The bar for premium airport lounges has reached stratospheric heights in recent years. In the U.S., spaces like United’s Polaris lounges and American’s Flagship First facilities now offer restaurant-quality dining. And outside of the U.S., airlines like Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa, and the big Middle Eastern three offer lounges that are even more opulent. How could you top that?
How about designing an ultra-exclusive airport within an airport, built to provide complete seclusion from the rest of the traveling public? That was the idea behind The Private Suite, a recent addition at Los Angeles (LAX). For those willing to splurge for access, it offers an intensely private, luxurious, and unique experience from curb to plane. Read on for our inside look, from extravagantly-stocked suites to a one-person miniature TSA facility and a fleet of BMWs to drive you to your plane.
Photo: Doug Peters/PA Wire
It can be hard for the environmentally minded AvGeek to get on a flight without a twinge of guilt, since planes spew tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every minute of every day. Over recent years, the industry has slowly started wising up to the importance of sustainability. We’ve seen some airlines introduce biofuels derived from plant products. But today, the field takes a new leap forward.
The Boeing 747 flying Virgin Atlantic’s flight #16 today from Orlando to London Gatwick will be powered by a unique sustainable jet fuel that’s recycled from carbon-containing waste gases from industries like steel mills. The result is a product that has proven at least as powerful as regular jet fuel but with a significantly lower carbon footprint. The flight is the outcome of a partnership between Virgin Atlantic and LanzaTech, which developed the fuel. Partners like Boeing, Honeywell, GE, fuel suppliers, and the DOE played a significant role as well.
The star of the show. Or stars, if you include the fuel tanker. – Photo: Manu Venkat | AirlineReporter
We’ll be on the inaugural flight and will be back later with a full report. For the time being, check out our Twitter feed for live updates. Here’s to a greener future for aviation!
This was our view from our table while eating lunch at the In-N-Out Burger. Alitalia on short final.
Los Angeles International Airport (IATA: LAX, ICAO: KLAX), is renowned as a planespotter’s happy place. It boasts a seemingly endless stream of aircraft, many from airlines not often seen elsewhere in the U.S., along with several very good public viewpoints from which to watch them all parade past.
Occasional fare sales allow a weekend trip down the West Coast to be an accessible avgeek treat, so Francis Zera (AirlineReporter’s associate editor) and I grabbed a couple cheap seats and headed south.
There are several hotels very close to LAX. The runways are aligned east-west, with standard traffic flows arriving from the east; there are two parallel runways, separated by the airport’s terminal buildings. Off-site, there is a cluster of hotels to the east of the terminals, and this is where the H Hotel is situated. It seems purpose-built for planespotters, with an amazing roof deck that allows great views of arrivals on both of the airport’s runways.
The rooms are really comfortable and well-appointed. Our room looked out over the iconic LAX sign and the control tower. We took this before messing it up with all of our photo gear.
The hotel’s official name is a mouthful: H Hotel Los Angeles, Curio Collection by Hilton. With no wait at the front desk, we were greeted with a smile, quickly checked in, and sent on our way to our room up on the 12th floor. The first impression of our room was that it was spacious with a very tall ceiling and spectacular views of the airport. Just like the room, the bathroom was also comfortable and had a nice-sized shower. The supplied shower amenities were also pretty nice we wound up smelling lots better than usual.
Getting back to photography, which is why we traveled to LAX in the first place, the hotel has a most excellent rooftop terrace on the 12th floor that provides great views to the north, west and east, with a peek-a-boo view to the south. The terrace is surrounded by five-foot glass barriers, and it has plenty of seating and tables. IMHO, it’s worth the price of the room just for the ability to spend time up there.
An Air Canada 777-300ER being prepared for a transcontinental flight from Vancouver to Toronto
Earlier this summer, we had the opportunity to try out Air Canada’s new Signature Class cabin and lounge experiences.
Launched in June, the service is aimed squarely at the business/first class traveler, and competes quite readily with existing offerings by its North American mainline-carrier rivals.
Domestic Signature service is offered on flights between Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vancouver to Toronto; daily flights between Montreal and New York-Newark to Vancouver; between Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto; and between Toronto and Honolulu. Internationally, it’s offered on all Air Canada flights serviced using Boeing 767, 777, and 787, as well as Airbus A330 aircraft.
The routing for my flights were SEA-YVR-YYZ-SEA. The hop from Seattle to Vancouver was in standard coach class on a venerable Bombardier Q400.
One mean looking aircraft: the first E190-E2 sits at FLL
I have to admit that it is not always easy keeping up with all aspects of the airline business. I knew Embraer was in process of upgrading their E-Jet family (called E2, as it’s the second generation), but I wasn’t sure what that really meant (I am sure LED lighting might have been involved). So, when I received an invite to fly on down to Florida to meet some executives, learn about the program, and take a flight on their E190-E2, how could I refuse? (spoiler: I didn’t!)
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Leaving smokey Seattle (forest fires) on a 737
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Flying over Florida’s swamp land
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Sweet hotel beach view, but never went on the beach
It was a quick trip (what I like to call a ’œturn and burn’). I would hop on a plane (737) on Tuesday morning, head from one corner of the U.S. to the other (I like to call that a ’œdiagcon’), get some sleep (I got about four hours), get up the next day to fly on the E-Jet, and then get on another diagcon to be home by 11pm on Wednesday. Hey, I have done worse, and this trip was more than worth it!
