Keith T

Personally the upside for this might be a much stronger case for AA/BA antitrust immunity, as the transatlantic competitive position is looking to be in *A's favour when open skies is taken into acct. Official announcement on their website: http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/apps/...t.aspx?i=PRNEWS Note the following:

CO to join *A! http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/19/...es-Alliance.php http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5846440.html

A friend works for a lobbying firm in Vienna acting for LH in relation to the OS deal. He said that LH-OS is pretty much a done deal. I responded that in the airline industry anything can happen (and facts are often mixed in with a whole lot of rumour and fantasy anyway), but he was quite confident about it and apparently they'd covered all possible bases (OS itself, parliament etc) that precludes anything but a deal with LH.

There are a couple of secret forums that are set up to share such deals. Unfortunately I've never been a big participant or contributor to the mistake fare/mileage run forum (my specialty is more in RTWs ) so I haven't got an invite, but i do get sent stuff from time to time. A problem with such an open forum like FT is when a mistake fare, or even an ludicrously cheap ex- gets discovered and put up, one of either 3 things will occur: - An airline lurker will spot the mistake/anomaly and pull the fare. - Some eejit won't be able to wait to get their hands on their favourite seat, insert upgrade coupons etc and will ring up the airline and alert the airline to the fare. - People who have no experience will try to bend various rules of the fare and take too much advantage of it, sending red flags to rates desks and hence either causing the fare to be pulled or raised. So a lot of the good deals have now gone 'underground' as a result. For ex-Australia deals (both legitimate and mistakes/anomalies - though it's rare for the latter to appear ex-Oz) try Australian Frequent Flyer: www.frequentflyer.com.au/community

Ex-LAX: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=834926 USD468 AI LAX-SYD/MEL. SV - I will of course pass on anything I find. From a marketing perspective though I'm not surprised QF is choosing to target the overseas market first since they have a core following in Australia. But never say never - keep an eye out.

Ex-UK special: http://www.qantas.com.au/regions/dyn/eu/gb...380offertext:ht

QF A380 Schedule: http://www.qantas.com.au/info/flying/A380/schedule Inaugural routes: MEL-LAX vv SYD-LAX vv SYD-SIN-LHR vv

I was referring to JCL. Thankfully trans tasman availability is aplenty so pretty easy to change dates. They do have PTVs but non-AVOD. No not the green whY seats. It's exactly the same as 744s in whY. Not sure if they have new seat covers so it'd be either blue (unrefurbished) or salmon (refurbished) in whY. Still, nicer than the intl 767s they run to HNL, MNL and CGK.

They used to (still ??) run 743s on some of the transcons, but they've got 332s to do that now, and soon domestic config 332s. I suspect that the 744 has been sent to maintenance for the period the 743 is on, but don't quote me on that one. The other 2 class 744s are sent to SIN/FRA and JNB in certain months so I guess AKL/LAX gets sacrificed. Lots of livid pax on my friends' flight AKL-LAX (and to be fair the change occurred without much notice; quite a long flight for the dreamtime seating too) and i think QF offered a cash voucher to those who complained even though they're under no obligation to comp for eqp chg. The CSM himself was mortified and handed out free bottles of wine in J as onboard comp, but unfortunately lots of people were on connections out of LAX and so couldn't accept the nice gesture due to the 'no liquids' rule.

From 09JUN-03AUG, QF25/26 MEL-AKL-LAX vv is operated by 743 on 1/3/5 - dreamtime cradle style seating in J, no AVOD. On other days - 332 - skybeds in J and AVOD in Y. The 743 cabin looks really old. Ok for a short flight I suppose...

Oops one more....SZB.

I can assure you that the tour was v much memorable.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,2605...0-27977,00.html Tough times for the Queensland tourist industry.

I knew I'd left something out, one more: DXB

I think I posted JL's media release in the OW forum some time ago regarding the above. With these things, anything can happen so I prefer to adopt a 'wait and see' approach. IMO MH will be a dream recruit for ST - a high quality (despite recent cost cuts) airline in a strategic region with a healthy balance sheet and good network.

At the top of my head for now.... MEL SYD CBR OOL MCY AKL ZQN CHC WLG SIN JHB KUL PEN LGK BKK DMK HKT HKG (both current and old) PVG PEK NRT HND KIX ITM LHR LGW EDI DUB CDG ZRH GVA FCO MLA AMS BCN FRA LAX SFO LAS SAN ORD PHL LGA JFK BOS DCA IAD DFW MIA MSY Sorry I only know the IATA codes, not the ICAO ones.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...1-23349,00.html

Wasn't CX a founding member of OW? Or are you talking about events prior to OW's official launch in 1999? I recall that part of the reason MH failed to join OW was because of CX's resistance. I think it was in 2000 that QF approached MH, offering to set up some joint venture which would eventually lead to MH's membership of OW. edit - here's the article from way back about QF's efforts to court MH: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CW...e_6/ai_62527183 From a pax perspective OW does need a bigger SE Asian presence as HKG is hardly convenient as a SE Asian hub. However observing the way the main players (notably BA) operate they're more likely to recruit a "lesser" airline like VN than one which will create intra alliance competition on premier routes. Look at the conditions BA sought to place on LX for its membership bid (I wept when I read that LX was released from the OW MOU), and the recent recruits like MA, RJ and MX - they all do not have any significant duplication of the established players in their networks. JL is an exception but then again they've been trying to recruit JL forever, even before OW was officially announced. I too am hoping for some sort of miracle that leads to MH joining OW as I really enjoyed my flights with MH, they're relatively cheap at the pointy end and I'd love to fly with them again, but the reality is it seems pretty unlikely.

Much better! Looks smarter, more professional and corporate IMO.

V devastating for the CNS tourism industry. But alas such is the reality of the airline business...

Been trying to work out how to get an 'invitation letter' required by the Russian embassy to obtain a visa. I suppose the hotel in Russia should be able to help? Failing which I guess I'd just book a phantom local tour. DME-ORD does look like a nice long route I could use a DONEx on.

It just struck me how everything has hit all of a sudden, or as the boss of AF-KL Jean-Cyril Spinetta put it in an article I read (sorry can't find it now) - it's all hit "violently and quickly." I mean, we all knew fuel costs were quite high for a while but things seemed rather rosy until a few months ago. And it's not just the usual suspects in North America in trouble either, you know things ARE bad when one of the world's most profitable airlines is in distress.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/jobs-ser...80530-2k02.html

AA's JFK-STN service didn't last long at all! They're downsizing their SJU hub and I'm having a fun time reissuing a an open dated RTW ticket which has segments that now no longer exist.

Or they've hired some v competent PR staff.