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!…
Qantas A380 Business to Singapore-sailing to one million km
Today’s flight was special because whilst aboard I reached a “milestone” of one million kilometres flown with Qantas. This has taken me an enjoyable chunk of my life! Normally on the Australia to Singapore segment, I have usually been on A330s. Today was the second time I have traveled on the 380 on this routing. The utilisation by Qantas of the 380 on this routing now occurs when there are periods of high demand from Melbourne to Singapore. Booking: 8/10 I chose to fly in Qantas Business Class which is on the 380’s upper deck…
One Million Kilometres with Qantas
This week, a beautiful Melbourne, Australia to Singapore A380 flight tipped me over one million kilometres flown with Qantas. This is about a third of my total flying. No other airline comes close to the volume of business that I have given Qantas. Qantas have taken me on 421 flights around Australia and the world from as far south as Queenstown at the bottom of New Zealand to their most northern port of London. New York, Southern Africa, Dubai and Hong Kong all feature in there. Altogether I have spent almost fifty seven days inside…
Air Malta, CityJet, LEVEL, Qantas , Wizz CEO and WOW win 2018 Excellence Awards
The CAPA – Centre for Aviation was launched in 1990, to build aviation knowledge. I find them a great go to site for good deep air research. Since 2003, their annual Awards for Excellence have been intended to showcase success and industry leadership. Their 2018 winners were announced this week in Berlin at the 2018 CAPA World Aviation Outlook Summit. I wish I had been there for the buzz, the award announcements and the wonderful city that is Berlin. Being in two places is hard to do! And the winners this year were: Airline of…
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…
Upgrading my Qantas experience-How I get Top Elite status in three round trips (almost)
I was sitting down to lunch a few years, with the family when my airline called to tell me my flight to Auckland was cancelled and I would miss my connection to Samoa. As a result, I would get to my holiday 24 hours later than planned. The good news was if I could get to the airport within the hour they could get me into the earlier flight. My brother in law drove me very quickly through Sydney streets to ensure I made this flight. Not only did Air New Zealand book me onto…
INSIDE the Aeromexico 2431 Crash
Like many passengers, I sometimes film the take off or landing whilst en route. Some of my films are interesting and some are not. The video below is definitely very interesting as it captures the failed take off of Aeroméxico Connect Flight 2431 which crashed on Tuesday July 31, 2018 during takeoff from Durango International Airport. The Embraer 190 was bound for Mexico City, 765 kilometres (475 miles) away. Whilst accelerating in stormy weather, the aircraft apparently became airborne briefly and then veered off the runway after being hit “by a gust of wind”. The left wing…
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…
Stupendous Shanghai
I rank every city I visit across a variety of factors including aesthetics, culture and transport. Shanghai is the 200th city of over 100,000 people I have traveled to so I am pretty confident in my ratings! Verdict: My Overall Rating: 86% My Ranking out of my top 200 Cities: 22nd place Global Ranking: Mercer – Quality of Living Survey 101st out of 230 and EIU – Best Cities Ranking 33rd out of 70 Financial Time – Asia-Pacific Cities of 8 out of 163 Why it should be visited: Architecture, Cafes, Food, Shops and to understand the future of China…
When the change fees cost more than a new ticket
On two occasions, this month, I have had the need to make future changes to flight bookings. On one booking, travel was 75 days away. Each time, the option of changing a one way flight would have cost me more than a new roundtrip ticket ! Nearly all airlines across the globe, charge a customer who wants to change the date of their flight. Usually the cheapest tickets come with a clause specifying no name or date change at all. In other words, if you want to change the date, you need to buy a…
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