Search results

A while ago I commuted Maitland - Sydney and return a few days a week. Used to rush like mad to wind up and get the Brisbane XPT from Central to Maitland - beats the coughkansen then the railcars to Maitland. Two points of interest - one, the coffee from the buffet is a coffee bag in a cup of hot...

Bain billions keep Virgin aloft as private equity giant takes over liabilities --- Heavily Abridged Main Points: Bain Capital plans to inject as much as $600m in cash into Virgin to keep it running. The upfront cash is part of a package, including $600m to take over existing travel credits...

Virgin Blue since 2001. Playing pool and video games in the Brisbane Blue Room. Live2Air was magic. Flights went in a blink. Listening to people cheer for their team watching the game live, then screaming out when we banked and the satellite dropped out for a moment. Crazy $1 domestic fares...

This is intriguing. Random example - Lindsday Fox sees an opportunity and decides to have another lash at an airline. He owns an airport with hangars for storage and maintenance, the global market for aircraft is through the floor, and as you say staff and suppliers ready to go and negotiating...

New Caledonia, friends' house in Mont-Dore. Supposed to be there now. Thanks China. When the UK is back to whatever normal will be, a few weeks' trainspotting and chasing down brutalist architecture.

VA329 Melbourne to Brisbane. Lunches. Lamb empanadas. Meh. Noodle salad. Wife said it was ok. Looks like the cheese and biscuits are the new normal. It's been a few months between flights for me, I suspect the accountants have put a ruler over the food.

Premium check in took about five minutes. Sorry I'm not talkative today, was released from hospital earlier this week and barely functioning. Mrs T brought over some risotto, too many vegetable ingredients. Not bad for a lounge. I hope you have a nice flight.

Melbourne, Saturday pre-midday. Hot options are Thai chicken curry soup (shown) and a leek and something soup.

I will agree with you. All those years ago we complained about random party pies, and those God-awful hot dogs with the stale buns that couldn't hold a bean sprout. I've stopped drinking so can't really comment on the bar side of things any more, however I had a run through QF J lounge at BNE...

If Rex could save 15 cents on something, they would. The last thing they need is another aircraft type. They probably have a junior in the office somewhere scoping out the worldwide used market for SAAB 340s and parts.

Years ago I was waiting for BNE-SYD on Impulse. Arrived early, it was a warm afternoon and I was happily buying more than one lager to pass the time, watching all the planes. A 717 pulled up, stuff happened, then all the people disappeared. Must have been in a world on my own. Then an Impulse...

When travel was somewhat... more civilised...

QF ran a tag flight from SIN to Mumbai or somewhere in India a few years ago. Rumour has it that the reason for cancellation was too many staff calling sick for that flight. Cultural difference and all that. I think most airlines shove India in the "too hard" basket for that reason.

True, however will be increasingly scarce once VA starts up BNE-HND.

Interesting email from the union that covers the flight attendants... https://gem.godaddy.com/p/1b1e6f

Wow. I've had that once on BNE-MEL in late 2012. They wheeled out for drinks, then they wheeled out the dinner cart and went through a silver-service type of meal assembly and distribution.

Here come the accountants, putting a ruler over everything. "Pantry Pig" will not be happy. As an aside an associate of mine has organised to buy almost a floor's worth of office furniture from VA's Brisbane campus. Interesting times ahead.

If your aircraft has WiFi, there's a free option. Some 737s have AC power in J.

Too fiddly, and you can't really eat and watch it at the same time. No point faffing about with them any longer unless they're sponsored by Samsung. It's almost 2020 - if you've evolved enough to fly J you've got your own entertainment.

Time for something different. Came across an ex-VA E190 in a flight review - LCY to DUB. Operated by Stobart Air for BA.