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The Goal: 10 million passengers by 2022
Qatar Airways is forecasting ambitious expansion, with Akbar Al Baker’s promise of an Indian Airline utilizing 100 aircraft, and newly released details on Meridiana’s rebranding as Air Italy, Qatar is looking to make a continued impact on aviation. Air Italy currently has roughly a dozen aircraft, but with Qatar’s help, it will grow that fleet to 50 by 2022. In that fleet will be 20 new 737 Max jets, and to fly the longhaul routes: A330s and 787 widebodies. 5 of those A330s will be leased from Qatar at “market rates,” and according to GSTP, the 787s will be equipped with Qsuites. WOW – talk about the best way to fly to Italy in business =) These suites will have to be redesigned because, in their current state, they are too big to fit in the slimmer 787, but once finished – they will look similar to this:
The main hub of Air Italy will be Milan, MXP, where they plan to fly to Miami and New York by June this year. Sign me up. From MXP, Air Italy will service Catania, Naples, Palermo, and Rome with further expansion expected. Since Air Italy is owned by Qatar, and Qatar is a member airline of One World, I would assume that it’s in their plans to allow Air Italy passengers the ability to earn and redeem within the One World Alliance. This hasn’t been confirmed, but would significantly help Qatar’s competitive advantage over Alitalia which is partnered with SkyTeam.
What do you think? Will you give Air Italy a shot?
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 60k points after $4k spend in 3 months
- Worth $750 in Chase Travel℠ and way more if you maximize transfer partners
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2024
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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