As I turned the corner toward Ben Thanh Market, the Central Market in Saigon, Vietnam last Friday, I was stunned to see two European backpackers sitting by the side of the road with a sign written on cardboard. One was singing a song while the other was playing a small set of drums. The sign invited people to give them money to finance their further travel. They call these people beg packers and I have now seen them in Auckland, New Zealand; Berlin, Germany; Brisbane and Melbourne, Australia; Bangkok, Thailand; Pnom Penh and Siam Reap…
Weird or Wonderful
Category Archives for Weird or Wonderful.
Areomexico DNA ad trolls
Aeromexico has produced a very cheeky ad. The ad shows interviews with white Texans explaining the reasons they don’t like Mexico. Then they gave those same people a DNA test to show how much Mexican blood they have in them. The airline next offers them a discount based on that percentage! Hilarious- and thought provoking.
HiFly moves to Eliminate Single Use Plastics
Hi Fly is aiming to have a single use plastic-free policy on all its flights by the end of 2019. This is welcome news for me. I cringe at how much plastic I see get disposed of on planes. And I am mortified at how much I have contributed to. On 26th December 2018, HiFly operated the world’s first plastic-free flight from Lisbon to Brazil. The carrier replaced plastic cutlery and containers with bamboo and compostable alternatives made from recycled material. They are going to test the process on three other flights: I just need…
Don’t touch the Flight Attendant
In response to this instagram post from Qantas, one poster placed their response up: My view is that, no one likes being grabbed by their customer. It does not matter if they are a Doctor, a Teacher, a Police Officer, Garbage Collector or Flight Attendant. The Flight Attendants I have met usually have very high tolerance and patience welcoming a range of people. They deserve our respect. Business Insider identified one year ago that there are 25 things they wish passengers would stop doing. (That is a big list!). One of them was being touched…
Air NZ: Santa’s Naughty List brings International Change
I look forward to two Christmas advertisments each year: John Lewis and Air New Zealand’s (even though I had some concerns with last year’s). The NZ one was published last Friday. After Santa Claus has a mix up with his emails, a Kiwi kid accidentally finds himself with one of Santa’s most confidential Christmas secrets. What happens next? Enjoy…. There are two very Kiwi digs at their neighbour Australia and the US President. Typical NZ humour! Related Posts That cute Air NZ Christmas ad could have better sold NZ Air NZ does it yet again!…
Lion Air’s Woeful Safety
Have you seen those rants (usually on Facebook) from passengers fuming because “their” plane has been cancelled or delayed. The tone they use often suggests they believe that airline has single handedly selected them to punish them. There are many reasons for aeroplane delays with weather and technical issues being the most common. An airline with a good safety culture will not fly a plane which has had a technical issue until that fault is properly rectified. This suits me. Likewise, an airline with a good safety culture will empower their pilots not to take…
New Turkish vid combines humour, safety, Lego and planes!
The boring safety announcements are looking more and more endangered as airlines increasingly use their on board safety videos to differentiate their brand. The videos are designed to grab your attention and build your awareness of who you are flying with. Whoever in the Turkish airlines marketing department managed to involve the Lego franchise was a genius. Everyone (especially if you have small and big kids) will be remembering this video. If you are familiar with The Lego Movies, then the characters and some of their behaviors will be familiar to you. The safety video…
Which airlines have names for their planes- and why?
For centuries, sailing ships carried names, had captains, were Christened, experienced water salutes and had their left side referred to as port and right side as starboard. These traditions continued into the air but not all airlines name their planes . No one knows why some airlines in the world adopted the tradition of naming their “ships” and others did not. When a plane is named, unlike ships, a bottle of champagne is not broken when naming them, but when used, it is poured over the fuselage. Here are as many major airlines that I…
Hainan Airlines Cartoon Safety Video featuring Teapots!
This is one of the more unusual safety videos I have seen! I confess, I have still not flown Hainan so not seen their video on board. The “teapots” go off duty and go on holidays which includes their first time on a plane. They do everything wrong on the plane (luggage in the aisles, smoking on the lavatory, leaving electronics on, panic during a storm, brace inappropriately, take luggage off with them at evacuation etc) The video has one of the most graphic “emergency” situations, I have ever seen in a safety video. …
Air New Zealand Safety Video: Cool or Cruel?
I have been pondering about what to say about Air New Zealand’s safety video. On 28th November 1979, Air New Zealand flight TE 901 took off from Auckland for a sightseeing flight over Antarctica. Due to a computing error, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 slammed into Mount Erebus a 3,794 metre (12,448 ft) volcano located on Ross Island. All 237 passengers and 20 crew were killed. This was followed by complex search and rescue mission and a bitter and complicated investigation. There was such grief in NZ as the small nation felt connected to the disaster…
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