MWell, not necessarily. It would still be possible for EK to be granted permissions on an extra-bilateral basis, even if the UAE-US open skies policy was terminated. The white paper mentions this possibility. I think MXP-JFK is also extra-bilateral.

No military bases will be harmed in the making of this drama. The gist of the UAE agreement is basically the US guaranteeing the UAE's security in exchange for being able to use the bases there. I think there is also a status of forces agreement. But that's beside the point. The point is, the bases are too important for the host country. Whereas the UAE didn't gain much from Canada's Camp Mirage.

Offering a 2-for-1 USA sale through the rest of the year does not strike me as the best strategy to deploy when you're trying to show that you're a "real" unsubsidized airline.

Because "real" airlines do this all the time, right?

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2...gateways.html/

My mistake, got a little excited and mixed up my gulf states. But those gulf states are critical allies hosting and supporting US military strategy.

This isn't the first promotional offer and certainly won't be the last. Whatever strikes you is irrelevant. EK do not need to be in a damage control mode, unlike the brainless folks, so called CEOs, mouthing racial slurs on TV.

This is only the second significant offering. The first one was the JFK-MXP package.

This one is interesting because it is pretty much the entire year with very minimal exceptions.

Looks like United has matched, but I don't think Delta is going to touch this one.

As a side note, the US-DXB fare is part of the new Special fares, a lower category than the previous Saver. No upgrading.

Rasheed

Yeah, so airlines routinely offer 2 for 1 deals these days. Like never.

It's just more evidence of the absurdity of their USA operations.

BTW, DAL's CEO did not mouth a "racial slur." You know that. He did say that the terrorists who attacked the Pentagon and the WTC were from the Arabian Peninsula. That may not have been a diplomatic thing to say, but it happens to be true. He said it in the context of Emirates CEO saying the USA airlines were "subsidized" by the US gov't after 9/11 when they weren't allowed to fly. Personally, I don't think a CEO from an Arabian Peninsula airline should complain about that payment, either.

Yes, I'm sure all the Americans who've studied this issue in detail and in a rational and balanced manner, as you have, will boycott this deal. It could bring EK to its knees....

Its hardly going to cost EK very much as little of the traffic from US terminates in Dubai.

:rolleyes: you really think Americans should put up with US3's horrible services/products and boycott against 5 star ME3 carriers? Meanwhile, I hope Tim Clark and his crew can silence those annoying "Fair and Open Skies propaganda" that pop up in my facebook/twitter feed.

I travel US-DXB on EK pretty often, mostly in Y.

Few people terminate in Dubai (I would guess 15 out of 399 pax in Y). Those who do are mostly in premium cabins. So, this offer is not really not as crazy as it sounds.


The US3 using this sort of offer as "evidence" is a strategy that only works on a public that is uninformed about how Dubai is different from the Middle East. Most of the American public falls in that category.

Can't believe this, or should I. Viewing a 4-day fire sale which is limited to a single destination and to a period short of the NY holidays as a 'prime example' of subsidies. Subsidies are nothing but fair and legitimate funds. They're not coming out of your grandma's piggy bank or through laundering or through locking down a domestic aviation market that operates much like a cartel.

Since when are subsidies a crime?

And how many US airlines fly direct to the UAE? oh wait UA and DL go to DXB with a 777. Gosh that route must be a black hole for both airlines and that hurts them a lot. They must be out of their mind using a 777. It should have been a 787, but UA do not deploy it there and DL deferred their order (wasn't theirs to begin with until they merged with NW). How can they sustain these routes to begin with? And what kind of person leaves ATL for Budapest of Arabia exactly? That's a lot of business men shuttling to and from nowhere.

And yes, what the DL guy said was racial slur as he profiled the region and inferred guilt by association.

What does this say about Delta then? Not a 2 for 1 .. but 4600 miles for $379 return. JFK to SVO for $379 (about 2/3 of the distance to DXB from JFK). Absurd. Run down a few pages of (legitimate, not mistake) deals in the Mileage Run thread, and using the same logic (based on individual discounting sales) you could draw similar conclusions about a whole range of US and non US carriers.

It's not entirely uncommon to see carriers in SE Asia/SW Pacific offer 2 for 1 deals. I've certainly seen most LCC's have them. I've also seen QF offer them on business class for bookings during holiday periods.

Everything in the Mileage Run thread could be taken out of context to complain about the absurdity of those fares. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals-372/. TK is offering OSL-IST-BOS for 1k USD in J right now. Subsidised QR - an actual propped up by cash subsidised airline is now offering J class to LHR-DOH-SYD for 2.5kUSD and LHR-DOH-DXB for 670USD - compare that to EK which is triple the price!

In reply to you iahphx in 786: "real" airlines (which I assume you mean, airlines which are generally run to maximise shareholder financial value, aka maximise profits) offer special fares all the time, using restricted fare classes. How does BA, for instance, offer a 1k EUR ex-EU TATL to HNL in J, quite regularly, without being accused of being a "non-real" airline? However, I do in fact think that the timing of the offer has been influenced by the whole issue rearing its head in the US public consciousness: I also think that the US public simply don't care about the US3 carriers and will jump on the chance to take that fare. Especially as, as you said, there is little O&D demand to DXB anyway, so it hardly costs EK anything - they are already losing money on super cheap Y fares to DXB: all they need is one full fare F pax to pay for all of it.

Regarding racial slurs - a slur and being technically correct are not mutually exclusive. Slurs generally require context and intent and to some extent are dependent on the person speaking. For instance, take white americans who say the word n***** - clearly taken to be a racial slur, but technically one could argue it is simply a colloquial term to refer to people of african racial heritage in the US; similarly many black americans can say the same word with no similar connotations.

It is very easy to take things out of context which are technically correct, but does not encompass the entire communication: for instance...technically there is a cheap fare ex-USA-DXB right now by EK, but that in itself doesn't imply anything further, logically.

I'll see your :rolleyes: and raise you one :rolleyes:. I guess the concept of sarcasm has escaped you...

It interesting as there are enough challenges to make this promotion not the easiest such as:

-Cannot travel by yourself
-Cannot combine with a ticket beyond DXB (although it seems the rules allow it, it won't fare the US-DXB segment at the low price)
-A very short booking window.

In a number of cases, you can still book this fare and just book a separate ticket to your next destination. However, if you need a UAE visa, this can be tricky although I think EK would check your bag to the next destination on a separate PNR if interline agreement exists. I guess the last issue is usually fares ex-DXB are super expensive.

Rasheed