The secret flights of savvy international route warriors
Dr. Amir Kalali is a frequent flier on the nonstop route between Los Angeles and London, Kalali much prefers to fly Air New Zealand and does so in business class about 10 times a year. ''Air New Zealand truly has a differentiated product, very competitive pricing with a superior, personalized customer experience ,'' the neuroscience researcher explains. Kalali raves about the Kiwi carrier's flat-bed seats, the ''friendly and always very professional'' in-flight staff, the Air New Zealand lounge at Lax and the club's manager.
You didn't know Air New Zealand flies nonstop between the British capital and Hollywood? Most travelers even experience frequent fliers, not just as the have no clue that Singapore airlines nonstop between Houston and Moscow, Emirates airline runs a nonstop between New York and Milan or that Malaysia airlines operates a nonstop between Los Angeles and Tokyo.
These secret oddballs of commercial aviation are often a terrific source of low fares, an opportunity to get better service than what is offered by the expected incumbents. Air New Zealand's business class fares to London and Malaysia airlines rates to Tokyo are often half the price quoted by competitors. However if you wanted a nonstop wide body flight with four classes of international service between New York and Vancouver, your only option is to fly Cathay Pacific. the Hong Kong carrier. And that Singapore airlines Houston-Moscow flight is the only nonstop of any kind between the two cities.
But the heyday of secret flights like Jet airways of India's nonstop between New York and Brussels may have passed. And that's bad news for the bargain hunters, connoisseurs of the unique and aviation geeks who love to fly the quirky skies.
To understand why many of the flights are past their sell by dates you need to understand why the exist at all. For decades before aircraft existed to fly very long routes, airlines needed to connect two distant nations. so the carriers and the governments that sponsored and often owned them negotiated protocols to permit the carriers to operate via third countries. The Fifth protocol or fifth freedom in aviation lexicon also allows the airlines to sell tickets on all segments of the connecting route.
But the development of jets capital of flying longer hauls often obviates the need for what the industries calls ''Beyond rights.'' Reason fifth-freedom runs are disappearing? Airline alliances such as One world, sky team and star. One example: Japan airlines once flew a nonstop from Los Angeles to Sao Paulo. the reason is Brazil historically has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan and Japan airlines could only reach it with a stop in Los Angeles. Now, however, JAL connects Japan and Brazil via a code share with it's one world partner American Airlines. Many other such ''Beyond'' service have disappeared as airlines increasingly rely on code-share partners to fill gaps in their route networks.
Fifth freedom flights also make sense when an airline can't make a nonstop work financially. consider Singapore airlines recent decision to drop it's nonstop to Singapore from Los Angeles and Newark. Although those two ultra-long-haul flights weren't profitable, Singapore continues to operate from San Francisco (via Hong Kong or Seoul), Los Angeles (via Seoul), New York (via Frankfurt) and Houston (via Moscow). Those runs are viable because Singapore air can sell tickets not just to Singapore but also from the U.S cities to the intermediate points too. As the only nonstop carrier in the Houston-Moscow market, Singapore has even become the carrier of choice for the frequent fliers who work in the energy sector in both cities. About half of Singapore air's business on the route is what the industry calls "origin and destination traffic," meaning travelers start and end their journeys in Houston and Moscow.
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