Last week I made a visit to the local Malaysia Airlines ticketing office in Adelaide. Compared to the arrangement with local carrier Qantas, you forget how useful it is to have a local ticketing office to help sort problems out. Reservations over the phone works fine of course, but there...
It feels like I’m being banished back to Adelaide yet again, so like the film Groundhog Day, I am left to again depart Kuala Lumpur on MH139.
Really didn’t expect this at all, so quite chuffed – I totally just wanted to use that word regardless how I felt. Anyway, a couple months ago I got stranded overnight at Dubai Airport by SriLankan Airlines in probably the most trying experience I’ve endured in air travel. Thankfully Emirates rescued me...
EgyptAir offered their long-haul 777 product on this route so I had a good flight in business class with a bed, decent catering and a fairly empty cabin. On a good 12+ hour flight I can imagine the seating to be adequate but that’s about all. You can sleep on it, what more...
Well it’s a day late but I eventually took a domestic ‘connection’ on Virgin Atlantic Little Red. This service is soon to be extinct. After the sale of BMI to IAG, Virgin Atlantic (VS) got the slots from Heathrow to Edinburgh and Aberdeen. They also had their own slots to Manchester...
Arriving into London on Virgin Atlantic Upper Class I visited their Revivals lounge to make plans for the day. Heathrow probably has more arrival lounges than any other airport and Virgin Atlantic have recently renovated their arrivals facilities. So in this case competition definitely is a good thing.
Virgin Atlantic predominantly now traverse the Atlantic, having axed Sydney and most of their Asian routes. So for someone frequently travelling between Asia, Australia and Europe the airline is now more a distant thought but I was looking forwarding to flying them, even if it was a slight throwback to earlier...
Arriving fresh from Japan, I was making my way to Europe via Hong Kong in an intentionally indirect way. I had been able to get a long overnight transit in Seoul where I otherwise could not stopover. This gave me a chance to not just get out and finally see...
It had been a very fun and interesting fortnight in Japan but the time had come to depart. I had typically booked flights a day in advance to connect with a Virgin Atlantic award and was set to go. Arriving off the express train service from Kyoto, I walked the very short path connecting train...
I booked an Asiana flight leaving Osaka Kansai airport yesterday as my study tour had ended. Fellow Star Alliance member, All Nippon Airways (ANA) operate the lounge used on Asiana flights. ANA operate only a handful of lounges, primarily in the Tokyo airports, so this is one a simpler offering. This...
After making a decision yesterday to book flights leaving Japan this morning I had to head back to Osaka Kansai Airport from Kyoto. There is a special direct service for this exact route, the Karuka Express, which bypasses Osaka. I was up fairly early and said goodbye to friends from the study...
In typical style I am 50% planning, 50% impulsive or pressured last minute decisions. I am staying in Kyoto but time is marching on before my Virgin Atlantic flight to London departs from Hong Kong. Alas they no longer fly from Tokyo! There were many great options to get down...
The city of Tottori’s main attraction is some huge sand dunes, the only in Japan. They are of impressive scale, 20-30 metres high, the whole system goes on for many kilometres. The day we visited it was unfortunately raining however this only added to the whole experience as a low mist...
We arrived at KL sentral with every intent on staying at one of the adjacent hotels. Unfortunately I had transferred points from my Amex to SPG for a couple nights only the night before and last minute rates were poor value. It usually takes around 24 hours so decided to wait the 30 mins and...
Ok that title is a bit dramatic, I have used Virgin Atlantic (VS) before for the domestic service which has provided very good value for awards. However those routes are currently being terminated, with a few months remaining to Aberdeen and Edinburgh. This is in addition to discontinuing several key...
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