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Friday, May 29, 2009

Frequent flyer mileage credit

Success! I've been chasing up one particular frequent flyer program (FFP) about some missing mileage credits and other flights which posted incorrectly (too few miles posted) for a long time. Some flights were more than a year ago. These have finally been credited and adjusted.

The miles for some other flights being credited to other frequent flyer programs (different flights) have also been posted in a flurry of activity in the past week.

It seems odd that after so long chasing up 4 different programs my FFP accounts are finally all up to date. Lucky I didn't need those miles to requalify for status or to use on awards/upgrades.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

50th how to get to destination

A couple of weeks ago I offered readers some goodies to the person who helps me to pick the 50th "how to get to" destination. Thank you to all who have responded. There are lots of interesting countries and places from all over the globe. I'll endeavour to include them all in the series in coming weeks.

While I've narrowed it down to several entries I haven't yet picked a winner. I'll do this while in Singapore over the next few days - expect the winning post next week. Good luck.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Swine flu update #4

I previously blogged on the impacts of swine flu on travel, what to do about the potential impacts and how savvy travellers can benefit.

This is an update on how the potential impacts are developing. A reminder that for medical advice or up to the minute information on the spread of swine flu, check out the World Health Organization (WHO) website. Note they have now taken to calling it H1N1 Influenza A instead of swine flu.

Current swine flu status

Transmission rates and death rates are lower than normal seasonal influenza levels. Further there are only 3 countries with a material number of confirmed cases (none of which are high relative to normal flu numbers). WHO continues to treat H1N1 Influenza A seriously, noting that the 1918 "Spanish flu had a lull during Northern Hemisphere summer before the full outbreak.

Current impacts on travel

Some countries are still taking a strong precautionary stance for visitors arriving with flu symptoms. Cruise passengers have had disembarkation delayed by several hours in Australia and Barbados, amongst other places, due to as little as one unwell passenger onboard.

Outlook

I'm continuing to keep an eye on bargains and where practical ensuring my travel plans can cater for a modest delay entering or leaving a country. It is, however, difficult to allow for a potential enforced quarantine if someone else on your flight or ship or in your hotel is confirmed to have H1N1 swine flu - especially as the length varies by country from a few days to a week or more. Insurance coverage continues to be important.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

How to get to | South Africa

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 email me link at top right, or leave a comment.

South Africa

Source: Henry Trotter

South Africa has lots of land border crossings with neighbouring countries with several bus and taxi services.

Many airlines fly to South Africa (to Johannesburg only or Johannesburg and other mentioned airports), including:
  • Star Alliance - EgyptAir, Lufthansa (Capetown), Singapore (Capetown), South African, Swiss, TAP, Turkish (Capetown)
  • Oneworld - British Airways (mainline to Johannesburg and Capetown and subsidiary Comair to several airports), Cathay Pacific, Iberia, Qantas
  • Sky Team - Air France Delta (Capetown), Kenya, KLM (Capetown)
  • Other selected - most southern African airlines (to several airports), some northern African airlines, some European low cost carriers (mostly to Johannesburg and some to Capetown), Emirates (Capetown and Durban), Malaysia (Capetown), Virgin Atlantic (Capetown)

TIP longhaul flights to/from South Africa are limited with generally more demand than supply, thus fares can be high (especially in business and first class). Awards and discounted fares (such as on around the world tickets) are hard to come by other than in economy. Book as far in advance as possible.

TIP longhaul fares from South Africa are significantly cheaper than from western countries.

TIP South Africa has some of the few Southern Hemisphere intercontinental flight options - both South African Airways and Malaysia Airlines fly between South Africa and South America, and both South African Airways and Qantas fly between South Africa and Australia.

TIP South Africa is a good base or hub to visit other southern African countries with plenty of flight options and generally low fares.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

International airport transits

I was reminded in my recent travels how different the airport transit experiences can be. At some airports transits are quick and simple. Singapore springs to mind for international to international transits and Melbourne Australia for international to domestic or domestic to international transfers.

The reasons these airports are good for transit passengers include having a single building for the terminal(s), good signposting, short distances to walk (and trains and escalators for the longer distances), quick immigration processes where required and none for international to international connections.

Other airports have much more difficult or slow transits. London Heathrow and Los Angeles are notorious amongst regular travellers for example. Less well known but almost as bad are Perth, Brisbane and Sydney.

London Heathrow is horrible for the long distances required, confusing layout and extensive queueing required at peak hours.

Los Angeles is horrible and slow for most international to international and international to domestic transits. The reasons it is unpleasant and US immigration process (even for international to international connections) and lengthy security queues. For some transfers there is also a change of terminals with a moderate walk. As flights from Canada to USA have US immigration processing in the Canadian airport, transits after these flights are not as bad.

Perth, Brisbane and Sydney are horrible for international to domestic and domestic to international transits because the terminals are separated and require a bus or train to travel between them. The terminal transfers have frequencies as low as every 30 minutes and limited hours - otherwise you need to use an expensive taxi. Depending on airline(s) flown, the terminal transfer may not be free either.

The airport setup is the difference between 20 minutes being a reasonable connection time and needing to allow 3 hours for transit. Some airport and airline websites have information on how to make transfers and how much time should be allowed. Otherwise the experience of fellow travellers (eg the Flyer Talk discussion on transits) is invaluable for travel planning.

Friday, May 22, 2009

How to get to | Saudi Arabia

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 email me link at top right, or leave a comment.
Saudi Arabia
Source : Baptiste Marcel

Source: Ali Mansuri


Saudi Arabia can be reached by ferry across the Red Sea, by land across most borders, or by air. Due to the great distances involved, bus travel to/from Riyadh or Jeddah and all neighbouring countries is long and slow. The trip between Dammam and Kuwait, Doha, Qatar or United Arab Emirates is comparatively much shorter. Visitors with evidence of having visited Israel are denied entry. There are no roads across the border with Oman (but travel via United Arab Emirates is fine), and the road across the Iraq border may or may not be open.

Most visitors arrive by air. Airlines serving Saudi Arabia (Riyadh except where noted) include:

  • Star Alliance - Austrian (Riyadh and Jeddah), bmi (Riyadh Dammam and Jeddah), EgyptAir (Riyadh Dammam and Jeddah), Lufthansa (Riyadh Dammam and Jeddah), Singapore (Riyadh and Jeddah), Swiss (Riyadh and Jeddah), Turkish (Riyadh and Jeddah)
  • Oneworld - British Airways (resumes soon to Riyadh and Jeddah), Cathay Pacific, Royal Jordanian (Riyadh Dammam and Jeddah)
  • Sky Team - Aeroflot (Jeddah only), Air France (Riyadh and Jeddah)
  • Other selected - all Middle Eastern and Gulf-based airlines, major airlines based in the Indian subcontinent plus Indonesia and other countries with a large Muslim population

Several European (and some Asian) airlines operate flights through Saudi Arabia to other Middle Eastern airports. These are called tag flights and are often very cheap elsewhere in the world. However, none of these flights involving Saudi Arabia have traffic rights - meaning you cannot just take the short regional part of the flight by itself.

TIP there are lots of charter flights (to Jeddah) during Hajj - these are operated by a wide array of airlines although only sold through the marketing airlines.

TIP longhaul flights to Saudi Arabia can be not much more than the fare to one of the major Middle East hubs (eg Dubai for Emirates). The extra short flight to Saudi Arabia costs much less than being purchased separately.

TIP fares in first and business class tend to be high and often sell out. Book using awards or around the world tickets well in advance of the travel date. Star Alliance has easily the most options of the 3 main alliances.

TIP Saudi Arabia can easily and usefully be included on a Star Alliance around the world. On Oneworld Explorer fare Saudi Arabia (and the rest of Middle East) are treated as part of Europe, with an additional limit of 2 "long" flights between UK and this region. British Airway's imminent resumption of flights to Saudi Arabia will provide an alternative to the Royal Jordanian connection.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

How to get to | Indonesia

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 email me link at top right, or leave a comment.



See also How to get to Bali.



Indonesia

Source: Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles


Most visitors to Indonesia arrive by air at Jakarta or Denpasar. For Denpasar (Bali) refer to the How to get to Bali post. Airlines flying to Jakarta include:
  • Star Alliance - Air China, Lufthansa, Singapore, Thai
  • Oneworld - Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Qantas
  • Sky Team - China Southern, KLM, Korean
  • Other selected - Emirates, most major Asian airlines including low cost carriers
TIP fares between Jakarta and other Asian hubs are relatively high on major carriers due to limits on the number of flights allowed to be offered. Look for airlines flying tag legs (eg Lufthansa from Singapore and KLM from Kuala Lumpur) and low cost airlines for the cheapest fares, or include as part of a longhaul ticket (see below).

TIP longhaul fares to Jakarta are usually priced the same or marginally more than fares to other southeast asian hubs (Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore). Similarly for awards - Jakarta normally has the same mileage cost as the nearby hub.

TIP longhaul fares from Jakarta are quite a lot lower than from the nearby hubs, except for Singapore Airlines. The fare saving from Jakarta compared with from a nearby hub is usually enough to offset the cost of a separate ticket to Jakarta.

NOTE the EU has a warning on travel on Indonesian airlines due to safety concerns and currently bans these airlines from flying to EU.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

How to get to | Easter Island

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 email me link at top right, or leave a comment.

Easter Island (Rapa Nui aka Isla de Pascua)
Source: Ian Sewell

Until the port facilities are expanded, cruise ship visits are few and far between. Almost all visitors to Rapa Nui arrive by air on LAN (from Santiago or Papeete). No other airlines fly to Easter Island.
TIP With the lack of competition, air fares are very high. Book early to get an Oneworld award ticket or include Easter Island on an Oneworld around the world fare. On some programs Easter Island is treated as part of South America - in these programs an award from North or South America to Easter Island is a bargain.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Flyer Tip #4 - availability tools

This is part of a series of blog posts on tips for flyers.

Why might this post be useful to you?

Availability tools are sites which anyone can use to check booking class availability. Previous related posts in this series explained how airlines try to maximise their revenue and how booking classes control availability of air fares. This post builds on that information by showing where you can look up booking class availability. With this knowledge and the availability tools you can find ways to use cheap fares (if you know the fare rules), look for potentially full flights as well as ones where there is a chance of an upgrade.

Availability tools

There are a few places where travellers can search availability by booking class on specific flights or routes on a specific date. In this post I'll discuss the three main ones of use to most passengers.

Seatcounter

www.seatcounter.com is a free online based booking class lookup tool. You can do up to half a dozen searches a day, with each search being for a specific route on a specific day and time of day (eg after midnight, early morning, late morning, afternoon, evening, late night). You can optionally specify up to 3 airlines or get all results.

The result is a listing of paid booking classes for each flight in alphabetical order. Award booking classes are generally not displayed. You need fairly detailed knowledge of what each booking class represents for the particular airline in order to be able to interpret.

Routes for which no simple connecting flights exist return no results.

KVS

www.kvstool.com is a subscription based software which includes several booking class lookup tools (amongst other functions). A download is required to use the tools through the site.

KVS is good for expert users as it provides different lookup tools which utilise the various different Computer Reservation Systems (CRS) used by airlines. As discussed previously, airlines use different CRS. Using the appropriate lookup tool for the native CRS of the specific airline you wish to fly will provide more accurate (up to date) and complete results than using one of the other CRSes. The site and FAQ provides guidance on which of the several lookup tools to use for many major airlines.

Thus, KVS is able to return information on some award and upgrade booking classes, as well as all paid booking classes. Results are sorted from highest cabin to lowest and from the most flexible booking class to least flexible within a class of travel. This form of display is intuitive to interpret for most people.

For expert users the ability to compare availability results using different tools can be interesting.

Expert Flyer

www.expertflyer.com is also a subscription service that includes booking class lookup and other tools but it does not require a download to use.

Expert Flyer returns similar results to KVS.

Interpreting availability results

This is the topic for another flyer tip, but here is a sneak preview.

Example results

J0 C0 D0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 O9

J, C and D are booking classes for business class on this particular airline. Being zeroed out means they have no seats available for sale at any fare (even the outrageously high full fares). The other booking classes are economy and all show at least 9 seats available for sale. The airline is welling to sell any of its fares (subject to fare rules eg advance purchase) as the flight is not too full.

However, in this case the results above are for a codeshare. The operating airline of the same flight has these results

J4 D4 I4 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V4 S9 N4 Q9 O4

(In seatcounter this would appear as B9 D4 H9 I4 J4 K9 L9 M9 N4 O4 Q9 S9 V4 Y9 - harder to interpret.)

J, D and I are booking classes for business class used by the operating airline. I4 means they are willing to sell even their cheapest business class fare. At some stage before departure the operating airline and codeshare airline may decide to rebalance availability by giving some more seats to the codeshare airline to boost revenues. For example the operating airline could change their business class availability to J4 D3 I0 and the codeshare airline to J2 C0 D0 - any extra business class seats sold would then be at high fares not heavily discounted.

The operating airline is also willing to sell even their cheapest fares in economy. There is no chance of an operational upgrade (economy is not oversold) or a bump on this flight (the flight is not full). Someone submitting a mileage upgrade has some chance of success (business class isn't too full).

Note, the willingness to sell cheapest fares in economy by both codeshare and operating airline does not mean the flight is empty. It could be that date of the flight is imminent and neither airline expects to sell higher fares, or it could be that the ability to buy cheap fares is constrained by advance purchase and other fare requirements meaning booking class O (for example) can't now be bought in practice for this flight.

Readers familiar with booking classes, and the eagle-eyed, may have noticed the booking classes used by the codeshare and operating airlines differ slightly. This is why the ranked order listing is so useful as it reduces the need for detailed knowledge of booking classes for every airline (as long as you know the main ones such as Y for full fare economy class).

Wrap Up

This post has covered 3 booking class availability tools and given a simple example to interpret. Later posts in the Flyer Tips series will show more how to interpret the results in order to save money. There is a lot more information on Flyer Talk, but this info is not easy to find.

Monday, May 18, 2009

How to get to | Barbados

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 email me link at top right, or leave a comment.




Barbados

Source: Wikimedia


Barbados is easy to reach by cruise ship or by air. Several airlines fly to Barbados including:
  • Star Alliance - Air Canada (from Montreal & Toronto), US Airways (from Charlotte and Philadelphia)
  • Oneworld - American (from Miami, New York and San Juan), British Airways (from London)
  • Sky Team - Delta (from Atlanta)
  • Other selected - Virgin Atlantic, most Caribbean airlines (eg LIAT, SVG Air, etc), some low cost airlines from North America and Europe

TIP On the Caribbean airlines the cheapest fares tend to be only available booking directly (on website if airline has one).

TIP Barbados is a useful stop on a Oneworld RTW or award ticket. The prohibition on mileage earning and redemption for American AAdvantage on British Airways trans-Atlantic flights and BA Executive Club on American trans-Atlantic flights does not apply for flights via the Caribbean.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Giveaway for 50th "How to get to" country or place

The series of tips on "how to get to" countries and places will soon reach 50 destinations.

To commemorate I will give away some goodies I have collected on my travels. To enter comment on this post and request a country or place for me to make as the 50th destination. The one I choose will get the goodies, so please make your request stand out. You can see which countries and places I have already given how to get to tips at the how to get to index.

2 flights cancelled and 1 paper ticket

Flights Cancelled

Why oh why do airlines cancel flights and not tell their customers? The other day I found out that 2 of my flights for next week were cancelled months ago. I found out only by checking my bookings on the internet, something I routinely do a couple of weeks before departure.

I don't think it is too much to expect an email notification that a booked flight has been cancelled. Such a simple measure can save a lot of grief for both passenger and airline.

In this case, had I failed to check, I would have flown the first flight of the day with Qantas only to be stuck in the Australian outback, at an airport with only a couple of flights a day and miles from anywhere, with no onward flight to take.

Qantas isn't the only airline that doesn't do a good job of notifying customers of flight cancellations - for example I've previously blogged about a non-notified Lufthansa flight cancellation. Yet other airlines manage to inform customers of flight changes. Just yesterday I got a phone call from Singapore Airlines saying a flight had been retimed by 15 minutes. The minor retiming had no effect on me (no need to change flights) and yet they made sure I was aware of it.

Check Your Bookings

I consider myself fortunate that I managed to avoid a nasty mistake, although it did take some work to get an alternative routing. There simply aren't many flight options in the outback, let alone at relatively short notice.

Lesson learned : Regularly check flight bookings for changes and cancellations. Don't leave it to the last minute - more on this below.

I blogged a few years ago about how to check for changing schedules. I think it is worth repeating and updating here.

1) Check if the airline you are flying with has a "Manage Your Bookings" functionality on their website. You may need to open each booking and scan for changes as they may not be obvious. Nowadays most major airlines have this functionality.

2) As above but using the website of the airline whose frequent flyer program you have associated with the booking. Some airlines have this functionality (eg Qantas) while others do not (eg Air New Zealand).

3) Look up individual bookings using one of the websites that link to the CRS (Computer Reservations System), aka GDS (Global Distribution System) of the relevant airline or online travel agent below:

  • Amadeus CheckMyTrip - Air France, Iberia, KLM, Lufthansa, SAS, Continental, America West, British Airways, Qantas, South African Airways, Opodo, Expedia
  • Apollo (aka Galileo) ViewTrip - United, Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Alitalia, TAP Portugal, CheapTickets
  • Sabre VirtuallyThere - American Airlines, All Nippon Airways (ANA), Cathay Pacific Airways, China Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Dragonair, EVA Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Malaysia Airlines, Pakistan International Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Royal Brunei Airlines, Silkair, US Airways, American Trans Air (ATA), Midwest Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Air Malta, Frontier Airlines, Aeroflot, Expedia, Travelocity
  • Worldspan MyTripAndMore - Delta, Northwest, (Expedia), (Orbitz), (Hotwire), (Priceline), Swiss
  • Other - some airlines (such as Air New Zealand) have their own systems, use the airline website to look up bookings.
4) Check the schedules of the airline you are flying with. While this will find cancelled flights it will not necessarily identify changes made to your bookings (eg if a flight has been retimed your next/previous flights may have been rebooked due to minimum connection times, or if the airline has bumped you to a different flight due to overbooking).

Paper ticket!

A year ago IATA, the airline association, had a big push for 100% e-ticketing. All sorts of changes were imposed on customers in pursuing this aim, some good and some bad.

I've commented on this blog and elsewhere about some of these negative impacts. One is the restriction to 16 "coupons" per ticket, which resulted in a significant devaluation of some alliance fares (which previously allowed 20 or 24 or more flights per ticket and the price of which was not adjusted to compensate). Another is the problems created when airline computer systems fail to talk with each other - the passenger can be left stranded at check in if the computer says ticketing wasn't completed. I've had this happen a couple of times lately.

Last week I got yet another paper ticket. Yes 100% e-ticketing is not yet reality.

Apparently the airport ticket counter can only handle electronic tickets these days and instead of my past practice of arriving at the airport early for the flight to get the ticket issued I had to arrange for their ticketing office to issue it and mail it out to me. This took about a week, and I was fortunate I was home to pick up the ticket before the trip. If I'd have left it closer to the departure date to organise, or had other travel immediately prior to this trip, then I would have been stuck.

In my case the push for e-ticketing has resulted in more cost and less convenience.

How to get to | Poland

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 email me link at top right, or leave a comment.

Poland

Source: Marcin Bialek

There are many ways to easily get to Poland - train, bus, car, Baltic ferry, or by air. Overland distances can be large with correspondingly long travel times. Several airlines fly to Poland (mostly Warsaw and Krakow), including:

  • Star Alliance - Adria, Austrian, LOT, Lufthansa, SAS, Swiss, TAP, Turkish
  • Oneworld - British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Malev
  • Sky Team - Aeroflot, Air France, Alitalia, Czech, KLM
  • Other selected - some European low cost carriers

TIP Poland is good to include on alliance around the world tickets. On Star Alliance the LOT hub provides useful access to Eastern European destinations. On Sky Team and Oneworld, some connections to/from Asia without (much) back-tracking are available through Aeroflot and Finnair respectively.

TIP Longhaul fares from Poland can be relatively cheap compared with from some other Western European countries.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

How to get to | Belgium

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 email me link at top right, or leave a comment.

Belgium

Source: Marie-Claire Lefebure

Belgium is easily reached by train, bus or car. There are also a few ferry services. Many airlines fly to Brussels including:

  • Star Alliance - Adria, Austrian, bmi, Continental, Croatia, EgyptAir, LOT, Lufthansa, Swiss, SAS, TAP, Turkish, United, US Airways
  • Oneworld - American, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Malev, Royal Jordanian
  • Sky Team - Aeroflot, Air France, Alitalia, Czech, Delta, KLM
  • Other selected - most major European and northern African airlines, most European and northern African low cost airlines (note some fly to Charleroi airport instead of Brussels), Jet Airways (Brussels is a hub for India to North America flights)

TIP Longhaul fares to or from Belgium are not particularly cheap, except for trans-Atlantic.

TIP Intra-europe air fares to & from Belgium are generally low on routes served by low cost airlines and otherwise high. If cheap fares for Brussels have sold out check out nearby airports as well - eg Luxembourg, Amsterdam, Dusseldorf.

UPDATED November 2009 - Continental switch from Sky Team to Star Alliance. No change to advice.

Monday, May 11, 2009

How to get to | Morocco

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 email me link at top right, or leave a comment.



Morocco

Source: Jerzy Strzelecki

Visitors to Morocco arrive mainly by ferry from Gibraltar and Algeciras to Tangier, or by air. Land border crossings are limited to Mauritania - the border with Algeria is closed. There are lots of airlines flying to Morocco (to Casablanca unless otherwise stated) - including:

  • Star Alliance - EgyptAir, Lufthansa, Swiss, TAP, Turkish
  • Oneworld - Iberia (also to Marrakech and Tangier)
  • Sky Team - Air France, Alitalia
  • Other selected - Emirates, most European low cost airlines (mostly to Agadir and Marrakech)

There are no longhaul flights to or from Morocco.

TIP On some fares/air passes/around the world fares Morocco is treated as being part of Europe, which may reduce costs.

TIP There are lots of low cost airlines flying to Morocco from within Europe (mainly UK, France, Spain and Germany).

TIP If fares to Morocco are too high, check out flights to southern Spain (eg Malaga), from which it is an easy bus and ferry ride to Morocco. The are many low cost airlines flying to Southern Spain from elsewhere in Europe.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Swine flu travel update #3

I previously blogged on the impacts of swine flu on travel, what to do about the potential impacts and how savvy travellers can benefit.

This is an update on how the potential impacts are developing. A reminder that for medical advice or up to the minute information on the spread of swine flu, check out the World Health Organization (WHO) website. Note they have now taken to calling it H1N1 Influenza A instead of swine flu.

Current swine flu status

Transmission rates and death rates continue to fall and are now at or lower than normal seasonal influenza levels. WHO continues to treat H1N1 Influenza A seriously, noting that the 1918 "Spanish flu had a lull during Northern Hemisphere summer before the full outbreak.

Current impacts on travel

Almost 300 people who had been quarantined for a week in a Hong Kong hotel when a guest was confirmed to have swine flu have now been released. There are reports that currently China is not issuing visas for Americans and Mexicans. Those who already have China entry visas are allowed to visit, albeit with some checks on arrival.

Outlook

The apparently strong reaction from Chinese authorities would make me reconsider travel there, if I had any coming up. There is a small risk of significant inconvenience if caught up in a group that is quarantined even if you have no symptoms yourself.

Friday, May 08, 2009

How to get to | Pakistan

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 email me link at top right, or leave a comment.

Pakistan

Source: Kaiser Tufail

Travel across land borders to Pakistan is not currently recommended, except at Waghar near Lahore with India (there is a bus and train between Lahore and Delhi), and Quetta with Iran (there is a bus). Should the security situation change then the mountain passes to China and Afghanistan will make spectacular transport corridors. Airlines flying to Pakistan change depending on the political climate and security concerns. At time of writing airlines flying to Karachi and Lahore include:
  • Star Alliance - Air China (Karachi only), Singapore, Thai (also Islamabad), Turkish
  • Oneworld - Cathay Pacific (Karachi only)
  • Sky Team - none
  • Other selected - Pakistan International Airlines, all major (Persian) Gulf based airlines (also to Islamabad)

TIP Fares from Pakistan are generally much cheaper than to Pakistan, especially in business class.

TIP With limited airline options, round trip fares can be very high. Including Pakistan on an Around the world tickets on Star Alliance or Oneworld is good value.

TIP For some frequent flyer programs that have zone-based awards, awards are great value.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

How to get to | Philippines

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 email me link at top right, or leave a comment.

Philippines

Source: Ramir Borja

While there are some ferries to Borneo (both Malaysia and Indonesia), almost all visitors arrive by air (and mostly at Manila). Airlines flying to Philippines (all to Manila except as noted) include:
  • Star Alliance - Asiana (also to Cebu), Continental (from Guam), Singapore, Thai (from Bangkok and Osaka)
  • Oneworld - Cathay Pacific (also to Cebu), Dragonair, Japan Airlines, Qantas
  • Sky Team - China Southern, Delta (from US mainland and Hawaii as well as Japan), KLM, Korean (also to Cebu)
  • Other selected - Philippine Airlines, most (Persian) Gulf based airlines, most main east Asian airlines

TIP There are limited options on low cost airlines to Philippines. The routes with most competition are Hong Kong, Tokyo and Honolulu to Manila.

TIP Longhaul fares (or frequent flyer awards) to Philippines are generally about the same or a little more than the fare (or award mileage level) to the main Asian hubs, thus provide good value compared with intra-Asia fares.

TIP Asia air passes on the alliances are good options for those who are eligible, with all alliances having a range of airline options between Manila and Asian hubs.

UPDATED November 2009 - Continental switch from Sky Team to Star Alliance. No change to advice.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Swine flu travel update #2

I previously blogged on the impacts of swine flu on travel, what to do about the potential impacts and how savvy travellers can benefit.

This is an update on how the potential impacts are developing. A reminder that for medical advice or up to the minute information on the spread of swine flu, check out the World Health Organization (WHO) website. Note they have now taken to calling it H1N1 Influenza A instead of swine flu.

Current swine flu status

Fears of an imminent pandemic are receding as the Northern Hemisphere flu season is coming to an end. WHO continues to treat H1N1 Influenza A seriously, noting that the 1918 "Spanish flu had a lull during Northern Hemisphere summer before the full outbreak.

Current impacts on travel

To date a few thousand airline passengers have been subject to quarantine for a few days in various countries. With the exception of Hong Kong only people exhibiting flu symptoms with travel from an affected area are being compulsorily quarantined by authorities. Hong Kong has also quarantined all guests of a hotel where someone who has been confirmed as having swine flu was staying. This seems to be a reaction to SARS when the outbreak in Canada in particular was traced back to people staying in the same Hong Kong hotel as another infected person.

Flights to Mexico have been reduced. Most airlines flying to Mexico (and some flying to USA, Canada and New Zealand) have been allowing some changes to dates of travel or waiving cancellation fees. Check with your airline on the terms if you wish to take advantage of this. Similarly some Mexican hotels are allowing rebooking or cancellation waivers.

There have not yet been many sales for Mexico air fares and accommodation.

Outlook

Now that the perceived risk of travel to Mexico has fallen, I expect we'll see some good sales soon. Airlines and hotels will want to recoup losses from the past several weeks, and replace their reduced forward bookings.

Monday, May 04, 2009

How to get to | New Zealand

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 email me link at top right, or leave a comment.




New Zealand

Source: Wikimedia Commons


As an island nation, New Zealand can be reached by cruise ship (mostly Australia and nearby South Pacific islands) or by air. Almost all visitors arrive by air. The options to fly to New Zealand (mostly to Auckland) include:
  • Star Alliance - Air New Zealand, Singapore (to Auckland and Christchurch), Thai
  • Oneworld - Cathay Pacific, LAN (from Sydney and Santiago), Qantas (from Australia and Los Angeles)
  • Skyteam - Korean
  • Other selected - Aerolineas Argentinas (from Sydney and Buenos Aires), Emirates (to Auckland and Christchurch from Dubai via Australia), Royal Brunei (from Bandar Seri Begawan via Brisbane), and most South Pacific Airlines

There are no low-cost carriers on longhaul routes to New Zealand, thus there is a greater need to take advantage of sales, low-season fares or other cheap fares.

TIP around the world fares on Oneworld or Star Alliance can be very cost-effective for the longhaul flights to and from New Zealand and Trans-Tasman travel.

TIP fares on the main Trans-Tasman routes (Auckland to Brisbane/Gold Coast, Sydney or Melbourne and Christchurch to Sydney) are highly competitive. There are a suprising number of airlines operating - for example Auckland to Sydney has 7 airlines, Auckland to Brisbane/Gold Coast 6, Auckland to Melbourne 4 and Christchurch to Sydney 4. From some travellers it may be cheaper to fly to Australia and on to New Zealand on a separate ticket (or vice versa as fares from New Zealand tend to be cheaper than from Australia).

TIP fares to/from Asia and Europe are cheaper than from North America due to more competition through Asia compared with trans-Pacific.

TIP book awards as early as possible, especially to/from North or South America. These seats often go within a few days of being released.

TIP New Zealand is a good jumping off point for travel to Australia and many South Pacific islands. Flights are short, reasonably frequent and relatively inexpensive.

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Oneworld RTW Changes

Effective 1 May Oneworld has increased some around the world fares, in some cases significantly. Premium economy surcharges have also been increased.

In a more positive move, Libya can now be usefully included on the Oneworld Explorer fare (xONEx) as they treat it in the Europe (previously Africa), which is consistent with other North African countries. This is sensible because Libya has a lack of Oneworld flights from any other continent (including Africa) - see my how to get to Libya post.

Link to new xONEx fare rules.

Flyer Tip

I appreciate it has been a while since my last blog post in the Flyer Tip series (on booking classes). These posts take me much longer to prepare than my other blog entries.

It will be a little longer before my next one on availability tools, but it should be worth the wait. This particular topic is probably the single most useful one I have learned for saving on air fares.

Friday, May 01, 2009

How to get to | El Salvador

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 email me link at top right, or leave a comment.

El Salvador

Source: Sergio Solar

There are two ways to get to El Salvador - by bus or by air. International buses operate between El Salvador and all the neighbouring countries, while local buses operate up to the borders (on both the El Salvador and other side) allowing foot passage across. The options for flying to El Salvador (all to San Salvador) include:
  • Star Alliance - Continental
  • Oneworld - American
  • Skyteam - Delta
  • Other selected - TACA

TIP - some fares to San Salvador are common-rated with other Central American destinations. This means if there is a cheap fare advertised to say San Jose (Costa Rica) or Managua (Nicaragua) there may also be cheap fares to San Salvador.

TIP - the market is fairly competitive from many major US cities. When TACA has a sale other airlines typically match.

UPDATED November 2009 - Continental switch from Sky Team to Star Alliance. No change to advice.

Finding the Good Seats and Avoiding Bad Seats has Just Got Easier

Most people who fly frequently agree that getting the seat right is of high importance, and an important part of that is knowing what are the good seats and which ones to avoid. Seat requests or pre-selection can then be made to make the most of what is available.

When I fly on airlines for the first time, or on new configurations, and use sites such as SeatExpert or SeatGuru for assistance. These sites have diagrams of the seating configuration with coding to show the good and bad seats. Eg the diagram below is from SeatExpert for the Emirates A380.
There is nothing worse than boarding a longhaul flight to find your seat doesn't recline, or has much less legroom than the other seats. Recently SeatExpert has made the job easier with a new search function.

Before you had to know your airline and aircraft type to look at the graphic showing which seats were good and which were bad. Now you enter the airline, flight number and date of the flight, and the site finds out which aircraft type will be used for you.

It is even clever enough to deal with airlines that have multiple configurations of the same aircraft type by bringing them all back so you can view any one of them and flip back and forth to compare. For example Qantas has 2 different configurations of 767 and the search brings back both configurations if the flight is operated by 767.

If the search is unable to locate the aircraft type (sometimes airlines do not supply this information) a page with links to all the airlines and aircraft in the database is shown for manual selection.

It handles multi-segment flights okay by asking you to select which leg you are flying. Unfortunately if you are flying more than one of the legs you have to repeat the search for each leg. Perhaps an option could be added to show all the legs?

The search isn't yet foolproof. It doesn't appear to work on codeshares - you need to enter the operating airline and the operating airline's flight number.

The seat diagrams are not perfect - many airlines are missing and some configurations are missing or out of date (eg Air New Zealand's space+ seating on A320 and 767-300 aircraft are not shown). However, the new search function does make SeatExpert accessible to many more people and thus is a good thing in my view.