Having been to 203 airports now, I have a fair idea of what I want in a good airport. I want first of all an airport that is easy to get around with good signposting. Short lines come next. Being well connected to public transit is more important than parking for me. I do like the car rental outlets located close by and not a shuttle bus away. Talking of shuttle buses, I hate being bussed to and from a plane, so give me enough gates please. Clean well maintained airports get my attention and I do…
Lavatory Traps
I was woken up a worried mum frantically shouting at the nearby lavatory door whilst en route to Melbourne, Australia from Los Angeles aboard a Virgin Australia Boeing 777. The woman’s four year old son was trapped in the lavatory. He had locked the door and now could not work out how to unlatch the door. Half asleep, I pressed the flight attendant call button. A flight attendant was there in seconds. She unlatched door and four year old was rescued. How often does this happen? A year ago, pilot of Delta flight 6132, traveling from Asheville, N. C., to La Guardia New…
Qantas ditches Wifi???
Qantas latest decision has been to ditch on board wifi after a six month trial period. In the period March through November, Qantas installed wifi on some of their A380s. The service was was offered for a fee on flights between Australia and London/Los Angeles. The response rate from passengers was just five per cent and Qantas is pulling the pin. Qantas did not say what percentage of passengers would need to use wifi to make it viable. The Wall Street Journal calculated last December that only three per cent of passengers on commercial flights with WiFi actually opt to pay…
Qatar and United 787 Electrical Problem
Seems there is an issue with Qatar’s third 787. The plane just handed over to them on December 9 was forced to make an emergency landing at Heathrow after it developed a faulty generator. This follows a United 787 having a generator failure on Dec. 4 forcing a landing at New Orleans. Boeing is quoted as saying that it isn’t certain that it was an identical issue with a faulty generator. Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Air CEO was quoted as saying , “Definitely we will demand compensation. We are not buying airplanes from them to put in a museum.” The…
12:12:12:12:12
Its 12: 12 on 12:12:12. A once in a lifetime date. What are 12 things you want to accomplish in life?
Shenzhen Air joins Star Alliance -No One World for China?
Following the recent addition of Xiamen Airlines to Skyteam, Shenzhen Airlines China’s fifth largest carrier has joined the Star Alliance after 16 months of planning. Shenzen is based in the city of the same name, 1,940km from Beijing. The airline links 70 cities domestically and internationally. In 2010, the airline was involved in a scandal when it was found that about one hundred of its pilots had falsified their flying qualifications and experience. There is much speculation, as to whether all of these false pilots were successfully removed from the company. Almost all of China’s largest airlines are now locked into either Skyteam or Star Alliance. In contrast with the…
Beautiful Budapest
I first visited Budapest exactly twenty years to the day of my most recent visit. Communism had been gone for only three years and Budapest was ditching the old Socialist restrictions and emerging as a great city. Scarily, on this trip in 2012, -the agent who checked me into my hotel this trip had not even been born when I made my first visit. Today, Budapest is definitely part of a free market economy. I have now been to Budapest five times since my first starry eyed visit and this city remains one of my all time…
Jetstar Christmas Present-Not
On November 25, one month before Christmas, Jetstar NZ cancelled a December 23 Melbourne to Auckland flight. Jetstar very helpfully tried to accomodate the 80 passengers that were affected. Some were offered tickets on a December 26 flight, they claimed and some were offered flights one week before their original date, when people were at work. Passengers attempting to find flights at this late stage with other airlines faced an impossible prospect. Many shelled out hundreds of dollars more to get seats. Christmas in Australia and New Zealand is the biggest holiday of the year. Most shops and businesses shut down for three to…
Virgin America Storm Chaos (Trip Report)
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…
Bundling
As noted last week, for the last decade. airlines have been “unbunding” their fares- separating as many cost components as possible including baggage, boarding, meals, miles and entertainment, and selling them apart from the basic fare. By buying all of these components, a passenger can end up paying more for a ticket than they originally planned. Now airlines are creating bundles which include a range of these add on services, within the total price of a fare. For example: United Airlines have two bundles: Premier Travel and Premier Travel Plus which give faster security access, earlier boarding and…
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