'Monthly Smart Saver' Hot Sale (Decent business class on CX/Cathay out of Taiwan)

http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_TW/offerspromotions/offerslanding?refID=81ad120f5c033210VgnVCM62000007d21c39____&WAcampid=TPE_OFFERS_MSS10&WAemail=SALES

 

Cathay Pacific/Visa Business Class Offers (from Malaysia)

http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_MY/offerspromotions/offerslanding?refID=0ad2e0450f876210VgnVCM62000007d21c39____&WAcampid=KUL_OFFERS_VISAFEB10&WAemail=SALES

 

 

Special fares in Business class! (Air France: India-USA, India-Europe)

http://www.airfrance.com/IN/en/local/resainfovol/meilleuresoffres/marketing_1109_J_WorldAllinclu.htm?

 

 

 

Business Class Special Deals! (on CX from Kuala Lumpur & Penang)

http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_MY/offerspromotions/offerslanding?refID=d6758957ea054210VgnVCM1000000ad21c39____&WAcampid=KUL_OFFERS_BIZDEALOCT09&WAemail=HOME

 

 

 

Business Class Super Saver (on CX from Seoul & Pusan)

http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_KR/offerspromotions/offerslanding?refID=8ad148c3a6e94210VgnVCM1000000ad21c39____&WAcampid=SEL_OFFERS_SUPER&WAemail=HOME#mo

 

http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_KR/offerspromotions/offerslanding?refID=8ad148c3a6e94210VgnVCM1000000ad21c39____&priority=2

 

 

Business Class Super Saver to Australia (Cathay Pacific)

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_LK/offerspromotions/offerslanding?refID=ba98d7c60ad06210VgnVCM62000007d21c39____&WAcampid=CMB_OFFERS_AUSFARE2010&WAemail=SALES

 

 

Lufthansa Miles & More Status Match in Romania

http://milesandmore-aktionen.de/status/pdf/Status_Fax_Online_RU_EN.pdf

 

 

Lufthansa Miles & More Status Match in Hungary

http://milesandmore-aktionen.de/status/?cc=HU_EN

 

Enjoy complimentary upgrade on JetPrivilege

http://www.hsbc.co.in/1/2/hsbcpremier/privileges-and-rewards/upgrade-your-status-on-jetprivilege

 

Timeline: How Boeing's commercial aircraft have evolved

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/flatpages/businesstechnology/boeingdreamlinertimeline.html

 

Lufthansa Miles & More-status match in Baltics

http://milesandmore-aktionen.de/status/?cc=EE_EN

http://milesandmore-aktionen.de/status/?cc=LV_EN

http://milesandmore-aktionen.de/status/?cc=LT_EN

 

 

Enjoy United Premier status in 2010

http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,53252,00.html?jumpLink=%2Fvisastatus

 

 

Mileage Run Deals

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals-372/

 

Lufthansa (LH): BLR-SFO-BLR RT business class (Z fare) ~$3K

Lufthansa (LH): BLR-SFO-BLR RT business class (Z fare) ~$3K

 

 

LH business 2 for 1: India - Europe/US

http://www.lufthansa.com/online/portal/lh/in/specials/booking?nodeid=2784300&l=en&cid=1000267&specialid=9591&blt_p=IN&blt_l=en&blt_t=Homepage&blt_e=Homepage%20-%20Hero&blt_n=Two%20is%20Company&blt_z=More%20flight%20offers&blt_c=IN|en|Homepage|Homepage%20-%20Hero|Two%20is%20Company|More%20flight%20offers

 

LH, BLR-SFO RT; less than $3K AI in business

BLR-HKG, KA is 3080 miles and CX is 3070

 

Cathay CX; TPE-HKG-SFO Business Class RT AI $2190 USD

 

CMB-DOH-NBO RT AI Qatar Business ~$1100 on Expedia

 

Lufthansa M&M Status Match Offer (for Finnish Residents)

http://milesandmore-aktionen.de/status/?cc=FI_EN

 

Star Alliance Status Match Offer (for Hong Kong Residents)

http://www.staralliance.com/hongkong

 

Decent ~$2100 TPE-NRT-SFO business class on JAL; Expedia

 

 

Decent ~$2100 TPE-ICN-LAX business class on OZ (Asiana); Expedia

 

Decent TPE-SFO RT Business Class Fare on United @ $2575

 

Excellent ICN-(First)-NRT-(Business)-SFO RT fare on OZ & UA $1872

Excellent BLR-SFO RT fare on LH Business

 

United Airlines wide body schedule

http://www.unitedcargo.com/schedules/Widebody.pdf

Very good India - US business class fare on Lufthansa (LH), sample BLR-SFO attached

DEL-NYC, RT, AI, Business ~$2300, KLM/NW

DEL-NYC, Round trip, all included (tax+fare), business class, ~$2300, KLM/NW

Lufthansa (LH): good price BLR-SFO RT in Biz ~$3400

Decent BKK-SFO RT Biz fare on ANA ~$3100 AI

OK MAA-SFO business fare on EK of ~$4K

Great MAA-JFK Biz fare on Qatar of ~$2700

Great BLR-KUL biz fare of $708 on 9W (Jet Airways)

Great BLR-KUL biz fare of $708 on 9W (Jet Airways)

Great BLR-NYC Biz Fare of ~$3400 on BA, LH

Great BLR-NYC Biz Fare of ~$3400 on BA, LH

LH does not expose all fares to OTA's including Kayak

Following Z fare for BLR-SFO ~$4K is only available on LH website:

Decent Business Class Fares: BLR-NYC ~$4K on EK A380, MAA-SFO ~$4K on CX

Decent RT Biz fare of ~$2500 AI for CMB-NYC/IAD on Qatar

Decent RT Biz fare of ~$2500 AI for CMB-NYC/IAD on Qatar. May be of interest to folks in South Asia and even middle east.

CMB - Africa EK 1st class: amazing fares! CMB - NBO RT AI $1465

CMB-Africa, EK 1st class: amazing fares! Ex: CMB-NBO RT AI $1465!

BLR - Middle East (ex:KWI): great premium fares!

With Emirates (2) daily (& few times (3) daily/week) to BLR and Jet's recent foray into Middle East, premium fares are quite reasonable!

KWI + http://www.jazeeraairways.com/default.aspx to Cyprus, Egypt, Istanbul, etc provides great vacation opportunities!

Useful tools for frequent travelers

Following are some of the useful tools for frequent travelers:

http://www.seatguru.com/

http://www.expertflyer.com/

http://www.kvstool.com/

ITA is a useful tool!

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/prego (login as guest)

Following is from:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=327261

First up: how to specify the booking code

The extensions to the routing language are accessed by postpending commands after a '/'. There's a wide set of commands available, but there's no description of them available on the ITA web site. Unfortunately, each command applies only to one part of the trip, so they must usually be entered in each box.

CONSTRAINING BOOKING CODES:

Command is: "f bc=X" or "f bc=X|bc=Y|..."
Ex: Limit each part of the trip to travel on United and booking in the
L booking-code:
from: BOS:: ua+ / f bc=l
to : LAX:: ua+ / f bc=l
Or with multiple booking-code choices and no airline restriction:
from: BOS::/ f bc=l|bc=m|bc=y
to : LAX::/ f bc=l|bc=m|bc=y


Here's another unpublished feature of the ITA software. This one allows you to specify the fare basis code.

I'm no expert on fare basis codes, but I suspect this will be useful to some FTers.

The extensions to the itasoftware routing language are accessed by postpending commands after a '/'. There's a wide set of commands available, but there's no description of them available on the ITA web site. Unfortunately, each command applies only to one part of the trip, so they must usually be entered in each box.

CONSTRAINING FARE BASIS CODES:

Command is: "f CC.AAA+BBB.FFFFF" or "f CC.AAA+BBB.FFFFF|..."
where CC is carrier code, AAA and BBB are fare origin
and destination city, FFFFF is fare basis code

Ex: fare only with NW BOS-LAX YUP fares:
from: BOS::/ f nw.bos+lax.yup
to : LAX::/ f nw.bos+lax.yup

Ex: fare with either YUP or F fares on any airline and between any
points:
from: BOS::/ f ..yup|..f
to : LAX::/ f ..yup|..f

Ex: fare using only "through" fares
from: BOS::/ f .bos+lax.
to : LAX::/ f .bos+lax.

Ex: fare using only NW YUP fares or UA F fares:
from: BOS::/ f nw..yup|ua..f
to : LAX::/ f nw..yup|ua..f


PREVENTING AIRLINES

Command is "-airlines XX ..."
Ex: prohibit Jet Blue or Delta
from: BOS ::/ -airlines B6 DL
to: LAX ::/ -airlines B6 DL

RESTRICTING TO AIRLINES

Command is "airlines XX ..."
Ex: consider only Jet Blue or Delta
from: BOS ::/ airlines B6 DL
to: LAX ::/ airlines B6 DL

LIMIT DURATION OF ITINERARY, IN MINUTES

Command is "maxdur XXX"
Ex: no more than 5hrs for each part of trip
from: BOS ::/ maxdur 300
to: LAX ::/ maxdur 300

PREVENT OVERNIGHT STOPS, AIRPORT CHANGES, REDEYES, PROPELLOR PLANES,
TRAINS, HELICOPTERS, ANY KIND OF SURFACE TRAVEL
Commands are "-overnight", "-change", "-redeye", "-prop", "-train", "-helicopter", "-surface"
Ex: no overnight stops, no airport chanes, no redeyes, no propellor planes
from: BOS ::/ -overnight, -change, -redeye, -prop
to: LAX ::/ -overnight, -change, -redeye, -prop

SET MINIMUM OR MAXIMUM TIME FOR CONNECTIONS, IN MINUTES

Commands are "minconnect XX", "maxconnect XX"
Ex: no less than one hour, no more than two hour connections
from: BOS ::/ minconnect 60, maxconnect 120
to: LAX ::/ minconnect 60, maxconnect 120

EXTRA CONNECTION TIME

Command is "padconnect XX"
Ex: require at least 20 minutes more than airline recommended
minimum connection time
from: BOS ::/ padconnect 20
to: LAX ::/ padconnect 20

PUTTING LOTS OF THINGS TOGETHER

Separate with commas.
Ex:
from: BOS :: UA UA / f bc=l|bc=y, -redeye, -prop
to: LAX :: UA+ / f ua.bos+lax.yup, padconnect 20, -overnight

OTA (Orbitz, MakeMyTrip, etc) versus Meta Search (Kayak, DoHop, etc)

Pure play Airline OTA's (MakeMyTrip, ClearTrip, etc) are challenged with Airlines cutting travel agent ticket commissions to almost zero! Meta search engine's such as DoHop, etc compare fares across airlines and redirect transactions to the respective airline sites. Meta search engine's business model is ad & referral based and also do not incur credit card/transaction processing fees unlike airline OTA's! Hence meta airline search engine business model is little saner than airline OTA's business model. Probably we will see a shift of airline OTA's to package/hotel OTA's.

Not all meta search engines are equal!

Meta search engines such as DoHop.com constructs multiple tickets to provide best fare. Example: BLR-GAU on DoHop & Kayak: