I just flew my 666th flight. Wondered if I should have been superstitious? It was a stock standard flight from SYDney, Australia to MELbourne, Australia. Bad Luck: I tried to get onto an earlier flight to find they were all full. A combination of school holidays and a check in meltdown at competitor Virgin Blue meant there was no capacity on any earlier flight.Good Luck: Qantas upgraded me to business class.Bad Luck: the plane was severely delayed as it had been hit by lightning between Perth and Sydney. Technicians took a few hours to look over…
United & Continental Unite
Readers of my blog will know I have very low regard for United Airlines. They are not my worst airline but close. See my last devastating review of United. I have just flown United 13 times in March and they were scarily impressive. I was wondering how much of this is because of the United Continental merger? United Airlines and Continetal are merging to form the world’s biggest airline. The merged airline will be called United. In other words adios “Continental” name. The planes post merger will, however, carry the Continental colours and logo (see picture from the…
Trip Review: Emirates- comparing the A380
How many people really care what aeroplane they are in? I do care because I sit in two planes a week, on average. These planes are my favourites: Boeing 717 (flown 18 times) Boeing 747 (83 times for 660 000km) Boeing 777 (alas only 7 times) The plane I have recently fallen in love with is the A380, the world’s largest passenger plane: First flew it with Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Sydney last November Then I travelled on the Qantas one in June from Los Angeles to Sydney (blog post here) This week’s adventure on the mega Jumbo…
United Breaks Guitars
My least favourite airline still has an embarrassing song that just won’t go away. Musician Dave Carroll claimed that his guitar was by United Airlines baggage handlers at Chicago airport. Carroll filed a claim with the airline but was told he would not receive any compensation becasue he had not claimed within 24 hours after the incident He kept approaching United for nine months. At which point, he wrote and recorded the song: “United breaks guitars.” Millions of people have now seen it. Carroll now travels doing presentations on customer service. In the best follow up possible, United lost his luggage on such a speaking trip!
Travel Tips: Missed Approach
I flew this week into Wellington, (North Island) New Zealand with Qantas on a Boeing 737 called Bellbird. (plane’s rego is ZK-JTQ).Wellington airport is built on a stretch of low-lying land. It has only one runway which starts at Wellington Harbour to the north and and finishes at Cook Strait to the south. (Cook Strait separates the two islands of New Zealand). This means your landing has to avoid water on both ends of the runway- after dodging some hills to get down. Worse, the airport is universally known for its rough weather (Check out this video of a Wellington attempted landing) because of…
Taxi Rides from Hell
It is 523am -porch light and two house lights are on -and the front door is open. I have booked a taxi for two minutes later (525am) to ride to Adelaide airport At the afore mentioned hour of 523am, my taxi arrives and sounds his horn. Only Hellish Drivers sound their horn pre-dawn in a quiet suburban street, when I am clearly ready and waiting. I find this behaviour excessive, unnecessary and rude. Hellish Taxi Rides: Uncommunicative taxi drivers (Peeve #2b Opinionated or racist ones that never shut up-there is a happy medium) I walked out to the…
I viist my 46th US State
The USA has 50 States, one District and five Territories. With my recent West Virginia visit, I have now been to 46 of those US States…four to go: Iowa Nebraska North Dakota Alaska I have also been to three of the US territories (Guam/Puerto Rico/US Virgin Islands)…two to go: American Samoa Northern Mariana Islands Questions: Does anyone know how many states the average American has been to? The average number a non-American tourist has been to? How many Americans know how many territories they have? Which states have you visited and which have you missed?…
Formula for finding fantastic fares found
∏A = gUG + min(k-g, (1-g)(1-r)) This formula developed by Makoto Watanabe and Marc Möller from the University of Madrid is behind their research on the economics of airafes to be published shortly in the Economic Journal as “Advance Purchase Discounts versus Clearance Sales.” We all know the situation. Book an airfare too early and you sometimes find the airfare goes down. Or your plans change. Book an airfare too late and you will usually find the airfare goes up. Watanabe and Möller have found that the best time to buy an air ticket is eight weeks before. They also…
What 24 hours of flying looks like
This video represents all of the plane flights in a 24 hour period. Its fascinating to watch and makes me hope those air traffic controllers are having a good day! Enjoy! Have a look at the solid mass that is the USA at certain times of the day and the flights between Nth America and Europe. Notice the sparseness of North Africa for flying and what is going on in Asia. Below are my global flights for the World in my life!
Appalachian Wonder -the WVU PRT
Headed down to West Virginia. This state West Virginia in the Appalachian and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. It became a state when it broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War. Bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northeast. For me, this was my 46th US State,..,….only 4 US States to go!! I wonder how many states the average American has visited? Anyone know? West Virginia is a mountainous forested state…very pretty. Its also economically one of the more struggling states with the second weakest economy of any state in the USA. My trip took me to Morgantown, West Virginia so I could ride the…
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