Skift Business Traveler: WOW Air Launches $99 Fares From Iceland to California

What to Know Now

Back in November of last year, Iceland’s new ultra low-cost carrier WOW Air announced that it would be coming to San Francisco and Los Angeles, offering direct flights to Reykjavik and then connecting onward into Europe. Now they’re officially promoting bookings with a $99 fare sale.

The sale is already officially over, but even at that price it may not be a good deal. WOW slathers on ancillary fees like mayonnaise on elote, and even after you cough up $300 for seat selections and luggage you’re stuck in the most basic of cabins for a transatlantic flight.

Let there be no doubt: for budget travelers, WOW Air has no competition. But for business travelers, that connection in Frankfurt may still be the best ticket around. At least the competition that WOW brings will hopefully drag down prices.

Social Quote of the Day

Not quite as good a deal as billed – 3 flights for $99 there, $400+ return and then fees, fees, fees… But still.

– @Andy_Murdock | Andy Murdock, Writer, editor, science geek, traveler.

Airlines

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Pilots Prepare to Fight for Higher Wages as Airline Profits Return: Last year, pilots at Delta Air Lines and Southwest overwhelmingly rejected proposed contracts and then elected union leaders who led them through earlier contract scuffles. The message was loud and clear: It’s time for payback after years of sacrifice. Read more at Skift

Virgin Atlantic to Spend $4.3 Billion on 12 Airbus Jets: Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. is set to announce a deal for 12 Airbus Group SE A350-1000 jets with a list price of $4.3 billion as Richard Branson’s flagship carrier renews its wide-body leisure fleet, according to people with knowledge of the plan. Read more at Skift

Calculating the Cost of a Better Airline Cabin for All: How much would it cost to get an extra inch of legroom and an extra degree of recline? Read more at Skift

Airport

Wow Air to start $99 flights from LAX to Iceland and $199 flights from LAX to Europe: No-frills carrier Wow Air announced Tuesday it would begin offering flights to Iceland from Los Angeles International Airport at prices as low as $99 each way. Read more at the Los Angeles Times

Boingo Wireless Now Offers Free Wi-Fi Access At Select Airports: Boingo Wireless — purportedly the leading Wi-Fi and distributed antenna system provider which serves consumers, carriers and advertisers worldwide — recently announced free and fast Wi-Fi access for travelers; while introducing new blazing-fast speeds of up to 20 megabits per second for power users and subscribers. Read more at Insideflyer

Frontier’s Massive Route Expansion Shows Which Cities Are Working and Maybe Which Ones Aren’t: Frontier has been on a tear lately, adding dozens and dozens of new routes for the summer. Read more at The Cranky Flier

Tech

Gett Wades Into E-Hail Price Wars With Better Than Uber Fare Guarantee: The U.S. ride-hailing price wars wage on as Gett announced it’s guaranteeing New York City riders better fares than Uber by asking them to compare receipts. Read more at Skift

U.S. Business Travel Projected to Grow at Slow, Steady Pace: In a report released Tuesday, the Global Business Travel Association said that the number of business trips originating in the U.S. is expected to increase by about 3 percent in 2016 and 2017. Spending is forecast to tick up about the same percent. Read more at Skift

Skyscanner’s First Venture Funding Since 2007 Came After Priceline Took A Look: With news that Skyscanner attracted $192 million in venture funding, its first since 2007, Skift has learned from sources that the Priceline Group recently took a hard look at acquiring the Scotland-based flight-metasearch company and walked away. Read more at Skift

Hotels

Understanding Marriott’s Vision of the Future of Meetings in 2016: Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson unveiled a new video yesterday discussing the future of meetings in hospitality at the annual Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) Convening Leaders conference in Vancouver. Read more at Skift

The strange things left behind in hotel rooms: We’ve all done it. The bags are packed; the taxi is waiting; the flight leaves in two hours. But then, halfway to the airport, realisation dawns that we’ve left something behind. Leaving items in hotel rooms is an occupational hazard for the business traveller. Read more at Gulliver

Airbnb Taking Baby Steps to Encourage San Francisco Hosts to Obey the Law: Airbnb will start pestering hosts in its hometown of San Francisco to register with the city and report on their rental activity each quarter, executives wrote in two letters to the city obtained by Bloomberg. Read more at Skift

Your Turn

NPR has launched a book concierge.

Tips and Comments

Can be sent to gm[at]skift[dot]com or to @grantkmartin

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