Best Airlines. Do you agree?

Known as the "Oscars of the Airline Industry," the OAG (Official Airline Guide) Awards carry a lot of clout. Since you have choices when you fly, I thought you might like to see the just-announced list of best airline winners:

Airline of the Year: Singapore Airlines

Best Transatlantic Airline: Virgin Atlantic

Best Business Class: Continental Airlines

Best Airline based in North America: Continental

Best Airline Based in the Middle East/Indian Sub-Continent: Emirates

Best Low-Cost Airline: Southwest

Best Airline Based in Central South America & Caribbean: LAN

Best Airline based in Africa: South African Airlines

Best Airline Based in Central/Eastern Europe: CSA Czech Airlines

Best Airline Based in Australia/Pacific: Qantas

For further details (such as a list of all the finalists), visit http://www.oagairlineawards.com/Winners

I'd really love to hear what you think of this list. Do you agree? Think it's way off base? Please share your experiences by posting a comment below.

We're listening.

Photo courtesy Virgin America.

Business and First Class Bargains

Every traveler has their own idea about what constitutes a luxury experience – and yours might be quite different from mine. However, I bet we agree on one thing: traveling in Economy class is not luxurious.

To deal with the high cost of Business and First, I have learned to watch for discounted fares (http://www.johnnyjet.com/ is a good source). In addition, I track the airlines’ special promotions. Top-rated Emirates announces a new deal every Tuesday at www.emirates.com/spotlight. A recent offer was two-for-one First Class tickets to any of their 100 destinations.

Because I am a travel writer, I am deluged with press releases about the latest and greatest hotel and airline "bargains." Most of these I ignore because they really aren't all that exciting, but lately I have been getting news of some amazing airline deals.

Since I want you to know about them ASAP (before everyone else snaps them up), I've decided to post them on this blog as soon as they come in. Unfortunately, I can't predict how often this will be, so I suggest you register for an RSS feed (just click on the "Atom" button on the right). That way, every time I post on this blog, you'll get an email.

Of course, I'll also continue writing about other Authentic Luxury Travel topics.

In the meantime, check out two of my favorite sites: http://www.seatguru.com/ and http://www.bestbeds.com/ and stay tuned for money-saving tips on First Class and Business Class airfares.

Here's to traveling in style!