Tag Archives for taipei.
At Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport, police opened fire on a white Tesla suspected of illegally picking up passengers, firing eight rounds after the driver refused inspection and tried to flee. The passenger — a Hong Kong woman — was thrown from the moving car and seriously injured as officers disabled the vehicle and arrested the repeat-offender driver.
Delta SkyMiles rarely have much value for international business class travel. They charge 4-6 times more than their partners do for the same flights. And flights to Asia are usually even more expensive than to Europe.
Right now, though, there is amazing business class availability on their Seattle – Taipei flight. You can get 9 or more passengers in business on many flights. And pricing starts at just 146,200 miles roundtrip.
Tom Hanks introduced the world to the story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, the man who spent 18 years living in Paris Charles de Gaulle airport’s terminal 1, in the film The Terminal which also starred Catherine Zeta-Jones and Stanley Tucci.
People do get stuck in airports in immigration limbo. One issue that’s come up is the result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russians that have fled the country to avoid being drafted as cannon fodder in Putin’s war.
Taiwan has a strategic interest in closer security ties with the U.S. Seeking cooperation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security advances that interest. So does adding flights between Taiwan and the U.S. ahead of real passenger demand, which will mean fare deals and award availability.
Whether or not Taipei gets a preclearance facility depends largely on U.S. judgments about its relationship with China.
The two major Taiwanese airlines, Star Alliance member EVA Air and SkyTeam’s China Airlines, are running flights to nowhere in August. Both carrier’s flights instantly sold out.
New carrier Starlux Airlines has applied to start offering these flights as well.
Taiwan has been one of the real Covid-19 success stories. Part of the price of their early lockdown is that they’ve cut themselves off from the rest of the world for longer than most.
Taipei’s Songshan normally offers domestic flights as well as international flights to some destinations in Japan, South Korean, and China. On Friday only one flight is expected to arrive at the airport, EVA Air from Shanghai Pudong.
With so little traffic the airport is hosting a “pretend to leave the country” tour. Passengers will board a plane – and get off – without ever leaving Taipei Songshan airport.
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 »
