Continental Dings Flyers $15 Per

Continental Airlines is charging $15 per bag even for the first bag, though they don't charge in the following cases:

Frequent-flier customers, first-class and business-class flyers, customers traveling on full-fare economy class tickets, and military personnel and their families traveling on official orders are exempt from the charge.

My advice to most travellers is PACK LIGHTER! I'm almost always happy when I pack light and don't have to lug around big suitcases. Even for my two week China trip I took a small soft suitcase and a large backpack, then purchased a huge bag for the trip home at Honqiao Pearl Market in Beijing.

China Trips - open jaw is often fine

Although the airline ticket market is so fast, furious, and whacky you'll want to check many sources before booking, a few tips I've learned from my China ticket booking:

* Although I was told by a ticketer that generally Hong Kong is the cheapest destination it seemed Shanghai and Beijing (PEK) tickets were in the same price ballpark of 800-1000 from my rural area, and perhaps 100-200 less for round trips from San Francisco.

* Vayama was often the low rate among consolidators, but it was not clear if changes would be more severely penalized through a consolidator so we went directly through United.com. This was $46 more on my $886 ticket, an open jaw from MFR to Hong Kong, then Beijing to MFR. Airfares.com offered the same flights for $840. I'm assuming changes will be much easier directly through United, but not clear if this was worth the extra money.

* Open jaw did not seem to increase the price much if at all.



* Fees and taxes are not reported by all consolidators online, and it seemed there were no "killer consolidators" who offered rates much different from the Airlines for economy classes. I would guess that for first class things become driven by strange forces and your company should shop around carefully to avoid getting gouged. Some of the first class seats were showing at $25,000. I can't imagine what I'd need in terms of comfort to justify that price, even if money was absolutely no object.

Cathay Pacific's Hong Kong hub

One of the best deals in international travel is the "All Asia Pass" from Cathay Pacific. The All Asia Pass allows you to take flights to any of about 20 major asian cities over a period of 21, 30, or 90 days. I've heard that one inconvenience is always returning to hub airports (I assume Hong Kong), but that inconvenience would save thousands on a trip to many cities.

Their Hong Kong facility is described here at Cathay's website.

Cathay Pacific All Asia Pass

For my April China trip I've been researching air fares to asia and wanted to note a few interesting things.

My friend has recommended we take All Nippon Airways (Japan) due to an excellent San Francisco to Tokyo to Beijing route which appears to shave several hours off of the normal 20+ hour flight. He also thinks ANA is a great carrier.

I'm finding some of the best deals with Cathay Pacific, but they are just outside of our travel window in April. A current one appears to offer $750 flights SFO to Beijing or Shanghai, but travel must be completed by March 31st. Last year Cathay Pacific had a "Valentines" special that lasted through April and was only $674, but not sure we want to hold off that long to find out if they will run this again.

China Civil Aviation Report

Want some insight into Civil Aviation in China? Try the China Civil Aviation report website/ magazine. They have offices in Beijing and California and area a key English language source for information about what's up with Chinese Aviation.

As we've noted before, the China air travel market is growing at a breathtaking pace both in terms of travelers and air traffic as well as aircraft and pilots. Add this to the overall business boom in Asia and it's clear that this region may become the "happening place" for Airports and Air Travel. QuickAid predicts that enplanements in China will exceed those in the USA within 5 years.

City from year 2100? No, it's the Beijing Airport.

Architecture helps define our sense of place and time. Big scale architecture does this in a dramatic way and the Beijing Airport is a great example of this. Beijing Airport Code is PEK for Peking, China, reflecting the former name of China's greatest city. Now Beijing, this city was and remains China's greatest city in size, prominence, and international recognition.

China to hire 9000 more pilots by 2010

The spectacular growth of the Chinese economy and travel sector will fuel huge growth in pilot training and hiring. Reuters reports a predicted shortfall of 2000 pilots by 2010 as China's Airline industy continues the explosive growth that may make eventually make Asia the capital of travel and commerce.

Here's the China official travel website. Wow, do they ever need an SEO person on board!

World's Busiest Airports

Ready for the weekend? Are you joining the 16 million Americans who will be flying for this holiday? Forbes reports on the busiest airports in the world, so to get prepared take this picture tour of busy airports and hope you miss these lines!

Forbes noted that Singapore's Changi Airport is "the best in the world" and conspicuously not one fo the top ten Airports in terms of overall quality is in the USA. As American airline companies continue to face huge financial challenges and as commerce moves boldly to China and the east I predict we'll see transportation in America continue to decline while portals in Asia continue to thrive and grow. We are at the beginning of an era that will see a dramatic shift in the prominence of China and other Eastern countries, ending with a global redistribution of power that will have many side effects of unpredictable significance. So, buckle your seatbelt and hang on - it could be a bumpy decade!

4.4 Billion air trips in 2006 is a new record

Worldhum, via a Reuters report, notes that China travel is increasing the number of airplane trips per year dramatically. 4.4 billion air passengers flew in 2006, approaching an average of a trip per year per person on earch. Worldhum also notes that China is poised to become the world's top tourism destination by 2014.

I'm big on China, though I hope they see the light soon and work harder to resolve the evil conflicts in Darfur which continue to ravage thousands there every day. A recent movement to boycott the Beijing Olympics is gaining steam and may impact the Olympics very negatively if China does not act more assertively with the Sudanese Government to stop Sudan's attrocities against the people in Darfur.

Both India and China have embarked on ambitious programs to upgrade Airports as part of their economic development and business inititatives. Hopefully (ironically) we'll see some of the comfortable and luxurious features of these airports start a trend against the more sterile approaches often taken here in the states and Europe. It'll be interesting to see how different cultures resolve conflicts between comfort, efficiency, and cost.
Here's more about the Chennai, India Airport upgrade.