How to get to | Greenland

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.




Greenland

Source: Hannes Grobe

A few cruise ships visit Greenland each summer. Otherwise (except for Arctic expeditions) the only way to arrive at Greenland is by air. Airline options are few with the only international flights being from Copenhagen and Reykjavik, and include:

• Star Alliance - none
• Oneworld - none
• Sky Team - none
• Other selected - Air Greenland year around, and Air Iceland (subsidiary of Icelandair) in summer

TIP Fares are pricey, and with limited seats many summer flights sell out. Book as far ahead as possible. Don't do what I did and wait until arriving in Iceland to attempt to book flights.

TIP With infrequent service and frequent weather disruptions ensure your schedule has a buffer of several days.

TIP It may* be possible to use Icelandair Saga miles on the seasonal summer Air Iceland flights. *unconfirmed

TIP With the possible exception of the above, there are no ways to redeem miles for flights to Greenland, nor to include Greenland on an alliance fare (or indeed any longhaul fare). Air Greenland used to participate in the SAS Eurobonus frequent flyer program (in respect of flights between Copenhagen and Greenland only).

How to get to | Liechtenstein

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.

Liechtenstein

Source: Carl Rogers

Liechtenstein can easily be reached by road or rail from neighbouring Austria and Switzerland, or by bus from Switzerland. There is no airport in the country but Zurich is only about 40 miles (60 km) away.

TIP Driving is the easiest way to visit Liechtenstein.

How to get to | Algeria

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.

Algeria

Source: Damien Boilley

Most of the land borders other than with Tunisia are closed. There are some ferries between Marseilles and Alicante and Algiers and Oran. Airlines flying to Algieria include:

• Star Alliance - EgyptAir, Lufthansa, Spanair, TAP, Turkish
• Oneworld - British Airways, Iberia
• Sky Team - Air France, Alitalia
• Other selected - Air Algerie, some North African airlines

TIP Some longhaul fares in business and first class are relatively cheap from Algeria (compared with from Western Europe).

TIP On a Oneworld around the world fare, Algeria is treated as part of Europe.

Online around the world booking

A few days ago I decided to buy one more Oneworld around the world ticket to take advantage of their 10th anniversary 10% off sale which ended 3 November.

This time I booked it using the online tool, as I have booked others before (on both Star Alliance and Oneworld). Normally the booking is ticketed very quickly (within hours) as most of the validation of the complex rules is done automatically by the tool. It has been a few days since I made the booking and there is no sign of an eticket yet.

This is the downside of using online tools - less customer support than booking with a travel agent (who can hurry the ticketing airline along).

Mega party

As I write this I'm already on my way to the biggest Flyer Talk party of the year, and by the time this entry posts I'll be miles closer to joining the fun. All FT dos are fun, but this one looks to be especially good.

I'm talking about the Star Mega Do - 7 Partners, 6 Airports, 5 Flights, 4 Days, 3 Aircraft, 2 Continents, 1 Alliance, and over 200 excited frequent flyers (as far as I know George Clooney isn't one of them). Unfortunately due to my schedule I miss the start of festivities in Chicago, and Newark, and New York JFK, and flying to Europe. To console myself I'm flying in style with a first class award whisking me half way around the world to arrive just in time for the events in Europe. Given my crazy schedule I'll probably sleep most of the flights, but for now I'm far to excited to sleep despite the long sequence of late nights and early mornings.

Ironically one of the events is a tour of the Airbus factory in Toulouse where A380s are made, yet I'm flying there on a series of Boeing aircraft. At least I'll be flying mostly Airbus on the way back, including an A380.

I'll be back later to report on the fun and some new travel experiences I have planned along the way. For now, though, I must go and prepare for my upcoming transit where I have lots to do.

Kris Flyer redemption changes 1 December

Singapore Airlines' Kris Flyer program has some changes from 1 December 2009.

Kris Flyer has joined the trend for frequent flyer programs to allow cheap one-way awards - at 50% of the cost of return awards. This is a big and long-awaited improvement.

They have also simplified the star alliance award chart by reducing the number of zones. Generally most award costs remain unchanged, but some have increased a little. A few significant anomalies in the old chart have been fixed (routes where the award cost is very cheap for the distance travelled) - these will cost substantially more miles from 1 December so book now to get the old award mileage cost.

For awards on Delta, the changes are to add more zones than previously to more closely align with the star alliance award chart, and to generally increase the mileage costs (particularly in business class). Presumably this is to reduce arbitrage opportunities.

Mexicana awards have less zones and increased award costs.

For Virgin Atlantic the major change is to allow awards on the entire journey. Previously a route for say North America to Africa required 2 awards, now it can be done in one award. As with the other charts, in general costs have increased.

The Air India awards are not being changed.

Overall there is a slight devaluation of miles - the extent of which depends on routes awards are used on. However, the significant reduction in cost for one-way awards reasonably offsets this in my view.