As the economic and political crises in Venezuela continue to worsen, more airline crews are choosing to avoid ever even stepping out of the airport during layovers. That has forced airlines to get creative. While many carriers have scaled back or eliminated service to Caracas and other Venezuelan cities during the on-going deterioration of the Bolivarian […]
United’s Loss Is Emirates’ Gain
Emirates is considering restarting a Fifth Freedom route between Hamburg, Germany and New York JFK. It’s a bold move in the “America First” era, but hardly a route so odd that it merits scorn. Without formal announcement, United suspended service to Hamburg last autumn. After serving Hamburg year-around for several years from Newark via a 757-200, […]
Cathay Pacific Should Not Bother With This Slop…
Each week, my Meal of the Week feature examines an airline meal from my travels over the years. This may be a meal from earlier in the week or it may be a meal served over a decade ago. Although the effort is appreciated, Cathay Pacific should not bother if it is going to serve something inedible…or […]
Is Qatar Airways Plotting To Take Over Oneworld?
Let’s play a game of imagination. Imagine a situation in which one airline decides to invest in several others. So the airline does. A little bit here, a little bit there. Now imagine that these other airlines are part of a common alliance and cooperate together on many levels. The strategic investment allows a seat […]
Dense, Dimwitted Logic From A Deliberately Deceptive Delta CEO
Air Italy’s USA expansion has caused a stir amongst U.S. legacy carriers. But Delta CEO Ed Bastian’s op-ed response is riddled with deception and outright mistruth. Feel free to start by reading Ed Bastian’s op-ed without my commentary. I’m going to jump right into his op-ed and provide a line-by-line deconstruction and analysis. In doing […]
My Prediction For United’s “Historic” New Route Announcement
United Airlines’ CEO Oscar Munoz will make a “historic” route announcement today. I have 10 predictions for potential new routes. According to an insider on airliners.net, United will make a historic route announcement today at 11:00AM CT. United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz will host a media conference call to discuss an historic package of new […]
As Air Italy Looks To California, Congress Looks To Block
A posse of U.S. Senators has Air Italy in its crosshairs, dampening news that the Italian carrier plans to add service to two California cities next yaer. Air Italy Announces Service to LAX and SFO Yesterday, Air Italy announced new nonstop service between Milan and both Los Angeles and San Francisco. Starting next spring, the […]
Manila To Osaka Via Koror And Guam, All On A United Airlines 737!
When you think about which airline to fly from Manila to Osaka, your first thought is probably not on United. It wasn’t mine either. But I could not resist. United has a hub in Guam. This was once a Continental hub and before that an Air Micronesia hub. From Guam, United operates to many islands […]
A New Connection From Los Angeles To Africa
Ethiopian Airlines will connect Los Angeles with Lomé, Togo, becoming the first nonstop flight between LAX and the African continent. Last month I wrote about Ethiopian abandoning its Addis Ababa – Dublin – Los Angeles flight. Days after cancelling it, the carrier reinstated it, but with no possibility of booking flights between Dublin and Los Angeles […]
Philippine Airlines Launches Nonstop Service To New York JFK
Philippine Airlines has launched nonstop service between Manila and New York City aboard its new Airbus A350-900 jetliner. The flag carrier of the Philippines, more commonly known as PAL, will serve New York JFK five times weekly. With the inauguration of this route, PAL joins the Top-10 Club of world’s longest flights. At 8,520 miles, this […]
Is Ethiopian Airlines Abandoning LAX?
Here’s a mystery perhaps we can solve together. I book Award Expert clients on Ethiopian Airlines to/from Africa all the time. The airline is very generous in releasing award space and has an unparalleled route network within Africa. It also now serves many key cities in the USA, including Los Angeles…at least for now. A […]
Book Singapore Airlines A380 First Class Awards With Partner Miles!
Ever wanted to fly the on the Singapore Airlines A380 in first class but don’t have any Singapore Airlines miles? Now you have other options. The floodgates of award space available to Singapore’s own KrisFlyer members has not been made available to all. But we’ve seen an increase in space lately made available to partner […]
German Appeals Court Rules Kuwait Airways Cannot Be Forced To Carry Israeli Passengers
While condemning the discriminatory policy, a German appeals court in Frankfurt nevertheless ruled that Kuwait Airways cannot be forced to carry Israeli passengers. An Israeli student in Germany had purchased a ticket in 2016 on Kuwait Airways to travel from Frankfurt to Bangkok via Kuwait City. But Kuwait Airways cancelled the ticket because Kuwaiti law […]
Ghost Flights From London Heathrow
Three of the most valuable commodities in the world: gold, silver…and LHR slots? Take a worldwide financial hub and throw in an airport bursting at the seams and you have a classic supply and demand dilemma. But the ironic result is empty flights to nowhere. Perhaps it’s not so ironic when you consider an airline […]
Civil War in Trump Administration Over Gulf Carriers
What happens when two factions within the White House hold differing views on the same agreement? A war of words, to say the least… A fascinating AP story by Josh Lederman outlines the conflict. In one corner, President Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro. In the other corner, the U.S. Department of State. The controversy: what the airline […]
Delta’s Victory Lap Over a Meaningless Agreement + New Service to India?
Reading press releases from American, Delta, and United, you would think that Emirates and Etihad agreed to abandon service to the United States. They actually agreed to very little. But in a face-saving move, U.S. carriers are celebrating. Delta’s press release reads: Trump administration secures agreement with UAE to enforce trade deals, protect American jobs. […]
Airlines Condemn Trump Budget Plan
A proposed plan to raise airline fees for TSA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection has airlines bracing for an attack from an Administration it so far has strongly supported. The relationship between the White House and U.S. airlines is quite a paradox. It was only weeks ago that Detla CEO Ed Bastian praised the Administration […]
Qatar vs. Delta – Who Really Won?
Later today U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will announce a sweeping deal that will put to rest the dispute between U.S. carriers and Qatar Airways. But who is the real winner here? Qatar Airways will agree not to run indirect flights to the USA (Fifth Freedom flights) “for now” and will become more financially […]
Review: Singapore Airlines A380 Economy Class New York to Frankfurt
It was with some reluctance that I agreed to fly Singapore Airlines economy class, but it was not a mistake: the flight turned out to be one of the best economy class experiences in all my years of flying. I outlined here what a great deal a walk-up ticket on Singapore Airlines is for travel […]
Singapore Airlines: Cheap Last-Minute New York – Frankfurt Tickets
After New York last week, John and I had to fly to Frankfurt to meet with a shipping transport company. We had planned to use miles, but Thursday turned out to be a particularly busy travel day so nothing opened in business or first. Nothing without triple connections and losing the entirety of Friday. But […]
