Today’s flight with Virgin Australia from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia tipped me over two million kilometres (1.25 million miles) travelled by aeroplane! This is a distance equivalent to 50 times around the earth. I have eaten, read, slept, chatted and worked for 16 and a half weeks of my life in the air. I record all of my 857 flights at Flightmemory.com. This database allows me to keep all of my flight information in one place and print maps based on the data. In case you think I am completely geeky,…
Trip Reports
Category Archives for Trip Reports.
Virgin Australia A330 Per – Syd Business
In aviation, a year can make a huge difference. A year ago Virgin Australia was Virgin Blue. They did not have A330s and they had no business class. All that changed in May, 2011 when the discount carrier became “ahem” less discount. Since then, my observation is that Virgin have continued to improve their product. Significantly, they managed to increase profits by 118 per cent last year. Not an easy feat in this industry. Today, I review their A330 Business Class product. Booking: 9 out of 10 Virgin Australia has a very simple and straight forward booking system at www.virginaustralia.com.au All…
Trip Report: Skywest (Australia) EPR-PER
My report today is about my roundtrip flights from the West Australian city of Perth (pop: 1.7 million) to Esperance (pop 9536), a regional town in Western Australia and return on Skywest Airlines Pty Ltd. This Singapore based carrier flies regional and commuter services across the mining and agricultural state of Western Australia. Flights are operated under their own colours and some will soon be flown with Virgin Australia colours. NB This is not the same Skywest who fly regional services in the USA on behalf of United, US and Delta. Since 2004, Skywest in Australia have expanded their fleet…
Trip Report: Train to Toodyay
Everytime I said I was taking the train to Toodyay (Too-Jay) a rural town outside of Perth, Australia, people looked at me incredulously! “There is no train to Toodyay” was the usual comment. People offerred to drive me there and told me to call them if I “got stuck” There have been trains to Toodyay since 1995 using the currrent Diesel Multiple Unit train since 2005. See AvonLink_Map. The train runs once a day in each direction plus there is an extra service on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday in each direction. There is no weekend service using Avonlink…
Tuesday Trip Report: United: London-Washington
I flew four days after the finalisation of the United-Continental merger and four days after the new combined reservations system had commenced. Thought I would test things didn’t I? This flight was the 830th I have ever flown in my life and was my 93rd flight with United and/or Continental. The flight itself was pretty okay. It was about what I would expect from the pre merger United so if I was expecting a dramatic leap to being one of the world’s greatest airlines as promised by United CEO, I didn’t see it. I have long regarded United as one of the worst legacy carriers in the…
Trip Report: Thalys – Paris – Amsterdam
I love trains! Always have. Travelling from Paris to Amsterdam recently, the logical thing was to book a flight.In fact, the friends I was meeting, assumed I would fly in. There is an amazing alternative, which means I got to ride a train! Thalys is a direct train service using High Speed lines to key destinations on two routes: Paris-Brussels-Cologne-Essen and Paris-Brussels-Antwerp-Amsterdam. Thalys International company is owned by the SNCF French Railways -62%, Belgium Railways (NMBS/SNCB ) -28% and German Railways ( Deutsche Bahn) -10%. Thalys has no meaning and can be spoken, understood and recognised by travellers from all of the countries served…
Tuesday Trip Report: Gulf Air
It has been over a decade since I last flew Gulf Air. Australia was a Gulf Air destination in those days. James Hogan (now at Etihad) was CEO and the airline had new A330s and new uniforms. It was in the middle of a major transformation. Its crews were very international and the airline felt like it was going places. A lot has happened to Gulf since with its major shareholders all setting up rival carriers including Etihad. Booking- 10 out of 10 I cannot fault the Gulf Air booking webpage. Worked quickly and logically…
Tuesday Trip Report: Etihad Internet On Board
I blogged last week about Etihad‘s newly wifi equipped planes. I did not think I would get one so quickly. I had the chance to use wifi on a flight between Abu Dhabi and London this week. I logged on with my cell phone. I found the wifi to very slow. I made a five minute Skype call, checked email, opened my Facebook and checked half a dozen posts. The service was not cheap and the cost for this browsing was $25. I would not do be in a hurry to repeat the experience unless the…
Pics from over New Zealand
Photos from my ATR 72 flight from Palmerston North to Auckland last Wednesday. Stunning day to fly.
Tuesday Trip Report: My last Malév flight
With the collapse of Malév this seems like the only time to post about my last Malev flight in July 2009 – 2.5 years ago from Rome to Budapest. Booking: 10 out of 10 My ticket was actually booked in conjunction with a Cathay Pacific fare (Malév were part of the One World alliance). I travelled to Budapest from Australia via Hong Kong and Roma. From my visits to Malév ‘s website, I found it to be streamlined, straightforward and effective. Check In: 7 out of 10 Signposting for the Malév check in at Rome’s Leonardo Da…
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