Flight: CX178

Carrier: Cathay Pacific

Class: Premium Economy

Terminal: I rarely ever use online check in for international flights as I like the look of the airline issued boarding passes in my travel wallet rather than a printed piece of A4 paper, however my excitement for travels was overwhelming during my last day in the office so I decided to give it a go. Melbourne isn’t equipped apparently to issue electronic boarding passes, so with my two printed passes my friend kindly dropped me to the airport where I quickly joined the Premium Economy check in lane (it was shorter and moving faster than the business lane which I could have used with my frequent flyer card) and within a few minutes had my bag checked all the way to Paris, was given an express card for immigration/security and even had a set of real boarding passes reprinted by the agent.

The express path really does speed up the process at Melbourne with express paths for both security and immigration clearance making the experience much faster. Once airside I quickly stopped to buy a travel adaptor in duty free, during which I noticed the person in front of me was getting a discounted price. I figured there was no harm in asking if I could have a discount too, 20% off later and now I’m a temporary member of airline crew – score!

I had been given mixed reviews about the Cathay Lounge at Melbourne with many people suggesting that I skip it entirely and head to the Malaysian Lounge instead. I’ll add an InLounge review about it shortly, however in short, I decided to give it a go and although it is small and cosy it wasn’t that packed tonight and thus was comfortable enough for the wait for the flight. Sure it’s no Qantas first lounge but given that closes around 17:30 the Cathay Lounge did the job.

Departure: Most of my international flights out of Melbourne have been either early morning or day flights so the 23:45 departure time was something different for me. Board was called about 45mins before departure, and the business class line made boarding easy. Unfortunately this was only available to me due to my OneWorls status, with general Premium Economy passengers having to use the longer economy queue. With only about 30ish seats on board a premium economy boarding lane would be a great added benefit Cathay could consider.

Noise cancelling headsets, an amenity kit and an upsized economy blanket and pillow were waiting on each premium economy seat on boarding, before the crew came around the cabin offering juice water or champagne before take off. The overhead bin space available was also a noticeable improvement to economy with plenty of bin storage space available. Sipping on the glass of champagne filled the few minutes while I waited for the remaining economy passenger to board before almost right in schedule we pushed back, taxied and climbed out of Melbourne for the overnight flight to Hong Kong.

Seat: Premium economy seats are configured in a 2-3-2 layout on the A330 that runs this sector with the first row of premium economy, row 30 having an amazing amount between it and the bulkhead behind business class. Each seat in this row has IFE and tray tables in the armrest, which potentially reduce the width of the seat a little compared to the rest but they have the benefit of a fold out leg rest which the other rows do not have. You can find the exact measurements somewhere online for yourself but the seat feels really quite comfortable, with soft padding a decent recline and an adjustable headrest making the seat feel much more comfortable than the standard economy seat. It’s a good fit between economy and business, I don’t think it would cannibalise Cathay’s amazing looking business product, but definitely an affordable upgrade from economy.

Aircraft: Airbus A330-300. I’m not sure how new the fit out of the premium economy cabin is in this bird but she looks extremely fresh so it’s either relatively new or has been maintained pretty well. Walking through the business cabin while boarding is always a tease however the premium economy cabin looks quite private and cosy compared to the larger two economy sections behind. The premium economy cabin doesn’t have it’s own toilets, which is a bit of a downside, however the toilets in economy are kept really clean during the flight and the wait wasn’t bad long considering there are four toilets for 200people.

IFE: In the first row of premium economy (and presumably economy as well) the IFE monitor stows in the armrest which has its own pros and cons. The pro’s being that you can sometimes get a better viewing angle while reclining however the con being its not available during take off and landing. Unfortunately the locking mechanism on mine was a tad faulty, meaning every now and then it would just fall to the ground (or just land on my legs).

The range of content was pretty good, with the usual array of movies, TV shows, documentaries, games etc available and the interface is really easy to navigate either using the handheld controller or using the touch screen. I really like the ability to make a track list of your own, which it remembers and plays as background music while you navigate other menus. If the content isn’t what you are after you can dock your iDevice with the system using a special cable but I didn’t give this a try as, for the first time in a very long while I didn’t actually use the IFE that much at all, and instead either slept or ate during the overnight flight. This isn’t so much a criticism of the IFE but more so if the comfortable seat that allowed even this insomniac to sleep. The noise cancelling headset, while not the best on the market makes a notable difference in reducing the background hum of this relatively quiet A330.

Each seat is also equipped with a universal power point and USB charging slot which makes keeping all your devices fully charged for arrival really handy.

Meal: Premium Economy menu’s were distributed shortly before take off offering 3 main choices for tonights supper service as follows:

Black Bean Chicken with rice, pak choy, mushrooms and carrots
Seared Beef fillet with Cafe de Paris butter, roaster kipfler potatoes, baby carrot and asparagus
Palak paneer, dual masala, mushrooms and peas, turmeric basmatic rice

Despite being full from dinner, I opted for the beef which each main also being served with shaved ham and a chunky potato salad. I also had a glass of the Riesling and a Gin and Orange juice with the meal, which is probably the reason why I missed the desert which was listed to be a mango Weiss bar, as the next thing I knew it was about 5 hours later and I was waking up from a decent snooze. The crew had cleaned up my table without waking me – good effort as I’m a very light sleeper. The crew apologised during the breakfast service for not bringing me a peppermint tea after the dinner service as they didn’t want to wake me up – very sweet of them!

Breakfast was served about 1:30 before landing which was not too early, and two main choices were again offered being the usual eggs, bacon and random sausage or a chicken and mushroom congee. I went the egg option and unfortunately this time the eggs were really ordinary. The accompanying fruit, yoghurt and croissant were however more than enough for a breakfast.

I was trying to work out the difference in meals between economy and premium economy, however without seeing the other menu I can only assume they are similar. The supper service was in premium economy was served in nicer table wear than you usually get in economy, however the breakfast service was served in the standard foil tray.

Arrival: Despite turbulence being advertised by the crew during the preflight chat from the captain none eventuated and the landing into Hong Kong was smooth and perfectly on time. Having a 17 hour gap between flights I decided to head into Hong Kong for the day so headed for immigration clearance. Within minutes of jointing the very short immigration line I was literally on the other side of Customs and ready to catch a train into town! An amazingly fast airport experience!

Crew: Faultless service by the crew as you would expect when flying with Cathay Pacific. I’ve flown Cathay in business before and the staff today in premium economy provided the same level of professionalism in this cabin. Cathay advertise one crew member dedicated to the cabin, however it seemed the meal services started on both aisles with staff from economy helping before the trolleys headed backwards to the main cabin.

Overall: I was really quite impressed with my first Premium economy experience. I think it provides a good value for money proposition and provides a noticeable increase in comfort, space and service from economy. I think you can judge the success of a flight by how you feel when you arrive at your destination. Despite being an overnight flight which I generally struggle to sleep on, I got a decent block of sleep and arrived fresh and ready for a day long stopover exploring Hong Kong. All in all a great first experience, and something I’d definitely recommend. Well done Cathay Pacific.

Hope you enjoyed this review, apologies if the images are a little lower quality than previously or if there are a few typos, this was my first blog attempt using only mobile devices (iPhone, iPad). It saved some time so will see how it turns out. Enjoy and keep up to date on my twitter @carlousmoochous

So I thought it would be an interesting exercise to do some actual fact checking, you know that thing that a long, long time ago on a distant planet that resembled earth journalists did before publishing a story?  So, here’s my quick dissection of the article (which you can read here providing news.com.au haven’t realised what a disgrace it is and taken it down) with a few facts thrown in. Granted, my story isn’t as interesting, but hopefully even from this arm chair blogger it is a little more accurate.

Myth # 1: Door Opening Mid Flight. “Emirates A380 door opened mid-flight”. I’m sorry but this just doesn’t hold water for a few reasons. Firstly, anyone who has ever watched an aircraft door open or close will have noticed that the door is actually a bit bigger than the hole in the airplane’s fuselage. When the door opens and closes it swings into the cabin first, then sort of rotates a bit before extending out again. This design feature makes it near impossible for the door to be “opened” while the aircraft is at altitude. The higher pressure of the cabin inside pushes the door towards the lower pressure outside, making a snug fit into the fuselage and no room for the door to just fly off. A few locking mechanisms probably help too.

Myth # 2: “Massive Explosion”. The tourist claims “hearing a massive explosion” and feared a “bomb had gone off” when the “superjumbo blew open at 27,000ft”, after which the crew stuffed the hole with blankets, pillows and gaffer tape.  Explosive decompressions do happen, but when they do, you don’t fix them with a few blankets and pillows. Also, when they happen, the crew make a rather sudden descent to lower levels, oxygen masks fall from those panels above your head, you fit them within about 15seconds or you start to loose consciousness. Given that the tourist didn’t need the mask, the plane didn’t rapidly descend, and everyone remained conscious, I’m going to say that this wasn’t a “massive explosion” nor was it like a bomb going off.

It’s probably best to demonstrate this with a few pictures that I found on the internet of actual explosive decompressions. The first being that of a Qantas 747-400 that had an oxygen cylinder explode and punch one hell of a hole in the cabin, depressurising the aircraft and resulting in an emergency landing.

Source: http://luckyaviation.blogspot.com.au/2008/07/explosion-on-quantas-747.html

The second, a little more drastic and possibly the most drastic you’ll ever see that landed to tell the tale, is an Aloha Airlines flight which lost a massive section of fuselage. The common theme with these two images is that blankets and pillows didn’t really help fix the problem. Thus I’m going to say that this wasn’t a massive explosion.

Source: http://aviationaccidents1.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/aloha-airlines-flight-243-cabrio.html

Myth # 3: “We’re going to go down”. Perspective time: If those planes I showed above landed, then a broken seal, which is what Emirates and Airbus say was the likely cause of a “whistle” coming from one of the doors, was not going to bring down the A380. There have been many reports of getting ice build up around doors where seals have broken in the past, but in themselves they don’t risk the aircraft’s integrity. The crew may have put blankets and towels to reduce the noise levels, similar to what a hotel did to me one day when the wind was whistling under it, but it wasn’t done to keep the door from blowing off or to keep the plane flying. Perspective again, if an actual decompression had occurred, the plane would have descended and landed pretty quickly, however as it didn’t, it was just as safe to continue to the next port, land as usual and fix the problem there.  The flight is only a couple of hours anyway.

Myth # 4: Private Pilot’s don’t fly an A380 for a reason. I’ve done some flight training before too, yet put me in an A380 cockpit and I’d almost guarantee to not know pretty much anything (other than there’s lots of pretty cool tech in there). Yet, any pilot, no matter how new they are to flying should have an elementary grasp of aerodynamics and understand that the pressurised cabin isn’t what’s keeping the plane flying anyway. Thus I’m a bit confused as to how our terrified private pilot tourist was so terrified if he knew from basic flight training, that all the things he says were going on to bring the plane down, really weren’t happening. Perhaps the CAA should get him to take his theory exam again before he flies.

Myth # 5: The Magical multilevel curtain barrier. Emirates Airbus A380’s have business and first class on the upper deck, and economy on the lower deck. Thus its pretty much impossible to close a curtain between the economy and business cabins as they are on separate floors. This myth doesn’t really need any science behind it and casts doubt as to if the passenger knew what plane he was on.

Myth # 6: The image of an A380 on the ground attached to the story looks more like a ceremony or something than an investigation.

Fact # 1: Eventually the article does quote some facts from both Emirates and Airbus spokesmen, which basically disprove everything that was said before. Of course before the writer presented actual facts, it had to pull the heartstrings of the now terrified readers with a history of the passengers previous medical conditions and the chest infection that he suffered as a result of the incident, both of which were pivotal to the cause of the incident.

I don’t pretend that what I or others like me write on a blog like this is always going to be 100% accurate, but lately I’ve found that it’s often people with a passion about a topic are putting out decent articles on issues, while the established media are just pumping out whatever error ridden rubbish they think will sell a few papers to the ignorant. Meanwhile, I made a grand total of 6 cents yesterday from my blog, while this article, which many readers will have read half of and taken it as fact, probably made thousands in online advertising alone.

The media love an aviation story, and with the Dreamliner still grounded I guess they were struggling for something to keep people afraid of flying and interested in reading their stories about how “terrified tourists” holidays were ruined by airlines negligence. However they get away with it because people keep reading it. So, next time you read one of these “Aircraft Disaster” articles, think twice before you share, like or tweet it, as its most likely just adding to a whole heap of ignorance and scaremongering around something that is one of the safest and highly regulated modes of transports around.

Image Sources: 

• Aloha Airlines Picture: http://aviationaccidents1.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/aloha-airlines-flight-243-cabrio.html
• Qantas Decompression Picture: http://luckyaviation.blogspot.com.au/2008/07/explosion-on-quantas-747.html

Flight: JQ1

Carrier: Jetstar

Class: Economy

Terminal: After not flying anywhere for over a month it was an exciting prospect to head back out to the airport and get airborne again. Truth be told, I think I was a little too excited tweeting about every step of the way, from the train station near home, getting on the skybus, arriving at the airport, you get the idea. Even though I knew check in only opened 3 hours before departure, we ended up there about 3 and a half hours before wheels up. As check in was open for the previous Bangkok flight I’d thought we may as well try our luck, to quickly find that there is no bending of the rules around here so we waited grabbing a coffee for the 3hours pre departure time to come by.

The international departures hall at Melbourne is one of my favourite, which may be largely biased due to it being my home port but I’ll explain what I like about it. Firstly, it’s clean and well laid out with several old school clicker boards displaying departing flight information before a series of check in counters. Recent renovations have moved a few duty free stores to add further check in counters, which were the ones Jetstar were  using this afternoon.

Secondly, if you’re connecting from a domestic flight there are no pesky buses or trains to catch, the international terminal is located smack bang between the Qantas and Virgin Australia terminals in the one building complex. This means that it’s just a short walk to connect to or from an international flight in Melbourne, reducing your minimum connection time or leaving more time to enjoy one of the lounges, speaking of which, that’s where I wanted to be.

Arriving back at the Jetstar check in queue right on 3 hours a nice queue had already formed, moving at a snails pace. Trying to eavesdrop on the check in conversations ahead of me I worked out the the delays were partly due to the bulk of travellers being relatively unfamiliar with the Jetstar process, and the other half due to the number of documents required at check in. My usual check in process involves a quick scan of the passport, weigh of the bags, issue of the boarding pass followed by a welcoming “enjoy your flight” before heading towards security.

This wasn’t the case today, with each passenger being required to present proof of ESTA (the visa for people under a visa waiver program), name and address of hotel for the first night, itinerary and then the usual passport. A lot of this seems unnecessary, but at the same time I can understand why Jetstar do it and other airlines don’t. From what I’m aware, most of this information is used / required as part of the pre departure information that is sent across the pacific to the US to determine if you can or can’t be boarded. I presume the recapture of this information at check in reduces delays at boarding from people who get a denied boarding message due to  a lack of information provided.

I’m also under the assumption that other airlines have much easier access to this information, and thus can preempt it, and not require proof of everything from each passenger. Alternatively, other airlines may be willing to cop the fine/pay for the deportation of passengers who fail to enter at the border, whereas Jetstar probably don’t want to use thier budget for such expenses.

Check In finally complete, and another tweet from JetStar, we moved across to international departures, boarding passes checked and into the standard queue for security. No Platinum priority treatment here. As we approached the mid way point we were pulled aside for a random explosive check to which Cam suggested it was because I was dodgy looking, to which the security lady quickly responded, “no, it’s because he’s cute” which was a nice addition to the ego.

After passing that random selection without loosing my phone number to the lovely but not my type lady, we were able to skip the remainder of ten queue and go to the crew line, at which I was randomly selected to use the full body scanner. New legislation recently passed no longer gives passengers the option of having a pat down instead of the full body scanner (unless medical conditions exist) so unlike the US, the machine appears more automated and much faster, skipping the general screening queue, and being present with a big green screen saying “Ok” on the other side.

The queues pretty much disappeared once at Customs with several counters open and everyone clearing very quickly in the new and much more modern departures area. A short walk through the duty free shopping mall to the centre of the terminal, up a lift and into the Qantas First Lounge ended that part of the arrival process. The Qantas First lounges are definitely worthy of a review of their own so I’ll post that later, in the meantime, after a three course lunch the old school departures board clicked over to boarding and we headed back downstairs to gate 7 for boarding.

Departure: Boarding hadn’t yet commenced when we arrived at the gate, however a long line had already formed so like sheep we joined the line and waited for something to happen. A few minutes later boarding for business class and those sitting at the rear of the plane was called, so I took a seat by the window and waited till the “all remaining passengers are now invited to board” announcement was made. I must admit that the boarding by rows is actually a really efficient way of boarding the aircraft.

Despite having a face to passport to boarding pass check being complete no less than three times, and clearing security, another US rule means that passengers can get randomly selected for further security screening at the gate. Thus any flights going to the US have temporary screens places around the the boarding area allowing security to conduct another face to passport check, and potentially further screening. Like most people, we thought that after passing this point we surely thought passports wouldn’t be needed again, however sure enough the queue ground to a halt as everyone got the passport page out for a final passport check when surrendering your boarding pass to the airline agent – just in case someone managed to change identities in that 10 metres from the last check.

We boarded through door 1L, walked through the small Business Class (aka Star Class) cabin and found our seats. The beauty about being in the last group for boarding was that it was only a few minutes before the final door was closed and we were ready to push back. The captain introduced the crew and informed us that the copilot would be doing most of the flying today, and that he was aiming to fly a little faster to try and get us in a bit early today.

Our taxi took us to the northernmost point of the airfield, and after a Virgin Australia 737 landed we made a long yet seemingly casual take off roll and climbed out of Melbourne towards the south. A few climbing right hand turns later we were back to where we started from, albeit much higher as we passed the airport overhead and headed towards Sydney. The overhead screens occasionally reminded us of our position during the flight, which roughly tracked over Noumea, to the north of Fiji then across the equator towards Honolulu.

Seat:  27 J & K. The seats and the aircraft as a whole wasn’t what I was expecting after taking a Sydney to Melbourne flight on a JetStar A330 a de months earlier. The cleanliness was seriously disappointing with lots of crumbs and dirt from the previous guest on both the seats and ground around. A section of the cover for the seat tracking on the floor is also only half attached and the safety cards in the seat pocket are well worn and due for a replacement. I know this is a budget, low cost carrier but general cleanliness and maintenance should not be an opt in extra so this was rather disappointing.

The seats themselves however are dressed in a dark grey leather and offer a reasonable amount of legroom for economy, with my knees having some space and Cams knees (at 6’4) not being around his ears. The base padding is comfortable enough for the first 4 hours or so after which it seems to compress down and feels quite hard. The backrest has a thinner padding, feeling like the tray table from the person behind me is in the centre of my back. The headrest on the aisle side moves quite freely and is easily adjustable however the window side is very stiff and hard to get comfortable. You can however rest your head against the wall paneling as there is a window missing, while the remaining window provides a view onto the engine and if you look backwards a little, the wing.

The seat is relatively comfortable for a budget airline, the legroom is sufficient and it doesn’t feel overly claustrophobic. Each seat has a reasonable recline too meaning its not impossible to get semi comfortable. But like all longer haul flights, any economy seat is going to get a little cosy after a while. Not that you’ll need it on a flight to Hawaii, but there is a small coat hook attached to the seat in front of you, should you have the desire to take away any feeling of space you have with your jacket.

Aircraft:  Airbus A330-200 (VH-EBA). I have a feeling that this is one of the original A330′s that came across from Qantas when JetStar first started using the type; I’ll try and check that but the style of the interior seats suggests its an ex Qantas bird. The forward section of the cabin is host to Jetstar’s business class in a 2-2 configuration before opening up into two much larger cabins with 2-4-2 economy seating configuration. If you’re in either business or economy, and sitting on the aisle, watch your elbows as these aisles are seriously narrow. However you can lift up both the centre and aisle armrests, making it easier to get in and out of the seats.

There are plenty of overhead bins available, each trimmed with a continuous orange stripe running the length of the cabin. I’m quite surprised that despite being one of the last to board, and the lack of any free checked baggage allowance, there is still ample room for our two small bags in the overhead locker above our seat. There were a lot of people checking bags back at check in so I’m guessing JetStar are making a fair few dollars out of the baggage fees on this route.

IFE: In a serious disappointment, this aircraft lacks seat back inflight entertainment, despite it being advertised on the Jetstar web page as A330′s offering seat back entertainment, similar to what I’d seen on my last much shorter flight on one of these JetStar birds. Having prepaid for entertainment, I was curious as to what we would get, but after not too long iPads started to be distributed around the cabin. Fortunately we had pre booked as shortly after they started distributing these around an announcement was made that the allocation was exhausted and that there would be none available for purchase on this flight. They would however be offering some entertainment on the overhead monitors for which headphones ($3) were available for purchase.

At first sceptical that the iPad would last the full flight, the back up battery meant it remained at 100% charge the whole flight. Each iPad was loaded with a selection of movies, tv program’s, some games and some audio channels/cd’s although none of the audio content was very new. I watched a few movies and several episodes of the new normal and modern family during the 10ish hour flight. I was cautious not too watch all of my favourites as I suspect the content won’t have changed much between this flight and the return flight home so wanted to save some for the longer return flight.

Overall the iPad provided a decent selection of content for the flight duration, however it was annoying that you had to have your tray table down to rest the iPad on, and the angle wasn’t easily adjustable to get a good view. A cradle that attached somehow to the seat in front would have been a much better option. I would have preferred the seat back entertainment however the iPad did help pass the time, without which the overhead entertainment looked pretty ordinary and would have made the flight a lot less bearable and very much like the old days of travel (I’m talking the mid 90’s).

Meal: JetStar offers a Café service on board with a limited range of snacks and meals available for purchase via credit card during the flight. The other option for meals which can save some money is to pre purchase a meals pack when you make your booking. Although after a 3 course meal in the first lounge just before boarding we probably didn’t need dinner, given I wanted to try out their full service and we had already paid, we got dinner.

One of the benefits to pre-paying is that you get a better choice from meals that are available on board. For the dinner service we had a choice of chicken curry with rice and vegetables, beef stroganoff with potato’s (which was more like a casserole really) and a vegetarian option, which appeared to mainly consist of mushrooms. The crew were helpful in the selection by peeling the tin foil off and showing each meal to us, which reminded me of how Cathay Pacific shows off its meals in business class, albeit these meals didn’t really compare to Cathay obviously. We went for the chicken and beef options.

Even after the great lunch in the first lounge, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food. Sure it’s economy fare, but it wasn’t bad and was probably very similar to any other economy hot meal. Perhaps my expectations were exceeded as I was expecting a horrible meal like I’d experienced on AirAsia the last time I flew on an LCC. The main difference is that its not served on a tray, nor does it come with a side salad or a dessert. Our pre-ordered meals come with a hot and cold, non alcoholic beverage too. Shortly after the main meal service the lights were turned off to allow for some sleep on this time travelling overnight flight.

One advantage of having to pay for everything on board, is that you don’t over eat or over drink just because its there like I often find myself doing when flying. However we did find ourselves buying a few soft drinks on the flight as 10 hours in a dry cabin without fluids is a mistake. Bottled water is available for sale if you don’t want to risk drinking from the on board drinking fountain, which is free. I drank from it once, that was enough.

About 2 hours before arrival the lights came on and a breakfast meal was served. I know every airline does it to make sure the cabin is well and truly ready for landing, but 2 hours is a long time before landing to eat breakfast. Especially when that equates to 3:50am on your destinations clock. Even an extra 40mins later would be great. Again there were 2 options for hot breakfast, being scrambled eggs, with sausage and bacon and a quiche with mushrooms and bacon. If, like my other half, eggs aren’t your fancy, bring your own breaky as you wont be satisfied with either option. We ended up with one of each, with me eating the egg components and Cam eating all the sides.

I like eggs, but there is something about the reheating process that just doesn’t work that great. I’d actually much prefer a cold breakfast, maybe like some muesli or something else that works best when its had some time to just soak in itself for a few hours. Another hot and cold beverage accompanied the breakfast, and about an hour after everything was cleaned up we began our descent into Hawaii.

Arrival: Our on time departure, and our first officers heavy foot (or more likely favourable winds) meant that our arrival into Hawaii was earlier than expected, with the island still sleeping through a winters night as we touched down 20 mins early. As it was dark, views were limited to the lights of Honolulu just before touchdown, followed by watching the airport gradually wake up as we taxied to our gate. On arrival we disembarked via Door 1L, where we were directed up the escalators where the crew said buses would take us to the international terminal and immigration. However, like sheep we all just followed the people in front that just walked along the corridor instead, and shortly afterwards arriving in the immigration hall. Although you could have taken a bus (if it were there) it’s really not necessary as the walk isn’t far at all.

Immigration and Customs clearance was very polite and efficient however the baggage carousel used was grossly undersized for the number of bags on the flight, however the staff cleared the jams pretty quickly and it wasn’t long before our bags were in hand and heading out through Customs for a taxi. I was somewhat amazed that from docking at the gate to getting into a taxi was complete in under 20minutes. Try achieving that at LAX!

Crew: The main cabin crew were mainly Malaysian while the business cabin crew, in their bright orange jackets appeared to be mainly an Aussie crew. I’m not sure how JetStar operate the flight but it looks like the crew are provided by JetStar Asia, perhaps on a wet lease? Anyone who knows how JetStar crew the A330’s for Hawaii feel free to pipe in and explain it to me. Regardless of how the airline crews the aircraft, the crew were great. Perhaps it’s the buy on board model and maybe even incentives for good sales, but no request seemed to be an inconvenience and all call bells were answered extremely promptly and purchases delivered fast. I’m sure everyone has experienced pressing the button and being greeted by a grumpy crew member who wants to know why you’re disturbing them before, but there was none of that on this flight.

The crew were definitely an on demand service, so if you want something you really need to press the button as unlike other airlines other than the main meal services and the odd snack sales aisle pass, the crew keep to themselves. Overall I couldn’t find anything to fault the crew on, they operated well within the JetStar LCC business model and were helpful and there when you wanted them.

Overall: Despite having some rather major reservations on taking a low cost carrier on a semi long haul flight, I was pleasantly surprised as to the service on board the aircraft. The check in process in Melbourne however was a shambles and I don’t really understand how the home port can be so inefficient, however that aside, once on board the service was good. The key I think to flying with them is to set your expectations correctly. The time old phrase, “you get what you pay for” is definitely true. If you go in with expectations of the first class lounge service continuing on board, you’re going to be severely disappointed.

However if you are looking to save some money and some time, the direct flight from Melbourne to Honolulu will be an attractive option. I bought my airfare during the launch sale, and once I added baggage, frequent flyer points, meals and entertainment it was under $500 return per person making it an unbelievably good price. In comparison to today, if you look at the base JetStar fare it’s cheaper than Qantas, however once you add on all the add ons, which really I don’t think you’d be smart not to add for a long flight, the fare difference is only about $250. The A330 is probably a more comfortable aircraft than the 767 Qantas use and it’s a direct service too, but it begs the question, is JetStar really that much cheaper? I’d say no, but it is a lot more profitable for the Qantas group.

Flight: VX 2

Carrier: Virgin America

Class: First

Terminal: I’ve flown into Washington’s Dulles airport before and made the rather long trek into the downtown area but the last time I departed Washington on Amtrack to New York, thus this was my first airborne departure out of the Washington area. Last time I was in town I remembered watching planes take to the skies while exploring the Lincoln Memorial and National Mall, so I made sure that for this trip, I’d depart out of Washington’s Ronald Reagan (DCA) airport to take advantage of its close city centre location, and maybe even catch an aerial view of downtown DC.

Staying with a colleague in Arlington getting to DCA was easy using the Metro’s orange line to Rosslyn before changing to the blue line for the few stops through Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon before coming up to the surface and arriving at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Depending on where in downtown you might be coming from either the yellow or blue lines will get you here. If there is a reliable public transport option available to an airport, I’m always a fan of taking it – and by reliable, I mean rail as for me airport buses just don’t cut it.

On the short ride from Rosslyn to DCA I chatted with some American Airlines cabin crew, who were getting directions from a local after a quick shopping trip during a layover. Obviously whatever advice he gave them before I arrived was good as they were hoping he was on their flight, alas for them, and perhaps him too, he was flying on another airline.

Once I arrived at the station there is a covered walkway taking you under the road level and straight onto Level 2, which is the concourse level of the terminal building. I noticed that this section of the terminal appears quite long, but is also rather narrow and spread over a few levels with check in upstairs on Level 3, the concourse and gates all on level 2 and then presumably baggage claim below that on level 1. I took the escalators upstairs for check in, which is a little different if you have bags to check compared to many airports around the world.

My boarding pass was quickly issued, and despite the friendly and very on Virgin brand agent reminding me many times that I had to take my bag with me and drop it off with the TSA, once I had my boarding pass in hand I walked off. The agent must be very experienced in this, as he quickly called me back and, a bit embarrassed, I took my bag the 20m to the TSA checked baggage screening point where I left it in a very unsecure spot with a pile of other bags while the TSA began doing whatever they do with them. I’m guessing it’s due to a lack of space, but having these strange boxed off areas for the screening of luggage before it goes into the bowels of the airport is a bit ugly, and seems rather inefficient. Surely an online baggage screening point in the central baggage conveyance system must be more cost and time effective? Anyway, my bag was dropped as required and I proceeded back down to Level 2 for the next security gauntlet.

My flight departed from the Gate 23-34 concourse so I headed to that security checkpoint which had 3 queue points; two on each end and a central one for premium guests. Unfortunately, the lines were so long that it was in effect 4 queue entry points with 2 at each end. I still don’t understand how security clearance points are so inefficient in the USA and always a cause of long, disorderly and frustrating queues. I think someone would write a thesis studying how human behaviour changes when faced with a TSA checkpoint; people seem to pretend to know what they need to do, and thus ignore any advice offered by staff as to how to speed the process up – e.g. take out your ID, take off your shoes, prepare to loose your dignity. Each step of the process is rather painful to watch, but eventually the premium line, which wasn’t moving any faster than any of the other lines, got me to the other side and ready for my departure.

Arriving early and without any lounge to be seen I wandered around the concourse, checked out some food outlets, bought a slice of pizza and then found a free seat at the far end of the terminal, overlooking the American Eagle gates and the arriving and departing runways. If you’ve got some time to kill this is actually a great place to sit as you see most planes coming and going, and get to observe the boarding of several gates that depart from this end of the concourse. There is decent variety of food vendors around and a couple of sit down bar/restaurant places too if you are in the mood for that. It is a little crowded, but not too bad with plenty of empty seats still available despite flights coming and going from the surrounding gates.

Departure: Once I saw my incoming Virgin America A320 touch down and taxi around towards our gate I decided to relinquish my runway views and wander back down to the Virgin Gate. I made my original booking as a cheap discount economy ticket for around $200 as the $1300+ First class ticket was a tad more than I wanted to pay. However my plan was always to try out the Virgin America upgrade process, to at least score myself a Main Cabin Select seat, if not a first one. The process is relatively simple, from 24 hours before departure you can check in and upgrade to main cabin select by paying between $39-$129 and from 6 hours before departure you can upgrade straight to First for between $79 and $299.

As my flight was a transcontinental flight, the upper end of those scales applied, which might sound expensive, but when you add $300 to the $200 fare I originally purchased, I in effect got the $1300+ airfare for $500. The only downside is that I earned points and status only on the base fare originally booked, however the rest of the service was the same as anyone who paid the full price. I’m only guessing, but I think these upgrades are quite popular as both the Main Cabin Select and First cabins were full on this flight, despite seats being available in both when I first looked at upgrades at T-24 and T-6 respectively.

A fresh crew were waiting at the gate while the previous crew disembarked the incoming aircraft, giving it a quick clean and topping up the fuel for the long transcon flight back to home base. Boarding commenced on time and being seated in First I was one of the first on board, ready for my first experience up the front on Virgin America. The window shades are closed during boarding which really helps the mood lighting take effect, with the purple colour scheme looking stunning and making the plane feel very stylish and modern.

It was getting dark as we pushed back pretty much on time and after a short taxi we made a long take off roll and climbed out towards the east, before turning around and heading towards the west coast. Unfortunately the side of the aircraft I selected and the fading light meant not much of a view of downtown but for me that’s just an excuse to come back and visit again soon.

Seat:  1A. There’s something about having a “1” seat number, regardless of whether its an all economy layout or a multi cabin aircraft, the look of 1 on the boarding pass is impressive – it means you’re first and in this case, being treated to the Virgin America first class service. By the window this seat feels spacious with the bulkhead in front being see through purple Perspex; You don’t feel boxed in like some front row seats can be (although really, you’d rarely ever feel boxed in when in first).

The seat itself is covered in white leather, is controlled by a blue backlight controller in the armrest and Virgin boasts 55” seat pitch. When the leg rest is extended and the seat is fully reclined it would be very easy to have a very comfortable nap or just a relax away the flight. The seat itself is quite thick and well padded too and feels more like a comfy recliner at home. The recline does steal some space from the person behind you, but it didn’t look too bad, and if you get row 1, then you don’t have anyone reclining into you anyway, so odds are good for a comfortable flight. A pillow and blanket are provided on each seat before arrival which also add to the comfort provided.

The tray table is stored in the arm rest and folds out when its time to eat while your personal TV screen folds out from beneath the centre arm rest. In the bulkhead in front of you there is a pocket for the magazine and other small item storage, although I found the cut out in the inner side of the seat also useful for small items like my camera.

Although this seat is a recliner and not a flat or semi flat bed, it’s the most comfortable recliner seat I’ve flown on and definitely all you need for any of the routes that Virgin America fly, of which this is probably one of the longest. The style is definitely on brand and is a refreshing change to the pointy end of the cabin.

Aircraft:  Airbus A320. Just like the rest of the Virgin product, its interior has been fitted out to match the fresh, young and vibrant brand that they are working hard at establishing. As I mentioned before the interior lighting is used to its best, effectively flooding the cabin sidewalls with purple light, making even the Virgin guests look like they dressed for the image. The first class cabin of two rows of four seats is separated from the forward galley and the main cabin by purple Perspex dividers which have since been adopted by Virgin Australia on their 737 fleet.

The first row behind first class as well as the second emergency exit row are called main cabin select rows, which is effectively a domestic premium economy style product offering more legroom and free food and entertainment. I’ve flown Main Cabin Select from San Francisco to Las Vegas, which you can read the review of here where I was seriously impressed. Virgin also have a Main Cabin Express class, which I don’t really understand as it seems to just be a way to charge more for seats towards the front of the cabin. On a relatively small short haul aircraft like the A320, I’m not convinced you need to effectively be running a 4 class aircraft, although I cant see much benefit between the express and main cabin product either anyway.

Overall, the aircraft is clean, really well kitted out and matches the Virgin image to a tee.

IFE: On my flight from San Fran to Vegas I checked out the “Red” entertainment system however that flight was too short to give it a good workout. This longer flight gave me a chance to watch a couple of movies, some TV episodes and listen to some music. In first and Main Cabin Select everything on the IFE is free, whereas if you are in the main cabin, you’ll need to swipe your credit card to take advantage of this system. Although its not really relevant for first class, a handy feature of the IFE system is that it doubles as a food and beverage ordering system. Gone are the days of a trolley running up and down the aisle asking if people want to buy stuff. Instead in the main cabin you order your food online, pay for it there if required and then a few minutes later a friendly member of the crew brings you your order – I love this functionality and wish more airlines would adopt it!

Of course if that’s not enough there are power outlets for every seat which you can plug your own laptop or device into, or you need to be connected you can access WiFi on all of the Virgin America fleet. The WiFi is provided by GoGo from which you can purchase a pass for either a set period or an unlimited pass. I didn’t use the WiFi on this flight but have used GoGo before and found it to be as fast as mobile broadband. The novelty factor of checking in on Facebook or Tweeting while in the air does eventually wear off.

Meal: Despite the amazing ability to order food via the IFE system, in First class the meal service today consisted of a starter berry, fetta and nut salad tastefully presented on its own tray with Virgin engraved cutlery and a 3D cube style print on the tray background which also flowed through onto the napkin design. The presentation was done well, and it wasn’t just a slap it down and remove the lid affair with each meal being carefully plated in the galley. The beauty of the Perspex divider is that you can see what they are doing in preparing your food.

Although there weren’t any options tonight each passenger was welcomed by Marc, the first class crew member and the menu was explained to each person before being individually delivered. The main meal was a meatloaf, which I’ve never really understood, but this was pretty good being served with roasted vegetables and a long bread roll. The airplane salt and pepper shaker would have made a great keepsake and I’m disappointed I didn’t remember to take it with me! Although not served separately, a rich slice of cake was provided for desert.

Drinks were flowing pretty well by the time dinner was collected, with each being served in Virgin branded glasses, of course on the Virgin napkin. I had been drinking Gin and Cranberry, trying to replicate “the Australian” mock tail served by Virgin Australia, which I tried to explain to the crew. Marc suggested that I try one of the Virgin America style cocktails today, so I took on the local advice and had a Drunken Parrot.

As the flight progressed across the continental United States we were offered other snacks from the general inflight menu, which included some great rich chocolate chip cookies that I managed to polish off a couple of boxes of before our approach into San Francisco. I really enjoyed the meal service, although some options for the main would have made a huge improvement and I’m really surprised this wasn’t already in place. The food in itself was great, not the best I’ve ever had, that goes to Singapore Airlines macadamia nut encrusted chicken, but the presentation of the food was the best I’ve experienced in North American skies.

Arrival: All things have to come to an end eventually, and despite it being one of the longest fights in the Virgin America network; it was comfortable from gate to gate. On arrival in San Francisco I made my way down to baggage claim where my bag joined me shortly afterwards without any real delay. My airport experience today ended as it started as I made my way to the BART station and a quick train ride into downtown.

Crew:  Before our decent into San Francisco I chatted to the crew in the galley for a while about their job, their airline and what they like about it. I came away from this with a feeling that the younger airline encourages a fresh and fun atmosphere in the cabin, which is reflected with the approachability and engagement their crew have with their passengers. Basically, it’s a fun experience that aims to differentiate itself from the others by adding a fresh blast of colour and excitement back into travel.

Don’t get me wrong, the crew work hard, are efficient, polite and extremely professional but they do it in an upbeat manner which makes the experience more enjoyable. I’ve only flown Virgin America twice, from check in to baggage claim I haven’t come across a stuffy member of staff once – something I can’t say for many other airlines I’ve flown. Crew are always the deal makers or breakers on a flight, and for this flight, Marc and the crew did a great job of enticing me to move more of my travel across to the Virgin branded airlines.

Overall: I got the feeling that the upbeat nature of the service and style on board was lost on some of the very stereotypical public servant types also flying in this cabin, some of which might have cringed a little about how different this airline is to your legacy carriers. On a personal level, it has me considering why I have such a strong Oneworld loyalty and why I don’t consider not only using Virgin America more when in the USA, but also their partner who is much closer to home for me, Virgin Australia. I think it comes down to network, which is growing and hopefully once people realise how good this airline is, it will continue to grow. I had a great flight and can’t wait to fly them again! Thanks Virgin America – Good Job!

Located about a block and a half away from the ferry terminal and another block south of the Parliament building in a semi residential area of downtown Victoria it is a bit of a walk to get into the heart of the city. That said, it’s very quiet and it’s really not more than 5-10 mins walk before you are in the city centre anyway.

Check-In: The boutique hotel has a small check in desk neatly presented to the right of the main entry door and despite arriving before most guests had checked out from the night before the staff were more than happy to assist me with the check in process and hold my bags before my original room was available. During this process I was offered an upgrade for about $30 to a 1-bedroom suite instead of the studio room I had originally booked, and considering that was available now I decided to take advantage of it. The check in process was pretty standard with no surprise charges so within a few minutes, key card in hand I took the lift to my first floor apartment.

Room: 1-Bedroom Suite: Entering the room I was so glad I took advantage of the upgrade, as this apartment was huge! Despite the fact I was travelling alone the space made it really feel like home instead of just another hotel room. On entering, the small foyer has access to the bathroom to the right and a large storage cupboard on the left before opening up into the main living area. A sofa which folds out to a secondary bed if you have more people staying, flat screen TV, high dining table and a large kitchen relative to the size of the apartment made up the bulk of the space with the corner bedroom with yet another large wardrobe competing the suite.

It felt like walking into a display suite; the very well maintained room was spotless and some thought had been put into the decoration used which for me at least, emphasised something different than your standard hotel. Relaxing music was playing as I entered the room from the docking station which was so subtle yet a great demonstration on the attention to detail this hotel goes to in ensuring that their guests get a good first impression of their rooms. A selection of magazines awaits you on the coffee able as does the hotel compendium.

The floor to ceiling windows dressed with white timber Venetian blinds allowed lots of natural light to enter the suite which was complemented nicely with several warm lamps which made the room look warm and cosy when the sun did go down. If the weather is warm, or you want to get closer to the sun there is a small balcony off the main room with table for two waiting for you. During the day, sitting on the couch with the sun beaming in the window was so comfortable I had a very short nap on the couch before heading out to explore Victoria.

Bed: The bedroom contained a queen size bed with small but effective side tables on each side and a long entertainment style unit on the opposite wall with another TV. I always prefer a king size bed in hotels however in this room it would look too big and besides which, the suite had a homely feeling to it and the queen bed added to the feeling of home. The bed was comfortable and well presented, proving to allow a deep and relaxing sleep that night.

My room was situated on the corner of the building with several floor to ceiling openable windows on two of the walls which, like the main room were dressed with timber Venetians. Although these look great, they aren’t the most practical for blocking out light and I always feel like people can see in through the small gaps even though logically this doesn’t make that much sense. Some pull down roller behinds behind the venetians would add a block out capability but its no deal breaker without these. It’s really nice to have a separate bedroom even when travelling alone – it’s amazing how much better you sleep when the room is more akin to the size of the room you’re used to sleeping in and isn’t cluttered with the usual hotel room accessories.

Bathroom: It feels odd having the bathroom not connected to the main bedroom, but also makes sense if you are utilising the main room as additional sleeping space as then people don’t need to walk through the bedroom to use the bathroom. Regardless of the location the bathroom is nicely fitted out with a large bath, long stone vanity and a separately contained shower. The shower provided a decent flow with ample of hot waked available to relax after a long day of sightseeing.

Recreation: For the size of this hotel I didn’t expect a gym or other recreation style activities, and nor did I have time to go looking for them (there may have been a small gym but I didn’t see it advertised so am assuming there wasn’t). The lovely city of Victoria is on your doorstep and a short walk up the hill is Beacon Park, where, if you need to burn off a few holiday calories you could easily go for a nice long run. Otherwise, just explore the pretty city on foot and you won’t need a gym anyway. If however after a day of walking you need to relax, the hotel does offer an in room spa menu provided by a third party.

Internet: I can’t believe I left this off as a section in previous reviews, as I think it’s an essential component to any hotel. The Oswego ticks all the boxes by providing free, that’s right, FREE wired and wireless Internet in every room. You are given a password at check in and from there on in its free Internet. I hate having to pay for Internet after paying for the room, and thus love it when  it’s included, which seems to be more often the case in smaller boutique hotels than large chains.

Eat & Drink: When it comes time to eat you have a few options at the Oswego. If you are here for a while or just want your own favourite recipe you can cook yourself up a storm in the well kitted out kitchen which is bigger than the kitchen in some apartments I’ve lived in. If however you’re on holiday and need a break from the kitchen, the O Bistro downstairs serves breakfast, brunch and dinner in a very well presented dining room/patio/lounge. Although I didn’t get a chance to dine here it looked very impressive and the menu , described as dynamic west coast cuisine looked scrumptious yet affordable. Within close walking distance are several other hotel restaurants and then a tad further in town there are plenty of other food options available.

Staff: Friendly, professional and upmarket, yet still down to earth are good statements to describe the staff here. Only staying the one night I didn’t get to interact with them very often but they were helpful in pointing out local attractions, making sure I had arrangements for after checking out and demonstrating a genuine interest in ensuring they could make my stay as comfortable and easy as possible was great. I’ve mentioned it before but the suite room and the way the hotel is set up, even the placement in tree lined street of a semi residential looking area made it feel very comfortable and homely. This comfortable feeling was enhanced by the staff’s can do attitude and friendly dispositions.

Not that I’ve ever had a problem in Canada, however I was pleased to note that the Oswego is also a TAG approved LGBT friendly hotel. I hadn’t heard of this approval before so did a bit of research and found it means the hotel isn’t just saying gay friendly to get the pink dollar, but a hotel must also ensure they run their business and treat their employees and their guests in a non discriminatory manner. I prefer the sound of this concept of LGBT friendly as opposed to just putting a flag on the window.

Overall: The stylish design and homely feel to the suites makes this hotel a great choice for a stay in Victoria as long as you don’t mind having to walk for 5-10mins to get into the centre of the city. The smaller size of this hotel also makes it feel more relaxing and personal and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who doesn’t like being lost in a crowd. The distance from the centre of town is a slight downside, but if you’re staying for a while or for work sometimes it’s nice to be slightly away from it all anyway. That said, it’s only 5-10 mins and its much closer than that to the ferry terminal, so if that’s your mode of arrival or departure you definitely won’t need a taxi. I had a great stay here and I’d consider staying here again on my next trip to Victoria.

I’ve also decided to start adding a rating to each InBed review I do (perhaps I’ll extend this to the InFlight reviews later). For now the unit of measurement will be the pillow, and the Oswego earned 4 out of 5 pillows during my stay.

This is an unusual post on my blog as it isn’t reviewing anything for a change. This time I’m asking for your help in sharing my love of writing about travel around. A few months ago I entered the BarrelHopping travel writing contest, and my article is now available for voting on the Barrelhopping website. I’m trying to expand the content and readership of my blog and thought their contest might be a good start. If you could help me out by voting for my article on Sydney’s Coastal walk on the link below, then use the share buttons at the bottom of that page to spread the story around it would be great!

Vote Here: BarrelHopping Travel Writing Contest Article ( http://barrelhopping.com/sydney-australia-coastal-walk/ )

Then Share using the links at the bottom of that page, that look like this:

Thanks and I look forward to producing more travel articles, reviews and destination advice for you in 2013!

Cheers

Carl
@carlousmoochous

Flight: AA4644

Carrier: American Airlines / American Eagle

Class: Economy

Terminal: I arrived at New York’s LaGuardia airport’s American terminal about 90mins before departure after catching the Go AirLink shuttle from downtown.  The online booking engine for the shuttle insisted that I arrive 3 hours before departure, and not wanting to wait around at LaGuardia for too long, I decided to fudge my flight departure time by an hour so I could get on a later shuttle. I can understand why they insist on getting you there so early as my first impressions of LaGuardia is that it is an interesting affair indeed.

The check in area seems relatively organized with several dedicated desks for the main cabin, more desks for gold equivalent frequent flyers and then a few more desks privately surrounded in a frosted glass room for “Premium” check in guests. Despite this orderly layout, the place is seriously jam packed with people, mainly in the main cabin line, but it sure makes the place look and feel extremely busy with the queues stretching to the doors and almost out onto the cold New York curb.

Fortunately for me, the premium check in is definitely the way to go as it’s reserved for first class and one world emerald members, which I think equates to Americans Platinum and Executive Platinum members. If you’re traveling without status I can understand the need to arrive at the airport 3hrs early as the lines weave out the door. Within the relatively comfortable confines of the premium check in room, check in is much more orderly, although I did get quite a few “you don’t look like you should be here” looks considering I look like a backpacker (minus the smell) when travelling.

I enquired as to the location of the lounge, to which the agent informed me that unfortunately my flight was departing from the C concourse and the admirals club was in the B concourse. They were in the process of building a new lounge in the C concourse, however for the meantime I could use the lounge if I was willing to clear security twice.

As clearing security twice wasn’t exactly an attractive proposition to attend a lounge that I presumed would be as disappointing as other Admirals Club’s I’ve visited, and given I only had about 90mins till departure anyway, I decided to just go straight to the gate, wander around that concourse a little and wait out my time there catching up on a few reviews. I proceeded to the security checkpoint and was the last passenger to use the priority lane before it was closed. Security was relatively pleasant with the TSA agents actually being friendly.

Unfortunately, my decision to skip the lounge and wait out my time here was a serious mistake.  My tweet to American at the time sums it up “@AmericanAir I love airports but seriously LGA concourse C is horrible. Could you fit any more people in this tiny space? Lounge Soon?”. What a fresh little hell this concourse was; It was hot, crowded with people and cluttered with the ridiculous amounts of carry on baggage that people bring along. The airport could probably add a few more chairs by removing the “check your carry on bag size here” stands as they seem completely irrelevant.

Departure: I found my way to gate C4 pretty easily and noticed the board had quite a few flights listed for Toronto, some of which should have departed quite some time ago. The arrivals didn’t look that much better either, with several flights running significant delays. The mood at the gate wasn’t good, and I couldn’t help but think that TV shows like “Airport” or “Airline” might have been lurking around to capture some of the heated discussions between the ground staff and delayed passengers.

Despite my flight being listed as “On Time” it doesn’t take a genius to work out that if the two flights before your flight haven’t departed yet, its unlikely yours will. With no seats available I decided to wander the length of the concourse to see if the chaos was isolated or widespread and to try and find a snack to eat. There weren’t that many options available for decent food, so settled on a cookie and a sprite, which were also easy to eat on the go. The remaining gates all told a similar story, delayed flights, angry passengers and lots of overcrowding, so I decided to wander back to my gate, where I was fortunate enough to get a seat next to the podium for the neighbouring gate.

Being unsure if this is the usual Monday situation here I decided to go online and have a look at Flight Aware for what was going on. Without any mobile broadband on this trip I paid for a few hours of airport WiFi and quickly found that some poor weather had resulted in delays this morning, combining that with an equipment failure at LGA, delays were sitting at an average of 1:47mins.

The boards still showed my flight as on time, despite the departure time passing. Another quick search for the inbound flight showed it hadn’t left Toronto yet, thus I was going to be here a while, but nowhere near as long as the two gentlemen travelling from Nairobi, who I gave up my seats for after hearing how long they had been waiting – 2 days! I figured they probably needed the seat more than I did as they waited on Standby for flight after flight.

After watching a few other flights board, and one in particular grumpy and arrogant gentlemen miss his flight after being told only minutes before to wait in the gate area as they were about to board, it was my turn to board. The boarding scrum developed very quickly, and despite numerous attempts by the agents requesting people to board when called, it turned out being a free for all, so instead of waiting to be pushed to the back, I reluctantly joined the scrum too.

Once at the door of the aircraft, my bag was tagged as First Class “Valet Baggage” and sent down a chute as I was told there was no longer room on board for carry on bags; a very familiar theme I’ve seen on almost every flight I’ve taken in North America. The final door was closed and we pushed back about two hours late, joining a long queue of departing aircraft before throttling up and climbing out into the busy New York skies. The girls in the seat behind me were commenting on how many planes lights they could see as we climbed; some passing under, some over and some off into the distance. It’s definitely a cool sight to see while at the same time you consider how much work those ATC guys are doing to keep us all safely apart right now.

Seat: 6A.  The second row of economy on this aircraft was pretty clean and comfortable. Each seat is leather with an adjustable headrest, and a slight amount of recline. As it’s a regional jet, the 2-2 seating configuration removes the middle seat so it’s just you and your seat buddy without the uncomfortable person in the middle. The window was also well aligned to the seat, with the extra side panel cut out making the window feel slightly larger and giving the window seat passenger a sense of having more space. Despite the overhead bins being smaller (comparable to an E-190), they were relatively empty as most bags were checked at the gate.

Aircraft: CRJ-700 (N539EA). This was my first time on this type of aircraft, and my first real regional jet experience. Unlike the mainline American fleet, this one is painted instead of polished (although soon the polished mainline fleet will also be painted after American Airlines launched its new look livery). The interior is relatively clean and is fitted out with three rows of first in a 1-2 configuration followed by 13.5 rows of economy in a 2-2 configuration. I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the half row at the end (Row 18) as it appears to be pretty much pinned between the toilet and the left engine. From where I sat, the noise level was ok, nothing like the super 80’s and the flight was relatively smooth and uneventful despite crossing some weather around Toronto.

IFE: If you’re looking for IFE, you’ll be disappointed, as this bird contains no audio, video or any sort of electronic fun gadgets in the passenger cabin. It’s a strictly BYO entertainment affair. I’ve spoken before about the pros and cons of wanting or needing IFE on small planes before (even down to Porter Airlines Dash 8), and although it is a cost, it would be cool to have. I’m not saying its needed or justified, but it would look cool to have an IFE screen in the back of each seat.

Meal: No food offered on today’s flight just a choice of soft drinks, water or juice. By this point in my travels around North America I was getting used to the lack of any food on flights, so my usual can of sprite with some ice goes down well.

Arrival: It was a cold rainy night on arrival into Toronto and due to the extensive use of the Valet Baggage in New York, everyone was forced to wait in the cold open walkway while the baggage crew unloaded a mountain of valet bags. I’ve departed out of Toronto International Airport before but never arrived here. I found the Customs and Immigration halls to be well laid out and well staffed with no wait at all, with the addition of Canadian border control staff being their usual welcoming, friendly yet still efficient selves.

The purpose of my trip to Toronto was to catch up with a friend for dinner that night, before heading back to Washington the next day. A short trip indeed, which would later require some explaining when trying to enter the USA the next day, but in the grand scheme of things, an hour flight here and there is nothing when you love planes, and you’ve already invested so much time in the flight over here. Unfortunately due to the delayed arrival, our catch up time was reduced to a quick dinner after arrival but definitely worth the trip.

Crew: I felt for the crew on this flight as it wasn’t like the plane was full of happy campers on their way to a summer beach holiday. It was full of mostly business types, who’d been delayed for quite a while and probably were heading somewhere for work (Although they were going to Canada – that’s got to be a plus in my book). Despite the less than happy mood on board the crew seemed to have a “make the best out of a bad situation” attitude and were friendly and efficient, helping out where they could. The gentleman next to me requested something that they had run out of on the trolley, and despite him getting an alternative, the crew member later bought his original request from the first galley and apologised for the inconvenience. In my view, the crew were trying their best to lift the mood of the flight, and thus did a great job.

Overall: There’s a few take away points I got from this flight, or more so the experience before the aircraft even arrived at the gate, as after that happened it was pretty routine and uneventful. Firstly in the future I think I’ll avoid LaGuardia airport when flying American. I’m not sure if other airlines terminals or concourses are any better, but the C concourse is a fresh little hell I don’t really want to experience again unless I have to. Despite the overhead display boards proudly displaying “Welcome to LaGuardia”, it didn’t do it for me one bit.

Secondly, and this one is more for the airlines out there; if a flight is delayed, and you know its delayed, don’t list “On Time” on the departure board, especially if that departure time has already passed. All this does is makes people irate as it’s clear that you aren’t being told the full picture. Even an unknown or “TBA” departure time is better than one that’s in the past yet hasn’t occurred. Honesty is always a good policy, albeit sometimes unpopular.

The final point is for the delayed travellers out there. Yes its annoying to be delayed, especially when you have no control over when you’ll be able to get to your destination. However, no matter how much you yell, get angry or be rude to the ground agents, its very unlikely that you’ll get to your destination any faster than if you just take the view, like my flight crew did, of making the best out of a bad situation, and just wait it out – read a book, write the next best seller novel, catch up on some work or just relax. By getting upset, all you’re doing is increasing your own blood pressure and that of those around you, and making everyone more uncomfortable than they already are. Of course, if you piss the agents off enough, they may just crack and make sarcastic fun of you over the loudspeaker, which is somewhat entertaining for those waiting, but at the end of the day, also doesn’t get any of us any closer to our destination.

Flight: QF1468

Carrier: Qantas ( Operated by QantasLink / Eastern)

Class: Economy

Terminal: After arriving into Canberra airport at about 11:30 the night before it felt a little davaju arriving back this morning to check in for my flights to Seattle, the long way around. None the less the queue at check in was virtually none existent so before I knew it my pack was checked and I had my three boarding passes, immigration form and express pass all neatly collated within the transfer folder. This first flight was just my connection to my mega flight to Dallas and then on to Seattle, so I’m hoping my bag makes it all the way with me.

As Canberra is my home port I’ve reviewed it many times, as usual post security I made a bee line to the business lounge for some breakfast. You can read the full report on the Business lounge here. I was surprised to find that, despite flying this route countless times I don’t think I’ve ever put pen to paper and posted a review of it on Qantas metal. You can however compare my review of the Virgin service here.

Departure: I was busy trying to upload a clip to YouTube so was a little rushed once boarding was called with the standard “first and final call” so I made my way down to gate 14 for a short walk across the tarmac and onto the awaiting Dash 8. Although the dash 8′s aren’t popular to everyone, I really like the priority cabin baggage service provided at the steps the plane. Any bags that are a little too big to fit in the overhead bins can be tagged at the stairs and carried in the hold. On arrival the bags are quickly delivered to the foot of the aircraft ready to go, and it’s pretty interesting to see the size of some of the bags people use the priority service for – I doubt they would fit in the overhead of a 737 sometimes!

Seat: 2A. Each time I fly on the dash 8′s I always forget to select an aisle seat and my profile preference kicks in, assigning me a window. Due to the curve of the aircraft the window seats have less legroom thus the aisle is preferable, although you lose the closer than jet views that the dash’s provide from their lower cruising altitude. The seats aren’t bad for short hops around but don’t expect any fancy features, like reclining. The 2-2 configuration means you’ll only ever be sitting next to one other person however most flights don’t go out full so you’ll often have two seats to yourself.

Aircraft: Dash 8-400Q . I’ve reviewed these birds before, but as a recap, these are single aisle twin turboprop aircraft that operate under the QantasLink brand mainly on short hops around the east coast and are a common sight in the Sydney-Canberra route. A lot of people don’t like these “little planes” but they aren’t that little really as they seat about 74 people and as they fly lower than jets have similar sector times to the jets on the shorter routes they fly. Yes they are loud, but the Q models are fitted with notice canceling systems that are designed to counteract some of the noise (this is noticeable between the 300 series and the 400Q’s). I like the views that the lower cruise altitude provides.

IFE: Short and simple, the IFE is whatever you bring on board as the aircraft is fitted with none. If you do bring stuff on board, don’t expect to be able to use it much. In a 30min flight, the first 5-10 is the climb and the last 10-15 is the decent – both times are when you can’t use electronics which doesn’t leave you much time to do much electronically.

Meal:  Despite this short flight you are served a snack which is enough to fill the gap between breakfast and lunch. Today’s snack consisted of a lovely Lemon myrtle biscuit and piece of shortbread accompanied with tea, coffee or juice. For such a short flight it’s all you need, but it is good to get something, even on short flights, even if like me, your next stop is the first lounge and it’s lovely menu.

Arrival: We did the pretty standard approach into Sydney, making a few turns to get parallel’ish to the runways after passing bankstown before heading out the pacific and before turning around, flying over the oil/fuel storage refineries and then landing towards the north on the left hand runway. Its actually a pretty city to fly into, especially if you have a fly over of the city on approach.Even over the water the different shades of blue waters of botany bay can be pretty, before landing on the runways that stick out into Botany bay, where a few centuries ago Captain Cook also landed in Australia. A short taxi finished off an uneventful flight before coming to a quick stop around gate 16.

As I was transferring to an international flight I was able to use the free Qantas shuttle which departs from the transfer lounge opposite Gate 1. This is a handy feature and provides great airside views as you drive around the northern end of the airport and across to the International terminal. If you are connecting to a non Qantas flight you need to exit the terminal and make your own way across. I’d recommend the $5 terminal transfer using the airport rail link which is accessible via an escalator beneath baggage claim.

Here is a quick video of the approach into Sydney. Notice the line up of international departures includes a Qantas 747, Delta 777 and a China Southern A330.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVz2CFp-7nw

Crew: Two crew operate in this aircraft who are both professional but similar to the crew I had in Virgin a few days earlier – efficient and effective but not that personable. I normally find the crew on the dash 8 flights much more interactive and have a little character/passion however today’s crew were very mainline which was a little disappointing.

Overall: There probably isn’t a need for an overall summary on such a short flight, especially given the review took longer to write (and for some maybe read) than the flight itself. Thus I’ll finish up by saying the flight and crew did the job well of getting me into the first lounge on time and ready for my connection to Dallas.

The aim of this change by the RBA is to reduce the sometimes excessive or random credit card surcharge that shows like “Today Tonight” and “A Current Affair” loves to run stories on, showing how a family’s holiday was ruined by the extra fees charged. Of course, this doesn’t just apply to airlines, but anyone who accepts cards as a form of payment in Australia. Who hasn’t cringed at some merchants fees at some time or another?

I’m in the process of planning a trip to Europe, so I thought it would be interesting to have a look at how the changes would affect the overall cost of my airfares; hopefully helping me decide if it’s better to buy before or after these rules take effect on the 18^th March this year. After spending a decent amount of dough to maintain status last year, I intend to fly Qantas or more likely a Qantas codeshare flight operated by Emirates, so most of my analysis is based on these airfares, but the principles should apply to any airline you choose to fly with.

Firstly I looked at what it would cost me under the current rules, which for Qantas is pretty simple with a flat rate charge at different rates for domestic or trans-Tasman, and International flights at $7.70 and $30AUD per person per booking respectively. Virgin Australia are the same, however to get across the Tasman will instead cost you $10, and if you’re lucky enough to book an international flight in a currency other than AUD, there doesn’t appear to be a credit card charge at all. I’d be interested to hear if that’s an error as it doesn’t seem right.

I also found it interesting that if you search for Virgin Australia fees, the page it brings you to is titled “Fees for Optional Services”. Although technically true, the reality is that most people will use a credit card and it wasn’t that many years ago where everyone was pretty much forced to use credit cards as the only form of payment. The current fees, as of when I looked at them for the main Australian airlines are shown below (however for up to date fees and rules, check with your airline)

Current Credit Card Surcharges

Given these fees are per person per booking, it doesn’t matter how many people are on the booking, the fee will increase accordingly and thus it can be easily turned into a percentage of the airfare. If your airline charges a flat rate fee per booking, not per person, my comparisons below won’t work if you add more than 1 person.

Knowing what it will cost me under the current system was pretty easy with just a few clicks on the airlines website providing all the details – they don’t plaster them on the front page, but they hardly hide them in uber fine print. Thus it would be hard to follow the tabloid claims that these are “hidden fees”. The hard part comes in at working out what the fees might be under the new regime, as no airlines I could find have published what they are going to do. Just as banks do after the RBA drops interest rates, I’m sure airlines are waiting for someone else to make the first move.

Checking a few banks websites for their merchant fees didn’t help me too much, with so many variables such as volume and value affecting how much they charge. Thus, I thought it would be best to use what the RBA think these costs would be, which they estimated at 1-2%. Being slightly cynical, I chose to use the upper end of that scale, as it makes sense that if business can charge more, they probably will.

Selecting some random dates about a month away I went looking on the Qantas website for the cheapest airfare available, a flexible economy ticket and a business class seat on three routes to test how the new charge would compare to the older fare:

• Melbourne to Sydney
• Melbourne to Singapore
• Melbourne to London.

Calculating the “new” surcharge based on the RBA estimate, I found that if you bought the cheapest fare on a trip to Sydney or Singapore you’d be better off with the new process, saving about 50% on the domestic hop and about 30% on the trip to Singapore. Unfortunately, that’s where the savings end. If you need flexibility on your ticket, want to fly in a premium cabin, or want to fly further afield than our Asian neighbours on a cheap ticket, it will cost you more under the new scheme; and in some cases, a lot more!

Depending on what your travel habits are will dictate whether you perceive these as good or bad changes. If you primarily fly around the golden triangle routes of Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane on cheap tickets, you’ll probably save enough to buy yourself a coffee, but probably not a coffee from an airport vendor. That 50% saving sounds impressive, but 50% of $7.70 doesn’t leave you with much. Similarly the $9 saving on a thousand’ish dollar airfare to Singapore doesn’t suddenly make it affordable to everyone nor would it probably make you suddenly consider flying to Asia.

These new measures start to hurt if you fly in the premium cabins, with the $30 credit card surcharge for a business class fare to London could theoretically jump to just shy of $200. Some might say if you can afford a six grand airfare, you can afford another $200; an argument I’m not overly comfortable with. It would make sense if airlines considered waiving or reducing the percentage amount for premium cabins to make them sound more attractive and not overinflate the price for these cabins that are, according to Qantas anyway, a struggle to sell in the current economic climate. Of course just because it makes sense, doesn’t mean it will happen.

It will be interesting to see just what airlines set their credit card surcharges at, come March 18. Will they use the basic percentage fee (as exampled above), or will they try and calculate the total cost of all their “acceptance costs” over a year and divide that by the number of bookings they expect to sell to remain at a “fixed” price surcharge. There seems some latitude in the RBA decision as to how it is implemented, and only time will tell how much more, or perhaps less we will be paying for the optional convenience of paying with the method of payment business and banks almost forcefully encouraged us to use not so long ago.

Either way, I wouldn’t bank on these changes making any of your post March 18 travel materially any more affordable, thus I’d probably book upcoming airfares based on when you’re going to get the best price for the airfare and cop whatever surcharge is around at the time. Or as the airlines would say, you can always avoid this fee by paying with cold hard cash, as long as it’s not real cash and more so a direct deposit from your bank to their bank.

My Take on the 787 Dreamliner Grounding Situation:

As anyone who watches any news or reads any online aviation media would be aware, which if you’ve ended up on this blog you probably fall into the latter category, earlier this week a 787 operated by Japan’s ANA made an emergency landing in Takamatsu. I’m not sure if I can pronounce that correctly but at least I tried, unlike most western media who just reported in landed in Western Japan. The “facts” of the incident have been covered in depth by many respectable and not so respectable media outlets, however I thought I’d launch my latest blog article type InNews, with my take on the current 787 situation.

You’ve all seen them already, but I found the evacuation videos that appeared online and in the media to show a very calm and orderly evacuation, with quite a lot of smartphones filming the whole thing. To me it all seemed a little too calm; I’ve seen people in more of a hurry to get off a normal flight than this evacuation.

Thus it seems that there wasn’t much panic on board, which you don’t want in an emergency, so well done to the crew for such a calm evacuation. Given how calm it all looked, I guess the sceptic in me wonders if they should have done a full evacuation, instead perhaps maybe have called for some stairs first, then if things went to shit, do a full evacuation. In comparison, after the QF32 A380 incident over Singapore, the passengers were kept on the plane for quite a while, over an hour I believe, despite an engine that couldn’t be shut down and large fuel leaks.

Those passengers were eventually all deplaned via stairs, in what appeared to be a much more dramatic situation. If you read the book on that incident, the thought process of the captain regarding the risk of evacuating the A380 versus the risk of taking a wait and see approach are explained quite well.  Of course its easy to make these calls while sitting safely behind a computer watching the event play out on YouTube, I’m sure sitting in the cockpit with presumably fire alarms sounding, my decision making process may have been less optimistic. I’m not trying to second guess the safety of those on that plane, or make it out to be a very minor incident after all fire on a plane is unpredictable and rarely ends well if out of control.

Anyway, back to why the 787’s got to be where they are now. From what I can tell, Japan, or just ANA and Japan Airlines, pretty much immediately grounded all 787’s which lets face it, most of the world’s 787 fleet are with either ANA or Japan airlines anyway, so that action took out most of the world’s fledgling 787 fleet.  So later on the FAA grounded all 787’s registered in the US, which is just the United fleet (all 6 of them). Most other airlines or aviation authorities followed the FAA, which is generally the way it works, and the remainder of the world fleet are now sitting around on the ground while Boeing scrambles to work out what’s going wrong, and what they can to do prove to the FAA, and world aviation community that these birds are safe to be flying again.

I’m no engineer or aviation expert, just a humble lounge chair enthusiast, but to me the main issues with the 787 are the Lithium Ion batteries catching fire, and then throw in a few fuel leaks, which I guess when things are catching fire isn’t that great and a few software issues with the brakes have pushed the regulators to rethink the 787, and sort these issues out on the ground. These are issues indeed, which need to be fixed, but who hasn’t been delayed at an airport somewhere before because their aircraft has gone unserviceable, or who hasn’t had a recall notice of some kind on their new car.

The fact is, that new things, be them airplanes, cars, computers or your phone, have issues when they first launch – that’s how innovation works – you build something, you test the crap out of it, but even after you cover off 99.9% of all bugs, once the consumer gets their hands on it, stuff is going to go wrong, and you need to fix it. The only luxury we have with most goods, is that failure generally happens on the ground and not at 35,000 feet, making it a tad safer to identify and fix – however on the same note, there have been quite a few car’s recalled completely as well after a few have been involved in serious or fatal accidents.

Most mainstream media reports seem rather fixated on the plane being built mainly from composites, rather than metal, yet these issues that have caused the grounding don’t really seem to stem from the structure of the aircraft – just some components of them, mainly the battery. The fact is that when something goes wrong with a new airplane the general population and media love it! It’s a high profile story that sells newspapers and increases TV ratings, making it easier to sell advertising space on those channels. It happened with the A380, 777, A330 and probably the 747 and even earlier the 707, it’s just that the further you go back, the less instant the media was, yet I’m sure they still sold hard copy papers with stories about any issues that came up.

Will the 787 be flying again soon? You bet. Too many people have spent too much money for this to be a permanent problem. Will this happen again when Airbus launches the A350? Probably. Although airlines are trying new things, making planes lighter, more efficient and even more computerised, they are also making them safer. From what I’ve read online, systems have detected these issues, and alerted the crew to them, before they’ve become much bigger issues.

It wasn’t that long ago that you could freely smoke in an airplane. Nowadays smoke detectors detect the person trying to sneak a smoke in the bathroom, before the butt has a chance to start a fire in the waste bin. The point I’m trying to make here, is that yes, it appears there are more issues being discovered with each new aircraft that gets developed, but these issues, generally, have been detected earlier than they would have previously been, and thus been able to be fixed before they become major disasters.

If the 787 were cleared to fly again tomorrow, would I go on it?  I’ve wanted to try out the electronic window dimming for a while now anyway, but even that aside, I would. Why? There are risks involved in everything in life, most of which aren’t regulated to the same degree that aviation is. Thus, if something is going to cause me injury, statistically speaking, its less likely to happen on a cleared 787 – especially with all the attention its getting at the moment. Thus I guess I’m a numbers guy, and the way I add up those numbers, its still safer to jump on a 787, than it is to do many activities we do every day without thinking twice, as Melbourne Metro’ humorously list in their “dumb ways to die” video, of which flying on a 787 isn’t listed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw

I hope you’ve enjoyed this first article in the new “InNews” section of CarlousMoochous.com . I’m not going to make the mistake of committing to writing one of these on a scheduled basis, as I’m likely to run out of time and not get to it. Instead, when stories that interest me in the Travel or Aviation sectors pop up, I’ll add an article on here. To finish up, what do you think of my take on the 787 grounding? Would you fly on one? What’s your take? Leave a comment below and follow @carlousmoochous on twitter for the latest posts on this site.

Note: The Feature Image is a compilation of screenshots from various media outlets news stories. Unfortunately I live way too far away from any 787 to take my own photo this time. Thus, no ownership is claimed, if you want your image removed please let me know.