Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board. This week, material was found on Australian beach that some thought may have been from the plane. Investigators have concluded it was not connected. Bluefin-21, the robotic vehicle has now searched more than 80 per cent of the underwater search zone for Flight MH370 and nothing of any interest have been found. In the same week, sources suggested that the plane may have landed after all. This news fuelled the on going speculation over the plane’s fate. There are more conspiracy theories about what happened…
Air Canada’s Luggage Toss!
On April 17, 2014, Darren Van Slyke and Dwayne Stewart were aboard one of Air Canada‘s brand new Boeing 777s traveling from Toronto to Vancouver. , on the airline’s brand new Boeing 777. They captured baggage handlers tossing gate checked bags to the ground. It became rapidly one of the most talked about news stories in North America within a very few days. Air Canada says the two employees may be fired as “Their actions clearly contravened our standard baggage-handling procedures which require gate-checked bags to be hand-carried to the ramp…We take matters involving the protection of our customers’ personal…
5* Emirates Business: Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur
Qatar, Emirates and Cathay Pacific, have been my three favourite airlines for a while now (although I have some misgivings regarding Qatar following revelations last year of their employment practices). Nonetheless, these carriers bring back the pleasure of airline travel providing me with reminders that air flights do not have to be a barren bus like experiences! Today’s flight (my 994th ever) was the epitome of how phenomenal Emirates are. Booking: 9 out of 10 I actually booked my ticket through Qantas. Despite being the same seat on the same plane, Qantas were selling it…
Tips for not spoiling places for others
I suggested last week that it is bad luck to ruin a place for fellow tourists. Here are some tips for avoiding spoiling places you visit. Please share widely and add yours: Build greener travel into your program Follow rules in ancient sites, cities or sacred spaces. The time to assert your freedom from rules is at a nudist beach not at a 500 year old site like Machu Pichu Do not collect or take away biological or geological specimens or man-made artifacts as a souvenir, including rocks, bones, eggs, fossils, and parts or contents of…
My 800th post
Published my 800th post earlier today on Boardingarea.com! Thank you for journeying with me. There have been some extraordinarily wonderful years and some tough ones especially during the period my sister got ill and died. I love travel and have been blessed with plane flights to the four corners of the globe, train rides on every continent except Antarctica, visits to 190 large cities in 59 countries. Its great to have so many loyal readers who share that love of travel. Great to get your emails, shout outs and tips. I have to be honest and…
Burma (Myanmar) Bound
Off to my 59th country this week: Myanmar (Burma). We are following a fairly standard tourist trail. We fly into Mandalay in the North, then travel down to Bagan and then visit Yangon. It has been only fairly recently that travel has been opening up for tourists not travelling in tourist groups! So excited! Related Posts Any advice for Myanmar? My 58th country: Vietnam I visit my 57th country
South Korea Mourns its ferry passengers
My thoughts with the family and friends of all those involved in one of South Korea’s worst ever peacetime disasters. Of the 476 passengers on the ferry Sewol, 174 passengers were rescued in the immediate aftermath of the disaster last Wednesday. The time since has involved a difficult search for so many missing.
2 Grandmas fly for first time
This is an advertisement for a telephone company but I found it sweet, funny, poignant and touching. It is the story of two older women who fly for the first time. Ria Van den Brand, a 78-year-old grandma from the Netherlands prepared for flying by taking her first-ever roller coaster ride. That scene is priceless! Her late husband had a fear of heights so they never flew. An Bernaards, 71, also had a serious fear of flying. She says: “You wouldn’t get me in one of those for any amount of money. I will just take the…
Avoiding damaging the sights/sites
On a visit to Australia‘s Gloucester Tree, two tourists jumped as I barked at them. 350 plus years old and standing at 72 metres tall, this Karris is the second tallest fire lookout tree in the world. Over one million tourists have climbed the tree in Pemberton, Western Australia since 1947. These two tourists had decided that the tree needed their names carved into the tree and were engrossed in the task with a knife when chewed out by me . Furious at this intrusion into one of my favourite spots, I was determined to make…
Ranking US airlines by complaints
US airlines get about 10, 000 complaints a year reported to the US Department of Transport. The number of complaints rose until 2012, when they fell slightly. Last year, 643 million passengers were carried by US airlines, so the number of complaints in that perspective does not seem to me to be that high. Of course few of us take our frustration with an airline to the appropriate authorities, preferring to whine about it ourselves or post our experiences on Facebook! The report “Unfriendly Skies”, an analysis of five years of airline complaints by…
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