Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Fare Sale Alert- Los Angeles to Dallas

Sunset over DFW

It's that time again- American Airlines is having a quick (could end any time) sale on flights from LAX to DFW for this fall.  Dates are currently available for October through early December 2017.  Prices start at $79 round trip, including all fees!  This happened briefly last year & I made the most of it.

Google Flights at time of posting
 
To see what's available, the quickest way is to head over to Google Flights and search for LAX to DFW round trip and scroll through the calendar.  This year American seems to be rolling out some of these great fares throughout the year.  A month or so ago, they had round trips to Chicago for $81, so who knows what all they'll open up over the next month.
 
Even more fun, many of the cheap flights to Dallas put you on bigger planes- the 777 or 787, making upgrades a great experience since they'll be into lie-flat international style business class seats!  But these fares will disappear quickly, so grab them while you can!
 
~CruisingAltitude

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Yes, This Is Real Life Part 4: Welcome to Ghost...Port?

Our a350 from the tarmac.  Yes, despite having no flights and no passengers, they somehow couldn't find us a jetbridge. Really?

You could hear a pin drop in the Doha airport today.  It's calming, bizarre, and if I'm being honest, a little creepy.....I frikkin' love it.  
 
Imagine you touched down and de-planed in JFK to find that the population of the entire airport is about 300, plus staff.  You'd pretty well assume the world was ending, right? 
 
Just about the only ones on the way to immigration.
Well, we know that hasn't happened (at least not in the Hollywood action sense) but you wouldn't know that in Doha right now.  Sure, no one is running around screaming about the end of the world with their hair on fire, but it's unsettling nonetheless. 

Completely empty customs and baggage hall.
 
There's more staff than passengers by far, and we're literally (using the term correctly) the only people at each checkpoint.  I'd say we're the only ones in line, but using he term 'line' wouldn't really be correct...since it's just us....and we're only two people.  The bathrooms have more people cleaning them than using the facilities, and we get asked if we need directions multiple times in minutes by idle staff.  The thing is, we don't need directions, we know the way from here.
 
Lots of red up there....
 
The way out since we're legitimate premium passengers this time around, is through the designated business class customs...lounge... I suppose you could call it?  On the way to baggage and customs, you have to clear immigration as per usual, but not be outdone, Qatar has made even this process luxurious.  You check in at the lounge, which is basically a large room with nice chairs, some light refreshments, coffee, tea and the like, and when you're ready to exit, you just proceed to the dedicated customs desks at the other side.
 
 
The entrance to the immigration 'lounge.'
 
As was the case with the rest of the airport, this too was basically an empty room except for us and the staff.  No fighting for seats here.  We didn't wait around too long, since we had a room at the Grand Hyatt to check into for the night.  Since you can now apply in advance for a free transit visa, I didn't have to pay the $25 entry fee, which was nice on a short layover. 
 
I learned a thing or two about this process, and the ways it works and doesn't in planning and taking this trip.  Long story short, you can have only one visa application at a time, and you have to apply at least 7 days in advance.  You can also get a free visa if you have the right length of layover to be able to participate in QR's stopover package on a premium itinerary. (More on the ins and outs of this later)
 
Yes, this is what premium immigration lines look like in Doha.  This is also not to be confused with the actual 'Arrivals Lounge' past customs, which has far more than this.
 
After a brief look around, and getting our passports stamped, we headed out through the empty customs hall, and grabbed a cab to the hotel.  It was about a 30 minute ride, and there was hardly anyone out, or any traffic.  This is probably due to the perfect storm of the travel embargo, Ramadan....and the oppressive summer heat.  In any case, the city looked to be more or less an echo of the ghost town that the airport was.  Like I said, a bit unnerving..... and I frikkin' love it. 
 
What's a mileage run, if not the search for truly unique experiences?
 

Yes, This Is Real Life Part 3: Shades On, Wheels Up

 

The trip so far:

Preview: Yes, This Is Real Life

Part 1: Location Location Location

Part 2: Brits in Beantown

Now, on to the real flying- our first Qatar Airways flight of the run.  I have to grudgingly admit that Airbus did a good job with the a350, there's no denying it.  Now, as I've said, I'm a Seattle native.  Not just a Seattle native, but a North of SEA, Boeing hometown, kinda native.  As such, I'm pre-conditioned to be skeptical of anything that doesn't get designed and built in Everett.  

And I'm right.  I'm absolutely right with respect to the a319...and the a320 series.  Give me an MD80 or a 737 over those any day.  The a330 also doesn't knock my socks off, I'd prefer the 777 line.  However, I'll cave and give them props for being daring enough to put the a380 into production, and the a350 is a fair answer to the Dreamliner model.  
 

Flying the DOH-BOS route, I've gotten to check it out a couple of times so far.  The a350 has some features that set it apart as a pretty boy of a plane (yes, I'm jetlagged, deal with it.  People are dealing with stuff now).  The first thing you notice is that it has its 'shades on' from the get-go- the cockpit windows are tinted and appear black from the outside.  It was probably a functional design spec, but there's no denying it's sexy as hell.  Well, if you're a confirmed avgeek, that is.  
 

In flight, the size is formidable, giving a smooth ride, and if you grab a window seat, the elegantly curved winglet will make your in-flight pictures even more snazzy.  Allegedly, they've implemented the lower pressurization and higher humidity that Boeing put in place with the 787.  Being pressurized at less than the standard 8,000 ft density altitude should make you feel better and less dried out when you get to your destination.  I will say I've felt good getting off both 787 and 350 flights, but that could be the air, or the good sleep I got in their comfy business class seats.  I'll try to pay better attention next time. 

 
So now that that larger love fest is in place, let me give you the small, nitpicking complaints.  I flew this route in reverse in February, so just a couple of feelings about it.  

First off, try as they will, Airbus has IFE issues.  On the 321 it skips, and cuts in and out in turbulence.  Seriously.  One the 350, the sound occasionally did the same. There's really no excuse for this, and I won't make any.  While we're on the topic of IFE, they could cycle through their TV offerings a little more frequently.  I'm pretty sure a lot of it was overlap from 5 months earlier. 
 
The other issues I had, and they're admittedly small...though I would argue important to an airline trying to keep up this mythical 'world's only 5 Star airline' cache, is that in just the span of a few months since I last flew this route, they've already downgraded the service. 
 
 
The two things that stand out immediately are the amenity kit, which has gone from an Armani branded one with a full size hand lotion, generous perfume or cologne, and other goodies, to their current kit, which has much smaller samples, no perfume, etc.  The container itself might be a slight improvement, but I miss the Armani. 
 
 
The other notable change is a downgrade in their Champagne from Tattinger Blanc de Blancs, to Billecart-Salmon Brut.  I fully realize that this sounds like the most petty complaint, but like I said, this airline's entire marketing scheme focuses on being superior and offering a particularly luxurious business class experience. 
 
If their motto was 'sit here and eventually we'll get you someplace else, and then you'll be in that place and so deal with it until then,' like most American carriers' business model has become, that would be different, but premium is pretty much what QR has going for them, and the first thing on every drinks menu is the bubbly.  Details matter.
 
 
That said, the service is still head and shoulders above any US based carrier, bar none.  As is the case with most all of their mid and long haul flights, business class is 'dine on demand' so you can relax and order as you like.  There are generally several options for each course, and the drinks menu has not only wine, beer, spirits and the like, but also has a 'cocktail menu' included. 
 
It's true that since the plane is carrying all the mixers and whatnot, you could technically order a cocktail on most international flights (if not by name) it's fun to have some featured drinks listed.  I started out by trying the 'pink gin' which, as I quickly learned, was pretty much just a cup of gin.  I managed.
 
 
From there, I worked my way though the dinner menu.  Everything was excellent, as airplane food goes.  Many times I don't make it all the way to dessert, but this time I did.  I had the ice cream, and it was also good, but so frozen that it took awhile to be able to eat it.  Pro tip- order it with your entrĂ©e so it will defrost enough before you actually get to it. 
 
 
By this point, I'd worked my way though a fair amount of the IFE I hadn't already seen, including some bizarre documentary-but-fiction thing about the future of space...something?  I settled in, and got some sleep for a couple hours.  Honestly, even long haul flights that are this comfortable never seem quite long enough.  Yes, I'm serious.
 
~CruisingAltitude