First time here? Check out the site's "greatest hits" or read a random post from the archives. Feel free to ask a question, and consider subscribing to the latest posts via RSS or e-mail. Thanks for visiting!

Whom or what would they kill to get an upgrade?
Nepal Airlines mechanics sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, after they just couldn’t quite fix the problems in their Boeing 757. How many goats does it take to get a 757 to arrive on time at LAX? Slaughtering livestock isn’t limited to Himalayan aviation: Longtime readers may recall that Turkish Airlines maintenance workers killed a camel to celebrate the disposal of a regional jet last year.

$100K isn’t a good flight value
I know it was for charity. But paying $100,000 to fly on the inaugural Airbus A380 flight on Singapore Airlines seems a bit much. Most importantly, will they earn miles?

Shocker: Motel 6 really won’t leave the light on for you
To conserve energy, the ultra-budget chain doesn’t really leave lights on. So says their folksy pitchman Tom Bodett. So you know it’s true.

Delta’s apparently not afraid of the competition
Inside baseball, maybe, but still: Looking over the blogroll at Delta’s blog, I noticed that they link to their competitors: Southwest’s blog. That’s pretty gutsy for a corporate blog!

United names dates and planes for new business class rollout
The first plane to receive the long-awaited upgrade of 180-degree lie-flat seats in the business class cabin: a Boeing 767. It’s scheduled to travel between Washington and Frankfurt on October 29, 2007. Saver awards are unavailable at press time.

US Air Force tags nuclear warheads to wrong airport
Next time your luggage heads to Ketchikan, Alaska instead of Kansas City, take heart: The Air Force does it too. A B-52 bomber mistakenly carried six nuclear warheads from Minot, North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Oops. Just better hope it doesn’t end up at the Unclaimed Baggage Center.

Courts: Entering an airport means you’re subject to searches
This is old news, but I admit I just got wind of it now. If you’re at an airport in the U.S., you can’t turn around and leave the premises if you want to avoid being searched. “Citing threats of terrorism, the court ruled passengers give up all rights to be free of warrantless searches once a ‘passenger places hand luggage on a conveyor belt for inspection’ or ‘passes though a magnetometer.’ […] In 1973, the circuit court ruled that airport searches were valid ‘only if they recognize the right of a person to avoid search by electing not to board the aircraft.’” Not anymore. Offer to leave all you want, they can still search you. For the law-dogs out there, the case is United States v. Aukai, 04-10226. (via Wired’s Threat Level)

(image)

American Airlines officially announced the expanded rollout of their improved business class seats to their Boeing 777 fleet yesterday, on the same day as United’s announcement of their next-generation business class. It’s good to see some improvements. But I’m sorry, American, United takes the trophy home on this one.

American’s seat is an step up from their old seats, but it’s a tweak, not a redesign. The seat is angled when fully extended, which in my book puts it immediately behind any 180-degree product.

Better lighting? Better power ports? Privacy screens? All good. But not top of the line.

Much like United’s announcement, the focus is on the hardware, not the service aspect. Don’t get me wrong, improvements of any kind are great, and I’m looking forward to similar bravado in improving economy class seats. (… crickets chirping …) But I’d like to see an American carrier commit not only to improving the mechanics of travel, but also the experience of travel. Consistent, friendly, helpful service. Is that too much to ask?

It’s official: United Airlines has rolled out their next-generation business class seats, and they look good. (They rolled out a first class prototype a few months ago.) The new seats will be fully lie-flat, which is great news. They’ll also alternate forward and rear-facing seats, much like British Airways’ ClubWorld.

Some videos introducing the new seats, with some fanfare, can be found at United’s press release. See also their promotional site for the new business class: suitedreams.united.com. Better yet: An anonymous tipster forwarded this internal company “employee q&a” memo (MS Word doc) — it’s still a sales pitch, but it’s pretty detailed.

So what to make of the new UA business class? Four thoughts:

First, the seats themselves look very good. 180-degree lie-flat. Proper. Screw those angled flat seats — gravity always wins, people! Nice big screen. Wider (23.5″) than the current-generation first seats. On its own, it looks like other new-generation seats out there, with larger screens. But they’re the best looking seats offered by an American airline right now.

Second, the alternating forward- and rear-facing seats will be an adjustment for many people, but British Airways has been doing it for a while, and they’re still selling tickets. (Interestingly, the promo photos show two parallel seats…)

Third, the service is supposed to improve along with the seat. But “service” is really “features.” That is, new food from chef Charlie Trotter, and better in-flight entertainment. (Movies and games.) But what’s missing from the company’s PR pitch is the actual service in flight. A great restaurant is more than a tasty-sounding menu and a nicely decorated room. It’s how the customer is treated that makes a world of difference. The same is true of an airline, and United’s in-flight customer service has been hit-or-miss lately. It’s not clear that the company realizes this, either. The promotional materials focus on the hardware, and not the human “software” that really makes or breaks the experience.

Fourth, and from the customer’s point of view, the question remains: How much is this going to cost? And how much more difficult will it be to get an upgrade (or free frequent flyer ticket) into these swank new seats? The airline says it’s not raising prices, or changing upgrade policies, but it’s easy to limit award supply or to blame “market forces” for a price hike.

At any rate, the new seats are a step forward for the airline. The new seats will only be on internationally-configured three-class Boeing 747, 777, and 767 planes, and the rollout will take thirty months to complete. I’m hoping to try them on for size some day soon.

For just over a year, the major airlines have been fighting it out with all-business class upstarts like Maxjet, Eos, and L’Avion for trans-Atlantic premium traffic. Most of those seats are going from New York to London. But the Pacific has been conspicuously absent, with the skies still dominated by the big network carriers and their traditional economy/business/first configurations. Now Maxjet wants to fly to China.

Much like their bigger competitors, they filed paperwork with the Department of Transportation in an effort to get one of the very few available slots (see here for some background). Maxjet proposes a route that takes passengers from Los Angeles to Seattle, and then on to Shanghai.

Given that Maxjet is up against every other major US airline for a single flight slot that’s up for grabs, there is no way on earth that the Department of Transportation would give Maxjet the rights to the route. Maxjet’s Boeing 767s can’t carry nearly as many passengers or as much cargo as would be in the “national interest.” But the proposal signals that the company is looking beyond London.

So why hasn’t there been an entrepreneurial company that sells all-business flights to somewhere in Asia? The demand for premium cabins is high on those long trips — and frankly, that’s where you WANT to be in business class. A flight from New York to London isn’t really that long, and most people can manage that in coach. But a long-haul flight from North America to Asia or Australia in coach? Brutal.

I’m no airline economist nor an aerospace engineer, so I don’t have the answer. Perhaps the problem is filling planes that can actually reach Asia from the U.S. without a refueling stop in Alaska. Filling a 747, 777, or A340 with nothing but business class passengers might be tough for a new company, and most smaller planes don’t have the range to make it across the ocean. (Note that Maxjet’s proposed flight leaves from Seattle, not LAX or SFO, which cuts a bit of mileage from the flight.) And some of the Asian carriers (e.g., Singapore and Cathay Pacific in particular) offer a really top-tier business class product, raising the bar for potential competitors.

One alternative might be Oasis Hong Kong Airlines. They aren’t all-business class, but they are selling premium seats at a major discount to their competitors. Oasis promises service from Hong Kong to Oakland, California soon (though their promise of starting service by June went unfulfilled). They are currently flying from Hong Kong to Vancouver and London. A roundtrip business class ticket to fly between Hong Kong and Vancouver runs around US$2800 without any special sales or promotion.

Perhaps China isn’t the right route for Maxjet. But Korea or Japan might make sense. Bring on the trans-Pacific competition.

“Je m’appelle Michel.” L’Avion, the all-business class, all-Boeing 757 airline on the Paris (Orly) to Newark route, has a cute feature for passengers who give the airline their e-mail address. You get a reminder message featuring photos and customer-service pronouncements from the captain and purser.

It’s a nice, personal touch, even if the statements are on the cheesy side. The true value added of the mugshots? Not much, really, since the service provided will be the same whether you’ve seen their face before or not, but I imagine it’s funny, and oddly endearing, to walk down the jetway and actually recognize a staff member’s face.

Let’s just hope that passengers don’t start making their booking decisions on staff photos.

Upgrade: Travel Better reader Marie gave her L’Avion experience two thumbs up recently, which is certainly encouraging. For a full account of the L’Avion experience, stay tuned: Friend of the blog (or ami du blog?) Dr. Vino was our classe affaires guinea pig on the startup carrier last night, and we anxiously await his complete review/guest-post in a few weeks…

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.

(image)

JetBlue goes Euro! Not to Europe, but the airline is considering a European-style premium cabin. It’s buried in an article about jetBlue’s pending introduction of refundable fares — another big change for the company. (Though it’s something which most other airlines have had for years, to appeal to business travelers, jetBlue has consciously avoided refundable fares until now.) So what will a jetBlue first class cabin look like?

[CEO] Neeleman today also said JetBlue is “experimenting with the idea” of a “virtual first class,” which would give higher-yielding travelers access to window and aisle seats between empty middle seats, particularly on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays–when business travelers take to the skies and load factors are historically lower.

All that’s missing is the adjustable armrests that you find at the front of intra-European “business class.” (I use quotation marks, because airlines like Lufthansa and Air France really just give you the same damn seat, with a slightly better snack, wider armrests, and an empty middle seat, when you buy business class. Americans may complain about their domestic “first class” travel experience, but the seat is still a heckuvalot nicer than anything you’ll find within Europe.

Transatlantic rift? Pfft. Sounds like the US and Europe are moving closer together after all. Creating a premium cabin is in line with what I predicted for jetBlue a while back. Their de facto premium economy section was a first step.

Creating a sub-cabin like this, in combination with refundable fares, would make jetBlue very appealing for many business travelers. Though the live TV could be distracting…

Related:
- JetBlue increases legroom, creates de facto premium section
- JetBlue introduces premium economy cabin after all

(image)

Summer is coming soon in the northern hemisphere, which means it’s time for the annual business class fare sales. As business travel slows, paid premium traffic slows along with it. So bring on the sales!

Many of these sales aren’t advertised as such. The airlines simply load a lower business class fare into the system, and it’s not necessarily available every day on every flight. These are usually “Z-fares,” i.e., they have a fare code that begins with the letter Z. These come with more restrictions than a typical business class ticket, and will often need to be purchased relatively far in advance — sometimes as far as 60 days.

Bottom line: Before you hit “purchase” on an expensive international coach ticket, check the business class fare.

Beyond the big carriers and their summer discounts, there are a couple other business class offers worth mentioning:

All-business class Silverjet is rolling out its own loyalty program — the Freequent Flyer Program, har har. If you join the club and buy a ticket on the airline, you get a redemption code for a free ticket. The promotion ends May 25, 2007.

Oasis International Airlines, the low-cost long-haul London to Hong Kong carrier (that plans to fly to Hong Kong to Oakland later this year) is similarly featuring a buy-one-get-one-free offer on their Hong Kong-London route. Buy one business class ticket for , get a transferable voucher for another business class ticket free. £1595 (~US$3200) including taxes buys you both tickets. Purchase the first ticket by June 15, 2007. The voucher is good through March 2008. (via RoadGladiator)

Related:
- Why are there no Y-UP fares to Europe or Asia?

(image)

Upgraded: Your odds of seeing the Airbus A380 in New York
Want to see the Airbus A380 up close and personal? Lufthansa is bringing the über-jumbo jet to New York (as mentioned previously here), and you can enter their contest to tour the plane. It’s still a long shot, but unless you’re a VIP, this is your only way in. Better hurry: The drawing is March 13, and the plane arrives in NYC March 19.

Upgraded: The civil discourse of travel blogging
The Sydney Morning Herald’s travel blog has a lively comments section, wherein the journalists take guff from their readers, but dish it right back. Barbs such as the French word for “shower” get thrown back and forth in the comments to this post. I have a hard time imagining such an exchange on an American newspaper’s official blog. Viva Australia! (Thanks to reader — and frequent, polite commenter! — S.A. for the tip.)

Upgraded: Surreptitious beverage transportation for ladies
You may recall the Beer Belly, the under-your-clothes beverage bladder that upgrades six-pack abs to a full case. It’s essentially a CamelBak undergarment, most certainly a violation of the TSA’s 3-ounce cutoff for liquids and gels, and your fast-track ticket to a cavity search. But until recently, it the liquid smuggling business was a man’s world. Now, in a celebration of gender equality, there’s a similar product for women, with the beverage storage slightly higher on the torso: The Wine Rack. (via Thrillist; thanks Dr. Vino!)

Downgraded: Blackjack in Vegas
Your odds of coming out ahead when playing the tables in Las Vegas have dropped. Several casinos are reducing the payouts on blackjack from 3:2 to 6:5. You need to check the fine print on the signs at each table. If you want to play single-deck blackjack with 3:2 payouts, you’ll have to head to the El Cortez or Four Queens hotels, though both of these less-than-desirable properties only feature two such tables each. (via Tim Leffel)

Upgraded: Qantas first and business qlass
The Global Traveller points to Qantas’ PR for their soon-to-be-revamped first and business class products. Highlights: pajamas in business class, and the claim that their lounges will be the best in the world.

Downgraded: Daylight savings time
The Wall Street Journal warns that the impending shift to daylight savings time will put international connections out of whack for the coming weeks, as some countries will adjust their clocks but others won’t. But frankly, this has almost always been the case. Europe and the United States always had a week or two’s discrepancy on both the autumn and spring sides. Yes, there will certainly be some connections that are out of whack with the normal schedule for the next few weeks, so if you fly a given route regularly, your typical connections may not be possible for the next few weeks. But the airlines’ timetables should reflect the reality of the new times when you buy the ticket, so just double-check your itineraries. I’ll still take my daylight savings time, thanks.

Upgraded: The number 13
Hotels are no longer enumerating their buildings’ floors incorrectly for the sake of superstition. The 13th floor is making a comeback. The statistics are tinged with irony: “A recent USA TODAY/Gallup Poll suggests a large majority of Americans — 87% — would be comfortable with a 13th floor room assignment. But 13% say they’d be bothered by a 13th floor room assignment.”

(images: 1, 2, 3)

Passengers miss flight because a Northwest crew wanted donuts
Since when do pilots call the shots on the ground, too? A flight crew convinced a hotel shuttle bus driver to go for donuts instead of heading to the airport, causing other van riders to miss their flight. Full story via Chris Elliott.

Wisconsin Dells loses its Wonder Spot
Ah, the Dells… The klassic kitschy Chicagoland weekend getaway. It has now lost one of its treasures, the gravity-defying Wonder Spot. While Tommy Bartlett’s Thrill Show remains, the Wonder Spot will be missed.

My bag is happy to see you
A “vibrating bag” was discovered unattended at Chicago O’Hare. (It contained a sleep apnea machine, so wipe that smirk off your face!)

I came for the transportation, I stayed for the haircut
Virgin Atlantic hires more in-flight beauty therapists.

Love at first sting
Two separate flights, two separate incidents of scorpions stinging people on a plane. Flight one: Chicago to Burlington, Vermont. Flight two, Miami to Toronto. Forget Samuel L. Jackson. Bring me Klaus Meine!

Singapore Airlines’ new business class… reviewed!
Remember Singapore Airlines’ major upgrade to its business and first class cabins on selected routes? The Global Traveller has sat in the business class seat, and offers his review. Live vicariously.

Charlie Trotter and United Airlines reunited and it feels so good
This is where the cost savings from eliminating pretzels in coach must have gone. United Airlines is jazzing up the food in business and first class. They’re bringing back uber-chef Charlie Trotter, whom they ditched after 9/11. Bet you a bag of savory snack mix that it’ll still taste like airline food… (Thanks to Mark L.!)

Oasis coming to Oakland
Oasis, the Hong Kong based discount airline, famous for it’s $128 tickets to London, is coming to the United States. They’ll start flights from Hong Kong to Oakland in June, with 4x weekly service to start, moving up to daily service in August. No word yet on the fare.

Avoid the TSA by shipping yourself in a crate?
This isn’t living the first class life, but it’s first class by shipping container standards: The Travelbox, a crate designed for shipping a person. Bonus: It has its own running water supply.

Enterprise Rent-a-Car adds hybrid SUVs in California
Enterprise will rent you one of 160 Saturn VUE Green Line SUVs in the Bay Area, LA, or Sacramento. Yes, only California. What, no other parts of the country care about fuel consumption? Hybrids: good. Hybrid CARS, and not just SUVs, would be even better… It’s a start.

American Airlines spurns Expedia
If you’re looking for American Airlines’ international fares or premium cabin fares on Expedia, you’re out of luck. The airline is apparently having a little spat with the online agency, and yanked its fares from the site. We’ll see how long that lasts…

(image)

Reader Steven writes in:

I know that so called y-up fares can be a good way to sit in first class for cheap, but I can’t find them for flights to Europe or Asia. Can you help?

The reason you can’t find them, Steven, is because there are none by that name. International long-haul discount first (and business) class fares go by different names than their domestic equivalents.

Y-UP fares and their ilk are limited to North American flights, and generally refer to an upgrade from coach to first on two-class planes. See here for background on Y-UP fares, and see FareCompare’s Y-UP search tool to find these fares on routes you travel.

For Europe or Asia, you’re generally going to be looking for Z-fares. But there’s no handy-dandy search tool (yet) for Z-fares like there is for Y-UPs. (Neil and Rick, consider this a challenge!…)

Z-fares crop up from time to time, but aren’t available on every route. Traveling in summer or the December holiday season maximizes your chances of finding such a fare.

For international premium class travel, be sure to also consider the startup airlines like Maxjet, Silverjet, Eos Airlines, MiMa, and L’Avion. These offer all-business class flights to London, Milan, or Paris.

Related:
- First class for less than coach?
- More tips on finding discounted first class fares (Y-UP, Q-UP, etc.)
- Update/Correction re: discounted first class fares (Y-UP, Q-UP, etc.)
- Y-UP and Q-UP first class fares apparently not enough: Welcome M-UP and B-UP fares
- More trans-Atlantic flights, but lower prices?

So many posts that “got away” in the last week of limited posting… Here goes, taking a crack at the backlog!

U.S. exports miserable regional jet experience to China
This won’t bring balance to the trade deficit, but American regional jet powerhouse Mesa Airlines is starting an airline in China. (Mesa must be feeling confident, after starting up the all-Canadair “go!” inter-island airline in Hawaii.) Like its American operations as a contractor to the major airlines, the Chinese subsidiary will feed larger airlines with traffic from smaller cities, using 50-seat regional jets. Maybe they’ll have better on-time arrivals and baggage handling than they do in the U.S. Mesa’s performance (not to mention in-flight non-comfort) stinks, so the bar isn’t set very high.

Early start: British Airways’ summer business class fare sale
It’s only January, and British Airways is already discounting summer airfares between the U.S. and Europe… in business class. The roundtrip fare is okay, not great (starting at around $2500 roundtrip, including taxes). Travel between July 1 and September 2, 2007. See here.

Free taxi rides in New York City
But don’t get your hopes up. There are a grand total of five free cabs in New York. They’re easily identifiable, though: They’re decorated in (fake) cowhide to promote a bull-riding event. Good luck wrangling one.

New life for Connexion inflight internet?
Connexion by Boeing, the short-lived but generally well-liked global inflight internet service, might get a second lease on life. Lufthansa leads a consortium of airlines and tech companies trying to bring the service back up. Here’s hoping they get it going!

Hammertime! Blunt instruments defend your personal information
New U.S. passports will include RFID chips that contains your personal information, in addition to the printed/scannable inside page. The problem: The RFID chip can potentially be read by identity thieves using a scanner. So what’s the best way to disable the RFID without otherwise mangling your passport? A hammer.

Spell-check is your friend
If you’re traveling across two oceans to visit your girlfriend in Sydney, Australia, be sure you spell “Sydney” correctly. You don’t want to end up on a flight to Sidney, Montana.

“He had a bad night last night.” His morning won’t be any better.
Passenger gets drunk and unruly, and slaps a fellow passenger. Turns out the recipient of the slap is a federal air marshal. Jackpot!

Trip insurance, eBay style
If you got dumped right before a trip — a trip you planned as a romantic setting during which you would propose to your love — but you had already prepaid the travel, what would you do? If you’re Adam Croot, you go on the trip, but you auction off your ex’s share of the trip on eBay, in hopes of finding a new traveling companion.

(image)