News and notes from around the interweb:
- How airlines assign flight numbers and why they’re running out also this older piece on how Southwest does it (HT: Brian B.)
- Increasingly Asian frequent flyer programs are more lucrative than US ones — ANA Mileage Club, JAL Mileage Bank, Asiana Club, Korean Air SKYPASS to name a few. Membership growth and revenue upside is increasingly moving to that side of the Pacific as well with JAL reporting 31 milloin members — and Air China reporting Phoenix Miles has 50 million (with 9 million co-brand credit card customers), China Southern with 38 million as of the end of 2016, and China Eastern with 26 million at the end of 2015 (Airline Weekly, January 15, 2018).
- Sun Country is eliminating their elite status program as they transition to becoming an ultra low cost carrier
- Vietnam Airlines is looking to launch U.S. non-stops this year, either to Los Angeles or San Francisco
- Why it’s fun to travel around China (beyond Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen…), (HT: Marginal Revolution)
Those who haven’t ventured far beyond Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing underestimate the sheer number of totally random stuff that happens to you. In stores, traffic, restaurants, and on the streets, I regularly come across behaviors and fixtures that I had no idea were a thing. You might be driving along miles of farmland, when suddenly a massive high-tech factory with the logo of a well-known foreign company looms up on the horizon; in a restaurant, I was asked one time to help with the cooking because chefs had to go out to buy more ingredients; you never know who might come up to you and tell you an interesting story. The lack of professionalism in nearly all things is sometimes frustrating but mostly hilarious.
- Emirates claims to have the best economy class in the world in this new commercial (‘don’t upgrade your seat, upgrade your airline’), though I disagree we’ve seen cuts in Emirates economy and Singapore Airlines clearly offers the best economy. (HT: Traveling for Miles)
The video does illustrate plenty of ‘upgrade strategies that don’t work’ but that you see over and over in travel articles.
It’s interesting that despite the tons of information on premium class airline seats, there isn’t much comparative information on the web about economy class service. Bloggers don’t seem to fly coach a lot. 🙂
Emirates economy class product seems to be well above average. As you’ve mentioned, Singapore’s product is also good (as I can personally attest to, but I haven’t flown their new product). But I believe JAL flies with the most economy legroom. Their Sky Wider product has 34″ pitch, and seems to get excellent reviews. I suspect the food is not as good as on Singapore or Emirates, though. I’m probably going to try it out soon, but here’s a recent review from the points guy about JAL economy.
https://thepointsguy.com/2016/06/japan-airlines-777-300er-economy-review/
Question RE: flight numbers. If they are running out of 4 digit numbers, why not force/allow regional airlines to operate under their existing codes (instead of American AA5493, operate it as JI493)? Personally, I’d rather have more clarity of the operating carrier anyway (but, that may be the exact reason they don’t do it).
Most carriers, including Emirates, wedge in 10-across seating in economy on the 777 which was designed for 9-across. This is miserable no matter what else they try to distract their passengers with on a long haul flight. I hear talk of some airlines considering adding a seat per row on the A380. Egad.
@Rick — Having recently flown an AA 10-across 777, I would say that the configuration is worse, but only slightly more “miserable” than long-haul coach travel is in general. Most of the room seems to have come out of the aisles, which are now noticably narrow. But let’s do the math: compare AA’s product to JAL’s. In the same space, AA gets more than 50 extra seats into the cabin. Let’s say there are people like you and me who know JAL’s product is a bit better and, everything else equal, book away from AA. Do you think JAL can command enough of a premium — more than 25% — to make their more comfortable seating a good business decision? I’d be amazed if that’s true.
How does this work when considering safety of passengers? 10 across means more people are crammed into the same space with narrower aisles and the same number of emergency exits? Where is the government oversight to suggest there could be a serious problem with the density?
Get real, Sully. Even in the best of circumstances density is a nightmare.
Sit in the back of a 737 and see how long it takes to deplane at the gate.
@ubuguy, No thanks , I book early enough that I don’t sit behind the engines 😉
@SullyofDoha — Evacuation safety is a interesting issue. Fortunately, it’s incredibly rare these days, so perhaps it’s not the most pressing concern in the world for travellers. But it is obviously a matter that “the experts” at the DOT should consider further. I would be hesitant to prejudge those findings. Remember all the concern about “economy class syndrome” with blood clots and such? That was eventually debunked. So I wouldn’t necessarily assume we’d like the scientific findings on this issue, either.
Spirit has a couple nice ones.
NK777 FLL-LAS
NK954 LAS-FLL (area code)
NK407 MCO-DFW (area code)