Mumbai is under a sort of shutdown today due to the death of a political figure, due to which vehicles are off roads and public conveyance such as taxis have withdrawn from the roads and airports. Things are peaceful out there, but you could be stranded if you’re landing in the city today without a vehicle to pick you up. Airport authorities have organised shuttles to drop people to the nearby suburban train stations, but that is the best they could do. The following travel advisory from my airline for a flight I am supposed to take today, should give you perspective.

If you have friends or family in Mumbai, ask them to pick you up from the airport. If you’re coming over and are supposed to stay in a hotel, ask them to send you a ride. If you’re depending on a public carpool, here is a worksheet that is managing such efforts. Here is a live update of the situation. I hope things would be better by the evening.

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Diwali is here, which means, that time of the year when I will find the most number of people on the airports going over somewhere. Here is a screenshot from the Jet Airways website last evening on a trunk route:

And here is this morning, when I had tried to check-in… most people were still waiting for a sign from God to web check-in!

That made me think, let me do a post for you guys to get ready for holiday travel! Here are the things to do:

a) Check-In: If you’re planning to get on a plane, go and check-in now on the airlines website. Don’t worry about the disclaimer from Indigo and SpiceJet that only hand baggage passengers are allowed to web check-in. I’ve dropped bags at the airport counter enough number of times to confirm that they will accept bags even if you web checked-in. If you don’t check in now, you are attracting the following 2 possibilities:

– Stuck in a middle seat because all smart travellers picked the seat before you!

– Be offloaded from a flight because it was overbooked. Remember, 5-7% overbooking on a flight is normal, and if you arrive last minute, you could be the one being told, we’re sorry, you can’t go on this flight, or the next or the one after because we are sold out!

-Don’t forget, on Jet Airways, you get miles to web check-in as well

b) Arrive early at the airport: The airport is going to be noisy like being at a food court these next few days. Or a mall, or whatever your idea of a crowd is. But if you want to get on that flight and go home and arrive in time, get to the airport in time. Queues will be horribly long, and you’ll have to wait up every place. You don’t want to be getting those last call glares now, do you?

c) Check in baggage, but weigh before you leave home: 20 kgs is your standard allowance inside India. But, check your tickets and weigh your bags before you leave home. Remember, this year, airlines are out to get every single currency note in your pocket. They won’t be accommodative at all about excess baggage but ask you to pay!

d) Lounge, what lounge? Lounges would look more like shelter camps for those hit by a hurricane. Service will suck, unless you are maybe in a super exclusive American Express lounge in Mumbai or Delhi. Everyone with MasterCards, Visa Signatures, Elite Jet Airways status and GoAir and Jet Airways business passengers will fight for the same space in Mumbai. Delhi may be slightly different. Food will be out of circulation. If you are okay with all of this, go in. Else, save yourself the bother and wait at the gate. I know I will be doing this.

e) Check your passport if you’re travelling abroad! You decided to take off on a holiday because you have the Diwali break? Great? Check if the passport is there with the correct visas!

Anything else I miss? Fit in the comments section. I’ll add the best ones here

Happy travels and safe landings folks!

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My kid brother flies only internationally on work trips, for most years that I remember him working. An odd trip here or there domestically. However, he is a novice to the world of miles and points and enhancing his travel experience (such as sitting in the lounge rather than waiting at the gate).

So, every time he has a mandate from work to travel, I take over as what I call myself as the concierge service while he is travelling, all the way from half way around the globe away. Complimentary services include figuring out the best seats on the plane (he flies coach, sigh!), lounge access, hotel room upgrades if possible, banking the miles to the various hotels/airline programs and the works (including reaching out to fellow bloggers such as Lufthansa Flyer for help, once in a while!).

Since his employer, like so many others in today’s economy, goes with the lowest cost options for work travel, he does not usually have a choice with the airline he flies or the hotels he stays at. Co-incidentally, most of his travels end up on Star Alliance carriers. Those are the limitations imposed upon me, and it gives me extreme satisfaction if I can still make his experience better along the way.

This time around, he is over to the US in a few days on a work trip. He flies United/US Airways and stays at a Ritz Carlton property. Here is what I have already done, and I am hoping you guys can help me with some more tips to make his travels even better!

Airline Status: With his existing status, I worked on getting him a status match to the Turkish Airlines Star Gold status a few months back anticipating that he will continue to travel on Star Alliance airlines in the future as well. This should come handy going forward as he can qualify on much lesser miles flown than he has so far.

Airline seats: Once his tickets were booked, they were sent to me. Since he does not hold United status, the chances of an upgrade are (less than) zero I’d say. However, we worked together to pick the best seats of whatever was available in the free seating zone. One thing I miss about Star Alliance top-tier status is priority seating access complimentary to top-tiers, unlike that provided by oneworld and SkyTeam members.

Lounge Access: The guy has a couple of long layovers, like in between his 16 hour long flight from BOM and his next flight, about 5 hours or more. Similarly on the way back. And he has a work colleague with zero status on exactly the same schedule as he is. So, I’ve compiled a list of the various lounges he could access while he is at the various airports with his shiny TK Gold status card.

Baggage: Considering he will be gone for a week, I’ve convinced him to carry a check-in bag rather than just a carry-on bag, considering I’d like him to have the option of going shopping and still have space to bring something back if he felt like it! So, the free bag on Star Gold, can be dutifully relegated to all the work stuff he needs to carry.

Passbook: United will be supporting Passbook, so the United mobile-app has been installed on his iPhone for him to have a good feel of the feature while he is airport hopping. That he will eventually get a paper boarding pass for the international flights, is unavoidable.

Hotel Status: Considering he was heading over to a Ritz Carlton, I enrolled him for Marriott Rewards, and then he has enrolled for the status challenge at the Platinum Level (he is a Hilton Gold at the moment!) I was very excited to have signed up for the current Marriott MegaBonus promotion, but for some reason I was reading it as Stay 2 nights, get 1 free rather than 2 stays earn 1 night. So, I’m not sure we are going to mattress run for this one, but I’ll ask him to try the usual check-out/check-in trick to see if something works for him using that route.

At least he gets free wifi and a shot at an upgraded room, which is not going to be much different since Ritz Carlton does not allow upgrades to Suites to MR elites.

Banking the Miles: This is an open discussion at the moment, but we are debating if he should put all of the elite miles via this trip to his status requalification on TK, or towards LH status or just earn redeemable miles on Jet Airways. Any ideas guys?

Now, all you friendly folks should tell me if I am missing something, and how can I help this little guy travel better while I’m at the other end of the world? Drop in a line below!

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