As the world knows, Gatwick airport (the second busiest in the UK) was closed for about 36 hours on 19th and 20th December because of repeated drone sightings near the airfield. The Police said they received 115 reports of sightings with 93 confirmed as “credible” with a pilot, airport staff and police officers amongst the reporters. The risk of collision and damage with an aircraft is a nightmare scenario. The airport has a one kilometre exclusion zone around it, in which it is illegal to fly any unauthorised drones. In addition, drones must be kept…
My Musings (Sundays)
Category Archives for My Musings (Sundays).
A few of my Faves: My Top Five Global Fun Runs
I am a runner and one of the most fun things I like doing whilst traveling is running in different cities. I have run as far south as Dunedin, New Zealand and as far north as Reykjavik, Iceland. Even more than just running in a city is participating in a Fun Run in a city, I am visiting. As I staggered up a hill in Sydney, Australia during a “fun” run, I reflected on the runs I have most enjoyed participating in. I managed to work out my six favourites (two tie for third place):…
One Million Kilometres with Qantas
This week, a beautiful Melbourne, Australia to Singapore A380 flight tipped me over one million kilometres flown with Qantas. This is about a third of my total flying. No other airline comes close to the volume of business that I have given Qantas. Qantas have taken me on 421 flights around Australia and the world from as far south as Queenstown at the bottom of New Zealand to their most northern port of London. New York, Southern Africa, Dubai and Hong Kong all feature in there. Altogether I have spent almost fifty seven days inside…
Upgrading my Qantas experience-How I get Top Elite status in three round trips (almost)
I was sitting down to lunch a few years, with the family when my airline called to tell me my flight to Auckland was cancelled and I would miss my connection to Samoa. As a result, I would get to my holiday 24 hours later than planned. The good news was if I could get to the airport within the hour they could get me into the earlier flight. My brother in law drove me very quickly through Sydney streets to ensure I made this flight. Not only did Air New Zealand book me onto…
When the change fees cost more than a new ticket
On two occasions, this month, I have had the need to make future changes to flight bookings. On one booking, travel was 75 days away. Each time, the option of changing a one way flight would have cost me more than a new roundtrip ticket ! Nearly all airlines across the globe, charge a customer who wants to change the date of their flight. Usually the cheapest tickets come with a clause specifying no name or date change at all. In other words, if you want to change the date, you need to buy a…
4,000 hours of flying: 71 times around the earth
Stepping off my Malaysia airlines flight yesterday at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, I discovered that I have hit a milestone. I have flown just over 4,000 hours in my life. According to Flightmemory, this is five and a half months I have sat inside tubes of metal. To be extra nerdy, I have flown the equivalent of 71 times around the earth or seven times the distance to the moon. Coincidentally, in the next month, I will celebrate a half century of flying. My first flight was, as a very young child from Kirkwall, Orkney…
Living with Social Media -Ten Commandments
I like Social Media (I am a blogger after all and am connected to Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!). It seems to me that there are lots of positives about Social Media connecting within friends,sharing ideas with many instantly etc etc. There are also four major negatives associated with Social Media for us users: 1. It is HIGHLY ADDICTIVE- social media companies have a financial incentive to create services that create compulsive behavior among their users. (Noting that I gain some income from the pages you visit on my blog) 2. It is…
British Airways BA1484 All Women Flight for IWD 2018
To mark International Women’s Day, British Airways brought together 61 women from across the airline for the UK’s biggest ever all-female flight. BA1484 from London to Glasgow included women working as baggage handlers, pilots and cabin crew, loaders and push back teams, air traffic control security and airport teams. I would like to see an aviation world where this is not such an unusual occurrence. Have you flown with an female crew with any airline?
China was the 75th Country I have visited!
After just over half a century of travelling, I have visited my 75th country. An average of 1.5 countries per year through my life. I think this puts me in the top 1 percent of travellers vis a vis countries visited! 27 of those countries are in Asia with 24 countries in Europe, 11 in Central and North America, seven in the Pacific region, four in Africa and just two in South America. Apparently, the average Australian has visited six countries. This is lower than the average Brit (10 countries), but higher than the average…
100,000+ miles to 9 countries-Overview of My 2017 Travel Year
I remarked recently to a friend that this had been a very quiet year for me for flying. “A quiet year?”, he repeated with a wry smile noting this year I visited nine countries- mostly in Asia. Four were very familiar: Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and five were new for me: China, Finland, Japan, Lao and The Philippines. I thoroughly enjoyed all of them but would be less likely to return to Lao than the others. I flew 50 times this year -around once a week. This is lower than my average 88 flights per year…
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