by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 12, 2017 | Airbus, Austrian, Featured, On Board Experience, Passenger Experience |
Austrian provided an update today as it relates to the introduction of Wifi aboard their Airbus fleet.
As part of a broader roll out, Austrian now has outfitted 10 narrow-body Airbus aircraft with Wifi capability and has ‘turned on’ the ability in 4 of these aircraft for a trial period with passengers. During the trial period, passengers will be able to access the service for no charge.
As the service becomes available on the remaining 6 aircraft, Austrian will introduce a 3-tiered cost structure based on the kind of service that the passenger selects:
FlyNet Messaging will enable passengers to access their e-mail, chat services such as WhatsApp, iMessage, and others. FlyNet messaging will cost €3 per flight.
FlyNet Surf will include FlyNet Messaging as well as the ability to surf the internet via the passenger’s smart device or laptop. FlyNet Surf will cost €7 per flight.
FlyNet Stream will include ‘Messaging’ and ‘Surf’ as well as the ability to video to their device. FlyNet Stream will cost €12 per flight.
Austrian has made it its policy to prevent these services from allowing voice-calls to be made while using FlyNet. A very good idea if you ask me.
Austrian expects the trial period to end in the in next few weeks for the 4 aircraft currently being used to test the connectivity. Once that trial is complete, Austrian will ‘turn on’ the FlyNet service aboard the other 6 Airbus aircraft later this quarter.
I suspect that further announcements will be made relatively soon regarding the expansion of the service to the rest of the ‘OS’ fleet.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 10, 2017 | Featured, Mileage Plus, United |
United has made their first ‘Mileage Sale’ a decent one for 2017. Mileage Plus members can earn between 25% and 75% in bonus miles with their purchase, depending on the amount of miles purchased. The sale runs through January 23.
Here is the breakdown:
If you buy between 10,000 and 14,000 miles you’ll earn a 25% bonus of additional miles (equating about 2.8 cents per mile).
If you buy between 15,000 and 29,000 miles you’ll earn a 50% bonus of additional miles (equating about 2.3 cents per mile).
If you buy between 30,000 and 85,000 miles you’ll earn a 75% bonus of additional miles (equating about 2 cents per mile).
Remember that you can buy 150,000 miles a year (including the free bonus amount), and that ‘clock’ has reset to zero for everyone so you can back the truck up and load up 150k miles once again this year.
And of course you know that the best place to use these miles is for those First and Business Class Seats on Lufthansa, SWISS, Brussels Airlines, and Austrian!
When you first bring up the Mileage Plus purchase screen, you’ll see an offer for only 50%, but when you log in you should see the 75% offer available.
UPDATE: Some of you have shared that you are being limited only to 50% bonus for purchases. This may be as a result of United targeting certain members for a 50% or 75% bonus. Here is an image from my own transaction, showing that I would receive a 75% bonus:
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 8, 2017 | Austrian, Featured, Route Announcements |
Austrian has updated their timetable to reflect a modest increase to their Spring / Summer timetable for this year.
Beginning on March 26, the following changes take effect:
Vienna – Hamburg will increase from 3x/day to 4x/day
Vienna – Milan Malpensa will increase from 4x/day to 6x/day
Vienna – Paris (CDG) will increase from 3x/day to 4x/day
Vienna – Stockholm will increase from 3x/day to 4x/day
Vienna – Zurich will increase from 4x/day to 7x/day
