Airline experiences and flight reviews

[rob D2]

5 hours ago, SHMD said:

Last Monday MAN-DOH, with Qatar Airways, I noted we were at 38997 ft and doing 1018 kph over Saudi Arabia.

 

I was on the morning flight but managed to miss it (taxi trouble) but was allowed to change to the mid afternoon flight for £62. I am always curtious to the staff (it really does pay off) and try to have a laugh too. They then moved me from cattle class to cattle class exit row.

The meal was (possibly) the best airline food I have ever had - Beef stew and mash potatoes.

B777 and really good IFE - I watched some Marvel Thor film and another about Dumbledoor. That left only 1 hour to kill hence looking at the map.

 

 

Kev.

Dang, he ain’t even trying…….One of my faster ones, that’s the ground speed and wind info on the Boeing Nav display  ( knots ).

 

[SHMD]

That's Mach 1.02 !

Are you allowed to break the speed of sound ?!

 

 

Kev.

(I know, GS + AS.)

[The Pilotman]

Having taken well over a thousand flights (so far), I think I am reasonably qualified to add to this post. Here is a selection of my highlights from over thirty-five years of flying (in no particular order)…

Best experience: Anchorage to St.Paul Island on a Reeve Aleutian Airways Lockheed Electra (catering provided by Subway!)
Worst experience: middle seat (in a 2-5-2 configuration) in a NorthWest Airlines DC10, Gatwick to Minneapolis/St.Paul

Best airline: Lufthansa 

Worst airline: Gulf Air
Most attractive cabin crew: Icelandair 🤭
Best meal (short-haul): a chicken salad on a British Airways flight from Inverness to Heathrow in 1995

Worst meal (short-haul): a packet of carrots (NorthWest Airlines, Minneapolis/St.Paul to Seattle)

Best meal (long haul): wagyu beef, British Airways, Tokyo Narita to Heathrow (well, it was First Class…)

Most surprising catering: jam doughnuts on Augsburg Airways, London City to Münster/Osnabrück 
Luggage going somewhere else: Auckland to Honolulu flight with Air New Zealand but my luggage went to Tokyo (got it back the following day) 

Scariest moment: climbing out of Charlotte, North Carolina in a USAir Boeing 757 with thunderstorms all around. A bit like some of the rides at Alton Towers…

Next most scariest moment: landing in a Twin Otter in Lukla, Nepal, long before I’d seen it on the Discovery Channel’s programme about the world’s most dangerous airports.

Edited April 30, 2023 by The Pilotman

[rob D2]

47 minutes ago, SHMD said:

That's Mach 1.02 !

Are you allowed to break the speed of sound ?!

 

 

Kev.

(I know, GS + AS.)

I'm not sure if your jesting ;) 

GS not AS , so don't worry there was no " bang "

[SHMD]

My apologies.

I was thinking Plane Speed + Air Speed = Ground Speed.

(I'm not sure now!!!)

 

Still, impressive. Mach 1.02 but definately no BANG!

 

 

Kev.

Edit: to correct the autocorrect - again!

Edited April 28, 2023 by SHMD

[rob D2]

1 hour ago, SHMD said:

My apologies.

I was thinking Plane Speed + Air Speed = Ground Speed.

(I'm not sure now!!!)

 

Still, impressive. Mach 1.02 but definately no BANG!

 

 

Kev.

Edit: to correct the autocorrect - again!

we were doing mach .85. mach no has nothing to do with GS , it's your actual air speed relative to the local speed of sound- which is always below 1.0 unless you are concorde or the military jets 

[KeithMacdonald]

+10 in advance for any Concorde stories.

[SHMD]

I loved watching Concorde fly over my house in eastern Manchester.

In the last years of its' service life, it was scheduled to MAN once a month and was always a great pleasure / privilege to see it bank / turn for the glide path down over Stockport into Ringway. 

(It always announced its' arrival - loudly - so you could go out into the garden and enjoy!)

 

 

Kev.

[jjb1970]

On flight attendants, I often wonder what happens to them on East and SE Asian airlines. If you fly around Asia the airlines all seem to have young flight attendants that look like they walked out of a fashion shoot for Vogue or something and other than the flight purser/cabin service manager it's unusual to see flight attendants past their early 30's. 

 

When we lived in a condo apartment a lady in the same block was a Malaysian Airlines flight attendant, when I saw her going to or coming from work she looked like a supermodel, when I saw her in civies she was still a good looking lady but nothing like when she was made up and hair done and all the other stuff for work. I guess practice makes perfect but they're clearly expected to be serious about their appearance. My wife's friend I mentioned with Cathay Pacific was another good looking lady but just another good looking lady (I say that as something who cracks camera lenses when having my picture taken) but when I saw her on duty she was quite frankly stunning.

 

This story shows the underside of things, not very edifying:

 

https://en.tempo.co/read/1283356/garuda-indonesia-workers-union-harassment-issue-came-suddenly 

[jjb1970]

On delays, the only memorable one was on a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam, the flight landed in Singapore. At the time I believe the runway at Jakarta Soekarno Hatta wasn't rated for a B747-400 at maximum take off so to avoid reducing cargo load they landed at Singapore. As we taxied to the terminal the flight crew announced they had an engine problem, and to await further instructions at the gate (the aircraft de-planed anyway so people had about 45 minutes to walk around the terminal). At the gate they annouced they needed to do an engine change and so a replacement aircraft would be flown out from Amsterdam and we got a night in a very nice downtown hotel and the following day to sightsee in Singapore.

[Enterprisingwestern]

1 hour ago, KeithMacdonald said:

+10 in advance for any Concorde stories.

 

Not me, but my late brother in law.

He was a high up exec in an American computer company back in the day, living in the US, covered basically the eastern hemisphere, always went first/business class as his seniority demanded. He was constantly being upgraded, once on a US to UK flight he was bumped onto Concorde, which he said was the worst flight he ever had, comfort wise, being 6' 7" tall and having a window seat entailed him spending the entire flight twisted up like a wire puzzle, the food wasn't too good and the plane was hot and generally oppressive.

 

Mike.

[rob D2]

8 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Not me, but my late brother in law.

He was a high up exec in an American computer company back in the day, living in the US, covered basically the eastern hemisphere, always went first/business class as his seniority demanded. He was constantly being upgraded, once on a US to UK flight he was bumped onto Concorde, which he said was the worst flight he ever had, comfort wise, being 6' 7" tall and having a window seat entailed him spending the entire flight twisted up like a wire puzzle, the food wasn't too good and the plane was hot and generally oppressive.

 

Mike.

I never understood the need to go to NYC in 3 hrs as opposed to 6.5-7 , is time really that valuable ??!

[Enterprisingwestern]

1 minute ago, rob D2 said:

I never understood the need to go to NYC in 3 hrs as opposed to 6.5-7 , is time really that valuable ??!

 

It wasn't for him, but at the time of Concorde US to UK there and back in a day was useful for many business men, it even gave us an iconic Band Aid moment!

 

Mike.

[SHMD]

Time was that valuable - and quantifiable!

 

I nearly flew Concorde once, (I really really wish I had).

A company in Florida had its main production line "down" - think $10000 per hour - and getting me there minutes earlier saved lots. (Production lines cost LOTS $$$$ when down / minute. Lots of pressure there....)

 

It  never happened - oh well...

 

 

Kev.

 

 

[rob D2]

There’s a company supposedly making a new supersonic airliner for united.

I can’t understand in this eco conscious time how it’ll be popular or viable. 

[jjb1970]

6 minutes ago, SHMD said:

Time was that valuable - and quantifiable!

 

I nearly flew Concorde once, (I really really wish I had).

A company in Florida had its main production line "down" - think $10000 per hour - and getting me there minutes earlier saved lots. (Production lines cost LOTS $$$$ when down / minute. Lots of pressure there....)

 

It  never happened - oh well...

 

 

Kev.

 

 

 

It's a niche market for taxi drivers to courier spare parts and stuff, often over long distances like from the North of England to London. The costs may look silly but if you have machinery down then minutes count and putting the part in a taxi and getting it on its way across the country can suddenly seem like an outright bargain.

[SHMD]

I once ordered a taxi to carry/deliver an "encoder" from Southampton to Manchester on Saturday morning.

 

He showed up Saturday afternoon, and seconds after dropping off the box, asked everyone, on the shop floor, "anyone wanted a taxi to Southampton?" - there were no takers!

 

 

Kev.

[PMP]

55 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

 

It's a niche market for taxi drivers to courier spare parts and stuff, often over long distances like from the North of England to London. The costs may look silly but if you have machinery down then minutes count and putting the part in a taxi and getting it on its way across the country can suddenly seem like an outright bargain.

There’s a similar element within aviation when an aircraft goes AOG (Aircraft on Ground). This means it literally can’t fly until whatever’s broken gets fixed. A B737/A320 costs around £7-8k/hr so one sitting broken gets expensive very quickly. I’ve had to charter all sorts, from small aircraft including business jets and helicopters to move spares and crew/engineers to keep a flying programme together. Charter was one of my specialist areas and finding an airliner and crew to cover a schedule once using a B747 to cover for a B737, which raised a few eyebrows but got the job done. Many of us operations staff used to take our passports and a grab bag to work, in case we were ever needed to be a courier. 

Edited April 28, 2023 by PMP

[Andy Hayter]

1 hour ago, rob D2 said:

I never understood the need to go to NYC in 3 hrs as opposed to 6.5-7 , is time really that valuable ??!

 

Oh yes.

 

AS one who grappled with a one hour time difference between UK and Europe and what that did for productivity (about only 4 hours per day for cooperative working), I can see obvious benefits.

 

Take a 9am flight from Heathrow with Concorde and you arrive in NY before you set off (6-7am Eastern Seaboard time) and can be in the city by close to the start of the working day, giving a full days work with your US colleagues.

 

Take a standard flight at 9am and you will end up in the city mid afternoon.  Day done.  Start work the next day.

[Nick Gough]

5 hours ago, rob D2 said:

That i believe is true .After  They put an LHR and arrow on the gasometer at south all , .

 

And 'NO' on the Harrow one!

[iL Dottore]

Regarding Concorde. A number of years ago a former Crossair pilot acquaintance asked if we’d like to have a private DC3 flight down to Oporto for the Red Bull Air Race (the aircraft preservation society he flew for was partly sponsored by Red Bull) for just the cost of fuel. We jumped at the chance. As there were about 14 of us on the flight [half the maximum passenger capacity - for insurance reasons), it worked out cheaper than a commercial economy flight.

 

The experience was superb (and now I understand why, once you’ve had a private aircraft experience, you never want to go commercial again). But I digress (and it’s a story for another time)….

 

I mention this flight, because the Captain was a former BA Concorde pilot and - as he recounts it - something like 40% to 60% of BA’s profit came from Concorde. It seems that the people who regularly flew Concorde (and there were quite a few regulars) were at the level of industry/finance where cost was never an issue. Most of the time, the former Concorde Pilot recounted, passengers would tell him that they had NO idea of the cost - they had just told their secretary/PA/admin that they needed to be in New York “today” (or some such thing) and their secretary/PA/admin just booked the ticket… 

 

I googled the price of a round trip on Concorde in the 80s and, although it varies according to source and decade, we’re talking about US$ 5000 one way in that decade - which is approximately US$14,000 in today’s money. At the exchange rate of 1985, US$5000 would have been worth roughly £3840. As a comparison, I was starting my career in 1985 (in a very well paid industry) and my salary, at the time, was a pretty adequate £12,000 (average UK wage in 1985 was about £8900 [slightly higher in London]).

 

So it would seem that for most of its service. The Concorde was definitely a moneymaker for British Airways.

[AncientMariner]

An experience I had with Concorde:

 

In the late ‘70s, I was serving as a deck officer on bridge watch aboard an LPG tanker in the English Channel.  I just happened to look up at the sky, and spotted a fast-moving aircraft, and recognised the distinct outline of Concorde.  A few seconds later I heard the sonic boom, which was like hearing two rifle shots in rapid succession, and boy, it was loud.  It shocked the lookout, who hadn’t spotted it.

 

Hearing the boom subsequently in later years – which was quite a few times – I at least knew exactly what it was.  However, it often raised some anxiety from crewmembers who were unfamiliar and unprepared for the noise, and were left wondering if something catastrophic had happened with the ship!

 

John  H.

[jpendle]

On 27/04/2023 at 01:33, rob D2 said:

From inside the airlines - always interested to see the travelling publics perception

From my perspective it's been a race to the bottom since the late 90's.

 

Around that time I moved to the US where I think they were always worse than Europe, but my pet peeve is the way the frequent flyers on busy routes always get the cheap seats unless they pay for first or business class.

 

So as a Gold member with SAS and BA in the 90's, seats were assigned at check in, not 4 weeks before the flight leaves, meaning you got a halfway decent seat near the front of the plane when you'd booked your ticket 1 day in advance.

Travelling with children, REGARDLESS of status, you were always seated together.

The only things in the overhead bins were briefcases, remember those, plus heavy coats, etc.

 

Nowadays, sitting in the cheap seats at the back of a United flight because I booked my ticket less than a week in advance; having to pay extra, even with airlines like BA and United, to have my son and his family sit together; or being able to check a suitcase for a two week vacation.

 

Mind you the time in the 90's when one of my colleagues was bumped from a BA LHR to MAN flight, because it was overbooked, ended in some amount of embarrassment for the gate staff and the bloke who got his seat because said bloke ran up to the gate about 30 seconds after my colleague had been bumped, and said "thanks for finding me a seat at the last minute".

We all knew that kind of thing happened, but letting the two of them meet at the gate wasn't the best plan.

 

Regards,

 

John P

 

 

[iL Dottore]

I try to be very understanding of the difficulties of the check-in and boarding gate staff as they have the unenviable task of carrying out company/airport policies created by some chair polisher who will never, ever, face an incredibly angry passenger.

Having said that some of the most miserable **** I have had the misfortune of encountering have been at gates in US Airports - despite being courteous and friendly on my side (though, to be fair, some staff at LHR and LGW are up there with the best [worst] of them). But given the sort of “Walmart Shopper” type passenger they have to (too frequently) deal with in the US, you can’t really blame them too much.

 

I would venture that the best way to improve passenger satisfaction would be to force the staff that make the decisions (and usually never face the consequences of their decisions) to deal with passengers…. 

I reckon things would improve all round quite quickly…..

 

p.s. it’s amazing how rewarding just being pleasant and understanding with a touch of humour can be. By being so, I’ve gotten upgrades to 1st class from business, preferential treatment (e.g. tarmac transfer) and - once - a bottle of vintage champagne for answering a purser’s question about cancer treatment. Mother was right: please and thank you, cost nothing and make life easier

[rob D2]

I think it's very true to say that the more expensive seats , and things like concorde , make the most money . The margin on a seat with easyjet isn't great si they concentrate on revenue like onboard sales - i notice my bag is knocking on for 100 quid to Portugal now .

 

The reason i'm sceptical about new concorde is not that ,merely , that excess and conscious wealth display just ain't trendy in the world at large . I've flown VIP and VVIP and despite the obvious benefits of time and security would hesitate to go back to that world , because all it takes is one board member to question the green credentials and the jets got a " for sale " sticker on it