Vancouver slipped out of the top spot and Melbourne, Australia became the Economist’s most liveable city in their latest six mothly Liveability Ranking and Overview released August, 2012. Again. In fact, four of the world’s most liveable cities, according to the Economist, are in Australia and one is in New Zealand. Canada has three. Helsinki and Vienna are Europe’s representatives. No US cities made the cut. Living conditions in 140 cities around the world are assessed across 30 indicators in five broad categories including Stability, Healthcare, Culture, Environment, Education and Infrastructure There are a number of these liveability surveys eg the Mercer Quality of living Worldwide City Rankings which places Vienna…
Australia
Tag Archives for Australia.
Qantas Gold Frequent Flyer-again
Quiet week here with no travel anywhere! Qantas sent me through my new Qantas Frequent Flyer card last week. My Frequent Flyer membership ticked over July 31, 2012. I have retained Gold status for another year.I had contemplated a last ditch Platinum run but resisted it. I also have some points with Emirates, JetBlue, Southwest and United. My other two main Frequent Flyer programs are with Virgin Australia (Platinum Status until December, 2013) and Delta (Silver Status until January). I also reached 7000 vists in July which was a new record for me. 80 per cent of you are regular visitors…
Hawaiian Down under
Hawaii and Australian have been linked by air for 61 years. Qantas began flying from Australia to Hawaii in 1941 (during World War Two). Jet service began in 1959 and 747s started plying the route in the late 1970s. Air New Zealand commenced its service to the islands in 1968. Pan Am, Continental, American and United have all plied the route in the past. Today Non stop service between “Down Under” and Hawaii currently consists of: Qantas QF3: Sydney- Honolulu -three times a week (Wed, Fri, Sun)- Boeing 767-300 Jetstar JQ3: Sydney – Honolulu -daily -Airbus 330-200 Hawaiian Airlines…
19 000 miles in a week?!!
This is a crazy travel week this week! Starting with a 200km Hungarian train journey, I end up covering 31 096 km (19322 miles ) with four air carriers and a rail company. I get two A380 rides from Paris to Los Angeles and then onto Melbourne for Australian winter. Anyone else being so stupid?! Wishing you a good week.
And the new Qantas Dance Partner is…
There has been a significant amount of chatter about possible Qantas interest in a middle east carrier. Etihad who are partners with Virgin Australia were not a contendor. Emirates had been a possible favourite but seemed to announce they only wanted a quick codeshare. Yesterday, Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar al-Baker suggested that they were very interested in a Qantas tie up and would meet with Qantas management in Sydney soon. Qatar was awarded top airline status in 2011. They have been flying into Melbourne from Doha for two years and this week will launch Doha to Perth. To have Qatar feeding passengers into…
Qantas 250th time
I flew my 250th Qantas flight, last week, from Sydney to Melbourne, Australia. It was also my 860th flight of my life! Five weeks of my life spent inside Qantas planes travelling the equivalent of 16 times around the world! As you can see from the map below, the Australian flag carrier has taken me to five continents. What is interesting is how many of the Qantas routes I have flown on have now vanished: Harare to Perth, Bangkok to London, Sydney to San Francisco, Christchurch to Melbourne, and Auckland to Los Angeles are all gone. I have…
Trip Report: Train to Toodyay
Everytime I said I was taking the train to Toodyay (Too-Jay) a rural town outside of Perth, Australia, people looked at me incredulously! “There is no train to Toodyay” was the usual comment. People offerred to drive me there and told me to call them if I “got stuck” There have been trains to Toodyay since 1995 using the currrent Diesel Multiple Unit train since 2005. See AvonLink_Map. The train runs once a day in each direction plus there is an extra service on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday in each direction. There is no weekend service using Avonlink…
This Week: 19th to 25th March
I fly from New York to Melbourne via Los Angeles and Sydney (United and Qantas with a sector on my beloved 380!) bringing my flights for the year to 25 from 22 airports in 9 countries on 4 continents with 10 airlines! So much for flying less in 2012! On my Qantas flight to Sydney, my total miles will exceed 1, 200 000 air miles flown in my life (five times between earth and moon) and a scarey 17 weeks inside planes! Check out myFlightmemory for more information. Home briefly before heading to Perth, Western Australia (flight 26 for…
Air Australia Grounded- Shock! Not.
When I blogged about Australia’s newest airline in January, I was not convinced it was a viable proposition. So many start ups have tried in Australia and failed/disappeared (East-West, Compass I, Compass II, Impulse, for example). More recently, we have seen Tiger Airways Australia in trouble. Australia is a tough aviation market in a tough aviation world. Already in 2012, three airlines have collapsed including Malev that I blogged about last week. Air Australia is the world’s fourth airline to be grounded this year. On the morning of February 17, Air Australia, after less than three months of operations, ran…
Wednesday Wackiness: Tasmania- MIA
Arnotts, the dominant Australian biscuit (cookie) and cracker manufacturer has created a new cracker in the shape of Australia for the country’s national holiday tomorrow January 26. Some have criticised the crackers because the map does not incude the southern island state of Tasmania (see right) Tasmania has been a separate island for 10 000 years and part of Australia since Federation in 1901 but often gets left off maps, promotional materials, tourist materials. How does one keep the island state in people’s front of mind? A question often asked by the Tasmanian Tourist authorities. In the year to September, 2011…
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