The classic Little Golden Book Gordon’s Jet Flight, by Naomi Glasson and Mel Crawford, was first published in 1961. I read it when I was old enough to read Little Golden Books.
In my memory, it was about a little boy’s first flight on a Boeing 747 Jumbo, but as the cover shows, it was about the B707, which was still a mighty plane in its day.
I’ve been having to-and-fro conversations with Qantas’s social media team and other interested parties since I wrote this piece about my Frequent Flyer points.
Basically, my complaint was — and is — about phantom availability: reward seats that show up on the Qantas web page but have actually already been booked by somebody else.
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
I certainly couldn’t believe my eyes when I received Qantas Hotels’ “Leap year Craziness” email.
Check out these accommodation prices:
Sadly, I was too slow to catch the bargain of a lifetime. It was quickly followed by this correction.
Update: Qantas responded to my tweet about this as follows:
@debritz Hi Brett, this was due to a technical glitch. A new email with correct prices has been sent out, sorry for any confusion.
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.
In an age when many of us are constantly connected to the internet, it seems like an anomaly that wi-fi is still not widely available on planes.
Mind you, it also seems like and anomaly that you can’t use your phone or other mobile device during taxiing, take-off and landing on most airlines. (Apparently the jury is still out on that one; if there’s any chance my device will interfere with the navigational equipment, I’m prepared to forgo its use.)
Anyway, Qantas has just joined the club of airlines that do offer internet to their passengers. Not just internet but, according to its media release, “fast free wifi”. Which, of course, is the very best kind.
According to the release, the new service, on domestic Australian routes, will feature speeds up to 10 times faster than conventional on-board wi-fi, giving customers the ability to stream movies, TV shows, the latest news bulletins and live sport.
But don’t get too excited just yet.
In-flight trials are expected to begin with a single Qantas Boeing 737 aircraft in late 2016. A full roll-out across Qantas Domestic’s fleet of A330s and B737s is planned from early 2017, with the aircraft to be fitted with modems and the advanced antenna that receives the satellite signal.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce is quoted as saying that the goal was to make Australia home to the world’s best inflight wi-fi experience.
“Bringing high-speed wi-fi to the domestic aviation market has been an ambition of ours for a long time and we now have access to the right technology to make it happen,” Mr Joyce said in the release.
“The sheer size of the Australian landmass creates some significant challenges for inflight connectivity but the recent launch of nbn’s satellite has opened up new opportunities that we plan to take advantage of with ViaSat’s help.”
