FlyCentralEurope to launch Hamilton - Eastern Europe service

This may not appeal to many of our frequent flyers, but for many of our 'regular' travelers who fly charters this is an interesting new option to get to Eastern Europe with flights from Hamilton to Budapest, Krakow and Prague. The service will run from May to September 2011. FlyCentralEurope is owned by Canadian tour company Panorama Travel and Tours and technically do not own any planes. They will be utilizing Boeing 767-200 aircraft (and I would assume crews) from Italian leisure carrier Air Italy.



Source Airline Route Updates and FlyCentralEurope

WestJet mounts new challenge in the Eastern Triangle

Since the launch of Porter Airlines a few years back WestJet has seen their small market share of the eastern triangle between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal be eroded to an even smaller percentage putting them behind Air Canada and Porter. To prove their importance in the market and attempt to gain more business travellers WestJet announced a new initiative on their Eastern Triangle routes that will take effect on May 2, 2011.

The initiative includes increases in the number of flights on business days to 10 each way between YYZ and YUL and 9 each way between YYZ and YOW. These flights will all depart from easy access gates at each airport. Further initiatives on these routes include no fees to take an earlier or later flight on the same day and complementary wine and beer on board. Also, guests who join WestJet's Frequent Guest Program will receive 25 bonus WestJet dollars for every three one-way flights flown in the triangle between May and August. WestJet is also promising 50% off their guest next flight on these routes should their current flights be delayed by more then 30 minutes. If a flight is cancelled and the guest can't fly at the new time they will receive a full credit for their first flight and the 50% off their next flight.

For more details and a schedule for the flights on the triangle please see this WestJet press release

Air Canada cans new Vancouver-Tokyo Haneda service

Air Canada has decided not to proceed with their new Vancouver - Tokyo Haneda route to due poor demand. The flight was scheduled to start at the end of this month.

Source Airline Route Updates

WestJet and Delta ink interline agreement

WestJet announced yesterday that they have signed an interline agreement with Atlanta based Delta Airlines. The agreement went into effect immediately allowing WestJet and Delta customers to purchase connecting flights on one ticket, receive boarding passes for all segments at their first check-in, and tag bags through to their final destination. Currently it will allow connections between WestJet and Delta in over 25 cities in Canada and the U.S.. At the moment passengers must book via Delta booking channels to get the interline flights on both airlines.

This move makes a lot of sense for WestJet even though they already have an agreement in place with American Airlines. Why? As we have stated in the past Delta serves the most cities in Canada after Air Canada and WestJet and Delta's SkyTeam alliance is the second largest alliance in Canada after Star Alliance (solely because of Air Canada) The majority of the Canadian cities covered by Delta are served by WestJet as well, more so then American Airlines and allows for many more connections to be made across Canada rather then only 4 or 5 major cities.

Source: WestJet Press Release

Air Canada to launch Montreal - Sept Iles service

According to Airline Route Updates, Air Canada will launch non-stop service between Montreal and Sept Iles on Mar 7, 11. The flight will be offered 6x weekly (No Sunday service) aboard a Dash 8-100.

Flight Timings:
Montreal-Sept Iles Dep 0750 Arr 0950
Sept Iles-Montreal Dep 1010 Arr 1225

WestJet adds Orange County flights from Calgary & Vancouver

WestJet announced today that they will offer direct non-stop flights from Calgary and Vancouver to Orange County, California. The summer seasonal service will be daily and is slated to start on May 2 from Vancouver and on June 13 from Calgary.  For those who are not aware, Orange County's John Wayne Airport is close to Anaheim (Disneyland), Knots Berry Farm and the beach cities of Southern California.

Flight timings
Calgary-Orange County Dep 930 Arr 1149
Orange County-Calgary Dep 1230 Arr 1635

Vancouver-Orange County Dep 1030 Arr 1323
Orange County-Vancouver Dep 1415 Arr 1705

Source: WestJet

Virgin America cuts Toronto service

Less then a year after it started Virgin America will cut its service between Toronto and Los Angeles and San Francisco. Citing a lack of available planes and YYZ being the least profitable route, Virgin America will move the planes from these routes to more profitable ones. The Toronto flights will operate until  April 5, 2011.

Further update to Air Canada Top Tier Program

Air Canada's FlyerTalk Ambassador, Andrew Yiu posted last week that there are still some delays in getting the new top tier benefit packages out to all of the airlines elite members. The packages were to include some additional paper upgrade certificates to cover the time period before the electronic upgrade system went live. However, due to the delay in sending out the packages, the paper certs would have very short life spans, and therefore Air Canada will not be including them. Instead Air Canada will be providing members with additional upgrade credits to make up for the inconvenience. They will offer all 2011 Super Elite and Elite members 10 complimentary eUpgrade Credits, and all 2011 Prestige members 5 complimentary eUpgrade Credits. These credits will be valid through February 29, 2012.

For members who reached threshold bonus levels in December, they will also receive complimentary eUpgrade certs instead of the initially planned paper certs. In this case Super Elites will receive 15 credits and Elite/Prestige will receive 10 credits.

For complete details see Andrews post on FlyerTalk

Coast Hotels now an Aeroplan Partner

Western Canada based Coast Hotels has joined ranks with Aeroplan to become the latest hotel partner of Canada's largest frequent flyer program. The hotel chain boasts over 40 hotels in Alberta, B.C., NWT, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii. Aeroplan members will earn anywhere from 250 to 500 Aeroplan miles per qualifying stay and if you are a member of Coast Hotel's Coast Rewards you can set your earning preference to Aeroplan miles. Aeroplan is Coast's second Frequent Flyer partner with the first being Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. The partnership starts on February 1st and will be celebrated with double Aeroplan miles for all stays Feb 1- Apr 8 and a chance to win 1 of 10 - 100,000 Aeroplan Miles prizes for staying during that same period.

Full details on the partnership and the contest can be found here.

Choice Privileges modifies Elite Program

Choice Privileges, the FGP of Choice Hotels has made some minor modifcations to their elite status program and all the changes are actually for the better.

The first change is the number of nights required to reach Platinum Status. Previously it used to 25 nights but that has been dropped down to 20 nights. Gold and Diamond remain the same at 10 and 40 nights respectively.

The second change was adding more days to the Extended Booking Window for award stays. Gold members now have 50 days, Platinum 75 days and Diamond get 100 days. This compares to 30 days for non elite members.

The third change is for Diamond members only with the bonus points on all stays increasing to 50% from 40%.

For more information on the Choice Privileges Elite Program click here.