Jaunted - Tag: First-Person Flight Reviews

Hawaii: Sip Pre-Flight Mai Tais Upstairs In Delta's Newish 747 To Hawaii

kjb — 2009-04-16T12:00:55-05:00

It’s been a long time since you’ve been able to fly a 747 domestically. However, thanks to the merger between Delta and Northwest, planes have been shuffled around, and the combined airline has decided to start flying one of these big birds between Atlanta and Honolulu. Obviously flying to Hawaii from Georgia aboard a 747 is a little different than a traditional domestic run from Altoona to Ypsilanti—but we still think it’s neat.

The online frequent flier community has been waiting to see what the first class service would be like aboard this big guy. All the former Northwest 747s have World Business Class seating—although they don’t exactly market tickets for these seats as such. You're getting an international business class seat, but your meal service and amenities will be a little more like domestic first class—even though the nine hour trip to the islands is farther than most flights from the east coast to Europe. That means a big goose egg when it comes to in-flight pajamas.

How is V Australia Doing So Far?

kjb — 2009-04-02T14:53:57-05:00

Is it just us, or is our review of the V Australia the most comprehensive? It’s probably just us, so that’s why we went out exploring to see what other people are thinking about the newest airline down under.

It seems to be a success so far, no major complaints, and best of all—it’s causing other airlines to finally lower prices. Maybe we’ll get to go back to Australia in 2009 after all.

Kuala Lumpur: Inside The No-Frills, Long-Haul Flight on Air Asia X

juliab — 2009-03-16T17:16:20-05:00

As regular Ryanair self-abusers know, the world’s first long-haul, "no frills" flight is not a concept that particularly fills us with longing. But Air Asia X’s launch sent prices from London to the Far East plummeting when booking opened last November, so we were intrigued. But would people really put up with no frills on a 13 hour flight? We turned reluctant guinea pig to find out.

A quick admission to start with. We were originally told that this was the inaugural flight to KL. Except when we got to the Air Asia launch party the night before, we realised it wasn’t – the first flight was taking off as we listened to The Saturdays. However, with the glitches we experienced on day two, we’re kind of glad we didn’t catch the first one.

Cartagena: Getting What We Paid For On Avianca

The Lost Girl — 2009-02-23T12:27:58-05:00

All this week, Amanda Pressner will be bringing us reports from her recent trip to Colombia. Was her adventure more "Romancing the Stone" or more "Medellin"? Stick with us this week to find out. Any questions about traveling to Colombia? Let us know.

After traveling to Ecuador last year, my guy Jeff and I volunteered to give up our seats on a very overbooked Avianca flight from Bogota, Colombia back to New York City. The incentive: a total of four international airline vouchers, good for anywhere in the world that Avianca flies, plus a free night in the InterContinental Bogota Hotel. How could we pass up such a deal? We didn't.

Azul Charges $30 More for the 'Azul Area'; LiveTV Still in the Works

kjb — 2009-02-17T09:56:06-05:00

If you’re an airline geek like us, you've been eagerly anticipating some good first-person flight reviews of Azul, the newest Brazilian LCC. Now thanks to the help of Google’s translate feature and the travel website Snow Adventure, we’ve pieced together their initial impression and review of Azul.

...in the first five rows the pitch is 34 inches (86 cm). To fly in that area, called Azul Area, you pay $30 more on the ticket. Blue's fleet is fully equipped and prepared to offer live TV. The LiveTV technology is still being established, and when the company starts to operate it will be 5 channels of content recorded with varied programming... Starting in the second half of 2009 it will then offer 36 channels of live programming. It is very comfortable to have a monitor in front of you, instead of having to watch the roof to try to see and hear something.

The site also has some great pictures of Azul, and we learned that flights from Brazil on Azul are 25 percent off if you use the code AZUL25. The discount is good on flights through April 30, just book by February 20.

Things must be going pretty well for Azul, as the airline is already looking to expand. They’re looking to double their current destinations by mid-April, and add five new planes by the beginning of June. David Neeleman is hoping fuel prices stay low, and is already bragging that passenger loads could hit 65,000 passengers this month. Pretty good numbers considering that the airline only carried 45,000 people during their first month.

Have your own trip report to share? Send it our way.

Related Stories:
·Blue Makes Its Inaugural Flight [Snow Adventure]
·Brazil's Azul Airlines To Expand This Year [International Herald Tribune]
·Azul coverage [Jaunted]

Snag Some All-You-Can-Eat Ramen on Cathay Pacific

JetSetCD — 2009-02-09T16:11:02-05:00

It was only two weeks ago that we took our own advice and booked the Hong Kong direct from New York-JFK on Cathay Pacific for a grand total of $795. It isn't our first time and it definitely won't be our last, but this flight begins a whole new chapter for us in terms of which airlines we'll choose in the future, because you see, Cathay Pacific gave us all the free Ramen noodles we could eat.