Aussie Flyer

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I have flown VA business a couple of times across the pacific but earlier this year was my first time in the new 'suite' style seat. Here is my experience... After arriving on a connecting service from Melbourne I took the Virgin Australia shuttle bus over to the international terminal. My bags were checked through so there was no need to stop by the check-in desks but this is what they looked like:

My next series of flight reports will be from a trip I did early this year to the USA and Mexico.  Here's a quick look at the first leg of the trip.  I was flying Virgin Australia via Sydney to Los Angeles. To get to Sydney I took VA811, the 7am flight featuring breakfast service. Here's how it went! FLIGHT: VA811 AIRLINE: Virgin Australia AIRCRAFT: Boeing 737-800 VH-VUO (9 years old) ROUTE: Melbourne to Sydney DEPARTURE: 7.00AM ARRIVAL: 8.25AM GATE TO GATE TIME: 1 hour 25 minutes I checked in at the business class counters where I received my boarding pass for both the MEL-SYD and the SYD-LAX sectors, my bags were checked right through to LAX. I was given my boarding passes in a wallet with a bus ticket for the transfer in Sydney and my international departures card. Then it was onto the lounge... Time for a juice and a macch...

As part of my India travels last year I took a flight with Air India from Bagdogra to Delhi, it was on a 7 year old A321, VT-PPU and I was actually quite impressed with the flight and service. Here's a quick look at the experience! FLIGHT: AI880 AIRLINE: Air India ROUTE: Bagdogra to Delhi DEPARTURE: 2.10PM ARRIVAL: 4.15PM DISTANCE: 698 Miles AIRCRAFT: Airbus A321 VT-PPU (2009 build) The check-in experience at Bagdogra was typically Indian, kind of 'organised chaos'. There did not seem to be anywhere for star alliance gold members to get priority check-in so I just joined a queue. It wasn't too long a wait and soon we were through security. There isn't much in this terminal but we decided to chance it on the airport restaurant and we had quite a decent meal there at a cheap price. Soon though it was time for boarding so we headed to the gate and then onto a bus for the short ride out to the remote parking spot where VT-PPU was waiting, looking splendid in t...

For my trip to India I decided to start on the east side of the country (Kolkata) and work my way west and south, ending in Goa. Since I was coming in from Bangkok this meant I needed to find a flight from Bangkok to Kolkata and once I realised Drukair was an option, there was simply no other choice! I headed straight to the Drukair site, which is remarkably user friendly, and booked flight KB121 at a cost of USD126. Quite reasonable I think and cheaper than Thai who flew at a much less friendly time of day. FLIGHT: KB121 AIRLINE: Drukair AIRCRAFT: A319 'A5-RGG' (12 years old) CLASS: Economy Class DEPART: Bangkok @ 09.10 ARRIVE: Kolkata @ 10.00 FLIGHT DURATION: 2 hours 20 min After an early start at the Millenium Hilton I grabbed a cab and arrived at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport at about 7am, 2 hours prior to scheduled departure. Arriving at Suvarnabhumi (the King had only recently passed away)

Here's a look at another flight I took on my trip around India from November 2016. This flight was from the beautiful town of Udaipur to the metropolis of Mumbai. I booked it with Air India since their price was hard to beat and the timing suited me too. Originally this was scheduled to be flown with a fairly new A319 but a couple of weeks before departure the timing was changed slightly and the equipment swapped to an A320. Knowing that it was going to be an A320 I was aware there was a chance I might fly on a very rare beast, the double bogey model A320. I believe only 31 of these were ever produced and there is less than 20 still in operation. They were ordered new by Indian Airlines to operate on the rather poor airstrips that were around India in the late 80s and early 90s and were eventually inherited by Air India. By now the runways have been replaced but the double bogey aircraft are still flying around, but I can't imagine for too much longer as they are becoming ...

The route between Mumbai and Goa is extremely competitive with Air India, GoAir, Spicejet, Vistara and Jet Airways all flying the route. Most operate either the A320 or B737 for this flight which is usually under an hour in duration. On my trip to India I decided to use Etihad miles to book this flight as I found the prices pretty high on the day I planned to travel. I wanted to have a sample of Jet's business class so paid the extra miles to fly in the 'Premiere' cabin, even though it really is a bit of a waste on such a short sector. I arrived at the huge and ultra modern looking Mumbai airport with about 90 mins to go before departure: The drop off area at Mumbai airport

During my trip to India a couple of months back I used the services of several local airlines, including the LCC IndiGo which is now the largest carrier in India in terms of passengers carried. They are one of the worlds fastest growing airlines with literally 400 Airbus A320's on order! Quite incredible. I had the need to get from Goa to Bengalaru to meet up with my Singapore Airlines flight and IndiGo was one of about 4 carriers flying the route. They offered the best schedule and best price so I booked a seat for just 1900rs (AUD38) and then added a front row extra leg room seat for an extra 600rs (AUD12). IndiGo includes a basic checkin baggage allowance of 15kg with additional at around 100rs per kg.   FLIGHT: Indigo flight 6E 6493 DEPART: 16.35 ARRIVE: 17.40 FLIGHT TIME: 1 hour 5 minutes DISTANCE: 300 miles AIRCRAFT: Airbus A320 VT-IDU (11 years old) Arriving at Goa

Here is a trip report on a recent flight I had with Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Melbourne in business class. FLIGHT: SQ217 ROUTE: Singapore to Melbourne CLASS: Business Class SEAT: 91F AIRCRAFT: A380-800 9V-SKQ (5 years old) DEPART: 10.45AM ARRIVE: 9.10PM After a visit to the T3 Silverkris lounge I headed to gate B5  for the departure. I arrived at 10am with boarding not yet started and found 9V-SKQ at the gate. This was one of the newer A380's, only 5 years old. It has the upper deck configured exclusively with business class, 86 flat beds in total! Those that have flown the 2006 SQ business class seat know that the bulkheads are generally preferable as they have more leg space since there is no seat in front. I had chosen the centre bulkhead in the rear cabin, seat 91F. When boarding was called I noticed very few other passengers joining me on the upper deck jetway. 9V-SKQ at the gate

FLIGHT Virgin Australia VA7 AIRCRAFT Boeing 777-300ER VH-VOZ (7 years old) ROUTE Brisbane to Los Angeles CLASS Business Class seat 4A DEPARTURE 10.50AM ARRIVAL 6.55AM DURATION 13 hours 05 minutes So, this review is already out of date because the seats have been replaced but here is a quick look at a flight I took in April this year with Virgin Australia from Brisbane to Los Angeles.  Virgin Australia operate a small fleet of 5 B777-300ER's, serving Los Angeles from both Brisbane and Sydney, along with the Sydney to Abu Dhabi route. This is flight VA7, the daily flight from Brisbane to Los Angeles. Virgin compete with Qantas on this route who fly a daily B747-400. Brisbane International Checkin

Virgin have had short haul business class on domestic for a few years now. I have read mixed reviews on the product with some experiencing great service and others being almost ignored. Here is my experience on a recent trip. FLIGHT: Virgin Australia VA309 ROUTE: Melbourne to Brisbane AIRCRAFT: Boeing 737-800 VH-VUJ (almost 10 years old) DEPARTURE: 7.00AM ARRIVAL: 8.10AM DURATION: 2 hrs 10 min My flight this morning was operated by VH-VUJ. This aircraft is almost 10 years old, delivered to Virgin Blue in 2006 and later repainted to the current Virgin Australia livery. The aircraft, like all the other VA 737-800's, has 8 business seats and 168 economy. I was in seat 1A for this sector. Upon arrival at the terminal I headed to the Virgin Australia lounge and snapped a pic of my aircraft which was parked right nearby:

With the suites upgrade on Qantas A330s almost complete, flights across the country are going to finally have a consistent business class product. Here we have my experience about 6 months ago on a dinnertime flight, Perth to Melbourne. Terminal Entry

Just before Christmas I flew over to WA to fly on the Fokker 50 before they were retired from Virgin Australia's fleet. I happened to find myself in Geraldton, an interesting town with some interesting characters. Having flown 3 sectors on the F50 it was time to go back to Melbourne and I redeemed some Qantas points to do it. The routing was Geraldton-Perth-Melbourne and the first leg was on the Fokker 100. This would be a first flight for me on this aircraft type which has become the standard type in use in the WA mining market. It's an aircraft that is long out of production and most airlines have retired it (or are in the process of doing so) but it's somehow found a niche here in Australia and in particular, Western Australia. Flight : QF1619 (Qantaslink operated by Network Aviation) Route : Geraldton to Perth Aircraft : Fokker 100 VH-NHJ Departure : 08.40 AM Arrival : 09.45 AM Flight Duration : 1 hour 05 minutes Qantaslink recently stopped flying the...

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This post follows on from Part 1 . This second report was for my return to Perth from Albany, on the Virgin Australia (Skywest) Fokker 50. FLIGHT 2: VA2526 ~ PERTH to ALBANY ~ 1525/1640  ~ Fokker 50 VH-FNH  ~ SEAT 9G I arrived at the airport a bit over an hour before departure and checked in for my flight to Perth, I was continuing on to Geraldton so I got the boarding pass for both sectors. Then it was through security where I was amazed to see that it took 3 security staff to process this small flight. It must be a costly process, and is something REX manages to avoid with it's smaller Saab 340 aircraft since they took over the route earlier this year. Albany Airport Terminal

I recently got to go to St Maarten and I absolutely loved it! It's a plane spotters paradise. I recommend everyone visit at least once if you are an aviation geek at all. Even if you are not you will truly enjoy sitting by the beach sipping on some Carib beers and watching the planes come in. Here is a bunch of my favourite photos that I took while at St Maarten recently. These are unedited raw pictures from my Nikon D3200. I am not a good photographer but I think they look pretty awesome. United Boeing 737-700

I have very fond memories as a teenager of flying between Sydney and Wagga Wagga on Ansett Fokker 50's. I believe I did 2 return trips before the Saab 340's took over the run with Kendall Airlines back in the mid 1990s.  A number of the ex-Ansett Fokker's saw themselves transferred to Western Australia in the Skywest fleet which was later taken over by Virgin Australia. Late in 2015 it was announced that the Skywest Fokker 50 fleet was to be retired and routes to Albany, Esperance and Ravensthorpe terminated. Since I had an emotional connection to the aircraft type and it's operation in Australia I decided I had to go over to Perth and fly on them before they went. So, in December 2015, and about 20 years since I had last been in a Fokker aircraft I found myself at Perth Airport in the recently built 'regional' terminal. My routing on the Fokker 50 was booked Perth-Albany-Perth-Esperance. All 3 sectors were scheduled to be flown by the Fokker 50. FLIGHT 1: V...

First an apology.... this report is well overdue. I completed this flight in November last year. This is Singapore Airlines flight SQ323 from Amsterdam to Singapore. Currently a B777-300ER route but it will soon feature the brand new Airbus A350 instead. When that change is completed then Amsterdam will lose First Class service from SQ. This flight departs Amsterdam daily at 10.25am, arriving in Singapore at 5.55am the following day. On my flight the aircraft operating the service was 9V-SWA, 9 years old at the time of the flight. I believe it was the first -300ER in the Singapore Airlines fleet. It's still flying in the same interior configuration now as it was when it was delivered. Despite the age of these seats, they are still market leaders in terms of their size! 9V-SWA waiting at the gate at AMS

Hi All, Due to a death in the family the blog has not been updated for some time. I am still here and will start publishing updates again over the coming weeks. I have a trip over to the USA and Caribbean coming up next week which will mean I have lot's more to write about. Thanks for your understanding. Aussie Flyer

I had the great privilege to fly on what is probably the world's most luxurious first class product late last year, the Etihad Airbus A380 Apartments. Here is my experience on this wonderful aircraft! FLIGHT : EY19 AIRLINE : Etihad Airways AIRCRAFT : Airbus A380-800 A6-APB SEAT : 4K ROUTE : Abu Dhabi to London Heathrow I arrived at T3 checkin simply by walking across from the Premier Inn hotel which joins the terminal complex. Upon arrival I was met by the porters but I declined their assistance with my bags. I headed to the dedicated first class checkin zone and soon had my boarding pass and was on my way through security and into the terminal. At the time of this flight and still at the time of writing there is no Etihad first class lounge at Abu Dhabi, instead it is the 'Premium' lounge in T3 which is shared with business class. There is however a small roped off area for first class passengers. The lounge is quite good with a salon and spa available...