Aussie Flyer

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 ...

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

 As a follow up to my earlier post about EY265 , here is how the return sector to Colombo looked. Once again, this flight was being operated by an A320 in the regional Etihad configuration. This aircraft was a little older, it did not feature the wing sharklets that I had on the flight into Abu Dhabi. The cabin however was basically identical, with large comfortable recliners with leather head rests in a fairly neutral colour scheme:

I've only ever flown Etihad the one time before this trip, and that was in first class from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne last year. On my recent trip to the USA I decided to take advantage of a triple miles offer and fly Etihad business class. The first leg of the Etihad ticket started in Colombo. Flight EY265 is one of two daily A320 flights to Abu Dhabi. Competitor Emirates run a B777-300ER on their flight to Dubai, a significantly larger aircraft with a much bigger seat. However, since the flight is only around 4 hours I was fine to be on one of Etihad's 'regional' birds. Despite hearing rumours that Colombo airport wasn't too great I found it quite hassle free, Etihad has a dedicated counter for those travelling in business:

My other half is originally from Hat Yai so every now and then I find myself visiting this southern Thai city, like I did last month for Thai New Year (Songkran). On this trip I decided to fly via  Kuala Lumpur and take Air Asia. I booked online for a great price and showed up at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal with my pre-printed web check-in boarding passes.  I had baggage to check-in so fronted up to one of the counters and handed over my passport and my bag. Fortunately  there was not much of a queue so the process was fast. My passport was checked, bag tagged and my printed boarding pass stamped to confirm my documents had been verified. Next it was upstairs to passport control and through security. Once through security there is a small selection of duty free shops and food outlets in the LCCT. There is also free wi-fi. This was to be my last time using this terminal as KLIA 2 is opening in May which will see a huge upgrade to the facilities. I sat on a spare...

Flying around Europe in business class is not exactly luxurious. The airline industry standard business class is actually just economy seats at the front of the plane with a middle seat blocked. There may be slightly more legroom and enhanced service but this really should be called 'Premium Economy' at best. Here is a look at what BA are offering at the moment on short haul European business class, which they call 'Club Europe'. This journey begins at Heathrow Terminal 3. My destination on this early January evening is Prague, one of only a handful of destinations that British Airways still serve from this terminal. The vast majority of BA services are operated out of Terminal 5. British Airways still operate a business and first class lounge here though which is used by other carriers like Qantas as well. There is also a First Class check-in zone which was deserted when I arrived. My check-in was handled very quickly and my luggage tagged for Prague with priority...

The central Australian town of Alice Springs is not home to many major chain hotels, although they do have a Crowne Plaza, which gets the number 1 spot on Tripadvisor. With that ranking in mind I checked out the prices and found a stay 3 pay 2 offer which seemed like a very good deal. I booked myself in to a standard room and arrived from Melbourne via Qantas (see my previous blog post for the trip report).  I rented a Hertz Toyota Camry and drove to the hotel, free parking is available for those with cars. At check-in I was told the pool was out of action due to heavy rains, it was going to be unusable for a couple of days. That was disappointing because I had been hoping for a dip considering the hot weather! The front desk staff advised we could use the hotel next door's pool if we wished.  The hotel features a series of 3 story buildings connected by covered walkways that face in to the central pool area. Rooms are simple but quite comfortable. There is only an old CRT t...

AIRLINE: Jetstar AIRCRAFT: Airbus A320-200 (VH-VGZ) CLASS: Economy Class ROUTE: MEL-BNE SEAT: 4F SCHEDULED DEPARTURE: 16.10 ACTUAL DEPARTURE: 16.10 SCHEDULED ARRIVAL: 18.20 ACTUAL ARRIVAL: 18.25 With family up in Brisbane it was time for another visit to the Sunshine State of Queensland. It was school holidays and Qantas was a bit overpriced so I opted for a Jetstar flight from Melbourne Tullamarine to Brisbane, one of 2 daily flight they operate on this route. About 2.45pm, I dropped the car off at Melbourne airports long term car parking and got the shuttle bus for the short ride over to Terminal 1. Terminal 1 plays host to Qantas Domestic, Qantaslink, and Jetstar. In order to get a seat near the front, I had checked in online but decided not to print out my boarding pass and get one at the checkin kiosk instead. I had no baggage thankfully as the baggage drop off counter queues were very long! The check in kiosks were surrounded by people queuing to drop off baggage bu...

I checked in online but found seat allocation was not available. The flight was showing as being very full on seatcounter.com. I made my way to the airport and printed my economy class boarding pass at the kiosk and did my bag drop. Then made my wasy through security and onto the airport train to the satellite terminal. This was the first week of Continental Airlines being in Star Alliance so I decided to take advantage and use the President's Club as it is now a Star Alliance Gold lounge, there would be no lounge available here if it were not for CO joining the alliance. Thanks CO! self check-in rather quiet looking United check-in area inter-terminal train station take an elevator upstairs at this sign to go to the Presidents Club I anticipated problems with the lounge attendant with regards to whether I was allowed access to the club, and I was quite right. For a start this lounge attendant has no idea what airline 'bmi' is, nor does she know the Star Alliance Go...

The next leg of my journey was to be on an Airbus A320 from United Airlines, Los Angeles to Las Vegas. After clearing customs and leaving my checked bag I made my way back up to the departures level at LAX Terminal 7. Already having my boarding pass I joined the TSA security queue, I did not realise that Star Gold with United could go through the elite security line so I joined the first queue I saw. A security person noticed me clutching my gold boarding pass and took me out of the line to the express lane, how fantastic! After the usual shoes off security check I roamed around the terminal and decided on some McDonalds for breakfast, knowing that the lounges in the USA have very little food other than cheese and crackers! United's Terminal 7 - LAX View of the apron, several Embraer 120 Brasilia's at the front LAX icon - seems some work is under way! I went and visited the United Red Carpet Club at Terminal 7 - the staff there had no issue with my bmi Diamond Club card th...