Well after yesterdays launch of the BA ERJ-170's, we now turn to the big launch of the week - the London City (LCY) to New York JFK International (JFK) via Shannon. (SNN).
BA has also resurrected the magic flight numbers - BA1, BA2, BA3, and BA4 - last used on it's Concorde flights.
Lets try and work out what BA were thinking when this route was dreamed up and see how it will work in practicality.
BA1 Outbound
Plane takes off at LCY for a short hop to SNN, where immigration is completed and the plane is properly fuelled for it's onward trip to JFK (headwinds and runway lenght don't allow a good length takeoff for it to make the USA).
Onboard service will be a light snack between LCY and SNN, then a full meal after SNN - and a snack before JFK .
BA 2 Inbound
It's a non stop flight from JFK to LCY. Service will be either dine in lounge or dine in plane, with a breakfast or a brown baggie to take away.
The plane
Ok... the Airbus A318. Some may be boggling at this - can a small jet like that make it over the pond safely? Considering that smaller corporate jets do it daily, as do Boeing 737's as do other Airbus A319's. The aircraft is rated for ETOPS 180 (Extended Twin Engined OperationS), thus can endure for 180 minutes with a single engine fail.
Inside, the plane is configured for 32 seats in a variation of the Club World design with the usual flat seats (all forward facing), with 3 cabin crew (in other words a very upper deck of a 747 affair) - and a first for BA - onboard datacoms/wifi and even mobile access (not voice though) powered by OnAir
Cute.
So the big question is: will it work? Are people prepared to pay the sums needed? Lets get rid of the £4000 price tag to start with - least of all, this will be a corporate shuttle in some respects, and thus paid on lower rates anyway.
I think it will succeed over time, least of it gives a better connection for City people and the Docklands Business community. No matter what happens - business people will choose a service to fit their needs - BA has made a new service.
It'll be interesting to see loads over the next few months.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Monday, 28 September 2009
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Airplane p0rn - Thai Airlines Airbus A330-200
It's Sunday again, so of course, it's Airplane p0rn day.
Today - it's an Thai Airways Airbus A330 beginning it's takeoff roll at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi
More airplane p0rn next week!
Today - it's an Thai Airways Airbus A330 beginning it's takeoff roll at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi
More airplane p0rn next week!
Saturday, 26 September 2009
The Friday News Roundup
It's Saturday, so it's time to look at the commercial aviation world with raised eyebrows and see what's going on this week. (Apologies for the delays - call it sleep)
Qantas - No Upturn just yet
Qantas report that don't expect an upturn in traffic, with a 88% drop in profits for the first half of the year.
Seems that Kangaroo is going to have to do some more bouncing to get those numbers up.
BBC News
JAL Bail Out
See Thursday's Entry entry. Still not good for JAL and its staff at all..
Flight, BBC News
United sends more SkyWest Capacity to new markets - More CRJ action ahead!
United has announced new regional routes. they are:
Chicago-Duluth,
Chicago-Minnesota
Chicago-Ashville, North Carolina.
Denver-Midland, Texas
Denver-Louisville, Kentucky.
Los Angeles-El Paso, Texas.
Expect a fight when the lo-co's find out...
United, Flight
Emirates is reconsidering the A350 and A330-300.
After dropping the last order for A350's and A330's, Emirates is reconsidering the market position and maybe re-igniting the order with Airbus.
With the planned new Dubai International, capacity is going to be key, and as many seats as can cram into a plane is really going to be important...
Meanwhile in the other side of the UAE...
(Flight)
An UAE A330-200 Tanker... that will be... an Eithad aircraft?
Well as the Multi Role Tanker is coming along, the UAE are fitting the aircraft with a standard Eithad aircraft two class layout, IFE and galleys.
Well it's a way of prepping an aircraft for service...
Flight
BA to charge for seats
See the post below. Oh dear BA. What next? Charging for luggage?
Air Canada wants gets Jazzy in Toronto.
Seems that Air Canada Jazz has finally been rattled by the small upstart Porter Airlines, and is planning to restart services into Toronto City Centre Airport. As contracts and legal ramblings conclude - things may look up.
Boeing begins 787 wing mod work whilst 747-8F on targert.
In reasonable news, Boeing has finally begun work on the wing on frame ZA001 as well as the static frame ZA997 to modify the wing structure. Estimated time to complete is 3 months with a target time of an end of year flight.
Meanwhile, the 747-8F is inching closer to the flightline as it's build and testing is going on schedule, with a move estimated for mid-October - in other words, a strong chance it flying before the 787..
Oh well. At least it's progress on the 787 project. It's still going to annoy the airlines for the delays to the aircraft...
Flight
Qantas - No Upturn just yet
Qantas report that don't expect an upturn in traffic, with a 88% drop in profits for the first half of the year.
Seems that Kangaroo is going to have to do some more bouncing to get those numbers up.
BBC News
JAL Bail Out
See Thursday's Entry entry. Still not good for JAL and its staff at all..
Flight, BBC News
United sends more SkyWest Capacity to new markets - More CRJ action ahead!
United has announced new regional routes. they are:
Chicago-Duluth,
Chicago-Minnesota
Chicago-Ashville, North Carolina.
Denver-Midland, Texas
Denver-Louisville, Kentucky.
Los Angeles-El Paso, Texas.
Expect a fight when the lo-co's find out...
United, Flight
Emirates is reconsidering the A350 and A330-300.
After dropping the last order for A350's and A330's, Emirates is reconsidering the market position and maybe re-igniting the order with Airbus.
With the planned new Dubai International, capacity is going to be key, and as many seats as can cram into a plane is really going to be important...
Meanwhile in the other side of the UAE...
(Flight)
An UAE A330-200 Tanker... that will be... an Eithad aircraft?
Well as the Multi Role Tanker is coming along, the UAE are fitting the aircraft with a standard Eithad aircraft two class layout, IFE and galleys.
Well it's a way of prepping an aircraft for service...
Flight
BA to charge for seats
See the post below. Oh dear BA. What next? Charging for luggage?
Air Canada wants gets Jazzy in Toronto.
Seems that Air Canada Jazz has finally been rattled by the small upstart Porter Airlines, and is planning to restart services into Toronto City Centre Airport. As contracts and legal ramblings conclude - things may look up.
Boeing begins 787 wing mod work whilst 747-8F on targert.
In reasonable news, Boeing has finally begun work on the wing on frame ZA001 as well as the static frame ZA997 to modify the wing structure. Estimated time to complete is 3 months with a target time of an end of year flight.
Meanwhile, the 747-8F is inching closer to the flightline as it's build and testing is going on schedule, with a move estimated for mid-October - in other words, a strong chance it flying before the 787..
Oh well. At least it's progress on the 787 project. It's still going to annoy the airlines for the delays to the aircraft...
Flight
Coupon clipping - £25 off AF/DL flights!
It's time to get your coupon cutters out again
Opodo with AirFrance/KLM and Delta are offering £25 off booking over £300.
Your magic coupon code is airfrance
Book by: 02/10/09
Min Purchase value: £300
UK Residents only
See: http://promos.opodo.co.uk/flights/AirFrance_KLM_Delta/special/?CMP=uk-nl-240909
Remember - £25 is £25....
Opodo with AirFrance/KLM and Delta are offering £25 off booking over £300.
Your magic coupon code is airfrance
Book by: 02/10/09
Min Purchase value: £300
UK Residents only
See: http://promos.opodo.co.uk/flights/AirFrance_KLM_Delta/special/?CMP=uk-nl-240909
Remember - £25 is £25....
Friday, 25 September 2009
BA take yet a step closer to the LCCs - want to pre assign any seat? Thats £10....
Oh dear. It seems British Airways is once again "innovating" and "increasing value" to the bottom line, whilst snubbing it's own Frequent Flyers by introducing fees for seats.
How very US Airways/Aer Lingus of them.
The fees are comparitivly simple:
- £10 to reserve a Euro Traveller seat
- £20 to reserve a Club Europe/World Traveller /World Traveller Plus seat
- £60 to reserve a Club World seat
- First is excluded as you can reserve any seats bar 1A/1K.
Additionally:
- £50 for an exit row seat in World Traveller /World Traveller Plus at T-10 days
Silver and Gold can pre-assign as usual, as can corporate customers.
What this smacks to is the smaller Frequent Flyer who use the seat assignment benefit to get the seats they want to find that the benefits of BA Silver has been eroded down, and for the Club World flyers - £60 per seat each sector is a bit of joke really.
And will this really make a dent in BA's Bottom line?
What do you think?
Virgin of course is making hay of this - except they DO charge to assign seats if you want an exit row.
Pot... Kettle.. Black anyone?
Sources:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/998333-seating-selection-option-coming-soon-pay.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8274200.stm
http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/exclusive-ba-to-charge-for-seat-selection
How very US Airways/Aer Lingus of them.
The fees are comparitivly simple:
- £10 to reserve a Euro Traveller seat
- £20 to reserve a Club Europe/World Traveller /World Traveller Plus seat
- £60 to reserve a Club World seat
- First is excluded as you can reserve any seats bar 1A/1K.
Additionally:
- £50 for an exit row seat in World Traveller /World Traveller Plus at T-10 days
Silver and Gold can pre-assign as usual, as can corporate customers.
What this smacks to is the smaller Frequent Flyer who use the seat assignment benefit to get the seats they want to find that the benefits of BA Silver has been eroded down, and for the Club World flyers - £60 per seat each sector is a bit of joke really.
And will this really make a dent in BA's Bottom line?
What do you think?
Virgin of course is making hay of this - except they DO charge to assign seats if you want an exit row.
Pot... Kettle.. Black anyone?
Sources:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/998333-seating-selection-option-coming-soon-pay.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8274200.stm
http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/exclusive-ba-to-charge-for-seat-selection
Thursday, 24 September 2009
*BREAKING* JAL goes into full tailspin - Requests Bailout
JAL is really in a tailspin as reported on GhettoIFE earlier this month.
Well things are going bad to worse with JAL formally requesting Japanese government bailout funds, and the search for a new partner is growing more intensive, with a solution reached by Mid-October.
It's still a contest between Air France-KLM, American Airlines, Delta Airlines
Bleak times ahead for the staff involved with 6800 jobs going, and route cutting a plenty.
Alas with a combination of the rescission and Swine Flu, JAL really has been hit very bad in comparison to some members of OneWorld.
Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8272234.stm
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/09/24/332700/jal-to-seek-government-bailout.html
Well things are going bad to worse with JAL formally requesting Japanese government bailout funds, and the search for a new partner is growing more intensive, with a solution reached by Mid-October.
It's still a contest between Air France-KLM, American Airlines, Delta Airlines
Bleak times ahead for the staff involved with 6800 jobs going, and route cutting a plenty.
Alas with a combination of the rescission and Swine Flu, JAL really has been hit very bad in comparison to some members of OneWorld.
Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8272234.stm
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/09/24/332700/jal-to-seek-government-bailout.html
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
The New US Airways Envoy Seat - please watch me being unamused
US Airways has formaly announced it's new seat from JPA called "The Cirrus"
In layout - it's going to be in a 1-2-1 Reverse Herringbone layout (Reverse Herringbone.. haven't I seen that position in a blue movie?). In IFE terms, it will have a variation of the Panasonic ExConnect system called eX2. Expect in that case 110v power, a USB port and even a 12.1" Screen with AVOD.
In terms of seats, there will be a layout of 1 x 2 x 1 with a extended length of 6.4ft (in fully flat), 20 seats per cabin (down on 24), and will target US's new Airbus A330-200's with target completion of 2010.
However - at the end of the day - all this could be for nothing. Why?
It's still US Airways.
And US Airways have a MAJOR image problem, least of all within Star Alliance members of "Airline of last resort", and the very low cost image it projects onto users. Whilst there have been signs of small improvement, the Y class product leave a LOT to be desired in comparison even to United. That and onboard service - when good can be OK, when bad - it makes you wonder why you bothered to get on a plane an all.
For the rollout of these seats to work, the staff will need to be 1) trained and 2) for a business and even economy product, the staff need to be motivated to be delivered the product. From my previous experiences, that isn't going to happen in a hurry.
Lets hope that the hard product that will be matched with the soft product that goes around it.
Mockup cabin - Business Traveller magazine
In terms of seats, there will be a layout of 1 x 2 x 1 with a extended length of 6.4ft (in fully flat), 20 seats per cabin (down on 24), and will target US's new Airbus A330-200's with target completion of 2010.
However - at the end of the day - all this could be for nothing. Why?
It's still US Airways.
And US Airways have a MAJOR image problem, least of all within Star Alliance members of "Airline of last resort", and the very low cost image it projects onto users. Whilst there have been signs of small improvement, the Y class product leave a LOT to be desired in comparison even to United. That and onboard service - when good can be OK, when bad - it makes you wonder why you bothered to get on a plane an all.
For the rollout of these seats to work, the staff will need to be 1) trained and 2) for a business and even economy product, the staff need to be motivated to be delivered the product. From my previous experiences, that isn't going to happen in a hurry.
Lets hope that the hard product that will be matched with the soft product that goes around it.
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Watch out fake or "processed" ESTA's scams!
*Advice updated - Now includes the mandatory $14 ESTA charge. But pay the US Government, not a 3rd party please?*
I've seen a bit of this since ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation) came online, but there has been a reminder from the SANS Institute (they do a lot of computer related security) about the fake sites on the rise.
For hells teeth sake the correct site for ESTA is https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/esta.html
I repeat in large letters:
At best you're being conned out of something that is currently $14 to get from the US Government.
At worst, you are opening yourself to major identity fraud, and the risk of compromising your credit file AND your passport.
If you've done your ESTA on any other site bar the US Customs and Border Patrol ESTA Site, contact your Bank and Passport agency now, and report that your identity has been compromised.
I've seen a bit of this since ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation) came online, but there has been a reminder from the SANS Institute (they do a lot of computer related security) about the fake sites on the rise.
For hells teeth sake the correct site for ESTA is https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/esta.html
I repeat in large letters:
At best you're being conned out of something that is currently $14 to get from the US Government.
At worst, you are opening yourself to major identity fraud, and the risk of compromising your credit file AND your passport.
If you've done your ESTA on any other site bar the US Customs and Border Patrol ESTA Site, contact your Bank and Passport agency now, and report that your identity has been compromised.
Freebie Time
I haven't had time to do one of these recently, but as I've not got a lot of post about at the moment (other than the upcoming wonder that is a Chicago Trip), lets do some freebies!
Free $20 for staying in a Hyatt Place or Summerfield Suites.
Did you upgrade to Platium or Diamond when Hyatt did their last promotion? If so, this is a little cash generator for and night you. If not, $20 is better than a poke in the eye.
Stay 1 night on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or a Thursday and put GFTCRD as a promo code, and you'll get a card after your stay.
Check the rates though with and without the code ..
1000 miles free from AA...
Go to https://www.aa.com/aa/AAdvantage/quickEnroll.do?anchorEvent=false&referer=/apps/&anchorEvent=false&referer=/apps/ and use promo code LATJA.
Deadline: 31/10/09
No flight required.
Standard rules in effect
... and from Delta
Delta are also giving away 1000 miles. https://www.delta-offers.com/offers/go/skymilesbonus
Deadline: None Specified, but I wouldn't wait...
No Flight Required
Standard rules in effect.
BMI Diamond Club
4500 destination miles for joining Diamond Club and flying a return flight or two legs (they just love to give away the miles). It is one account per person (and yes, they do check). - and remember - you have to fly on BMI metal to get the miles!
http://www.flybmi.com/bmi/en-gb/diamond-club/diamond-club/diamond-club.aspx, T&C's - http://www.flybmi.com/bmi/en-gb/diamond-club/diamond-club/promotions/4500-miles-welcome-bonus-terms-and-conditions.aspx/
Deadline: 31/12/09
1 Return Leg/2 one way flights required
Standard BMI Diamond Club Rules
I'll dig around for some more offers.. more to come!
Free $20 for staying in a Hyatt Place or Summerfield Suites.
Did you upgrade to Platium or Diamond when Hyatt did their last promotion? If so, this is a little cash generator for and night you. If not, $20 is better than a poke in the eye.
Stay 1 night on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or a Thursday and put GFTCRD as a promo code, and you'll get a card after your stay.
Check the rates though with and without the code ..
1000 miles free from AA...
Go to https://www.aa.com/aa/AAdvantage/quickEnroll.do?anchorEvent=false&referer=/apps/&anchorEvent=false&referer=/apps/ and use promo code LATJA.
Deadline: 31/10/09
No flight required.
Standard rules in effect
... and from Delta
Delta are also giving away 1000 miles. https://www.delta-offers.com/offers/go/skymilesbonus
Deadline: None Specified, but I wouldn't wait...
No Flight Required
Standard rules in effect.
BMI Diamond Club
4500 destination miles for joining Diamond Club and flying a return flight or two legs (they just love to give away the miles). It is one account per person (and yes, they do check). - and remember - you have to fly on BMI metal to get the miles!
http://www.flybmi.com/bmi/en-gb/diamond-club/diamond-club/diamond-club.aspx, T&C's - http://www.flybmi.com/bmi/en-gb/diamond-club/diamond-club/promotions/4500-miles-welcome-bonus-terms-and-conditions.aspx/
Deadline: 31/12/09
1 Return Leg/2 one way flights required
Standard BMI Diamond Club Rules
I'll dig around for some more offers.. more to come!
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Airplane p0rn - Cathay Pacific A330
It's Sunday, so it must be time for some more airplane p0rn. This week, a Cathay Pacific Airbus A330 forming CX101, taxing at Sydney, preparing for the long journey to Hong Kong.
More airplane p0rn next week!
More airplane p0rn next week!
Friday, 18 September 2009
The Friday News Roundup
It's Friday, so it's time to have a quick wibble around the web to find out who's doing what.
JAL - Seems like *everyone* is interested in them
JAL has a few suitors after it now - Delta and American as reported before and now Air France has tipped it's hat into the ring.
BBC News, Flight, CrankyFlyer
American Airlines - One Beeillon Dollars!
With no apology to Doctor Evil, American Airlines has got a nice $1 Billion dollar miles for cash swap with CitiBank to offer as incentives for bank accounts. In a separate development, they've agreed a sell and lease back on some of their new orders totalling $1.6 Billon. With Extra money, thats nearly $3Bn raised
$3 Billion Dollars eh. That's a lot of cash. Almost enough to buy a share in a partner airline....
BBC News
American Airlines goes where Delta and BA goes before - opens MAN-JFK route
Some good news for Manchester Airport and it's TATL services (which are dropping like flies) - As Delta has pulled the MAN-JFK route, AA will be moving into the route to cover it.
With the loss of the BMI and BA routes this year, it's a good news blip at least.
TravelMole
Jet Airways - Back to normal
In news for fliers on Jet Airways (India), the management has agreed to meet the pilots demands with the re-instatement of 4 pilots. All leagle action has been dropped.
All's well that ends well.
Flight
American do triangles - Starts BRU > LHR > BOS service.
In a move to protect slots and increase utilisation, AA is copying United and starting a Brussels > London > Boston service.
Anything to protect a slot at LHR these days...
Flight
THY (Turkish) gets finance for an Easy A321
Turkish airlines are increasing their fleet with a purchase of a 2008 Airbus A321. Finance has been secured for it for 10 years. Hopefully they got a bargain price for it!
Flight
Singapore Airlines WhaleJet increases to 10 - now larger than 747-400 fleet
Singapore Airlines who believe that the only good body is a wide one have taken delivery of their 10th A380 series aircraft, which now puts it in the position of having more A380s that 747's.
747 fans will cry - SQ will be removing them from fleet by the end of 2011 fiscal year.
Now SQ, play nice with the rest of Star Alliance and release some redemption seats please in Suites, First and Business Class!
Flight, Flyertalk
Virgin Nigeria looses its Virginity - becomes Nigeria Eagle Airways
As the Virgin Atlantic group gets more annoyed, Virgin Nigera gets a new tailfin and becomes Nigeria Eagle Airways. It will continue to operate ERJ-170 series and Boeing 737's - whilst long haul services are still suspended (with possibly very little chance of coming back at the moment)
Virgin Atlantic is still seeking to shed it's 49% of Nigeria Eagle Airways. That could be used for a good purpose - like buying a UK rival...
Virgin Blue shopping for new B737's
Virgin blue is on the shop for replacement Boeing 737 series aircraft to replace it's older aircraft. The requisition is for 30-50 aircraft. Whilst not that old - their aircraft range from 2001 to 2007, new aircraft always look nice and if there's a bargin to be had.. they'll take it.
Happy shopping blueys...
Next Gen A320... 2024 anyone?
Sadly, Next Generation aircraft will be taking their time to arrive and develop to try and bring new benefits. This is sadly the case of the replacement for the A320 class according to Airbus. They may have new engines - but no new concept for some time.
And that's it for the news this week. More of course from the wacky world of aviation news next week!
JAL - Seems like *everyone* is interested in them
JAL has a few suitors after it now - Delta and American as reported before and now Air France has tipped it's hat into the ring.
BBC News, Flight, CrankyFlyer
American Airlines - One Beeillon Dollars!
With no apology to Doctor Evil, American Airlines has got a nice $1 Billion dollar miles for cash swap with CitiBank to offer as incentives for bank accounts. In a separate development, they've agreed a sell and lease back on some of their new orders totalling $1.6 Billon. With Extra money, thats nearly $3Bn raised
$3 Billion Dollars eh. That's a lot of cash. Almost enough to buy a share in a partner airline....
BBC News
American Airlines goes where Delta and BA goes before - opens MAN-JFK route
Some good news for Manchester Airport and it's TATL services (which are dropping like flies) - As Delta has pulled the MAN-JFK route, AA will be moving into the route to cover it.
With the loss of the BMI and BA routes this year, it's a good news blip at least.
TravelMole
Jet Airways - Back to normal
In news for fliers on Jet Airways (India), the management has agreed to meet the pilots demands with the re-instatement of 4 pilots. All leagle action has been dropped.
All's well that ends well.
Flight
American do triangles - Starts BRU > LHR > BOS service.
In a move to protect slots and increase utilisation, AA is copying United and starting a Brussels > London > Boston service.
Anything to protect a slot at LHR these days...
Flight
THY (Turkish) gets finance for an Easy A321
Turkish airlines are increasing their fleet with a purchase of a 2008 Airbus A321. Finance has been secured for it for 10 years. Hopefully they got a bargain price for it!
Flight
Singapore Airlines WhaleJet increases to 10 - now larger than 747-400 fleet
Singapore Airlines who believe that the only good body is a wide one have taken delivery of their 10th A380 series aircraft, which now puts it in the position of having more A380s that 747's.
747 fans will cry - SQ will be removing them from fleet by the end of 2011 fiscal year.
Now SQ, play nice with the rest of Star Alliance and release some redemption seats please in Suites, First and Business Class!
Flight, Flyertalk
Virgin Nigeria looses its Virginity - becomes Nigeria Eagle Airways
As the Virgin Atlantic group gets more annoyed, Virgin Nigera gets a new tailfin and becomes Nigeria Eagle Airways. It will continue to operate ERJ-170 series and Boeing 737's - whilst long haul services are still suspended (with possibly very little chance of coming back at the moment)
Virgin Atlantic is still seeking to shed it's 49% of Nigeria Eagle Airways. That could be used for a good purpose - like buying a UK rival...
Virgin Blue shopping for new B737's
Virgin blue is on the shop for replacement Boeing 737 series aircraft to replace it's older aircraft. The requisition is for 30-50 aircraft. Whilst not that old - their aircraft range from 2001 to 2007, new aircraft always look nice and if there's a bargin to be had.. they'll take it.
Happy shopping blueys...
Next Gen A320... 2024 anyone?
Sadly, Next Generation aircraft will be taking their time to arrive and develop to try and bring new benefits. This is sadly the case of the replacement for the A320 class according to Airbus. They may have new engines - but no new concept for some time.
And that's it for the news this week. More of course from the wacky world of aviation news next week!
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Be careful what buttons you push.. (Aer Lingus flight accidently sounds ditch alarm)
Sometimes, we're too button heavy in life. Pressing buttons is fun!
Well.. be careful what buttons you press if you're 35,000ft in the air.
An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Paris CDG was 20 minutes into flight when the seatbelt sign was switched on and passengers were requested to return to their seats due to turbulence. The automated French version way played... which wasn't the return to seat - but stand by for emergency landing
Ooops. Obviously there was announcement a few minutes later, but
The odd thing that this has been held back since the 4th August. Thankfully, no one hurt and just rattled.
Next time, when you press a button - be careful eh? And remember if there's a button infront of you that's inviting...
(Image - Big Red Button App)
Well.. be careful what buttons you press if you're 35,000ft in the air.
An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Paris CDG was 20 minutes into flight when the seatbelt sign was switched on and passengers were requested to return to their seats due to turbulence. The automated French version way played... which wasn't the return to seat - but stand by for emergency landing
Ooops. Obviously there was announcement a few minutes later, but
The odd thing that this has been held back since the 4th August. Thankfully, no one hurt and just rattled.
Next time, when you press a button - be careful eh? And remember if there's a button infront of you that's inviting...
Monday, 14 September 2009
Delta and American goes after JAL...
This broke on Friday, and I thought it could do with a bit more analysis than the usual two lines in the Friday Roundup
Japan Airlines is in one heck of a state at the moment - with it hanging onto bailout money and doing service cuts by the the planeload.
So it seems a white knight in shining amour has appeared in the form of Delta.
Eh?
When you step back and think about this - it could be quite a smart move for Delta. It's alliance - SkyTeam - is turning into quite a precarious position with the migration of Continental to Star Alliance. By providing the "support" of capital, management and "advice", they could in turn fold JAL into SkyTeam, forcing OneWorld to really panic (as this create a Japan/North Asia sized hole with Cathy Pacific and S7 to fill the gap)
Notice the word could - Delta just could give the money and sell the stake back at a later point - unlikely but possible.
However, there appears to be a second party sniffing around JAL - and that's good old American Airlines - one of the founders of OneWorld - With AA stepping in to help, this could strengthen the TPAC traffic routes, and secure JAL in OneWorld (which would please a lot of the partners)
This year is going to be hard for airlines - I'd expect some more consolidation along the line and people buying up each others airlines. Once the upturn in the economy swings its way - consolidation will occur rapidly. All the airlines are playing this close to themselves, so all we can do is watch the dance...
All interesting times...
Sources:
http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/11092009/323/update-2-delta-talks-japan-airlines-stake-source.html
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/09/13/american-airlines-enters-bidding-for-jal/
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2009/09/13/delta-exploring-stake-in-japan-airlines/
http://www.gadling.com/2009/09/13/relationship-with-jal-delta-or-american/
Japan Airlines is in one heck of a state at the moment - with it hanging onto bailout money and doing service cuts by the the planeload.
So it seems a white knight in shining amour has appeared in the form of Delta.
Eh?
When you step back and think about this - it could be quite a smart move for Delta. It's alliance - SkyTeam - is turning into quite a precarious position with the migration of Continental to Star Alliance. By providing the "support" of capital, management and "advice", they could in turn fold JAL into SkyTeam, forcing OneWorld to really panic (as this create a Japan/North Asia sized hole with Cathy Pacific and S7 to fill the gap)
Notice the word could - Delta just could give the money and sell the stake back at a later point - unlikely but possible.
However, there appears to be a second party sniffing around JAL - and that's good old American Airlines - one of the founders of OneWorld - With AA stepping in to help, this could strengthen the TPAC traffic routes, and secure JAL in OneWorld (which would please a lot of the partners)
This year is going to be hard for airlines - I'd expect some more consolidation along the line and people buying up each others airlines. Once the upturn in the economy swings its way - consolidation will occur rapidly. All the airlines are playing this close to themselves, so all we can do is watch the dance...
All interesting times...
Sources:
http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/11092009/323/update-2-delta-talks-japan-airlines-stake-source.html
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/09/13/american-airlines-enters-bidding-for-jal/
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2009/09/13/delta-exploring-stake-in-japan-airlines/
http://www.gadling.com/2009/09/13/relationship-with-jal-delta-or-american/
Sunday, 13 September 2009
Airplane p0rn - SIA's A380 at Heathrow
Saturday, 12 September 2009
The News Roundup, US Immigration, EK
It's Friday, so it's time to wrap up this week in Civil Aviation and ponder what people were thinking this week:
US Immigration Considers $10 on ESTA service.
I'm not going to repeat this here - head to my Soapbox entry.
EK Send a A380 to BHX
I wasn't going to cover this.. but hey. Here it is - an Emirates Airbus A380 landing safely at BHX (does that mean BHX now becomes a diversion airport for A380's in the UK? Interesting thought..,..)
Photo Credit - BHX Flight Guide - photo blog with more photos at http://bhxflightguide.blogspot.com/2009/09/ek-380.html. Happy 70th BHX.
Well done to the ground team for organsing this, and to Emirates for having a go at deploying this.
Asia Air 09
Some quick highlights an news in a sentence sort of thing:
Air France: Considering new aircraft for the short haul, but want larger, quicker offloading and much lower running costs - and Open Roter might be nice. and how do you want the moon delivered?
Airbus: A380's for LCC's - In a move to destroy any glamour in flying, Airbus are pitching the A380 as a Low Cost carriers dream of connecting Asian cities. This could work with some routes - but 840 people crammed aboard a tin can isn't my exact idea of fun (ala Air Austal)...
Bombardier - Buy our CSeries... please? Taking aim at Embear and Airbus, the CSeries is hoping to make a competitive splash in China when it launches.
BMI Baby steps in at EMA
As Easyjet throws in the EMA towel, BMI Baby are moving in anohter 3 737's for extra duty at their base at EMA with links to Barcelona, Cork, Malta, Venice, Dubrovnik, Sardinia, Corsica and .. umm... Newquay.
What will Mother Lufthansa say? We'll see...
Jet Airways Staff "Fall sick"
Jet Airways staff have "fallen sick" in a labor dispute for two pilots joining a new Union, with a total of 186 flights cancelled - the bulk dometic, but 32 international services cancelled to. A follow-on sick day costed another 31 flights cancelled.
Talks are continuing.
Frontier to send Flip and Hector Back to Mexico!
Yup. Now Frontier is out of Bankruptcy, they're making a bid for Mexico again with A319's servicing Cancun with a daily return flight.
Hopefully this will be the first of a lot of good news for Frontier.
LOT has almost hat their LOT with Boeings 787.
Oh dear. With the continuing delays to the 787, LOT is getting annoyed with Boeing, and has opened up a few options - deploy 777's, a major overhaul of the 767 fleet, or talk to Airbus.
Whilst Boeing may crow about how many of these aircraft have been ordered - there is a monumental messup in design and rollout of this aircraft - something that other airlines will get more annoyed at. It'll only take a big name to pull out to watch the cards fall on this game.
More roundup next week.
US Immigration Considers $10 on ESTA service.
I'm not going to repeat this here - head to my Soapbox entry.
EK Send a A380 to BHX
I wasn't going to cover this.. but hey. Here it is - an Emirates Airbus A380 landing safely at BHX (does that mean BHX now becomes a diversion airport for A380's in the UK? Interesting thought..,..)
Photo Credit - BHX Flight Guide - photo blog with more photos at http://bhxflightguide.blogspot.com/2009/09/ek-380.html. Happy 70th BHX.
Well done to the ground team for organsing this, and to Emirates for having a go at deploying this.
Asia Air 09
Some quick highlights an news in a sentence sort of thing:
Air France: Considering new aircraft for the short haul, but want larger, quicker offloading and much lower running costs - and Open Roter might be nice. and how do you want the moon delivered?
Airbus: A380's for LCC's - In a move to destroy any glamour in flying, Airbus are pitching the A380 as a Low Cost carriers dream of connecting Asian cities. This could work with some routes - but 840 people crammed aboard a tin can isn't my exact idea of fun (ala Air Austal)...
Bombardier - Buy our CSeries... please? Taking aim at Embear and Airbus, the CSeries is hoping to make a competitive splash in China when it launches.
BMI Baby steps in at EMA
As Easyjet throws in the EMA towel, BMI Baby are moving in anohter 3 737's for extra duty at their base at EMA with links to Barcelona, Cork, Malta, Venice, Dubrovnik, Sardinia, Corsica and .. umm... Newquay.
What will Mother Lufthansa say? We'll see...
Jet Airways Staff "Fall sick"
Jet Airways staff have "fallen sick" in a labor dispute for two pilots joining a new Union, with a total of 186 flights cancelled - the bulk dometic, but 32 international services cancelled to. A follow-on sick day costed another 31 flights cancelled.
Talks are continuing.
Frontier to send Flip and Hector Back to Mexico!
Yup. Now Frontier is out of Bankruptcy, they're making a bid for Mexico again with A319's servicing Cancun with a daily return flight.
Hopefully this will be the first of a lot of good news for Frontier.
LOT has almost hat their LOT with Boeings 787.
Oh dear. With the continuing delays to the 787, LOT is getting annoyed with Boeing, and has opened up a few options - deploy 777's, a major overhaul of the 767 fleet, or talk to Airbus.
Whilst Boeing may crow about how many of these aircraft have been ordered - there is a monumental messup in design and rollout of this aircraft - something that other airlines will get more annoyed at. It'll only take a big name to pull out to watch the cards fall on this game.
More roundup next week.
Friday, 11 September 2009
Analysis: BA Citiflyer takes on the ERJ-170
(Sorry it's late - the joy of work...)
To some, its a surprise that BA has taken these aircraft. To others hasn't taken these aircraft on sooner. But what is an ERJ-170, who makes them, and why are they now becoming so important that BA has taken note?
BA CitiFlyer ERJ-170 - Embraer
The ERJ-170/175/190/195 Project (E-Jets) to some people is simply an aircraft that's been shrunk in the wash. More technically, it is a narrow body (single isle), Twin Engined (engines under the wing as opposed to being at the rear of the plane), short to medium range aircraft manufactured by Embraer of Brazil.
A new development for them, the class was launched in 2002, and has been gaining a lot of traction with both regional airlines and mainline airlines.
Inside - it's a 2 x 2 arrangement or a 1 x 2 in First/Business depending on the company.
So, that's the overview - what's BA's interest in the class?
BA CitiFlyer is running those lovely 4 engined Barbie jets with hairdryers for engines (Sometimes known as a BAe146/Avro 85/100) mainly for one reason - the Short TakOff and Landing features of the aircraft - which is kind of essential for London City Airport from which they'll be based at (due to the runway being 5000ft long).
And alas, the BAe 146's are starting to age. So one has to replace them with more efficient aircraft.
Again, the ERJ-170 is cleared for SOTL and the Steep Approach needed for LCY - this makes a logical choice to switch over to this class of aircraft.
Whilst the green credentials should be noted, they will also be lower capacity than the BAe's they'll be replacing (76 seats vs 82 or 100), so fare might creep up slightly due to the competition for seat - however, there is going to be an introduction of the ERJ-190 shortly that will give a reasonable capacity boost.
The E-Jets isn't exactly untried either - running successfully with LOT Polish Airlines, JetBlue in the USA, Republic Airlines for practically any airline that need regional service and FlyBe (the launch operator of the 195's)
I can actually see BA working with these aircraft and winning with this class - least of all for the 2 x 2 seating, but for the relative comfort there is, and providing the configuration set up right, this should be a class to watch out for.
Whilst a smaller capcity than a Boeing 737-400, these aircraft do have the possibiltiy to find other lines of work in by British operators, and I look forward to people taking advantage of what is simply a cute, efficient aircraft. Another point to consider is that a ERJ-190/5 is what some would call "mainline size" - good for running thin routes, but making them cost effective.
Embraer posted a nice little video of what it's like...
However, I hope they do take care of them - the first one has already had to head back to the factory due to a bird strike :(
With the A318's and ERJ-170 heading for LCY... it's going to spice up the competition there!
Sources:
ERJ Family: http://www.embraercommercialjets.com/english/content/ejets/emb_170.asp
Bird strike: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/commercial_aviation/ThingsWithWings/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3A7a78f54e-b3dd-4fa6-ae6e-dff2ffd7bdbbPost%3Abfc91aaf-9195-4490-b1d5-69ba8c70531f
Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_170#E-170.2F175
To some, its a surprise that BA has taken these aircraft. To others hasn't taken these aircraft on sooner. But what is an ERJ-170, who makes them, and why are they now becoming so important that BA has taken note?
BA CitiFlyer ERJ-170 - Embraer
The ERJ-170/175/190/195 Project (E-Jets) to some people is simply an aircraft that's been shrunk in the wash. More technically, it is a narrow body (single isle), Twin Engined (engines under the wing as opposed to being at the rear of the plane), short to medium range aircraft manufactured by Embraer of Brazil.
A new development for them, the class was launched in 2002, and has been gaining a lot of traction with both regional airlines and mainline airlines.
Inside - it's a 2 x 2 arrangement or a 1 x 2 in First/Business depending on the company.
So, that's the overview - what's BA's interest in the class?
BA CitiFlyer is running those lovely 4 engined Barbie jets with hairdryers for engines (Sometimes known as a BAe146/Avro 85/100) mainly for one reason - the Short TakOff and Landing features of the aircraft - which is kind of essential for London City Airport from which they'll be based at (due to the runway being 5000ft long).
And alas, the BAe 146's are starting to age. So one has to replace them with more efficient aircraft.
Again, the ERJ-170 is cleared for SOTL and the Steep Approach needed for LCY - this makes a logical choice to switch over to this class of aircraft.
Whilst the green credentials should be noted, they will also be lower capacity than the BAe's they'll be replacing (76 seats vs 82 or 100), so fare might creep up slightly due to the competition for seat - however, there is going to be an introduction of the ERJ-190 shortly that will give a reasonable capacity boost.
The E-Jets isn't exactly untried either - running successfully with LOT Polish Airlines, JetBlue in the USA, Republic Airlines for practically any airline that need regional service and FlyBe (the launch operator of the 195's)
I can actually see BA working with these aircraft and winning with this class - least of all for the 2 x 2 seating, but for the relative comfort there is, and providing the configuration set up right, this should be a class to watch out for.
Whilst a smaller capcity than a Boeing 737-400, these aircraft do have the possibiltiy to find other lines of work in by British operators, and I look forward to people taking advantage of what is simply a cute, efficient aircraft. Another point to consider is that a ERJ-190/5 is what some would call "mainline size" - good for running thin routes, but making them cost effective.
Embraer posted a nice little video of what it's like...
However, I hope they do take care of them - the first one has already had to head back to the factory due to a bird strike :(
With the A318's and ERJ-170 heading for LCY... it's going to spice up the competition there!
Sources:
ERJ Family: http://www.embraercommercialjets.com/english/content/ejets/emb_170.asp
Bird strike: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/commercial_aviation/ThingsWithWings/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3A7a78f54e-b3dd-4fa6-ae6e-dff2ffd7bdbbPost%3Abfc91aaf-9195-4490-b1d5-69ba8c70531f
Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_170#E-170.2F175
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Apologies for the sound of silence
The real world is keeping me a bit too busy at the moment due to the joy of the return to work and my friend's graduation.
There should be a post a bit later on - I'll be rounding off the ERJ-170 post a bit later today.
There should be a post a bit later on - I'll be rounding off the ERJ-170 post a bit later today.
Monday, 7 September 2009
Soapbox: Want to enter the USA? That's $10 please.
In an effort to show how caring the USA is wanting to educate us how great it is to visit the country, for online Visa Waivers, there is a planned charge of $10 to use to the tool.
The US Consulate calls this "A storm in a teacup". I alas - don't. Where as a fare to the USA is made up of many things (including security charges, inspection charges, etc), this represents yet another cost when going to the states for filling out what I'm sorry to say is a form based system that looks like it's been knocked out of a 9th Grader/Year 9 student for homework.
And considering this was meant to do away with the I-94/I-94W forms, I'm not exactly impressed to be honest.
Whilst I accept some countries require visas, or e-visas, I fail to see how the cost they're proposing is nothing but going into the Department of Homeland Security's back pocket to fund other projects. In other words, Education my backside. A nice easy tax to collect is more like it.
Whilst ESTA isn't a visa per say, this system has been implement by Australia for travel.. except it's called an E-Visa. Notice the difference in terms of form filling? Correct - None at all.
My advice is simple: If you're even thinking about travelling to the USA in the next two years - get your ESTA's in as soon as possible. That or demonstrate with the Pound/Euro/other currency and simply don't visit the USA.
And my soapbox comment: Go ahead America - be my guest and implement this. The EU and the UK will reciprocate in kind.
Source: BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8241255.stm
Additional reporting:-
Gadling - http://www.gadling.com/2009/09/05/united-states-considering-10-tourist-fee-to-pay-for-promoting/
AP: http://news.google.co.uk/news/url?sa=t&ct2=uk%2F0_0_s_1_0_t&usg=AFQjCNFfRC_APbPQmqR4m63L-V9TdEOv8g&cid=1306897798&ei=RielSvC2J8bUjAeKxeBy&rt=MORE_COVERAGE&vm=STANDARD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fhostednews%2Fap%2Farticle%2FALeqM5iiFRRE_sZBAuQOhP-yVpKSA1Rs6QD9AGPAL00
The US Consulate calls this "A storm in a teacup". I alas - don't. Where as a fare to the USA is made up of many things (including security charges, inspection charges, etc), this represents yet another cost when going to the states for filling out what I'm sorry to say is a form based system that looks like it's been knocked out of a 9th Grader/Year 9 student for homework.
And considering this was meant to do away with the I-94/I-94W forms, I'm not exactly impressed to be honest.
Whilst I accept some countries require visas, or e-visas, I fail to see how the cost they're proposing is nothing but going into the Department of Homeland Security's back pocket to fund other projects. In other words, Education my backside. A nice easy tax to collect is more like it.
Whilst ESTA isn't a visa per say, this system has been implement by Australia for travel.. except it's called an E-Visa. Notice the difference in terms of form filling? Correct - None at all.
My advice is simple: If you're even thinking about travelling to the USA in the next two years - get your ESTA's in as soon as possible. That or demonstrate with the Pound/Euro/other currency and simply don't visit the USA.
And my soapbox comment: Go ahead America - be my guest and implement this. The EU and the UK will reciprocate in kind.
Source: BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8241255.stm
Additional reporting:-
Gadling - http://www.gadling.com/2009/09/05/united-states-considering-10-tourist-fee-to-pay-for-promoting/
AP: http://news.google.co.uk/news/url?sa=t&ct2=uk%2F0_0_s_1_0_t&usg=AFQjCNFfRC_APbPQmqR4m63L-V9TdEOv8g&cid=1306897798&ei=RielSvC2J8bUjAeKxeBy&rt=MORE_COVERAGE&vm=STANDARD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fhostednews%2Fap%2Farticle%2FALeqM5iiFRRE_sZBAuQOhP-yVpKSA1Rs6QD9AGPAL00
Sunday, 6 September 2009
Trip Report- The BA Y+ And Y Experiance - LHR-BKK-SYD-SIN-LHR AKA Thank You England and Australian Cricket teams!
The The BA Y+ and Y class Long Haul Experience (LHR-BKK/SIN/SYD and back)>
AKA Thank you England and Australia (Cricket teams!)
Previously...
LHR-BRU-LHR ... or "How do you burn a £50 BMI without too much pain?"
MAN-ORD on BMI (29/10 ... or Did Kevin Make it to ORD?)
Kevin goes for a little mileage run on UA - ORD/CMH/IAD/EWR/ORD
ORDChicago, IL - O'Hare-MANManchester, United Kingdom in BMI Economy (with Pictures)
Kevin’s American Adventure – MAN-ORD-SEA-ORD-MAN (4 flights, 2 weeks) in Y..
ORD-MAN in BMI Premium Economy: How hard can a PE product drop? (also random moans)
LHR-PHL-SEA, SEA-PHX-ORD, ORD-PHL-LHR - In Y, Come and be scared with US!
LHR-SFO-LHR - If you're going to San Francisco - SFO MegaDO Trip report
Gold Run - Mr Kevincm goes to Washington with EI and US
Long Haul Commuter Run - LHR-IAD-ORD and back with UA
Saying Goodbye to a Friend - Traveling for the wrong reasons - LHR-PHL with UA
---
Regular readers of my trip reports may go into shock at this juncture - yes - I'm flying a Non Star Alliance Airline, and it ISN'T a United or US Airways Trip report to the USA! Of course, it's still down the back-ish - some traditions must be maintained
.
My usual trip rules apply (Bad humour, odd videos that make no sense, very bad taste in music, the usual moans). Comments and questions are of course always welcome.
Photos can be found at my
, and additional coverage at GhettoIFE.com
-----
But first, anyone for a game of Cricket?
(Yes, it’s the intro!)
In this dark economy, it's practically any wheeze to get people going and travelling (for example, Air New Zealand's Grab-It fares, sales here there and everywhere, American, United DEQM's, Delta's TEQM's, BMI Buy The Economist and get 9000 miles... the list goes on).
So when BA and Qantas got together to base the resulting fares and tickets on the first innings of the 2nd Test of The Ashes (a long time Cricket series), you could tell it wasn't going to be a good idea at first (American readers who don't understand Cricket should see this little guide)
But onto the from the scores from the first innings.
England scored: 425 (all out)
Australia scored: 215 (all out)
ScreenGrab - BBC Sport - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/
So unfortunately for British Airways and Qantas, the formula went as follows
Seats Available: 425
Price per ticket return £215
Now I bet BA and Qantas were not expecting that result
I don't care HOW you dress that up, that is one hell of an insane fare - at 1.02p a mile (Which is in "excellent" mileage run territory) . Even if you throw away the points, or ignore the points, that's still a good value to go somewhere.
Now at 10am on the Sunday I saw this, I had some resistance. By 10am on the Tuesday Morning, the Borg had got me (as resistance is futile), and I was up to see if I could get this fare.
I missed the first set of fares on Qantas (my bad - there's only so early I can get up in the office), so it was BA or bust!
I was hitting refresh for the fare to load... to find out the fare was being loaded later (it was also interesting watch the fares shoot up from the normal price due to people hitting the BA booking engine).
11am passed... then at 11:15, the fares magically loaded as £195 each way - which priced into the magic £214.90 return fare. At this time I wasn't exactly worried about the routing - it was getting a seat and getting to the destination that mattered. The credit card details were plugged in - and on the second attempt - I got both outbound and inbound flights secured (plus the £4.50 booking fee for using a credit card
).
After the initial euphoria of getting a seat, it was time to work out where I was actually going via on this Kangaroo hop. A tiny bit of Googling lead to me going outbound via Bangkok and returning via Singapore.
Map of course powered by The Great Circle Mapper - http://gc.kls2.com
After a bit of research (thanks to the BA Forum), and working out that the service was indeed fell under the Joint Service Agreement, BA would pay 25% of any miles on this N fare ticket, where as QF would pay 100%. Of course, I swallowed my pride and became a Qantas cardboard class level member.
As the dates got closer to the flight, the messages on the Manage My Booking screen changed from "Fill in your APIS" to "Get discounts Airport parking" (would have been vaguely useful if I had a car...) until one morning I saw the magic words "Upgrade your flight one way for £125". Whilst the return segment wasn't showing an upgrade, the outbound was. A quick call to web support, and a £125 lighter - I was booked into World Traveller Plus on the way out.
Now I'm the first to admit I'm not a BA flier nor a OneWorld flier as this alliance doesn't endear itself to the cheaper flyer or status gaining passenger, and I'll freely admit I haven't been aboard a BA flight since the best part of 1990 (LHR -STRand back on an school exchange), so I'll be doing my usual analysis of the service, food and of course, IFE and keeping my mind and eyes open… but it is hard going back to a status nobody. Ah well - got to start somewhere.
So lets fly the worlds favourite airline (and cue the Flower Duet and Aria please!)
At the seat, I found the headphone and amenity pack, as well as the blanket and pillow. The seat itself is another Reccaro special, with a footrest that seemed more interested in staying out rather than in. However, a bit of bullying and it went into a suitable take off position. Papers were offered at boarding… and then the magic happened for this sector. The seat next to me – was free
.
Seat
Pushback was 20 minutes late, with apart from a lone KLM 737, it was one of the last planes of the night from T4.
A short taxi onto 27L, and the four Rolls Royce RB211’s spun up to take off speed, and taking up a lot of the runway we took off into the night sky.
Off we go again!
The evening sky
The plane took a route over Amsterdam, Germany, Ukraine, India and onwards. A drinks service was carried out, and here’s another shocker – I had my usual flight drink – Vodka and Coke. Double minicans and Mini Smirnoffs were offered and accepted.
DRINK!
Soon enough it was the dinner run – a choice of two catering delights – A cottage pie or Lemon and Ginger Chicken. Naturally, I went for the chicken (with some white Chardonnay).
To be honest – it wasn’t that bad – and certainly well cooked, the rice actually looking and tasting like rice. A wine service was also carried out.
Now at this point, you’ll be expecting the usual Ghetto IFE system installed. Well here’s a shocker. I didn’t install it
for the simple reason that there was actually content that I wanted to watch .
IFE
The BA AVOD system in WTP is controlled either by touch or by a pull out remote which doubles as a $5 a minute satellite phone. Shame that the Map overly was wobbling a bit – the rest of the content worked fine and was reasonably stocked with some latest releases and classics. In other words – useful content which makes an IFE system. Good marks there!
Soon enough – the night took over and sleep took me until we were flying over the middle east
I again spent time chatting to the crew and successfully NOT raiding the club kitchen. Also to get to the toilet for WTP, one has to go through the galley if on the K side – giving me ample opportunity to have a chat to the crew.
Water refills and water bottles kept aflowing, and after a while, the breakfast service was carried out. I went for a full English.
Full English Breakkie
Again – not much to fault on this service. The hot contents were reasonably tasting, and the non offensive chicken sausage was indeed non offensive. A tea/coffee run went along too.
Soon enough, the cabin was secured, people started lifting their window blinds to see the world below us as the plane begun it’s approach to BKK.
Soon enough, the wheels of the plane planted themselves firmly on the tarmac and the plane taxied to F5 for it’s short layover, where the plane was cleared
Bangkok, Thailand - Now lets not try to get stopped by King Power eh?
British Airways BA009, 27/08/09, World Traveller Plus, 13K
Boeing 747-400 Mid J Configuration
Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International, to Sydney International Airport T1.
The Pictures
Again – I boarded in the first door and turned right into WTP. After boarding I was offered papers, and then my seat mate came to keep me occupied with stories of late night Bangkok and the.. umm… “Nightlife” with details approaching TMI.
Trundling
Thankfully the plane begun its long trundle around BKK and finally, the engines were brought up to speed and we were off into the evening sky – with night falling at BKK
Of course this meant for lovely pics and sights as night fell.
Dusk settling
Night settling
And the skies- more in the photoblog
Soon enough the drinks came (vodka and cola),
Get used to this picture
and the dinner round came with this time which was Spanish Chicken.
Whilst not on a level with United’s “Oh dear”, this was a comparative poor meal to the Lemon and Ginger chicken on the way out. Whilst the contents were reasonable, there was just something lacking from the meal – be it taste or something I’ve been trying to put my finger on. For an Asian catering point, I was expecting at least one Asian choice.
The Cake
The cake was… odd, but not inedible, whilst the mushroom salad was… inspiredly different (that’s as diplomatic as I’m going to get here).
Now here is my biggest moan about the WTP seats – the distance between the window and the actual window seat itself. Perhaps I’ve done far too many flights in Y, but I do like the window seat to be near the window so I can rest my head on the bulkhead. The seat whilst providing some support for the head with the winged style headrest doesn’t give the support of a relatively solid bulkhead – thus sleep on both sectors was tough – 5 hours in 24 isn’t good considering I was hoping for a lot more than that – I was a tad disappointed in the seat. The footrest was good when it behaved, but the lumbar support was near enough useless.
After the first flight where I watched what I wanted to watch – it was time to make a Ghetto IFE system to keep me amused for this sector.
Yup. I couldn’t resist.
As a result, I was up as we crossed over the land border into Australia, intercepting and the north east, and taking a route southwards then across to Sydney. The skys were clear as we begun the long trek towards SYD.
Soon enough the cabin started waking up, and the breakfast service was commenced which for a sector of this length is… the beloved deli box with an almond croissant, yoghurt and a coffee.
Oh dear. Then we get to the part I REALLY want to talk about. The “Orange Juice” which in its loosest term may had seen an organ in some previous life, but was very…. Chemically. More of an orange squash. Not very good at all.
Morning skies
Soon enough, the cabin was cleared down again, IFE systems switched to the map for the approach and after doing a lap or two as we were early, we powered over the Pacific, and turned for SYD, planting the wheels on the ground firmly, and soon enough the gate was reached.
Toto... I'm not sure we're in England anymore...
Again – where WTP is located on a 747-52J configuration – meant I was off before the business class passengers. Soon enough I fought my way past the Duty Free and finally, to Customs where I was stamped in without a question.
Luggage delivery begun with the SYD Loaders paying approximately no attention to priority tags or any info. About 20 minutes after getting to the belt, mine spat out. It was then off to Quarantine (as I had declared I had food items). With a summary explanation, I was cleared to enter Australia without further inspection (so here’s a hint – be honest on the form!) and before I knew it – I had exited and reached down under. A phone call later – and I was active.
Hotel: A super-exclusive limited invite only one.
Points earned: 0, Family Brownie Points earned: Infinitive. Possible attempts to offend family: Infinitive
I love my family...
(I’m sure some of you will understand where I’m coming from) - but I’ll prevent you that torture except there were some very good eateries, lots of catching up (beaing in mind some have not seen me for about 20 years).
But we’re in Sydney – That’s an excuse to cue the usual pics - I'll list them later
Fast Forward 1st September, The Apple Store – The Strand, Sydney
T-24 of course, I needed to OLCI to stand a reasonable chance of a decent seat on the plane – ideally the bottom seats at the back. Alas at T-24 (Sequence 24), most of the plane was blocked out – leaving but a few spare seats unassigned on what looked to be a full flight. After minor cursing, I chose 36A at is was the only free row on the plane. Of course, I knew it would fill up, but that was to be expected. After being resigned to that seat, I checked in, and left the Apple Shop.
The next day, after a slightly mad morning packing everything together and texting most of the family goodbye, it was time to head for home.
On the way to the terminal - both BA Aircraft ready for a days work
Sydney International
My relation dropped me off and I wandered into T1 Departures.
I remember the ceilings being a bit more higher and the lighting a bit better, but it seemed vaguely familiar from the last trip. After bruskly being told where the bag drop was, I queued up and the bag was taken off me (no need to go to oversized bag drop), and it was off to security with me.
After passing though the double doors of no return, I cleared immigration, and then the joy of security… to exit to the duty free hall from Hades. And so well organised too! But they do LOVE to give coins away – in other words so you spend more money there – clever – but annoying. Whilst browsing duty free, some of the camera looked remotely interesting, however, the cost of mobile phones was comparable to how much you were paying downtown – if anything a bit more.
After stocking up some bits for my friend, I made my way through and took a few photos before settling down before boarding. Eventually, the BA 747 and 777 were towed to the gate, with the 777 forming the flight I would be on – BA16 to SIN then LHR.
Gate lice... everywhere
British Airways BA016 , 02/09/09, World Traveller, 36A
Boeing 777-200 4 Class Configuration
Sydney International Airport T1 to Singapore T1
Of course, the boarding scrum was its usual self, and soon enough I was aboard, making my way to the last rows of the cabin where I stowed my luggage before the inevitable. And soon it showed up in the form of a mother and a teenager who were well mannered and were also worried of who they would be sitting with. Everyone at ease makes for an easy flight – good things.
Of course, loading took time, and with headwinds towards SIN, I knew that my shopping time at SIN would be extremely tight. How tight, I didn’t realise until I gotthere....
Waiting for the off..
Soon enough, we taxied out to the runway and after a while on hold, the engines powered up for the long take off run and the journey ahead to Singapore.
Me and my shadow...
After swinging out to the pacific then back over the land, the drinks service was carried out. Of course, the following picture may seem familiar to those who haven’t fallen asleep to this trip report:
I am so original in my drinks choices.
And so onto the food shortly thereafter. As it was served, it was slightly leaking to the point that the person who had the next one had a load of chicken in white sauce on their foil cover.
Again – not too bad at all in food terms. Reasonably portioned and tasted fine. Even had my 3rd bottle of Chardonnay by this point.. .
I am totally original
Again the Ghetto IFE system was installed, and I switched between that and the normal system… which today was in a very bad mood as the touchscreen wasn’t responding – but the armrest controls were. This was to go onto the next sector too.
More Ghetto IFE.
Pretty soon the cabin was cleared down, and after the sun went down, I grabbed a few snoozes. The crew did a few water runs, with requests for a bottle via bingbong met with a smile.
Sunset
Towards the end of the sector, it was time once again for the deli box, and by some bizarre means, I ended up with a veggie sandwich.
The Magical Deli box
A bit tough and chewy (but not as bad as UA can do), but it filled a small hunger hole. The Crunchie was also quiet edible too. Again, a coffee/tea run was done at this point.
Again, the cabin was cleared down, and soon enough we passed over many blinking lights, over Malaysia, and finally descending into Singapore Airport
Eventually, we parked up with the rest of the services doing the kangaroo hop back to Europe and docked at C24 for what was going to be a very short layover.
A quick Singapore Sling!
With a layover of an hour of that requiring me to get my backside back to the gate, I had little time to waste. I had a mission – Orchids.
The national pastime of Singapore...
As everyone was queuing back up in the gate area it was a case of rushing through to the many different shopping areas in T1 until I found the information desk… only to discover the shop had closed and it was in T2 or T3.
A quick look at the clock and I suddenly realised that boarding would be recommencing soon – so it was a quick dash to pick up some merlions, and then straight to C24 for the final part of this flight.
Security was quick, and I was beep through. After a short wait, boarding recommenced.
At the gate
British Airways BA016, 02/09/09, World Traveller, 36A
Boeing 777-200 4 Class Configuration
Singapore T1 to London Heathrow T4.
The Pictures
For the final time this trip, I boarded the 777 and headed straight back to 36A, and after a short unpack, my seatmates turned up again. Pretty soon, the plane was solid for its 12 hour hop to Heathrow. The plane pushed back on time, and after a sort taxi, it was back into the night sky.
Up and away!
Again, a drinks service was carried out. Any guesses what I was drinking?
Correct
Then followed the meal service. Now being catered by SATS out of Singapore I was expecting something quiet nice. Thankfully, I wasn’t wrong for once.
Beef Noodles (Yes I’ve had something other than CHICKEN! ).
Now this was all well and good – beef in black bean sauce with noodles and pak choi, with a bottle of Chardonnay (tradition), the coleslaw was fresh… but what the heck was going on with desert? Even I’m still confused at what is was!
However, a reasonable meal, soon enough cleared down and the lights went out… and after watching the pretty lights for a bit, I closed my eyes only to hear a bong go, and then an almighty shudder. The promised turbulence over the Bay of Bengal hit, and it was not pleasant for the next 5 minutes. After that – things calmed down again and I managed to drift back off to sleep for another few hours.
A long way yet...
After some time crammed up, I needed to get up and about – so off to the galley and to the little room. After coming out of the little room, I saw to my delight my spare time form of substance – Noodles in a pot!..
Two minutes later – I was at my seat – and my seatmates copying me shortly there after with pots of chicken noodle.
After consuming that, I fell back asleep again – and I don’t know why, but I actually preferred the World Traveller seats – if not for the seat pitch (which is adequate – an extra inch or two wouldn’t hurt) but for the proximity of the wall to the seat making it easier to sleep on. In addition the headrest is of an odd design – which I quite like allowing you to raise it up and move down comparatively solid bits of seat to act as a neckrest.
As we crossed into Europe, once again I was wide awake, watching whatever was on the iPhone or AVOD (the map mainly) and as we were crossing Poland, breakfast appeared – a choice of pancakes or the Full English.
Well it had to be the full English didn’t it? No odd Singaporean twist to this. Even the orange juice tasted like orange juice. The sausage continued to be inoffensive to all and it was hot from the oven. Not a bad breakfast at all.
However as the flight was coming to an end, it was time to bring the lights on through the cabin and clear it down.
Again there was a bit of turbulence as we coming in, directed over the river approach over London, and finally down to Heathrow, doing a slight adjustment as we landed before the long taxi over to Gate 12 at T4 where this adventure started a mere 6 days and 7 hours ago.
Tower...
After a walk to immigration (along with the bouncy travellators they have… bounce bounce bounce) I made immigration. All the queues were pretty busy… except IRIS. A walk through that, and I was clear and back in the United Kingdom.
Of course luggage delivery took its own sweet time but soon enough the luggage belt spat out my rucksack – a stroll through customs, and I was ready for the final legs of this journey.
Homewards
I do try honestly to give the rail network a chance – this time – it was the Heathrow Connect to London. With one just gone, and the next not due for another 25 minutes, in time balance, it was cheaper to pay the £6 peak fare to Marylebone on the tube and be done with it (Damn you Mayor Johnson and your idiot peak fares!). As it was just the beginning of the rush hour, it wasn’t exactly packed to Oxford Circus, and again towards Marylebone.
My timing was however was on the nose – a train was going to Birmingham in the next few minutes. A ticket purchased, and through the barriers onto the homeward leg.
Chiltern Railways
London Marylebone – Birmingham Snow Hill
Class 165 DMUDimapur, India
Sigh. A class 165 – designed for commuter runs, not for midhaul-intercity services (for example – little things like seats that aren’t rock and power through the train). But a train is train. As the train is heading away from London, it’s a comparatively light load to Birmingham.
As usual, the Chiltern service runs like clockwork – and two hours after I got on the train – I was at Moor Street Station, and off the train, wandering through the city centre to the bus stop, to the 87 bus stop and finally….
Yup. The Flat front door. Home again after another adventure.
Epilogue and Thoughts
So what did I take away from the BA Experience? A constant service delivered in a friendly fashion, with edible food, drinkable drinks and reasonable comfort. These are in my opinion some of the best things to have in the sky.
I am defiantly NOT a fan of 3 x 3 x 3 seating configurations and much prefer the 2 x 3 x 2 or 2 x 4 x 2 configurations that are out there. In addition seating policy is to be honest a pain up the rear, and whilst I accept it is something that they wish to keep for their elites, other airlines do allow pre-assignment at booking no matter what your status is with an airline or alliance.
Will it be enough for me to switch my flying from *A to OW? I don't think so to be honest - OneWorld is defiantly a "premium" alliance and thus, having a premium pocket helps (especially if on expense accounts or corporate travel agents) - except I'm not.
I'm travelling on my own coin so I have to evaluate each alliance and airline as needed – thus restricting me to N fares, and bottom of the bucket earning where I can (except when I can score a cheap upgrade). The fact I’m 22,231 miles up in a program I might never credit to for some time is of course besides the point.
So really – thumbs up to British Airways for the delivered product with good delivery both in front and back, but change the booking policy (although your tier point policy is improving) and I might be back.
Right. Enough cricket (2:1 by the way Australia. Tinnies can be cried to anytime. Please recycle them, and do NOT send them to The Oval) ... and enough of me yattering on.
October is coming - so it'll be time to ponder what catering delights UA will be serving...
Bet you can't wait
Comments and thoughts welcome
AKA Thank you England and Australia (Cricket teams!)
Previously...
LHR-BRU-LHR ... or "How do you burn a £50 BMI without too much pain?"
MAN-ORD on BMI (29/10 ... or Did Kevin Make it to ORD?)
Kevin goes for a little mileage run on UA - ORD/CMH/IAD/EWR/ORD
ORDChicago, IL - O'Hare-MANManchester, United Kingdom in BMI Economy (with Pictures)
Kevin’s American Adventure – MAN-ORD-SEA-ORD-MAN (4 flights, 2 weeks) in Y..
ORD-MAN in BMI Premium Economy: How hard can a PE product drop? (also random moans)
LHR-PHL-SEA, SEA-PHX-ORD, ORD-PHL-LHR - In Y, Come and be scared with US!
LHR-SFO-LHR - If you're going to San Francisco - SFO MegaDO Trip report
Gold Run - Mr Kevincm goes to Washington with EI and US
Long Haul Commuter Run - LHR-IAD-ORD and back with UA
Saying Goodbye to a Friend - Traveling for the wrong reasons - LHR-PHL with UA
---
Regular readers of my trip reports may go into shock at this juncture - yes - I'm flying a Non Star Alliance Airline, and it ISN'T a United or US Airways Trip report to the USA! Of course, it's still down the back-ish - some traditions must be maintained
. My usual trip rules apply (Bad humour, odd videos that make no sense, very bad taste in music, the usual moans). Comments and questions are of course always welcome.
Photos can be found at my
-----
But first, anyone for a game of Cricket?
(Yes, it’s the intro!)
In this dark economy, it's practically any wheeze to get people going and travelling (for example, Air New Zealand's Grab-It fares, sales here there and everywhere, American, United DEQM's, Delta's TEQM's, BMI Buy The Economist and get 9000 miles... the list goes on).
So when BA and Qantas got together to base the resulting fares and tickets on the first innings of the 2nd Test of The Ashes (a long time Cricket series), you could tell it wasn't going to be a good idea at first (American readers who don't understand Cricket should see this little guide
) But onto the from the scores from the first innings.
England scored: 425 (all out)
Australia scored: 215 (all out)
ScreenGrab - BBC Sport - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/
So unfortunately for British Airways and Qantas, the formula went as follows
Seats Available: 425
Price per ticket return £215
Now I bet BA and Qantas were not expecting that result
I don't care HOW you dress that up, that is one hell of an insane fare - at 1.02p a mile (Which is in "excellent" mileage run territory) . Even if you throw away the points, or ignore the points, that's still a good value to go somewhere.
Now at 10am on the Sunday I saw this, I had some resistance. By 10am on the Tuesday Morning, the Borg had got me (as resistance is futile), and I was up to see if I could get this fare.
I missed the first set of fares on Qantas (my bad - there's only so early I can get up in the office), so it was BA or bust!
I was hitting refresh for the fare to load... to find out the fare was being loaded later (it was also interesting watch the fares shoot up from the normal price due to people hitting the BA booking engine).
11am passed... then at 11:15, the fares magically loaded as £195 each way - which priced into the magic £214.90 return fare. At this time I wasn't exactly worried about the routing - it was getting a seat and getting to the destination that mattered. The credit card details were plugged in - and on the second attempt - I got both outbound and inbound flights secured (plus the £4.50 booking fee for using a credit card
). After the initial euphoria of getting a seat, it was time to work out where I was actually going via on this Kangaroo hop. A tiny bit of Googling lead to me going outbound via Bangkok and returning via Singapore.
Map of course powered by The Great Circle Mapper - http://gc.kls2.com
After a bit of research (thanks to the BA Forum), and working out that the service was indeed fell under the Joint Service Agreement, BA would pay 25% of any miles on this N fare ticket, where as QF would pay 100%. Of course, I swallowed my pride and became a Qantas cardboard class level member.
As the dates got closer to the flight, the messages on the Manage My Booking screen changed from "Fill in your APIS" to "Get discounts Airport parking" (would have been vaguely useful if I had a car...) until one morning I saw the magic words "Upgrade your flight one way for £125". Whilst the return segment wasn't showing an upgrade, the outbound was. A quick call to web support, and a £125 lighter - I was booked into World Traveller Plus on the way out.
Now I'm the first to admit I'm not a BA flier nor a OneWorld flier as this alliance doesn't endear itself to the cheaper flyer or status gaining passenger, and I'll freely admit I haven't been aboard a BA flight since the best part of 1990 (LHR -STRand back on an school exchange), so I'll be doing my usual analysis of the service, food and of course, IFE and keeping my mind and eyes open… but it is hard going back to a status nobody. Ah well - got to start somewhere.
So lets fly the worlds favourite airline (and cue the Flower Duet and Aria please!)
The day before - T minus 24 hours and a few minutes before.
Clickers at the ready as I have no status - I needed to get to the seats pretty much as soon as possible. Looking at the WTP seat map – it’s a very small cabin in comparison to Club Europe or even First (and in the Mid-J configuration, it’s infront of Club World, it was going to be a guess to which would be the best seat as most of the seats had already been secured.
For the outbound part of the journey, my original fear of 3 x 4 x 3 had vanished to a lovely 2 x 4 x 2. In other words - Window Seat in a good configuration - This i could handle being used to being "Brought up" on the A330's in their 2-4-2 arrangement. OLCI Opened on scheduled, and 13K was picked as the window seat
At that point - I got on with the packing
Part 1 - Get a Move on!!!
After shutting down the flat again, it was time to head onto the 87, and off to London. As I'm in no rush to get to Heathrow (unlike normal), I took the 13:30 train to London
Virgin Trains, Class 221 "Super Voyager" DMU
Birmingham New Street - London Euston
By another amazing coincidence, I secured a £5 cheapie fare from Birmingham to London, which would allow me to stop by a few places before I headed off to LHR. So as oppose to heading to the light that is Moor Street, it was off to home of Birmingham's own black hole - Mordor Haputbahnhoff (Birmingham New Street).
After negotiating the barriers and the platform, soon enough the 13:30 to Euston pulled in.
Originally booked for a Pendolino, instead Virgin Trains in their wisdom decided to send out a Super Voyager instead. The Voyager and Super Voyage designs – whilst brand new had a lot of reliability problems – and other problems mainly related to the toilet retention systems – whilst not as “fast” as the Pendolinos, they do make line speed of 125mph – enough for them to operate at speed on the West Coast Main line. However, things have improved, and whilst not. And this super Voyager had a tiny problem.. as no one had uploaded the seat reservation data onto the train – with my window/table seat gone and relegated to a backwards airlines seat style.
Can you tell I got bored on the train?
Sigh. The joy of train travel. However, the at seat power was enabled, and after jettisoning people at BHXBirmingham, United Kingdom and Coventry, it settled down into a nice, if unremarkable journey - but that’s train travel these days. None of these sentimental journeys you used to have of old.
I was on the one on the left - I should have had one like on the right. Thank you very much Branson/Stagecoach trains....
After topping up my Oyster card (and cursing Mayor Johnson – the prices are starting get expensive to travel on the buses and tubes again) it was quick trip to the camera shop down Tottenham Court Road to pick up some film (yes - I do use the stuff still) a discussion at the apple shop why no Empower adaptors were in stock and getting soaked by Eros, it was time to wave goodbye to London's fair city and go underneath Piccadilly Circus, and catch a Piccadilly line to Heathrow T4.
A different place to the normal place - Terminal 4
Terminal 4 - A changing place these days as it changes from BA's old home to the SkyTeam London Hub (as well as the league of non-aligned airlines), and since I haven't had a reason to travel beyond Terminal 1 recently, so a new experience for me.
Originally designed as the Short Haul Terminal, BA had a paddy and got T4 to itself initially - with all the problems that come with it being away from the T1/2/3 complex - in fact within a couple of months of me taking off, the Joint Services will be switched back to the OneWorld Hub in T3, and the rest of BA in T5.
After making my way to check in and confirmed I OLCI’d the previous day, my bag was tagged, I was checked in and it was off to outside baggage, and then security. The staff were friendly and not shouty at all – and I was through in about 5 minutes flat.
After quickly remembering I was “sans status”, I found the Starbucks, and found a window to watch planes take off from. Well it beats looking at northing…
Eventually night fell, and I wandered off to a bit of light retail therapy. Well it happens
BA Fans may swoon.. now.
Time rolled around again soon enough – and the gate 12 was called. After finding the singular working plug in T4 and charging the devices a bit more, BA009 was called.
The only working plug in T4... and my 747 of the day
I took my time to see how it was going to load, and after packing all the junk away, I joined the main queue, and then directed to fast track (as most of the fast track passengers had been dealt with), and after a queue, I boarded the 747 to Bangkok.
British Airways BA009, 27/08/09, World Traveller Plus, 13K
Boeing 747-400 52J Configuration
BA009 London Heathrow Terminal 4 to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International
The Pictures
After boarding, I was invited to turn left (don’t get excited), as the Mid J/52J configuration was dreamt up in a marketers department, with F in the nosecone, followed by WT+, then CW and the upper deck, then finally, WT. Clickers at the ready as I have no status - I needed to get to the seats pretty much as soon as possible. Looking at the WTP seat map – it’s a very small cabin in comparison to Club Europe or even First (and in the Mid-J configuration, it’s infront of Club World, it was going to be a guess to which would be the best seat as most of the seats had already been secured.
For the outbound part of the journey, my original fear of 3 x 4 x 3 had vanished to a lovely 2 x 4 x 2. In other words - Window Seat in a good configuration - This i could handle being used to being "Brought up" on the A330's in their 2-4-2 arrangement. OLCI Opened on scheduled, and 13K was picked as the window seat
At that point - I got on with the packing
Part 1 - Get a Move on!!!
After shutting down the flat again, it was time to head onto the 87, and off to London. As I'm in no rush to get to Heathrow (unlike normal), I took the 13:30 train to London
Virgin Trains, Class 221 "Super Voyager" DMU
Birmingham New Street - London Euston
By another amazing coincidence, I secured a £5 cheapie fare from Birmingham to London, which would allow me to stop by a few places before I headed off to LHR. So as oppose to heading to the light that is Moor Street, it was off to home of Birmingham's own black hole - Mordor Haputbahnhoff (Birmingham New Street).
After negotiating the barriers and the platform, soon enough the 13:30 to Euston pulled in.
Originally booked for a Pendolino, instead Virgin Trains in their wisdom decided to send out a Super Voyager instead. The Voyager and Super Voyage designs – whilst brand new had a lot of reliability problems – and other problems mainly related to the toilet retention systems – whilst not as “fast” as the Pendolinos, they do make line speed of 125mph – enough for them to operate at speed on the West Coast Main line. However, things have improved, and whilst not. And this super Voyager had a tiny problem.. as no one had uploaded the seat reservation data onto the train – with my window/table seat gone and relegated to a backwards airlines seat style.
Can you tell I got bored on the train?
Sigh. The joy of train travel. However, the at seat power was enabled, and after jettisoning people at BHXBirmingham, United Kingdom and Coventry, it settled down into a nice, if unremarkable journey - but that’s train travel these days. None of these sentimental journeys you used to have of old.
I was on the one on the left - I should have had one like on the right. Thank you very much Branson/Stagecoach trains....
After topping up my Oyster card (and cursing Mayor Johnson – the prices are starting get expensive to travel on the buses and tubes again) it was quick trip to the camera shop down Tottenham Court Road to pick up some film (yes - I do use the stuff still) a discussion at the apple shop why no Empower adaptors were in stock and getting soaked by Eros, it was time to wave goodbye to London's fair city and go underneath Piccadilly Circus, and catch a Piccadilly line to Heathrow T4.
A different place to the normal place - Terminal 4
Terminal 4 - A changing place these days as it changes from BA's old home to the SkyTeam London Hub (as well as the league of non-aligned airlines), and since I haven't had a reason to travel beyond Terminal 1 recently, so a new experience for me.
Originally designed as the Short Haul Terminal, BA had a paddy and got T4 to itself initially - with all the problems that come with it being away from the T1/2/3 complex - in fact within a couple of months of me taking off, the Joint Services will be switched back to the OneWorld Hub in T3, and the rest of BA in T5.
After making my way to check in and confirmed I OLCI’d the previous day, my bag was tagged, I was checked in and it was off to outside baggage, and then security. The staff were friendly and not shouty at all – and I was through in about 5 minutes flat.
After quickly remembering I was “sans status”, I found the Starbucks, and found a window to watch planes take off from. Well it beats looking at northing…
Eventually night fell, and I wandered off to a bit of light retail therapy. Well it happens
BA Fans may swoon.. now.
Time rolled around again soon enough – and the gate 12 was called. After finding the singular working plug in T4 and charging the devices a bit more, BA009 was called.
The only working plug in T4... and my 747 of the day
I took my time to see how it was going to load, and after packing all the junk away, I joined the main queue, and then directed to fast track (as most of the fast track passengers had been dealt with), and after a queue, I boarded the 747 to Bangkok.
British Airways BA009, 27/08/09, World Traveller Plus, 13K
Boeing 747-400 52J Configuration
BA009 London Heathrow Terminal 4 to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International
The Pictures
At the seat, I found the headphone and amenity pack, as well as the blanket and pillow. The seat itself is another Reccaro special, with a footrest that seemed more interested in staying out rather than in. However, a bit of bullying and it went into a suitable take off position. Papers were offered at boarding… and then the magic happened for this sector. The seat next to me – was free
. Seat
Pushback was 20 minutes late, with apart from a lone KLM 737, it was one of the last planes of the night from T4.
A short taxi onto 27L, and the four Rolls Royce RB211’s spun up to take off speed, and taking up a lot of the runway we took off into the night sky.
Off we go again!
The evening sky
The plane took a route over Amsterdam, Germany, Ukraine, India and onwards. A drinks service was carried out, and here’s another shocker – I had my usual flight drink – Vodka and Coke. Double minicans and Mini Smirnoffs were offered and accepted.
DRINK!
Soon enough it was the dinner run – a choice of two catering delights – A cottage pie or Lemon and Ginger Chicken. Naturally, I went for the chicken (with some white Chardonnay).
To be honest – it wasn’t that bad – and certainly well cooked, the rice actually looking and tasting like rice. A wine service was also carried out.
Now at this point, you’ll be expecting the usual Ghetto IFE system installed. Well here’s a shocker. I didn’t install it
for the simple reason that there was actually content that I wanted to watch . IFE
The BA AVOD system in WTP is controlled either by touch or by a pull out remote which doubles as a $5 a minute satellite phone. Shame that the Map overly was wobbling a bit – the rest of the content worked fine and was reasonably stocked with some latest releases and classics. In other words – useful content which makes an IFE system. Good marks there!
Soon enough – the night took over and sleep took me until we were flying over the middle east
I again spent time chatting to the crew and successfully NOT raiding the club kitchen. Also to get to the toilet for WTP, one has to go through the galley if on the K side – giving me ample opportunity to have a chat to the crew.
Water refills and water bottles kept aflowing, and after a while, the breakfast service was carried out. I went for a full English.
Full English Breakkie
Again – not much to fault on this service. The hot contents were reasonably tasting, and the non offensive chicken sausage was indeed non offensive. A tea/coffee run went along too.
Soon enough, the cabin was secured, people started lifting their window blinds to see the world below us as the plane begun it’s approach to BKK.
Soon enough, the wheels of the plane planted themselves firmly on the tarmac and the plane taxied to F5 for it’s short layover, where the plane was cleared
Bangkok, Thailand - Now lets not try to get stopped by King Power eh?
A Bangkok Interlude.
The Pictures
Plenty has been written about this airport (least of all recently the little theft incident that wound an English couple in a lot of trouble). But with 2 hours on the ground – and 1 hour 30 to explore – it seemed a waste just to head back to the gate area.
At the centre
BKKBangkok, Thailand is very much a radial airport – with the hubs of activity and transfer in the centre of the airport and the gate spans to the edges. It proceeded a nice walk and stretch for a bit as the plane was getting stuffy after 10 hours.
It's amazing what you find many miles from home...
Eventually, I gave in and brought some local tat that I probably could had got at a local market a lot cheaper – but quite frankly a 2 hour layover isn’t enough time to do anything.
Towards the gate
After re-clearing security and back at the gate, there were free internet consoles to play with. This occupied another 10 minutes, by which time boarding for the second sector was readying.
Again – I boarded in the first door and turned right into WTP.
The Pictures
Plenty has been written about this airport (least of all recently the little theft incident that wound an English couple in a lot of trouble). But with 2 hours on the ground – and 1 hour 30 to explore – it seemed a waste just to head back to the gate area.
At the centre
BKKBangkok, Thailand is very much a radial airport – with the hubs of activity and transfer in the centre of the airport and the gate spans to the edges. It proceeded a nice walk and stretch for a bit as the plane was getting stuffy after 10 hours.
It's amazing what you find many miles from home...
Eventually, I gave in and brought some local tat that I probably could had got at a local market a lot cheaper – but quite frankly a 2 hour layover isn’t enough time to do anything.
Towards the gate
After re-clearing security and back at the gate, there were free internet consoles to play with. This occupied another 10 minutes, by which time boarding for the second sector was readying.
Again – I boarded in the first door and turned right into WTP.
British Airways BA009, 27/08/09, World Traveller Plus, 13K
Boeing 747-400 Mid J Configuration
Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International, to Sydney International Airport T1.
The Pictures
Again – I boarded in the first door and turned right into WTP. After boarding I was offered papers, and then my seat mate came to keep me occupied with stories of late night Bangkok and the.. umm… “Nightlife” with details approaching TMI.
Trundling
Thankfully the plane begun its long trundle around BKK and finally, the engines were brought up to speed and we were off into the evening sky – with night falling at BKK
Of course this meant for lovely pics and sights as night fell.
Dusk settling
Night settling
And the skies- more in the photoblog
Soon enough the drinks came (vodka and cola),
Get used to this picture
and the dinner round came with this time which was Spanish Chicken.
Whilst not on a level with United’s “Oh dear”, this was a comparative poor meal to the Lemon and Ginger chicken on the way out. Whilst the contents were reasonable, there was just something lacking from the meal – be it taste or something I’ve been trying to put my finger on. For an Asian catering point, I was expecting at least one Asian choice.
The Cake
The cake was… odd, but not inedible, whilst the mushroom salad was… inspiredly different (that’s as diplomatic as I’m going to get here).
Now here is my biggest moan about the WTP seats – the distance between the window and the actual window seat itself. Perhaps I’ve done far too many flights in Y, but I do like the window seat to be near the window so I can rest my head on the bulkhead. The seat whilst providing some support for the head with the winged style headrest doesn’t give the support of a relatively solid bulkhead – thus sleep on both sectors was tough – 5 hours in 24 isn’t good considering I was hoping for a lot more than that – I was a tad disappointed in the seat. The footrest was good when it behaved, but the lumbar support was near enough useless.
After the first flight where I watched what I wanted to watch – it was time to make a Ghetto IFE system to keep me amused for this sector.
Yup. I couldn’t resist.
As a result, I was up as we crossed over the land border into Australia, intercepting and the north east, and taking a route southwards then across to Sydney. The skys were clear as we begun the long trek towards SYD.
Soon enough the cabin started waking up, and the breakfast service was commenced which for a sector of this length is… the beloved deli box with an almond croissant, yoghurt and a coffee.
Oh dear. Then we get to the part I REALLY want to talk about. The “Orange Juice” which in its loosest term may had seen an organ in some previous life, but was very…. Chemically. More of an orange squash. Not very good at all.
Morning skies
Soon enough, the cabin was cleared down again, IFE systems switched to the map for the approach and after doing a lap or two as we were early, we powered over the Pacific, and turned for SYD, planting the wheels on the ground firmly, and soon enough the gate was reached.
Toto... I'm not sure we're in England anymore...
Again – where WTP is located on a 747-52J configuration – meant I was off before the business class passengers. Soon enough I fought my way past the Duty Free and finally, to Customs where I was stamped in without a question.
Luggage delivery begun with the SYD Loaders paying approximately no attention to priority tags or any info. About 20 minutes after getting to the belt, mine spat out. It was then off to Quarantine (as I had declared I had food items). With a summary explanation, I was cleared to enter Australia without further inspection (so here’s a hint – be honest on the form!) and before I knew it – I had exited and reached down under. A phone call later – and I was active.
Hotel: A super-exclusive limited invite only one.
Points earned: 0, Family Brownie Points earned: Infinitive. Possible attempts to offend family: Infinitive
I love my family...
(I’m sure some of you will understand where I’m coming from
) - but I’ll prevent you that torture except there were some very good eateries, lots of catching up (beaing in mind some have not seen me for about 20 years). But we’re in Sydney – That’s an excuse to cue the usual pics
- I'll list them laterFast Forward 1st September, The Apple Store – The Strand, Sydney
T-24 of course, I needed to OLCI to stand a reasonable chance of a decent seat on the plane – ideally the bottom seats at the back. Alas at T-24 (Sequence 24), most of the plane was blocked out – leaving but a few spare seats unassigned on what looked to be a full flight. After minor cursing, I chose 36A at is was the only free row on the plane. Of course, I knew it would fill up, but that was to be expected. After being resigned to that seat, I checked in, and left the Apple Shop.
The next day, after a slightly mad morning packing everything together and texting most of the family goodbye, it was time to head for home.
On the way to the terminal - both BA Aircraft ready for a days work
Sydney International
My relation dropped me off and I wandered into T1 Departures.
I remember the ceilings being a bit more higher and the lighting a bit better, but it seemed vaguely familiar from the last trip. After bruskly being told where the bag drop was, I queued up and the bag was taken off me (no need to go to oversized bag drop), and it was off to security with me.
After passing though the double doors of no return, I cleared immigration, and then the joy of security… to exit to the duty free hall from Hades. And so well organised too! But they do LOVE to give coins away – in other words so you spend more money there – clever – but annoying. Whilst browsing duty free, some of the camera looked remotely interesting, however, the cost of mobile phones was comparable to how much you were paying downtown – if anything a bit more.
After stocking up some bits for my friend, I made my way through and took a few photos before settling down before boarding. Eventually, the BA 747 and 777 were towed to the gate, with the 777 forming the flight I would be on – BA16 to SIN then LHR.
Gate lice... everywhere
British Airways BA016 , 02/09/09, World Traveller, 36A
Boeing 777-200 4 Class Configuration
Sydney International Airport T1 to Singapore T1
Of course, the boarding scrum was its usual self, and soon enough I was aboard, making my way to the last rows of the cabin where I stowed my luggage before the inevitable. And soon it showed up in the form of a mother and a teenager who were well mannered and were also worried of who they would be sitting with. Everyone at ease makes for an easy flight – good things.
Of course, loading took time, and with headwinds towards SIN, I knew that my shopping time at SIN would be extremely tight. How tight, I didn’t realise until I gotthere....
Waiting for the off..
Soon enough, we taxied out to the runway and after a while on hold, the engines powered up for the long take off run and the journey ahead to Singapore.
Me and my shadow...
After swinging out to the pacific then back over the land, the drinks service was carried out. Of course, the following picture may seem familiar to those who haven’t fallen asleep to this trip report:
I am so original in my drinks choices.
And so onto the food shortly thereafter. As it was served, it was slightly leaking to the point that the person who had the next one had a load of chicken in white sauce on their foil cover.
Again – not too bad at all in food terms. Reasonably portioned and tasted fine. Even had my 3rd bottle of Chardonnay by this point.. .
I am totally original
Again the Ghetto IFE system was installed, and I switched between that and the normal system… which today was in a very bad mood as the touchscreen wasn’t responding – but the armrest controls were. This was to go onto the next sector too.
More Ghetto IFE.
Pretty soon the cabin was cleared down, and after the sun went down, I grabbed a few snoozes. The crew did a few water runs, with requests for a bottle via bingbong met with a smile.
Sunset
Towards the end of the sector, it was time once again for the deli box, and by some bizarre means, I ended up with a veggie sandwich.
The Magical Deli box
A bit tough and chewy (but not as bad as UA can do), but it filled a small hunger hole. The Crunchie was also quiet edible too. Again, a coffee/tea run was done at this point.
Again, the cabin was cleared down, and soon enough we passed over many blinking lights, over Malaysia, and finally descending into Singapore Airport
Eventually, we parked up with the rest of the services doing the kangaroo hop back to Europe and docked at C24 for what was going to be a very short layover.
A quick Singapore Sling!
With a layover of an hour of that requiring me to get my backside back to the gate, I had little time to waste. I had a mission – Orchids.
The national pastime of Singapore...
As everyone was queuing back up in the gate area it was a case of rushing through to the many different shopping areas in T1 until I found the information desk… only to discover the shop had closed and it was in T2 or T3.
A quick look at the clock and I suddenly realised that boarding would be recommencing soon – so it was a quick dash to pick up some merlions, and then straight to C24 for the final part of this flight.
Security was quick, and I was beep through. After a short wait, boarding recommenced.
At the gate
British Airways BA016, 02/09/09, World Traveller, 36A
Boeing 777-200 4 Class Configuration
Singapore T1 to London Heathrow T4.
The Pictures
For the final time this trip, I boarded the 777 and headed straight back to 36A, and after a short unpack, my seatmates turned up again. Pretty soon, the plane was solid for its 12 hour hop to Heathrow. The plane pushed back on time, and after a sort taxi, it was back into the night sky.
Up and away!
Again, a drinks service was carried out. Any guesses what I was drinking?
Correct
Then followed the meal service. Now being catered by SATS out of Singapore I was expecting something quiet nice. Thankfully, I wasn’t wrong for once.
Beef Noodles (Yes I’ve had something other than CHICKEN!
). Now this was all well and good – beef in black bean sauce with noodles and pak choi, with a bottle of Chardonnay (tradition), the coleslaw was fresh… but what the heck was going on with desert? Even I’m still confused at what is was!
However, a reasonable meal, soon enough cleared down and the lights went out… and after watching the pretty lights for a bit, I closed my eyes only to hear a bong go, and then an almighty shudder. The promised turbulence over the Bay of Bengal hit, and it was not pleasant for the next 5 minutes. After that – things calmed down again and I managed to drift back off to sleep for another few hours.
A long way yet...
After some time crammed up, I needed to get up and about – so off to the galley and to the little room. After coming out of the little room, I saw to my delight my spare time form of substance – Noodles in a pot!
..Two minutes later – I was at my seat – and my seatmates copying me shortly there after with pots of chicken noodle.
After consuming that, I fell back asleep again – and I don’t know why, but I actually preferred the World Traveller seats – if not for the seat pitch (which is adequate – an extra inch or two wouldn’t hurt) but for the proximity of the wall to the seat making it easier to sleep on. In addition the headrest is of an odd design – which I quite like allowing you to raise it up and move down comparatively solid bits of seat to act as a neckrest.
As we crossed into Europe, once again I was wide awake, watching whatever was on the iPhone or AVOD (the map mainly) and as we were crossing Poland, breakfast appeared – a choice of pancakes or the Full English.
Well it had to be the full English didn’t it? No odd Singaporean twist to this. Even the orange juice tasted like orange juice. The sausage continued to be inoffensive to all and it was hot from the oven. Not a bad breakfast at all.
However as the flight was coming to an end, it was time to bring the lights on through the cabin and clear it down.
Again there was a bit of turbulence as we coming in, directed over the river approach over London, and finally down to Heathrow, doing a slight adjustment as we landed before the long taxi over to Gate 12 at T4 where this adventure started a mere 6 days and 7 hours ago.
Tower...
After a walk to immigration (along with the bouncy travellators they have… bounce bounce bounce
) I made immigration. All the queues were pretty busy… except IRIS. A walk through that, and I was clear and back in the United Kingdom. Of course luggage delivery took its own sweet time but soon enough the luggage belt spat out my rucksack – a stroll through customs, and I was ready for the final legs of this journey.
Homewards
I do try honestly to give the rail network a chance – this time – it was the Heathrow Connect to London. With one just gone, and the next not due for another 25 minutes, in time balance, it was cheaper to pay the £6 peak fare to Marylebone on the tube and be done with it (Damn you Mayor Johnson and your idiot peak fares!). As it was just the beginning of the rush hour, it wasn’t exactly packed to Oxford Circus, and again towards Marylebone.
My timing was however was on the nose – a train was going to Birmingham in the next few minutes. A ticket purchased, and through the barriers onto the homeward leg.
Chiltern Railways
London Marylebone – Birmingham Snow Hill
Class 165 DMUDimapur, India
Sigh. A class 165 – designed for commuter runs, not for midhaul-intercity services (for example – little things like seats that aren’t rock and power through the train). But a train is train. As the train is heading away from London, it’s a comparatively light load to Birmingham.
As usual, the Chiltern service runs like clockwork – and two hours after I got on the train – I was at Moor Street Station, and off the train, wandering through the city centre to the bus stop, to the 87 bus stop and finally….
Yup. The Flat front door. Home again after another adventure.
Epilogue and Thoughts
So what did I take away from the BA Experience? A constant service delivered in a friendly fashion, with edible food, drinkable drinks and reasonable comfort. These are in my opinion some of the best things to have in the sky.
I am defiantly NOT a fan of 3 x 3 x 3 seating configurations and much prefer the 2 x 3 x 2 or 2 x 4 x 2 configurations that are out there. In addition seating policy is to be honest a pain up the rear, and whilst I accept it is something that they wish to keep for their elites, other airlines do allow pre-assignment at booking no matter what your status is with an airline or alliance.
Will it be enough for me to switch my flying from *A to OW? I don't think so to be honest - OneWorld is defiantly a "premium" alliance and thus, having a premium pocket helps (especially if on expense accounts or corporate travel agents) - except I'm not.
I'm travelling on my own coin so I have to evaluate each alliance and airline as needed – thus restricting me to N fares, and bottom of the bucket earning where I can (except when I can score a cheap upgrade). The fact I’m 22,231 miles up in a program I might never credit to for some time is of course besides the point.
So really – thumbs up to British Airways for the delivered product with good delivery both in front and back, but change the booking policy (although your tier point policy is improving) and I might be back.
Right. Enough cricket (2:1 by the way Australia. Tinnies can be cried to anytime. Please recycle them, and do NOT send them to The Oval) ... and enough of me yattering on.
October is coming - so it'll be time to ponder what catering delights UA will be serving...
Bet you can't wait
Comments and thoughts welcome
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