by Lufthansa Flyer | Oct 23, 2016 | Air Berlin, Corporate, Featured, Lufthansa |
Reuters has reported that talks may have taken place between Lufthansa and Alitalia about the prospects of Lufthansa taking a substantial stake in Italy’s national carrier. The main topic of the conversation may have been regarding Etihad looking to give Air Berlin to Lufthansa in return for a stake in Alitalia.
Etihad currently owns a 49% stake in Air Berlin and a 29% stake in Alitalia and both investments are slowly becoming disasters for Etihad. So much so that Etihad signed off on the Air Berlin deal to let Lufthansa lease 40 aircraft and take over a substantial part of Air Berlin’s routes while Air Berlin tries to fix its woes.
According to the article, Alitalia management denied that any talks have happened but what are they supposed to say? Yes? We did and Lufthansa is going buy a large piece of us and we’re going to throw in Air Berlin as a door prize? How many times have discussions been denied only to become fact a short time later.
It’s an interesting 3-way deal that may be brewing between Rome, Frankfurt and Abu Dhabi. Etihad sees 2 major losses on the horizon with Air Berlin and Alitalia, and sees a way out of almost both problems by giving away Air Berlin to Lufthansa in turn for Lufthansa taking a stake in Alitalia.
My gut suggests that a complete take over of Air Berlin by Lufthansa would simply solidify their Eurowings unit as one of Europe’s largest Low Cost Carriers (LCC) without Lufthansa having to grow the brand organically from within. Considering Air Berlin’s dire financial straits, LH could steal the airline for a song.
But of course, these conversations never happened 😉
by Lufthansa Flyer | Oct 22, 2016 | Economy Class, Fare Sale, Featured, Swiss |
SWISS is running an Economy Class fare sale for travel between their USA gateways and most of Europe with fares starting as low as $630.
The sale covers a large window of travel that is open through May 2017. The only blackout period for the fare sale is over the Christmas holiday (December 14-23) otherwise there is plenty of inventory.
The best fares are predictably from the East Coast where Boston to Amsterdam can be booked for only $630. Fares from New York to most SWISS destinations in Europe range between $750 and $900.
From the West Coast, the best deal is to Paris which can be booked for only $750 from Los Angeles or San Francisco.
Based on the info I have, I don’t know when the fare sale ends but I can say that a Saturday night stay is required in order to receive the best fares.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Oct 20, 2016 | Featured, Mileage Plus, Points/Miles, United |
United once again is trying to incent us to buy miles and it’s hard to resist if you still have room to by miles this year.
The latest sale offers a bonus of up to 75% and the deal is in place until October 31. In order to get the 75% bonus, you need to buy at least 30,000 miles. Buying 30,000 miles will get you a bonus of 22,500 miles for a total of 52,500 miles and will cost about $1100 including taxes. That amounts to 2.09 cents per mile (CPM), which makes for an attractive proposition, especially if you are short a handful of miles for premium award travel redemptions.
If you buy between 5,000 and 14,000 miles, you’ll get a bonus of 25%, if you buy between 15,000 and 29,000 miles you’ll get a 50% bonus. You can buy a maximum of 85,000 miles which will give you a bonus of 63,750 miles for a total of 148,750 miles.
From my observations lately, it’s been a bit easier to find Lufthansa First and Business Class inventory and even Austrian and SWISS Business class awards. This may actually be a good time to take advantage of a deal like this.
