THE ARABS are COMING!!!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/hobica/2013/12/31/gulf-airlines-emirates-etihad-qatar/4250293/

I have been singing the praises of Etihad and Qatar for quite a few years. NOW, they are really going to start to make a dent in US carriers traffic if these predictions (and they get their landing slots and NO government interference) come true.

With the heavy, heavy outbound traffic from the Middle East to Europe, it may make a very easy one stop trip from LAX to France, Italy or Germany. These routes are heavily used by Middle Eastern citizens-a LOT of the ladies go shopping in London, Milan and Paris VERY frequently-one Kuwaiti lady I know well makes a MONTHLY shopping trip to London, even though the upscale mall in Kuwait City makes 5th Ave look almost second rate. An average Kuwait family of four gets 15,000+ dinars each yearly from the Kuwait government. That is a quarter million dollars for the family, so they can well afford those European trips.

Etihad is going to start nonstop service from LAX to Abu Dhabi. NICE airport, easy to transfer. And the ground service is some of the best I have ever had in the world (other than Hong Kong) Getting to Asia is even easier than getting to Europe. I think there is a plane out of Abu Dhabi on one of the Middle Eastern carriers just about hourly to Bangkok and Beijing.

May have to stop in Doha if you fly Qatar. IF you fly Qatar in business or first (or can get in via OneWorld status), take a look at their lounge. Only one I have ever seen better is the first class Cathay lounge in Hong Kong. Qatar became part of OneWorld in October this year, so your AA miles are good on that airline. Qatar is now flying to Phnom Penh Cambodia for those wanting to see Angkor Wat before or after a cruise. Easy to get from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap via plane, bus, car service or my favorite way-fast boat up the Mekong and across the Tonle Sap.

Enjoy a NEW way to get to Europe or Asia. And think about it this way-all those petro dollars you spend are coming BACK into the US via Boeing purchases.

What do you know about Emirates?

Etihad is also starting service to DFW. Qatar will too. Emirates already serves DFW with a daily flight to Dubai. Of course, it's not really the best route to Europe (i.e. ex-DFW), it may be a good way to see Asia if you want a pit stop.

Flew Qatar on our most recent trip. Would fly them again in a heartbeat - definitely a notch up from the US and European carriers. Always open their e-mail promotions now - have seen some pretty good deals. Will be even better when they get the new airport in Doha open (wonder which will open first Berlin or Doha?)

What do you know about Emirates?

Not much-sorry. Only flown Emirates on short haul flights around the Middle East. I am not fond of the Dubai airport. And Etihad and Qatar had connections at various times to AA's FF plan which Emirates does not have.

Their short haul flights were fine except for going into the Dubai airport. I much prefer Abu Dhabi-smaller, quieter. One thing to be aware of-Middle Eastern men smoke and some of the airports are very, very smoky. I remember the first time I went to Kuwait-flew in on BA. I was astounded by the amount of smoke and the number of men smoking right underneath the NO SMOKING AREA signs. No one said a word.

One thing to remember about any of the Middle Eastern airlines-they are all government owned or government subsidized. So they are always "one upping" their neighbors for national pride. Lots of money floating around the Middle East and they do show it off in cars, houses, clothes and AIRPLANES.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Not much-sorry. Only flown Emirates on short haul flights around the Middle East. I am not fond of the Dubai airport. And Etihad and Qatar had connections at various times to AA's FF plan which Emirates does not have.

 

Their short haul flights were fine except for going into the Dubai airport. I much prefer Abu Dhabi-smaller, quieter. One thing to be aware of-Middle Eastern men smoke and some of the airports are very, very smoky. I remember the first time I went to Kuwait-flew in on BA. I was astounded by the amount of smoke and the number of men smoking right underneath the NO SMOKING AREA signs. No one said a word.

 

One thing to remember about any of the Middle Eastern airlines-they are all government owned or government subsidized. So they are always "one upping" their neighbors for national pride. Lots of money floating around the Middle East and they do show it off in cars, houses, clothes and AIRPLANES.

 

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Thanks! I'm going to Asia next December from IAH (into Bali and home from Bangkok) - so Emirates and Qatar are my 2 nonstop choices to the Middle East. Will use price first - but a few hundred more is fine for a better schedule. Will keep what you had to say about the Dubai vs. Doha airports in mind when I choose. My other choice will probably be Cathy Pacific through the west coast and Hong Kong. Since I'm from Houston, most of my air miles are United, but I won't have enough even there to do anything on this trip - have used them up already for an LHR round trip next August.

Greatam- Are any of the Middle Eastern carriers still "dry"? They were a few decades ago but I haven't paid any attention.

A previous employer has a facility in India. Although I never made the trip, the lowest fares were on Emirates LAX-DXB-Chennai. Colleagues who had flown there on other airlines liked Emirates the best, even in Economy...so everyone was happy. LAX-DXB is one of the longest commercial air routes.

Thanks! I'm going to Asia next December from IAH (into Bali and home from Bangkok) - so Emirates and Qatar are my 2 nonstop choices to the Middle East. Will use price first - but a few hundred more is fine for a better schedule. Will keep what you had to say about the Dubai vs. Doha airports in mind when I choose. My other choice will probably be Cathy Pacific through the west coast and Hong Kong. Since I'm from Houston, most of my air miles are United, but I won't have enough even there to do anything on this trip - have used them up already for an LHR round trip next August.

American starts DFW-HKG N/S service this summer.

Thanks for the info, but since I'll need to be in economy, I'd much prefer a foreign carrier. Will be doing IAH to LHR on United this summer and that's almost too long on what you get on the domestic carriers! :D

Sadly, the American carriers treat you like garbage. The foreign flag airlines have always treated you ten times better than the American ones. Qatar Airways is coming to Miami this summer and I can hardly wait!

Worldspan

Greatam- Are any of the Middle Eastern carriers still "dry"? They were a few decades ago but I haven't paid any attention.

 

A previous employer has a facility in India. Although I never made the trip, the lowest fares were on Emirates LAX-DXB-Chennai. Colleagues who had flown there on other airlines liked Emirates the best, even in Economy...so everyone was happy. LAX-DXB is one of the longest commercial air routes.

Kuwait Airlines is the only dry carrier I know of in the Middle East. Well, Gryphon is too but they have very limited service-generally from Camp Arifjan Kuwait into Iraq and Afghanistan. And what is weird about Gryphon-they are AMERICAN owned out of Vienna VA (can anyone say Air America). I don't really know if the CIA has anything to do with the airline but they were strictly set up to fly soldiers/contractors into Iraq originally.

But one thing about Kuwait Airlines-while they certainly aren't Cathay, Qatar, Etihad, they have definitely improved in the last couple of years. Still have rather surly FA but their new lie flats are a definite improvement over those seats they had 4-5 years ago which were worse than my brokedown, 20 year old recliner that I can't part with because it is one of my dogs favorite sleeping places.

If you want to go to London during the height of the heat in Kuwait and can do without a drink, FIRST CLASS is very often sold for $1099 each way. So you can fly to London from JFK for a couple of grand in first class during the summer season when even a coach ticket is at least a grand. They still have caviar on the London flights. But what is caviar without champagne? Just isn't the same with a cup of tea.

Gulf Air is another Middle Eastern carrier out of Bahrain that provides service just a tad below Etihad. I have flown Gulf Air into Bangkok quite a few times. Their prices are really, really decent. And they have 5th Freedom rights and at one time flew JFK to London, then on to Bahrain. That is the favorite airline of contractors working in Kuwait. Bahrain is one big party of expats on the weekends. No booze restriction there.

Thanks for the info, Greatam. If a flight or airline is "dry" it isn't an issue to me (but all else being equal I will choose the one w/ booze!)

Years ago, Gulf Air was dry but you confirmed things have changed. They really have to if they want to compete outside the Middle East.

Was doing a search on Matrix for some flights I will need to Sydney from Alberta Canada. I see they are or will be running a Seattle Dubai flight via 777. Flown them before and although it adds hours to the trip to take that routing to Sydney their fares are excellent in business class and so is their service. They are not dry for sure.

I flew on Saudi Arabian and it was dry. Though it was a domestic flight, I am pretty sure the entire airline is dry. Would make sense.

I flew on Saudi Arabian and it was dry. Though it was a domestic flight, I am pretty sure the entire airline is dry. Would make sense.

The whole country is dry :D

I beg to differ but while the country may officially dry it is far from it. Stay in any of the major hotels, and I've been in a few and you simply have to ask for the right door to open and you will find the westerners being taken care of just like any hotel here at home. You do however have to ask about where the westerners "gather

The whole country is dry :D

While a lot of the Middle East purports to uphold the Muslim prohibition against booze, the only truly dry country I know of is Kuwait. Maybe Iran but obviously, I haven't spent any time there, don't know anyone who has so have no first hand knowledge of their booze situation.

As Gunner22aa posted, know the "right door" and Westerners can generally get LEGAL booze EXCEPT in Kuwait.

And what is weird about Kuwait-it has absolutely NOTHING to do with religion. Kuwait is a pretty darn liberal country as Muslim countries go. Their booze prohibition is because of the HORRENDOUS traffic accidents they have which were made even worse with booze.

Their freeways make some of ours look like third world highways. They are smooth as silk and have overhead lights about every 500 feet, even out in the middle of nowhere (the road to Iraq is an example). Drive on a Kuwait freeway out in the country at 10PM and you would think it is daylight. BUT the native Kuwaitis drive very, very fast in their fancy cars. Often well over 100MPH. And then you have the even larger population of TCN's (third country nationals-the ones who actually do the work in Kuwait-most from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh). And they drive 35MPH. The speed limit on the freeways is 65MPH. And NOBODY uses their turn signals. They straddle the lanes. As a good friend stated one night when we were cruising along to Kuwait City from Camp Arifjan-"the lines are merely a suggestion". They drive all over the road-from the right side to the left and back again. Just drifting all over the place. So there are a lot of high speed accidents with lots of people seriously injured and killed. And hence, the booze prohibition to keep even more people from getting killed.

There is bootleg booze in Kuwait but it is over the top pricey ($200 for a bottle of Jack, $20 for a can of beer) and if you get caught, the punishment can be all the way up to public hanging (they have a big stadium in downtown Kuwait City where they have public hangings). Even the fanciest hotels that cater to Westerners have NO booze anyplace. Can't even find the "right door".

It will be good for all ..

Qatar announced some deals from PHL

http://www.qatarairways.com/us/en/destinations/flights-from-philadelphia.page

Qatar announced some deals from PHL

 

http://www.qatarairways.com/us/en/destinations/flights-from-philadelphia.page

Those are some pretty darn good prices. RT from LAX to Phnom Penh or Saigon for about $1200, even adding on the $300 or so for the LAX RT. You can't hardly buy from the Asian travel agents in Garden Grove for those prices. And certainly not on an airline like Qatar.

And to the Middle East on Qatar for about the same price. Simply amazing. I hope they continue to have very decent prices. Now that Qatar is part of OneWorld, look at all the opportunities for award flights to exotic places which really weren't available with AA miles before. And the RTW tickets can really be a blessing with Qatar as part of the alliance.

And the RTW tickets can really be a blessing with Qatar as part of the alliance.

While they're certainly not for everybody (actually, not for most) I do think with as travel-oriented group as post on Cruise Critic they don't get enough airtime.

What strikes me about the cruising community, as opposed to, say, the Flyertalk world, is that people who cruise tend to make plans way, way in advance compared to other subsets of travelers. People are already booking - and making detailed plans - for cruises departing in the summer of 2015, and we constantly see people making air reservations the moment the bookings become available - 330 days in advance or whatever. You basically never see that kind of advance planning discussed on Flyertalk, or Tripadvisor, or Fodor's: it tends much more to short-term (or last-minute) planning. Just a cultural thing, I suppose.

In any event, the virtue of RTWs is that the tickets allow incredible flexibility and they're good for a year, and - particularly in business class - allow the accumulation of mass quantities of frequent flyer miles that can be used to facilitate the RTW in the first place. Let me explain...

RTW tickets are priced very differently depending on where you start and end the ticket. Not surprisingly, North America (US, Canada, Mexico, Central America) is among the higher-priced regions to start RTWs. Other places, notably southern Africa and the Middle East, tend to be much cheaper, but of course they're pretty far from, say, the US. To start a "cheap" RTW ticket you need to get to the "cheap" place for the first flight, and the "access" cost can be quite high.

But let me use an imaginary example of committed cruisers who plan more than one cruise vacation over the course of 12-13 months. Our cruisers, the Boat people, who live near Chicago, plan a Mediterranean cruise in September 2014, a Caribbean cruise in January 2015, and a Chinese river cruise in June 2015. Let's also say that the Boats have around 75,000 American Airlines frequent flyer miles between them.

So here's how it goes. In September they use their miles to fly one way on Royal Jordanian airlines nonstop from Chicago to Amman, Jordan. They visit Petra, maybe the Dead Sea. Then they pick up the business-class RTW they've already booked (paying the Jordanian price, around $6500) and fly to Rome, where they meet their Med cruise. The cruise ends in Barcelona 12 days later.

They need to get home for work or life, so they fly (in business class) from Barcelona to, say, New York, then change planes and fly home to Chicago. Within the US where business class isn't offered on domestic flights, they fly in first class.

In January, they use the same ticket to fly to... Puerto Rico? Miami? Wherever their Caribbean cruise starts, again, in first class, then home when the cruise is done.

In the spring, maybe they have family in California they want to visit. Same story, same ticket.

Then when it's time for the river cruise, they fly in business class on Cathay Pacific nonstop from Chicago to Hong Kong. Spend a couple of days to recover, then they join the cruise in... Shanghai? Same story, same ticket.

Cruise done, they want to decompress, so they fly to Paris for a long weekend. Then they have to end the ticket, this time anywhere back in the Middle East, so maybe they pick Tel Aviv, or maybe Doha. The RTW ticket ends, but guess what? In the course of the previous year's flying they've earned elite status with American Airlines, and roughly 80,000 frequent flyer miles each, which they use to get home, this time in business class if they want.

The Boat family will have elite status which will exempt them from baggage charges, give them free upgrades on domestic flights, the ability to choose "main cabin extra" (economy+) seats, the elite fast track at security, and all sorts of other perks. They'll have taken 14 or 15 business class or first class flights for around $6500, or around $430 per flight. And I promise they will be "business class addicts" by then.

Bought separately, the same tickets in economy would cost around $4000 - $4500. Is the $2000 or $2500 differential over the course of a year "worth it?" Some will say no, others will say youbetcha. Flying from Chicago to Hong Kong in economy v. in a Cathay business suite? OMG.

Like I say, not for everyone, but for those who can do some "strategic" travel planning which involves multiple trips in the space of a year, RTW tickets can have great value.

Those are some pretty darn good prices. RT from LAX to Phnom Penh or Saigon for about $1200, even adding on the $300 or so for the LAX RT. You can't hardly buy from the Asian travel agents in Garden Grove for those prices. And certainly not on an airline like Qatar.

And to the Middle East on Qatar for about the same price. Simply amazing. I hope they continue to have very decent prices. Now that Qatar is part of OneWorld, look at all the opportunities for award flights to exotic places which really weren't available with AA miles before. And the RTW tickets can really be a blessing with Qatar as part of the alliance.

Hope they come out with similar deals for Nov/Dec. Viet Nam, Cambodia and Oman are all on our to-do list.

Unfortunately we just signed up for an Explorer card. Being in Detroit, I have the Delta Amex card. If this pricing continues - we'll have to get an AAdvantage Card to complete the set.

Hope they come out with similar deals for Nov/Dec. Viet Nam, Cambodia and Oman are all on our to-do list.

 

Unfortunately we just signed up for an Explorer card. Being in Detroit, I have the Delta Amex card. If this pricing continues - we'll have to get an AAdvantage Card to complete the set.

Look also into a Starwood Preferred Guest card. Qatar is on the list of airlines to transfer to. 1 Starpoint to 1 Qatar mile. AND when you transfer 20,000 Starpoints to an airline program, you get get an extra 5000 miles for each 20,000 point transfer. Definitely worth looking into and the hotel redemptions aren't bad either.

 

Like I say, not for everyone, but for those who can do some "strategic" travel planning which involves multiple trips in the space of a year, RTW tickets can have great value.

Absolutely excellent advice and a very thorough explanation how to use RTW tickets that may cost you an absolute fortune if purchased separately plus all the miles you accumulate flying.

Look also into a Starwood Preferred Guest card. Qatar is on the list of airlines to transfer to. 1 Starpoint to 1 Qatar mile. AND when you transfer 20,000 Starpoints to an airline program, you get get an extra 5000 miles for each 20,000 point transfer. Definitely worth looking into and the hotel redemptions aren't bad either.

AARRGHH! Will have to keep this in mind when I start working on this area next.

Just opened a Carlson Card (weird I know). But we're doing a Baltic (free stay in Stockholm for two nights and using some old "close to expiring" Flexperks for Copenhagen). Next year, we'll have enough points to make our way through Poland in late spring, and hopefully using the United points for one flight (Radisson Blu's are all over Scandinavia and Northern Europe so that was the short term focus.) Carlson transfers to something for air - but I haven't a clue (probably a crappy US bank Flexperk type transfer).

I'll keep the Starwood in mind though - our travel focus shifts. And, we absolutely would fly Qatar again - in fact it's first choice airline for us if it gets us there. We liked Doha very much (spent two nights last trip) and wouldn't mind going back for an overnight "break" on a long flight.