Fantastic: Delhi Airport Express connects city to airport

Trains to the airport in Delhi??? Alleluia…for this is the city where I had two of my most terrifying taxi rides….traffic in that city is extraordinarily bad!  Check out my blog post on bad Taxi rides and my wishlist for good service. The good news is that of yesterday Delhi has an Express  train to the airport taking passengers from Connaught Place (centre of New Delhi)  to the International Airport (23km) in 18 minutes. Cost 80 rupees ($1.80). Trains run 6am to 10pm but that will change with trains expected to run later in the night.…

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How far is it from? Great Tools

Ever need to find out the travel distance between two cities? Sometimes you just need to know or you want to work out points earnt for frequent flying. The tool pictured right Travel Math will tell you travel distance, flight times as well as driving distance and driving time. It will also tell you the closest airport. Calculations are in miles, kilometres and nautical miles. NB there is also an online booking form on the same page. Be careful you may actually start booking a flight instead of finding the distance! My other favorite distance finding…

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Bad timing: Expedia’s Earthquake NZ sale

I subscribe to  Expedia.com, Expedia.com.au and Expedia.co.nz (3 times in total). As a result, when they have a sale, I get three emails from them. On 23 February, three emails all came through at around 907am Australian time/1107am New Zealand time. They were all promoting a cheap holiday deal in New Zealand. The snafu was that this email came 17 hours after a massive earthquake ripped through Christchurch, New Zealand.  This major tourist centre seems to have lost most of its hotels and the biggest hotel in the City, the 26 storey Grand Chancellor may collapse.…

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Amazing Video of LAX landing

This awesome video  shows a commercial plane landing at dusk into Los Angeles International Airport. The video has been edited and sped up fitting all the action into under 5 minutes with very appropriate background music (Los Angeles by Sugarcult) that I find really cool. Some hate the music (hint: watch the video with the sound on mute, if that is you) The plane comes in from the northwest into Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) at an altitude of 10,000 feet (3 000 metres) the downwind leg is entered over the Santa Monica  VOR (VHF omnidirectional radio range) station the…

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BMI Baby makes fares fully transparent

I complain so often about the airlines that hide their prices behind a wall of charges and “extras” (see my blog posts: $198 to Europe or 981.80 and More on Cheapies) Today BMI Baby (yes its a real airline) in an email to customers said: You’ve probably noticed a change in the way that our fares are displayed, but don’t be alarmed, there’s a very good reason for it. You see, we want to be open and honest with our customers, by including all airport taxes and charges on our fares display page.  We’ve made this change…

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You are Gold!

Always believe in your soulYou’ve got the power to knowYou’re indestructible, always believe in, ‘cos you are Gold(Spandau Ballet) The Virgin Group have just made me Gold Status with them. Thank you! What does this mean?Because I am also Gold with United and Platinum with Qantas it means: I fly too much Lounge access whenever i fly internationally almost anywhere in the world Lounge access at almost all domestic lounges in Australia Priority security lanes and boarding (when available) Priority for upgrades Bonus Points This does make me happy! Let me toast this with a…

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What do you buy an adult plane geek for their Birthday?

In this case the geek is not me but you could buy me first class seats in an A380?  ORor a ride on a Boeing 707or a Qantas Gift voucheror For my friend (and very regular blog reader) Troy, I bought a lego mini plane:  Be king of the skies with the super-agile mini plane with spinning propellers! Rebuilds into an ultra-light airplane or sleek speedboat. Comes in a handy reusable storage can. Enjoy- and Happy Birthday mate!

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$198 to Europe or $981.80 to Europe

This email offering fares from the US to Europe got me mildly excited for a minute with visions of Rome until i focused on the star. I love those stars that sit next to all airline pricing. As I have long complained, no fare is what it says it is. So the star* in this fare special means: that’s $198 each way- and you must buy a round trip ticket $198 of course is the cheapest possible fare and is from: NYC to Dublin, Ireland which while definitely part of the European Community is not anywhere…

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First Korean Air A380 peeks out in Toulouse

Blog readers will know that I love the A380 SuperJumbo currently in service with 5 airlines: Air France Emirates (I flew their A380 in 2010 and loved it) Lufthansa (hope to fly this in July) Qantas (see the blog post about my  2010 fabulous A380 flight) Singapore Airlines (flown 2010) Photo Credit David Barrie Showing its colours at Toulouse is the Airbus A380 belonging to the sixth airline to have it,  Korean Air Lines. This is a company that I have never flown because of their dubious safety record (wikipedia: Korean Air had a relatively high…

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