My Musings (Sundays)

Category Archives for My Musings (Sundays).

Five Flights in one week of 2012

I have already flown five times this New Year! All flights but one with Virgin Australia Business class around Australia! Thank you Velocity Frequent Flyer seats! So much for less flying in 2012. The exception was an Air Australia economy flight- check out my Trip Report on them – coming up Tuesday 10th.  

Continue Reading »

Revisiting my 2011 Goals

I set some goals a year ago. Time to revisit them. A number of my plans were thrown out the window by a family illness. Despite not having my intended trips to Turkey or China, I got to my 53rd country. Jordan, Lebanon, Brazil, Korea, UAE, Brunei, Saudi Arabia were the newest countries I visited. I have four states to go to get to all of the 50th US state I did finally get to South America in 2011: I have yet to do the Abel Tasman walk, a stunning 54km (33 mile) hike at the top of the…

Continue Reading »

Toward 2012

Here is what I want to do in 2012: Fly the China Southern, Malaysian and Thai A380s Fly less (a 40% reduction in travel would be good) I do want to visit two new US states which means I will be upo to 48 US states visited I want to add three new countries- definitely Turkey and Denmark and possibly South Africa? I expect to fly at least three new airlines I hope to be able to share all this with you….thanks for being Wild About Travel! What are your 2012 Travek goals? Related Posts: 2011 Flying…

Continue Reading »

2011 Flying Highlights

I am Wild about Flying and thanks to my friend Tony (see separate story), I have a very accurate record of my travel. This means I know for a certainty, that as at today’s date I have flown 812 times in my life-   111 times in 2011.   Question: Do I need to fly 112 times next year? 111 times in a year is about twice per week. In total a scary 412 hours of my year was spent in aeroplanes- two and a half weeks!! Distance Flown I  travelled 304 560 km  (189 245 miles). That number is…

Continue Reading »

December, 2011 Blog Review

December is one of my quietest travel months. A mere seven flights- three with Etihad and four with the transitioning Virgin Australia (all in front row!). Blog post wise: Dec 31: Best and worst airlines of 2011: Top Spot to Emirates and Bottom spot to Tiger Australia (that will teach them to bump me off a flight!) Dec 21:  Flying highlights for 2011 -I effectively flew round the world seven times in 2011 and  managed a  7*7 frequency whereby my 737th flight was on a Southwest 737, the 747th on a Qantas 747: 757th on a United 757, then Qantas 767 and Air New Zealand…

Continue Reading »

Seasons Greetings

I am off to Sydney, Australia today flying up front with Virgin Australia (Seat 1A). Not sure which aircraft. Hoping a new one. I will be up in Sydney for Christmas with various branches of the family (and one or two I am trying to avoid!). Not decided where for NY Eve. I actually wanted to be on the Sunshine Coast, Australia but that didn’t work out so my options are curently: Paris, France London, England Brisbane, Australia Lismore, Australia Sydney, Australia Hobart, Australia Melbourne, Australia Nice to be spoiled for choice. Any advocates for any…

Continue Reading »

#Flight 799 and #Flight 800

Just flown my 799th flight from Pittsburgh to New York’s JFK with Jetblue. Followed by my 800th flight on an Air France A380 from NYC to Paris Charles de Gaulle. Trip report to come! In 47 years, I have flown over one million miles spending just over 3.5 months inside aeroplanes. Check out my flightmemory.com for more    

Continue Reading »

American Airlines Ticketing #Fail!

I  have just used Kayak to research a flight: Austin-Pittsburgh-Boston. The best option price and schedule- wise was an American Airlines/USAir combo sold by American Airlines for $US357.60 in Economy. Kayak gave me a link to American Airlines which I clicked on. This deposited me on the onto the American Airline homepage (www.aa.com). I entered all my personal data and scrolled through to payments page where I entered my Credit Card details including address.  I discovered, at this point that there was not a drop down box for “Australia”. I could enter “USA”, “Canada” or the “UK” but not “Australia”. So I called…

Continue Reading »

This week

I have just come back from the UK. This week’s blog posts will, as a result, be focussing, therefore, on the UK.  I was mostly in the Southwest of the UK: London, Devon, Cornwall and Bristol. See map below. Struck this time by two things: how much the UK packs into every square foot. how old things are! For example. Exeter in Devon, has had a mayor since at least 1207. Have a great week

Continue Reading »