Tag Archives for europe.
I think this is the best guess we’ve seen that puts it all together. Philadelphia to Copenhagen, Nice, and Naples; Chicago to Venice; and Dallas to Barcelona. It’s good to see American viewing itself as more than just the airline that connects Tulsa and Indianapolis, but they’re not doing anything nearly as ‘exciting’ as United launching routes like Manila (American will likely pride themselves on this, to be fair).
Some airlines are silly ideas from the start. A local business leader decides the best opportunity for a new airline happens to be flying from their city. But even where there are good ideas for an airline – an underserved market, a new product, a lower fare that stimulates demand – many such markets aren’t good all year round. And upstarts have a more difficult time since it’s harder to diversify their flying across more routes and established bases of customers.
The challenge any new airline faces, starting up to serve a highly seasonal set of routes, is what do you do during the off-season?
The New York Times runs a trend piece on women traveling abroad to find romance. They say that dating in the United States is awful, and meeting men abroad is much better – that people marry later so the dating pool isn’t limited over 30; that men are more serious; that potential mates are more adventurous (while in the U.S. all men are the same archetypes).
The first thing to know about any trend piece is that there isn’t really a trend, although the pieces themselves might create one. All you need is a little anecdata.
Pilots have a lot more sway at airlines than flight attendants. It’s harder to become a pilot, in part because government regulations make doing so time-consuming and costly. That makes it hard to replace pilots. Pilots also have a lot more say over an airline’s operation, so can slow it down dramatically.
Those are important reasons why pilots are paid more. They receive better benefits. And their life on the road often features better hotels, better ground transportation, and higher meal allowances. Is that… fair?
Since the Lindner properties have focused on a primarily European market, it’s not surprising that many of the properties aren’t air conditioned. I asked Hyatt about this – whether JdV was going to be marketing hotels without air conditioning?
Fuel prices are at record levels, and that’s bad for airlines. It’s also bad for transportation to and from the airport and hotel It’s bad for heating (which means it’s bad for hotels in chilly weather). It means higher prices for travel, but let’s look at airfare first.
This isn’t just limited to majority state-owned Aeroflot. It applies to all Russian airlines (even private ones, like oneworld member S7). Even Germany is now sending munitions to Ukraine. European airlines, including most recently Lufthansa
What can Americans do?
The European Union wants member countries to require boosters for entry proposing that vaccination be considered valid for 9 months from last shot. Each country sets its own rules but bloc-wide guidance is influential.
Does that mean we’ll need to keep getting vaccinated in order to travel? No, it actually doesn’t mean that.
Prompted by my writing about wide open availability for two first class Suites awards on the Singapore Airlines New York JFK – Frankfurt flight, a reader asks about other ‘fifth freedom routes’ between the U.S. and Europe.
They wanted to fly between the U.S. and Europe on an Asian or Middle Eastern carrier and wanted to know what their options looked like using miles for the best seats possible.
The U.S. is being removed from the ‘safe list’ of countries for travel to Europe, along with Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro and North Macedonia. This is a recommendation for non-essential travel only, though some countries may choose to continue to permit travel by those who have been vaccinated.
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 »
