A while back Beijing flights were disrupted by thick pollution. Now a more pleasant disruption has been provided by mother nature. Heavy snow falls in the Beijing area have seen at least 200 flights canceled or delayed.

Some parts of Beijing received 12 centimeters of snow making it some of the heaviest snowfalls for quite some time. The timing was spot on as most people could stay at home and enjoy the snow due to the New Year holiday.

Monday’s forecast for Beijing was for a low of minus 19 Celsius.

The photo at left was taken Sunday night in Beijing just near the famous landmark of the Drum Tower.

The Drum Tower is just one of many attractions you could visit while in Beijing.

If you are looking to book a longhaul flight with Qantas you had better get in quick. On 18 December 2009 prices are set to increase.

Here are the details for the airfare increases

First class fares will increase by up to 3% for the following markets: United Kingdom/Europe, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Africa

Business class fares will increase by up to 3% for the following markets: Japan, United Kingdom/Europe, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Africa, Indonesia and Philippines

Premium Economy class fares will increase by up to 5% for the following markets: North America, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, United Kingdom/Europe

Economy class fares will increase by up to 5% for the following markets: Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Honolulu, South America, Singapore, Thailand, Africa, North America, United Kingdom/Europe

Air quality in Beijing is a problem at the best of times. When it gets bad you are lucky to see 100 metres on occasion. Yesterday in Beijing it was so bad that poor visibility delayed about 280 domestic and international flights serving Beijing.

This news came from the capital’s airport and follows several days of heavy air pollution. According to a statement from the airport visibility in Beijing was reduced to as little as 50m. The flight delays were not limited to Beijing. It was at least fog that caused delays from the main airport in Chengdu. According to Xinhua reports 105 flight were delayed stranding more than 10 000 passengers.

If you are interested in reading about air quality measurements regarding Beijing there is a twitter feed that you can check out. It does not make pleasant reading at the moment. The current readout is saying air quality is very unhealthy.

Air quality is a big issue and it is something China is keen to address at the upcoming climate change summit in Copenhagen.

I remember each time I have flown in or out of the Beijing international airport that nearly on every occasion visibility was very poor. When compared to what you could see when taking off or landing at other airports around the world it is very different. The airplane would very quickly dissapear into the pollution haze.

Last month Delta Air Lines announced the addition of direct flights to Beijing from Seattle which will take effect in the summer of 2010.

Delta will fly to Beijing from Seattle five times per week. The first flights are scheduled to commence on June 4.

Delta Air Lines will schedule flights to Beijing so that they have convenient connections with other Delta flights and their partner Alaska Airlines.

The airline also announced new flights to Osaka, Japan and Amsterdam, The Netherlands also to start in June 2010.

The Beijing flights will be serviced by Boeing 767-300 aircraft as will flights to Osaka. Flights to Amsterdam will use both 767-300 and Airbus A330-300 jets.

You can read about the best time for Beijing flights at the feature article on this site.

Ryanair are not happy with how an episode of the BBC’s Panorama program has portrayed them. To hit back at the allegations they have decided to give away 100 000 per false claim that was made on the show.

According to Ryanair there were 11 in total so that means over one million free seats on their flights. These will be truly free tickets as there will be now taxes or charges.

Here is the news release from Ryanair.

Ryanair, Britain’s favourite airline, today (Tue 13th Oct) released 1.1million FREE seats after BBC Panorama screened its ‘hatchet job’ on Ryanair last evening in which it uncovered – nothing, nada, rien, diddly squat. Ryanair criticised Panorama for its refusal of Ryanair’s offer of a live or uncut pre-recorded interview with Michael O’Leary, but this refusal isn’t surprising given that Panorama had no real case or valid points which would stand up to interview.

Last night Panorama made 11 false or misleading claims as follows:

1. Panorama featured check in problems at Stansted one weekend in August with no mention of the fact that on the other 32 weekends since web check-in was introduced Ryanair has seen no problems whatsoever at Stansted or the other 150 airports Ryanair operates from.

2. Panorama quoted a “Which” magazine survey which has no basis in reality whatsoever since “Which” continue to nominate British Airways as Britain’s favourite airline despite the fact that three times more passengers prefer Ryanair.

3. Panorama claimed that Ryanair charges £5 to all passengers for web check-in but omitted that more than half of Ryanair’s passengers avoid this fee by booking Ryanair’s promotional fares (which include free web check-in).

4. Panorama interviewed a ‘website usability expert’, who claimed that ryanair.com was designed to force passengers to buy Ryanair travel insurance. Panorama hid the fact that over 96% of Ryanair passengers decline travel insurance, which clearly confirms that this ‘website usability expert’ was clueless.

5. Panorama produced a ‘Professor of Corporate Reputation’ to suggest that ‘people feel cheated’ by Ryanair – which is clearly false when over 66 million passengers this year will choose to fly Ryanair because they feel cheated by BA’s and Easyjet’s high fares.

6. Panorama claimed that Ryanair’s 25 minute turnaround was a ‘record time’. This is false since Southwest Airlines in the US operates a 15 minute turnaround.

7. A Panorama actor claimed that cabin crew would not get a contract if they didn’t meet their targets at the end of the day or year. Totally false.

8. Panorama claimed that cabin crew pay £2,000 to train and qualify as cabin crew but conveniently omitted that these payments were not paid to Ryanair.

9. Another Panorama actor claimed Ryanair had ‘no respect or dignity for pilots or cabin crew’ – this is a false claim put about by the British Airways pilots’ union. Respect and dignity in Ryanair come in the form of high pay, rapid promotion and job security – unlike at BA where pilots are facing job cuts and pay cuts.

10. Panorama falsely claimed that no food or drinks are provided to cabin crew without pointing out that each pilot and cabin crew member receives a food allowance on every flight to pay for their own food and drinks.

11. Panorama claimed that “O’Leary is a bully” – this is clearly false when the whole world knows that O’Leary is a kind and gentle, caring and thoughtful, sensitive and saintly human being widely beloved by all Ryanair’s 6,500 people and its 66m passengers.

To celebrate the total failure of BBC Panorama’s hatchet job, Ryanair has today released 1.1million free seats – 100,000 for each of the 11 above lies or false claims made by Panorama last night.

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said,

“Last night’s programme was more Bananarama than Panorama. The BBC had no case, no facts and no clue. The only benefit it provided to viewers was the 1.1million free seats Ryanair will give away as a result of its false claims.

66 million passengers know that flying Ryanair guarantees the lowest fares, the best punctuality, no check-in queues and the pleasure of joining the Michael O’Leary fan club. Ryanair’s 1.1million free seats, for travel in November and December, are now available on www.ryanair.com and we urge passengers to snap them up.”

Going on a flight to Beijing from Washington DC? Here is some background information to enjoy as a video.

Beijing flights from the capital of the USA only started in 2007. Before that people in Washington DC were forced to fly via Chicago or New York or other options out of the USA to Beijing.

This came as a surprise to me as I expected that there would be flights to Beijing from Washington DC a long time before that. The Chinese don’t won’t too much competition for local airlines so they restrict the number of flights that can go direct to China.

If you are thinking of going to Beijing and want to read about finding cheap flights to Beijing read the related article on this site.

I have used a new service to create the video. Some feedback would be appreciated.

In my previous post I mentioned the American Airways frequent flyer program and how they are offering double points until mid-December.

Not to be outdone, US Airways have announced a promotion that allows their frequent flyers the fastest and easiest way to get Preferred status.

For flights between 1 October and December 25, 2009 you need just 7,500 miles or 10 segments to earn Silver Preferred status. 15,000 miles or 20 segments sees you earn Gold Preferred status. You can reach the top level with 30,000 miles or 40 segments. That will give you Chairman’s Preferred status.

In case you are wondering what the benefits are of reaching elite status here are some of the perks.

If you are Silver Preferred you could receive an upgrade to First Class if an upgrade become available. You’re able to reserve select exit-row seats and Choice Seats at no additional cost. You are also exempt from first and second checked bag fees.

Just looking at the current fee schedule for checked bags the Silver Preferred status can save you over $50 if you had two bags to check-in.

That is only a sampling of the benefits of reaching Preferred status. For further details regarding this promotion and the benefits of the different Preferred status levels visit US Airways.

If you fly American Airlines and are not in the Frequent Flyer American Airlines program they are giving you plenty of reasons to join.

The airline is offering double miles elite on all American Airlines flights.  To join just visit their website and use the code ELTRW to join.

If you do get into the American Airlines Frequent Flyer program and like flying you could look at doing some weekend flights to build up your points.

One good way to build up frequent flyer points is to add stopovers for a direct flight. For example Detroit (DTW) to Los Angeles (LAX) could pick you up a nice lot of miles at a cheap airfare. If you throw in Minneapolis-St Paul (MSP) to Memphis (MEM) you can earn some extra miles from flying north-south along the way.

You of course have to be someone who loves flying to do all that just to be building up your points, but in the long run if that is something you can afford to do it is worthwhile.

The Frequent Flyer American Airlines offer ends in December so take action now.

How would you feel if you did your research and found cheap flights to USA only to finally arrive at the big day and find you have an overweight passenger in the seat next to you? As part of the deal with cheap flights to USA you are going to find yourself in coach or economy class. Who you sit next to is anyone’s guess.

My wife recently was on a Melbourne to Canberra flight and found herself alongside a large women. She felt like she was pinned against the window as the passenger next to her did not fit in her allocated space. Luckily the flight could be considered short as it was one hour in duration.

If on the other hand it was a flight to the USA what would you do? Should the airline insist on charging overweight or large passengers for two seats so that other customers are not inconvenienced? It is a tricky situation. You don’t want to embarrass the individual, but also the rights of other passengers need to be considered.

I know if I had managed to secure some cheap flights to USA and then boarded only to find I had to squeeze into my seat I would be asking for a move. I have nothing against weight challenged people but it is cramped enough on a long haul international flight.

What prompted me to write about this is a story that I saw today about Southwest Airlines and one of their employees that asked the wife of Trampus Adams to get off the plane to purchase a second ticket. The staff member did this as they decided that Mrs Adams could not safely fit into one seat.

The women concerned was in tears and started hyperventilating due to the humiliation that followed. Mrs Adams is 5 foot 8 inches and weighs 350 pounds.

Do you agree with Southwest Airlines asking Mrs Adams to purchase another ticket? Have you found yourself in this situation. Love to read your comments.

With the airfare prices currently so low now is a great time to be taking advantage of cheap flights to USA. Just remember that the US population is on average overweight and there is a chance you could find yourself in a similar situation.

Some great prices are available now for flights to USA. For instance you could fly from Sydney to Los Angeles for $1174 departing on 24 September 2009. This airfare is available from Zuji.

The Fleming Hotel in Hong Kong has launched ‘His Space’ rooms. As the name suggests these are rooms catering for males.

There are plenty of boys’ toys to keep a man occupied. The rooms include video consoles for Playstation 3, X360 and the Wii. What would be my favorite feature is the golf putting green which is part of the ‘His Space’ rooms.

To keep the guys happy there will be a collection of men’s magazine and a library of DVD’s. Also on offer in these rooms is broadband internet and cable TV. Male guests also get access to selected imported beers at 50% off the normal price. To further sweeten the deal the hotel includes an American breakfast, gym access and a late checkout.

If you think this is a bit unfair for the girls, well actually it is about time they had guy themed rooms as the hotel already introduced ‘Her Space’ rooms in 2007. The five rooms for women come with enhanced security and female-focused amenities.

For the more traditional traveler, the Fleming Hotel does have other rooms that are sure to please. The hotel is located at 41 Fleming Road which is located in the heart of Hong Kong’s well known Wan Chai business and entertainment district.

The Fleming Hotel aims to impress their guests through exceptionally friendly staff who provide impeccable personalised service.