A collection of Star Alliance transatlantic routes

Posted by Seth Miller on March 7, 2013 under frequent flyer, Wandering Aramean Travel Tools | 19 Comments to Read

Seems to me that, in the interest of being able to more easily find awards, having a listing of all the long-haul routes, by alliance and region, would be useful. And I haven’t ever found a good collection of them so I decided to start building one. Shocking, right??

I’m sure you’ll also be shocked to learn that I started with Star Alliance and the transatlantic (TATL) routes. I’m defining TATL in this context as between North America and Europe. I know there are more flights than just these but I’m going to have a series of posts in the coming days breaking it down and adding to the collection. And I had to start somewhere. So here it is.

There are, by my count, 172 173 route/carrier combinations across the North Atlantic Ocean operated by  one of the thirteen Star Alliance members with at least one flight in the regions. Some are seasonal but, if you’re looking for seats, this is probably a good place to start.

Putting them all on a single map is actually pretty useless, other than just to show how massive the coverage footprint is:

To make it slightly more useful here’s a collection of maps split up by carrier. Still sortof sloppy in some cases, but better.

Air Canada

Lufthansa

Air New Zealand, Austrian, LOT

Singapore Air, TAP Air Portugal, Turkish Airlines, Brussels Airlines

US Airways

United Airlines

Swiss, SAS

And, if you prefer the data in a less graphical format, it is also available in a table format here.

If you can see any I’ve missed let me know and I’ll update the tables.

Unique North American Gateways:

• ATL
• BOS
• CLT
• DEN
• DFW
• DTW
• EWR
• IAD
• IAH
• JFK
• LAX
• LAX
• MCO
• MEX
• MIA
• ORD
• PHL
• SEA
• SFO
• YEG
• YHZ
• YOW
• YUL
• YVR
• YYC
• YYT
• YYZ

Unique European Gateways:

• AMS
• ARN
• ATH
• BCN
• BFS
• BRU
• CDG
• CPH
• DME
• DUB
• DUS
• EDI
• FCO
• FRA
• GLA
• GVA
• HAM
• IST
• LGW
• LHR
• LIS
• MAD
• MAN
• MUC
• MXP
• OPO
• OSL
• SNN
• STR
• TXL
• VCE
• VIE
• WAW
• ZRH

Using United GPUs on Lufthansa about to get more difficult

Posted by Seth Miller on February 13, 2013 under frequent flyer, PaxEx | 14 Comments to Read

United Airlines is changing the way their Global Premier Upgrades (GPUs, née SWUs) are redeemed for flights on Lufthansa metal and, not surprisingly, the results are bad news. In posts online last night United offered up these details of the new requirements:

Starting March 1, when you request a GPU certificate for use on Lufthansa, we’ll ask you to provide some additional information:

• First and last name of the traveler who will be presenting the certificate to Lufthansa
• Departure and arrival city/airport of the flight segment to be upgraded (reminder: GPUs are used on a per-segment basis on LH)
• Flight number and flight date
• Confirmation number of itinerary associated with segment to be upgraded (this can be the Lufthansa confirmation number or the confirmation number of another airline/travel agency you used to book your ticket)

If day of travel changes the certificate should remain valid; if the route or passenger name changes the certificate usage will be at the discretion of the Lufthansa agents. In other words, good luck. Oh, and this is on top of the change a while back to reduce the eligible fare classes eligible for upgrade.

Yeah, the reasoning for this is pretty clear: they’re trying to cut down on resale and bartering of the certs. But it is still terribly annoying for the customers who use them legitimately. It wouldn’t be quite so bad if there wasn’t a multiple week turnaround at the request and redeposit cycle when they don’t clear. But there is.

So, yeah, another change to the MileagePlus program. And not a good one.

There is never award inventory out of GRU, and other untrue tales

Posted by Seth Miller on February 5, 2013 under frequent flyer, points, Wandering Aramean Travel Tools | 15 Comments to Read

I woke up this past Sunday morning and was perusing my Twitter feed (you are following me there, right??) when I came across an interesting tweet from @MileValue. In short, he was frustrated at the apparent lack of award space from Sao Paulo to Europe. If the rumors are to be believed, it is simply impossible. And so he put out a challenge:

Given nothing better to do, I unleashed the power of my Star Alliance Award Search tool on the challenge. I loaded up all three routes and every day from February 15 through December 31, 2013. Then I went and got brunch and came back to check on the results. It seems that @MileValue was sortof correct. Looking through the results there were not a ton of dates with premium cabin seats available on the TAM-operated flights. Inventory was surprisingly wide open for GRU-Madrid between June 27 – August 1, but not much else. At that point I basically walked away from the project, knowing that there was some space but not a ton.

But today I’m sitting in a jury duty waiting room, desperately hoping to not be picked and I needed something to do so I’m looking over the data in more detail. Filtering for only flights offering business or first class (the initial challenge was any seat in any cabin) availability, looking at all carriers and all European gateways I came up with more than 350 options. And that’s even after excluding the phantom F inventory from Lufthansa. It turns out that perhaps we were asking the wrong question on Sunday.

Nearly 200 flights have first class inventory and more than 250 have business class (about 100 have both). Not every carrier is always available. Neither is every gateway. But there are a lot of dates available from May through December. TAM is only available from mid-May through July but other carriers have broader options. And TAM also has their Milan and Paris flights showing quite a few dates available. The raw(-ish) data is here.

If I limit the results only to economy class flights there are more than 600 route/date combinations with seats available. Milan, Paris and Madrid are, again, the most commonly available destinations but Barcelona, Munich, Zurich, Lisbon and even Porto show up somewhat regularly as available. Oh, and I’m not including the various options which involved transiting Buenos Aires, Mexico City or various North American gateways. Those would add a lot more flight options.

This is just a point in time snapshot of the inventory. I have no idea how much is still available today. And obviously this doesn’t mean that there is always a flight available when you are looking. Maybe getting that award will require an extra connection or moving a day or two for finding seats. But don’t be dissuaded by rumors of destinations supposedly impossible to get award seats into or out of. Turns out the seats are more available than you might think.

Anyone have another route or city they’re interested in seeing a compilation of data on? Turns out these aren’t all that hard to generate, though I do have to be a bit careful about the number of queries I’m running.

Codeshare check-in notices from United: Now actually useful!

Posted by Seth Miller on January 21, 2013 under Flying, PaxEx, Trip Reports | 4 Comments to Read

It has been a while since I have flown on a code-share flight ticketed by United Airlines. My recollection of the last trip, however, was that the email I received 24 hours prior to the scheduled departure reminding me to check-in was rather useless. I was quite surprised this week to see one which was actually useful. It included the partner carrier PNR data and flight number, in addition to the reminder to check in with Lufthansa, not United.

Maybe this is old news and I just need to travel more. Either way, I’m happy to see the better communication being shared. Sometimes it is the little things…

United to ‘slim’ their A320 fleet

Posted by Seth Miller on August 19, 2012 under News, PaxEx | 9 Comments to Read

United Airlines will be changing the seats on their A320 fleet starting in 2013 according to the Apex blog, switching to the Recaro BL3250 Slimline model. These seats have been adopted by a number of carriers in Europe and which allow for comparable legroom while actually increasing the seat density in the aircraft. As a result of this move the airline expects to add a row of seats to the A320 fleet. The Recaro BL3250s are also being installed by American Airlines in their new 777s as those come on line. Plenty of cost savings to be had with the lighter seats and the higher density means additional revenue opportunity, too.

The widest deployment of these seats currently is probably with Lufthansa. These are the NEK seats they have installed on most of their short-haul fleet. I’ve flown in them a few times and they’re functional and the legroom isn’t an issue. Padding in the seat cushion, however, definitely leaves something to be desired in the Lufthansa version. It will be interesting to see how United configures them. Recaro also has an add-on "Comfort Package" available offering better cushions, power outlets and headrests. It is not clear if United has purchased that package.

Related Posts:

• American’s new transcon A321 config announced
• American Airlines announces updates to long-haul fleet
• A different take on the new American Airlines 777-300ER interior
• United announces significant investments to in-flight product

Who took "the" from Ukraine?

Posted by Seth Miller on July 25, 2012 under frequent flyer, points, Trip Reports | 15 Comments to Read

I have no idea why, but Ukraine used to be The Ukraine from what I can remember. I don’t know when that changed or what the motivation was. Maybe they traded it to The Gambia in exchange for coconut exports; stranger things have happened.

Whatever the reasoning, I’m sure we won’t figure it out over the next two weeks as we explore the country. We’ll be in Kiev, Odessa, Simferopol, Bakhchisaray and Yalta. There will be planes and trains and hopefully a funicular or two. And there will be food and drink galore.

The flight routing looks something like this:

We’ve got business class award seats on Lufthansa, Austrian (Tyrolean) and United Airlines (100,000 points each) to go with a revenue flight on WizzAir. Not bad at all for relatively high season in Europe.

On the hotel front things will be interesting. The dearth of western-branded properties in Ukraine only reinforces my belief that focusing on those programs would be a waste of money for me. I’m sure that the Grand Hyatt or Radisson Blu in Kiev are lovely but there’s no way they are worth the asking price, even on points. Just not happening.

Expect more reports from the road over the next two weeks; I certainly plan to be writing them.

American’s new transcon A321 config announced

Posted by Seth Miller on July 23, 2012 under Flying, Internet, News, PaxEx | 18 Comments to Read

With more than 200 new narrow-body aircraft on order American Airlines had the opportunity to make a big move in terms of aircraft interior configurations and passenger experiences on board. The airline announced their move today, with plans to be at the front of the pack in many ways. Eventually.

All seats will have power – both 110V and USB – as well as in-seat IFE systems. The planes will have in-flight internet connectivity. No real surprises with those announcements; the carrier is mostly just keeping pace with this move. The real surprise comes in the announcement of a dedicated A321 fleet for transcon service, replacing the 767s currently flying those routes.

That there is a dedicated transcon fleet makes sense. United Airlines has a similar approach and Delta uses their international configured 757s on the routes. The surprise comes from the fact that American is actually going to keep a first class cabin on these planes. Even while pulling the first class seats out of most of their long-haul aircraft they’re installing it fresh in the A321s running the transcons. United is the other carrier currently offering a transcon first class product (I consider the Virgin America option to be business class for several reasons) and that is going away later this year or early next as they reconfigure to a two cabin product.

The new AA transcon first class cabin will be nice, filling the forward zone on the A321 with 10 seats in a 1-1 configuration. The 10 seats matches the number currently in service on the 762s.

The business class cabin will be smaller, with only 20 seats rather than 30, in a 2-2 configuration. These seats are pretty much the same as those United will be putting on their 757s plying the same route. It won’t be hard for American to market their offering as noting that the best United can offer is a product they consider mid-tier.

And, all the way at the back, the American A321s will have 12 rows of seats in a 3-3 layout for economy class passengers. The section will be split between Main Cabin Extra and regular economy. Half of the seats will have the extra legroom and the other half will not.

These are the Recaro Slimline seats which many other airlines have been installing. Lufthansa has two different versions, one for short-haul and another for long-haul and the experience is quite different between the two. It will be interesting to see how American equips those seats.

With only 102 seats in the new configuration versus 168 on the planes there will be a significant drop in capacity in these markets unless additional frequencies are added. This could result in prices increasing as inventory is pressured when the new aircraft are deployed.

These aircraft will be joining the fleet starting in late 2013 with deliveries continuing through 2014. As exciting as the announcement is customers will be waiting at least a year before these configurations show up in the fleet.

American committed to in-seat IFE and a 3-cabin first class product for domestic flights. They did this in the face of other carriers (and even themselves) cutting 3-cabin service on longer routes and investigating device-based streaming media rather than in-seat. Sheer brilliance or denial of industry trends? I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.

Related Posts:

• Seat map now available for American Airlines’ 777-300
• American Airlines announces updates to long-haul fleet
• A different take on the new American Airlines 777-300ER interior

Southwest, Houston help United to stop losing money

Posted by Seth Miller on July 8, 2012 under Flying, News | 7 Comments to Read

Believe it or not, this is the spin that United Airlines is trying to put on their decision to start cutting routes out of Houston in the face of Southwest‘s plans to start international flights from Hobby in 2015. United suggested that the City approving the plan would lead to direct and immediate route cuts and they’re holding to that plan, with several route cuts announced in recent weeks. Comments offered on one of the most recent announcements – the cessation of service on Houston – Paris in October – leads to some interesting conclusions.

Speaking with the Houston Chronicle about the most recently announced cuts, United spokeswoman Mary Clark indicated that the routes being cut are generally money-losing operations. By choosing to cut them now, in the face of potential competition in three years’ time, United plans to stem their losses.

Clark said United had continued to offer service to the unprofitable locations, hoping they would turn around as Bush Intercontinental grows, but was prompted to nix them after the Houston City Council’s approval of Southwest’s Hobby proposal.

As part of that deal, Southwest agreed to pay for a customs facility and five-gate expansion at Hobby so it could begin flying in 2015 to the Caribbean and Latin America.

Clark said the Paris route hadn’t been profitable for more than two years.

"With Hobby operating internationally, we don’t feel we have the same growth prospects at IAH we had in the past," she said. "So we don’t expect these flights to become profitable.

"Our most prudent path is to eliminate the unprofitable flying now rather than continue to lose money."

Apparently, had Hobby remained closed to international flights, the most prudent path would have been to continue operating the money-losing routes for two years just to see if things shifted in the market. At least that’s how I’m reading this quote. Never mind that the airline will still offer at least four daily flights to Paris on their own aircraft and that from North America they can also offer connectivity via partners Air Canada, Swiss and Lufthansa as part of the A++ anti-trust immune joint venture which allows for collusion on pricing and revenue/cost sharing on the route.

The massive route network which United now has, one of the factors it routinely cites as a key value differentiator for its customers, is impressive. It also means that it is possible for man customers to be better routed through other hubs than only via Houston. It might suck for the folks living in Houston or Paris and trying to get to the other city, but there are a lot more passengers than just the O/D crowd.The number of folks who are losing a single connect routing to Paris is surprisingly low. And the company has to consider all its customers.

Honestly, it is a shame that they’re using the Hobby decision as an excuse here. The cuts were almost certainly going to happen anyways. But now they’ve got someone to blame for the actions they were likely going to make either way.

Related Posts:

• The debate heats up over international service at Hobby
• United Airlines Playing Fast and Loose with IAH
• Houston’s Hobby Airport Will Become an International Airport
• Debunking United’s anti-Hobby Arguments
• Can Houston support two international airports?

Taking the new Lufthansa 747-8i IFE for a ride

Posted by Seth Miller on June 30, 2012 under Flying, PaxEx, Trip Reports | 2 Comments to Read

Among the many changes Lufthansa implemented in their brand new 747-8i aircraft, the in-flight entertainment system is quite nice. Certainly a significant upgrade from the 747-400s which had none for so long, and competitive with many other carriers and their systems. During my flight at the beginning of the month I put the system through a bit of a proving run; here are some of the photos.

For the economy class passengers the screens are quite large (9-10"), but not too big such that they are difficult to watch. The screen is slightly shiny so there can be reflection issues when watching it. I didn’t find this to be an enormous problem but it was definitely noticeable in certain situations. Darker views on-screen were more of an issue than others in my limited sample set.

They are touch screens for controls, meaning that you might end up with another passenger thumping the back of your seat all flight; I was fortunate that this wasn’t an issue personally and I found the screen to be reasonably sensitive so that sort of tapping shouldn’t be necessary. Doesn’t mean it won’t be. Also, the screen articulates making it reasonable to watch should the passenger in front of you recline, though that also does bring it quite close to your face. Maybe that thumping on it isn’t so bad after all.

When activated the system offers a selection of 10 different languages to run in.

And from there the selections available are reasonably broad.

It isn’t the best movie selection I’ve experienced in-flight but it is broad enough that finding something to watch shouldn’t be too much of a challenge.

The system also offers USB plugs at every seat (under the arm rest). This can be used for charging a device as well as for playback through the IFE system.

In my testing the IFE balked at my circa 2006 Sony MP3 player for playback, but it charged both that and my phone without issue.

In addition to the USB plugs there are also 110V plugs in every row. Very nice to have access to charge a laptop during the flight, though, like most similar connections, the amperage is limited which can be quite frustrating, particularly with devices which draw more power. Plus you have to share with your seat-mates if everyone wants to charge a device; there are two plugs for three or four seat sections.

For me the most entertaining part of the IFE system is often the moving map. In this area the new Lufthansa IFE is pretty much at the front of the pack. I’ve seen similar systems on other carriers as well so I know this isn’t unique to Lufthansa, but it is still one of the better systems out there. Rather than just a line on a screen the map is integrated with satellite views so you can see what it looks like on the ground from a variety of views (tail cam, above the plane, cockpit view, etc.) during the flight. The satellite data isn’t real-time but it is still pretty neat to see.

The IFE system is the same in the Business Class and First Class cabins as well, though the screen is much larger. As you can see in the picture below the screens slide out from the angled stowed position to be facing the business class passengers directly. This can not be done during taxi/takeoff/landing so that’s a minor annoyance. Also slightly annoying is that the screen doesn’t tilt forward so when in a reclined position it is more difficult to see. Definitely minor issues, but still annoying. The system is controlled through a remote device in these seats rather than touch screen. Makes sense since you’re generally sitting too far away for a touch screen to make any sense.

Overall I found the new IFE system to be quite pleasant. The usability was good and the selection was broad enough that I was sufficiently entertained. Multiple forms of power were also quite welcome, making self-supplied IFE a reasonable choice even for longer flights. Definitely a significant step up from the older versions Lufthansa used to fly.

Related Posts:

• Safety first on the Lufthansa 747-8i
• Celebrating the Inaugural 747-8i: Pre-flight
• Celebrating the Inaugural 747-8i: In flight
• Where to sit (and not to sit!) on the Lufthansa 747-8i

Quick earning rate comparison for new Star Alliance partners

Posted by Seth Miller on June 22, 2012 under frequent flyer, points | 3 Comments to Read

With Copa and Avianca/Taca now in Star Alliance the other partner carriers are busy updating their earning charts. Well, some are more busy than others. A couple carriers haven’t updated their earning charts yet, but a number of them have. And, like always, I enjoy looking at the data to see if there are any particularly strange earning rate anomalies or gaps in the programs. Looking at the rates across six different programs there are three which are missing sufficient data so it is hard to know what is going on.

Still, the trends seem to be reasonably clear. Crediting to Aegean’s Miles & Bonus or Ethiopian’s ShebaMiles program isn’t a bad deal if you’re flying in premium cabins. Also, not surprisingly, the lowest coach fares credit rather poorly in those programs. Also of note is that some programs identify Taca and Avianca as the same carrier, some include Taca Peru and LACSA and some list only one of the programs. A bit confusing, to be certain.

Full integration of the data is available in the calculators on the Wandering Aramean Travel Tools site. Some tables showing the new rates are also shared below.

Business Class Avianca/Taca

Economy Class Avianca/Taca

Business Class Copa

Economy Class Copa

Related Posts

• Star Alliance seizes Central America
• Copa inches closer to Star Alliance membership
• Date set for Copa and Avianca-Taca to join Star Alliance
• Code-sharing coming to Central American competitors
• Copa likely to join Star Alliance
• The new LATAM headed to OneWorld