GD, the lack of food seems to be strictly a US thing. I’ve always received a snack or a light meal on very short flights elsewhere in the world (apart from low cost airlines). The cut-off seems to be 25 minutes; any more and they’ll serve something up.

6/7 months ago I took an early morning flight from IOM-LGW (economy): only 45 minutes, but we got a hot breakfast (eggs, sausage, bacon, hash brown, tomato), yoghurt and tea/coffee. Now of course, the cost of this might be £2 but it adds £20 to the price of ticket! So I’m not expressing a food/no food preference for short flights either way, just that it is normal to be served food in most parts of the world. Maybe the airlines think it makes passengers suppose that they got better value than they actually did – a mere marketing ploy.

Kabir – the fuselage cross section of the Embraer is less than the A318, therefore it is thinner. Bit more difficult to demonstrate “lighter” but I think that’s apparent just by comparing the two types visually.

You can generally check bags through for your whole journey, irrespective of which airlines are involved.

Eg. 18 months ago I checked my bags through

CPT-JNB-LHR-IOM with the first 2 flights on SAA and the 3rd flight on BA.

However what is not so good is a difference in allowances. Eg. BA has 23Kg, but on the same route with the same aircraft (744, LHR-MEL) Qantas only has 20Kg. I know, only 3Kg, doesn’t sound significant. But when they charge you excess, you change your mind! Oneworld have made bugger all progress towards achieving a “common oneworld experience” for passengers. Isn’t that what the benefit of an alliance is, in the first place ?!

Doesn’t always follow – Emirates squeeze 3-4-3 in their 777’s. BA have 3-3-3 by contrast.

Then again EK probably have better legroom than BA (only 31 inches) so it’s horses for courses.

Why would you expect them to acquire the A318?

The only advantage would be fleet commonality and perhaps better range. Against this, the Embraer is naturally a more efficient aircraft – it’s thinner and lighter.

As for “breaking” Jetblue, I don’t see how it is anything other than good news. The marginal risk of taking on an Embraer fleet is something they seem to think they can bear and there is every chance that this is so. As long as their extra cashflow from Embraer operations can support the various payments to be made, there is no problem.

Very good effort!

El Al must be one of the only airlines still flying 747 Classics into LHR? Actually I know that South African do, but those are to be replaced with A380’s I think.

Air Canada??!

I accept your argument Adrian, if they actually were expanding upon their mutual cooperation.

However they do not cooperate from a passenger viewpoint as well as Star does. As a basic example, if you take a flight with a Oneworld airline you cannot put those miles on your BA FF account, unless you are prepared to go through a lot of hassle. I did once get my miles added automatically on a codeshare flight operated by Qantas – but on another Qantas flight the following week I had to print off a form and fax it over to BA, with a copy of my boarding card stub…..that is essentially obstructive, don’t you think? They are plainly counting on lots of people not bothering with the hassle, to reduce their FF liability.

Their systems are reputedly not as hooked in to each others as Stars’ are. They can’t even synchronsise basic stuff like baggage allowances on otherwise identical tickets.

The whole alliance does not and should not revolve purely around BA/AA, so for BA to blather on about Bermuda II and the like is not especially a reason for the alliance to stagnate. Maybe the other members should be taking a more active leadership role. Or maybe the two big boys should make sure other members have enough management nous to take the lead, rather then vainly rabbiting on about quality (hey, several Star members would walk into oneworld).