In 1977, flying from Sydney to Roma, I watched one movie per sector (on a large screen on an Alitalia 747). The film was loaded at each stop onto a centrally mounted projector which dropped from roof of each cabin. The flight to Roma had three stops of between two and three hours each so four movies were shown on the one flight! Each airport has very few facilities and were essentially concrete sheds. (Singapore’s Changi was being built). The headphones were a tube and the audio was out of sync with the visual.…
The airlines that vanished in 2016
I have never been stranded by an airline that has collapsed but there is always a small risk. Of the 5000 global airlines, a handful went out of business in 2016. These airlines impacted passenger plans, disrupted communities and resulted in job losses. Many were too small to register a blip globally but for the cities and communities they linked, the loss impacts. For most airlines, their losses were caused by poor strategy. In some cases, there is a soap opera style script of intrigue, incompetence or insufferable management. Here is the list of carriers…
2016’s Best flight: My 380th Qantas flight in A380 FIRST
MEL, Melbourne, Australia to DXB, Dubai, UAE QF9 Scheduled Departure: 23:25 Arrival: 06:35 14hrs 10 mins Total distance: 7252 miles / 11671 km / 6302 nautical miles For my 380th flight with Qantas, I wanted to do something special. It had to be on a Qantas Airbus 380. That narrowed routes to: Sydney or Melbourne to Dubai and /or London Sydney or Melbourne to Los Angeles Sydney to Dallas-Fort Worth As I was going on to Bangkok and Cebu for New Year’s Eve, the US bound flights were the least logical. So I ended up doing a…
My 2016 Travel Tips (In order of popularity)
My goal is to enjoy both travel and destination. I am constantly looking for ways to save money, speed up airport experiences, have better travel experiences and effectively explore my world or find ways of relaxing. One of the reasons I blog, is to share these tips that I learn along the way. In order of popularity, these were my travel tips that I shared each Monday last year: Getting Exercise- A walking guide to world airports Avoiding weight scale shock We travellers must reduce trash this was a post that I thought would be…
Reflecting on 2016 and 2017 Travel Goals
What travel goals did you manage in 2016? I achieved almost all of my 2016 goals! I flew 119 times for business and pleasure last year with 20 airlines, rode 14 long distance trains plus a short cross-border train between Singapore and Malaysia, a few long distance buses and some hire car kilometres. My air flights were mostly concentrated in 14 countries in Asia, Australia/New Zealand and the Middle East with no European or US flights at all, as seen here: My goals for 2016 were to: Visit two new countries which I exceeded by going to Egypt,…
Happy New Year from Cebu
I send my New Years wishes from beautiful Cebu, a Philippines island. It only seems like yesterday, we were deciding where to go to for NY Eve! Cebu was the winner and that was a good choice! Related Posts New Years Dreams
Oman’s new safety video Vs Qantas: Imitation the greatest form of flattery
I have seen the Qantas safety video about 50 times this year so I know it pretty well. It features scenes from Australia to illustrate aspects of the safety briefing. For example, the seat belt announcement is made by a truck driver in his rig in the middle of the outback. Noticed the newly launched Oman Air safety video which features aspects of Oman has some similarities to the Qantas video. In their video, Oman passengers in a 4wd are fastening their seat belts and putting their bags on the luggage rack of the vehicle.…
Air Asia-My Worst Flight of 2016: an uncomfortable journey in a crammed, cramped aircraft with unwelcoming staff.
JHB: Johor, Malaysia to DMK, Bangkok AK 1807 Departure: 19:25 Arrival: 20:42 Distance: 1,399 km -869 miles 755 nautical miles I know it is not yet the end of the year yet but my award for the worst flight, out of 107 so far for the year goes to Air Asia Malaysia. I rate each flight I take for every factor from Booking to Check-in right through to deplaning and keep a tally of my rating using Flightmemory.com. The scores averaged out gives me the ranking of flights, airlines and airports. I have never been a fan of discount carrier AirAsia but they were…
My 5th Dreamliner Flight: Jetstar “Business” to Singapore
MEL, Melbourne, Australia to SIN, Singapore JQ7 Scheduled Departure: 12:00 Arrival: 16:50 Actual Departure: 13:34 Arrival: 18:06 Total distance: 6,040km -3,753 miles Bookings: 10/10 While operating just one class on domestic services in Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam, the carrier runs a StarClass (Business Class) on key international flights between Australia and Honolulu, China, Japan, Singapore and Thailand. I thought I would try this option out, especially as it gave me another ride on a 787, making it my fifth 787 ever! Jetstar’s website is very easy to use. I like the way, they handle choosing between one way and round trip bookings. It is very…
My 350th Boeing 737 flight
I keep on flying the 737! Just reached 350 flights! It is eight months since I flew my 300th 737 so that averages at six every month since April! I have flown more 737s in my life than 767s plus 747s plus 320s! 31 airlines have taken me across five continents with the type-Africa and Antarctica are the two non-737 continents! Sadly, as previously mentioned, the 737 is one of my last favourite planes. I will take the 767, 747, 757 and 787 over the 737 any day. Which plane is your most flown? Related…
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