Air India seems to be making all the right moves while its competitor for the Star Alliance membership Jet Airways is busy trying to make a strategic alliance with Etihad. What I cannot figure out is, why was the Indian Civil Aviation ministry’s unnamed officials making all the noises about the conversations between 9W/EY before it was formally announced.

Anyways, as per more noises from the said ministry and a newspaper report published today, seems like Air India and the ministry (the owner of Air India) are reaching out to the member airlines of the Star Alliance to get them to vote in favour of Air India joining the alliance. They also insist that airlines are conveying to the civil aviation ministry of India their approval for Air India joining *A

Air India’s long wait to become a member of Star Alliance – a vital requirement for its elusive turnaround – may soon end. The aviation ministry has established contact with a majority of the 27 members of the world’s largest airlines’ alliance and got a favourable response for AI’s joining the group.

…

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“AI’s entry into Star should materialize soon now. A number of member airlines have already conveyed to us their approval for that,” said a senior aviation ministry official.

(emphasis, mine)

To quickly refresh, Air India was on track to join the *A in July 2011, when on the day of the vote, the CEO board of the alliance voted to keep their membership on hold. *A was always interested in taking Jet Airways on board, who eventually applied this year, but is now talking to Etihad for a minority ownership and perhaps a strategic alliance as well. Like I had wondered then, this move with Star Alliance was not going to be in line with the Gulf ambitions of Jet Airways anyways.

Why not after all, Air India seems to have pleased Lufthansa to get in, and can’t accept being left on the altar yet. We’ll see how this goes…

Related Posts:

• Jet Airways on verge of strategic partnership with Etihad
• Indian Government admits to being partisan to Lufthansa
• Air India is back to Lufthansa for Star Alliance again
• AI, should it join the Star Alliance, and would it
• AI misses its flight to the Star Alliance
• AI and Star Alliance can’t seem to make up their mind
• Star Alliance and Jet Airways – 3rd time lucky?
• Are the stars aligning for Jet Airways in Star Alliance? Air India is now a no go!

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A couple of months back I wrote about the cancellation of Turkish Airlines accounts, perhaps those which used services like AwardWallet to keep an updated balance. Turkish has been out there issuing a status match to Star Alliance Gold level status for everyone who has top-tier status with Star Alliance, OneWorld and Skyteam, something I first wrote about in May.

Now, Turkish ‘suspended’ my own account as well due to the same reason, and I had to work on fixing it. Reason I say same reason, is because my mom’s TK account is not on AwardWallet, so her account survived while mine went.

The first few emails did not work. Then I eventually got a response saying my account was ‘suspended temporarily’. To revive the account, I had to send them the following details on their email customer@thy.com from my registered email address:

• Email Address
• Postal Address
• Mobile/Business Phone
• A scan of my passport copy

At first I was circumspect, but I sent them a copy of my Passport’s ID page only, not the the address one. It seemed to work with them, and I got a new email in a few days sending me a new auto-generated password. Once I reset that password, I was good to go. This should help everyone else who had their accounts cancelled as well. But remember, you might have to email a few times to get a response

Related Posts:

• Turkish Airlines status matching up to Star Alliance Gold
• Did your Turkish Miles & Smiles a/c get cancelled without notice?

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Ethiopian, the first African carrier to receive the Boeing 787, is now putting up a daily service to Mumbai from 11th November onwards with their 787. The initial plan for this service was 25 November, but ET brings it up ahead and replacing the Boeing 767 which flew this route earlier.

As per AirlineRoute.net, here is the schedule of the flights:

Addis Ababa – Mumbai Service begins from 11NOV12, previously planned from 25NOV12

ET610 ADD2120 – 0450+1BOM 788 D
ET611 BOM0540 – 0800ADD 788 D

ET611 with 787 service from 12NOV12

Ethiopian is a Star Alliance member airline, and their 787 looks amazing from the inside, as compared to national carrier Air India’s 787.

This gives one more option to those of you who want to experience the 787. Air India is already operating domestic flights from Delhi, and flights to Germany on the 787. Also, Japan Airlines also operates 787 to India.

Related Posts:

• Air India 787: Flying to Frankfurt from Oct 15!
• A first look inside the Boeing 787 Dreamliner which will go to Air India
• Japan Airlines becomes the first to fly the B787 to India

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