Each six months I look at how well connected by air countries are to each other – the Flight Connectivity Index (FCI).  Previous updates – FCI 30 June 2009, FCI 31 December 2009, and FCI 30 June 2010.  Since the last update there has been the usual seasonal changes, United Arab Emirates continues it’s relentless growth in flight connectivity, and some poorly connected countries in Africa (Burundi and Sao Tome & Principe) and the Caribbean (Dominica and Haiti) lost some air routes to become even less connected.

Flight Connectivity Index (FCI)

The Flight Connectivity Index (FCI) value is the number of other countries to which you can fly directly from a given country, based on published schedules of IATA airlines. Domestic flights do not count. To simplify the calculation, countries are defined as members of United Nations, as opposed to using one of the many other country lists available.

With 192 member countries of the UN, the maximum FCI score is 191.  Germany is the country with highest FCI at the moment, at 110 (up 1 since June but unchanged from a year ago).  Four countries have no flights and FCI score of 0 – these are Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino.  The average FCI is 23.2, down 0.5 from June but up 0.9 from last year.

More results after the jump.

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I’ve visited hundreds of airline lounges around the world, and the standard of cleanliness varies considerably.  Nonetheless, for most you’d expect a reasonably clean lounge.  Today, thanks to lack of award availability I had an 8 hour transit in Sydney, and so I spent several hours in the very nice Qantas first class lounge.  Remarkably, some dirty dishes that were around when I arrived were still not cleaned away several hours later when it was time for me to leave, despite requesting staff clean up.  Even worse, a toilet I’d noticed was blocked when I arrived was still blocked when I went to use it before leaving to board my flight.

This lounge is large and has about a dozen staff.  What have the ones responsible for cleaning been doing all day?

With the planned changes to 747 first class seating (from 16 to 8 seats) next year, Lufthansa has recently zeroed out inventory for awards and upgrades in their first class on 747 flights, starting from April 2011.

I’m kicking myself that I hadn’t finished cashing in my miles ahead of the Miles and More devaluation at the end of the year, figuring I still had a couple of weeks to lock in awards at the old mileage levels.

As posted by One Mile at a Time, US Airways have introduced a lifetime status benefit at 1 million miles on US Airways flights.  This is not a particularly good lifetime status benefit (see the updated all airline lifetime elite status summary to see why).  Even worse, the benefit is not truly a lifetime benefit in that US Airways will remove the status if you don’t maintain activity – currently this is defined as earning or redeeming miles within the past 3 years, but this definition could easily be changed in future.

No word on whether the lifetime status benefit comes with lifetime pyschiatric counselling to recover from flying 1 million miles on US Airways

I continue to learn new travel info every day. Today I learned that you can change a non-refundable hotel stay with Intercontinental to another date at no charge (assuming availability). Yes – that solved my double-booking at 2 places on opposite sides of the planet problem nicely.

There are some airlines serving NZ for the first time in 2011, ahead of the rugby world cup (and also some airlines returning after years of absence).  Announcements to date include:

• China Airlines – from Taipei to Auckland via Brisbane starting January
• Low cost airline Jetstar Asia – from Singapore to Auckland starting March
• Skyteam member China Southern Airlines – from Guangzhou to Auckland via Melbourne starting March
• Low cost airline Air Asia X – from Kuala Lumpur to Christchurch starting April
• Star Alliance member United Airlines (Continental) – from Houston to Auckland starting November (maybe)

The trans-Tasman flights will, as usual, have 5th freedom rights meaning they can be bought standalone.  Typically there is good award availability on these “tag” flights, and fares in premium cabins are low as the airlines try to win customers off more well-known competition (Air New Zealand, Qantas/Jetstar, Emirates and Pacific Blue).

Some frequent flyer programs have promotions for purchasing miles.  Normally buying miles is poor value relative to other ways of earning miles, unless you have an urgent need to top up an account for a specific award.  However, some promotions make it worthwhile to buy miles outright.

• American Airlines – until 31 December 2010 a bonus of 2000 miles for every 6000 miles purchased, and the total purchase limit (per year) is increased to 60,000 miles (80k with bonus).
• BMI – until 12 December 2010 a bonus of 50%, thus 24000 miles (16k + 8k bonus) costs £207.
• Delta – until 31 December 2010 a 100% bonus if purchased with DL branded Amex, read View from the Wing’s thoughts on it here.
• US Airways – has had frequent 100% bonuses, but there is no current promotion.

Some more offers, that are less valuable, include:

• Alitalia – until 31 January 2011, a 30% bonus.
• Lufthansa – until 31 December 2010, a 20% bonus.
• United – until 15 December 2010, a 20% bonus.