Welcome to my review of the year, where I look back the stories and blog notes of interest that have raised an eyebrow over the first 6 months of the year:
- January:
- Without doubt, the story that really heckled everyone was the grounding of the world-wide Boeing 787 fleet. This followed a inflight incident aboard an ANA 787 in flight, and a fire on the ground at Boston.
- Priority Club Points were devalued – again
- I also published A Last Star Fling featuring United and Air Canada. Mainly because I found the Google Docs file that I was working on.
- February
- Was more of the same with the 787 having more trouble. Meanwhile Ryanair were prevented from taking over Aer Lingus, Lufthansa gave a glimsp of what was in store as it cut first class cabins, British Airways began to offer Hand baggage only fares (who followed KLM), Air Canada introduced hell on a 777-300ER with a 458 seater plane
Emirates introduced Skywards Platnium - Oh yes, I got a new job ;).
- Was more of the same with the 787 having more trouble. Meanwhile Ryanair were prevented from taking over Aer Lingus, Lufthansa gave a glimsp of what was in store as it cut first class cabins, British Airways began to offer Hand baggage only fares (who followed KLM), Air Canada introduced hell on a 777-300ER with a 458 seater plane
- March:
- 787 – Still Grounded, with a fix authorised. Meanwhile the A350 begun to take shape, SAS changed its intra-European product (again), EU261 went to be updated, and Virgin Atlantic’s Little Red took to the air
- Emirates introduced fuel surcharges on award tickets
- Midland Metro said sorry to me
- April:
- Airbus rolled out the first BA A380, Turkish Airlines buy a lot of narrow body aircraft, Korean Air buys 44% of CSA, Lion Air crashed a 737 with no loss of life, United purchased Embraer 175s and the 787s got clearance to fly after modifications
- I looked at the new Hyatt Amenities, and begun my first trip report proper of the year in Back into action, Back to the Back
- And I got a battlefield upgrade to Club World too!
- I also looked at the updated Birmingham New Street station
- May:
- Frontier begun transitioning to a Ultra LCC, SAS disposed of Windroe, The Bombardier CSeries begun inching to first flight status, the A350 rolled out of the paint shop, FlyBE disposed of its Gatwick slots, and A BA A319 lost its engine cowling’s and caused trouble
- Those of you with BMI Credit Cards begun to roll in the extra Avios
- BA Screwed up at its own hub with embarrassing queues, However, I got upgrade to World Traveller Plus with BA
- I started my BAcon Trip Report in Mmmm! BAcon!
- June
- Heathrow T2 movements announced, Airbus’s A350 took its maiden flight, The Paris Airshow launched, with Embraer launching a new E-Jet, Boeing launching the 787-10, Delta and Virgin announced a codeshare deal, Air Asia and ANA fell out over Air Aisa Japan and United launched the Split Wing Winglet
- BA upped its prices on Reward flight Saver, whilst I bemoaned the prices of Heathrow Express,
- And BA’s lounge food went under the microscope, whilst I tried wine in a sealed plastic glass.
Look out for the July to December review tomorrow!
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