One of my big focuses of 2016 was reviewing as many new airlines as possible. Given that I’ve flown most of the world’s best first class products, this came primarily in the form of trying more business class products. Furthermore, with so many airlines having devalued their award charts, often the sweet spot for award…
Continue reading: My 7 Favorite Airlines I Flew For The First Time In 2016
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I flew Condor Business Class from Frankfurt to the Seychelles ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4850UPfIAo). I did not expect a lot (Condor is part of the Thomas Cook group), but I was pleasantly surprised by the overall experience and service, especially the food (some of the best I ever got on a plane). You should definitely try them out some day and put them on your bucket list of lesser known airlines that you want to fly with !
Lucky - will you do a yearly wrap up? For example:
Total miles flown
Total points spent
Total points earned
Total cash spent on flights
Total cash spent on hotels
Best/Worst redemptions
It may help put some perspective on the "points and miles travel is free" comments.
I just left Oman, and it is my new favorite country. It is cleaner than Singapore and amazingly well put together. People were so nice. I am going to go out of my way to fly on Oman Air.
Benjamin: I would like to see you on some of the Malaysian flights. You get what I mean. Oh sweet Jesus, wouldn't that be FUN?
Oman looks very expensive. I was just pricing out places to stay on airbnb and they weren't cheapish. It's fairly expensive (compared to other third world countries)
@Credit: Oman, a third world country? Are you serious?! Evidently, you haven't seen much of this world or know anything about Oman hahaha
Because of you and this hobby I was able to fly LH F for my first international flight ever. I've been following you for I think 4 or 5 years now and watching you has always inspired me to keep pushing for more even if I'm not in the same financial position. I can't thank you enough and can't wait to see what you have up next in 2017.
>Oman, a third world country? Are you serious?!
I'm not the one you're replying to, but yes - it's a third world country. In terms of Human Development Index, it shares its ranking with Romania and Uruguay, which isn't terrible as such.
Human rights, freedom and everything we use to consider a society 'civilized', is where the country fails.
It places 120 on the Human Freedom Index (2016) of 159 countries surveyed, below such places as Senegal and Mozambique. Homosexuality is an imprisonable offense (3 years). And so on.
Guyguyguy - how does Oman compare to other ME countries like UAE and Qatar in terms of development?
Credit - i dont think Oman is a 3rd world country?!
@ Card – One thing you need to know about the commenter you were talking to is that quite a few of his comments lack, um, credit.
I know a few travelers. None of them have mentioned oman. First world countries are not "unknown".
I got interested in oman after reading up about it in the comments in this blog. Never heard oman mentioned in the same breath as Dubai or Abu Dhabi or Qatar.
What is it main source of income?
Out of sixty countries I've visited around the world, Oman definitely ranks my top three. It has strong cultural presence but laid-back and relaxed, very friendly people, beautiful natural scenes from pristine beaches to mountain oasis, lush tropical-like jungle to untouched deserts. The only complaint is it has become a very expensive country to travel. Quite different from any other neighboring countries.
Who cares if it's first country or third country? It's one of few countries in the world I felt like every local I interact to seem to enjoy their life - while not as financially rich as UAE or Qatar, an average Omani does have quite high standard of living in the region and poverty is almost non-existent.
@William Y - FYI, the Sultan/ Ruler of Oman is gay. Everybody knows it, it is the the world's biggest secret, FYI. There's a reason everything is immaculate there and all the royal guards, etc are hot. Though homosexuality is technically illegal, there's an incredibly vibrant gay scene in Oman.
@Dan +1
And, what were the worst ones? Smoking cockpits, bad champagne, powdered cappuccinos, broken seats...somehow, I recall your difficult flights as much as your fantastic ones.
Can we imply that your "business class is all about hard product" rule is not applying any longer, since the JAL apex suite is in the last position and yFinnair a350 is not even in the list?
I did not fly all of them. However, Air Serbia is my favorite. I bought an economy seat for $400, r/t JFK-BEG and I got upgraded for free to an amazing business class. It's not just because of the 'free upgrade' that I got, their service is really good.
Really great year of reviews. I feel like all the new airline reviews were a breath of fresh air in an otherwise increasingly obnoxious travel blog atmosphere.
@Lucky Ever considered of trying out Philippine Airlines? Palawan and Cebu are definitely worth a visit in the Philippines. I've had some reviews of Philippine Airlines online...but none to recent or as detailed as your reviews. It would be nice to see what you think of it...and it'll give you another new airline to try 🙂
@ Marvin D -- They're on my list, though in the near future hoping to fly them from New York to Vancouver. 🙂
@Lucky Great! Looking forward to your review. They just rolled out an updated true lie flat hard product so it'll be interesting to see which one you end up on. Most of their fleet is sadly Angle lie flat seats...oh well. NY - Vancouver is an interesting route to fly them...they used to, or probably still do, YVR-LAS. They're not the best product out there but I've read some reviews on the YVR-LAS that has them beating everyone else since they offer a meal and good value for this route. 🙂
Looking forward to what you think of it. 🙂 But yes, definitely have a true visit to the Philippines in the future...it's definitely worth a visit 🙂
Lucky,
Myself and several other readers of yours want to know when you will visit Israel. Several times now you've either booked and the cancelled or posted saying you'd go and then bail. I get that this is your blog and as an individual you're free to do as you choose. Just seems you have some strong objection to going but don't want to come out and say as much. If you truly have some ethnic connection to our people, understand the impact a trip by you may have as anti-Semitic BDS and UN resolutions are increasing taking form each and every day. We need your support.
You forgot to mention China Eastern and Saudia - two airlines you really enjoyed if I haven't forgotten. Something about amazing service and the cabin smelling really good?
Hi Lucky,
Keep up the great work, your reviews are great and inspiring. I have to say, the China Eastern smoking incident was a particular highlight for me, reading from afar, probably less so for you
Flying Finnair for the first time was the highlight of my flying this year. Local flavours - marimekko, iitala - and warm service made it unforgettable and I've already planned a return trip to Finland. Unfortunately their HKG flight is operated by HKG-based crew and it was an inferior experience - one crew member I'm particular belonged in a Hong Kong Cafe barking at customers to hurry up, rather than in business class on finnair.
I just returned from a EU-BKK trip with Oman Air and my experience is a kind of miss and hit. While the hard product is just great (the window J suites makes you feel like In F), the onboard soft product is incosistent - very much depending on the crew ( maybe just a coincidence, but many Philipinos working there who are great, but when you have Omani crew, you will hardly receive any attention. Food acceptable, but nothing you will write home about. And the ground experience in MCT is just a crap. I would with any doubt compare it to Ryanair Bergamo, Frankfurt Hahn or Gerona. Hopefuly it will improve with the new terminal, but we will see - the lack of the customer experience orientation is obviously in the people, not only the infrastracture. From the first to the last person in the airport - they just dont care. Anyway Lucky is right that the deals are sometimes quite good.
My favorite airline is China Eastern since they made me a Skyteam elite member!! LOL.
i'm glad air astana has improved. i took it in 2008 and although the hard product was not bad, it was (at the time) famous for being late. i think my flight was delayed for 2 hrs without any announcements nor explanations from the crew LOL. i spoke to a businessman who flew with them quite a lot, and he said a 4-hour wait time is not unheard of.
oh and whoever said freedom, homosexuality bla bla bla are key indicators to being classified as a 1st world country, by your standards then singapore is a 3rd world country then 😀