We've increasingly seen airlines in Europe modify their business models for shorthaul flights, as we've seen some full service airlines introduce a "buy on board" service concept in economy. While British Airways has added this on virtually all shorthaul…
TSA Pre-Check is one of the innovations that has made the air travel experience in the US a bit more pleasant. Those eligible for Pre-Check enjoy expedited security screening, where they don't have to take off their shoes, or take their liquids out of…
We've increasingly seen airlines offer more discounted premium cabin fares. Rather than offering free upgrades, they'd rather sell the tickets, even if they're at steep discounts. Lufthansa and Swiss seem to offer discounted first class fares more than…
First of all, my apologies for those of you who may have seen this headline published earlier, without an actual article attached. The 'Save Draft' and 'Publish' buttons are quite close together, and I pressed the wrong button by accident. My bad. Recently…
Europe is a highly competitive market for aviation, both for shorthaul and longhaul flying. In shorthaul markets you have ultra low cost carriers like EasyJet and Ryanair, while in longhaul markets you have Norwegian and WOW Air for travel west, and…
The international first class experience just keeps getting more and more over the top. With limits on how much better airlines can make their first class suites, they've largely turned to their soft product to differentiate themselves. While some things…
In 2016, Swiss opened a new first class lounge at Zurich Airport, located in Terminal E. This lounge is spectacular, and it ranks number three on my list of the world's 10 best first class airline lounges. The lounge is incredibly elegant, features top…
On December 7, 2017, I filed a complaint with the DOT regarding an Aeroplan award ticket for travel in Swiss first class that was canceled. As a reminder, on November 30, 2017, Swiss made some first class award seats available through partner programs.…
Yesterday I wrote about some fantastic SkyTeam business class fares that are available for travel from Germany to the US. Assuming you can originate in Germany, you can snag a heck of a deal for a ticket on Air France, Alitalia, Delta, or KLM. For anyone…
We've seen a lot of new plane technology lately. In the widebody market there's the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787, which are fuel efficient and lower capacity than many of the planes they replace, and they've made a lot of new routes viable. We've also…
I checked in online for my flight to Zurich, so headed straight towards International Terminal G when I got to SFO. Security at SFO can be bad, though fortunately they have CLEAR, which probably saved me 20 minutes. I briefly visited the United Lounge…
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.…
Hello from Zurich! I just flew Swiss' 777-300ER business class for the first time, on the 10hr35min flight across the Atlantic from San Francisco. While I've flown Swiss' 777 first class and Swiss' A330 business class, this was my first time in their…
Earlier I shared the email I was sent from SWISS regarding my DOT complaint over first class award tickets that the airline unilaterally decided to cancel. The response from SWISS was just so dishonest that I couldn't help but respond right away. Here's…
On December 7, 2017, I filed a complaint with the DOT regarding an Aeroplan award ticket for travel in Swiss first class that was canceled. As a reminder, on November 30, 2017, Swiss made some first class award seats available through partner programs.…
12 days ago there was a brief period where Swiss first class award availability was bookable using Star Alliance miles. While Swiss has generally restricted first class awards to Miles & More elite members since 2013, this isn't the first time since…
Yesterday I wrote about how I filed a complaint with the DOT regarding the Aeroplan issued award tickets for travel in Swiss first class that were made available over a week ago. Based on statements from Aeroplan, it appears that Swiss has no intention…
Early last week Swiss first class award availability was bookable using Star Alliance miles. While Swiss released a ton of first class award availability until 2013, starting then they began restricting first class award availability to elite members…
A couple of days ago I wrote about how Swiss first class award availability was bookable using Star Alliance miles. As a policy, Swiss has restricted first class awards since 2013, as they now typically only let Miles & More elite members redeem miles…
Yesterday I wrote about how Swiss first class award availability was bookable using Star Alliance miles. While Swiss released a ton of first class award availability until 2013, starting then they began restricting first class award availability to elite…
This certainly won't last! Per Live and Let's Fly, at the moment Swiss first class awards are bookable using Star Alliance partner miles. This is significant because ordinarily Swiss first class is only available for elite members of the Miles & More…
