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“Alcoholic beverages will not be accepted in either carry-on or checked baggage for this flight,” read the email reminder I received two days before flying from Hamburg, Germany, to Abu Dhabi onboard Etihad’s factory-fresh Airbus A321LR. That’s the first time in my more than 1,000 lifetime flights that I’ve ever received such a notice. While packing some bubbly certainly would’ve been appropriate for this unique flight, there was still plenty of celebration to go around — even before we eventually popped some bottles of Champagne once airborne. ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY In the coming days, Etihad is set to inaugurate its Airbus A321LR, or “long-range” aircraft, that’ll seriously upgrade the narrow-body experience when flying with the Gulf mega-carrier. The jet is Etihad’s first single-aisle plane to feature lie-flat pods in both first and business class. Thanks to its roughly 1,000-mile range increase relative to the airline’s existing A320 family, it’ll unlock a bunch of new routes and unique deployment opportunities for the airline. But in order for the plane to actually make it to Abu Dhabi for its Aug. 1 commercial inaugural flight to Phuket, Thailand, the jet had to first get from Hamburg (where it was manufactured at Airbus’

What’s the most exciting new airline route of the year? Ask 10 different travelers and you might get 10 different opinions. The question doesn’t come with an easy answer, but — as you might expect from TPG — we’re happy to share our thoughts on it. Our aviation team looked at all of the new routes launched in the first half of 2025, and we came up with this top 15 list. (Hint: They largely mirror what we predicted at the end of last year.) The more you know: The best time to book flights for the cheapest airfare We stopped short of naming a winner — check back for that at the end of the year — but these were the new routes that intrigued us. Listed in alphabetical order by airline, here are top 15 for the first half of 2025, along with why they were chosen. Map watching: The award for ‘sexiest new route’ of the 2023 goes to … | And 2024 … Aer Lingus Indianapolis and Nashville to Dublin These routes may not normally stand out as candidates for a “most exciting list.” But the Irish carrier’s new 2025 routes are noteworthy since they’re being

Viking is unusual among major cruise lines in that it operates both ocean ships and river ships. Despite this, it has one of the easiest-to-understand fleets. The vast majority of Viking’s river ships — at last count, there were more than 80 — feature the same design. If you’ve seen one of them, you’ve seen them all. Ditto for the line’s ocean ships. Twelve of Viking’s 14 ocean ships are nearly identical. The two exceptions are two ocean vessels specifically designed for expedition cruising — a type of cruising that involves traveling to remote, hard-to-reach places on hardy vessels that carry their own landing craft. As a result, the bulk of Viking’s vessels fall into one of just three groups, with most of the ships in each group sporting very similar designs. An introduction to Viking cruise ships Viking has expanded enormously in recent years with the addition of dozens of new river and ocean ships. Founded in 1997 with four river vessels, the company operated just 29 ships as recently as 2012. But a period of rapid growth since then has brought the total number of vessels in its fleet to more than 90, with the number set to