TravelSkills

News and Tips For Your Trips

More United wi-fi + Buh-bye Delta 747s + Virgin’s newest plane + SFO is h-o-t + New Hyatt NYC

United's regional jets to get connected via Gogo (United)

United’s regional jets to get connected via Gogo (United)

This is Part 2 of this weekend’s Catching up on Travel News with TravelSkills. ICYMI here’s Part 1

United regional jets will get Wi-Fi. United said it will expand in-flight Wi-Fi service to more than 200 of its two-cabin United Express aircraft, including Embraer 170s and 175s, and CRJ700s. The service should be available on some planes before year’s end, with the whole job finished by next summer. “Early next year,” a spokesman said, “United expects to expand personal device entertainment to these aircraft, enabling customers to select from a wide range of movies and television shows to view on their Wi-Fi-enabled iOS and Android devices using United’s mobile app, as well as on laptop computers.” Some good news: Gogo’s wi-fi works very well on smaller aircraft where there are not too many passengers hogging bandwidth. While this installation announcement is great news, United still lags behind other major carriers when it comes to consistent inflight wi-fi.

Just in: Lufthansa’s pilots planning another strike this week. 

Delta’s 747s disappearing faster. Like other airlines, Delta is phasing out its 747 fleet– last summer we reported that it was unloading four 747s in the coming year. This week, the carrier announced that it is speeding up that process. Delta’s CEO said the airline’s 747s — used on Pacific routes — should all be gone by 2017. It is acquiring new Airbus A330s to replace the Boeing jumbos. How do you feel about this? Leave your comments below.

Inside San Francisco International's popular Terminal 2 (SFO)

Inside San Francisco International’s popular new Terminal 2 (SFO)

SFO is hot hot hot. The technology boom is playing out at SFO with airlines from around the world clamoring to get in, or expand their service there. Here’s a roundup of all the action:

Foreign carriers boost U.S. service. Subject to government approvals, Ethiopian Airlines plans to launch new 787 service next June between Addis Ababa and Los Angeles three times a week (via Dublin, Ireland, which means you can now fly to Ireland on Ethiopian Airlines) … Effective November 10, Delta’s Skyteam partner KLM will boost its Atlanta-Amsterdam schedule from seven flights a week to 12 … Air France will deploy an Airbus A380 super-jumbo on its Paris-Miami route from December 1 through March 28 … In March 2015, Philippine Airlines will begin new east coast service, flying from Manila to New York JFK via Vancouver four times a week, using a two-class A340-300.

Virgin Atlantic's newest plane, the 787-9, deployed on Boston-Heathrow. (Photo: Jim Ramsay)

Virgin Atlantic’s newest plane, the 787-9, deployed on Boston-Heathrow. (Photo: Jim Ramsay)

Virgin upgrades transatlantic fleet. Delta’s joint venture partner Virgin Atlantic has taken delivery of its first new 787-9 (the “stretch” version of the 787), and will put it into service October 28 between London Heathrow and Boston six times a week. Over the next few months, Virgin will deploy other new 787-9s from Heathrow to Dulles, Newark and JFK. The aircraft have 31 seats in Upper Class, 198 in economy and 35 in Premium Economy; the latter section has a new “Wander Wall” — “a social space where customers can stretch their legs and mingle with other passengers,” the company said.

London Bonus: Did you know that you can earn 7,500 to 35,000 MileagePlus bonus miles for United or Air Canada flights from the US or Canada to London this fall? To get the miles, register online and book between now and December 12 for trips through December 12.

HOTELS

Hilton’s new brand. What exactly is a “lifestyle brand” in the hotel industry? The definition is decidedly vague, but now Hilton is launching one of its own — Canopy Hotels. The company says the properties will provide “simple, guest-directed service, thoughtful local choices, and comfortable spaces, so guests simply feel better going forward.” (Isn’t that what all hotels do?) They’ll start opening in 2015; Hilton has letters of intent for Canopy properties in Portland,. London, Miami, Washington D.C., San Diego, Nashville, Savannah, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Oklahoma City and Ithaca, N.Y.

The aerie atop the new Hyatt Herald Square in NYC (Photo: Hyatt)

The aerie atop the new Hyatt Herald Square in NYC (Photo: Hyatt)

Another new Hyatt in NYC. Just two months after opening its posh Park Hyatt on West 57th Street, Hyatt has cut the ribbon on another new Manhattan property. The 122-room Hyatt Herald Square New York is on West 31st Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway– a still somewhat gritty area that is now packed with new, primarily “limited service” hotels. This full service Hyatt has three food and beverage outlets including a rooftop cocktail lounge with views of the Midtown skyline.

NOTE: This is Part 2 of this weekend’s Catching up on Travel News with TravelSkills. ICYMI here’s Part 1

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In Case You Missed It…

>The intersection of America’s obsession with food and travel. 

>Virgin America’s cutting-edge ad agency issued a mind-dulling six-hour online video about a fictional “BLAH Airlines” to show how boring its competitors are.

>Frequent travelers are getting some new perks and facilities at SFO.

>AT&T has a new plan for international calling.

>See Virgin America’s new facilities at Dallas Love Field.

>>Take a peek at what you may have missed on TravelSkills.com this week! <<

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Comments

  1. Hey Gary! Great to see you out here in TravelSkillsland! I remember those old L-1011s… on Eastern, too. I remember pilots used to call them “lead sleds” and they had an elevator down to a big galley below main deck. 🙂 — Chris

  2. I still miss the old L-1011 and honestly never made it on a DL 747. I just wish they would scrap the 757 with the sardine can seats in coach!

  5. Lament the loss of the 747, my favorite airport, bar none, with the possible exception of the 787.
    Am not a Delta customer for a variety of reasons! Like United, believe it or not, and of course Virgin.
    Would fly on a Boeing aircraft any day over Airbus!! Would like to try Singapore someday, though!

  6. Philippines is increasing service around the holidays too by 3x a week for a total of 10x a week

  7. Not quite as exciting, but United also added another Canadian destination from SFO (Kelowna).

    Also, I thought I remembered something about Air New Zealand increasing frequency at SFO?

  11. Hey Kevin! We’d love to get a report from you about your Mint trip! Very curious to hear how it goes… JetBlue on SFO ATL would be great! But so would Virgin America on ATL-SFO… a scenario I think more likely. — chris

  12. United wi-fi may be more available but the service is consistently awful. Slow and drops off completely.

  13. I’ll be flying JetBlue’s Mint service from JFK to SFO on October 26; I didn’t choose specifically to fly on the service’s first day, but when scheduling this business trip, the JetBlue fair was dramatically lower than United, Delta and AA, so the corporate travel policy wouldn’t allow any of them. I expect it to be good service (reports of the JFK-LAX route have been good so far) and to give the traditional carriers a run for their money. Maybe JetBlue will start up Mint service between ATL-LAX and ATL-SFO since Southwest is dropping their two-cabin service.

  15. The aircraft may be old, but all the widebodies have recently had remodelled interiors, and now they are remodelling the narrow bodies. The amenities (lie-flat, direct aisle access, overhead bins, wifi, PTV, etc) are far ahead of other US airlines. Really don’t see what difference the age of the plane makes if its amenities are updated and class-leading.

  16. I will really miss the B747s when they are totally gone.

    And the VX video was hilarious- absurd in a David Lynch-type of way. (I’m only a casual David Lynch fan so I hope hardcore fans don’t take offense.)

  17. Roche also had a Palo Alto facility. After Roche acquired Genentech (or was it the other way around) a few years ago. employees were given the choice of early retirement, taking severance, moving to their NJ facilities, or if they were lucky they applied for and got a job at Genentech.

  18. Yes, I was waiting for the news of the Lufthansa strike. I just bought tickets on Lufthansa for a trip to Berlin. But according to that story, the unions aren’t calling it a “strike.” It’s a “labor action.”

  19. Hey JK! Sorry I should have provided more explanation. Swiss pharma Roche bought SF based Genentech a few years back… due to all the SF-Zurich flying, SWISS came back to SF (probably with a guarantee from Roche) and among regulars on the route, it’s known as the Roche coach 🙂 — chris

  20. Of course everyone will miss the 747, it was about making flying great and fun. It’s now a business of pain and suffering for those that now have to crap into smaller planes, smaller seats with more people on them.

    I also hate that you pointed out that offer on United for flying from the States to London. I went to London on September 23rd and flew back on September 30th, did it on the business class ticket which was $4,200. But because I booked and paid the flight in August I don’t qualify for this “bonus”.

    Just like the 747 being taken away, United runs these silly promotions thinking that it will get last minute flyers to go off to London.

    Oh well, the state of the airline industry I guess.

  21. Chris – I’ve never heard the term “Roche coach.” What does that mean? And I, too, hate to see the demise of 747s and their private plane-like upper decks – even more so after reading David’s Airbus comments below. Hopefully another pilot will come to Airbus’ defense on this chain and make me feel better about flying their planes.

  22. Sure will miss that upper deck on the 747. Also the configuration of all 747 BE seats (angled toward the window) is MUCH better than that in the 777 that seems designed to reduce privacy but, at the same time, make it impossible to interact much with a traveling companion. I guess the A330 configuration is okay–at least they are not replacing the 747 with more 777s with that (IMHO) undesirable configuration. It would be nice if Delta acquired more new planes–they seem to have a pretty old fleet.

  23. One other carrier that will increase summer flying into SFO is Virgin Atlantic. They will be flying an additional five flights per week for a total of 12 weekly flights.

  24. Totally agree with David as I’m a retired military pilot and much more comfortable with US technology tho’ not meant as a knock to Airbus. We were going to fly DL from JFK to TLV as the 747 was the only DL aircraft on which we have not travelled. But, when they cut them from the route a short time back, we reconfigured our vacation plans.

  25. “If it’s not Boeing, I’m not going.” I do occasionally make an exception, but as a pilot myself, I’m very uncomfortable with some of the design decisions that Airbus has made in their flight control software – the Air France flight that flew into the Atlantic, killing all on board a couple years back, was a direct result of a flight control system that isn’t intuitive and pilots don’t always understand when there’s a problem and the software reverts to a low level of automation. What this translates to, for me, is that I’ll choose a flight on Boeing hardware over an Airbus, even if it costs a little more or is a little less convenient. (This is sort of the flip side of my other personal rule, which is that I don’t fly any Korean-flagged carrier due to their poor training record and cultural issues that negate most of the benefits of modern crew resource management.)

    The Airbus 330 is a comfortable aircraft, but I’d rather fly on a 777 or 787. Love the 747 too, but its fuel burn for those four engines pretty much ensures that we won’t be seeing many 747 flights going forward.

  26. Who would have ever thought that the Airbus 330 would replace the Boeing 747? Just make me wonder if Delta is going to remain competitive in Asia, with the lack of Skyteam partner at NRT, and their failure to operate at HND successfully. If American gets LAX-PEK authority, I believe they will have more non-stops to China than Delta. Back to the planes, I personally enjoy the traveling experience of a 330 in coach, because no one is more than one seat from the aisle.

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