After trying out the Air China First Class from Houston to Panama City, here comes Air China in Economy Class on both regional and short haul flight.
My recently concluded family trip to Fukuoka was on Air China via Beijing. At only $2.8k for 6 person, this is an excellent price as the price for Singapore Airlines for the same date came up to $9.2k! Top up another $400 and you can get yourself on Air China Business class which frankly is not a bad deal.
After 1.5 weeks in Texas and Panama, it was time for us to move on to our final stop – New York. Without any fifth freedom flights from Star Alliance, I am left with either Copa Airlines or United Airlines. While United Airlines had a slightly better timing, redeeming a ticket can be rather challenging. Copa Airlines on the other hand can be redeemed directly from the Krisflyer portal without any issue. Although there are 3 flights into JFK, neither is good and only CM 804 was available for redemption (for my travel date). The redemption cost is 30,000 miles per person in Business Class.
I had written on it before and this is just and update. The flight is pretty much similar except that TV is available and they even distribute headphones on such a short journey.
They also finally have an airside lounge, which is still a third party lounge (Sama-sama lounge)
We had to do a last minute trip to Wuhan for a few days. It was unfortunate that we had to give up the same ticket we redeemed in September using the 50% discount on spontaneous escape. I had wrote a brief review on Silkair Economy Class for our travel in June (exact destination) and let’s see how does Silkair’s Business Class stand?
SilkAir is the regional arm of Singapore Airlines which had its humble beginnings as Tradewinds Airlines back in 1989. It was incorporated as SilkAir in 1992 and since then it has been operating regional flights spanning South East Asia, East Asia, South Asia and Northern Australia. It operates only narrowbodies (Boeing 737 and Airbus A319/A320). Recently, they have acquired 5 new 737 MAX as part of their fleet expansion programme.
Although fully owned by Singapore Airlines and one can earn/redeem Krisflyer Miles on SilkAir, it is not part of the Star Alliance group. What it means is that Business Class travellers cannot access Star Alliance Business Lounge using SilkAir boarding pass. Nevertheless, they can still access the Silverkris Lounge in Changi Airport Terminal 2 and designated SilkAir Business Lounges abroad.
Looking forward to my upcoming long trip (after my last one in 2015). Will be doing the following reviews:
I recently concluded my short Seoul getaway. I bought the tickets in September when MAS had a promotion at $1068 (incl. tax) for Business Class (which was a great price). During the October promotion, the price went down further to $1018, otherwise the normal price was about $1900-2000. 2016 is the year MAS introduced the new J seats progressively and I managed to catch the new seats just in time as the changeover for Seoul happened on 31 October.
Despite the excellent price, there were a few disadvantages of this flight. Firstly, the KUL transit. This can be mitigated either by taking an 830pm flight to KUL (leaving just slightly less than 2 hours of transit time) or one can opt for a morning flight and spend half a day in Kuala Lumpur instead. The flight time between Kuala Lumpur and Seoul is about 6.5 hours, leaving you barely any time for nap (especially with the meal service factored in). Lastly, the return flight from Seoul is 11am, hence one full day is wasted. If you are willing to compromise on these, MH J at this price is definitely a steal!
As a kid, I used to hold Malaysia Airlines in high esteem and would feel proud whenever I get to fly on MAS. But those flights were limited only to short haul flights on their old regional workhorse, the 737-400 (back then, flying was really expensive!). My first redeye flight on MAS was on a 777-200ER to Melbourne in 2002. It was quite exciting going on a 777 back then, although the 2-5-2 arrangements in Economy wasn’t exactly my favorite (but hey, getting to travel on a plane back then was already a luxury). My first and only long haul flight with MAS was in 2007 to London and my experience on that flight was far from satisfactory. By then, MAS was a shadow of its former self and was nowhere near their glorious past. It took me another 6 years before I gave MAS a try again. The trip was on MH73 from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur on one of their brand new A380-800 followed by MH 609 back to Singapore on a 737-800.
That Time Of The Year! 