Open Skies: Planning, booking and the concierge service

by Grant Martin on
Since Open Skies only operates one aircraft and flies one route, planning your itinerary is fairly easy. You’re going to be leaving from JFK at 5:30PM and returning from Orly at 10:55 AM. With the recent acquisition of L’avion, the airline plans to increase the frequency of those routes, but for now you only have one option in each direction.

Purchasing a ticket on Open Skies is remarkably easy, with one catch – you have to go to flyopenskies.com to book your ticket — they haven’t integrated their schedule into the Amadeus network yet so you won’t be able to find tickets on Kayak or Orbitz. Once at the homepage, you can easily pick your itinerary departing from either New York or Paris (with pictures, in case you get confused) and dates.

The best part about booking tickets on Open Skies is the concierge service. We’re at the point in the US where many travelers expect terrible service, off-shore customer support centers and general disdain among front-line employees. With respect to this airline, take all of those negative traits and reverse them.

Open Skies’ concierge service is in existence to make your travel experience fluid – not to make it frustrating. If you have any questions or concerns during your travel – at any point – you’re free to call them and get some help. This doesn’t apply to tickets either. In one of my several conversations with Sophia, one of the concierges, I asked if I could get a pizza delivered to the gate in Orly. “Of course,” she said, “what would I like on it?”

There are ten concierges based in Germany who are most friendly and apt. At the end of my journey I really felt as though they took care of me.

Continue onward to online check in or skip ahead to:

Arrival and check in
In flight: Economy
In flight: Prem +
In flight: Biz
Transfer in from Orly
Return trip logistics
The final word

%Gallery-27040%

British Airways buys L’avion, transatlantic business class market successfully monopolized

by Grant Martin on

British Airways just announced that it was buying L’avion, the struggling business-class-only carrier that has recently been operating flights between New York‘s JFK airport and Paris‘s Orly.

We here at Gadling have been speculating on the future of the small, proud airline recently. Considering the price of fuel and the trouble that niche, business-class-only carriers have had in the recent market, we even put it on Gadling’s Hit List (one down, four to go!) among airlines at risk for bankruptcy, liquidation or buyouts this summer.

BA must be reading our articles and wanted to take advantage of the carrier whilie they were off balance.

Or perhaps this is a strategic acquisition to give more breathing room for BA’s own daughter New York-Paris niche carrier, Open Skies to operate. With one less competitor in the market, Open Skies will surely now be able to dominate.

Indeed, this Reuters article says that L’avion will now become part of the Open Skies network. As far as integration, I’m not sure how the aircraft and staff will be placed — on the JFK-ORY route or on another of the new airline’s planned routes.

One thing is for certain however: with one less player in the transatlantic business class market, prices will surely go up.

Open Skies airlines gives free companion fares through summer

by Grant Martin on

By this point you’ve probably heard the buzz about Open Skies airlines, British Airways‘ new daughter airline that is flying a new business-class-only type of service between New York City and Paris. They just started operating yesterday and are slowly starting to build their reputation and customer base.

Outside of the internet and this blog though, most people are out in the ether. I’ve mentioned the airline to a few people and they didn’t know what I was talking about, let alone what the Open Skies Agreement, proper, was.

Open Skies knows this, which is why they’re starting to prod some of the frequent flyers and attention-payers out in the market. They’re now offering members of Flyertalk, the local airline and mileage forum free companion tickets on fares booked through the end of the summer — yes, that’s high season.

And yes, you can join Flyertalk too.

Tickets have to be booked in at least biz, their second tier of service, but adding up the numbers, I got round trip prices in late August for about 830$ per passenger. That’s 40$ less than an economy ticket on the competition. That’s a good price.

If you want to check out the offer and join Flyertalk, check their website here or bounce over to Open Skies for their official page and booking instructions.

See you in Paris.

Theories on Openskies and the business class market

by Grant Martin on

Blogger Grant and the Crankyflier were recently chewing the fat about OpenSkies airlines, the new business-class-only niche carrier that’s opening up service between New York and Paris later this month. We both considered invitations on the inaugural flight coming up on June 20 but unfortunately couldn’t accept due to previous (and bureaucratic) obligations.

I also noticed that the new carrier is offering members of Flyertalk.com the chance to get one of twenty free seats that the airline is offering exclusively to its members (there’s still time to sign up). It seems like a pretty sweet way to cater to a highly focused market and a great idea.

Is their close connection to the consumer and media base only proactive marketing though? What if they giving away seats not because they’re trying to make a buzz but because they can’t fill them in the first place? We all saw what happened to Silverjet, Eos and Maxjet. What if the business class market dried up before Openskies even got there?

Speculation aside, one thing is for certain: we’ll never know until it’s too late. Take for example a question we asked Openskies in an upcoming Q&A:

GAD: With the recent struggles seen in business-class-only and niche carriers in the transatlantic sector, how do you plan to succeed in a tight market?

OpenSkies: OpenSkies will offer guests superior service, competitive fares and exceptional value. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of British Airways, OpenSkies will combine the expertise of one of the world’s biggest and most successful airlines with the passion of a start up.

Perhaps there is no getting past the PR smoke and mirrors.

We’ll see how things turn out after first flight next week and some of the preliminary loads start coming in. Lets hope that the buzz catches on and that OpenSkies meets wild success.

OpenSkies airlines set to take flight June 19th

by Grant Martin on


With availability in the transatlantic sector starting to open up, airlines are starting to take advantage of new slots and flexibility across the pond. OpenSkies, British Airways‘ new niche airline, plans to do just that.

Named after the oft mentioned OpenSkies agreement put into place between the US and European Union earlier this year, the airline of the same moniker plans to offer a new, unique approach to intercontinental travel. With only 82 seats on a Boeing 757 aircraft (for comparison, Continental‘s 757 has over 215 seats), OpenSkies aims to offer a more comfortable, personal experience on air travel at a price barely more than a ticket on a legacy carrier.

Three classes of service will be offered, biz, premium and economy, with prices ranging from the $1,746 one way at the high range to $554 at the low end.

In addition to the space proffered by low seat count, OpenSkies boasts superior in-flight amenities, including leather seats, 50 hours of audio and video on personal entertainment systems, lie-flat seats in biz, a la carte meals and wine service and everything you need to make you fit and prepared for the new morning in the EU.

Sound nice? I thought so too. June 19th marks the first flight for the airline, traveling between New York‘s JFK airport and Orly in Paris. Planned routes include Brussels, Milan, Frankfurt and Amsterdam by the end of 2009.

What’s nice about OpenSkies is that they have strong financial backing from British Airways, a solid management and strong experience in the sector. So you can have confidence in the niche carrier being not only around for a while but also in reasonable financial shape for the near future, even if oil is more expensive than gold.

Competition in the premium transatlantic market has recently dropped off as well, so hopefully this will leave them a larger market share.

You can book tickets and check out the sweet service on flyopenskies.com.