Traveling to Central America or the Caribbean and the first airline that comes to mine certainly isn’t Panamanian based Copa Airlines; however with last minute fares from LA to Santa Domingo at only $430 after taxes (5.5 cents per mile) I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to fly Copa Airlines. I had only flown Copa two other times, one was a very short flight from Guatemala city to Costa Rica in 2006 and another time was on a short domestic flight in Colombia right after Copa ...

Sunday afternoon when flying from SFO to LAX on a CRJ 900, I was sitting in the 4th row of 1st class when I noticed something different about the first row of economy on the plane. The head rest read "economy comfort." Delta has already rolled out Economy Comfort on transcontinental service from SFO and LAX to JFK and on most long haul international flights. However this was the first time I saw the light sliver "economy comfort" head rests on a regional jet.  ...

This morning I woke up early and checked into my flight on delta.com to find myself number 9 of 20 on the upgrade list for the flight from JFK to LAX. There were zero seats available and I knew there was NO way I was going to clear an upgrade on any flight today from JFK-LAX for each on was showing zero seats on expertflyer.com. I then started pondering my options and realized that both the 7am and 9 am flights via SFO had 9 seats open in first class. I decided to chance ...

Despite the fact that American Airlines was the first airline to fly between JFK and LAX and have been flying the route for over 50 years, 4/24/2012 was the first time I ever stepped onto American Airline’s Flagship service between the two airports and the first time I ever flew Business class on AA. After a few hiccups using my system wide upgrade that a good friend provided me, my upgrade was confirmed before arriving at the airport and my ...

For the first time ever today I decided to give American Airlines a chance. I have never flown AA and have been OVERLY loyal to Delta. I have always flown Delta and their partners and have had status with Old Northwest Airlines and Delta for the last 6 years (Since I was 19) and fly on average of 75,000 miles+ a year. However a good friend of mind is AA Executive Platinum and ensured me I would enjoy AA if I flew business class and was ...

Editors note: this is the second of two installments covering the dynamics of ultra-long haul flights that have become more and more commonplace in the global aviation world. Part one, which provided an overview and a few examples of ULH flights, can be found here. Part two assesses some of the economic and passenger experience components factored into the planning and execution of ULH flights. 

Long range beauty, or long-haul headache?  

Contrary to popular belief, for a ...