Musings of The Global Traveller
Thoughts, advice and travel news from around the world by a seasoned frequent flyer.
Hi
You may have noticed a lack of recent posts. It is because I have had a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) scare. About a week ago one of my legs swelled up badly. Fortunately tests proved I did not have any clots but it was a scary couple of days for me.
I’ve mostly recovered but expect it will take a week or so before I’m back to blogging at my normal rate. Apologies for any inconvenience.
As promised, I am answering some of Wendy Perrin’s readers’ frequent flyer questions. This batch of questions deals with promotions, whether to buy paid tickets or awards, how to get awards on alliance partner airlines, booking class mapping, how to meet your frequent flyer goals, seat selection, and awards for yourself vs friends & family vs charities.
This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the Contact link at the top, or leave a comment.
This post is how to get to Macau. There are separate posts for how to get to China more generally as well as how to get to Hong Kong.
Macau
Buses connect Macau to the border of the SAR as well as to Guangzhou. Ferries operate to Hong Kong (including the airport), Shenzen and other nearby cities. Airlines flying to Macau include:
TIP While there are some low cost, mostly intra-asia, fares to Macau, in general it is cheaper and relatively convenient to fly to Hong Kong and take the ferry across.
UPDATED August 2010 – Updated for TAM and Aegean joining Star Alliance, Shanghai leaving Star Alliance, Vietnam Airlines and TAROM joining Sky Team. No change to advice.
This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the Contact link at the top, or leave a comment.
US Virgin Islands
Most visitors to US Virgin Islands arrive by air or by cruise ship. Airlines flying to US Virgin Islands include:
TIP Air fares from main hubs in continental USA are generally competitive.
My report on the royal treatment flying alone in Thai first class is now up on Flyer Talk. The report on flying alone in Turkish first class a day prior is in the same report.
As promised, I am answering some of Wendy Perrin’s readers’ frequent flyer questions. This batch of questions deals mostly with the difficulty in getting the awards you want; and also has first class ducks, award fees, getting to the US Open, household accounts and mileage promotions.
This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the Contact link at the top, or leave a comment.
Cape Verde
The only convenient way to visit Cape Verde is to fly. Relatively few airlines fly to Cape Verde, and they include:
TIP There are far more flights to Cape Verde from Europe than from nearby Africa, or South America or Central America.
TIP Including Cape Verde on a Star Alliance around the world requires backtracking and thus uses up a significant amount of the mileage allowed.
As each day of massive disruption to travel to, from and across much of Europe passes and the economic burden keeps climbing (now in billions of euros), there has been mounting pressure on politicians and regulators to reopen skies.
One example is the UK authorities apparently were forced to allow overflights over UK above 20,000 feet despite their own concerns about safety (they ruled UK airlines could not overfly closed UK airspace, only non-UK airlines). This opening up of higher altitude airspace obviously helps continental airlines whose own regulators have opened up (or partially opened) their own airspace. But if the ash concentrations are high enough at lower levels in UK and neighbouring countries, there may be a risk of engine damage to aircraft that then subsequently overfly UK. This isn’t just a theoretical risk – there have been reports of at least 3 incidents of some ash damage in aircraft over Europe in the past few days even with such limited flights as there have been.
If that aircraft then had difficulties (perhaps unrelated), how can it safely land if it has to descend through airspace that is closed due to the ash cloud? There is an inconsistency here in the approach taken by UK authorities and some of those based in continental EU.
The last few days have seen a number of European airlines undertake publicity stunts – so called test flights. The flights undertaken provide limited data because there is evidence that ash concentrations vary considerably over even short distances, and winds mean a “clear” path flown by one aircraft may not be clear if flown by other aircraft at a later time.
Why this is a big problem is that unlike thunderstorms which can be detected by radar, ash cannot be seen except in high concentrations in daylight – by the time an unseen ash clump damages engines it may be too late to do anything about it.
Today British Airways went one step further by flying about a dozen longhaul flights to London despite the authorities having advised the airspace is closed until (at least) several hours after the flights were due to arrive. With most other nearby countries also having closed airspace and airports not accepting diversions this approach seems reckless to my naive view. Indeed some of these aircraft spent considerable time flying circles at high altitude at various places around UK as if waiting for clearance to land.
The latest news is that Lord Adonis, Transport Secretary, has just announced that UK airports will reopen at 10pm tonight local time (source BBC).
If it is a case of politicians, or regulators, being encouraged to weigh economic factors instead of safety ones, that is very concerning. I hope that is not the case here, and I also hope there is no trajedy.
I’ve finally seen the Up in the Air movie starring George Clooney as miles obsessed businessman. Actually, I’ve seen it 3 times in the last few days while flying around.
I thought the movie captured some aspects of the odd uber-travelling life well*, but unlike Lost in Translation I don’t think it will become a classic. The contrasts between Ryan’s life and those he interacts with were quite well done.
* and some parts are clearly wrong – artistic license and all that.
I’ve been fortunate enough to fly in business class on A380 on all the airlines which operate it excluding Air France. I think it may be useful having a comparison between the three products.
In each case, the A380 business class is the best business class offering of the relevant airline. Singapore Airlines even has restricted bookings in this class to require a surcharge on paid fares on many routes, double mileage cost in their Kris Flyer program and no awards for other Star Alliance frequent flyer programs (other than Lufthansa Miles and More).
Emirates between Auckland and Sydney
source: Emirates
Qantas between Sydney and Singapore
source: Qantas
Singapore Airlines between Singapore and Tokyo Narita for example.
source: Singapore Airlines
On the ground
On the ground treatment of A380 business class passengers is standard fare (for business class). The only stand-out is Emirates which offers airport limo transfers at both ends for business class (and first class) passengers on most routes (including trans-Tasman).
Qantas in Sydney and Melbourne, and Emirates in Sydney, also have a priority security queue for first class, business class and frequent flyer elite passengers. At Singapore security is processed at the gate, and the gates used by A380 do not have a priority lane.
In air amenities
The treatment in the air is also standard for each airline’s business class. So pre-depature bubbles or water, nice food & drink, hot towels. Qantas offers pajamas on some longhaul flights. Qantas and Emirates have a full amenity kit while Singapore Airlines has socks and eyeshades (with other amenities in the bathroom). Note due to the short flight duration, my Emirates flights did not offer pajamas or the normal amenity kit.
On all three airlines noise cancelling headphones are used. Qantas hands out the headphones after take-off and also doesn’t switch on the IFE (except for the tail camera) until well after take-off, Emirates hands out the headphones before departure so you can start watching movies straight away, whilst Singapore Airlines doesn’t hand out headphones until after departure but the IFE is available to watch once the safety video has finished.
The seats
Emirates business class A380 seats are partially enclosed and in staggered layout. I found them claustrophobic (despite not having problems with the fully enclosed first class suites on a number of airlines) and also there is a tight squeeze for the table since it is not very adjustable. The side table provides plenty of space. The seats are fully flat. Emirates has a business class bar where you can meet fellow passengers in some comfort while drinking or nibbling.
Qantas business class A380 seats are a slightly modified version of their skybed seats found on their other longhaul aircraft. The main difference is this version is fully lie flat whereas the other version (which will be phased out during 2011) is not. This means the seat in front is also further away. As an added extra, Qantas has a small business class lounge (which doubles as an emergency bed) with large screen, some magazines and a comfy couch.
Singapore Airlines business class A380 seats are very similar to the “new” business class seats found on their 77W and A345 aircraft. The differences are trivial width and length differences. For those unfamiliar, the seat is rather wide for business class but with short pitch. The fully flat bed operates by bringing up a flat surface to the seat in front, with a cubby hole to put your feet in – the length of the bed is thus diagonal along the seat. There are cubby holes to put things and the tray table has generous dimensions. The monitor is very large for business class, but some people find it too close (due to the shorter pitch).
How can you experience A380 business class for low cost?
Emirates flies A380 between Auckland and Sydney with business class fares under US$500 return when on sale. iscounted fare and award availability for business class is good on Emirates A380.
Qantas longhaul business class fares are rarely cheap. Look for British Airways Club World sales on the kangaroo route – thanks to the joint services agreement these fares are also valid on Qantas flights (on the BA codeshare). Mileage redemptions generally require booking well in advance 330-360 days ahead of travel, or close to departure.
Singapore Airlines heavily restricts A380 business class from awards. Best option is to book the A380 flights between Singapore and Hong Kong on a paid fare.
Summary
I was very disappointed with the Emirates A380 business class (see also my trip report), but both Qantas and Singapore Airlines have great products.
