Business Travel Tips

Southwest announced the names of six more cities where it will discontinue AirTran service.
The list includes: Allentown, Pa.; Lexington, Ky.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Huntsville, Ala.; Sarasota, Fla. and White Plains, N.Y.

The airline had announced last November other nine AirTran cities — Asheville, N.C.; Atlantic City, N.J.; Bloomington/Normal, Ill.; Charleston, W. Va.; Dallas/Fort Worth; Knoxville, Tenn.; Miami; Moline/Quad Cities, Ill. and Newport News, Va. — where it decided to discontinue AirTran service.

Also Southwest announced 22 AirTran airports that will continue to operate and will eventually join the Southwest route map — domestic airports include: Akron-Canton, Ohio; Branson, Mo.; Charlotte; Dayton, Ohio; Des Moines; Flint, Mich.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Key West, Fla.; Memphis; Pensacola, Fla.; Portland, Maine; Richmond, Va.; Rochester, N.Y.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Washington Reagan National and Wichita, Kan; international airports include: Aruba; Bermuda; Cancun, Mexico; Montego Bay, Jamaica; Nassau, Bahamas and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Beginning March 1, 2012 Emirates will be added as a Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan member.
Below are the earning rates.

The earning rates are as follows:
Beginning March 1, 2012 Minimum 500 miles or; 50% of actual flight miles for Discount Economy (M, B, U, K, Q, L, T, V, X, H classes of service); 100% of actual flight miles for Full Fare Economy (Y, E, R, W classes of service) ; 125% of actual flight miles for Business Class (C, J, I classes of service) and 150% actual flight miles for First Class (F, A, P classes of service)
To qualify for mileage accrual, flights must must be marketed and operated by Emirates.
To ensure flight credit, the two letter airline code (EK) must precede the flight number (for example, EK XXXX) on your ticket receipt or boarding pass.

Details are available here.

Virgin America will add nonstop flights between Philadelphia and California in April.

The carrier will begin three daily round-trip flights from Philadelphia to Los Angeles starting April 4.  
Philadelphia – San Francisco service — with two daily round-trip flights — will begin April 10.

To celebrate the new routes, Virgin America is offering introductory one-way fares as low as $129 between Philadelphia and Los Angeles and $149 between Philadelphia and San Francisco, excluding taxes and fees.

Virgin America will also offer connecting flights between Philadelphia and San Diego, Seattle and Las Vegas.

Long haul low cost AirAsia X — AirAsia affiliate — announced it will stop service to Europe and India.

Beginning on March 30, 2012 AirAsia X will suspend Kuala Lumpur – Paris service (currently four weekly flights), as Kuala Lumpur – London service (currently six weekly flights) will see its last flight on March 31, 2012.

AirAsia X will stop flying to Mumbai (four weekly flights) on January 31, 2012 and to New Delhi (currently daily service) on March 22, 2012.

Delta Air Lines added a surcharge of $3 each way on flights between the United States and Europe.
The carrier became the first airline to add a surcharge on flights between the US and Europe after the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) went into effect.

ETS is an European Union law charging airlines for their greenhouse gas emissions.
Airlines will pay for their greenhouse gas emissions by buying allowances from industries burning less fuel.

Industry experts predict airlines will add the cost of the new law to ticket prices.
Lufthansa Airlines said that it will include the cost of purchasing the certificates in its existing fuel surcharge. In a press release the German carrier said that in the future, the surcharge will reflect both the price of oil and the cost of acquiring emission rights.