Today, two new airline routes were mentioned that are both interesting in their own way. In this age of newer aircraft and equipment, it makes sense for airlines to reach out to different destinations and markets that may originally have been too expensive for them. Hopefully, we will see much more of this!
Two Brand New, Interesting Airline Routes
Cathay Pacific with Hong Kong to Washington, DC
The first one from today was that Cathay Pacific will launch their longest route of Hong Kong to Washington, DC – a flight that will cover 8,154 miles. This will be the longest flight from Washington, DC and it gives Cathay Pacific a huge opportunity to meet the (likely) demand by many people in the DC area who have family in Asia or travel to Asia for business.
Maps generated by the
Great Circle Mapper –
copyright © Karl L. Swartz.
This new flight will be operated by Cathay Pacific’s Airbus A350 and it will take 17 hours. I have flown Cathay Pacific from JFK to Hong Kong before and we were on the plane for a little over 17 hours due to traffic. Even in Cathay Pacific’s First Class, that long of a flight is tough! I cannot image doing a 17 hour flight in economy. On the Cathay Pacific A350, there is no first class but 38 business class seats, 28 premium economy seats, and 214 economy seats.
It is expected that Cathay Pacific will announce this new route next week, according to South China Morning Post.
United Launching Flights to Tahiti
For people wanting to escape to Bora Bora and other beach destinations in the French Polynesian chain, United is about to help you do that. Starting next October (yes, 10 months away!), they will begin flying from San Francisco to Papeete aboard one of their Boeing 787s.
This is exciting for many since Tahiti is one of those destinations that has not had a whole lot of options for people wanting to use miles. In fact, from the mainland US, there are currently only two flights and they are both operated out of Los Angeles and by foreign carriers. As for awards, my guess is that United will be pretty strict with releasing award space as they try to see how much of the leisure market they can attract.
They will be flying this route 3 times a week – Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday – which should allow for some nice vacation stretches for those interested! Pending government approval, these flights will begin at the end of October 2018 and run through the end of March of 2019. Both legs are between 8 hours and 8.5 hours so not that bad of a flight to reach a bit of destination paradise!
I am sure there will be many who are going to try to book this with miles and hopefully you are successful!
Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock
