My list of “good” fares is more qualitative than quantitative. I amnot only taking into account the amount of frequent flier mileage earned relative to absolute price, but also reputation of airline and type of aircraft scheduled to fly those routes. These factors, for the most part, are the ones I use when evaluating an airfare.

There is no “1″ source for the best fares, they are all over the place, hence the thousands of flight search engines on the web. Round-trip, business class fares including fees and taxes:

• LAX-Souel Incheon (ICN) $2626 Planereality booking engine
• SFO-Taipei (TPE) $3195 Orbitz
• Honolulu-Tokyo Narita (NRT) $3375 Planereality booking engine
• Frankfurt (FRA)-Miami $2316 Orbitz
• Frankfurt-Atlanta $2378 Orbitz
• Rome-Johannesburg (JNB) $2440 Orbitz

the next 2 are actually take from on the plane

the line-up at atl

rolling onto 26L

take-off

buckhead; atlanta, georgia

PHL

EWR

statue of liberty

jersey city, manhattan, brooklyn

LGA

bridgeport, connecticut

boston

BOS

BOS

• Palm Beach-Sydney: $1194 Delta; 9/6-9/14 Orbitz
• Miami-Sydney: $1229 United 9/6-9/14 Orbitz 
• Atlanta-Hong Kong: $946 Korean Air; 10/7-10/15 Orbitz 
• Dallas-Hong Kong: $895 Continental/United; 9/8-9/15 Orbitz
• Dallas-Hong Kong: $913 Delta 9/8-9/15 Orbitz

I immediately knew this 757 (registration: N507US) was converted from Northwest-the outside of the plane anyway.  Typically, when one boards a Delta 757, first class is a separate cabin to the left.  On this bird, first class was to the left, but several rows of economy occupied the first few rows of the first class cabin.  Beyond that, I felt like I had stepped right into 1985, when the plane was delivered to Northwest.  I am sure this interior is on its way out, but I was amused and took a few photos for the Northwest nostalgists out there.

old logo still visible

what is this pattern called?

There is internet for a fee but it is painfully slow and sometimes doesn’t work. The breakfast buffet is 1,500 yen, but did not look terribly appealing and I never ate there. If you are on a different time zone, food can be a challenge as most restaurants close before midnight. There is a 24 hour McDonald’s and convenience store about 100 yards from the hotel’s entrance. Room service ends at 10:30pm.

My room was clean, modern and comfortable although the bathroom was small and felt like a head on a small boat-the shower head came up to my chest. The front desk was staffed 24hrs a day with friendly, helpful staff. There is a large, dated full service fitness center which can be accessed for a fee.

I would stay here again assuming the rate was competitive with the multitude of other options near the Narita Airport.

hotel lobby

looking down the street in front of hotel

downtown narita from 4th floor of hotel

one of many fantastic noodle bars in narita

There is a 2nd camera from the Countryman & McDaniel offices that overlooks a Cargo area near runway 25R.

These webcams are my favorite because:
A. Its LAX which means its busy with a lot of jumbos and a wide variety of airlines and
B. You can actually see departures and the camera is rarely “down”

Below are some screen shots from the web cam. If you know of other consistent airport webcams, please post a link in the comments. Thanks.

Singapore Airlines 747

United 747

Emirates 777

Here are some of the most recent headlines:

“Steven Slater: From JetBlue Quitter to Latest American Folk Hero?”

“JetBlue Flight Attendant Gains Hero Status”

“An apology to JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater”

“Stupid passengers take the blame for wild flight attendant”

All of a sudden, this week, its not the airline’s fault, but the passengers.  Bravo! 

Why the flip-flop?

In case you have not noticed, JetBlue and Virgin America are the darlings of the media as far as airlines go.  I can only imagine the headlines had this incident taken place on a United, Delta or American flight.  If this were the case, I believe the headlines would be in line with the historical level of scrutinization:

“Sue them, fine them, how could they!”

The first is Triple MQM’s (Medallion Qualification Miles) on Delta “shuttle” flights between New York LaGuardia (LGA) and Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD) and Washington DC (DCA).

Why is this promotion significant?

MQM’s are the miles that count towards Elite Status.  The most frequent airline mileage promotions consumers see only count towards “regular” redeemable mileage balances, although passengers will earn triple regular miles as well with this shuttle promotion. With this promo, one can earn almost the same number of MQM’s on a round-trip LGA-ORD flight as a round-trip LGA-LAX flight! Register, book and fly by August 31, 2010! Click to view all promotion details.

The second Delta Promotion includes no MQM’s, but does offer triple redeemable mileage (regular miles) on Delta’s new international routes such as Detroit to Hong Kong.  In order to earn triple miles, flyers need to book a business class fare, otherwise they will receive double miles.  For example: Normally, a non-elite Delta flyer would earn 15,700 miles round-trip from DTW-HKG.  Register for the promo, fly on a coach fare (saw a mid Sept. fare for $981) by September 30 and that flight will net you over 31,000 miles.  There is a lot of fine print HERE, but it all makes complete sense. There are also a lot more city pairs listed. Again, book and fly by September 30, 2010.

• Philadelphia-Shanghai: $3394 United & Continental
• Ft. Lauderdale-Shanghai: $3394 Delta, Continental & United
• LAX-Tel Aviv: $3375 Delta
• NYC-Tel Aviv: $3375 Continental
• NYC-Rio De Janeiro: $2389 US Airways
• LAX/SFO-Rio De Janeiro: $3114 Planereality Booking Engine
• NYC-Prague: $3191 Planereality Booking Engine
• LAX-Taipei: $2462 Planereality Booking Engine
• SFO-Tokyo Narita: $3703 Planereality Booking Engine
• Moscow-Hong Kong: $2243 Turkish Airlines; $2544 Qatar Airways
• Frankfurt-Johannesburg: $3102 Orbitz
• Istanbul-Sydney: $3684 Etihad Airways