by Lufthansa Flyer | Jun 8, 2016 | 747, Avgeek, Featured, Iron Maiden |
For those of you who know me (there’s maybe 8 of you), you know that I’ve been a fan of Iron Maiden for the Majority of my 44 years on this rock, going all the way back to my days in Elementary School.
Over the past few years, its been no secret that Iron Maiden has used chartered aircraft to help them get from concert to concert when they are on world-wide tour. First, it was a 757 that helped them get around the world on 3 tours that began in 2008.
Now for their most recent tour celebrating their ‘Book Of Souls’ album, the band upped their game and got their hands on a 747-400 from Air Atlanta Icelandic to help them get around even more effectively than with the 757.
Photo courtesy of Iron Maiden
The absolute best part of this? Their lead singer, Bruce Dickinson, often serve as the Captain for the flights. Yes, the lead singer of one of the world’s greatest bands has a license to fly the heavies! In fact, Lufthansa featured him in an interview in their in-flight magazine back in September 2013.
Since February, the latest version of ‘Ed Force One’ has been seen around the world as the band travels on tour. There have been a lot of great photos taken of the exterior, but now, thanks to a Daily Mail feature, we have a chance to look inside, behind the scenes, one of the coolest airplanes currently in the air.
Enjoy!
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jun 7, 2016 | A380, Featured, Lufthansa, Route Announcements |
Lufthansa announced today that it will temporarily reduce service between Frankfurt and Shanghai during the month of August.
Specifically, flight LH732 from Frankfurt and LH733 from Shanghai will not operate between August 1 and August 28. This service is the one flown by the 747-400 aircraft.
The remaining Frankfurt/Shanghai flights, LH728 and LH729 (operated by the A380) are not affected by this announcement.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jun 7, 2016 | Fare Sale, Featured, Lufthansa, Swiss |
No doubt that Turkish tourism is suffering and load factors are down, but for those of you with a desire to see Istanbul, this may be a great opportunity. I’ve been there a few times, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it on every visit!
In reviewing fares, I found several options available between certain US gateways and Istanbul that can be booked for as low as $450 (San Francisco – Istanbul on SWISS) if you travel between September and March and stay at least 7 days. Istanbul fares from other US gateways range between $500 and $600. The East coast of the USA prices in the low to mid $500 range, the Midwest comes in around $550-$600.
There’s no published end to the fare sale so it is probably just a matter of inventory control that will determine when fares start to go back to normal. But for now, these are really worth taking advantage of.
Pay attention when booking your flights as they can be operated by Lufthansa, SWISS, United, or Air Canada.
If you’re going to fly Economy, your best bet would be to book an LH flight since you can bid to upgrade to Premium Economy for $200-300 per long-haul segment or pay about the same amount and upgrade once you board your flight if Premium Economy seats are available. If you upgrade the entire trip, you’ll still be able to get to IST and back for about $1000. Not bad!
To see the best ‘Matrix’ of fares, I suggest using Google.com/flights – it lays out all of your options and gives you fares for 2 months out on one screen.
