Tag Archives for emirates.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Emirates is in negotiations to acquire Etihad, forming the world’s largest airline by number of passengers carried.
Etihad has been cutting costs and slashing routes after a $1.5 billion loss last year and a $2 billion loss the year before. They’ve been expected to walk away from some aircraft orders. I’ve read much of the changes at Emirates as cleaning up the balance sheet before getting acquired.
Here are the results from a survey of Berlusconi Market, Dream Market, and Olympus Market. Where they present more than one data point I average them for this chart. It’s important to note that these are asking prices. The people selling miles may or may not have a good idea of what they’re worth, and in some cases may be looking for a sucker (buying 500 Expedia points?).
Brian Sumers interviewed Emirates CEO Tim Clark who revealed to him that the airline plans to launch a premium economy cabin.
He wants to make sure premium economy isn’t too nice because they don’t want it to be viewed as a ‘good enough’ alternative to pricier business class.
This morning an Emirates flight was quarantined on arrival at New York JFK with sick passengers on board.
Some initial reports suggested that 100 were ill. Emirates said it was 10. The most recent information we have is that 19 passengers were deemed to have medical issues. Ten were transported to the hospital, while nine declined medical treatment and were released.
What do we know at this point? That Vanilla Ice says he was on board.
Emirates flight EK203 from Dubai to New York JFK landed this morning and was been placed under quarantine awaiting a response from the Centers for Disease Control.
Immediately reaction on twitter suggested possible terror, or pandemic, however such speculation is premature at best. So far there are no reports of other flights with similar issues, or of similar illnesses being reported at the Dubai airport or in Dubai more generally.
Emirates has one of the world’s best first class products. Their business class wouldn’t come close to ranking, and their new first class is only on a limited number of planes. But their decade-old first class, while a bit tight on space for its fully enclosed suites with doors, is still a marvel with great amenities, good alcohol and catering, and generally good service.
It’s very very available using miles. Perhaps that’s because there are so many first class seats on so many flights and very few people know how to redeem for these seats at a reasonable price.
The key to these rankings is subjective weight that goes into different components of the product. I value personal space more than anythnig else, so a first class configuration that’s four seats across isn’t going to rate as well for me as one that’s two or three seats across.
I’d never rate Air France or Garuda as highly as others — despite phenomenal ground service and attentiveness — because of the lack of real estate each first class passenger gets in the cabin.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
According to its President Robert Isom at an employee forum last week “it is still a big issue.” Isom claims to have “made progress.. we’re pleased that there’s a recognition that when it comes to fifth freedom flights.. that that’s a problem.”
Isom concludes, “It’s still a focus area.. we’re pleased with the work we’ve been able to do with the Trump administration and we’re pleased with the results so far.”
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
