I fly for the 280th time through Melbourne (Australia) airport! This is the airport I have used the most through my life. 280 check ins! Altogether, that is a lot of time in the security lines, shops and lounges! As of today, my ten most visited airports are: Melbourne, Australia (MEL): 279 times. 4.3 out of 5 Sydney, Australia (SYD): 248 times. 3.0 Los Angeles, USA (LAX): 89 times. 1.8 Auckland, New Zealand (AKL): 69 times. 3.2 Adelaide, Australia (ADL) 69 times. 4.1 San Francisco, USA (SF): 46 times. 4.0 London Heathrow, UK (LHR): 41 times. 2.6 Wellington,…
United States
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A dozen please
Was amused by this sign in a New York Supermarket. Clearly a typo but it got me thinking. How nice would it be to buy some for a friend who needs cheering up or for a grumpy fellow passenger or for ourselves when feeling stressed or down? How about it, a dozen cheeries please!
Pinnacle Air Reorganised
There have been so many airline bankruptcies this year that I am struggling to keep up! These bankruptcies mean a lot of disruption, a lot of passenger inconvenience and many staff job losses. It is concerning that so many have gone this year, already. Of course, India’s Kingfisher is teetering and may not last much longer. The poor economy and rising oil prices are squeezing airlines further. Some collapses also reflect poor managerial decisions. Now to April. On the 2nd, Pinnacle airlines filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. In Chapter 11, the debtor remains in control of its business operations and…
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…
My Favourite Cities at end of 2011
In 2011 I visited eleven new cities with a population of 100 000 people plus. This brought the number of cities I have been to with that size population to 167. The new cities were (in order of how highly I rated them) Seoul, S Korea…I was blown away by this amazing vibrant capital city. I ve decided it is the best city in Asia and my 11th favourite in the world! Here I am pictured in down town Seoul Exeter, UK….a cute small English city with amazing Roman ruins and a very old and grand Cathedral Dubai, UAE…as fun, spectacular…
AA Bankruptcy Restructure- What does it mean? [Updated]
As I suggested on October 4, American Airlines has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In its petition filed in New York, AMR reported assets of $24.72 billion and liabilities of $29.55 billion. The company has $4.1 billion in cash. They have lost about 50 billion dollars in the last decade. The bankruptcy will give the carrier the opportunity to reduces its debt levels. A chapter 11 filing allows for a reorganisation. The aim is to survive. What does this filing mean? Not much will change immediately. Existing ticket holders will find their tickets are honoured. Planes will still…
American Airlines Ticketing #Fail!
I have just used Kayak to research a flight: Austin-Pittsburgh-Boston. The best option price and schedule- wise was an American Airlines/USAir combo sold by American Airlines for $US357.60 in Economy. Kayak gave me a link to American Airlines which I clicked on. This deposited me on the onto the American Airline homepage (www.aa.com). I entered all my personal data and scrolled through to payments page where I entered my Credit Card details including address. I discovered, at this point that there was not a drop down box for “Australia”. I could enter “USA”, “Canada” or the “UK” but not “Australia”. So I called…
British Airways & Iberia PLUS American?
This week saw the first anniversary of a joint business agreement between American, Iberia and British. Under this agreement, the airlines agreed to co-operate commercially on flights between the United States, Mexico, Canada, the European Union, Switzerland and Norway. The agreement was backed up by anti trust immunity from US and European authorities. Shortly, after the agreement was signed, in January, 2011, Iberia and BA merged into a new company called IAG (international Airlines Group), Europe’s third largest airline group and the sixth largest in the world by revenue. The airlines have combined the strong BA Asian connections with Iberia’s…
Tuesday Trip Report: US Airways was okay!
US Airways is not one of my favourite airlines. In fact, they rate in my bottom ten airlines based on my experiences of their service over eight years. I have given them an overall 2.9 out of 5 after a decade of flying them. My experience is that every time I fly them they have got worse. A client of mine, booked me on US Airways from Houston to Richmond via Charlotte to get to an important meeting. This gave me a good chance to test them. Booking: 7/10 Upon receiving my booking confirmation, I logged onto to US Airways.com to find my seats. The…
Virgin America, America’s Best Airline to Dallas
The Virgin love in continues with my Virgin America flight from LAX to Dallas Fort Worth. I currently rate this airline as the best in the USA, slightly ahead of JetBlue. I wish Australia’s Virgin Blue was as good as Virgin America. The Aussie version started as a discount carrier and is evolving into Australias’ second mainline carrier so its history is very different. Check In The star difference hits you right from the start with Virgin American. For example, how many other airlines have “We are Family“ playing at Check in? Was fascinated that…
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