Aussie Flyer

A few months ago I was looking for interesting ways home from Europe when I discovered award availability on Qatar Airways business class from Munich to Doha. Since the flight was with a carrier I had never flown before but heard great things about AND on the Boeing 787, I jumped at the chance and booked right away. I used Qantas frequent flyer points for this booking, which was possible since Qatar Airways have joined the oneworld alliance. FLIGHT: QR58 DEPARTURE: Munich @ 16.35 ARRIVAL: Doha @ 23.05 CLASS: Business Class AIRCRAFT: Boeing 787-8 PASSENGER LOAD:  18 out of 22

As part of a trip to Europe recently I wanted to try and fly on something a little bit different. Whilst researching ways to get from London to Munich I found a route sold by Air Berlin from Stansted to Munich via Dusseldorf with the first leg being flown by Etihad Regional on a Saab 2000! With so few Saab 2000's in operation, and certainly none in Australia, I jumped at the chance. As it turns out I flew on the first day of Etihad Regional operations to London's Stansted Airport. FLIGHT: F7275 (Etihad Regional, operated by Darwin Airlines FROM: London-Stansted @ 16.10 TO: Dusseldorf @ 18.25 I took the train from London to Stansted which was convenient, fast and easy  (although I think expensive at approx $40 AUD one way, next time I need to book in advance):

I was absolutely shocked to see the news of MH17 unfolding over the last 24 hours, I am truly devastated. I would like to express my condolences to the families, friends, coworkers and anyone who know those who died. It really is quite incredible that another disaster has hit Malaysia Airlines. It's hard to express how most people feel, it could easily have been any one of us who perished. Rest in Peace.

Last month I finally got to try out the latest Cathay long haul business class seat. It was a long time coming I suppose since the seat has been in operation for well over a year and now features on all flights between Australia and Hong Kong. All CX flights to Australia are operated by the Airbus A330-300 in a 3 class configuration with economy, premium economy and business class. Today I will take a look at flight CX134 which departs Melbourne at 7.40am during the winter months, and 8.40am during the summer months. I warn you, there is a lot of photos... 51 in total! A fairly quiet check-in zone at MEL

Turkish Airlines has been rapidly expanding in recent years and now has a huge worldwide route network that rivals that of the big middle eastern carriers. I had heard good things about the airline so I decided to give them a go and visit Istanbul for the first time. The flight I am reviewing today is TK65, the daytime service from Bangkok to Istanbul. When I booked it was scheduled to be on an Airbus A330-300 with the latest business class product. Unfortunately when I went on Flightradar24 the night before the flight to see which aircraft had left Istanbul to operate the service I found out my flight had been swapped to the smaller A330-200.  I suppose the fact that there was a military coup with strict curfews in place in Bangkok at the time meant that the flight would be lightly loaded but unfortunately it meant I would be stuck in the older and much less exciting angled lie flats for the 10 hour journey. Disappointing but there was nothing I could do about it. Turk...

On my recent 'flyventures' I had an opportunity to sample the new regional business class offering of Cathay Pacific. Whilst I say new, it is in fact already a bit over a year old, but it is the latest product offering from Cathay for regional flights. This product is used on short to medium haul flights, I think services to India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka may be about the longest flights that feature this product. My flight today was CX703, a 17.05 departure to Bangkok from Hong Kong, which continues on to Karachi. The aircraft was an Airbus A330-300 B-HLO, a 13 year old aircraft delivered new to Cathay in 2001.

Jetstar are slowly changing the long haul fleet over from the Airbus A330-200 to the Boeing 787-8 and so far they have 4 aircraft in service. I recently took a ride on VH-VKE which was just 2 weeks old at the time. I rode on it between Melbourne and Sydney, which was a domestic tag for a flight that originated in Phuket. As such it departs from the international terminal but they do sell tickets for domestic passengers too. VH-VKE at the gate