Etihad “Moonlight Check-In”, Fly Finnair A350 To NYC, New Partner For Flying Blue & More

A roundup of some of the airline news from the past few days including an innovative check-in incentive from Etihad, an opportunity (albeit brief) to fly on Finnair’s A350 between Helsinki and New York, a new transfer partner for the Flying Blue loyalty program and a new route for ANA’s 787 Dreamliner.

Etihad Moonlight Check-In

Etihad has introduced a few incentives for passengers traveling on the airline, from Abu Dhabi, between 13 and 28 December.

The primary promotion is called “Moonlight Check-In” although, as you’ll see from the terms & conditions, they’re stretching the definition of “moonlight hours” more than a little bit!

The announcement from Etihad states:

Check in during moonlight hours and we’ll give you an additional 5kg of checked baggage allowance, an Etihad Guest Miles voucher preloaded with 2,500 miles per travelling guest and one hour’s free parking at Skypark, allowing you to complete the check-in process.

So, that’s free Etihad miles, free parking and an extra baggage allowance (very useful during the holidays) for checking-in during “moonlight hours”

Q: What does Etihad define as Moonlight Hours?

A: 1am – 6am and 1pm to 6pm

Since when is Abu Dhabi basking in moonlight between 1pm and 6pm?!

Anyway, as is the case with all promotions, there are terms and conditions….some of which will disappoint a few people:

Moonlight check-in incentives are only available if you are booked to travel on Etihad-operated flights (excluding flights to the US*) where you check in well in advance of your flight. For instance, if your flight departs at 5pm and you check in two hours earlier on the same day, you are not entitled to the incentives. However, if you check in at 5am that morning, then you will receive the additional benefits.

*Flights to the U.S. must go through the dedicated preclearance check-in counters in Terminal 3 at Abu Dhabi International Airport and are therefore not eligible for Moonlight incentives.

As well as Moonlight Check-In Etihad as one more bonus for its frequent flyers.

If you need a larger baggage allowance, are not flying to the US and don’t like the sound of Moonlight check-in then the City Terminal in Abu Dhabi may be an option for you.

Etihad are offering an extra 5kg baggage allowance to anyone checking in at the City Terminal and flying on an Etihad operated service.

Fly The Finnair A350 To New York

I flew the Finnair A350 back in October when it was still doing trips between European cities as part of the crew orientation exercises and that was quite a bit of fun (review of the Finnair A350). The airline started flying the aircraft long-haul in November when the A350 commenced service on the Helsinki – Shanghai route and, as more A350s are delivered they’ll be deployed on routes to Bangkok, Beijing Singapore & Hong Kong.

While there have been stories doing the rounds that Finnair will eventually schedule an A350 on its Helsinki – New York route, nothing permanent has yet been announced. Having said that, for a limited time in January, Finnair is flying the A350 to/from New York so this may be an opportunity to try out the aircraft.

Between 12 January and 20 January the Finnair A350 will be replacing the A330-300 that currently serves the Helsinki – New York route and will fly on the following daily schedule:

AY005 HEL 14:10 – 15:55 JFK
AY006 JFK 17:45 – 08:50+1 day HEL

As things stand cash fares aren’t looking too tempting for Business Class – $2,964 R/T from Helsinki and an eye-watering $6,500 R/T from JFK – I’ll keep an eye open for a fare sale and keep you posted.

Flying Blue Adds New Partner

From 1 January 2016 Flying Blue members will be able to convert Best Western Rewards points into Flying Blue miles….although the transfer ratio is hardly appealing!

Per Flying Blue:

Good news for Best Western Rewards members! From 1 January 2016, you will be able to convert your Best Western Rewards Points into Flying Blue Award Miles. With this new option, 6,000 Best Western Rewards Points converts to 1,000 Miles.

Best Western rewards already transfer into a number of airline loyalty currencies and all at a better ratio than the 6:1 ratio Flying Blue offer:

• Aeromexico – 3.125 to 1
• Air Canada – 5 to 1
• Alaska Airlines – 5 to 1
• American Airlines – 5 to 1
• Asiana Airlines – 5 to 1
• Southwest – 4.17 to 1

Apart from the fact that Flying Blue gives the worst ratio in the list above, transfers from hotel programs to airline programs are rarely a good use of miles. Sure, if you’re not a regular guest at Best Western properties and have some orphan points then it could make sense to transfer your points to an airline where they may be of some use (bear in mind that you need to transfer a minimum of 5,000 points)…but that’s about it.

ANA Schedules 787 Dreamliner On Haneda – Honolulu Route

In a change that appears to be for the summer season only, ANA is replacing its 767-300 aircraft on the Tokyo Haneda – Honolulu route with a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.

The schedule for the aircraft is as follows:

NH186 HND 22:55 – 11:25 HNL (Daily)
NH185 HNL 18:25 – 22:15+1 day (Daily)

The aircraft swap sees ANA increase the number of seats on the route by 26 with Business Class seeing a significant rise from 35 seats on the 767 to 42 seats on the 787.

ANA 787-8 – image courtesy of Ikarasawa via Flickr

The change in aircraft should be good news for Economy Class passengers too. The ANA 767 has some of the tightest seats in the fleet with just 31″ of seat pitch and a seat width a horrible 17″. The 787-8, on the other hand, may still only have a 31″ seat pitch but the 18.6″ seat width is a big improvement.