Kinglobjaw's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘british airways’

Beginning October 25, 2009, British Airways will start flying Male, Maldives nonstop on a 777  from London’s Gatwick airport. The flight operates 3x weekly and is a 3-cabin plane (Business/Premium Economy/ Economy). The outbound from London departs on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays arriving the next morning, while the return departs Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The return is a daylight service. It appears that the service will be year round.

Along with Maldives, Britsh Airways will launch Sharm El Sheikh and Punta Cana. It’s a shame they aren’t running the flights from Heathrow, but British Airways’ holiday flights now tend to operate from Gatwick.

I was wondering which full service European airline will take the “plunge” (pun intended) and fly to the Maldives first. I remember reading about LOT planning flights from Warsaw and Virgin Atlantic wanting to start flights from London- Heathrow. Guess they were too slow as Sri Lankan airlines launched the flights first. Personally, I was betting on Lufthansa from Frankfurt or Swiss from Zurich.

Normally, I don’t blog about other airline’s routes aside from Star Alliance, but the Maldives are a destination that’s close to my heart and to which I plant to return to. Plus, I could redeem some of my AA miles on the new flight and try out Club World cabin on British Airways.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

I’m big on “oldie” stuff, so when I heard about Virgin Atlantic doing a commercial set in 1984 I had to see this. Even in current movies, shows, whenever they do flashback scenes I get very “into” it.

So it seems Virgin Atlantic has been flying for 25 years now. Congrats! Lately, there have been rumors of them merging with BMI and joining Star Alliance under Lufthansa’s coaching. Yeah right! Like Branson is going to let “The Wolf” take things into his own hands.

Virgin Atlantic is uniquely linked to US Airways by way of America West Airlines. America West’s limited international service called for a partnership with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic for transatlantic flights. With the US Airways merger, British Airways was knocked off, but Virgin Atlantic remained.

At this point in time, the relationship between the two has considerably cooled. Dividend Miles members do not earn preferred qualifying miles on any revenue VS (Virgin Atlantic) operated flight and it only gets worse when you want to redeem miles. Dividend Miles members can only miles redeem for economy class, meaning no Upper Class award tickets. Given that US and VS barely compete on the transatlantic market is there are reason why should these ties be severed? Maybe, just maybe if VS and BMI do indeed merge, a Star Alliance membership may be the only path to US and VS getting “cozy” again. ORD-LHR-HKG-SYD in Upper Class is what I wanted to do for a while now! And I wanted to do it using my Dividend Miles.

Anyway, here’s the 25- “Still Red Hot” campaign.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

US Airways’ first ever service to London’s Heathrow (LHR) begins on March 29, 2008 from Philadelphia (PHL). That same day in Toronto (YYZ), US Airways moves under one roof with Air Canada to Terminal 1 allowing for quick and convenient connections with the majority of Star Alliance carriers at Toronto’s Pearson airport. Is a US Airways- Air Canada codeshare now on the radar?

In Warsaw, Poland (WAW), LOT Polish Airlines launches Warsaw- Beijing, China (PEK) service on the 767. The service will operate on a weekly basis, and as soon as LOT takes delivery of their 787, it will be one of the first routes to see this aircraft. Good thing LOT has some codeshare agreements in Asia, and the flight is timed to ‘grab’ inbound connections from USA. EWR-WAW-PEK anyone?

March 29-30, 2008 is also the weekend a bulk of new LHR flights commence with a lot of first ever services provided by first-time-ever-at-LHR airlines. United’s Denver- LHR, Continental’s Newark- LHR and Houston- LHR, Delta’s JFK- LHR, Atlanta- LHR as well as Northwest’s Minneapolis- LHR are all new. American Airlines also brings Raleigh/Durham (RDU) and Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW) nonstops to LHR as of March 30, 2008. Blue1 goes Helsinki (HEL)- LHR as of March 30, 2008. And while this may be an odd one, Air France will fly from LHR to Los Angeles (LAX) beginning on March 31, 2008. I honestly don’t think that will work out. Bon Voyage however!

Today, London Heathrow opened it’s fifth and newest terminal. Check it out here. Like it’s partners and rivals from the USA, British Airways also starts out new service on March 30, 2008, and may I add all from London Heathrow:

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark