eventual entry of Indigo into oneworld?

Bring it on…

Related Posts:

• Indigo takes top spot from Jet Airways as India’s largest airline
• Hello 6E!
• Indigo starts going into losses too?
• Indigo turns 5 this month!
• Kingfisher to join oneworld
• Kingfisher’s networth eroded to zero, and IT systems blamed foroneworld alliance membership put on hold
• Kingfisher Airlines membership to oneworld put on hold
• Kingfisher is no more, officially!

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First & foremost, let me take the opportunity to wish you all a very happy, healthy and successful 2013.

Now, over to business. Like I mentioned here, I was out trying to make sure I wrap up 2012 on Executive Platinum status on American Airlines. Here was my entire routing, and I started to find my way back on December 30, only to land into Mumbai a shade after midnight on January 1 with the stiff upper-lipped British Airways.

Going to the cold zone for a week, I thought it was prudent to check-in a bag, with some clothes for various circumstances (snow included!). The bag held up pretty well with my pace till it was time for to come back to Mumbai, and last I saw it was when I checked it all the way through on American Airlines at SeaTac airport.

The labyrinth called London Heathrow meant I had to be crossing over from Terminal 3 where American Airlines arrives at, and go all the way to Terminal 5 where only British Airways operates from. My incoming flight, which was going to land 1 hour early, was made to go in circles and eventually arrived 30 minutes in advance. But that was all the time eaten up by the ‘fast-track’ security queue at Heathrow, where almost everyone was there and took me over 30 minutes to clear. My flight was going to take off from some remote gates of Terminal 5, which meant I did not even have time to pop into the British Airways lounges to grab a Shepherd Pie or 2, it was a rush to the gates. I did enquire with a BA agent, who told me my bags had arrived from Dallas Fort Worth, and will be on their way to Mumbai.

Now, the stiff upper-lipped BA, did not bother to put my bag on the flight to Mumbai however. Even though it had a bright flashing Priority tag which sort of sounds useless now. The best part is, the flight from London departed over 20 minutes late, so they had a full extra hour to sort bags and get them going on the plane.

My first time in years of travel that my bag did not arrive with me. But the way British Airways handled it was my complaint area more than anything else. So, there is already a message they received that mine, and several other bags (at least 15 passengers) were not loaded on the plane. They did nothing to announce the names of these passengers at the arrivals hall to tell them. So I waited patiently for over 1 hour for the belt to clean up, and then they start the process. They already had the information, and they did not share it proactively.

They then asked me to fill up a lengthy form, and told me my bags were in London because they were not able to get them on the plane. Further, they had passengers waiting for another 45 minutes while they could engage with the Customs authorities to get us a clearance for BA to deliver the bags to us. As a result, I only got out of the airport at 03:00 AM and went home, while I was supposed to drive to friends’ straight after landing to join them in celebrating the new year.

So much for integration with oneworld. On my way out of LHR, American Airlines held the plane for 45 minutes to ensure that passengers AND their bags which were checked-in with Finnair were on board. And looks like they were more interested in making sure oneworld worked rather than just their airline.

10 hours out, this is what the status on WorldTracer shows up as…no status!

British Airways’ handling of the situation was totally tacky, and just please remind me again that I should not think of using LHR as a transit airport again, and maybe keep off British Airways as much as I can!

Here is hoping you don’t lose a bag this year or ever!

Update: The bag did arrive on Jan 1 into India, and was delivered to me early on 2 Jan. For my troubles, Bloody Awful threw a few miles at me, that is what they felt my time was worth!

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Beginning of the month I had alerted all of you regular readers about the promotions going on with American Express, where there is an offer to transfer Membership Rewards (their reward currency) for cards issued in India. There are two promotions:

• Transfer your Amex Membership Rewards to British Airways Avios, and you could earn a 30% bonus on these transfers. Amex MR transfer to Avios at the rate of 1.6 MR = 1 Avios, which translates, with this bonus, to 1.23 MR  = 1 Avios. While British Airways is one of the more expensive airlines due to their fuel surcharges to use Avios on, you could use them with so many of the oneworld airlines.
• Transfer your Amex MR to Etihad Guest Miles, and you could earn 20% bonus on these transfers. Amex MR transfer to Etihad Guest Miles at the rate of 1.6 MR = 1 Avios, and with this bonus, to 1.33 MR = 1 Etihad Guest Mile. Not a great program to be in, but if you do fly Etihad regularly, this could be used to top off your account.

Both the offers are on only till 30 November 2012, and some cards, such as the Gold Charge Card, will attract a Rs. 250 fee to process the transfer request. So, if you’re thinking of converting MR to miles, this is the most lucrative opportunity this year (whatever is left of it )

On the other hand, if you are still looking to get an American Express Gold Charge Card for free or Platinum Reserve at 20% off annual fee, allow me to send you a LinkedIn referral, I still have some left! Drop me a line at aj@livefromalounge.com  if you want one.

Related Posts:

• American Express offering 30% bonus on transfer to Avios (British Airways!)
• Amex offering 20% bonus on MR conversion to Etihad Guest Miles
• Sunday Plastic: The American Express Gold Charge Card

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