Air Report 2013

Tag Archives for Air Report 2013.

A Quick Jaunt to Southern India: Etihad First Class, Washington Dulles – Abu Dhabi

by Gary Leff on December 31, 2013

Dec 31 2013

Previous Installments: Introduction and Trip Planning Etihad Lounge, Washington Dulles I flew Etihad first class earlier this year both New York JFK – Abu Dhabi and also Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf. In some ways this Etihad first class flight was better than either of those, though my return flight to DC would be better still. Etihad’s premium cabin award availability, certainly booking far in advance, is amazing. At times they’ve seemed to go through cycles where their entire first class cabin or at least the majority of it on both the New York and Washington DC routes has been open for awards. Most of the time there are 2 first class award seats. And from the US they partner only with American, which means the bulk of demand for the seats comes from American’s frequent…

Saudia Business Class Trip Report: Riyadh – Washington Dulles

by Gary Leff on October 31, 2013

Pakistani Correspondent continues her guest post describing the experience flying Saudia business class, which she redeemed using American Express Membership Rewards points transferred to Delta. This is the final installment of her report. Here’s her previous installment: New York JFK – Jeddah Saudia Lounge, Jeddah and Jeddah-Lahore CIP Lounge in Lahore, Pakistan Lahore – Riyadh Saudia Lounge, Riyadh And now P.C. continues with her final installment, flying Saudia from Riyadh to Washington Dulles. A 777-300ER was awaiting and I was excited to have premium seats in what looked like a full flight. My seat was missing a blanket and a headset which I had to ask for. I was generally satisfied with new magazines, functional remote and a better entertainment guide. I discovered that I could pull a wall between the seats that came equipped…

Saudia Business Class Trip Report: Lahore – Riyadh

by Gary Leff on October 25, 2013

Pakistani Correspondent continues her guest post describing the experience flying Saudia business class, which she redeemed using American Express Membership Rewards points transferred to Delta. Here’s her previous installment: New York JFK – Jeddah Saudia Lounge, Jeddah and Jeddah-Lahore CIP Lounge in Lahore, Pakistan And now P.C. continues with her flight from Lahore to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Once again, the business class cabin was empty! I could pick any seat I wanted and have all the pillows. Apparently, they had to balance the plane so they moved 3-4 people from economy to join the cabin. The seats were spacious and this time the audio worked! The journey started with some green tea For breakfast, I got the lentil and lamb stew aka mushed up baby food (bad choice) Also, the pictures does not lie: there…

Saudia Business Class Trip Report: Saudia’s Jeddah Lounge and Jeddah-Lahore

by Gary Leff on October 22, 2013

Pakistani Correspondent continues her guest post describing the experience flying Saudia business class, which she redeemed using American Express Membership Rewards points transferred to Delta. Here’s her previous installment: New York JFK – Jeddah And now P.C. continues with the Saudia lounge in Jeddah and arriving in Lahore, Pakistan. Welcome to King AbdulAziz International Airport, Jeddah. The airport is fairly small but the signs for the Saudia lounge were misleading. Also, as an unacompanied female, I was not allowed to remain in transit for more than 18 hours but this wouldn’t be a problem because my onward flight was supposed to leave long before that. Eventually, I found the lounge on my own because no one wanted to talk to me and kept redirecting me to talk to someone else, or asked if I was…

Saudia Business Class Trip Report: Award Availability (Delta Miles!) is Amazing, But Should You Fly It?

by Gary Leff on October 20, 2013

I’ve written about how easy it is to find award availability on Saudia using Delta miles. I’ve even walked through making a booking on Saudia live, in front of hundreds of people. There’s a reasonable question that comes up, objection even, Saudia? What is that like to fly? A co-worker flew Saudia on miles — the fruits of her signup bonus for an American Express Platinum card and a small amount of additional spending — and I asked her to share her experience. The trip was to Lahore, Pakistan to visit her family — departing from New York, and returning to Washington DC. She prefers to remain anonymous, but she provided a great trip report that I think is a fascinating window into an airline that isn’t frequently written about. We’ll call her my Pakistani…

Singapore Airlines Long Haul First Class Offers Great Service, Great Meals, Poor Snacks and Uncomfortable Seats

by Gary Leff on August 28, 2013

Singapore Airlines first class is perhaps the most aspirational airline product in existence. It’s rarely available to Singapore’s mileage partners like United and Air Canada, but availability is quite good for Singapore’s own Krisflyer members. That’s lucky because Singapore Airlines Krisflyer is a transfer partner of both the US American Express Membership Rewards program and of Starwood Preferred Guest. As are result many people have access to Singapore miles and don’t even realize it. (At the beginning of July 2012 Singapore award availability was opened up briefly to all of their partners, and I made several bookings at that time.) Singapore’s award chart isn’t cheap, and they do add fuel surcharges on awards. But you get a 15% mileage discount when booking on their (only semi-functional) website, and you get.. Singapore Airlines first class. Sure,…

Return to the Maldives: London Heathrow – San Francisco, British Airways New First Class

by Gary Leff on April 14, 2013

Trip Report Index: Introducing and Strategy New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, Etihad First Class Park Hyatt Dubai Touring the Burj al Arab Tea at the Burj al Arab Abu Dhabi – Male, Etihad Business Class Male – Kaadedhdhoo, Maldivian and Transfer to the Park Hyatt Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives Kooddoo-Male-Abu Dhabi, Maldivian and Etihad Business Class Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf – London, Etihad First Class and British Airways Club Europe London Heathrow – San Francisco, British Airways New First Class The transit process – though requiring two buses to make it from a terminal 1 bus gate over to terminal 5 – was pretty straightforward. Once at T5 I had to go through an immigration queue before getting to the security checkpoint. They hadn’t handed out Fast Track cards on…

Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf – London, Etihad First Class and British Airways Club Europe

by Gary Leff on April 13, 2013

Apr 13 2013

Trip Report Index: Introducing and Strategy New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, Etihad First Class Park Hyatt Dubai Touring the Burj al Arab Tea at the Burj al Arab Abu Dhabi – Male, Etihad Business Class Male – Kaadedhdhoo, Maldivian and Transfer to the Park Hyatt Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives Kooddoo-Male-Abu Dhabi, Maldivian and Etihad Business Class Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf – London, Etihad First Class and British Airways Club Europe London Heathrow – San Francisco, British Airways New First Class When I originally booked the trip we were scheduled to fly Etihad First Class Abu Dhabi – New York JFK – Washington National. But a friend was getting married in San Francisco the day after I was scheduled to make it back to the US and had to find a…

Return to the Maldives: Kooddoo-Male-Abu Dhabi, Maldivian and Etihad Business Class

by Gary Leff on April 10, 2013

Trip Report Index: Introducing and Strategy New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, Etihad First Class Park Hyatt Dubai Touring the Burj al Arab Tea at the Burj al Arab Abu Dhabi – Male, Etihad Business Class Male – Kaadedhdhoo, Maldivian and Transfer to the Park Hyatt Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives Kooddoo-Male-Abu Dhabi, Maldivian and Etihad Business Class Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf – London, Etihad First Class and British Airways Club Europe London Heathrow – San Francisco, British Airways New First Class The hotel needed us out of our room at 2pm to arrange for new arriving guests Last year we kept our room until the very last minute with a mid-afternoon departure, but with the hotel at 100% occupancy that wasn’t possible for this trip. So they offered to move us…

Return to the Maldives: Male – Kaadedhdhoo, Maldivian and Transfer to the Park Hyatt

by Gary Leff on April 7, 2013

Trip Report Index: Introducing and Strategy New York JFK – Abu Dhabi, Etihad First Class Park Hyatt Dubai Touring the Burj al Arab Tea at the Burj al Arab Abu Dhabi – Male, Etihad Business Class Male – Kaadedhdhoo, Maldivian and Transfer to the Park Hyatt Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives Kooddoo-Male-Abu Dhabi, Maldivian and Etihad Business Class Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi – Dusseldorf – London, Etihad First Class and British Airways Club Europe London Heathrow – San Francisco, British Airways New First Class We picked up our bags off the belt upon arrival in Male and then took them through customs. The customs process requires you to submit all of your luggage (including hand baggage) to an x-ray screening. The Maldives is a dry country outside of the resorts, which are exempt from…