Upgraded: More trans-Atlantic business class
Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic is planning to launch all-business class flights across the Atlantic. They’re joining the fray with Maxjet, Eos, Silverjet, L’Avion, not to mention British Airways, Lufthansa, KLM, and Swiss, which each fly (or plan to fly) all-biz flights on particularly lucrative routes. Virgin’s plan involves a wholly new airline, not just flights within the regular schedule. But with all these new business class seats coming online, can business class price-slashing be far off? Supply and demand, after all…
Downgraded: Thai Airways miles
Yet another frequent flyer mileage program loses its value. Star Alliance founding member Thai Airways is hiking the number of miles necessary for award seats. Gary Leff has more.
Upgraded: Competition, luggage allowances
This is something we don’t see in the United States: In an effort to compete with its competitors on service and not just on price, SriLankan Airlines is raising the luggage allowance for flights out of Qatar. Admittedly, that’s a niche market, and they’re not raising the allowance across the board for all flights in the system. But it’s still interesting to see someone trying to differentiate their product, and not just compete on price.
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June 7th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
From the article, it would appear that the new airline will be New York-based with flights to Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Milan and Zurich.
From my perspective, this isgood news because, if successful, the airlines may get the message that many passengers are willing to pay a fair (but not exorbitant) price for comfortable transportation.
Many are willing to endure cramped conditions to save an additional 20 bucks … but flying ought to be fun, glamorous, and comfortable again, the way it used to be.
June 8th, 2007 at 10:45 am
I agree, David, I think this is good news, as it increases competition, both on service and on price. But will there be an amenity trickle-down (or “amenity creep”) to coach, as there has been from luxury to budget hotels?
I’d wager that premium economy will become more common in the next two to three years, while regular economy will continue to decline.
I’ll be happy with comfortable, for starters…
June 8th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
I recently flew on L’Avion, an airline which I had never even heard of, but which I chose to fly after reading about it on this very blog. They happened to have some last-minute deals going, so I snapped one up. The flight to Newark on Continental (coach) was hellish, and I feared the worst, but once we got on L’Avion, it was a dream. The way back was equally delightful.
This news of Virgin going into the Biz-class biz makes me happy.
I love your blog. Thank you for inspiring me to take a dream trip.
June 11th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Thanks for your kind words about the blog, and I’m very happy to hear that your trip was an enjoyable one. It’s good to hear that L’Avion was a good airline for you — this is the first feedback I’ve heard about it, so that’s encouraging. You should forward your comments to the airline!
June 16th, 2007 at 9:52 am
[...] Travel Better reader Marie gave her L’Avion experience two thumbs up recently, which is certainly encouraging. For a [...]
August 24th, 2007 at 4:40 am
I’m about to book a flight to Paris on L’Avion and I’d welcome any recent comments and advise.
thanks in advance!
WM
August 24th, 2007 at 5:55 am
A two-part review of L’Avion can be found here:
Part one
http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/2007/06/27/lavion-inside-part-un-a-good-seat-but-a-shortage-of-fluids-and-information/
Part two
http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/2007/07/05/inside-lavion-part-deux-the-airline-that-is-betwixt-and-between/