There has been a ton of interesting news to write about in the last few days, and I’d been having trouble figuring out with what to lead . . . until yesterday. Turns out that I was voted one of the the world’s 50 most powerful blogs by The Observer in the UK.

Holy crap! That’s kind of scary. But, I’m guessing that means I’ll have a bunch of new visitors from that side of the Pond (welcome, everyone), so I’m going to post Sunday night instead of my usual Monday morning. And, while I’m being accommodating, let’s focus on something that probably causes you newbies pain and suffering more often than not: Heathrow.

Usually, any discussion of Heathrow involves a lot of cursing, rising blood pressure, and possibly some crying. With any luck, we’ll see less of that in the near future, but it’s likely to get worse in the short term. Why?

Well, we’re getting closer to the big terminal move. On March 27, BA will land its first flights at the brand-spanking new Terminal 5 and that begins a long period of transition for the airport as just about everyone save Virgin Atlantic moves locations.

I’ve tried to put together a handy guide on all the terminal moves so you can actually figure out where you’re supposed to go for your next flight. First, we’ll start with oneworld airlines, since they have the most changes happening the earliest.

Now let’s take a look at SkyTeam. In short, when Delta, Northwest, and Continental start flying to Heathrow in March, they’ll be in BA’s old Terminal 4. The rest of the carriers won’t move until early 2009, when a major terminal renovation will have been completed. Anyone who has flown BA out of that terminal lately knows that it is in desperate need of some help.

I’d like to list the Star Alliance changes here as well, but I haven’t been able to find them. In fact, while oneworld and SkyTeam have been on top of the changes, Star Alliance has been silent. I sent the alliance a request and their response left me wondering if they actually meant to insult my intelligence or if they just don’t speak English very well.

We would like to inform you, however, that the Star Alliance is a network of 19 individual airlines. Operational matters are handled by the airlines themselves. Therefore, for more information, you will need to contact the individual Star Alliance member airlines directly.

Really? You guys aren’t an airline yourself? No sh**. Well, I also asked United directly and spokesperson Robin Urbanski told me that the airline will be moving to Terminal 1, but it’s unclear when that might be and that will happen on June 1. Clearly, this alliance is a little less organized, probably because the changes aren’t coming as quickly as with the others.

We know that the airlines in Terminal 1 will stay there for now. Terminal 2 will be demolished starting this year, so those guys have to move somewhere. On March 27, BA moves nearly all of its domestic and European flights out of Terminal 1, so I have to assume that everyone from Terminal 2 will move in before their terminal disappears. Will the Terminal 3 airlines move at the same time or will they stay longer? My guess is that they won’t move immediately because there’s no urgency. Here’s how they stack up right now along with my best guesses as to where they’ll go. The only thing I know for sure is that US Airways will go to Terminal 1 when it starts service to the airport on March 30.

Update 3/25 @ 822a - Star has put out a press release with much more guidance. All Star carriers will be expected to move to Heathrow East in 2012 when the terminal is completed, but I haven’t included those changes in here.

Of course, not all airlines are in alliances. Virgin Atlantic, for example, will stay in Terminal 3, so you won’t see any changes there. All other unaligned airlines (except for former oneworld member Aer Lingus which will be in Terminal 3) will end up in Terminal 4. Again, I’m not entirely sure when that might happen, but one thing is clear . . . there will be a lot of confusion at Heathrow until things settle down, and that could take years.

If you have to go to the airport in the near future, leave plenty of time and bring lots of patience. If you have the misfortune of connecting through Heathrow, especially while these changes are in progress, may God have mercy on your souls.

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Today was a big day for new additions to global alliances. To be fair, these are just the announcements of additions but in the near future oneworld and SkyTeam fliers will have more options for mileage earning and redemption.

First up, SkyTeam. Air Europa, Copa Airlines, and Kenya Airways all signed up as associate members. Air Europa is based in Spain and flies to sun spots around the world so that frozen Europeans can warm up. Copa, formerly partially owned by SkyTeam member Continental, connects North and South America through its hub in Panama. Kenya Airways is probably the most exciting addition because it opens up an entire new continenta. From its Nairobi home in East Africa, the airline flies to Europe, Asia, West Africa, and Southern Africa.

Now, I’m not exaclty sure it was it means to be an associate member, but it probably means they have to get coffee and pick up dry cleaning for the primary members. I imagine the rules for joining as an associate are less strict so it’s easier to join. In the end though, they will have earn/burn ability for frequent flier miles, codesharing, and lounge sharing so the customer will benefit.

SkyTeam’s US members are Northwest, Continental, and Delta, at least until some merger happens and changes everything around.

Next up is oneworld. They said yesterday that as of April 1, Malev, Royal Jordanian, Japan Airlines (JAL), and all its affiliates will join the group. Also that day, Aer Lingus will leave the alliance and go it alone saying that everything is just fine, they’re at the controls, flying the plane, free to pursue a life of religious fulfillment.

Malev is based in Budapest (Hungary), Royal Jordanian in Amman (Jordan, duh), and JAL in Tokyo. They all fly to destinations on several continents. American is the US airline in this alliance.

Hong Kong’s Dragonair, along with LAN Ecuador and LAN Argentina will join sometime later this year as well marking a pretty strong expansion by the alliance.

Looks like the BA flight attendants have called off their strike after coming to agreement with management. This means there will be fewer disruptions this week, but there are still some problems.

BA says that if people changed their flights due to the strike, they can call back and have the original flights reinstated if they’d like. That being said, there are a couple caveats. Since this is so last minute, the airline says it won’t be able to offer full catering on all flights from Heathrow on Tuesday and Wednesday. If you are on a flight without full catering, they’ll give you a voucher in the airport to redeem for food.

There’s also no guarantee that every flight will be able to operate. Instead of giving the actual flights that will operate, they’ve annoyingly requested that everyone use the flight info link on their website on the day of the flight to see if it will operate. Lame.

I haven’t really talked about the impending strike over at British Airways because I was hoping it would be averted. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

The strike will be by the TGWU union which repesents about 14,000 of BA’s flight attendants. What are they fighting over? Well, I like this commentary’s take on the situation. Though it appears to be over the matter of sick days and the elimination of one purser position on every 747 flight, it’s actually a much bigger fight over the future of the airline.

What does this mean for you? Well, if you’re traveling to the UK next week, watch out. It’s going to be an ugly one. BA announced that it’s pre-canceling flights, but you can check here for the most up to date info:

• Tuesday, Jan 30 - No flights will operate from Heathrow to the US/Canada and from Gatwick to Tampa, Bermuda, and Barbados. All flights to London will operate as scheduled from the US/Canada. No short haul European/UK flights will operate from Heathrow or Gatwick.
• Wednesday, Jan 31 - All flights between the US/Canada and London are canceled. No short haul European/UK flights will operate from Heathrow or Gatwick
• Thursday, Feb 1 - Most flights from the US/Canada to Heathrow and from Tampa, Bermuda, and Barbados to Gatwick are canceled but all flights from Heathrow will operate.
• Friday, Feb 2- Most flights will operate as normal with the possibility for a couple cancellations

The good news? It’s only a two day strike. The bad news? They’re planning more on Feb 5, 6, 7 and Feb 12, 13, 14.

Hmm, that title may be misleading. Though American is beefing up their meal service, I can’t imagine it will be good enough to merit Emeril Lagasse’s catchphrase.

The airline announced today a host of different upgrades to the meal service in premium cabins only. (Sorry coach people - if you get a meal at all, you should be thrilled.)

The biggest positive as far as I’m concerned is that they will once again have silverware onboard. Now, I’m going to just assume this includes knives and really, it’s about time. There is nothing more painful than trying to cut your tough piece of mystery meat with a plastic knife only to find it impossible to stab with your spork. They’re also bringing back hot towels.

On the long hauls, you’ll now get “artisan” breads. What does that mean anyway? At least they’ll finish you off with Ghirardelli chocolate, pre-landing sparkling water, and individual salt and pepper shakers. This is a far cry from the airline that removed the olive from salads to save a buck.

There are all kinds of new foods, and you can click here to see some of them. Oh yes, and the cross country flights will have cookies baked on-board, a la Midwest Airlines.

It all sounds good, but will it get people to pay more? I’m definitely not the right person to talk to on this one. I only eat onboard if the flight is really long and I’ll starve otherwise. There are other places they could focus if they wanted me pay more, but I suppose this is part of the package.

Ok, maybe in this case, the correct term is “overweight,” but either way you look at it, you’ll have to leave those heavy bags at home from now on if you fly Continental.

Recently, most US airlines standardized their baggage rules to allow bags up to 50 lbs for free, bags 51 to 70 lbs for a fee, and bags 70 to 100 lbs for a bigger fee. Now, Continental has stopped allowing any bags over 70 lbs.

Really, if you can’t fit everything you need in a couple of 70 pound bags, there’s something wrong. Continental’s website does note, however, that you still check electric wheelchairs and other assistive devices free of charge.

Here are the weight restrictions for a few select airlines on domestic routes:

American - up to 50 lbs free, $25 per bag from 51 to 70 lbs, $50 per bag from 71 to 100 lbs
Continental - up to 50 lbs free, $25 per bag from 51 to 70 lbs
JetBlue - up to 50 lbs free, $20 per bag from 51 to 70 lbs, $50 per bag from 71 to 100 lbs
Northwest - up to 50 lbs free, $25 per bag from 51 to 70 lbs, $50 per bag from 71 to 100 lbs
Southwest - up to 50 lbs free, $25 per bag from 51 to 70 lbs, $50 per bag from 71 to 100 lbs
United - up to 50 lbs free, $50 per bag from 51 to 100 lbs
US Airways - up to 50 lbs free, $50 per bag from 51 to 70 lbs, $80 per bag from 71 to 100 lbs

A little bit of love for our friends north of the border . . .

Canada’s Globe and Mail is reporting that Westjet is looking to join the oneworld alliance anchored by American and British Airways. This is a pretty interesting move.

First things first. I’m neither a fan of oneworld nor of WestJet. For oneworld, it’s not that I don’t like the airlines in the alliance or the benefits involved. No. It’s that they are one of the many targets in my crusade against improper capitalization (or lack thereof). That’s the same exact reason WestJet has incurred my wrath. They have a great product, but that capital “J” just stares at me menacingly. This could be a match made in heaven.

With that off my chest, let’s talk about the actual news here.

Oneworld has lacked a Canadian partner since Air Canada swallowed up Canadian several years ago. With Air Canada in Star, there aren’t too many other options for a partner up north. It’s not a huge aviation market, but there is certainly a big hole without a Canadian partner. So for oneWORLD, going after wESTjET is a no-brainer.

On the westjet side, it’s a little more confusing. There is most certainly a great deal of traffic that can be routed to the airline through a global alliance. Also, the frequent flier program instantly becomes more attractive as a loyalty tool for Canadians who are looking for a solid alternative to Air Canada. But there are costs involved with joining an alliance, and that has generally kept low cost carriers out of them. The only low cost carrier in an alliance is US Airways, and they joined before they became a low cost carrier. Most LCCs have found that the increased costs and complexity of joining an alliance aren’t worth it.

So is WESTJET straying the wrong way or is this a great new idea? My initial thought is that it might work. If they really want to compete with AC, this is the way to do it. I’m just not sure that’s what their goal should be.