Originally Posted by
GUWonder
\My biggest issue is that the airlines whose frequent flyer programs I use heavily don't fly there and that intra-Pakistan I can't credit flights to any of my preferred frequent flyer programs AFAIK.
Where's Pakistan's version of Jet Airways or Kingfisher?
Haha - no Kingfisher for Pakistan - maybe a Murree Brewery's Airways in the future though!
The lack of Star, OneWorld and SkyTeam representation on flights to Pakistan is a major problem. Currently, Star is represented by SQ and TG who fly to both Karachi and Lahore. There is talk that Austrian and Swiss will restart operations to Karachi, but nothing concrete yet. No SkyTeam airlines fly to Pakistan and Oneworld is represented by BA to Islamabad. There is talk that BMed will start flying to Lahore but again it's just idle gossip at this point.
Until mid-'06, I had been traveling u.s.to Pakistan about every 6-10 weeks. Initially, I used to fly to LHR on UA then take either PIA or EK to Pakistan. However, since PIA deployed the brand new 777's on their Houston-Pakistan and Chicago-Pakistan flights in '04, I generally just fly PIA all the way. It's a comfy flight - AVOD, lie flat seats, noise cancelling headphones and Empower ports in J. As far as the food goes, my personal feeling is that PIA's food is easily the best in the air anywhere. I don't drink so the lack of alcohol doesn't bother me. I like PIA's inflight service, which is often very good and beats the pants off their ground service, which is generally poor. Because of a general lack of career opportunities in Pakistan, many of the FA's hold Masters degrees. I have even met a PhD in Physics working as a Steward on a PIA flight! This allows for some fairly interesting conversations with the cabin crew. ANother advantage of flying PIA is that they won't pass the buck if there is a weather delay, even when you miss your connection to another carrier. An example of this is last year when returning from Karachi to Houston, the flight was ten hours late due to fog at Islamabad. Many of the passengers were transiting Houston and flying onto Phoenix, Dallas, Denver, LA or SF. When we arrived at Houston at 1 AM, we were met by the ground staff who had already arranged hotel rooms, meal vouchers and had rebooked our onward flights for the next day. I could never imagine UA doing something like that.
PIA's FFP - Awards Plus is not a great program if you want rewards that transfer to other carriers but I mainly use it to obtain free tickets for friends or family traveling to and from Pakistan.