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I'm travelling next month to Helsinki: Sydney to Singapore on Finnair/Qantas, and Singapore to Helsinki on Finnair. Both legs J. I'm travelling to a convention in Finland, and I've found that a friend is travelling from Melbourne and will be on the same plane into Helsinki, no OW status to...

In June 2023 I took a trip to Edinburgh via Helsinki. A fairly complex itinerary involving QF Y and AY J and bottles of milk. Journey to the Land of Flying Barges That got me most of the way to SG from my LTS status and in October I finished the journey with a trip to Waiheke that didn't go...

As per the headline. With my recent elevation to the middling heights of SG I have no need for the last all-the-bubbles-you-can-quaff pass in my portfolio. First in, best dressed!

I've got two trips booked for my next membership year: 1. Canberra to Wellington return in Y 2. Sydney to Helsinki to Melbourne in J on QF and AY These will earn me 70 and 480 SC respectively, putting me within easy requal reach of retaining SG with an Adelaide trip later in the year. Little...

I'm flying to and from Helsinki next year, booked on the Finnair app (I'm returning to a different Oz city and the webpage couldn't handle that, apparently). Flights to and from SIN (one on a Finnair wetlease) have QF numbers and flights SIN-HEL-SIN are AY. How can I swap those same flights to...

You know, I wasn't going to bother with a simple "there-and-back-again" trip report from Canberra to Auckland, Qantas all the way. But on completion, I decided that the best trip reports are those where things go off the rails, and this one did, for sure. So, for those with a good memory, my...

Nothing to get too alarmed about but with a return to more normal demand post-pandemic, Finnair is revising some of its baggage rules and points charges. In a surprise twist to the usual enhancement announcement, none of the changes add up to good news for passengers. A run-down here. I haven't...

Episode 1: Planning begins with some worrying. Kelpies at large. (Image by Steven Straiton and Wikimedia CC BY 2.0) The last stamp My passport makes for sad reading. The last time it saw any serious action — apart from a couple of Trans-Tasman trips, and you don’t even get stamps for those —...

I've checked the stopover guide for BKK, a lot of which seems pre-pandemic. Can't see anything really relevant. Situation: Apart from domestic and trans-Tasman flights, I've gone nowhere since early 2019. Next month I'm flying to and from Edinburgh. Using some of the resources here I was able...

Setting my feet upon the Old Silk RoadO’Malley Australian Capital Territory 23 Feb 2017 I watched a television show about the Old Silk Road last night. The presenter traced the route through Iran and on to Istanbul and Venice. It wasn’t just the wealth of silks and spices that flowed along this...

I can understand upping the security restrictions on electronics - as per this news - but I am not prepared to swallow this latest outrage: on all direct flights between Australia and the Middle East they have banned inflight consumption of alcohol with effect from today.

Flying EK F SYD-DXB-IKA and EK J IKA-DXB-SIN-MEL soonish. I'm not a member of Skywards at any level. I've put up my lounge times on the April and May threads, but now I'm not sure if I can guest people in. There seems to be conflicting information floating around. Anybody know the rules?

I love those "Skyview" cameras mounted on the tail or under the fuselage that give - via the entertainment screen - a look at the plane in flight or the terrain below that is a lot wider than peering through a porthole. The Emirates A380 has three of these things going, and on takeoff or final...

I've got an upcoming Emirates F flight. EK415, leaving SYD at 0600. We'll be staying at Rydges just a few metres from T1, so transit time will be a few minutes, and the big problem will be waking up. I'm seeing from my research the following timeline: 0300 - Terminal opens 0300 - Emirates...

I like writing trip reports. I really do. I fill them up with stories and photos and just have a ball reliving the trip. At least until I get bored. I don't think I've finished a trip report yet! So, like several other members, I've solved the problem by beginning a travel blog. I've set a...

As a "Friend of BenRomach" - and who wouldn't be, with their yummy Speyside single malts? - I received this freebie last year. It's a distillery visit voucher, good for a tour and a dram after. Sadly, I have no plans to visit Scotland before it expires, so if anyone is heading up that way - the...

A couple of fellow members have recently commenced travel blogs and are planning to get serious about them. This one, for example, aimed at in-depth reviews of restaurants, tours, places. I've run a fun but unprofitable blog empire in the past, but I think in retirement I can be a bit more fair...

EK F questions, or, Thanks, BW! I now have three QFF points in my account. What's left after yesterday's effort is now transferred across to an account they never touched. I'm returning to Iran next year. My aim was to get enough points for a RTW OW award in J at 2 x 280K QFF points. But that...

I've just checked my points balance. A nice boost from Epiqure, but what really got my attention was an extra 28 000 points. I didn't do a family transfer a month ago when BW clawed them back, and I've been kind of mourning them. And here they are again! Question is, will they stay, or is it...

I don't think we'll see a fully autonomous airliner any time soon. Even if the technology were perfect, passengers would still want someone able to drive the thing. But military drones operate with nobody aboard, often for extended periods. Multi-engine aircraft have been used, such as variants...