To mark International Women’s Day, British Airways brought together 61 women from across the airline for the UK’s biggest ever all-female flight. BA1484 from London to Glasgow included women working as baggage handlers, pilots and cabin crew, loaders and push back teams, air traffic control security and airport teams. I would like to see an aviation world where this is not such an unusual occurrence. Have you flown with an female crew with any airline?
Stunning Qantas 787 touches down in Red Centre
Warning: This post includes the names, images and information of deceased people that may cause sadness or distress to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. I acknowledge these elders and their descendants as I type this on the land of the Jagera people. Qantas’ fourth Boeing 787-9 (rego: VH-ZND)has been delivered to the Australian airline. The plane operating as flight QF 6026 departed Seattle on Wednesday February 2018 at 21:15 local time and 15.5 hours later touched down at Alice Springs Airport at 06:21 local time after a 7,000nm flight. It is not the longest…
A matter of life and death. Travel Hygiene
On the Bangkok Airport Skytrain, entry through the fare gates is via a round plastic token. The same token is swallowed by the fare gates at the other end. They are then emptied out of the fare gates and either stacked back into automatic machines sold by the human operators who collect coins and notes by hand and distribute the tokens with their hands. Over a year, that same token may be handled by up to a thousand people (i used three times a day). The amount of bacteria and germs that probably float along on…
War Child’s Award Winning Video Challenges
Some 250 million children are confronted every day with the horrors of war. Fantasy is often the only way for these children to escape their reality. This video shows the fantasies of kids caught in war situations. It won the Golden Lion 2017 at Cannes! And the Silver Ciclope in Berlin and the Bronze Lamp ADCN in Amsterdam. The Londen International Awards awarded the Batman video with two times bronze for the categories Music and Post-Production and silver for Production! It was filmed with real kids in a small refugee camp in Lebanon. The camp is enclosed by…
How not to get scammed.
The world out there is full of decent, fun human beings. I have met heaps of them over the last few decades. Some are my good friends today. Some people out there see you as walking dollar sign. And the more naive and careless you are, the bigger the dollar signs. Our job as travellers is to not be careless or stupid without being paranoid and fearful. There is a balance there. The most common seven scams I have experienced have been: The place is closed Your taxi driver or “guide”, or ” new…
New Safety Video: The Beans do Cabin Safety Badly
To illustrate how human beans can do better when travelling, CASA, Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority has put together a video featuring jelly beans as clueless passengers on what ends up being a doomed flight. The video includes messages about limiting carry on, alcohol consumption, seat belts, seat reclining, listening to crew instructions, not smoking on board and not taking luggage off the plane in an evacuation: Here is the video: I am not sure when this film is meant to be shown. I could not imagine it being used on board on aeroplanes!…
Naked Man in Phuket Airport Hurls Poo
Just when I thought I had heard about all that can happen in an airport along comes this one! According to the Phuket news, a 27 year old American of Korean descent from New York, was taken into custody at 1130pm on 4th January, 2017 for causing a public disturbance as he walked naked through the Departures Hall of the International Terminal. Mr Cho, an American of Korean descent was booked to fly to Seoul (ICN) on Korean Air’s flight 638 due to depart at 1am the next morning. It is claimed that Cho removed his clothes…
China’s Spring Airlines – Surprisingly Good Choice
Spring Airlines are described as the “Ryanair of China“. The commentary pages are littered with complaints against the carrier. For example: As a result, I fully expected a flight from hell that would make a really interesting blog post for my first flight of 2018. What I got would put many “full service” airlines to shame. Booking :3/10 We wanted to fly direct from Shanghai to Bangkok. Six airlines ply the route non-stop including full-service Carriers: China Eastern/Shanghai, Juneyao Airlines and Thai Airways as well as low cost Air Asia, Lion Air, and Spring. Fares…
23 Tips to enjoy China Travel
Over one billion people call China home. Four of the top ten cities in the world are in China: Chongqing (30m), Shanghai (24m), Beijing and Guangzhou. Possessing some of the world’s oldest continuous history, tasty foods, interesting sites and diverse cities, China has emerged as a very popular destination. Last year, almost 150 million people travelled to China including myself. Here is what I have learnt about China: You have to get a visa. Make sure you allow time and money to do it. Ensure you have all of your paperwork in order before applying for the…
China was the 75th Country I have visited!
After just over half a century of travelling, I have visited my 75th country. An average of 1.5 countries per year through my life. I think this puts me in the top 1 percent of travellers vis a vis countries visited! 27 of those countries are in Asia with 24 countries in Europe, 11 in Central and North America, seven in the Pacific region, four in Africa and just two in South America. Apparently, the average Australian has visited six countries. This is lower than the average Brit (10 countries), but higher than the average…
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