It seems BMI are conducting a fire sale on award routes. The table below should give you a hint of what they’re flogging and how much to where.

Deliving in the T&C;’s, there are some little gems.

• Addressee only, but it seems all BMI Members can get this
• BMI Operated flights only. No Codeshares or wet leases
• Cash and Miles EXCULDED.
• BMI Gold Members will be upgraded from Economy to Business subject to availability (The BMI Gold Upgrade Joker).
• Sale period: 24 August and midnight on 2 September 2011 for travel between 1 November 2011 to 31 March 2012
• Subject to capacity.
• Must be booked by the Call centre ONLY. Yes. BMI’s grip on technology seems to be falling away one step at at time here.
• Taxes, Dutues and Charges of course are exculded. But you guessed that.
• Changes and Cancellations subject to usual Diamond Club Rules.
• Changes beyond 1 November 2011 and 31 March 2012 which then results in award flight travel to be taken outside of the promotional period will be subject to full award miles deduction

If you can use it, knock yourself out!

ANA have confirmed their first regular Long Haul International Route for ANA’s 787 will be to Bejing and Frankfurt

ANA is on an ambious timtetable if Boeing can get their finger out getting the new birds approved for service.

Initally ANA will be operating demonstration flights to Hong Kong on 26th/27th October. The aircraft will then move on onto Japanese Domestic services, linking Tokyo Haneda to Okayama and Hiroshima from 1st November.

In terms of domsetisc, ANA are aiming to operate Toyko Haneda to Itami, Matsuyama, and Yamaguchi-Ube as well as Osaka and Hiroshima.

The 787 Long haul service coded as below operates from Tokyo Haneda and Frankfurt:

NH203   DEP HND 01:00    ARR FRA 05:25

NH204   DEP FRA 11:15    ARR HND 06:45+1

Launch Date: TBC.
Operates: Monday, Thursday and Saturday
Equipment: Boeing 787.
Operated By: ANA and Lufthansa

Bejing passengers get to try it out the Dreamliner earlier from 1st December until the launch of the Frankfurt route. Exact Flight scheduldes and timings are to be annouced, but mumblings of “once a week” are being made.

Have a goooood guess. You’re only going to get one of them.

Done guessing?

Of course, you’re right dear reader.

According to the Telegraph of India SkyTeam are to court Air India, with an offer to join the alliance.

This comes after the fallout of the disaster known as Air India’s attempt to join Star Alliance.

Meetings have kicked off between SkyTeam and the Indian government, with SkyTeam expressing an interest in having them in the alliance.

Allegedly, OneWorld has also been talking to Air India as well with membership proposals and the offer to help the national carrier improve its international operations.

The Indian government is open to all offers – from SkyTeam, and even Star Alliance if they want them.

However, any alliance that want Air India in them is going to experience a rocky ride, and is that something a commercially driven organisation like SkyTeam, OneWord or even Star Alliance want?

I’m not sure….

Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110823/jsp/business/story_14411945.jsp

Oh dear. It seems Thai International Airways have been visiting the Strategy Boutique for a name for their new “light premium airline”.

And it’s called Thai Smile Air.

Oook.

Thai Smile Air (TSA.. hmm. Not a good start) will begin services in July next year, operating from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport to Ubon Ratchathani, Khon Kaen, Chiang Rai and Surat Thani.

TSA are hoping to operate to regional destinations within the South East Asia area by 2013, operating 4 Airbus A320 aircraft, and aiming to expand to 11 birds at a later point.

Thai Smile Air will be sold as a a “full-service regional carrier”, offering real amentities such as business and economy classes, inflight meals and baggage.

United are bevering away, and have stumped up a new PR. Lets break it down:

More Long Haul Flat Seats - New seats are going in with all-new flat-bed seats in the premium cabins on 26 Boeing 767s – 12 Continental 767-400 aircraft and 14 United 767-300 aircraft (yes, the domestic birds are getting a tidyup at last). For these birds will also have AVOD and inseat power too.

The Three Cabin 777′s (the original United birds) are being refitted (with those ghastly hard slimline seats down the back and the dormitry style Business Class seats) – 17 of 46 aircraft complete and another dozen added to that by year-end. Again AVOD and inseat power will feature in these birds.

Economy Plus is being rolled out on the Continental fleet, with an aim to get 38 birds reconfigured this year (with the 767-400′s targeted), with 100 by next spring. When the rebuilds occur, they will be removing Economy class rows, rather than stripping out business and first class seats

Meanwhile, in regional land, all the Dash8-Q400′s are having E+ and F installed too. Oh well.

On the A319/A320 fleet (Original United fleet) are getting new overhead bins. Considering the average sink that is brought aboard a domestic UA flight thanks to the luggage charges, this is not a bad thing. In addition, the interiors are getting a sprucing up too.

IFE goes streaming - It seems United are doing a AA, and introducing Streaming IFE on the 747-400 birds. For those in First and Business, that’s great. For those in Economy, it’ll make a change. However, good luck in finding anywhere to charge your device whilst watching the streaming data. Vendor selection is in progress.

Meanwhile, Wi-Fi installation seems to picking up with LiveTV to deliver Wi-Fi over Ka satellites with the ex CO 737 and 757 birds aircraft equipped with DIRECTV. If this ever comes over to the UA Airbus or Boeing birds is another matter.

United PS will get a tarting up, dropping the First Class cabin, and switching to a Two Class service offering 26 flat beds in business, at 114 Economy Seats, all with AVOD, Power and WiFi

But most importantly to us aviation geeks, CHANNEL 9 WILL REMAIN (at pilots discretion). The feature will be added to ALL Continental Birds except the 737-500′s (so will be installed with all birds that have IFE installed). First birds to get it will be the tarted up 767-400′s, starting in what they call “Fall” (what the rest of us call Autumn)- Oh and United Pilots, here’s a hint pilots, switch it on the LHR runs please!

There are some actual positive changes here. However, this is 1) going to need to be monitored and 2) I wonder how much of the IFE services (such as the new Wireless IFE and New AVOD) will have “Paid For” content.

One to watch in the future I suspect.

It’s Sunday again, so it must be time for some more airplane p0rn.

This week, it’s a Brussels Airlines Airbus A319 in Star Alliance paint scheme preparing to depart from Barcelona Airport.

More of course next week

Ok, I don’t tend to do this – by posting taped on the plane videos – but I could resist.

It’s time for British Midland to demonstrate safety onboard their Airbus A320′s.

And yes, those of you remaining at Donnington Hall (including the Social Media team who seem to miss their flights), that’s a hint for you to stick a copy of your safety video online.

BBC Click are running a piece on Immersive Gaming including a visit to a simulator in a Coventry, Laser Tag in Planes in South California… but for us people who fly in the back of the plane (or behind Row 0), the interesting part starts at 3:00… at the British Airways Flight Training centre where the reporter gets to play in a BA 747-400 flight simulator.

Fun Saturday viewing… although the dogfighting over South California sounds like fun…

UK viewers can hit http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9567040.stm (and as it’s Click, it should be available to international viewers.

Or for those of us who are interested in Photography as well, it’ll be on the BBC iPlayer soon!

When a carrier announces it’s having a “shape and size” rethink, you know there’s a major reorganisation afoot. And alas, it’s Air Berlin who is doing this.

In an effort to turn around the airline and return it to profitability, routes are be cancelled left right and centre including

Munster – London
Onasbruck – London
Hanover – London
Paderborn – London
Paderborn – Manchester
Frankfurt – Hamburg
Frankfurt – Naples
Stuttgart – St Petersburg
Munich – Cairo
Düsseldorf – Paris.

In addition, Air Berlin is removing 1 million seats in capacity – in the form of 8 planes to be withdrawn.

With these cuts comes a price, and it came with the CEO Joachim Hunold, tendering his resignation blaming the German Aviation tax (akin to APD), fuel rises (the current bogeyman), and issues in the North Africa region where flights have been cut.

Shape and Size will also hit the regional airport in Germany, so expect more cuts there too.

Well, Air Berlin has been expanding like a bad spiderweb. Unfortunately, it seems that they got tangled a bit too much in it….

This is a repost from last year. But I’m posting it yearly now as the points need to be re-enforced each year when people rubbish exam results. I’ll be back with amusing commentary shortly…. 

Dear Successful Exam Student.

On this results day, you’ve got a mixture of feelings – be it joy, happiness, anger or despair depending how your results have gone today.

From someone who has been all four at once (and at 16, I was pretty much written off by my old school), some words of advice:

Joy – You’ve got the result at last.
Celebrate – And seriously, I mean that. 2+ years of hard work on any subject is enough to drive anyone bonkers. And well done
Don’t be angry – At the end of the day, you did the best you could on a set of conditions on a day.
Despair - of what to do next.

FINALLY - I PLEAD WITH YOU -

• IGNORE THE ARROGANT PEOPLE IN THE PRESS
• IGNORE THE PUNDITS WHO SAY EXAMS ARE GETTING EASIER 
• IGNORE THE POLITICIANS WHO HAVEN’T SAT A PAPER IN YEARS
• IGNORE THOSE WHO HAVE FORGOTTEN WHAT IT’S LIKE TO STUDY HARD
• IGNORE THOSE WHO ACTUALLY HAVE GROWN THE YEARS AND FORGET THEY LEARN AS THEY GROW UP
• AND IGNORE THOSE WHO SAY “THAT WASN’T HARD”

Because I remember how hard it was.

Remember, Even if you got an F, You still passed the exam. And more than that. You’ve given your all and done your best.

Congratulations.