Welcome to my next trip report, covering travel in Swiss' business class, Air India's business class, Emirates' brand new first class, and TAP Air Portugal's business class. This was a trip I took exclusively to be able to review some new airline products. The primary motivation was being able to review Emirates' new first class,…
Continue reading: Introduction: Emirates’ New First Class, The Long Way
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Wow - so immediately after this trip, you ground transferred to JFK and flew to Doha and beyond? How much time between landing and your JFK flight?
@Lucky, you mentioned your next flight on QR immediately after arriving in NY. How do you plan on such quick turnarounds? Were you not worried if the plane arrived late and missed the next flight?
@ yyc -- There's no doubt this was risky, but so was the trip on the whole, as I had four separate tickets with back-to-back flights. Personally I just try to schedule things closely and be proactive in monitoring things, but I generally think it's worth the risk. If I left an extra day between each ticket this whole trip would have taken be significantly longer. So I don't recommend others do it, but it works for me. That's why I was happy when my 10 hour delay on this trip was at the tail end of the journey.
Why did you always book the hotels for cash instead of using points? How do you determine which option is best?
Also, since the end of your trip is basically Lisbon to Doha with a connection in metro NYC 😉 why wouldn't you write this up as just a single mega TR?
How did you make the transfer from EWR to JFK? I have often wanted to do it but just seems like it would be a real hassle. Is there an easy transportation option between the two airports? Thanks for this information!
@Dr. Stan,
#1 easiest is to take a taxi or uber, but it will be most expensive. It will probably transit through Staten Island and avoid Manhattan traffic.
#2 fastest via public transit is to take EWR Airtrain to NJTransit to Penn Station and Switch to LIRR to Jamaica to JFK Airtrain. It's probably about $27 for the three separate tickets. You could save a few dollars by taking PATH and E or A train, but probably not worth it.
The Aeroplan redemption is intrigue. Did you book it online using multi-city or you needed to call?
So Aeroplan also does not charge YQ on Air India?
Would Aeroplan allow a routing of East Coast to SFO then SFO-ZRH-Asia routing?
How is it a RTW trip when you returned the same way you came? Come on Lucky, thats so extra. Its almost Trumpian.
Do you wear compression socks at all, or have a daily routine of moisturizers or vitamins you take to stay healthy/avoid sickness & pain from all this travel?
@Lucky – A typo: "my own night stay" > "my one-night stay".
Looking forward to the in-depth Emirates First report.
Lucky, I am so jealous! I have done 52 countries via business and have been to a number of these places, but now retired and would LOVE to do what you just did. Thank you for sharing!
PS Highly recommend taking 325mg aspirin while doing these flights. When i was doing this for a living i always took at least baby aspirin prior to long haul flights. Just saying.
@FLL, Aeroplan does not charge YQ on AI from what I read. Aeroplan also set MPM for each city pair which is the maximum permitted mileage, so you can route which ever you want as long as it's below the MPM.
Ugh, so many noobs on this site now... I would pay a monthly subscription type fee for you to do a more advanced version like you used to on FT...
I know you're driving huge new traffic and new readers are more important than old ones, but can ya do what you tell the airlines to and find a way to keep long-time readers loyal rather than moving on to more "advanced" sources... you really are the best at this.
Not like I can stop reading, but you and L&LF are the last blogs I still have bookmarked.
wow that was alot of airtime!!! You must be tired..hope u got some rest on your QSUITES!!
what website/ program is used to make the map with the red lines to show destinations?
Lucky,
Did you book this Aeroplan routing online or did you have to call?
Thanks