point fu

Well, we've ticked off another of those plane nerd boxes: flying Singapore Airlines' JFK-SIN flight, the longest scheduled commercial flight in the world (for now...). I know it's nuts, but I've wanted to do this forever, even back when they were flying this route on a specially configured A340 .  So how the heck do you survive nearly 19 hours in the air? Well, let's start with the most important thing, fly Business Class . Normally this flight goes for $7k-ish round trip in Business, but I'd found a relatively cheap points ticket (200k round trip) and decided to go for it. We were actually en route to Sydney, but I booked that as a separate ticket and we spent a couple days on both ends of the trip eating our way around a delicious, new-to-us city.  ( Yes, Singapore Airlines will sell you a points ticket all the way thru to Sydney from NYC, but there were only 'waitlist' seats available, so we opted for a second, cash ticket ) The A350-URL (Ultra Long ...

A cheap, well-timed flight from the West Coast to Fiji on a new plane, with a flexible bidding system for upgrades to lie-flat Business Class.  The flight was in early Feb 2022 when Covid restrictions were still in effect for Fiji.  Flight is 10 hours, 50 minutes. We'd planned a week in Fiji as a fun new destination for our annual birthday + anniversary + valentines day trip. We chose it mostly due to its proximity to Australia so our boy Tim could pop over on a short 3 hour flight and join us (Australia's borders were still closed to tourism when we booked). As luck would have it, Australia unexpectedly opened their borders on the last day of this trip, so we ended up flying to Sydney rather than back to Los Angeles. Their call center had zero wait time and they were able to credit my remaining flight dollars toward the flight to Sydney. Pros "Bula Bid" lets you bid dollars or Amex points for an upgrade cheap fares, and one-ways were half the price of roun...

RoutesOnline just announced that Philippine Airlines is launching nonstop service between Manila and New York's JFK using an Airbus A350. (Their existing service has a stopover in Vancouver, which is poorly-timed for a 5th freedom flight between the East and West Coasts). We love the Philippines (trip links here ) and will definitely be back at some point in the near future, so this is great news. This new flight should be available starting 4 November 2018. Flight 126 MNL 21:00 – 23:15JFK Flight 127 JFK 01:45 – 07:15 (+1 day) MNL It looks like their A350s will get VantageXL seats, so your 16 hour flight will be fully flat, rather than the angle flat seats they've been keeping around their fleet way longer than everybody else. Sadly the only real points opportunity here is with their one-off partnership with Etihad . Cash fares will likely be $1000-ish in Economy and $4000-ish in Business Class. I still wish they could team up with Brussels Airlines and Airbus to...