Mystery solved

My Magical Mystery Tour was supposed to take me to London, the south of England and a few of the haunts I frequented when I first went to the UK. Sadly, due to reasons explained here, that didn’t come to pass.

Instead, I’ll be off to another of my regular haunts, Bangkok, with the possibility of a sidetrip or two to nearby nations.

I’ll be flying Oman Air in their Dreamliner service from Muscat to Bangkok, which is a new experience to me and one I will blog about on this site.

Updates to come.

Bangkok cat
Bangkok cat

Frequent frustration

Some of my Australian friends are big critics of our national airline, Qantas. I can honestly say that I’ve never had a problem with the Flying Kangaroo, either on the ground or in the air. Well, until a few days ago, I could say that.

It seemed like a simple thing to book a Frequent Flyer classic rewards flight from Dubai to London. I wanted a business class seat on May 6 (that’s today as I write this). Continue reading Frequent frustration

To go or not to go?

The Sphinx, Cairo

It’s often been said that the world is getting smaller. Thanks to affordable and efficient travel, especially air travel, it is now possible for many of us to visit places of which we could once only dream.

But it’s also the case that, for reasons of personal safety, there are now many places that we have to strike off our itineraries. Continue reading To go or not to go?

Review: Atlantic Lounge, Munich

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First up: a disclosure. I have an issue with Munich Airport. It’s a bit boring, so it’s at the end of this review, but I thought I best declare it in case it somehow influenced this review. I don’t think it did.

Those fortunate enough to have the use of premium lounges at airports know that the quality of these places can vary enormously. Continue reading Review: Atlantic Lounge, Munich

Another class act

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I’ve written before about flying first class with Etihad Airways. And, to be honest, I thought I’d be writing now about the business class experience on my flight from Abu Dhabi to Munich.

But then they upgraded me to first class. So this is about that experience. And it was slightly different to last time, because it was a different aircraft. Continue reading Another class act

Lounging around

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One of the best benefits of frequent-flyer scheme membership is access to airport lounges. They certainly enhance the trip — to the point where some travellers prefer the pre- (and sometimes post-) flight experience to the flight itself.

My flight-cruise adventure began properly in the Etihad Premium Lounge at Abu Dhabi airport. Or, more correctly, lounges — because I sampled both the Terminal 3 Premium Lounge, where I’ve been many times, and the Terminal 1 Premium Lounge, which was located closer to my departure gate. Continue reading Lounging around

Too good to be true

I certainly couldn’t believe my eyes when I received Qantas Hotels’ “Leap year Craziness” email.

Check out these accommodation prices:

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Sadly, I was too slow to catch the bargain of a lifetime. It was quickly followed by this correction.

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Update: Qantas responded to my tweet about this as follows:

Red planet express

Mars Curiosity Rover selfie (Nasa)
Mars Curiosity Rover selfie (Nasa)

Here’s some good news for those of you planning a trip to Mars.

According to this report, Nasa is looking at a way to reduce travel time to the red planet  to just three days.

The secret, apparently, is something called photonic propulsion, which may or may not be related to warp speed on Star Trek. The Daily Mail, a British newspaper, describes it as “a technique that uses light from lasers to produce thrust to drive spacecraft”.

Given that no humans have actually been to Mars yet, the estimated average current mission time is 162 days, and the expectation is that people who go there won’t be able to return, I wouldn’t be racing out to buy a ticket right now.

But at the same time, I was born before men landed on the Moon, defying all expectations, so anything is possible.

Meanwhile, checkout Nasa.gov for the latest on space exploration.

 

 

What’s in a name?

A Virgin Australia aircraft
A Virgin Australia aircraft (Virginaustralia.com)

A harmless case of mistaken identity, or a security nightmare? The story of two women with similar names who were assigned the same boarding pass is certainly cause for consideration.

As news.com.au reports, two women — one named Michelle Cheung and the other Michelle Cheng — both had passes for the same seat on a Virgin Airlines flight from Perth to Sydney.

It turned out that one of them was in fact a Qantas customer who had somehow received a Virgin boarding pass, and had had her bags stowed on the Virgin plane. Luckily, it was sorted out on the ground before take-off.

Now, I’m sure both airlines are worried about how this could happen, and are taking measures to avoid a repetition.

I was in a similar situation on a KLM flight from Mumbai to Amsterdam many years ago, when another man came along with a boarding pass for the seat I was already occupying.

The solution then was to upgrade me to business class (as I’d paid a full-price fare and the other chap was on a discounted ticket), which I certainly didn’t mind.

Security wasn’t so high on my personal worry list back then, but I think I really would be uncomfortable if the same thing happened today.