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gsnedders

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Peter Mugridge said:
Yes, 787s have a lower cabin altitude as the composite fuselage is much more resistant to pressure cycles and intensity than aluminium alloys are.
Click to expand...
A380s (and A350) are also pressurised to the equivalent of 6000ft AMSL (and so will the 777X), versus most aircraft being at 8000ft. Notably, the 787 and A350 have a relative humidity of 25% (v. 20%). Interestingly, so will the 777X despite still largely being a metal fuselage.

AIUI, customer demand at this point essentially that long-haul aircraft must have a lower cabin pressure and very strongly preferably more humidity because passengers are to some degree choosing flights based on it.
 
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Bald Rick

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gsnedders said:
A380s (and A350) are also pressurised to the equivalent of 6000ft AMSL (and so will the 777X), versus most aircraft being at 8000ft. Notably, the 787 and A350 have a relative humidity of 25% (v. 20%). Interestingly, so will the 777X despite still largely being a metal fuselage.

AIUI, customer demand at this point essentially that long-haul aircraft must have a lower cabin pressure and very strongly preferably more humidity because passengers are to some degree choosing flights based on it.
Click to expand...

I’ve heard the same on the last point.

Re the 777-X; it will be interesting to see what the FAA and other regulators do regarding certification post the 737-MAX.
 
Techniquest

Techniquest

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WestCoast said:
Bought some shares in Wizz four years ago and they’ve been a decent investment. Looked up and your flight is likely to be an A321 NEO operated by Wizz Air Hungary at the moment, they are very new aircraft indeed but the legroom is tight. I tend to book the extra legroom seats of which there are quite a few on the A321, had a nice flight over from Bergen into Luton at the start of the month operated by Wizz Air UK, was chatting to the pilot and he said there’s quite a few ex-Monarch staff working there at Luton now.

If you find time for the Aeropark at Budapest Airport, I would recommend! Also I really like the Libego chair lift in the Buda Hills, cheap as chips and the ride down you get a really spectacular view of Pest across the river.
Click to expand...

Oh nice, I've not been on a Neo yet, so that would be rather interesting to compare to the older 320/321s. I also didn't know there was a Luton to Bergen flight, I am intrigued and already thinking of a possible trip next year...

The Aeropark I'll look up shortly, but sounds like fun. If it is I'll make sure I find time for it somehow! The chair lift sounds really good too, so thanks for the recommendation!

The weather forecast looks to be better than it was the other day too, which is good news too. Almost time to get ready to leave the house, let's fly!
 
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Bletchleyite

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Bald Rick said:
I’ve heard the same on the last point.

Re the 777-X; it will be interesting to see what the FAA and other regulators do regarding certification post the 737-MAX.
Click to expand...

Now I've been on a 787 I'd do the same. It made the difference between feeling like death on arrival and feeling reasonably OK. And this was on a daytime flight, so the comparison wasn't affected by whether I slept better or worse.

It's also nice to see some passenger-friendly innovation rather than just the more usual cram-more-in with every new design.
 
RichJF

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Will also be interesting what the FAA/Boeing do in regards to the 777x. During stress testing (much higher constraints than normal conditions) the cargo door blew out/exploded & Boeing have suspended further testing.
Ground test fuselage was expected to survive the test but failed apparently.
 
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atillathehunn

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gsnedders said:
A380s (and A350) are also pressurised to the equivalent of 6000ft AMSL (and so will the 777X), versus most aircraft being at 8000ft. Notably, the 787 and A350 have a relative humidity of 25% (v. 20%). Interestingly, so will the 777X despite still largely being a metal fuselage.

AIUI, customer demand at this point essentially that long-haul aircraft must have a lower cabin pressure and very strongly preferably more humidity because passengers are to some degree choosing flights based on it.
Click to expand...

I flew on Ethiopian's A359 again last week (and their 787s in huge quantity...) and what a wonderful experience the A359 is. My only critique is that the seat numbers are impossible to read when the overhead bins are down. Boarding was quite badly disrupted by people being in the wrong seats but it really wasn't easy to tell. In that regard, the 787 is better. However, the seat and legroom was better in the A359.
 
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nw1

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A bit of a random question.

I've noticed that Iberia run a Madrid-Heathrow and v.v. journey in the early evening (London time) which is operated by an A340. This service seems to have run since at least 2011, currently the flight number for the southbound journey is IB3167 and leaves Heathrow around 19:00 or so.

Anyone know the reason for using a long-haul aircraft on an intra-Western Europe journey like this?
I'm guessing the aircraft would otherwise be hanging around in Madrid between long-haul flights, so the London and back trip is a way of making use of the aircraft during the layover and there are no short-haul aircraft available?
 
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atillathehunn

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nickw1 said:
A bit of a random question.

I've noticed that Iberia run a Madrid-Heathrow and v.v. journey in the early evening (London time) which is operated by an A340. This service seems to have run since at least 2011, currently the flight number for the southbound journey is IB3167 and leaves Heathrow around 19:00 or so.

Anyone know the reason for using a long-haul aircraft on an intra-Western Europe journey like this?
I'm guessing the aircraft would otherwise be hanging around in Madrid between long-haul flights, so the London and back trip is a way of making use of the aircraft during the layover and there are no short-haul aircraft available?
Click to expand...
Not random, entirely sensible observation. Most widebodies intra-Europe tend to be multi-drops or 5th freedom flights. This is none of them.

While none of us surely knows the commercial secrets, common wisdom is that it's cargo demand which needs a wide body.
 
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Mag_seven

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nickw1 said:
I've noticed that Iberia run a Madrid-Heathrow and v.v. journey in the early evening (London time) which is operated by an A340. This service seems to have run since at least 2011, currently the flight number for the southbound journey is IB3167 and leaves Heathrow around 19:00 or so.
Click to expand...

I'm booked on the MAD-LHR leg of it next month - looking forward to it. :)
 
Techniquest

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Arctic Troll said:
It's why I'm so sad to see the A380 go, it really is the best plane I've ever been on by quite some distance.
Click to expand...

I must admit being on an A380 overnight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi in March probably made the experience in terms of sleeping, due to it being quiet. I'd have obviously preferred a 787 but whether I'd have enjoyed the experience or not is unknown.

Arrived earlier in Budapest on HA-LVC and it was my first A321Neo. I actually rather enjoyed it, and top marks to Wizz Air in terms of the flight. Legroom for me was not an issue, being only 5'10" but as I showed in the photo on Twitter (it's in there under my hashtag for world exploration trips, #JulianosWorldFrenzy) it was fine. My trip report will go into fuller details, and I anticipate posting that in the morning. WiFi in this accommodation is a bit weak so it's taking ages to load stuff, let alone post anything.

2 days of nothing but rest, relaxation and exploring coming up, but bring on my next flight on Thursday. I have a feeling Wizz Air *may* feature in a future trip in January 2020...
 
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gsnedders

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nickw1 said:
A bit of a random question.

I've noticed that Iberia run a Madrid-Heathrow and v.v. journey in the early evening (London time) which is operated by an A340. This service seems to have run since at least 2011, currently the flight number for the southbound journey is IB3167 and leaves Heathrow around 19:00 or so.

Anyone know the reason for using a long-haul aircraft on an intra-Western Europe journey like this?
I'm guessing the aircraft would otherwise be hanging around in Madrid between long-haul flights, so the London and back trip is a way of making use of the aircraft during the layover and there are no short-haul aircraft available?
Click to expand...
IAG Cargo (between their two major hubs) is why it runs, being able to fit in more and larger freight than the A320 family aircraft. There's also one BA 777/787 roundtrip during the day as a third flight for freight reasons. That said, AFAIK they typically have good loadings in economy, as is obvious from the frequency of the service most of the day.

There's also an A330/A350 Finnair service to/from Helsinki, also for freight reasons.
 
nlogax

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Anyone here a veteran of airline tier point / mileage runs? I'm plotting my first real one for early next year, looking take advantage of premium fare deals on OneWorld. Would love to hear your experiences or tips & tricks for ITA Matrix searches, positioning flights, etc. (and yes, before you ask, I'm already researching heavily on Flyertalk forums etc)

Ta in advance
 
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gsnedders

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nlogax said:
Anyone here a veteran of airline tier point / mileage runs? I'm plotting my first real one for early next year, looking take advantage of premium fare deals on OneWorld. Would love to hear your experiences or tips & tricks for ITA Matrix searches, positioning flights, etc. (and yes, before you ask, I'm already researching heavily on Flyertalk forums etc)

Ta in advance
Click to expand...
What do you want to optimize for? Tier points/time? Tier points/cost? Tier points/going somewhere interesting for the weekend?
 
nlogax

nlogax

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gsnedders said:
What do you want to optimize for? Tier points/time? Tier points/cost? Tier points/going somewhere interesting for the weekend?
Click to expand...

More than anything it's about maximising tier point gain over a four or five day period, and long haul is absolutely part of that plan with maybe break of a day or so in the middle. Right now it's a bit of a puzzle but obviously I'm trying to start with a decent couple of deals and work it out from there.
 
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Robertj21a

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Thomas Cook air licence due for renewal on 1st Oct among some concerns as to whether it has sufficient finance behind it to avoid the CAA having to step in and repatriate TC passengers.
 
Aictos

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Well I finally flew into Luton with Easyjet, not a bad airport.

My only gripe was we were late thanks to Italian ATC delaying my aircraft and crew on two previous flights no idea why though?
 
fowler9

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Had my first flight on an A320 Neo today. Quite pleasant. Pula airport also has an outside viewing terrace airside. Not much to see that is exciting but saw S7 airlines and Ural Airlines.
 
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atillathehunn

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fowler9 said:
Had my first flight on an A320 Neo today. Quite pleasant. Pula airport also has an outside viewing terrace airside. Not much to see that is exciting but saw S7 airlines and Ural Airlines.
Click to expand...
I find them to be quite a bit quieter than other planes. Enjoy Croatia!
 
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atillathehunn

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Aictos said:
Well I finally flew into Luton with Easyjet, not a bad airport.

My only gripe was we were late thanks to Italian ATC delaying my aircraft and crew on two previous flights no idea why though?
Click to expand...

Italian ATC have a thousand ways they can delay or confound, have no fear.

I found the new Luton to be less bad than before, though still not good.
 
Techniquest

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Indeed, once Luton is all finished in 2021 it should be awesome. I do like approaching the airport by road and occasionally if you're lucky you'll get a plane taxi-ing over where the road dips under. I hope I'm not the only one who finds that interesting, if only for the fact it really feels like you're arriving at an airport.

When construction of the Luton Dart is completed, and it looks like it has been quite a big job so far from the works I saw being done earlier this month, it should be much better. I'll certainly be more tempted to arrive by rail when it opens!

When you re-watch old episodes of Airline and you see what was Luton and what it is now, the difference is huge. I still like Luton for the short taxi-ing, which is so much better than at Heathrow where it feels like half of the flight is taxi-ing to/from the runway!

In short, I like Luton and it is one of my favourite airports.

This morning I have finally finished typing up my list of flights taken so far, yesterday I got the details all into my notebook which took a fair while. Also added them all to FLIO, love that app, and the next task later is to create another file on my phone where the flights are organised by registration. Then it's creating a list of craft types and the mileage flown on each sort, so plenty to do today! However I am able to share my most important stats so far, and for a part-time aviation nut I'm quite pleased with them, and this is since 29th March 2012:

Total mileage: 64,646
Number of flights: 61
Airports visited: 42
Countries visited: 20

The countries count doesn't include France, Portugal, Germany, Greece or Latvia as I've either never flown into/out of them or the flights were in the distant past with no knowledge of dates etc. Even so, I'm pretty happy with those numbers. I'll be a little over 75,000 miles by my rough estimation when I return from Tokyo, considering 2014's flights were simply Stansted to Vasteras and back, and a fair few of my flights have been short ones (less than 500 miles), I'm happy with that. Very high chance I'll clear 100,000 miles during 2020 as well, but we'll see what happens there!
 
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atillathehunn

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Techniquest said:
Indeed, once Luton is all finished in 2021 it should be awesome. I do like approaching the airport by road and occasionally if you're lucky you'll get a plane taxi-ing over where the road dips under. I hope I'm not the only one who finds that interesting, if only for the fact it really feels like you're arriving at an airport.

When construction of the Luton Dart is completed, and it looks like it has been quite a big job so far from the works I saw being done earlier this month, it should be much better. I'll certainly be more tempted to arrive by rail when it opens!

When you re-watch old episodes of Airline and you see what was Luton and what it is now, the difference is huge. I still like Luton for the short taxi-ing, which is so much better than at Heathrow where it feels like half of the flight is taxi-ing to/from the runway!

In short, I like Luton and it is one of my favourite airports.

This morning I have finally finished typing up my list of flights taken so far, yesterday I got the details all into my notebook which took a fair while. Also added them all to FLIO, love that app, and the next task later is to create another file on my phone where the flights are organised by registration. Then it's creating a list of craft types and the mileage flown on each sort, so plenty to do today! However I am able to share my most important stats so far, and for a part-time aviation nut I'm quite pleased with them, and this is since 29th March 2012:

Total mileage: 64,646
Number of flights: 61
Airports visited: 42
Countries visited: 20

The countries count doesn't include France, Portugal, Germany, Greece or Latvia as I've either never flown into/out of them or the flights were in the distant past with no knowledge of dates etc. Even so, I'm pretty happy with those numbers. I'll be a little over 75,000 miles by my rough estimation when I return from Tokyo, considering 2014's flights were simply Stansted to Vasteras and back, and a fair few of my flights have been short ones (less than 500 miles), I'm happy with that. Very high chance I'll clear 100,000 miles during 2020 as well, but we'll see what happens there!
Click to expand...

I don't think I will ever say it's that good, but it's an improvement. Stansted was pretty terrible. Not as bad as Manchester, though, which is the pits. The short taxi is an advantage indeed. Though Schiphol takes the trophy on long taxi times. Coming off of a 9 hour flight recently, the additional 35 minute taxi (not queuing, moving the whole time....) was really a huge disappointment. I particularly like Bergamo in Italy for the fact there are no tugs, it's drive out. N.B. - the only redeeming feature of Bergamo... Same at Lilongwe.

Heathrow taxis distance wise don't see so long, but the fact you're stationary the entire time is tedious.

I think I prefer to arrive at an airport by train, with a few exceptions. The roads around airports are often clogged with people fresh off the plane in a new country in a rental car, and with unfamiliar roads. Can be carnage.

Impressive statistics for a part time enthusiast. I'm on 52,508 miles just in 2019 to date, and I have a couple more long haul flights to go before the end of the year, and a few regional, too. Most of the flying is to work, and most is to east Africa.
 
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Bletchleyite

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Stansted is an awful airport. Slow to get through, long, poorly-managed queues and poorly maintained - the high roof would be impressive, for instance, if it wasn't caked in muck, not to mention, as Fascinating Aida put it, "youse are banjaxed if you try to take a train or underground, so a taxi to the a*** of the world was more than a hundred pound" due to its not-near-anywhere location. I fail to see any redeeming feature of it whatsoever. That it is also home to the second worst airline in Europe (I personally put Wizz lower in my estimations) is another good reason to stay well clear.

Bergamo I thought was pretty good - a very nice modernised terminal, almost brand new. The non-Schengen bit is a bit grim, but you don't have to stay there for long. I don't recall "forwards out" there but the three remote round "piers" at Geneva (two non Schengen, one Schengen) also do this.
 
fowler9

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Techniquest said:
Indeed, once Luton is all finished in 2021 it should be awesome. I do like approaching the airport by road and occasionally if you're lucky you'll get a plane taxi-ing over where the road dips under. I hope I'm not the only one who finds that interesting, if only for the fact it really feels like you're arriving at an airport.

When construction of the Luton Dart is completed, and it looks like it has been quite a big job so far from the works I saw being done earlier this month, it should be much better. I'll certainly be more tempted to arrive by rail when it opens!

When you re-watch old episodes of Airline and you see what was Luton and what it is now, the difference is huge. I still like Luton for the short taxi-ing, which is so much better than at Heathrow where it feels like half of the flight is taxi-ing to/from the runway!

In short, I like Luton and it is one of my favourite airports.

This morning I have finally finished typing up my list of flights taken so far, yesterday I got the details all into my notebook which took a fair while. Also added them all to FLIO, love that app, and the next task later is to create another file on my phone where the flights are organised by registration. Then it's creating a list of craft types and the mileage flown on each sort, so plenty to do today! However I am able to share my most important stats so far, and for a part-time aviation nut I'm quite pleased with them, and this is since 29th March 2012:

Total mileage: 64,646
Number of flights: 61
Airports visited: 42
Countries visited: 20

The countries count doesn't include France, Portugal, Germany, Greece or Latvia as I've either never flown into/out of them or the flights were in the distant past with no knowledge of dates etc. Even so, I'm pretty happy with those numbers. I'll be a little over 75,000 miles by my rough estimation when I return from Tokyo, considering 2014's flights were simply Stansted to Vasteras and back, and a fair few of my flights have been short ones (less than 500 miles), I'm happy with that. Very high chance I'll clear 100,000 miles during 2020 as well, but we'll see what happens there!
Click to expand...
Another mention for the Polderbaan after you mentioning driving under runways or taxiways. I'm sure part of the taxiway from the Polderbaan involves the aircraft revving up the engines to get over a slight incline over a road. It felt like it anyway.
 
Techniquest

Techniquest

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atillathehunn said:
I don't think I will ever say it's that good, but it's an improvement. Stansted was pretty terrible. Not as bad as Manchester, though, which is the pits. The short taxi is an advantage indeed. Though Schiphol takes the trophy on long taxi times. Coming off of a 9 hour flight recently, the additional 35 minute taxi (not queuing, moving the whole time....) was really a huge disappointment. I particularly like Bergamo in Italy for the fact there are no tugs, it's drive out. N.B. - the only redeeming feature of Bergamo... Same at Lilongwe.

Heathrow taxis distance wise don't see so long, but the fact you're stationary the entire time is tedious.

I think I prefer to arrive at an airport by train, with a few exceptions. The roads around airports are often clogged with people fresh off the plane in a new country in a rental car, and with unfamiliar roads. Can be carnage.

Impressive statistics for a part time enthusiast. I'm on 52,508 miles just in 2019 to date, and I have a couple more long haul flights to go before the end of the year, and a few regional, too. Most of the flying is to work, and most is to east Africa.
Click to expand...

I've not had any super negative experiences with Stansted, so I can't really comment there. Until I fell out of love with Ryanair, it was a favourite airport!

Manchester, following my experience there earlier this year, I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it. I would potentially rate Gatwick higher though.

Bergamo, that's not the worst one I've done either, and I can't remember if I did pull-forward there or not. I've done so at Vilnius though as well as somewhere else. Apart from the famous London City of course.

Wow your mileage is incredible fair play! :shock:
 
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