Mine is Auckland to Santiago on Christmas Eve 2011 also on a round the world trip.My longest on that plane is NRT-CPH this last Christmas on a RTW trip.
Mine is Auckland to Santiago on Christmas Eve 2011 also on a round the world trip.My longest on that plane is NRT-CPH this last Christmas on a RTW trip.
Impressive.Mine is Auckland to Santiago on Christmas Eve 2011 also on a round the world trip.
I'll ask my sister, she is cabin crew for Easyjet. It sounds unlikely to me it would be allowed to happen the way it was described. They really are very strict. My sister wasn't allowed to fly with a sprained ankle. I seriously doubt the plane would have left the gate with the senior cabin crew member incapacitated. My sister has had flights cancelled for far less.Here's an odd one for people. I think a lot of rules may have been broken here, but am surprised they were.
A friend (yes, a friend, genuinely, not me) was on an easyJet flight recently which was delayed due to one of the cabin crew tripping on the stairs when boarding the aircraft and breaking her ankle (they were told).
Now I'd have expected a delay for a replacement and her taken off for emergency treatment, but apparently this did not happen. Instead she remained on board and after a short (10 mins or so) delay while a doctor who happened to be on board had a look the flight departed.
This left them with only 3 safety-capable cabin crew on an aircraft requiring 4 (which was full except 1 seat) and someone flying with a suspected broken limb which had not been properly checked. Furthermore, he was sitting at the back and heard talk along the lines of "how are we going to do X now as she was the chief steward?"
Any thoughts? This sounds highly dodgy to me if the story is as told. I'd have expected either a cancellation, a new member of cabin crew, or the bumping of 7 passengers (it was an A319) to allow three. And I really wouldn't have expected her to be allowed to fly without first visiting a hospital for X-rays etc.
It was definitely a serious issue as she was seated in row 2 (normally used for assistance passengers) and the aircraft was met by an ambulance on landing in the UK.
My round the world was an A-319 from Manchester to Heathrow. A BA 744 from Heathrow to Hong Kong. A QANTAS 744 from Hong Kong to Melbourne. A Jetstar A-320 from Brisbane to Christchurch. An LAN A-343 from Auckland to Santiago. A BA 773 from Buenos Aires to Heathrow. A BA A-319 from Heathrow to Manchester. The trip lasted six months. All the internal trips were on Greyhound Austraila, Intercity in New Zealand and various bus and train companies in South America visiting Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. The flight from Auckland to Santiago was the most amazing. Took off around 16:00 on Christmas Eve and landed at around 11:00 on Christmas Eve before we left Auckland. Ha ha. We also got a loco hauled train from the Britomart Centre in Auckland to Papatoetoe and then a bus from there to the airport.Impressive.
I have been in the southern hemisphere a few times but never done an RTW that was heavily Southern. My goal is to do something like -USA - THEN START RTW Buenos Aires -Santiago- Auckland-Perth (PROBABLY VIA Sydney) -Jo'burg - Rio -Buenos Aires END RTW then back to USA - so long story short - RTW southern hemisphere only.
I'll ask my sister, she is cabin crew for Easyjet. It sounds unlikely to me it would be allowed to happen the way it was described. They really are very strict. My sister wasn't allowed to fly with a sprained ankle. I seriously doubt the plane would have left the gate with the senior cabin crew member incapacitated. My sister has had flights cancelled for far less.
Ha ha. Yeah, that was taken in Aguas Calientes. I heard the horn and legged it out of an internet café to get a photo. A truely amazing place.Fowler9 - Your Avatar looks suspiciously like the train station in the Macchu Pichu area
Just been speaking to my sister. That plane will not have left the ground unless there was a member of cabin crew for every fifty passengers. My sister and her colleagues even get asked if they are happy to fly by the captain if the weather is bad. If the cabin crew say no they don't go. My sister has never felt pressured in to making a flight she didn't want to. It may be a budget airline but they are full on safety critical. My sis doesn't want to die to buy a pint after the next pay day. The flight crew give a lot more respect to the cabin crew than you may expect.Yes, it did surprise me. I suspect something to be missing from the story (e.g. they had a 5th member of crew for some reason) but I couldn't quite work out what.
I've always found easyJet to be absolutely 100% on safety otherwise, though their "signature" informal approach may suggest to the uninitiated that it is otherwise.
Just been speaking to my sister. That plane will not have left the ground unless there was a member of cabin crew for every fifty passengers. My sister and her colleagues even get asked if they are happy to fly by the captain if the weather is bad. If the cabin crew say no they don't go. My sister has never felt pressured in to making a flight she didn't want to. It may be a budget airline but they are full on safety critical. My sis doesn't want to die to buy a pint after the next pay day. The flight crew give a lot more respect to the cabin crew than you may expect.
Yeah, I think things sometimes get lost in translation. I was on an Easyjet flight from Barcelona to Liverpool and an off duty member of crew told an on duty member of crew that her last flight had a panel fall off in flight. They hushed each other up so as not to scare people. It was really nothing, to them it just meant they got home later, they wouldn't get on the plane if they didn't think it was safe.That's what I would expect. I suspect something missing from my friend's story (I know it isn't completely made up), but it's hard to tell what.
For those of you who've done RTW trips, how did you organise it? It's always been something I'd love to do but as it's not cheap if I ever get the chance to do it I'd like to have an idea of what it involves
For those of you who've done RTW trips, how did you organise it? It's always been something I'd love to do but as it's not cheap if I ever get the chance to do it I'd like to have an idea of what it involves
including sitting next to Lester Piggott on the last flight.
...on a rather short 747...
Are you saying you were lucky enough to ride on an SP? I imagine that was somewhat punchy on the take off roll, especially if you were fortunate enough to get a standing start?
I have to ask - was he on the inside?
Anyone ever done any ultra long haul flying? I’m taking Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong to New York-JFK next summer. 8,066 miles!
The flight I’m taking also includes a stop in Vancouver (to serve this destination - not a technical or refuelling stop - the 777-300 can actually make it the whole 8,000+ miles!).
Anyone ever done any ultra long haul flying? I’m taking Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong to New York-JFK next summer. 8,066 miles!
The flight I’m taking also includes a stop in Vancouver (to serve this destination - not a technical or refuelling stop - the 777-300 can actually make it the whole 8,000+ miles!).
Yes, plenty of times.
Bring a good book...
Seriously though, make sure you stay hydrated. Get an aisle seat or exit row to make sure you can get out and stretch and go to the loo. It's the only time I would advocate paying for an exit row.
It's incredibly tempting to soak up the free booze on these flights, but they always end up giving me monumental headaches and I regret everything.
Cathay are great at providing snacks even in whY. BA, on the other hand, were rubbish.
Vary your entertainment intake. Bring your own comfortable headphones and back up iPad with downloaded movies. The IFE didn't work on our flight this weekend. Thankfully I had a huge mountain of work to do so wasn't an issue, but there were a lot of complaints.
I blew 140,000 Avios (which cleared out my BA Exec Club account and effectively signals the end of me playing the miles game)...on First Class.
It's a head-melting flight though, leaving HKG at 12:30am on a Wednesday, crossing the International Dateline and arriving New York at...7am on the Wednesday. By my reckoning there will be two sunrises on this flight and a full "accelerated" day in between. I have no idea how they will cater on this flight. It's dine on demand but is it dinner>snacks>breakfast, or what? A question for Flyertalk I think,
I agree about alcohol though, I have no wish to get steaming drunk on these flights and all champagne tastes the same to my unrefined palate. I only really drink with an evening meal, and in any case when I get to JFK I've a 4 hour layover (to take a shower!) before carrying on to Washington-Reagan in an Embraer-145. So I don't really want to be doing that with a hangover.
I'm bashing (is that the right word?) a lot of aircraft in the USA on that trip. Testing out United's and Delta's premium transcon products, taking in a few regional jets, and flying on Spirit Airlines...just to see how awful they are.
Spoiler: they're dreadful, once I add in a bag, seats, a carryon - yes they charge for those - they're on average only $20 short of the cost of a domestic First flight on AA/Delta! And that's across a variety of routes, not just a one off.
Their LCCs are a bit of a joke compared to Europe.
JetBlue's Mint is apparently very good.
Charging for a carryon is Wizz territory...
I think you have access to quite a few lounges I believe in JFK - check out some research before you go to lounge hop.
Anyone ever done any ultra long haul flying? I’m taking Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong to New York-JFK next summer. 8,066 miles!
The flight I’m taking also includes a stop in Vancouver (to serve this destination - not a technical or refuelling stop - the 777-300 can actually make it the whole 8,000+ miles!).
Really easy to organise mate. What I have found interesting is people paying the same twenty years ago as I did six. First off plan where you want to go. And if you intend to travel internally within the region you are visiting. For example me and the ex flew in to and out of different places in Australia, New Zealand and South America. I think most tickets are millage based. We had a thing called Travel Butler which let us change flights for free (Not routes though).For those of you who've done RTW trips, how did you organise it? It's always been something I'd love to do but as it's not cheap if I ever get the chance to do it I'd like to have an idea of what it involves