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…
Trip Reports
Category Archives for Trip Reports.
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…
Crazy Week
Two things about this week: The first is I have a crazy schedule: five US cities in five days with flights from Auckland, New Zealand to Melbourne, Australia. Will be flying Qantas, United, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest. The second is that I will fly the 900th flight of my life! Sadly, not a very exciting flight on a Delta connection to Richmond, Virginia. Check out my flight memory which tracks where I have flown. I have now flown over two million kilometres (1.2 million miles). That is almost 53 times around the world! Related Posts Two Million…
My 888th Flight
This week I fly my 888th flight. It is a standard run of the mill Melbourne to Wellington with Qantas (it will be my 255th flight with Qantas). I would have liked to have made the flight more special in some way. For example, it would have been nice to have made flight 888 first class on an ANA 787 but that is not going to happen! I need to get better organised for my 999 and 1000th flights! Open to any ideas to make those flights amazing! Related Posts 787 times in the air &…
Slow Train in Hungary
Two weeks ago, I blogged about my High Speed ICE experience. Today’s Trip Report is a little of a contrast. A much more slower trip from Budapest, the capital of Hungary to Baja, a small city south of Budapest. Booking: 3 out of 10 MAV Start has the most complex train booking system I have ever experienced. The site also froze a few times. It does provide all of the fare and train options on the one screen so you can see which train has the cheapest seats and make up your mind easily about tickets. Eventually,…
280 times at MEL
I fly for the 280th time through Melbourne (Australia) airport! This is the airport I have used the most through my life. 280 check ins! Altogether, that is a lot of time in the security lines, shops and lounges! As of today, my ten most visited airports are: Melbourne, Australia (MEL): 279 times. 4.3 out of 5 Sydney, Australia (SYD): 248 times. 3.0 Los Angeles, USA (LAX): 89 times. 1.8 Auckland, New Zealand (AKL): 69 times. 3.2 Adelaide, Australia (ADL) 69 times. 4.1 San Francisco, USA (SF): 46 times. 4.0 London Heathrow, UK (LHR): 41 times. 2.6 Wellington,…
Hip Hamburg
I have been wanting to get to Hamburg for twelve years. The city has eluded me until just two weeks ago when I hopped on a train for the 250km (158 mile) trip from Berlin and made Hamburg the 171st city I have visited. This Northern Germany city is 610 miles (380 miles) from Munich and 365 km (227 miles) from Frankfurt. Aesthetics Getting off the train in Hamburg, I was struck by two things. Firstly, how flat Hamburg is and secondly how much water the city has. Officially, known as Free Harbour City of…
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