Today, Virgin America a normally good airline gave a disappointing performance. Virgin America (along with JetBlue) occupy top billing for me amongst all of the US carriers. On previous flight, I have given Virgin perfect scores with no exceptions. This most recent Virgin America flight was very disappointing! Virgin America (VX) launched in August, 2007 from their San Francisco base (now in SFO’s magnificent Terminal 2). They fly to sixteen destinations in the United States and three in Mexico. They began a Toronto, Canada service but it was not financially sustainable. This is an issue for the loss making airline which…
Trip Reports
Category Archives for Trip Reports.
Aer Lingus: Budapest to Dublin (updated)
Background Aer Lingus is the flag carrier and second biggest airline in Ireland. Operating since 1936, its name an Anglicisation of the Gaelic Aer Loingeas means “air fleet” . A lot has changed for Aer Lingus in the last six years not the least being the Irish economic situation. The government reduced its 85 per cent stake to 25 percent through a listing on the Stock Exchange in 2006. Ryanair, arch rival and biggest Irish airline has now picked up close to 30 percent and attempted three takeover bids in five years.Abu Dhabi-based and owned Etihad…
Delta First Class Delight
For many years, I refused to fly Delta. My re discovery of them has been a great experience and this recent almost perfect flight was confirmation that Delta have a lot to offer these days. Booking 10 out of 10 The Delta.com web site is very straightforward and gave fare options for both First Class and Coach. The booking engine flows well, is logical and a pleasure to use. When making my seat selection, I chose 1C being the only seat left in the front row of First Class. Check in: 10 out of 10 Delta has a great…
Trip Report: Air France to London City
My 920th flight was also my first flight into London City. As a result of this flight, I have now flown into and/or out of every one of London’s five airports. The other are: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stanstead and Luton. London City Airport was opened in 1987 after six years of planning and construction. The airport is located within the newly developed Docklands precinct of London (11 km: 6.9 miles) from the City of London. In 2011, the Airport served nearly 3 million passengers. Booking: 9 out of 10 This flight was operated as an Air France service by its subsidiary CityJet.…
Double Turkish Delight
Apologies for publishing both the final version and an initial draft almost simultaneously of my Report on my Turkish Airlines experience from Washington to Budapest via Istanbul. The draft was clearly not meant to be published. Ironically, I was on a plane when they went live. As one reader noted, I must have inserted the wrong disc in my amenity pack! I recommend the correct version. It is much more tasty! Thank you to those who noted the mistake.
Turkish Delight -Great Trip + Best Economy Meal Ever!
Turkish airlines are the 83rd airline I have ever flown. Member of the Star Alliance since 2008, they have been expanding rapidly in the last eight years and now fly to over 200 destinations with 160 aircraft. Turkish Airlines have been awarded Europe’s Best Airline and Southern Europe’s Best Airline twice in 2011 and 2012. Interestingly, this week, Lufthansa expressed an interest in either merging with or forming a closer alliance with Turkish Airlines. Booking 5 out of 10 I booked through online travel agents who were offering the same flights at a much reduced cost compared to the Turkish Airlines own website. I also…
My 200 000th mile
I vowed last year to reduce my flying but it looks like I am on track to fly over 200 000 miles (almost 300 000 kilometres). In fact this week, I will reach the dubious milestone of over 412 hours flown this year – the most number of hours I have ever done. I travel this week across USA and with Turkish airlines (who I have ever flown before( from USA to Europe) This years so far, 20 airlines have taken me in 20 different types of planes to 53 Airports in 13 countries!
Debby’s First Flight: Norfolk to Columbus
I had settled into my bulkhead row at the front of the USAir economy section when one of the flight attendants approached me and explained that they were re-seating a passenger who had never flown before. Soon a middle aged woman was escorted to the seat next to mine. She was terrified. Every noise made her jump. She gripped the armrest tightly – and we had not left the gate. I introduced myself: “Martin”. She responded: “Debby”. I said: “with an ie” or a “y”? She smiled with relief and said “y”. Debby explained to me that her…
Trip Report: United LAX-ROC
Booking 6 out of 10 United’s booking engine works very well. The Booking process is logically laid out and flows well. My major annoyance was that there was a significant fare difference for passengers whose residence was in Australia and those whose residence was in the USA. I have encountered this on other occasions with both United and American Airlines. This difference seems so arbitrary and Australian customers generally have no work around. If you try and book the American fare with an Australian credit card, it redirects you to start again. Check in: 8…
Trip Report: Qantas 93: Melbourne to Los Angeles
Booking 8 out of 10 I actually started my flight in Auckland, New Zealand. The fare for Auckland-Melbourne-Los Angeles-Melbourne-Los Angeles was actually $A1000 less than the fare for Melbourne-Los Angeles-Melbourne. Combining two New Zealand trips in was easy for me. The Qantas website easily worked out the multi city fare and came up with a better fare than Expedia.com or Webjet or Kayak could find. Sometimes looking at the airline’s website can be a bonus. Trying the same search with Virgin Australia online was not possible. Seat selection was easy. All the preferred seats were gone, These included the…
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