Rediff business recently published an article titled – Top Airlines of India. The article goes thru and talks about the top ten Airlines based in India. My first reaction was – India has ten airlines? Trust me, I am not too way off with that question. The number ten airline they list in the article has only four aircraft. Does it deserve to be in a top ten list? Why not just stop at top five? I see this as an over zealous reporter who had to make it top …

When I read the much debated article in Time magazine on ’20 reason’s to hate airlines’ (here is my rebuttal to the article – Why I hate Time’s 20 reasons to hate airlines list), it was the first time I heard of a piano bar on the upper deck of a Boeing 747. I did not even know such a thing existed. So, I googled it and after much searching, actually got a result. I found this very cool blog post talking about the piano bar, along with multiple pictures, …

So, whether I am looking for cheap flights to Alicante (ALC) for an exotic vacation to Spain or to Charlotte, NC (CLT) for a day trip for work, my first preference is to fly on United and if they do not fly there (like to Alicante), pick another Star Alliance carrier (Spanair flies to ALC) or if no Star Alliance carrier goes there, pick another United partner. … Have one Primary airline, which is a part of a Global Airline If I had to pay a nominal fee or tax to consolidate accounts, I would do it (or pray for a merger.

While Lufthansa flies Airbus aircraft too – they just received their first A380 – they have just completed 50 years of flying Boeing aircraft. … Also to celebrate the occasion, Lufthansa has introduced new livery on one of its Boeing 747 aircraft.

I have discussed the idea of having one primary airline you credit all your miles on in several previous articles. I have also discussed the importance of Airline Alliances and why the airline you choose should be a part of one of the three Global Alliances. As you go about picking your primary Airline and hence, primary alliance, one very important factor that needs to to be taken into consideration is that of hubs. Hubs form, there is no better way to put it, the hub of an Airline and …

Most airline use a Hub and Spoke model for their routes. What that means is that airlines have certain cities that are their hubs or home bases. All their routes have a hub city as at least one of the ends of any route they operate. So, no matter what city pair you pick, you will have a hub city in your routing, either as one or both of the ends of your journey or as a stopover. So, for example, if you live in Raleigh, NC (RDU) and are …

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to fly in a United 767-300, International Configuration. It was a short domestic flight, but it was serviced by a 3-class International Configuration aircraft. The final destination after the domestic hop, I understand, was Zurich. I have travelled in large United twin-aisle planes domestically before. But they have always been 777s, with the old configuration or domestic 2-class 767s. This was a first for me. Another first for me was sitting in a rear facing seat. I have been in International Business class …

In Part 1 of this article on Code Shares, I went into the value of code shared flights to airlines and to you the customer of the airlines. In this part I will go into the issues code-sharing brings and how code shared flights can potentially complicate travel for you, especially for a novice.
Here are the major areas of challenges:
Whose Flight is it anyway?
This is the commonest problem that comes to bear with code shared flights. As I described in part 1 of this article, code shared flights are tickets …

Understanding Code Shared flights
A few years ago I saw the movie the ‘DaVinci Code’. I just did not get it. I found it extremely confusing and complex with interpretations of artwork that was about stories in the bible that in turn, I am not very familiar with. Code shared flights are a bit like that. They are flights sold by an airline that it does not operate. So, a flight number of a code shared flight number actually refers to another flight operated by another carrier, which has a real …

The evolving Airline Alliances and Partnerships:
Airline Alliances have been a critical element in the evolution of collaboration between airlines to provide travel and elite benefits to their passengers. When United, Air Canada, Lufthansa, SAS and Thai got together back in 1997 to form Star Alliance, it changed the whole industry. From a passengers perspective, you can now travel to multiple destinations, traveling a route not serviced by a single airline, but by connecting flights from two or more airlines in the alliance. From a mileage earning perspective you can earn …