The Millennial Traveler

Review: Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounge

Posted by The Millennial Traveler | Oct 25, 2016 | Airlines, Lounge Reviews, Reviews and Reports | 2

Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounge Bottom Line Introduction We arrived really early for our flight on Air India to Mumbai. We had spent the day exploring the near by areas by Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport. Around 4 hours before departure, we returned to the airport. When we arrived, the Air India check in counter was closed. We already had our boarding passes. We had obtained them when we arrived originally, since the transfer desk for the early morning flight was still open. Security was fairly quick, but the language barrier was noticeable when they found an extra battery I carry...

Delta Seattle Sky Club: Game Changer?

Posted by The Millennial Traveler | Oct 24, 2016 | Airlines, Commentary, News | 0

Delta Seattle Sky Club Bottom Line On October 21st, Delta Airlines officially opened their newest Sky Club. The refreshed version of their popular lounge has been a huge success. As is imaginable, this one was no exception. When the airline started expanding in Seattle Airport, they had only one Sky Club there. The new Delta Seattle Sky Club is meant to compliment the already existing one. It ranks as one of their biggest lounges in their network. Also, it has some exclusive benefits that make it a game changer. Delta Seattle Sky Club Improvements The basics of the improvement are...

Review: Etihad GVK Lounge

Posted by The Millennial Traveler | Oct 22, 2016 | Lounge Reviews, Reviews and Reports | 0

Etihad GVK Lounge Mumbai Introduction My father and I had decided to travel halfway across the world in order to sample some of the best airline products out there, as well as to eat food from some of the most gastronomically interesting places in the world. Our adventure brought us to India, although for a very short time since we were connecting from an inbound Air India flight. We had a two hour layover in Mumbai before we were to continue our trip onwards on Etihad back to the US. While there, we had a chance at sampling the...

Newark Airport’s New Competition

Posted by The Millennial Traveler | Oct 21, 2016 | Airlines, Commentary, News | 2

As we all know, New York has the busiest airport system in the US. Between its main three airports JFK, LGA, and Newark, the area handles flights to/from every inhabited continent . The second busiest airport is Newark Liberty, a major United hub. Well, it was reported during May that the airport would change to becoming a less slot constricted airport. Newark airport would go from Category 3 to Category 2, per IATA designations. The change will be implemented on October 30th. What this means: It is very simple, Newark went from being an airport that had strict slot...

Icelandair: The Northern Connector

Posted by The Millennial Traveler | Oct 14, 2016 | Airlines, Commentary, News | 1

Icelandair Expansion: Iceland has not only been in the news recently for their amazing soccer performance in the last Euro Football Championship, but also their airlines have been making a huge push into the US-Europe market. The two main carriers, WOW Air and Icelandair have both been on a very aggressive expansion, and that has many people on both sides of the Atlantic watching. Although WOW Air’s expansion has its own merits, Icelandair has been the most prolific in terms of expanding capacity and network in North America. They started flights to Montreal this year, and have expanded capacity...

Gulf Carriers Cozy Up with US Partners

Posted by The Millennial Traveler | Oct 14, 2016 | Airlines, News | 2

The Big 3-on-3 Fight During the past years, most of the Big 3 Gulf Carriers (Etihad, Emirates and Qatar Airways) have been embroiled in a battle with the Big 3 US Carriers (Delta, United and American). Of these carriers, the most vocal anti-Gulf has been Delta, whose CEOs have been blaming market distortion on the Gulf carriers’ subsidies. On that note, the US DOT recently ruled in favor of the Gulf carriers, a major win for smaller airlines like JetBlue who have strong connections with them. More recently, American seems to be cozying up to more cooperation with the...

Flight Review: Air India 787-8 Business Class

Posted by The Millennial Traveler | Sep 30, 2016 | Airlines, Flight Reviews, Reviews and Reports | 4

Air India 787-8 Business Class Air India 331 BKK-BOM Introduction: Last summer, I found myself in an extended mileage run traveling with my dad. The idea had come to me as a belated 50th birthday present for him, and a belated 21st birthday present for myself. We had a chance to sample various airline products, and got to spend a boatload of miles. On one stop, though, my dad and I found ourselves without a mileage based connection from Bangkok (BKK) to Mumbai (BOM). About a month before we were supposed to depart from BKK, I looked up the...

Consolidation Mania September 2016

Posted by The Millennial Traveler | Sep 29, 2016 | Airlines, News | 0

Introduction to Consolidation Over the past few years, the airline industry across the globe has come to embrace the idea of consolidation. The degree of consolidation grew to its height (or so we thought) when US Airways purchased and merged with American Airlines. Everyone thought that, at least for the time being, no more mergers would be happening. Well, as we know from last April, Alaska Airlines is in the process of merging with Virgin America. This phenomenon is not just a US thing, its been happening throughout the globe. We have seen IAG (British Airways and Iberia’s parent...

Flight Review: First Class A330 to SJU

Posted by The Millennial Traveler | Jul 31, 2016 | Flight Reviews | 0

It’s not very often you get to see a wide-body aircraft operate flights between a hub and a non-hub city. You occasionally see it as a one-off thing. Yet, for the past few years, US Airways (and now American) have been flying an Airbus A330-200 between Charlotte and San Juan, and Philadelphia and San Juan. Granted, this is only a seasonal operation. It runs usually between the first week of December (plus or minus one week) until the end of March (plus or minus another week). Since I live in Houston, but my family lives in Puerto Rico, I...

Lounge Review: British Airways Galleries Lounge-EWR

Posted by The Millennial Traveler | Jul 30, 2016 | Lounge Reviews, Reviews and Reports | 0

British Airways Galleries Lounge EWR Review After spending a few days in New York, where I stayed at the Marriott Marquis Times Square, I was ready to head on over to London. I took a taxi (because the Uber I had requested cancelled on me last minute). After a long, rush hour cab ride to Newark Liberty airport, I was ready to check in at the British Airways (BA) counter. Checking In BA has six counters at EWR. Three for World Traveler, Two for Club World and World Traveler Plus, and one for First. The First Class agent asked...