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).

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:

• Star Alliance – TAP (to Sal & Praia)
• Oneworld – none
• Sky Team – none
• Other selected – TACV (from several Cape Verde airports), some European low cost airlines (to Sal & Boa Vista), TAAG

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.

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.

Republic of Macedonia

Source: Vladimir Stoykov

There are buses and trains from all neighbouring countries except Greece (use taxis to & from the Greece-Macedonia border).  Airlines flying to Republic of Macedonia include:

• Star Alliance – Adria, Austrian, Croatia, Swiss, Turkish
• Oneworld – Malev
• Sky Team – Czech
• Selected other – JAT

TIP There are no low cost airlines flying to Macedonia, however Thessaloniki isn’t too far away.

Last month Air New Zealand announced sweeping changes to their shorthaul product on most flights between New Zealand and Australia plus the South Pacific.  The changes, due to commence from August on a trial route and November for other routes, are intended to help Air New Zealand compete with low cost carriers Jetstar and Pacific Blue whilst also retaining full service options for passengers who want them.  Already business class has been removed from sale on A320 flights from the relevant dates onwards.

Nearly 3 weeks on, there is considerable confusion over some details of high interest to frequent flyers.  Poorly written communications with their Airpoints and Koru Club members contradict other information such as posted on the Air NZ website, and also imply some benefits taken for granted may be removed (such as Star Alliance gold free extra luggage allowance if travelling on the cheapest fares).

There is a bright spot, however.  Thanks to customer feedback Air NZ has reversed their decision to remove space+, although the current proposal is weaker than the existing space+ seating (much fewer seats & less legroom for most of these).  I notice the date from which the new product will be available for sale has been quietly pushed back to May (from April), presumably to allow more time to iron out some of the kinks already identified.

Once we get a bit more detail, I’ll explain the implications and options available for people with existing and future bookings.  Hint: business class and star alliance gold passengers on these routes seem to come off worst with the changes, so hopefully Air New Zealand still has some tricks up their sleeves to retain these high yielding passengers.

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 China generally. There are separate posts for some places in China (see the index).

China

Source: Samuel Li

Many airlines fly to China.  For flights to Hong Kong refer to the separate How to get to Hong Kong post. The main international airports are Hong Kong (HKG), Beijing (PEK), Shanghai Pudong (PVG) and Guangzhou (CAN). Many Asian airlines also have flights to other regional or primarily domestic airports.

• Star Alliance – Air Canada (HKG/PEK/PVG), Air China, Air New Zealand (HKG/PEK/PVG), ANA (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), Asiana (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), Austrian (PEK), Continental (HKG/PEK/PVG), EgyptAir (CAN/PEK), Lufthansa (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), SAS (PEK), Singapore (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), South African (HKG), Swiss (HKG/PVG), Thai (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), Turkish (HKG/PEK/PVG), United (HKG/PEK/PVG)
• Oneworld – American (PVG), British Airways (HKG/PEK/PVG), Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Finnair (HKG/PEK/PVG), Japan Airlines (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), Qantas (HKG/PVG), Royal Jordanian (HKG)
• Sky Team – Aeroflot (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), Aeromexico (PVG), Air France (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), China Southern, Delta (HKG/PEK/PVG), Kenya Airways (CAN/HKG), KLM (HKG/PEK/PVG), Korean (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG), Vietnam (CAN/HKG/PEK/PVG)
• Other selected – most Asian airlines, most Middle Eastern airlines

TIP Longhaul fares are generally cheaper to Hong Kong than to Beijing or Shanghai, due to greater competition.

TIP Intra-asia fares are also generally cheaper to Hong Kong than to Beijing or Shanghai due to the presence of more low cost airlines.

TIP For award or discounted alliance fares (eg around the world), there are far more options (and thus generally better availability) on Star Alliance and Sky Team than on Oneworld.

TIP For intra-China travel there are far more options on Sky Team than on Star Alliance.  Oneworld intra-China flights are very limited.

UPDATED August 2010 – Updated for TAM and Aegean joining Star Alliance, Shanghai leaving Star Alliance, Vietnam Airlines and TAROM joining Sky Team. Advice is changed.

My recent post about wanting to fly a red eye on a low cost airline had some people questioning my sanity. Somehow I get that question a lot.

It was the inaugural flight for a route, and one of their longest flights (if not the longest ignoring the longhaul division of the airline). I thought it would be fun and besides which it extends the expiry of my little stash of frequent flyer miles with them for another year.

How did it go? You can find out in the trip report which I’ve started on Flyer Talk.

I never thought the day would come that I’d fly a low cost carrier for several hours (followed by several more hours on a connecting flight on the same airline). To make matters worse one of the flights is a red eye (leaves late at night and arrives very early morning.

At least the load on the flights seems low (checked using an availability tool). Indeed their sale fares to launch the new route are still available in both directions.  Hopefully I can get an empty row on each flight to get some sleep on.

I’ll report back on how the flights went.

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.

Canary Islands

Source: Daniel Tenerife

Most visitors to Canary Islands arrive by air. Airlines flying to the Canary Islands (see key below) include:

• Star Alliance – Austrian (F/G/L/TS), bmi (F), SAS (G/TS), Spanair (F/L/P/TN/TS), Swiss (G/TS)
• Oneworld – Finnair (TS), Iberia (F/L/P/TN)
• Sky Team – Air Europa (F/G/L/P/TN/TS)
• Other selected - most European low cost airlines and some European full service airlines

Key – F=Fuerteventura, G=Gran Canaria (Las Palmas), L=Lanzarote, P=La Palma, TN=Tenerife Norte, TS=Tenerife Sul

TIP Travel in shoulder season (ie not midwinter or midsummer) for best fares.

TIP From outside Europe consider travelling to a major European city (such as Madrid, Barcelona, London, Paris) and then a separate ticket from there.  Madrid & Barcelona have the most flights and decent competition to the Canary Islands.

The downward spiral of fares and services on most Tasman and South Pacific routes continues with news from Air New Zealand of a radical overhaul of their fares and service offerings.

The longer shorthaul routes (Auckland to Perth, Auckland to Tahiti/Papeete and Sydney to Rarotonga) are unaffected by the changes but for the rest there are significant changes.  Economy service will differ according to fare at 4 different levels, as outlined in the table below.

* Business class replaces Works Deluxe on 767, 777 & 747 flights only, and empty adjacent seat does not apply in business class. 

Air NZ has stated they intend that Works is equivalent to current fares, Works Deluxe is a heavily discounted business fare and the cheaper fares are more in line with low cost competition (ie Jetstar and Pacific Blue).  We’ll see if that is so when they release fare information later.

As alluded to, this means A320 aircraft are losing business class, business class seating and also space+ seating. Space+ seats at the front of economy are regular seats but with an extra few inches of legroom and are very popular with elite frequent flyers and high fare passengers who can select them currently.

As a result of the changes, on some trans-Tasman routes Air NZ will have regular economy seats, space+ seats (on 767 aircraft), current premium economy seats (until refurbishment of 777 and 747 is completed next year), new premium economy seats (initially only on 77W aircraft), old business class seats (767 only) and business premier seats (777 and 747 aircraft) - 6 completely different seats, 2 different levels of onboard service and 4 different levels of on the ground services.  Managing customer expectations will be tricky in this environment!

The changes start with Christchurch to Sydney on 18 August (for sale from 29 April) and roll out to other routes in November (for sale from September).

Air NZ hasn’t yet provided details on many aspects (treatment of elite passengers, longhaul connecting passengers, those who booked flights while the current services were promised, etc). This is causing some angst on the Air NZ forum of Flyer Talk, but it is refreshing an Air NZer was quickly posting responses to questions (purportedly the GM of Shorthaul himself). 

On the information provided so far it looks like Air NZ is providing more choice and not really taking stuff away except for those who only buy sale fares, but the devil is in the details.

Updated to add

Existing bookings for travel after the switch to the new offering will be treated as Works if economy fare and Works Deluxe if business class fare.

Lost in all the other changes, but check in kiosks will be progressively added for flights to Australia from June 2010.

The shorthaul service changes are finally up on Air NZ’s website, although there is no new or additional information.

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.

Thailand

Source: Wikimedia Commons

While many visitors arrive by land (bus or train) from neighbouring countries, most arrive by air.  Many airlines fly to Thailand (mostly using Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport), including:

• Star Alliance – Air China, ANA, Asiana, Austrian, EgyptAir, Lufthansa, SAS, Singapore, Swiss, Thai, Turkish, United
• Oneworld – British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Japan, Qantas, Royal Jordanian
• Sky Team – Aeroflot, Air France, China Southern, Delta, Kenya, KLM, Korean, Vietnam
• Other selected – most Asian and Middle Eastern major airlines, many Asian low cost airlines

TIP Thailand is probably the easiest place in Asia to reach cheaply from Europe, North America and Australasia. With lots of competition fares are not excessive and awards readily available.  Bangkok is also conveniently located with plentiful service for around the world tickets. 

TIP Longhaul fares from Bangkok are usually cheaper, sometimes substantially cheaper, than fares to Bangkok.

TIP There are cheap flights to & from Bangkok from all nearby hubs (Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Singapore, Hong Kong).  Bangkok is a good base from which to explore south-east Asia.

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.