Ethiopian, the first African carrier to receive the Boeing 787, is now putting up a daily service to Mumbai from 11th November onwards with their 787. The initial plan for this service was 25 November, but ET brings it up ahead and replacing the Boeing 767 which flew this route earlier. As per AirlineRoute.net, here is the schedule of the flights: Addis Ababa – Mumbai Service begins from 11NOV12, previously planned from 25NOV12 ET610 ADD2120 – 0450+1BOM 788 DET611 BOM0540 – 0800ADD 788 D ET611 with 787 service from 12NOV12 Ethiopian is a Star Alliance member airline, and their 787 looks amazing from the inside, as compared to national carrier Air India’s 787. This gives one more option to those…
Star Alliance
Tag Archives for Star Alliance.
Did you get your Star Alliance Gold Status with Turkish yet?
In May this year, I had posted about the Turkish Airlines status match offer, where I had written that the top tier members from all three alliances (Star Alliance, oneworld as well SkyTeam). Yes, you read it right, TK is the only airline to status match into Star Alliance Gold tier as well. All you have to do, is send an email to customermiles@thy.com with a scan of your other airline FFP membership card and account statement (this is a requirement to receive both). Turkish is still matching, which means easy status The status match is valid for 2 years from the date of upgrade, and to renew, all you need to do is bank 25K status miles (on any…
Indian Government admits to being partisan to Lufthansa
I was just about to shut my laptop after writing my last post on the Air India – Star Alliance wriggle. But I just happened to note a new news report from The Economic Times, which also got a soundbyte from the aviation minister of India at the same place Reuters got its news from. For posterity sake, rather than quoting the article, let me leave a screenshot, because stories can be refiled online after an intervention. Now, let me quote the relevant bits: Civil Aviation minister told media that Lufthansa, which is the founding member of Star Alliance, was given a lot of benefits to ensure that Air India joins the grouping. “I believe a lot of facilities were…
Air India is back to Lufthansa for Star Alliance again
You have to give it to Air India, they are making an attempt unparalleled in history to join an alliance. When they had the ball in their court, they just wouldn’t move fast enough and took 4 long years getting ready for integration. As a result, last year Air India was given the boot from Star Alliance, making them the first airline ever to be thrown out before joining. Jet Airways was extended the official invite to join the alliance instead. Now, Air India has gone back to Lufthansa for the nth time to ask for their assistance in getting into the little circle of airlines. This has been reported by Reuters today. India plans to ask Germany’s Lufthansa AG…
Buck up: Sign up to win a seat on the StarMegaDo here! [Prize too!]
Hello folks, just a quick reminder that I’m participating in the BoardingArea giveaway where almost all the BoardingArea bloggers are participating. If you want to get a shot at the charter flight, aviation geekdom fun and everything happening alongside from November 13-17, you should enter here! Once you head there, you’ll also find yourself another 30 shots at winning the mega giveaway. Remember, this one is open till 23:59 Hours Mountain Time on October 7, 2012 and you can participate once on each blog. And to encourage a few blog readers in India to sign up, for those of whom who belong to India and participate in the official entry post all of 5th October 2012 (till 23:59 IST), I…
Get closer to your free ticket to the Star MegaDo here…
AvGeek or not, this should definitely interest you. A MegaDo, as some of us airplane and travel nerds define it, is an opportunity to get behind the scenes with airlines and alliances and see how an airline works. I was on the oneworld MegaDo in January 2012, and I met people from all over who were excited about flying. Check out the full details of that experience here. Here are a few of the experiences we shared: A simulated water evacuation A trip to the Boeing 737 plant in Everett Inside the charter flight…at 35K feet BoardingArea is giving away a couple of seats on the StarMegaDo 4 charter this year. You get to hobnob with the United executives, fly…
Will Jet Airways not go on to Star Alliance? What??
I know this makes no sense and it is getting ridiculous by the day. This game of playing hard to get and keeping everyone guessing seems to be not exactly some sort of charm offensive anymore Jet Airways seems to want to show with its alliance suitors. I noted in a post on the 1st of August, that Star Alliance had finally extended a formal invitation to Jet Airways to hop on board. Then, a few weeks later, it did look like Jet Airways seemed to have nailed its spot because the Air India pressures of joining before Jet Airways were going away. Now, if all this is true, then I am not sure what to make of this report…
Star Alliance members Lufthansa and Singapore Air open Delhi Lounges
Delhi Airport’s Terminal 3 is clearly the new hotbed of action for airlines. The benefit of a new terminal are clearly showing. While Indian carriers are still using contract lounges at their hub airports, oneworld airlines were depending on the Kingfisher First lounge, which is now closed. Emirates was the first off the mark, opening an exclusive lounge in Delhi. News now is that over the past one month, both Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines have opened up new lounges in Delhi T3 on the international side. Lufthansa opened up a lounge in Delhi T3 yesterday, a week after putting their second Boeing 747-8i into service there. This is Lufthansa’s first lounge in Asia designed according to the new global design…
Are the stars aligning for Jet Airways in Star Alliance? Air India is now a no go!
Things have an interesting way to move around in the Indian aviation sector. Air India took 4 long years to be ready for the *A, and eventually their membership was put on hold. Last week, a full year after the Air India membership being put on hold, I wrote about Jet Airways’ formal invitation to join the Star Alliance being made public, and how it would work out for Jet Airways. In a press report by a major Indian financial news paper, which is actually an interview with India’s civil aviation minister, it now comes to light that Star Alliance has responded last week to Air India in the negative and the Government of India will be supportive of Jet…
Star Alliance and Jet Airways – 3rd time lucky?
I don’t know if the timing of this bit of news was timed such, but the formal announcement of Jet Airways seeking Government of India’ permission to join the Star Alliance came out in the open exactly a year after Air India’s joining the alliance was put on hold. A news report published in the Mint (an editorial collaboration with the WSJ) last night puts out in the open what has been long known to be Jet Airways’ and Star Alliance’s secret ambition. After Air India’s attempts to join *A faulted and Kingfisher Airlines shrunk rapidly to keep out of oneworld, this is the third attempt of an Indian carrier to join an airline alliance. A meeting between Jet Airways…
Turkish Airlines’ still status matching to Star Alliance Gold
A couple of months back I wrote that Turkish Airlines was freely matching top-tier elites from SkyTeam, oneworld and even Star Alliance to their own program Miles & Smiles. While we would have expected that this opportunity would have quickly closed out, it turns out that Turkish is still out there matching up folks to its program, though various people report a hit and miss scenario. Some have received their status match confirmation in a day while others have not heard for over a few weeks. My brother, who is an elite on another airline and ends up flying Star Alliance to and around the USA a couple of times a year, received his match earlier this week within 24…
