How often do you fly on Business or First Class

Quote: Pacomartin

But she was nervous as she had never flown a foreign airline in her life. I said I had never flown Interjet, but it sounded wonderful and my friend Nareed said they use it all the time for business. Now she is excited and is a lot less upset about the 4 hour drive. I did tell her that it was like Economy Plus (which she had never been on).

Tell her your friend Nareed guarantees a decent flight. But also to keep in mind that 1) there's no in-flight entertainment, so she should bring her own (no WiFi, either), 2) there's no in-flight meal, only a small snack, and 3) the spirits and beer are complimentary, but not offered in the drink cart in flights departing before 10:30 am; if she wants any that early, she has to ask for it.

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Sometimes I wonder if Canada-USA-Mexico should open up all domestic routes to airlines from each other's countries.

Up to me, I'd open all countries to airlines from all other countries.

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Airlines are heavily invested in each other anyway. Delta owns a big piece of Aeromexico, Ryan Air owns a chunk of Viva Aerobus, and Aviance in Colombia owns a big share of Volaris. In Europe most of the airlines are owned by other airline conglomerates (Etihad owns 49% of Alitalia, British Airways owns Iberia).

And that's what puts the fear of God into US Congresscritters, especially in the GOP. I can imagine the outcry, the torn vestments, the overblown rhetoric, and the yelling and carrying on if even a small, regional carrier were to sell 10% of its shares to a foreign airline.

It would be almost worth it to start a rumor that Lufthansa wants to buy 5% of American just to see the reaction.

This explains why despite lip-service commitment to free markets, North America hasn't integrated economically as Europe has done.

Very good, very in-depth, detailed collection of trip reports, mostly in business and first:

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/trip-report-index/

There are also reports of lounges and hotels.

Quote: Nareed

Very good, very in-depth, detailed collection of trip reports, mostly in business and first:

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/trip-report-index/

There are also reports of lounges and hotels.

Love Lucky's reviews. They really are fantastic. Theres one review in there somewhere where he flew from Europe to China only to be on the return flight on the same plane a couple of hours later. Lol Anyone wanting to travel in premium cabins on the cheap should definitely read his blog because there is some great info there. Forums like flyertalk are fantastic resources too where you'll find enthusiasts who will be more than happy to help.

I got a bit of premium treatment recently when I received, unsolicited, a priority card from a bank.

This bank has no standing lines. Instead a machine at the entrance issues you a turn and you have a seat until your number comes up.

So lets say you go in and they're on number 145. The machine will issue you something like 157, for example. With the priority card, you're put in a different, and usually shorter, queue. So you see turn 145 is up, and your turn comes out as 6. So you get to see the board announcing turns change from 145 to 6.

It's really nice not to have to wait 10-15 minutes for your turn. And on days when the bank's packed, the time savings are on the order of 20-30 minutes,

The funny thing is that's the bank where the company deposits my petty cash funds. So almost all I do there is withdraw money.

One thing I've noticed lately in reviews of business class flights, is the penchant for a 1-2-1 configuration (any style). It's also known as direct aisle access, since every passenger has the aisle right there.

I understand why that would be important, especially on long flights. It must be very awkward to step over another passenger's bed to use the toilet mid flight, and annoying as hell to have another passenger step over yours and wake you up (never mind that's common on coach, even without beds...)

But it gets me thinking, because now and then you still hear of older products, in a variety of airlines and plane types, with a 2-2-2 configuration. The new style has 4 passengers per row, vs 6 for old style. I can't help but decide this increases the ticket price, or should, unless service goes way, way, way down to compensate (and I find the latter hard to believe).

Alternatively, business cabins might be made longer, that is adding more rows, and reducing the economy rows by 4 or 6. After all, the premium seats make more money for the airline, right?

Recently my mom flew from MIA to MEX on Aeromexico. She told me she was booted off her Clase Premier seat, but has left so many facts out of her account, that I can't even guess what happened. It doesn't help she constantly uses the wrong terms (like making no distinction between "ticket" and "boarding pass"), and her account of what happened after boarding begins with breakfast 13 hours earlier...

So I don't know why I'm even posting this.