Cathay Pacific will start Boston – Hong Kong service in May of next year. This is exciting because Cathay Pacific is my overall favorite airline, and their Hong Kong – New York JFK service is my favorite flight in the world. When I first saw the news I thought it would be like the Newark and Toronto, with three classes of service — Business, Premium Economy, and Economy. Instead it’s like New York JFK, Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles, and San Francisco with 4 classes of services — the three above plus a first class. The plane, a Boeing 777-300ER, will carry 275 passengers and offer first class, business class, premium economy, and economy cabins. Here’s the schedule: The 16-hour Hong Kong flight is scheduled to run four days a week, leaving Boston on Tuesday, Wednesday,…
ASIA
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The Most Lucrative Hotel Elite Status Now Has Published Criteria
Intercontinental’s Royal Ambassador elite level is in some ways the best elite status of any hotel program. It’s also one of the most vexing. The positives are remarkable. On top of the usual elite level benefits one finds with the major chains, they offer: Guaranteed 8am check-in, not just 4pm late checkout Complimentary free drinks from the mini-bar The minibar thing is ultra-cool. But after a few times over-indulging, and hosting parties in your suite, at least I find that you really just appreciate it for always having a bottle of water handy. 8 a.m. check-in is huge for arrivals in Europe and even some parts of Asia — knowing you’ll have a room after a long flight and without having to pay for the previous night.
The Monumental Importance of Hotel Coffee
Lots of hotel coffee in the U.S. is bad, but tends to be so much better in Asia. Coffee is important to me, a basic that I expect to be well provided-for by any full service hotel. I was frustrated when the Andaz Wall Street got rid of their 24 hour complimentary espresso machine in the lobby as a cost-cutting measure. Without coffee machines in the room, and without 24 hour room service even that can be a big deal when you wake up at 5 a.m. I always thought that the W brand’s ‘Whatever, Whenever’ concept was a good one though execution hasn’t often measured up. Like when the Whatever, Whenever line at the W San Diego couldn’t get me coffee at 5 am. The whatever part should have been easy since all I…
What’s the Busiest Airline Route in the World?
Thrillist has a piece today declaring the airline route that’s “the most popular/busiest in the world” Hong Kong – Taipei. At 4.9 million passengers last year. Wait just one second.. That didn’t sit right. That’s only about half the passengers as the route with the greatest passenger volume. And it took me a couple of minutes to figure out what’s going on here. The data being reported was for the busiest international routes by passenger volume. All of the many routes with more passengers are domestic ones. Here are the busiest international routes by passenger volume last year: And here are the busiest routes with most passengers, without excluding domestic flights. (Passenger count reported in thousands.) The latter data is showing 2012 passengers, and the chart with international routes only is passenger totals for 2013,…
ANA is Making Some of its Fantastic First Class Available for Awards in Advance
ANA’s first class service between the US and Tokyo is tough, tough, tough to get. Through the first half of the last decade it was easy, but back then there were 12 first class seats per plane. Then they went to 8 and it became nearly non-existent. Things thawed a bit 2008 – 2011 .. with space offered both within a week or two of flight and also far in advance for the winter months. Outside of those two periods, nothing. And more recently they stopped even opening up seats during the winter months. But right now there is a ton of award space in first class for one passenger booked far in advance, including over the summer months. And there are even a handful of sporadic days where you’ll find two first class seats…
Is the Airbus A380 a Failure?
The Airbus A380 is cool. Efficient Asian Man says “the 747 is iconic while the A380 looks like a retarded goldfish” but the whale is huge and is amazing to fly. I still think it feels bizarre at takeoff, flying on the upper deck. It feels underpowered as it glides into the sky, it’s too smooth. Boarding the entire upper deck from separate jet bridges, you almost don’t realize that there’s a full length plane beneath you. You can pack it in densely or add amenities like Emirates has done with the shower, or Etihad is doing with their 3-bedroom residence (which isn’t as insane as it sounds, since it leverages what is mostly otherwise dead space). A New York Times story this weekend contends, though, that overall the A380 is a failure. There are…
Here’s Why US Airlines Charge for Lounge Membership
Yesterday tommy777 went on an epic rant about US airline lounges and American’s clubs in particular. There’s no question that US airline lounges do not compare to their Asian counterparts. I’d disagree that European lounges in general are superior. I’ve been to too many contract lounges, shared lounges, and even some airline operated lounges in Europe that are awful. I’ll never forget the now-closed Boticelli lounge (Alitalia) in Milan where they gave you shower shoes because the drains were clogged. They didn’t have hot water, either. Or enough seating. And there were lines 20+ deep to get a coffee. Many South American lounges are equally bad. Nonetheless, it’s 100% true that American has offered the least free food. I don’t mind paid food options when those options are good, unfortunately they vary a lot from…
How Much Do Hotel Toiletries Cost, and Should You Take Them?
Forbes carries an illuminating piece on hotel toileteries. (HT: Alan H.) Hotels want you to take the amenities: (Although they don’t want you to take a handful off the housekeeping cart…) When guests take their toiletries home with them it’s a signal to the hotel team that they’ve done a good job picking the right products. They’re also hoping you’ll think of your hotel stay when you end up using that bottle of lotion later on. “If you take it, then you must have liked it,” says Scott Mitchell, director of design and development for Marriott International Hyatt even produced a video telling you to take the toileteries. But IHG’s towel amnesty notwithstanding, hotels don’t want you to take the towels. Packaging considerations: After the brands and scents are selected, mock-ups are then made for…
When Two-for-One is Really Regular Price, and Why Is Everyone Else So Expensive?
US Airways is offering a targeted bonus of up to 100% additional miles when you buy miles through August 22. The offer is targeted, then you go to the buy miles page you have to enter your account information to see whether you’re being offered a bonus. (And there may be other, smaller, bonuses targeted to some accounts.) If the offer is available to you, buying miles at a 100% bonus means buying them at a cost of 1.88 cents per mile. US Airways is almost always selling miles on the cheap, which is to say at a price higher than I’m willing to pay but much lower than the ‘retail’ price that almost never prevails. As far as I know, crazy as it sounds, the Federal Trade Commission never launched an investigation of US…
The Cheapest First Class Fares from Each Airline
Last month I highlighted The Cheapest Business Class Fares From Each Airline. FlightFox has now put together their list of best airline first class products, and the routes with the cheapest fares you can buy to fly them. I don’t really agree with them that Singapore Airlines offers the best all-around first class product (though they do restrict the claim to Singapore’s A380). Or that Lufthansa has the 5th-best. I’d take Qantas’ A380 First Class Suites (#15) over Air France (#12), JAL (#11), or Qatar (#7) in first.. in a heartbeat. But the list is useful for finding routes where you can buy tickets, try the products, and do so without shelling out tens of thousands of dollars. In most cases I’d redeem miles for first class, but some have been known to buy an…
