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British Airways, American and Iberia Pile on the New Routes

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.

· American Airlines:
Teaming up with its buddies in the oneworld alliance this week, American Airlines announced a couple new options for escaping from the United States in search of fun overseas. The first is JFK to Budapest, and this new option will begin to fly next April along with the help of some Boeing 767s. The other is from Chicago to Helsinki which will also start next spring. Prices haven’t been announced for these new routes yet, but don’t expect any crazy deals anytime soon.

· British Airways:
Not to be outdone by American Airlines, British Airways also got into the new route announcement fun this week. The carrier will start new nonstop service between San Diego and London-Heathrow beginning next April. The airline already offers nonstop service between London and Los Angeles, so now Brits on holiday are free to fly into LA and fly out of San Diego after visiting Disneyland, Legoland, and SeaWorld.

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British Airways Prepares for American with New Rewards and Upgraded Lounges

We always get suspicious when airlines start talking about giving customers "more control" and "more choice," since that usually means downgrading reward tiers and charging for things that used to come for free. Getting to choose whether to have food on a long flight or pay for checked baggage has never left us feeling particularly empowered. Nowadays pretty much any airline policy change is enough to get us nervous, and that's particularly true whenever they start to tinker with loyalty programs and elite status.

So naturally we've been anticipating with dread the details of how the American Airlines/British Airways/Iberia merger will affect their frequent flyer programs. So far so good, with the announcement coming out over the weekend that BA is increasing the miles that you get for Discount Economy tickets, from 25% to 100%. BA miles are also now good for AA upgrades, and vice versa. And the airline is even promising to upgrade some of their Executive Lounges.

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British Airways and Iberia Want to Make It a Threesome

British Airways is hungry, and the airline can only be satisfied by gobbling up other airlines. The old news from BA is that they're already working to join forces with Iberia, with the hope of getting things official by the end of this year. However, the newest addition is that the not-yet-combined airline is already looking at around 12 other airlines to acquire.

They might be interested in everything from Indian to Hong Kong carriers, but some of them are harder to consider buying than others, due to issues with the foreign ownership rules present in some countries. Those that aren’t subject to such regulations might be getting phone calls as soon as this week, so they better be willing to fly the Union Jack.

Everything is still speculative at this point, but the new British Airways-Iberia combination could be looking at American Airlines, LAN, Cathay Pacific, and even Qantas. With these new possible mergers and the pending deal between United and Continental, Delta better enjoy their title of the world’s largest airline while it lasts.

[Photo: BriYYZ]

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British Airways and American Airlines are Go to Collude on Prices and Routes

Another week, another round of shakeups at British Airways. Last week it was their merger with Iberia. Before that it was their new non-union crew. Now it's the news that their 14-year quest to expand their trans-Atlantic alliance with American Airlines has finally been approved by US and EU regulators. The new American/British Airways/Iberia arrangement allows them to effectively function as a single company: setting prices, selling tickets, and scheduling routes.

Where you fall on this deal depends on where you are in the airline industry. If you're part of the oneworld alliance, you see the much-sought approval as only fair. Lufthansa/United and Air France/Delta basically have the same setup under the umbrellas of Star Alliance and SkyTeam, respectively. But if you're not part of any major alliance and/or Heathrow is part of your personal global airline empire, this is exactly the kind of decision that would ruin your weekend. Cue Richard Branson: "millions of passengers...will suffer the consequences of this monster monopoly."

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Merger of British Airways and Iberia Gets EU Greenlight

The thing about a wave of massive labor strikes that threaten to take down your entire company, is that they really free you up to brainstorm. What've you got to lose? So in addition to creating an entirely new fleet designed to circumvent unions, British Airways has been aggressively pursuing cost-cutting in a host of other ways.

One of those, the merger with Iberia that they formally inked at the end of last month after a year of teasing, just won EU approval. The result will be Europe's third-largest airline, a market share of about $7.5 billion, and—hopefully for them—an end to the money bleeding both have been experiencing. And, in a nice change, it might not be a total disaster for consumers.

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British Airways And Iberia Agree To Merge And Become Soul-Sucking Airline

Now not everyone knows that the Spanish airline Iberia hasn't been faring so well, but you should be very aware that they've just reached a preliminary agreement with British Airways to merge. This means that the airlines will cooperate on flights and form a company which, according to SkyNews, has "419 aircraft which would fly to 205 destinations."

BA and Iberia, along with American Airlines and Finnair already put the merger cogs in motion back in August 2008 when they created the website "MoreTravelChoices.com." Since even before then, Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic has been railing out against the proposed merger of BA and AA especially, arguing that they'd have a near monopoly on transatlantic routes—ones that Virgin also flies.

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Iberia Airlines Wants To Liven Up Its Brand With a New LCC

Like most airlines, Iberia Airlines hasn’t been doing that well. They’ve been in talks to shack up with British Airways for a bigger and brighter future, but for now they’re doing their best to shuttle travelers to and from Spain as best as they can. To make more cash the airline plans to focus on more long-haul routes, and will change up the way they deal with shorter flights: they plan to launch their own low cost carrier.

The cheap carrier Vueling already is owned in part by Iberia, but apparently this isn’t good enough for the suits in Madrid. According to officials within the airline a new carrier focused on domestic and European routes will allow them to change the operating model for these types of flights.

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What It Really Costs To Fly on Ryanair

Low Cost Carriers are notorious for their confusing and forever changing pricing schemes, and none mess with our common sense more than the European breeds.

With Ryanair releasing new fees left and right, it's become apparent that you can't take their bargain basement ticket prices at face value anymore. While a trip to Barcelona from London may only cost 53.39 pounds (including taxes), there are a host of dreaded extra fees which you must consider before clicking to purchase.

Here, we've done some sniffing around the websites of Ryanair, EasyJet, Iberia and British Airways to discover if opting for the hassle of an LCC remains worthwhile. Choosing the lowest fares for a random round-trip in April, we'll walk you through each carrier's potential fees and tell you what that cheap ticket really ends up costing.

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