Woke up Saturday morning feeling some excitement. My flight from Portland, Oregon to Spokane, Washington was essentially a fairly routine one. While I have never flown that sector before, I have been to both airports and both cities a few times now. Yet Southwest Airlines flight 3218 was no ordinary flight for me. It was the 737th flight in my life. Yup, I have left the ground 737 times -and returned 737 times. I have fastened my seatbelt 737 times. Thanks to Southwest airlines being an airline who (currently) only fly Boeing 737s, my 737th flight…
Trip Reports
Category Archives for Trip Reports.
2300 hours
A recent flight tipped me over into 2300 hours of flying since I was born. This is equivalent to over 95 days inside a metal tube. Over 3 months of my life! More Trivia (some of which can be found at my flightmemory page) 75 airlines (my favourites of course Emirates, Air New Zealand and Qantas) 48 types of plane (the 3 most common being B737, B747 and B767 and the most exotic a Zepplin airship) 180 airports (the 3 most common Melbourne, Sydney and Los Angeles) 36 countries on 5 continents flown to (out of the…
Riding the Seattle Monorail
Next year, the Seattle Monorail will be 50. Opened March 24, 1962 for the Seattle World Fair. The line runs at a top speed of 72km/h for just over 1.5 kilometres. The train pictured here is one of the two original Alweg trains built in 1961. The monorail trains and their tracks were given historical landmark status by the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board April 16, 2003. About 2.5 million people annually pay the $2 fare for the two minute trip. In the late 90s, there was a plan to put five monorail lines across Seattle. Called the Seattle…
The longest delay of my flying life: 12 hours in Brisbane
Had the longest delay of my life today. 11 hours! (compared to some people’s woes-nothing!) The delay is out of Brisbane heading to LAX (Flight 007). The airline is V Australia, the overseas arm of Virgin Blue. They have an “unserviceable” aircraft! Ironically, my previous longest delay was also with Virgin Blue out of Brisbane- destination: Sydney in 2000. That was an 8-hour delay. I was so unimpressed with Virgin Blue’s handling of that delay, that I did not fly them for years! A recent convert back to the Virgin Blue family, this incident has me bemused.…
My 717th flight!
Yesterday, I flew my 717th plane flight from Houston, Texas to Columbus, Ohio. I had hoped for a 717 but I got a beautiful 737. I am such a geek!Continental upgraded me to First Class which included amazing service and a very edible meal.
Virgin America, America’s Best Airline to Dallas
The Virgin love in continues with my Virgin America flight from LAX to Dallas Fort Worth. I currently rate this airline as the best in the USA, slightly ahead of JetBlue. I wish Australia’s Virgin Blue was as good as Virgin America. The Aussie version started as a discount carrier and is evolving into Australias’ second mainline carrier so its history is very different. Check In The star difference hits you right from the start with Virgin American. For example, how many other airlines have “We are Family“ playing at Check in? Was fascinated that…
Virgin across the Pacific
I was very excited about today’s flight: my very first time flying Virgin Blue’s International off shoot V Australia my first flight across the Pacific in one of my favourite aeroplanes the Boeing 777, the world’s largest twin-jet. my first International flight for 2011 my tenth flight for 2011 my 707th flight ever Plus I was in Premium Economy! For a plane geek lots of virginal experiences! Check-in at Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport was brilliant- very smooth and pleasant. From taxi to lounge via security, customs and duty free, in a little less than half an…
2010 Best and Worst Airlines!
So in 2010, I flew 90 times with my 90th flight for the year on 31st of December 2010 bringing my total air distance for the year to 202 000km (120 000 miles). I feel that gives me some qualifications for the following subjective rankings. Best Airlines I have confessed a few times in this blog that my favourite airline in the world (out of the 70 I have flown) is now Emirates. Emirates – all round amazing customer service product- friendly, amazing food, attention to detail Air New Zealand, an efficient and friendly operator-…
Lan Fantastic way to travel!
My flight with my 70th airline (LAN Chile) almost came to blows in the Check In line. Check In: 10/10 I get to stand in the priority check in queue because of the curse/benefit of having flown too much! When I arrived at Auckland, New Zealand airport for my 430am Check in for Sydney, I went straight to the Priority Line. As I stood there, I observed the man in the regular line was eyeing me carefully. When the check in clerk gestured to me to move forward, he was off! He roared across with his…
A letter to United – you are terrible
Dear United Airlines Not flying with you between Australia and the USA again (I still have to fly home with you!) because: your 747 is so old and so tatty, it looks like no one cares. So much so the woman next to me was nervous that the maintenance was being done in the same slip shod fashion. your staff were very unfriendly They didn’t care and resented the passengers being there. The Cabin crew chatted through the safety briefing. They gossiped loudly in the galley when people were trying to sleep. They visibly read magazines…
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