Fiji Airways Archives - TravelSkills

Routes: Easier to fly Korean + Norwegian, Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Fiji, more

November 21, 2016

The Delta-KAL codeshare lets you buy a ticket from Delta, but fly KAL (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

More flights, more availability for award flights on Korean Air (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

In international route news, Korean Air plans to boost West Coast frequencies next year, Norwegian’s Las Vegas routes will be cut back to a seasonal basis; Aer Lingus adds a new U.S. gateway; Air Canada adds a pair of summer Europe routes from Vancouver; Fiji Airways will boost San Francisco service; two German airlines add new U.S. routes next summer; and ANA will start direct service to Mexico City.

Korean Air’s 2017 schedule plans include more flights to the West Coast, according to Routesonline.com. On March 26, Korean’s San Francisco-Seoul Incheon schedule is tentatively set to increase from seven flights a week to 12, then grow to 13 in June and 14 in September. The carrier will utilize a mix of B747-8 and B777s on the route. KAL likely added more capacity since Singapore Air moved its daily SFO-Seoul nonstop to LA to make way for its nonstop SFO-SIN service. From June through August, the airline will increase Los Angeles-Seoul Incheon frequencies from 14 to 19 flights a week. And Korean’s Seattle schedule shows daily flights during May, September and October, up from five a week for the same months this year. (FYI, Korean Air is a partner in Chase Ultimate Rewards- many readers love to unload their points to fly KAL in first or business class because space is frequently available. Get a new card, earn the bonus, and redeem away!)

Don’t miss: Trip Report – First class on Korean Air Boeing 747-8 from SFO

Here’s how TravelSkills reader JS flew KAL in first class by transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards to Korean Air SkyPass. He told us: “As you probably know it’s incredibly easy to find first class space on Korean since so few people in the U.S. either have those miles or know about the transfer process from Chase. In addition, even though Delta and Korean are both members of SkyTeam, Delta members cannot redeem their miles for first class on other SkyTeam carriers.”

Norwegian Air Shuttle has been growing at Las Vegas, but it has now decided that its four routes to Europe will operate seasonally instead of year-round. Why? Because it discovered this year that sometimes Las Vegas is just too hot in the summer for its planes to take off, so they’ve had to sit on the ground until temperatures dropped. The cutoff temperature for the airline’s 291-seat Dreamliners is 104 degrees, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, so for 2017 the airline will suspend its service to London, Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen from late March until November. The publication said the airline is studying the possibility of rescheduling summer departure times to early morning or late in the day for 2018.

Aer Lingus is adding a Miami route next year. (Image: Aer Lingus)

Ireland’s Aer Lingus will add Miami as its newest U.S. gateway next year. The airline set a September 1 start for the new service, operating three times a week between Miami and Dublin with a 266-seat A330-200. Aer Lingus also said it will boost its Los Angeles schedule from the current four flights a week to daily departures from May 26 through the end of August; increase Chicago O’Hare service from 12 flights a week to twice-daily departures beginning May 26; and add a fourth weekly flight from Orlando effective March 14.

Air Canada will give travelers new options to Europe from Vancouver next summer. The carrier said it will start daily flights from Vancouver to Frankfurt on June 1, using a 787-8 with business class, premium economy and regular economy seating; and three flights a week from Vancouver to London Gatwick with an Air Canada Rouge 767-300ER with premium and regular economy seating.

Fiji Airways is boosting capacity to San Francisco in 2017. (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Fiji Airways must be doing well with its San Francisco-Nadi, Fiji route, because it plans to increase capacity next summer. Instead of operating two flights a week for eight weeks, it will keep them going from June 1 through late October, and will add a third weekly frequency from June 19 to August 8 – and it will upgrade the aircraft it uses from an A330-200 to a -300.

New travel options to Germany next year include service from Seattle to Cologne and from Pittsburgh to Frankfurt. The Seattle route be flown by Lufthansa Group subsidiary Eurowings, with three A330-200 flights a week operating seasonally from July 11 through October. And the Pittsburgh-Frankfurt route will be flown by Condor Airlines, with two 767 flights a week from June 23 through September.

Chris McGinnis inspecting ANA's maintenance hangar at Haneda Airport on the day before the 787 was grounded. (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Chris McGinnis inspecting a Boeing 787 at Tokyo Haneda (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Want to get from Mexico to Japan without flying through the U.S. or Canada? Japan’s All Nippon Airways announced plans to begin the first non-stop service between the countries, with daily flights from Tokyo Narita to Mexico City beginning February 15. It will be ANA’s longest non-stop flight, and will use a 787-8 Dreamliner with business class and economy seating.

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Routes: LAX, SFO, Seattle, San Diego, Boston, New York, Atlanta + more

June 16, 2016

SFO’s latest arrival from the exotic South Seas! (Photo: Peter Biaggo/SFO)

In international route news, American next week adds new transpacific flights from Los Angeles; Swiss brings its fancy new 777 to the Los Angeles-Zurich route, while Emirates doubles down on LAX service with a big sports sponsorship; San Francisco gets a new route to the South Pacific; Germany’s Condor Airlines unveils some new U.S. routes, including Seattle and San Diego; TAP Air Portugal adds two U.S. gateways with upgraded aircraft; Delta trims service to a South American city from Atlanta; and two U.S. airlines start selling tickets for scheduled service to Cuba.

American Airlines next week will kick off its newest transpacific route: On June 23 it will start flying a 787-8 Dreamliner between Los Angeles International and Auckland, New Zealand as part of its growing joint venture partnership with Qantas, ending Air New Zealand’s non-stop monopoly on that route. The aircraft’s business class offers personal suites with 77-inch lie-flat seat-beds, direct aisle access for every seat, and a walk-up bar stocked with drinks and snacks. The economy cabin offers a Main Cabin Extra seating option with five extra inches of legroom, and both cabins have Wi-Fi and AC/USB ports at every seat.

Also at Los Angeles International, Swiss has started flying the LAX-Zurich route with its new 777-300ERs, the flagships of its international long-haul fleet. The aircraft boasts redesigned and upgraded interiors with first, business and economy class. Take a look here at some photos of the plane that we ran last year when the carrier introduced them. Swiss had planned to start flying the 777-300ER to San Francisco in August, but as we reported last month, that introduction has been postponed until February 2017.

Emirates flight attendants visited Dodger Stadium to promote the airline’s expanded LAX service. (Image: Emirates)

Meanwhile, Emirates is due to lay on a second daily A380 flight starting July 1 between Los Angeles and Dubai, and it is counting on a new sponsorship deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers to draw attention to the airline in that big market. The airline even brought some of its flight attendants onto the field during a recent game at Dodger Stadium to promote the tie-in.

At San Francisco International, Fiji Airways this week kicked off seasonal service to Nadi, Fiji, using a two-class A330 for the 10-hour flight. It will operate twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays, through mid-August, then will resume from mid-December through mid-January.

Germany’s Condor Airlines, a leisure-oriented carrier that belongs to the Thomas Cook Group, plans to add some U.S. routes in 2017, including the only non-stops between Seattle and Munich. That route will begin in July 2017 with twice-weekly service. Condor already flies between Seattle and Frankfurt, and recently extended that to year-round service. Also in Condor’s 2017 plans: twice-weekly seasonal flights between Frankfurt and New Orleans from May through September; three flights week starting May 1 between Frankfurt-San Diego; and twice-weekly service beginning May 2 between Munich and Las Vegas.

TAP Portugal is using upgraded A330s on new Boston and New York routes. (Image: Airbus)

TAP Portugal just started new daily service between Lisbon and Boston Logan, and will add daily Lisbon-New York JFK service July 1. Both routes are using A330s that feature TAP’s new executive class cabin with lie-flat seats. The aircraft also features a new, advanced in-flight entertainment system; and the economy cabin has two kinds of seating, offering 34-inch and 31-inch pitch. The airline already serves Newark and Miami from Lisbon.

At its Atlanta hub, Delta on August 30 will reduce service to Medellin, Colombia, cutting back from the current daily frequencies to just three a week. Delta uses a 737-700 on the route.

Following the Transportation Department’s recent award of Cuba route rights (except Havana) to U.S. carriers for regular scheduled service, some of them have started selling tickets to the island nation. American will start flying once or twice a day from Miami to Cienfuegos and Holguin on September 7; from Miami to Camaguey and Santa Clara September 9; and from Miami to Varadero September 11. Silver Airways will start service September 1 from Ft. Lauderdale to Santa Clara, followed by flights out of Ft. Lauderdale to Camaguey, Cienfuegos and Holguin in October; to Santiago and Cayo Coco in November; and to Varadero, Cayo Largo and Manzanillo in December.

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Slew of new flights at SFO

May 17, 2016

An Air Berlin A330-200 at SFO nonstop to Dusseldorf- but we all wish it were Berlin! (Photo: SFO)

We do our best to keep up with all the new flights at key airports around the country, especially here in our home town of San Francisco.

Due to the frothy tech economy, SFO just keeps piling on more and more flights and many of them start this summer.

SFO says the summer travel season will begin in earnest on Friday, May 27, with more than 156,000 forecasted passengers arriving and departing SFO. In total, more than 15.5 million travelers are expected at SFO between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Luckily, at least for now, SFO does not seem to be suffering from the freakishly long TSA lines we’ve seen splashed across social media this week.

Anyway, to keep up with all the SFO action, here’s a rundown:

First off, Airberlin will offer nonstops to Düsseldorf, Germany. Dusseldorf is a nice place, but you’d think Airberlin would offer a nonstop to Berlin, right?

Skúli Mogensen, the founder and CEO of WOW Air (Photo: WOW Air)

WOW Air roared into the market with super low fares to Iceland and beyond, which is keeping transatlantic fares in check on all airlines, all summer long.

Fiji Airways is SFO’s latest coup (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Fiji Airways plans to kick off seasonal service between San Francisco and Nadi, Fiji, using an A330-200. The service will operate two days a week (Thursdays and Sundays) from June 16 through August 14, and again December 15-January 15.

United crew plus a couple Terracotta Warriors at inaugural festivities for new nonstop to Xian (Photo: SFO)

United Airlines has also launched new nonstop destinations from SFO, including Nashville, Tennessee, Tel Aviv, Israel, and the first flight from the United States to Xi’an, China. (Stay tuned for the TravelSkills contest winner’s trip report later this summer!)

Plenty of TravelSkills readers will soon soak in this view of the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

You will soon soak in this view of the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore after flying nonstop on United from SFO (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Later this summer, United will also launch nonstop service to Auckland, New Zealand and the first-ever nonstop service to Singapore and Hangzhou, China.

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Routes: Bay Area to China, Fiji + Delta code-shares + JetBlue to Africa, South America

March 4, 2016

Air China will use an A330-200 between San Jose and Shanghai. (Image: Mehdi Nazarinia/Wikimedia Commons)

In international airline route news, San Jose will get a second China route, and San Francisco will get more capacity to China and to the South Pacific; Delta adds a number of new code-share routes to Europe; JetBlue begins new South America service and a code-share expansion gives the carrier a new Africa route; and a Mexican low-cost carrier adds a couple of transborder services.

Although it is still awaiting approval for the route from the U.S. Government, Air China has started to take reservations on flights between San Jose and Shanghai Pudong, for travel starting June 16, according to Airlineroute.net. The carrier plans to fly the route three days a week with a two-class, 237-seat Airbus A330-200. It will be San Jose’s second China route, following Hainan Airlines’ launch of San Jose-Beijing service last year. It’s a busy time for international services at San Jose – the airport will welcome new British Airways flights to London Heathrow in May and new Lufthansa service to Frankfurt on July 1.

Despite the new San Jose route, Air China is not neglecting San Francisco International; it reportedly plans to increase its SFO-Beijing schedule from seven flights a week to 11 starting August 2. It will use a 777-300ER for the new flights. In other news at SFO, Fiji Airways plans to kick off seasonal service between San Francisco and Nadi, Fiji, using an A330-200. The service will operate two days a week (Thursdays and Sundays) from June 16 through August 14, and again December 15-January 15.

The people in Delta’s code-sharing office are busy these days. Joint venture partner Air France recently announced plans to begin new service in June from New York JFK to Paris – not to Charles de Gaulle, but to Orly Airport. Delta plans to put its code not only onto those transatlantic Orly flights, but also onto Air France flights beyond Orly to Biarritz, Bordeaux, Lorient, Marseille, Pau, Perpignon, Toulon and Toulouse. Delta’s code is also going onto flights operated by Transavia, a KLM subsidiary. Delta passengers can connect at Amsterdam onto Delta-coded Transavia flights to Seville and Alicante, Spain; Thessaloniki, Greece; and Marrakech, Morocco. Meanwhile, Delta this week put its code onto CSA Czech Airlines flights out of Prague to Bratislava, Copenhagen, Skopje and Zagreb.

In an expansion of its partnership with South African Airways, JetBlue has put its B6 code onto SAA’s four weekly flights between Washington Dulles and Accra, Ghana. Both carriers operate out of Concourse B at Dulles, and JetBlue’s TrueBlue members can earn points throughout SAA’s network. In other news, JetBlue has started flying a new international route to South America, offering daily service from Ft. Lauderdale to Quito, Ecuador with an Airbus A320.

Interjet, a low-cost Mexican carrier, has started flying twice a day between Dallas/Ft. Worth and Mexico City. And on May 19 the carrier plans to add daily Los Angeles-Cancun flights.

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