Tag: Airline news

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It's British Airways, Alaska Airlines and Frontier Up and Away with New Routes

February 10, 2012 at 9:21 AM | by | Comments (0)

Sometimes it’s hard to stay on top of all the new route announcements that come our way, so we’ve complied a little bit of a rundown below. As long as you can afford the fares, this should definitely help add to your passport stamp collection.

· Alaska Airlines:
All that Starbucks has them buzzing about the nifty fifty, and that’s why Alaska Airlines is looking to expand towards the East Coast. The carrier is launching a nonstop option to Philadelphia all the way from Seattle beginning on June 11.

The flights will run each and every day of the week, and the planes leave from Seattle and in the morning and depart from Philadelphia in the evening—no red-eyes needed. Alaska Airlines is also connecting to one other new spot, as they’ll also be sending jets back and forth between Seattle and Ft. Lauderdale each and every day of the week. These Florida flights start up on July 16, and if you book before February 13 there’s even some introductory fares where you might just score a deal.

· Air New Zealand:
If you’re looking to head to Bali you might as well stop over and check out New Zealand first, as the airline is launching some new nonstop service between Bali and Auckland a couple times per week. It will just be seasonal service for them between June and October, and the new options will all get done thanks to some of the airline’s Boeing 767-300s. The flight will take about eight hours or so, and that should save you a decent amount of time by not needing a layover. Tickets for the new flights go on sale later this month, so if you’re thinking about adding on a little bit of paradise to your Kiwi adventure now’s the time to do it.

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You Guys, Delta Just Did a Flashmob

February 9, 2012 at 4:14 PM | by | Comment (1)

Oh my god. Well if it wasn't obvious before, it is now: airline/airport flashmobs are the new black.

Latest on the travel flashmob trend is Delta, who just barely released a 5-minute dance, incorporating flight crew and operations peeps from ATL, JFK, DTW and TOC (Technical Operations Center).

It starts off corny, but stay with it. It gets...cornier, but omg do we want to hug everyone involved. See the full video:

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Add Cathay Pacific to the Mobile Boarding Pass Club

February 9, 2012 at 9:00 AM | by | Comments (0)

Mobile boarding passes are finally pretty much becoming the norm here in the US, but we do realize that there are still plenty of carriers where it isn’t yet an option. Step by step, other airlines are coming over to the tech-friendly side, and this week it’s Cathay Pacific upgrading their offerings with mobile boarding passes.

Cathay Pacific is starting off small, so you won’t be able to utilize any mobile boarding passes leaving from the United States just yet. The paper-free process is now available in Auckland, NZ—as well in Hong Kong. Passengers who do their check-ins online will have the chance to receive their boarding information right on their mobile devices, and then it just takes a swipe and scan to hop aboard both select Dragonair and Cathay Pacific flights.

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Virgin Atlantic's Big News: Sexy New Clubhouse, Sexy New Seats, Sexy New S & P Shakers

February 8, 2012 at 12:20 PM | by | Comments (0)

When some sweet airline news comes down the pipeline, we get a little shiver of a thrill. The latest carrier to give us those goosebumps of expectation is Virgin Atlantic, as they've got a slew of updates hitting the sky later this year:

· New Upper Class seats, coming Spring 2012.

100 million GBP. That's how much Virgin Atlantic is laying out to get you all laid out in "enhanced" Upper Class seats and enjoying all their spring 2012 upgrades. While we don't yet know specifics like seat width, gadgets or even the design, we do know that the seats will debut on the airline's London-New York route in just a few months. Following this, VS planes will get the Upper Class refresh throughout the world, over a period of three years. Stay tuned, since details can't be kept secret much longer.

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No Naan for You: Air India Ditches Some Free In-Flight Meals

Where: India
February 8, 2012 at 10:23 AM | by | Comments (0)

There’s bad news for those who enjoy the in-flight catering aboard Air India flights, and that’s because it’s going away. Just like many of the airlines in the United States, Air India has decided to ditch in-flight meals for some of its passengers on some of its flights. Of course the blame falls squarely on the cost, but at least they still might throw a granola bar or something your way.

As of February 1, short-haul domestic flights received this new revised in-flight menu, and that means no more freebie meals for those in the economy cabin. For flights less than 90 minutes the typical breakfast, lunch, or dinner selections are gone, but in their place the airline is promising “heavy snacks and soft drinks.” Honestly, for less than 90 minutes we’d be happy with some in-flight Naan and a Diet Coke, but still, clearly this is an overall bummer.

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Alaska Airlines Takes Their Seattle Love to the Sky with Starbucks Coffee

February 8, 2012 at 8:55 AM | by | Comments (2)

A couple years ago United decided to ditch Starbucks as the preferred supplier of their in-flight java, but now Starbucks is coming back with another airline buddy. Alaska Airlines just announced that they’re bringing some improved in-flight coffee to the skies above the nifty fifty.

Starbucks might not be brewed in Alaska, but both Alaska and Starbucks sure enjoy spending time in and around Seattle. The coffee machines were flowing with the new brew as of last week, so if you’re flying anytime soon aboard an Alaska Airlines flight you might just want to wait until 35,000 feet before getting your caffeine fix. Alaska Airlines’ airline partner Horizon Air has been serving Starbucks since like 1990, so it was only a matter of time before both carriers shared the same coffee supplier. So what if it took 20 years.

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Get Lei'd: Hawaiian Airlines is Hiring Flight Attendants

February 7, 2012 at 8:45 AM | by | Comments (0)

It might not be quite as luxurious or exciting as it is on television, but if you’ve always thought of being a flight attendant then now’s the time to do so. Hawaiian Airlines—the unofficial airline of paradise—is now looking for flight attendants to help them expand across the islands and the world.

There's already plans for a New York City-to-Honolulu flight, and who knows where else they might be headed to in the future. In total there are around 175 new flight attendant positions available, but you better get that resume ready as the deadline is February 14.

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Check Out JetBlue's Very First Website, from 2001...

February 6, 2012 at 6:19 PM | by | Comments (0)

Okay so JetBlue just finally launched their very first iPhone app, but at the same time, they also pushed out a new mobile of their website, and a new website all around. To prove how far they've come, JetBlue shared with us the above—their first functioning website, from 2001. Wow. Throwback. Now compare it to 2012, below...

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Hungary's Malev Shuts Down after 66 Years, LCCs Rush In

February 6, 2012 at 1:56 PM | by | Comments (0)

Hey, remember when journalists started weirdly declaring that everything was fine with the airline industry? And then travelers took that to mean that good times were here again while the government swooped in with expensive new regulations? And then remember how American Airlines went bankrupt and then Spanair shut down and then Hungary's Malev shut down? Good times.

There's not much to say about this latest casualty of the global economic crunch. Hungary really, really wanted to keep Malev operating, with the government declaring the airline to be a "priority objective." But they just couldn't make the carrier viable—specifically, they couldn't convince suppliers that the government would be able to pay them for services—and thus ended the Malev's 66 years of almost continuous service. Sad.

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Finally! JetBlue Releases Its First iPhone App: The Full Review

February 3, 2012 at 11:11 AM | by | Comments (0)

Alright. What's the one thing you've been waiting forever for from JetBlue? Duh, in-flight WiFi...besides that. Yes, a freaking iPhone app!

Well, late last night while thoughts of Terra Blue Chips and direct flights to Santo Domingo danced through your heads, the airline's very first iPhone app quietly snuck out into the iTunes app store. It's free of course, and blue and orange, but is it any good?

To keep our opinions short and sweet, yes—it's sooooo good. Like, spread-the-word good. Even if you've never flown JetBlue and don't have any upcoming flights booked, we'd say get the thing for its well-designed flight search and booking (wanderlust fodder right there) and cute little extras, like the ability to use your iPhone photos to create funky postcards, shared straight from the app.

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New Planes and New Seats Making Southwest Feel So Fresh, So Clean for 2012

February 3, 2012 at 10:04 AM | by | Comments (0)

We were just talking about Southwest Airlines and their plans to “evolve” their planes with new seats, and now it looks like the carrier is already prepared to go all-in. Southwest is starting to get those fresh birds, and they’re shifting around the schedule here and there to make room for the increased seats and different configurations.

They’re pretty excited about that this evolve-o-lution, but we kind of wonder how our knees will feel about all these changes.

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United, WestJet and Copa Airlines Plan New Routes to Here and There

February 3, 2012 at 7:52 AM | by | Comments (0)

Sometimes it’s hard to stay on top of all the new route announcements that come our way, so we’ve complied a little bit of a rundown below. As long as you can afford the fares, this should definitely help add to your passport stamp collection.

· WestJet:
If you haven’t had the opportunity to check out what WestJet has to offer, this may change in 2012 as they bring new flights down to the nifty fifty. Of course they already have cheap flights to here, there, and everywhere in and around Canada, but now they're prepping to take on New York-LaGuardia.

Live, in-flight television will be yours to enjoy on seven new nonstop flights between NYC-LaGuardia and Toronto beginning June 4. A couple weeks later they’ll be boosting the flight frequency up to eight flights, so they definitely mean business when it comes to serving the flying public between New York City and Toronto. They even just launched a codeshare deal with Delta, so you can continue on aboard Delta until your final destination.

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