My second favourite airline Air NZ has been losing $NZ1 million per week on long haul traffic. It is now investigating ways to cut $NZ100 million out of expenses. Some of the rumours I have heard are: reducing London flights (NZ flies to Heathrow via Los Angeles and via Hong Kong every day) pulling out of London altogether handing sectors over from LAX and HK to Virgin Atlantic slashing hundreds of jobs halting all “large projects” (the message from Air NZ CEO Rob Fyfe: “no sacred cows”) reducing the quality of meals and service in…
Virgin Australia absorbs Pacific Blue and V Australia
Once upon a time (August, 2000 to be exact), a new airline was launched in Australia to challenge the two long standing carriers: Ansett and Qantas. That airline was Virgin Blue. The name was chosen in a competition playing on the Australian custom of calling a redhead Blue or Bluey. I flew Virgin Blue 12 times around Australia and rated them 4.4 out of 5. They initially used a low cost Southwest/Easyjet model with some quirky Australianisms and the Virgin feel. In 2003 Virgin Blue started Pacific Blue, a New Zealand based subsidiary which provided services between…
Roller Blading down a Plane?
Love to see the answer to this @VirginAustralia flying from Sydney to Perth. Can I bring a pair of rollerblades onboard in addition to the carry on bag? #virginaustralia Probably if they are worn? What weird things have you seen brought on board a plane? The Verdict: A little Weird Each week, I scour the internet for something weird or wonderful that has happened in travel land. if you come across anything weird or wonderful that I should be mentioning, please let me know! My Twitter handle is martinjcowling
Wednesday Weirdness- I wanna pay my way
At the Union Square Metro station in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Sunday, an agitated British Backpacker was trying to pay his 4.50 Dirhams metro fare with a British pound coin. He argued with the woman at the ticket counter. He reasoned with her and finally he pleaded with her. “This pound is worth 5.50 Dirhams why won’t you take it? Its worth more!’”. He looked around seeking help from the long line forming behind him. I said to him, tryig to pay with pounds on the dirham metro would be like someone trying to pay with Dirhams in the London Underground. “Thats different” he said “these…
AA Bankruptcy Restructure- What does it mean? [Updated]
As I suggested on October 4, American Airlines has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In its petition filed in New York, AMR reported assets of $24.72 billion and liabilities of $29.55 billion. The company has $4.1 billion in cash. They have lost about 50 billion dollars in the last decade. The bankruptcy will give the carrier the opportunity to reduces its debt levels. A chapter 11 filing allows for a reorganisation. The aim is to survive. What does this filing mean? Not much will change immediately. Existing ticket holders will find their tickets are honoured. Planes will still…
Qantas Social Media Backlash
If Qantas, the Australian airline had any doubt as to how the Australian public feel about the once iconic brand, then their latest Social Media campaign has shown them the truth. It all started innocently. This week Qantas began a new social media campaign called “Qantas Luxury”. From my view it seems to be an attempt to to win back the hearts and minds of Australians concerned about Qantas. The airline has been battered by four issues in the last year particularly: a series of incidents which have suggested to some that the airline appears…
#Flight 799 and #Flight 800
Just flown my 799th flight from Pittsburgh to New York’s JFK with Jetblue. Followed by my 800th flight on an Air France A380 from NYC to Paris Charles de Gaulle. Trip report to come! In 47 years, I have flown over one million miles spending just over 3.5 months inside aeroplanes. Check out my flightmemory.com for more
Emirates massive order
Heard today that my favourite airline Emirates has ordered 50 of my favourite plane: 777-300ER. They also have options for 20 more. Delivery will start from 2015. The order is valued at $18 billion dollars for Boeing – $26billion with the options. Boeing’s largest dollar value order. Emirates has currently got 57 of the 777-300ERs so they are effectively doubling this type of plane in their fleet. They may of course sell some of their existing 777s to keep their fleet as one of the very youngest. Combined with their orders for 76 Airbus A380s,…
American Airlines Ticketing #Fail!
I have just used Kayak to research a flight: Austin-Pittsburgh-Boston. The best option price and schedule- wise was an American Airlines/USAir combo sold by American Airlines for $US357.60 in Economy. Kayak gave me a link to American Airlines which I clicked on. This deposited me on the onto the American Airline homepage (www.aa.com). I entered all my personal data and scrolled through to payments page where I entered my Credit Card details including address. I discovered, at this point that there was not a drop down box for “Australia”. I could enter “USA”, “Canada” or the “UK” but not “Australia”. So I called…
Fry Tweets Qantas A380 Failure
British actor and Tweetaholic Stephen Fry was en route from Sydney to London today aboard a Qantas A380 operating as QF 31. Four hours out from Singapore, the plane was diverted to Dubai due to engine problems. Bizarrely one year to the day since a Qantas A380 Rolls Royce Trent 900 engine shredded in what could have been a disaster for that airliner. Fry kept us entertained with a blow by blow account of today’s situation which a Qantas spokesperson said was not connected to last year’s issue (Oh yeah? how d they know?): 82 stephenfry: Taking…
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