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Good bye DC10

On 24 February, 2014 a Biman Bangledesh DC10 flew its last commercial passenger flight from Dakka, Bangledesh to Birmingham, England. The plane was retired from regular Biman service in December, 2013 as a result of the airline taking a new 777: E9 S2-AHM (msn 40120). The new plane is named  “Akashprodip” and replaces the retired DC-10 for long-range flights to destinations such as Frankfurt, Rome, London and Birmingham. The aircraft’s last flight – which was without passengers – took off from Birmingham and flew back to Dhaka to be scrapped and its parts to be sold. The…

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380,000 points for $70

Here is a deal for you! When Mr Agius of Melbourne, Australia got a letter from the National Australia Bank (NAB) in January, offering him 100 additional points for each eligible purchase made on a NAB Qantas credit card, he went into action. He made 7000 purchases of one cent each – mostly between January 6 and January 9. Most of the purchases were used to top up his CityLink Tollway pass. For the bank had made a fatal error in that they didn’t specify how much you had to spend on each purchase to…

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Where can you find a 787?

Seven airlines have fifty 787s grounded at airports across the world: Tokyo Haneda, Japan: 12 Tokyo Narita, Japan: 7 Mumbai, India: 5 Houston, USA: 4 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:4 Santiago, Chile: 3 Takamatsu, Japan: 2 Bangalore, India: 1 Boston, USA: 1 Chicago,USA: 1 Doha, Qatar: 1 Frankfurt, Germany: 1 Kumamoto, Japan: 1 London Heathrow, UK: 1 Los Angeles, USA: 1 Matsuyama, Japan: 1 Warsaw, Poland: 1 In addition, Boeing has about 20 undelivered 787s.

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Lavatory Traps

I was woken up a worried mum frantically shouting at the nearby lavatory door whilst en route to Melbourne, Australia from Los Angeles aboard a Virgin Australia Boeing  777. The woman’s  four year old son was trapped in the lavatory.  He had locked the door and now could not work out how to unlatch the door. Half asleep, I pressed the flight attendant call button. A flight attendant was there in seconds. She unlatched door and four year old was rescued. How often does this happen? A year ago, pilot  of Delta flight 6132, traveling from Asheville, N. C., to La Guardia New…

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Virgin America Storm Chaos (Trip Report)

Today, Virgin America a normally good airline gave a disappointing performance. Virgin America (along with JetBlue) occupy top billing for me amongst all of the US carriers. On previous flight, I have given Virgin perfect scores with no exceptions.  This most recent Virgin America flight was very disappointing! Virgin America (VX) launched in August, 2007 from their San Francisco base (now in SFO’s magnificent Terminal 2). They fly to sixteen destinations in the United States and three in Mexico. They began a Toronto, Canada service but it was not financially sustainable. This is an issue for the loss making airline which…

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You are carrying what?

One wonders how a man dressed in a bulletproof vest and fire-resistant pants and travelling with a smoke grenade, gas mask, leg irons and weapons managed to fly from Japan to Los Angeles via Seoul unmolested. Yongda Huang Harris, 28, a US citizen was arrested on Friday 5th October, 2012 ta Los Angeles airport, on “suspicion of transporting hazardous materials “, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. In his checked luggage, Harris was carrying knives, body bags, a hatchet, a collapsible baton, a biohazard suit, a full-face respirator, billy clubs, a respirator,…

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Trip Report: Qantas 93: Melbourne to Los Angeles

Booking 8 out of 10 I actually started my flight in Auckland, New Zealand. The fare for Auckland-Melbourne-Los Angeles-Melbourne-Los Angeles was actually $A1000 less than the  fare for Melbourne-Los Angeles-Melbourne. Combining two New Zealand trips in was easy for me. The Qantas website easily worked out the multi city fare and came up with  a better fare than Expedia.com or Webjet or Kayak could find. Sometimes looking at the airline’s website can be a bonus. Trying the same search with Virgin Australia online was  not possible. Seat selection was easy. All the preferred seats were gone, These included the…

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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.

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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…

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Qantas Shrinking Growth

In response to an 83 per cent fall in its first-half net profit to $A42 million to December 31 and as a part of a half a billion dollar cost cutting measure. Qantas is pulling out of two more routes in May and cutting 500 jobs in catering, engineering and heavy maintenance. The sectors being lost are: Auckland, New Zealand (AKL) to Los Angeles, USA (LAX) QF25 and 26 Singapore (SIN) to Mumbai (India) (BOM) QF 50 and 51 These cuts are in addition to the previously announced withdrawals in March from the Hong Kong-London…

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