So, Star Alliance grows to 28 members now with Agean Airlines confirming it’s membership, expanding the influence of Star across Greece now, 12 months since it was announced they were joining up.

Aegean Airlines operates a fleet of 30 aircraft covering a total of 54 domestic and international routes on more than 150 daily flights. This is made up of 26 Domestic routes and 28 international routes, delivered with 22 A32x series aircraft, 6 BAe146′s and 2 ATR’s.

This opens up Greece and a quite a few destinations to Star Alliance users, and should improve even further when Olympic Air merges with Aegean Airlines (expected approval September 2010 and integration a year later)

But the question is simple – whilst Star Alliance is continue to grow like mad, will there be a point when 1) Star Alliance is too large or 2) Star Alliance fails to add “quality” carriers to it’s fleet?

Well a little PDF of the presentation given by Wolfgang Prock-Schauer – the Chief Executive Officer of bmi, and whilst it takes a little reading, I draw your attention to

The good news to take away is that Lufthansa will be keeping BMI more or less in its current form, however for frequent flyers, the news is not so great with on throwaway line in the presentation.

I quote:

“Roadmap for integration „Diamond Club“ in M&M; agreed”

Now if you’re a BMI Diamond Club member, that sound you heard was the Fat Lady warming up to sing the last part of the aria - in other words the closure of Diamond Club is getting close.

So what are my thoughts?

On Miles

• The advice is simple: START REDEEMING THOSE MILES NOW. 
• If you have BMI miles, Lufthansa Miles and More miles are not cheap to redeem (eg 30,000+Tax in Economy between London and Frankfurt, where as 37500 miles can get you a Business Class redemption to the United States).  
• If you’re a few miles short of a reward, now is the time to buy, then redeem those miles. 
• If you have family members that are Diamond Club members, you need to safeguard  those miles – form them up into a Family Account if possible, then transfer them into the master account for spending
• If you have the MBNA BMI Credit Card, it could be time to consider the Lufthansa variation of it. 

On Status 

• If you’re a BMI Gold or wanting to retrain BMI Gold or a BMI Silver heading to gold, you need to getting your miles in now and aiming for a early to mid 2011 qualification period.  If you time it incorrectly, you’ll be migrated over to Miles and More, but you’ll feel mugged when everyone has the same time to re-qualify and you’re having to do it all over again.
• Start to consider other airlines to get status on. Whilst Lufthansa is generous with 2 years of Star Gold at it’s Senator status (or 2 years of Frequent Traveller – Star Silver), you’ve got to get your backside on a seat for 100,000 miles within a year to retain it.  Which for a low flyer on cheap fares is nigh on impossible
• If the migration takes place, don’t expect a single status mile to transfer over. In other words, a standing start of 100,000 miles to hit Senator will be needed (or 35,000 if you’re aiming for FTL).
• GhettoIFE.com will be doing a review of the low qualification Star Golds/Star Silvers in a couple of weeks for us Super-Cheap travellers.

Well, I can’t say this wasn’t expected after the move of members from Ukraine, Israel and the Netherlands. What it does mean, the clock is now formally ticking.

As a Diamond Club Gold myself, I’ll be keeping a very close eye on this as BMI Diamond Club folds into Miles and More.

The trip picrtures are slowly going live.

You can find them if the left hand bar ever refreshes, or at the following links below:

• BHX-BFS with BMI Baby
• Hotel Ibis, Belfast
• Enterprise Rail Service, Belfast Central to Dublin Connolly
• DUB-BHX with Aer Lingus

Is a trip report coming? Depends. Gotta finish writing it first…. 

It seems that some South African Airways staff are trying slip extra special items past UK Customs when a a member of the crew was been arrested at Heathrow Airport after 3kg of cocaine was allegedly found strapped to her body.

The cabin crew member was held during a random body search on Saturday.

Drug smuggling seems to be an issue with South African Airways, with staff trying to smuggle the usual suspects through on Heathrow bound flights

South African Airways said it’s consulting with security staff, police and Interpol to try to deter employees from trying to smuggle illegal substances.

However, with demand not seeming to slip, and the prospect of easy money, somehow or other, Customs are missing a lot of drugs that must be coming into Heathrow….

So I’ve got a new toy, and I thought I’d take it out for a test run – being a trip to Belfast with me.

In a laughable attempt to increase content, I’ve shot some video with it, and the results are heading into the trip report, but I’d thought I’d post the first one to see if it was any good.

Comments welcome on this – least of all where I put my finger on the lens….

British Airways has made a new offer to Unite in an effort to end the strike. Whilst Unite is “allowing” its members to consider the offer, it will recommend against them accepting the offer as it refuses fully reinstate the travel perks that were removed in an earlier strike.

Changes includes top up payments and basic rises for the next two years.

Mr Tony “Visits Cuba and Cyprus during critical phases ” Woodly describes the offer as “interesting” and has to put the offer to the membership  (and if they didn’t, there would be explaining to do).

But he also comments

“As a consequence of the company’s last and final offer the union and its representatives will have no choice but to delay our vote in order to allow our members to consult on the offer.”

British Airways is happy for the break of the strike ballot, hoping to end the dispute, but as they say – we’ll see what happen. Will the cabin crew choose to stop, or will they continue and alienate more of the staff who worked through the strike and more importantly – the travelling pubic?

It’s Sunday again, which means it’s time for Airplane p0rn.

This week (and freshly shot), it’s a Ryanair 737-800 in final landing configuration about to land at Dublin Airport

More of course next week!

BMI baby – it could had been worse I suppose

More later on !

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone – apologies for the spelling!

And we start off at Mordor Hbf… More commonly known as Birmingham New Street station….

More in a mo!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone – apologies for the spelling!

Well the land of the taxed is hell bend on charging a fee for ESTA now as the law has been passed in the US Congress.

Apparently Congress is unware that taxing people is a way of putting them off visiting the United States. 

CNN has the scoop, but this is truly insulting to visitors. who now face a $10 fee to go into the USA to “Promote the United States as a travel destination and explain travel and security policies to international visitors”.

Which as a consumer of US Immigration procedures is quite frankly (and to use the US colloquium) a fat load of baloney.  It is nothing but forms (and awfully laid out ones at that), and this is squarely targeted at Visa Waiver Program countries. The fact that 3-1-1 is pretty much universal (or 100ml in the civilised world) and it’s never a good idea to take sharps through security is besides the point.

IATA is clearly annoyed, stating:

“We don’t want foreigners to have to jump through so many hoops that they just give up and don’t bother coming to the U.S” 

 It is estimated that charging for ESTA will bring in  US$4 Billion, with the US Travel Association cock-a-hoot about it saying:

“This is a historic victory for the U.S. economy and one in eight American workers whose jobs depend on travel” 

That’s fine then, and impact on the spend of the visiting consumer. Excellent move there. And the EU is considering responding in kind, charging $10 for entry into the European Union for US visitors (a move I would welcome now as I have a reduced intention to vistit the USA even more sadly).

Martin Lewis’s Money Saving Expert has a guide on how to “dodge” the cost – it could be wise to follow it.

Colour me very unimpressed. 

Coverage: 
CNN – http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/02/26/travel.promotion.act/index.html?hpt=T2
Glading – http://www.gadling.com/2010/03/04/travel-promotion-act-signed-into-law-visitors-to-u-s-who-dont/
Money Saving Expert – http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/esta-usa-visa

It seems that Valencia can’t do without Ryanair, as it will repoen it’s base at Valenicia airport in the winter – with the local tourism ministry to provide marketing support to market the services.

The base was closed in  Valencia base in November 2008 due to the regional government’s decision not to provide marketing support, which has now been promptly reversed due to declining passenger numbers, and will operate 10 services from there.

Ryanair forecasts that its return to Valencia will boost annual passenger numbers at the airport by two million.

It just proves how much clout the airline has these days as it can dictate life or death of an area, or an airport it seems.