Air New Zealand Announces Auckland – Buenos Aires……….So What?

Posted on December 13, 2014 by Tara

I really love traveling to South America because of the wide diversity of birds to be seen there. Any other time I would be thrilled to death that there was a new route to South America from Australia. Currently there is only service from Sydney to Santiago on Qantas and LAN and you need OneWorld miles to book them. Traditionally, I have had an easier time collecting Star Alliance miles on either United or Singapore Krisflyer and theoretically these would be useful to redeem these new flights.

However Air New Zealand is the stingiest of all the Star Alliance carriers in releasing award seats, even in Y class. I haven’t seen even Y class available between Brisbane and Auckland in 3 years! So unless they change their ways, there is little to get excited about. Below you see a typical search on United for partner awards on a popular trans-Pacific route. I suspect the results will be the same on the new AKL-EZE route.

Air China Business Class Taipei-Beijing

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Tara

One good whirlwind layover deserves another, right? Hence the 2nd leg of our convoluted routing to South Africa giving us 7 hours in Beijing.

The Air China flight from Taipei to Beijing was in a regional Airbus A330-300 and right on time. The recliners were fine for the 3.5 hour flight. The food was decent, my husband went for the seafood as usual and I went for the pasta. Then we watched a movie (can’t remember which one) until arrival. No complaints about the hard or soft product.

Eva Air Business Class: Brisbane – Taipei & Lounge Access

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Tara

Since United devalued their program a few months ago, I wanted to take advantage of the generous routing rules before they took that away too. Devaluations seemed to be a common theme amongst most airlines this year. I also noted that the trend is for airlines to be stingy with business class awards and I really didn’t want to do such a long itinerary in economy! I also wanted to take advantage of the routing rules for quick layovers in Taipei & Beijing.

QANTAS LOUNGE IN BNE

Much to my surprise, we were invited to the Qantas lounge (OneWorld member) instead of the Air New Zealand Koru Club that Thai usually invites us to. Apparently this is due to a code-share arrangement between Eva and Qantas. The only other Star Alliance airline – Singapore has their own lounge but they only open award seats in/out of Australia at T-14 so basically useless for advance planners. It was nice to try out a new lounge and relax before our flight. It wasn’t crowded and was very comfortable.

I loved the artwork!

View over the airport from the lounge. BUSINESS CLASS SEATS

Although they were angled lie-flat, they were still comfortable and we got a good night’s sleep.

I didn’t really care for the food but my husband liked it. I just wanted to get some sleep so passed on my evening meal.EVA AIR LOUNGE IN TAIPEI

Upon arrival, we went to the EVA AIR lounge hoping to stash our bags while we did a quick run into the city. They took my boarding pass as security which was bad as we needed the boarding passes to clear security and immigration after our excursion so we ate a quick breakfast, then headed through immigration, backpacks and all for the trip.

Entrance to lounge

Breakfast buffet

Very cool bottles for sale in duty free, I would have bought one if this had been the return leg into Brisbane.

Making The Decision – Air Madagascar VS Air Austral

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Tara

Sometimes you can’t use miles because you are flying between two cities whose airlines aren’t in one of the major alliances. This is the case when flying from Mauritius to Madagascar.

I would have to pay cash for the flights. A quick search on Kayak gave these possibilities. Prices are in USD.

In case you are wondering why I didn’t use United miles for the South African flight, take note that the JNB-TNR segment is actually operated by Airlink which is not part of Star Alliance. And it’s ridiculous to take 22 hours for a flight that is less than 2 hours nonstop! Air Mauritius is a partner of Flying Blue but the cost of 15k miles and around 100 Euros per person tax made it poor value.

But wait, can that Air Madagascar flight really take less than 2 hours? When researching this airline on Skytrax, Flyertalk & Trip Advisor, I found all kinds of reviews on how unreliable they are. Cancellations and excessive delays are normal. Many people also said that they are poor at communicating the reasons and length of the delays. I tried tweeting them to ask questions and got no reply.

Once you get in the air, the service is supposed to be good. If I were a backpacker with several weeks to travel around Madagascar, I would have gone for this cheaper nonstop option.

To help me decide on cost vs reliability, I checked Flightstats. Over the past 2 months, 7 out of 11 flights were either excessively delayed or cancelled.

Just before buying the ticket this is what happened on last Monday’s flight. Bear in mind that this flight is only twice a week and the Saturday’s flight 2 days prior had been cancelled. I don’t know if they made those passengers wait for this Monday flight or booked them onto the next departure on Air Mauritius or Air Austral.

This was the only flight to be THAT bad out of all arrivals to TNT that day. 2nd place went to a domestic flight with about 2.5 hour delay.

Since we would only a have a week in Madagascar to get to two of the best national parks for birds and lemurs, I just couldn’t take the risk. I checked the stats on Air Austral which is actually an EU based airline. They are based in Réunion, which is also one of the 27 regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral part of the Republic with the same status as those situated on the European mainland. Réunion is an outermost region of the European Union and, as an overseas department of France, is part of the Eurozone. EU airlines offer more protection.

Now this is more like it!

Sometimes it really pays to do your homework when you are considering airlines that aren’t familiar to you and you need to make decisions on cost vs timings & reliability. Both Air Austral & Air Madagascar have scheduled arrival times before noon. This is enough time to get to Andasibe and have a late afternoon of birding. Air Mauritius has an arrival time of 15:30 which means arriving at Andasibe after dark and delaying the birding trip to morning. I decided it was worth the extra $105 USD per person for the more reliable option and being able to spend more time in Madagascar.

Just Returned From Africa – Exhausted But Exhilirated

Posted on December 1, 2014 by Tara

This trip has been in the works for over a year and was originally planned for late 2015 and referred to as “The Mother of all African Adventures“. I decided to bring it forward to Nov 2014 because it relied heavily on United Mileage Plus and I had concerns that a devaluation could either make the trip impossible or knock us back to economy and since these flights were really long I wanted business class. I was also afraid that a change to United’s generous routing rules (better explained by Drew at Travel is Free) would kill my planned stopovers. This routing required both an open jaw and a stop-over and cost 320,000 miles in J class for both tickets.

United redemption on BR, CA, SA, ET & TG

I used British Airways Avios for some local routes on their South African partner, Comair.

Avios redemptions

The only paid ticket was Air Austral from MRU to TNR. The only way to get this route with miles is Flying Blue on Air Mauritius but the taxes make it poor value since it is not easy to get Flying Blue miles. Also, they didn’t fly on a Monday and I had no flexibility as I had specific places to go birding in Madagascar. I could have flown Air Madagascar but they have had so many problems with flight cancellations and long delays, I chose not to take the risk and went with Air Austral via Reunion.

Air Austral route

I did make great use of Flying Blue miles on Kenya Airways to get from Madagascar to Ghana, 35,000 for both of us!

Flying Blue redemption on KQ

HOTELS

Although most of the accommodation was in birding or safari lodges, I did burn through a bunch of hotel points in cities to keep costs down.

Port Elizabeth – Radisson Blu 38,000 points for 2 nights

JNB Airport – Intercontinental used Chase annual free night

Mauritius – Used Hilton Honors 40,000 points from each of our accounts for 2 nights at this newly renovated property.

Accra – Used IHG Rewards 20,000 per night for 1 night upon arrival and 2 nights post birding in Kakum for a birding day trip to Shai Hills.

Of course I will be blogging in detail about the travel and the fabulous birds we saw over the next couple months!

Should You Really Worry About Turbulence?

Posted on October 31, 2014 by Tara

“Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!”

Although turbulence can be uncomfortable and sometimes a bit scary, in truth, airline pilots are well trained to deal with it and modern aircraft are designed to withstand turbulence. More details can be found on the Conde Nast website. At worst, you may lose your lunch, but you are highly unlikely to lose your life!

Scoring The Best Possible Seat On The Plane

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Tara

With devaluations and miles becoming harder to earn, it’s getting more difficult to snag a coveted business class award. Some airlines simply won’t release them to partners at all anymore! (Air New Zealand, I’m looking at YOU!) Others like Singapore Airlines are starting to hold back business class until a couple weeks before travel which is bad news for eco-tourists since we usually have to plan ahead. The lady in this video describes a few tricks I use, especially about researching the plane and seating maps and trying with the check-in agent.

Another trick for couples is to book the window and aisle, leaving the middle seat vacant. If people have a choice, no one will choose a middle seat between two strangers. I’d say at least 80% of the time, Ina & I have gotten lucky and not had anyone choose our middle seat. If the flight is full, then I will offer the stranger my window seat and scoot over as we prefer to have easy aisle access.

Why You Really Need Lounge Access For An Overnight Layover

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Tara

This article shows some of the hilarious positions people get into when they try to catch some winks during an overnight layover. At least most lounges have comfortable couches you can stretch out on! My personal favourite is the guy who had the foresight to bring a hammock, but also check out the “camper” who is apparently happy to see someone!

Click on image to see more!

I’ve had to spend a few nights in airports, usually Auckland as connections between Australia and the Pacific Islands are terrible but at least they do have sofas where you can stretch out.

Goodbye Marquesas, Hello Papeete

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Tara

After 3 fantastic days on Ua Huka, sadly it was time to go. Our next destination would be Rimatara to see the spectacular Kuhl’s Lory. Since Air Tahiti only flies there 3 times a week, we had a day layover in Papeete which I will blog about soon. In the meanwhile, let’s farewell the Marquesas with a few shots from the plane and while changing planes in other islands. The Marquesas are stunning islands and if they weren’t so far from Tahiti (and Bora Bora much closer) they would be a top tourist destination, so maybe be glad they are remote!

Brief layover at Ua Pou – stunning island!

Friendly crew!

Changing planes at Nuku Hiva

Brief layover at Hiva Oa, they also have interesting endemic birds!

Back to Papeete, Tahiti!

Air Tahiti Flight: Papeete – Ua Huka, Marquesas

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Tara

You gotta love an airport where you can get lei’d first thing in the morning if you want!

The airport is buzzing from 5am onwards as people are checking in for departures at 6am onwards. The line is pretty long, no elite check-in so get there as early as you can! Fares are not cheap as I already posted!

Flights boarded right on time. People with children were called first, then all others walked to the plane and chose any open seat. We went for the “poor people’s business class” in the front. Not a great idea as seat arms don’t come up and we were last off the plane.

Air Tahiti’s domestic service is probably one of the more pleasant one-class flights you can take. On longer services to the Marquesas they aren’t able to sell every seat on the plane due to runway length and weight restrictions. The odds are pretty good you will have an empty seat next to you! Staff were very friendly but only coffee, tea or water were provided for free. We had brought the breakfast from the Tahiti Airport Motel as we weren’t prepared to eat at 5:30am! Snacks are available for purchase on board.

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Category Archives: Air Travel