Virgin Australia and Etihad Begins Battle For Additional Checked-In Baggage Limit

Travel News Summary:

Hi, this is Jake Hower for Business Travel Management with another weekly news update.

In this episode we’re going to touch on Virgin. They’ve announced, along with Etihad, they had some increases in their checked baggage limits; they’re flying business class on their Embraer Jets. We’re also going to look at Air New Zealand’s getting access to their lounges domestically and internationally for a fee. So keep watching to find out more.

• Pay for Access -  Buy your way in onto Air New Zealand’s Koru Lounges.

Okay first off to Air New Zealand. You may not know but you can actually buy access to the Koru Lounges which is Air New Zealand’s lounge domestically in New Zealand for about $40 a visit, but also in some of their international destinations, Melbourne being one of the better ones, that’s $55 for a visit.

Now if you’re looking … you’re spending a bit of time before your international flight, it’s well worth it. They’ve got a nice pool table in the Melbourne lounge, the food’s good there and it’s certainly a lot more quiet and a lot more comfortable than sitting at in the departure lounge.

• Virgin Australia and Etihad boosts checked-in baggage limit.

We could be seeing the beginnings of a battle with cheeked baggage allowance limits. Virgin and Etihad have just announced they’ve upped their limits to 30 kilos of checked in luggage in their economy class cabin, so Qantas and Emirates I’m sure will retaliate. Watch this space, I’ll keep you updated in the progression of this battle and we’ll certainly say who wins.

• Etihad updates First Class Suites  for Sydney service.

On the topic of Etihad, they’re consistently updating their product. Their most recent update is their first class suites; they’re updating the Sydney service. I’ve got a link to an article below on a review on that, it’s quite good, check it out. We can’t all fly first class but I can tell you what, now they’ve got a really good special offer under $10,000 to Europe in first class. That is very close to the business class prices, it may well suit, but we’ll have to be quick to it to get that particular deal. Contact us, tells it here, and we’ll few you in all the details.

• Korean Air announces sacking of Melbourne – Seoul services.

If you’re based in Melbourne and you fly to South Korea, a bit of bad news with Korean Airlines announcing that they will be terminating their Melbourne-Seoul direct service effective March next year. It’s not great to hear, it shouldn’t affect too many people, but certainly if you were one of those particular travellers, I’m really sorry but we got to have to be going via one of the other Asian cities or via Sydney now to make your way to Seoul.

Okay, that’s it for another week, thanks very much for tuning in. If you’ve got any feedback or if you’ve need extra information, feel free to email me. Again, my details are here or use the Comments section below this video, I’ll respond to everything, or you head across with our Facebook site which is facebook.com/flybtm.

Thanks for tuning in. I will speak to you again soon.