Chef Florent Maréchau says seasonal vegetarian menus, organic ingredients will rule 2019

For food lovers, we highly recommend Zomato Gold. The Gold service entitles you to offers like 1+1 on food/drink or 2+2 on drinks at partner restaurants. The one-year plan is Rs 1,200 at the time of writing. If you calculate the savings you make on every meal, this amount can be redeemed usually within the first 3-4 orders itself. Using Zomato Gold is very simple — you just need to unlock the visit code when you are at the restaurant and show it to your server before placing the order. One table can even use multiple Zomato Gold memberships for extra discounts. Ask an existing member for a referral code to get some discounts on the membership fee. You can also try Gourmet Passport — available to purchase and use with the dedicated app. In either case, you can explore whether the restaurants you like are included in the deal before you sign up.

Frequent Flyer

If you travel a lot, it is highly recommended that you choose a frequent flyer program on the airline you use the most. Almost all airlines (domestic and international) offer a frequent flyer loyalty program that you can signup for (signing up is free). Depending on how much you travel, you accumulate points on every trip. These points can then be used to upgrade seats or even pay for tickets. Some airlines offer the option to redeem points for gift coupons that you can use on popular ecommerce websites.

MakeMyTrip Double Black

This loyalty service from MakeMyTrip is currently invite only. The primary benefit is that you get a full refund in case of cancellations for hotel and flight bookings. The catch is that this is applicable on only five eligible hotel/ flight bookings per year and the amount is refunded to your MakeMyTrip wallet, not to your original method of payment. The wallet amount does not expire and can be used in entirely for subsequent bookings. The price for subscription is Rs 1,499/year which covers benefits for one additional traveler. To sign up, ask an existing member for an invite code.

Paytm Movie Pass

Rs 800/30 days This lets you watch 4 movies within 30 days at an average cost of Rs 200 per movie. There are no restrictions on which days you can watch, the movie or time slots. The only catch is that tickets have to be booked on Paytm.

Uber Ride Pass

Rs 49 to Rs 69/month Uber’s Ride Pass lets you book a cab at flat rates. The price depends on a certain maximum distance and is usually Rs 89 or Rs 99 for Uber Go. The catch is that if a price surge is on, you will be charged an overage. However, prices will still be significantly lower than fares without a pass. You’ll end up saving if you use Uber regularly.

Swiggy Super

Rs 149/month Swiggy Super gives you the advantage of unlimited free home deliveries on partner restaurants without a surge fee. The only catch is that your order has to be higher than Rs 99 to get free delivery.

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime is just Rs 999 per year and gives you access to exclusive content from Prime Video (apart from Prime Music, books and shopping benefits). The streaming service offers movies as well as TV programmes and you’l find the interface detailed and easy to use. There is a lot of regional content too. Plus, they also offer various stand-up comedies and original programmes in local languages like Hindi, Tamil and Telegu

Netflix

Netflix is what you need to start with if you’re cutting the DTH cord. The amount of content available at one low price is staggering. It starts at Rs 499/month onwards but if you want 4k content, you will have to get the Rs 800/ month plan (this plan can be shared by four different people, with four simultaneous streams, making it the best value for a large household). Netflix also offers movies and TV programmes but what makes it stand out is the number of high-quality Netflix Original titles that are not available on any other platform. We also give credit to Netflix for starting the interactive video trend: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch was the first interactive movie on streaming and we expect more to follow soon.

Hotstar
The third service you should get, especially if you’re dropping DTH, is Hotstar. This is the only service that offers live streaming of sports as well as news channels. They also have a large catalogue of exclusive content for movies and TV (mostly from Star TV channels and HBO). You can see a lot of content for free, but the premium subscription is Rs 999/year. If you only want access to live sports, you can get the sports package for Rs 299/ year.

CashKaro
CashKaro continues to be our favorite service for cashback in India. They have tied up with over 1500 online retailers and they also offer additional discount coupons. The basic idea of the service is that when you CashKaro to visit a retailer, the retailer gives CashKaro a commission for driving the sale. CashKaro passes on some of that to you as cashback. The cashback earned gets added to your CashKaro account and you can choose to transfer it to your bank or redeem it for gift cards.

There are several music streaming services available in India. There’s no need to clog up your device storage with downloaded music. Some of the prominent names include Amazon Music, Gaana, Wynk, iTunes Music, Google Play Music and Saavn. Each one has pros and cons but if you want to start with just one, we find Gaana suitable for most . It has one of the biggest catalogues of music (both regional and international). They have a feature-rich smartphone app, an easy-to-use web interface and quick search. They curate playlists for Bollywood, International, New releases and so on. In addition, there are a selection of radio channels with different music genres. The best part is that you can listen unlimited for free (it’s ad supported). The premium (Gaana Plus) is Rs 499/year or Rs 99/month. The benefits are high quality audio, zero ads and unlimited downloads for offline listening.