British Airways has won OAG's airline of the year award, voted for by frequent fliers. It won best transatlantic airline, best Europe to Asia airline and best Europe to Australasia categories.
This is despite the fact that British Airways lost more bags in 2006 than any other major European airline, and the other troubles BA has had to deal with in the past year. These include, delays and cancellations due to severe fog at Christmas and hundreds of cancelled flights during the stringent anti-terrorist measures put in place at airports in the summer.

Labels: British Airways, Flights

Ryanair is the latest airline to claim their piece of the cheap transatlantic flights cake. Ryanair boss Michael O'leary has claimed that by the summer of 2009 we could expect flights to the US to be as low as £7 not including taxes. These flights will be to smaller airports, a method already used by the budget airlines to reduce cost. Long Island Islip MacArthur airport would be used for New York, Providence, Rhode Isalnd for Boston etc.
Transatlantic flights have recently been opened up to all airlines following the EU-US Open Skies agreement.
This news follows the news that Zoom will fly to New York from Gatwick starting from £129.

Labels: Flights, money saving, open skies

Zoom airline which mainly flies in Canada, is the first airline to take advantage of the Open Skies agreement and take on British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and the US carriers in announcing a Gatwick to JFK route for as little as £258 return. They claim this deal will provide savings of upto 70% over rivals prices.
Zoom will use the EasyJet model where prices rise as the planes seats fill up.

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Labels: air passenger duty, Flights, money saving, ope, open skies

The FT published an interesting article yesterday. Apparently if you miss a flight for whatever reason, even if the ticket is non-refundable, you have a good chance of getting at least your Government taxes back. read the FT.com article in full.
Most airlines do not advertise this fact and pocket the money, but there is however a catch to making a claim; Most airlines will charge you an administrative fee to process your tax refund. Having said that, with the recent increase in Air Passenger Duty (APD) that refund is becoming more worthwhile; especially on a long haul flight.

Remember, if you miss a flight, your first course of action should be to attempt to reschedule your flight. Your success will depend on which airline you bought your ticket from, and will almost definitely be subject to a charge.

Labels: air passenger duty, APD, Flights, money saving

Yesterday the EU approved an agreement to allow any European airline to make transatlantic flights from March 2008. At present only British Airways, Virgin Airlines, American Airlines and United Airlines can fly from Heathrow to the US.
Open Skies will be a good deal for passengers as it will open the routes into the states to competition from other airlines and will most likely bring prices down.
Hopefully in the coming weeks we'll hear announcements from the no frills airlines about new route plans taking advantage of the new rules when they take force next year.

Labels: Flights, open skies

Holiday Which? A consumer watchdog has revealed that traveling by train around Britain is more expensive than by plane or coach.
It goes on to say that advertised cheap rail fares are almost impossible to book.

The coach was the cheapest form of transport in the survey but took the longest, rail prices were the most expensive even if air tax of £20 was added to the return air fares.

Air travel is by far the most poluting (approx 9 times the amount of carbon emissions emitted per person) out of the three methods of transport surveyed however.

Labels: Flights, money saving