Tag: Star Alliance

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The Best Tumblr Travel GIF Blog in the History of Tumblr GIF Blogs

May 21, 2013 at 12:57 PM | by | Comments (0)

WHEN I’M FORCED TO PAY $9 FOR A SANDWICH IN ECONOMY

Tumblr is good for two things: porn and GIF blogs. Oh, wait. This week we can add a third thing to that list; Tumblr is also very good at being worth over $1 billion (to Yahoo, who just purchased the microblogging platform).

Since even mentioning porn twice in this post may get us blocked from your lunchtime reading, let's talk about GIF blogs. In particular we'd like to draw your attention to one, frequentflyerlife, started over a year ago by Star Alliance frequent flyer, @melissaiscool.

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What's Up with Star Alliance in 2013

March 14, 2013 at 9:58 AM | by | Comments (0)

As we mentioned yesterday, there has been quite a shake-up in the world of aviation lately, all of which is leaving some airline alliances bidding fond adieu to some airlines while welcoming others with open arms. Let's take a look at what 2013 has in store for Star Alliance, and what effects it might have on your own travel.

The world's first and largest airline alliance is set to lose at least two airlines this year with US Airways and TAM leaving after the mergers discussed yesterday, both of which see them switching to Oneworld. This leaves smaller carriers like Avianca, TACA and Copa Airlines to pick up the slack in South America.

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American Airlines Gobbles Up US Airways to Snag Title of 'World's Largest Airline'

February 14, 2013 at 12:10 PM | by | Comments (0)

$11 billion dollars. ELEVEN BILLION. Right now, American Airlines and US Airways are raising pinkie fingers to their mouths, Dr. Evil-style, as they look at a merger worth this much.

The announcement everyone expected came this morning, Valentine's Day, as American and US declared their love for each other and decided to make two become one. The merger will take some time, of course, but a few facts are clear right now:

· The name and branding of the merger airline will say American Airlines, falling right now under their #newAmerican campaign
· The CEO will be Doug Parker, current CEO of US Airways. American's CEO Tom Horton will become Chairman of the Board of the airline.
· The combined operating certificate is expected for the third quarter of 2013
· Once everything is said and done, the new American Airlnes will be the largest airline in the world by passenger volume and fleet size, though United will still beat them by sheer number of destinations served (United's around

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Inside the Newest (and Largest) Lufthansa Lounges at Frankfurt Airport

Where: Frankfurt International Airport, Frankfurt, Germany
November 28, 2012 at 5:42 PM | by | Comments (0)

What do you do when you've just built an airport addition that, in itself, is the size of a whole other airport? Well, if you're Lufthansa at Frankfurt International, you fill it with some superlatives like, say, the largest lounge in the entire system.

This is the case at FRA's brand new A-Plus Concourse, where the LH Senator Lounge on the non-Schengen departures level takes top spot. Its 23,000 square feet easily beats the 19,400 square feet of the airline's next largest lounge, which just happens to be next door in Terminal 1 proper. In total, A-Plus adds five sparkling new, sprawlingly spacious lounges to the roster: a First Class Lounge, a Senator Lounge and a Business Lounge on the EU Departures and Arrivals level and, on the non-European area (Non-Schengen area), there is a Senator Lounge and a Business Lounge.

Now that we've shown you around the rest of the A-Plus Concourse, it's time to have our boarding pass checked, grab a Frankfurter Allgemeine and a tall, cold glass of Franziskaner beer and have a good look around a couple of these spaces.

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Frankfurt Airport's New A-Plus Concourse: A Super Home for Superjumbos

Where: Frankfurt International Airport, Frankfurt, Germany
November 19, 2012 at 11:04 AM | by | Comments (0)

Last month, Lufthansa opened the brand-spanking-new A-Plus Concourse at Germany's Frankfurt International Airport. Why's it so special? Well, among other things, it's directly designed for the biggest, baddest airplanes out there. We're talking A340s, 747s, 747-8is, and the almighty A380. This week, we'll take you inside and all around this place through which some 6 million travelers will journey each year.

If you're an airport whose tarmac is already crawling with superjumbos and you're about to add another 6 million passengers per year, what do you need? The answer: Lots and lots of space. German efficiency. An airline with enough mega planes and super long routes to keep the place hopping. So there you go. The answer is Frankfurt and its hometown airline, Lufthansa.

Speaking of German efficiency, let's talk tech. For passengers, Pier A-Plus boasts self-scan boarding gates, which are awesome if you hate waiting in lines. For operations, the addition of A-Plus means Frankfurt International has the world's largest airport baggage handling system. All of this becomes more and more important with each day, as Frankfurt looks to have a whopping 90 million travelers annually by 2020, up from 56 million in 2011. And those flyers will be stepping into FRA from more and more superjumbo aircraft.

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Inside Frankfurt Airport's Completely New A-Plus Concourse: Six Million Travelers Can't Be Wrong

Where: Frankfurt International Airport, Frankfurt, Germany
November 16, 2012 at 1:42 PM | by | Comment (1)

Last month, Lufthansa opened the brand-spanking-new A-Plus Concourse at Germany's Frankfurt International Airport. Why's it so special? Well, among other things, it's directly designed for the biggest, baddest airplanes out there. We're talking A340s, 747s, 747-8is, and the almighty A380. This week, we'll take you inside and all around this place through which some 6 million travelers will journey each year.

0500 hours.

The seatbelt sign is on and traytables are up and locked. The Lufthansa Airbus A380 named "Tokio" is on final approach to Frankfurt International and we're inside.

Seat 15K.

It's a window, upper deck, right over the hulking wing of this superjumbo. Looking out, the airport on the horizon glows with the fluorescence of its millions of lights, pre-dawn. Usually we're not super anxious to leave a plane to experience the airport, but Frankfurt is an exception.

Wheels down.

Turning off onto the taxiway, we can already spot the many Lufthansa crane logos that adorn each Star Alliance gate. It's pretty obvious who rules this coop.

Rounding a corner, the A380 aims for its new home on the ground—a long, sleek concourse with gates and facilities designed for its massive dimensions. Whereas the plane squeezes itself into other airports, like buttoning pants two sizes too small, here it finds Frankfurt's just-opened A-Plus Concourse is tailor-made with breathing room. Once we've parked, three jetbridges stretch out to welcome over 500 passengers into these fresh digs.

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Inside the Lufthansa Lounge at New York's JFK Airport

Where: JFK International Airport [map], New York , NY, United States
November 13, 2012 at 1:16 PM | by | Comments (0)

Last month, Lufthansa opened the brand-spanking-new A-Plus Concourse at Germany's Frankfurt International Airport. Why's it so special? Well, among other things, it's directly designed for the biggest, baddest airplanes out there. We're talking A340s, 747s, 747-8is, and the almighty A380. This week, we'll take you inside and all around this place through which some 6 million travelers will journey each year.

Before we can have a peek around the A-Plus Concourse at Frankfurt Airport, we've got to get there first! LH 401 leaves JFK at 3:45pm and arrives FRA just after 5am, as one of the absolute earliest flights to put its wheels down at Frankfurt International each day. As you've effectively got to hit the ground running, it's extra important that those pre-flight hours are extra restful or productive. This is where the 16,000-sq ft Lufthansa Flagship Lounge at JFK's Terminal 1 comes into play.

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Seven Secrets Inside Lufthansa's Exclusive First Class Terminal

Where: Frankfurt International Airport, Frankfurt, Germany
October 23, 2012 at 3:21 PM | by | Comments (0)

SPOILER ALERT. If flying First Class is on your to-do list and you'd rather "open the gift" of the First Class Terminal when that day comes, stop reading now!

It's an almost mythical place, the First Class Terminal (FCT) at Frankfurt International Airport. In the darkness of the autumn evening, just before the last flights depart ahead of the 11pm curfew, a little building just off of Terminal 1 glows with the golden crane of the Lufthansa logo.

We've previously shown you all around the spaces and even detailed what whiskey to order, but looking a little closer there's far more to explore.

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Inside Air Canada's Maple Leaf Lounge at the New Winnipeg Airport

October 9, 2012 at 10:46 AM | by | Comments (0)

Late last year Winnipeg’s new airport opened (re-named the rather exceptionally long “Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport”) and, with it, came a brand spanking new Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge.

We’ve always liked Air Canada’s lounges, with their streamlined design, plentiful snackies, and generous self-serve bars. And, heading through Winnipeg's lounge on our last trip through the airport, we found that it has all of the same goodies we've come to expect from Maple Leaf Lounges at larger airports: a comfy sitting area, a dining area, a place to park it in front of the TV, and a business center with complimentary WiFi. Winnipeg's Maple Leaf Lounge also has a space with a bar-like atmosphere.

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Up and Over the Andes: Flying TACA from Lima to Cusco, Peru

Where: Cusco, Peru
October 3, 2012 at 4:41 PM | by | Comments (0)


The Embraer-190 at Cusco Airport

The Jaunted Goes to Machu Picchu Series:

1. Flying into Cusco
2. Sorting out documents
3. Riding the Vistadome train
4. Riding the Hiram Bingham Orient-Express (Part 1 - the train)
5. Riding the Hiram Bingham Orient-Express (Part 2 - the dining & extras)
6. MACHU PICCHU

One week to kill in Lima, Peru. This is what happens when you book reward flights and take whatever availability. We'd learned that lesson already. Friends who'd been to Lima before advised us to get out—one week was plenty time for a side trip of several days to bucket list destinations like Machu Picchu or Colca Canyon. And so, Machu Picchu it was, but first we'd have to get our butt over to the city of Cusco.

The quick decision meant we had done little pre-planning and, searching flights from Lima to Cusco and back, the prices were already rocketing. The eventual winner, after searching LAN, TACA and StarPeru, was TACA. We went with TACA for three big reasons:
1. For the roundtrip price ($331.96 total), competitive with the other airlines at the time of booking, we could fly Biz Class on TACA.
2. We'd never flown 'em and were curious
3. We're Star Alliance Gold status and TACA is a member of the alliance.

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United Finally Took Its Baby Boeing 787 Dreamliner Home to Houston

September 28, 2012 at 4:13 PM | by | Comments (0)


The 787 gets a water cannon salute after landing in Houston

The skies above Texas today were absolutely speckled with the green and yellow radar blips of thunderstorms. That sucks for Texas, with the exception of one other radar blip: United Airlines' very first Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which came home to Houston on its delivery flight from Boeing Field in Washington State.

Those thunderstorms did add a twenty minute arrival delay, though; it was the final delay in a what's really been a saga of delays leading up to the first delivery of a 787 to a US airline.

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Airline Alliances: Who's Hookin' Up and Who's Breakin' Up

September 7, 2012 at 10:46 AM | by | Comments (0)

The ins and outs of the major airline alliances can read like a script of your favorite (or not-so favorite) soap opera. Regardless, whichever alliance to which you pledge allegiance, each has its own bit of news in 2012.

With some departures and new additions, the world just becomes a smaller place. Here's the 411 around the world for Star Alliance, Oneworld and SkyTeam:

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