Airline Reporter a wed site to look at on worldwide jets:https://www.airlinereporter.com/
The A350 is at it again! Airbus’ fuel-sipping widebody is enabling another airline to turn a one-stop long-haul route into a direct ultra-long-haul one. This time around the carrier is Philippines Airlines (PAL), which currently operates its service from Manila to New York JFK via Vancouver using a 777. Starting in late October, an A350 will take over the route and will fly it direct.
The routing isn’t the only thing getting an update. The 777 currently flying to New York features a stale onboard product, but PAL’s brand new A350s feature a new onboard product that looks to be far better. That’s an especially good thing for passengers because the new direct route clocks in at a whopping 8,520 miles, making it one of the longest in the world.
Source: Great Circle Mapper
There’s already been some good coverage on this news, so here’s some links to our favorites:
- AusBT features some renderings of the onboard product. The highlight is a much-improved business class seat. It’s based on the Thompson Vantage XL design, which we’ve flown (and loved) most recently on SAS’ refurbished long-haul fleet. The PAL A350 will also benefit from the airline’s brand-new premium economy cabin.
- Reuters discusses the A350’s fuel efficiency. It also notes that Singapore Airlines is doing the exact same thing with its A350s as PAL is: using them to turn one-stop 777 routes into direct routes (as SQ is doing with its SFO, LAX, and New York services).
Source: Philippines Airlines
It’s great to see airlines put the A350’s (and/or Boeing Dreamliner’s) technological edge to great use. We’re excited to fly this route once it’s airborne!
JetBlue’s JFK operations base is a busy place
JetBlue’s Mint service has been around for a while now, but we were finally able to give it a try on the inaugural Seattle to New York City flight. And long as we were at it, we decided it’d be fun to give all three of the airline’s seating classes a try as well.
Mint is the airline’s business class product, Even More Space is their premium economy class, and then there’s standard economy (Core), which the airline bills as having the most legroom of any domestic airline.
We did the review across several flights on two routes: Mint from SEA-JFK, Even More Space from JFK-SEA in April, then in May we chose Even More Space from SEA-BOS and Core from BOS-PIT, PIT-BOS, and BOS-SEA.
SEA-JFK: Mint
There are 16 Mint seats on JetBlue’s A321s, which are the only aircraft in its fleet so equipped. And what lovely seats they are, especially considering that they’re available on domestic flights.
View of American’s terminal operations from the Boston lounge
One dubious perk of my choice to take the long way home and try American Airlines’ First Class offering was the opportunity to experience the Admirals Club lounges, American’s airport oases from the chaos of travel. I don’t get a lot of opportunities to check out the big international lounges like Hong Kong Airlines or Etihad has on offer, so I jumped at the chance to hit three different Admirals Clubs in a day.
First, for anyone whose travel itinerary involves a lot of layovers, the Admirals Clubs represent a great deal. A day pass costs $59, and is good across the American network. In my case, this allowed me to check into Boston for a couple of hours before my first flight, pop into the lounge in Charlotte for a quick refresher, then planespot in Chicago over appetizers.
It didn’t take me long to agree to work as Press for PAX East (if you’re not sure what that is, check the link ahead). After last year’s adventure in San Antonio for PAX South, I was eager to experience the last major PAX event that I hadn’t yet been to. Besides, I’d never visited Boston before.
American, Delta, United, Frontier, and Allegiant all operate flights out of my local airport, either directly or through a regional subcontract. While I prefer to fly Delta, they were significantly more expensive than American for an early April round trip to Boston. Neither Frontier nor Allegiant fly into Boston’s Logan International, which put them out of the running. American it was! Given that I expected to come back from Boston with two checked bags plus a carryon, a back-to-front (Economy to Boston, First Class home) flight plan almost paid for itself in bag fees. At least, as long as I didn’t mind flying Boston to Sioux Falls via Charlotte and Chicago.
Unlike Delta, which runs its FSD-MSP feeder flights on mainline A320 or B717 aircraft, American contracts with Air Wisconsin to feed their Chicago-O’Hare hub with CRJ-200 flights. These aircraft are all single class 2-2 configuration. As I would find out, no booking consideration is given to First Class on other legs. Anyone wanting one of the few prefered seats on the -200 is going to have to pay for it