I figured I’d go for two Asia stories in a row, especially after I saw this one in the news yesterday. It looks like Mainland China and Taiwan have finally come to an agreement to allow flights between the two countries. This is long overdue, to say the least.

I’m guessing that many of you don’t know the deal here, so let me explain. It’s no surprise, of course, that Mainland China and Taiwan aren’t exactly the best of friends. I won’t get into the politics, but you can read here if you want more info.

But when it comes to aviation politics, all I can do is shake my head. Let me try to explain how messy things have been here. In the past, you may have seen planes from Swissair Asia, KLM Asia, etc. Believe it or not, Mainland China previously wouldn’t allow any airline to fly to the Mainland if it also flew to Taiwan. So, airlines were forced to set up subsidiaries and paint their planes with new titles just to serve both. That rule hasn’t existed for a few years, but I think it gives you a good idea of how bad things have been.

Of course, just because the governments don’t get along doesn’t mean that the people don’t want to go see relatives and friends living on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. With limited exception, the only way to get between the two today is to connect through Hong Kong. As you can see, that’s not exactly a straight line. In fact, it adds a 4 to 5 hours to a flight.

As you can imagine, business was good for the Hong Kong-based airlines. I seem to recall that the traffic between Taiwan and China alone was able to make Dragonair a success in the early days. (Anyway have more info on that?) But, it’s not exactly ideal from a passenger perspective.

So, in order to help save the environment, we now have an agreement to allow charter flights between many cities on both Taiwan and Mainland China. Ok, this has nothing to do with the environment at all (I mean, it’s China, come on), but it’ll be very good for business.

To start, there will only be 18 flights each weekend for now, but the agreement says that regular scheduled flights will begin as soon as possible. Chinese airlines on both sides are all, as you might expect, anxiously awaiting the ability to ramp up and start serving this market. It’s about time.

You know I like to talk about new seats here on the blog, and this time I know some of you will be happy to hear that it’s coming from the Pacific Rim. (Yes, I know I should blog about the other side of the Pacific far more than I do.) So who is it now? Japan Air Lines has announced new First and Business class seats, and at least the First class seats look pretty good.

These new seats will be rolled out on the new 777-300ER aircraft, the first of which flies Tokyo to New York on August 1. As no US carrier seems to be able to do (quick, where are UA’s new Business seats?), JAL has given a precise schedule for when and where you can find the seats. They will “start operating every other day on the Tokyo-New York route (JL005/ 006) on August 1, 2008, going daily on August 11. This will be followed by the Tokyo-San Francisco route on September 13, 2008, and the Tokyo – Chicago and Los Angeles routes in FY2009, the year starting April 1, 2009.”

Ok, enough of that. Let’s talk about the seats. The JAL Suite is the new First class offering, and it looks to be a big step up for the airline. There will be only 2 rows of four in the front of each plane for a total of eight seats. The seats themselves are, of course, completely flat. Anything else wouldn’t be First class anymore. It is an almost completely enclosed suite with just one open area to enter and exit. If you’re sitting next to someone, there’s a privacy screen that you can bring down (as shown at left) if you’d like.

JAL has decided to go with a separate mattress for sleeping. There will be separate Tempur-pedic mattresses that go on top of each seat when flat. The whole Tempur-pedic thing is interesting. There are plenty of people who don’t like the feel of those strangely spongy-yet-firm mattresses, so I hope the seats are comfortable enough without the mattress for those who don’t like it.

What else? Well, meals will now come on-demand instead of at a set time. That’s good. What’s bad? Uh, the seats are white, sorry, “pale gray.” Those are going to show the dirt, I’m sure.

Now, let’s look at the Business seat. It appears to be more of a marketing campaign than anything else because the seats aren’t much different. First of all, no seat is truly “new” without a super cool name. JAL has chosen “JAL Shell Flat Neo Seat.” Sounds, uh, cool? Ok, maybe not.

It is apparently very similar to the old business class seat but these recline a little more (still a near-flat 171 degrees). But at least there is now a “slip-proof cover” so you won’t slide down too far. That’s probably the best thing the airline has done here.

Then, in an admirable attempt to marry style and pure commercialism, they will dedicate the wall of one of the galleys to a photo exhibition. I’m sure you’ll be SHOCKED to hear that it’s being sponsored by Fuji Film. Well, it’s better than pasting an ad on the tray table, I suppose.

This will also be the first plane to debut JAL’s Premium Economy class which appears to be similar to a British Airways-type offering versus a United-style one, unsurprisingly.

So, First is a big step for the airline and so is Premium Economy, but Business appears to be fairly similar to what was there before.

Nothing like some misguided Homeland Security policy to make you feel all warm and cozy. This time, we’ve got two policies, one that will impact foreign visitors and the other that could theoretically impact anyone.

First, let’s start with the rule that will affect non-US citizens. There are 27 countries that participate in the visa waiver program which allows people to visit the US without a visa. When they travel now, they can just grab their passports, hop on the plane, and fill out immigration forms enroute. That will change by January 12 when anyone traveling on a visa waiver will have to register electronically at least three days prior to traveling. There will, fortunately, be exemptions for people who book at the last minute, but what about people who forget? Will they be turned away?

I suppose the good news is that you only have to register once every two years, but that means the US will be keeping more info about you electronically. The more changes we make, the more we discourage people from visiting. Is it really not enough to have paperwork filled out on the flight? I mean, it’s a great option to offer the ability to register online beforehand for those who prefer, but making it mandatory just adds one more hurdle for foreign visitors to deal with as they plan their trips.

And now, let’s turn to the other news. Beginning June 21, you will be required to show a photo ID when you travel. Wait, didn’t you have to do that before? Nope, you didn’t. If you didn’t want to use a photo ID, you could still travel but you had to go through more rigorous screening. As you can imagine, this didn’t happen that often, but it did happen.

The rule says that exceptions will be made for people who have lost their ID, but really, who is to make the determination that it’s specifically been lost and you’re not just trying to avoid showing ID? The officer? Yikes. Here’s what the TSA has to say on the subject. I have to disagree with them. Why do we need to know exactly who is traveling? Anyone who willing travels without an ID is going to face such increased scrutiny that they would be idiots to try and do something sinister that way. Anyone really trying to cause trouble would just get a fake ID of some sort in order to blend it.

As fare as I’m concerned, as long as ID-less passengers don’t have anything dangerous on them, they should be allowed to fly. What do you think?

US Airways loyalists (and I mean the old East loyalists) aren’t going to like what I’m about to say, but I think they’ll probably agree that it’s true. When US Airways announced several new fees and other changes yesterday, it made sense considering that airline’s strategy; however, when United did the same thing, it didn’t.

US Airways fliers have seen this coming for a long time. In fact, I’m surprised they can even find the energy to get frustrated anymore. It was clear when America West management took over US Airways that the airline was going to become more like an America West-style product and less like a full service legacy-style product that used to be the norm for the airline.

Benefits have slowly eroded since the takeover, and as far as I’m concerned, the writing has been on the wall since day 1 of the “new” US Airways. Management has made it clear that they want to provide a clean airplane that flies on-time for a low price. That’s about all you can expect. Everything else is just a legacy benefit that seems to me will slowly be stripped away. So with that strategy in mind (whether misguided or not), yesterday’s moves make sense.

This time, the airline adopted American’s $15 fee for a first checked bag, and to be honest, I’m surprised they didn’t think of this first. You’ll also now have to pay $2 for a soda and $7 (up from $5) for alcohol. There will be fees for using a Dividend Miles award, and a bunch of other fees will increase. On top of this, elite members in Dividend Miles will no longer receive bonus miles, and that is bound to have the FlyerTalk crowd up in arms more than anything else.

But is anyone really surprised? I mean, aren’t you just waiting for them to start charging for elite first class upgrades before they remove the first class cabin from the plane completely? The only thing that’s missing here is that while they’ve tried to go bare bones and low fare in some ways, there are still plenty of high fares lurking. I suppose it’s all about supply and demand. If people will pay, then that won’t change, but it doesn’t exactly fit with their persona. Still, the changes announced yesterday fall exactly along the lines of what I’d expect from this airline.

But then there’s United, which also matched the $15 first bag fee yesterday. This is an airline that has long talked about how it likes to be more of a premium carrier, but once again it has shown that it is not really trying for that market. Sure, elite members will be exempt from these fees, but the unwashed masses in the back of the bus will be treated like, well, unwashed masses. It’s a very confusing message, especially when an elite who pays a $100 fare will get treated better than a non-elite who pays $400.

This shows the problem that United is once again trying to serve all different types of passengers when that really shouldn’t be the case. Yes, I understand that they need cash right now and that they’re in worse shape than others due to mismanagement, but if you want to be a premium carrier, you don’t implement fees like this. You try to differentiate yourself instead of helping Southwest establish itself as the true premium carrier that doesn’t actually charge these fees.

In fact, Southwest has been stepping up its “no-fee” campaign lately, and if people are serious about despising fees, they should be voting with their wallets and flying Southwest more often. Maybe then the other airlines will see that there is demand for this type of service. Until then, it will apparently continue to be a race to the bottom.

While there’s certainly plenty of room for airlines at the bottom, I think the further they go, the more opportunity there will be at the top. United would seem to be the airline best-positioned to try that strategy, but it’s clear that won’t be the case. Instead, the airline will set expectations too high and customers will be disappointed time and time again.

[Original image: iandavid at Flickr]

Virgin America has been pretty quiet lately. I mean, except for the Superfly Wednesday gimmick, not much has happened except for some frequency increases. Yesterday, however, the airline revealed its twin doses of dumbness, as I like to call them.First, the airline will start flying from New York/JFK to Las Vegas. And second, the airline is adding a fuel surcharge.

Let’s start with the Vegas flight that begins on my birthday, September 4. Westbound flights will operate every day but Wednesday and Thursday while eastbound flights won’t operate on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Here’s the schedule:

VX251 Lv JFK 905a Arr Vegas 1145a
VX206 Lv Vegas 215p Arr JFK 1025p

As you can see, this is no utilization flight. This takes a full aircraft day, so it’s targeting the business traveler. While the times may be ok for that purpose, taking two days off in the middle of the week is certainly not going to help them very much. As a business traveler, I’d rather fly one of the THREE other airlines (Delta, US Airways, JetBlue) that fly in the market multiple times daily so that I could at least have more options. And don’t forget, American also flies this once daily. Don’t even get me started on Newark. Yes, it’s a crowded market.

And since this is JFK, they only have a certain number of slots. Yep, that means something had to be cut elsewhere. One of the five daily SFO flights, the one that operates at the same time as this, will disappear that day (it currently shows “sold out” on the Virgin America site). So, they’re cutting frequency in that market and shifting it five days a week to Vegas? What about those other two days? Strange.

Now how about those fuel surcharges? In most markets, Virgin America has been the most aggressive pricer out there with sale after sale and low structure fares as well. So, how is it that they feel the need to add a surcharge? Why not just raise fares? It doesn’t really make sense to me, especially for an airline like Virgin America. Having a fuel surcharge isn’t hip. Raising fares, however, now that’s what the cool kids are doing.