We all know the traditional way of getting complimentary access to airport lounges through debit cards and credit cards. Now, a local cab operator OLA is trying to innovate the cab service by providing complimentary lounge access through its paid membership plan named: OLA Select.
What’s OLA Select:
- Monthly membership Fee: Rs.499
While the service has been there for a while, I got a chance to explore OLA select membership last month through a trial offer. You get top rated cab drivers most times and there is no peak pricing.
The benefits of Ola select are good for regular travellers who rely on cabs day & night. From my personal experience, Uber is always cheaper and better than OLA but this OLA Select makes me think twice.
Complimentary Airport Lounge Access With OLA Select:
One greatest and less spoken benefit of OLA Select is its Lounge Access feature. They’ve good set of lounges in domestic terminals and even a couple of F&b (Food and Beverage) outlets, which is unique when it comes to lounge access programs worldwide.
Here are the list of lounges with which you can get access with OLA Select membership,
Domestic Terminal
- Bangalore – Above Ground Levell Lounge
- Chennai – Travel Club (TFS) Lounge
- Cochin – Earth Lounge
- Mumbai – GOOD TIMES (T1B), Costa (T2 – F&B Outlet)
- Delhi – Costa (T1 – F&B Outlet)
- Hyderabad – Moonson Bar
- Kolkata – Travel Club (TFS) Lounge
- Bhubaneswar – Mayfair Lounge
- Baroda – Port Lounge
- Trivandrum – Ruby Arena
- Raipur – Zesto Lounge
- Varanasi – Zesto Lounge
- Lucknow – Zesto Lounge
- Guwahati – Prive Lounge
International Terminal
- Jaipur – Club One Class Lounge (T2)
As you can see, its a decent set of lounges we have under the program and is indeed good to see a lot of newly opened lounges here that’s still not affiliated with Mastercard/Visa/Diners Club yet. But they must get into the list very soon as all these lounge access service in the country are outsourced to the same agency.
How to Get Lounge Access with OLA Select:
You need to share your unique access code at the lounge which can be obtained by clicking on the Ola Select Membership option in the Ola app menu. Then, OTP verification is done after which you will be allowed in.
- Daily Limit: Once per day (upto 2 hours)
- Monthly Limit: Unlimited (24 hours wait time after each access)
Unlimited?! Looks like someone is smiling 😉 Well, it seems to be currently unlimited with above restrictions.
How F&B Outlet Works: There seems to be separate menu with a certain limit. Ideally, you get one free meal from their partners which includes KFC, Vaango & Costa Coffee (at Mumbai airport). I’m waiting to try this!
Bottomline:
For road warriors with at-least 10+ cab rides a month, its certainly one of the best way to get domestic lounge access benefit once you’re done with the quarterly limits on Visa/MC. The membership fee is also very much acceptable if you value the lounge access benefit as much as i do.
Has anyone availed the lounge access benefit with your OLA Select membership? Feel free to share your views in comments below.
I have used it multiple times since the january this year and one more important thing is they dont insist on the presence of member as they usually do with CC/ DC. So if someone doesn’t have a card for family members than they can use it. Only condition is OTP.
Also the only con is it is available only for domestic lounges , not the international ones. so if one is making an international departure than he / she cant use it as lounges are different at domestic and international departures. This is true at least for delhi.
I have used this at KOCHI, Trivandrum, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
No problems faced till date.
Wonderful!
Thanks for sharing your experience Rahul.
Hi Sid
Now the ITC lounge next to premium plaza at Delhi T3 can be accessed using MasterCard. I recently visited both on the same day and felt ITC slightly better in terms of sitting, food & facilities. The main difference was the massage machines at the ITC lounge which is a big plus for travellers before a flight.
Let me know what you think.
This is at International Departure right?
Yes sid
Cool.
The name for the lounge is ITC hotels Green Lounge
OT but today is the last day for availing 2X benefit on Club Carlson gold points. 80K points available for USD 280 or INR 18K. Suitable for combining with DCB 10X offer. Should buy you 9 nights at a Cat 1 Hotel (Khajuraho for eg) or 5 nights at Cat 2 hotels (Udaipur for eg).
Regards
Just did a quick article on that considering the time frame of this promo.
Would you recommend detailed article on each Hotel Loyalty program?
Is there any credit card that offers you free international airports lounge access?
I am not talking about the priority pass schemes that most banks give where they only pay the yearly membership fees but you have to pay the entrance fees for international airport lounges.
Most premium Credit cards has it.
Complimentary Ola Select membership offered on using ICICI Coral+ Debit Card.
Monthly Fee: Rs.249/- plus 18% GST every month; Total fee payable for a year is Rs.2,988 plus 18% GST.
They have a limit on # of rides on this though. But yes, good one for lounge access at this rate.
40 rides per year limit is set by ola on all ola select membership. Icici bank has not set any separate limit on ola select membership. I has ordered this card recently. Will give detailed feedback in some time.
Correction- 40 rides per year is limit only under this card. paid membership does not have any such limit.
I accessed Jaipur lounge( basically fine dine restaurant but for lounge access they provide one sandwich and a coffee) through ola select. process is smooth.
Also limit is of 1 lounge access per calendar day. so you can access lounge twice within 24 hours.
Hey, what is the process to claim this complimentary ola select membership? I can’t find any option on the ola app? Or is this only for first time subscribers of Ola Select?
Thanks
Shruthi
Do we have any idea, how to get to AirIndia and other lounges where we can seat with less crowd.
You need to fly AI or any Star alliance member airlines to access AI lounge, preferably Biz class.
hi Sid,
uber has launched a new credit card, seems interesting – LTF, 0 foreign transaction charges, rewards rares – 1-4%
your review should be helpful
thanks!
Its for western market and its not that useful for most.
It’s a pretty solid dining card. Not much of an Uber card. To get a similar reward rate on dining in US, you need to at least spend $200 annual fee. But this one is free. And dining includes Uber Eats, a big plus for many.
But unfortunately no accelerated rewards on Uber itself, probably because Uber is prohibited to offer such a card due to existing bank partnerships. Bit of a let down.
If you’re not into Dining much though, you’re better off with Citi Double Cash or Discover It for LTF cards.
I’m also a card enthusiast and have every cards then and now.
But the above info is wrong ola has broken partnership with zest group (Which Is spicejet led).
Only cards with zest lounge are
->idfc card (Signature)
->Rupay platinum Debit card (only till 31 march )(yes paytm debit card will also work)
I have recently used Lounge @ Bangalore/Chennai with OLA select membership
The difficult point in Ola is that they have started to offer ride in credit. My OLA money always shows 499 as balance and whenever I refill that they deduct money automatically for the rides I have taken in lien. This way its quite difficult to track the OLA expenditure. Yes, its also true that Uber costs less compared to OLA at least in Mumbai and Bangalore (my experience). But after I took OLA select membership for “no rate in peak time” and the lounge access to frequent flyer like me ( Mumbai-Bangalore-Mumbai weekly passenger) , it changed my perception and preference.
I think Ola select does not offer Lounge access now. At least, not in Bangalore airport.