I could tell ya, but what's in it for me?

There are 29 posts tagged: travel

Executive flights of fancy: 12 December 2024; As I'm a (low-value) member of British Airways' Executive Club, the Executive Club Team have reached out to me to clarify changes being made to the way I don't collect airmiles. Apparently, my next collection period begins on 9 January 2024 and will end on 31 March 2025 instead of 8 January 2025, which, they tell me, is a shorter collection period than usual. Funny, I make it fifteen months rather than twelve, and to have started eleven months ago.
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The good stuff: 23 November 2024; A spate of tourists' deaths from methanol poisoning in a notorious Laotian party town has led to revelations of free shots being offered to guests on arrival, and beer and even vodka being sold by the bucket. Booze is cheap and plentiful along the banks of the Nam Song river.
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It's better not to travel: 11 November 2024; You know that global warming thing? It's a bit of a shitter, innit? So, if you're travelling it'd be great if you could take the most environmentally friendly option, no?
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Two drinks and you're out!: 28 August 2024; The CEO of Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, has called for limits to be imposed on alcohol consumption by passengers at airports, saying we don't allow people to drink-drive, yet we keep putting them up in aircraft at 33,000ft.
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Ersatzrocket: 8 August 2024; In the light of Boeing's manufacturing and maintenance woes, comes news of the failure of its Starliner spacecraft on approach to the ISS. While it successfully delivered two astronauts, it won't be taking them home as scheduled.
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A slow boat to China: 13 May 2024; For any western holidaymakers looking for something a little out of the ordinary—24/7 surveillance; zoonotic diseases; dubiously-sourced food; detention on specious grounds; their hotel collapsing through shonky building practices, among many others—China awaits! Yes, President Pooh's fetid shithole is open for tourism.
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Club Tropicana drinks weren't free: 8 April 2024; After almost seventy years, the Tropicana, one of Las Vegas' iconic casino hotels has closed its doors. And one of the more interesting features on the BBC's magazine side of late is Tony Perrottet's exploration of Sin City's seedy past. It's only a little more than 1400 words, to cover almost eighty years of history of gangsters, gambling, and divorce. If it were much longer though, I probably wouldn't've got through it all. (shrug)
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Too fat to fly: 22 February 2024; Mia Taylor, writing for BBC Travel, tells us that Finnair has sparked controversy by weighing its passengers. According to the BBC's own Lucy Hooker, however, they were doing that a full six years ago already!
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Inconvenient convenience: 17 January 2024; A passenger aboard an Indian domestic flight was locked in the toilet for over an hour, after the door malfunctioned. As the plane prepared for landing, a flight attendant advised him to close the commode lid and sit on it and secure yourself. He was only freed after an engineer boarded the plane at its destination.
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Not a good idea: 20 June 2023; Who'd've thought that tourist submarine trips to explore RMS Titanic at a depth of 3800m below the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean could be potentially hazardous? More to the point, who thought it was a good idea in the first place?
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Tip top: 9 June 2023; Tipping. In some countries it's expected, in others it's frowned upon. Despite the lure of advising us how to tip around the world, all that Mike MacEacheran delivers—other than a vague direction to do your research before travelling, duh!—is five examples of where expectations differ.
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All aboard the Snowflake Express: 16 May 2023; Most on-board train announcements can best be described as unexciting—the next station stop is…, change here for…, etc.—to the point that they become intrusive and annoying. But passengers aboard the ÖBB service from Bregenz to Vienna were recently treated to a little pep talk from one of Austria's more (in)famous scions: that nice Herr Hitler. Two clips of speeches were played; short, but enough to cram in a crowd chanting Heil Hitler and Sieg Heil.
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Men in hats: 13 April 2023; I've only visited Munich a couple of times, on business. So I haven't had the opportunity to experience Weißwurstfrühstück: white sausages, served with soft pretzels and sweet mustard, accompanied by wheat beer. For breakfast! But I have more chance of that than enjoying anything at Bacoa, so I'll take it.
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London calling: 4 April 2023; London City Airport has become the second in the UK, after Teesside International Airport, to scrap the 100mL limit for carry-on liquids, following the introduction of new scanners. This momentous event is expected to improve the security experience for many tens of travellers.
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Camp Rwanda: 3 April 2023; Perusing the BBC's home page from the sanctity of my bed this morning, I happened across this lead-line. And it got me thinking, which is always an uncomfortable experience early in the morning. Or at any time, really; but especially early in the morning.
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Tempelhof remembered: 1 November 2022; The link on the BBC's home page teases The airport that changed Europe. Unfortunately, Krystin Arneson's Tempelhof: The single site that embodies Berlin is somewhat less compelling than the announcement portends.
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Superstitious rail: 18 December 2021; Despite having platforms 14–17 leading off its main concourse, Basel Hauptbahnhof doesn’t have a platform 13. Zürich Hauptbahnhof, however, does; and it's not just for show. It's fully-functioning, and I've boarded trains there. To Basel, ironically enough.
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Give me the reason: 16 December 2021; In an effort to slow the spread of Chongvirus Omicron, France's prime minister Jean Castex has announced tightened travel restrictions for visitors from the UK.
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Bursting the bubble?: 21 July 2021; Oh shit, that's torn it.
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Gorefundme: 9 June 2021; British Airways is in the news. Again. For all the wrong reasons. Again.
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Car park sharks: 2 May 2021; Car parks at UK city and town centres and railway stations have seen less traffic recently. The pandemic is a contributing factor, although it's not the only one. Flexible working practices; urban traffic control measures; and the growth of online shopping have all taken their toll. So much so, that the UK's largest car park operator, NCP, has reported that its revenues have dropped by 80% since the onset of the pandemic. The company is trying to renegotiate its leases with its landlords, in an effort to cut costs and avoid insolvency.
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Flight to nowhere: 23 April 2021; Writing for BBC Worklife, Mark Johanson examines The creative experiences indulging our nostalgia for planes. It seems that there are people who actually enjoy spending their time in airport departures. Weirdos!
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Economic double bubble: 19 April 2021; Australia and New Zealand have opened a travel bubble for flights between the two nations, because they both have the pandemic under control and are safe. Until they're not, that is.
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Come fly with me: 31 March 2021; From the Bonkers Institute comes an analysis, concluding that A small minority of frequent flyers dominate air travel. No shit! I guess that must be why they're called frequent flyers then. Well, at least that little mystery's been cleared up. (rolleyes)
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The upside to 'methodical': 19 October 2020; In 2018, British Airways experienced a data breach that affected personal and credit card details for more than 400,000 customers. Now, the UK's Information Commissioner's Office has fined the airline £20M for that breach. This is substantially less than the £183M fine that it originally announced in July 2019, after taking into account the economic impact of Covid-19.
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What price 'safety'?: 29 June 2020; In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU has decided to reopen borders to citizens from fifteen non-EU countries. Pending a reciprocal agreement, China will be included among the ~~clean list~~safe travel destinations. (mask)
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Unicorns!: 10 April 2019; On behalf of BBC Travel, Mike MacEacheran explores the theme of what unicorns mean to Scottish identity.
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Yet more flight delays: 9 July 2014; The UK has announced that passengers on certain undisclosed routes,* and carrying electronic devices in their hand luggage, should ensure that they're charged enough to be switched on. As if the queues at security weren't long enough with people having to take their laptops out, now they'll have to power the bloody things on as well. Shitbag!
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I (heart) Eyjafjallajökull: 11 May 2010; I was supposed to go to Madrid today for meetings tomorrow. I was dreading it, because not only do I not enjoy business travel particularly, but the last couple of days have been pretty emotionally charged for the girls. Yesterday was my eldest daughter's 5^th birthday—how can my baby be 5?—and today is my, significantly more than fifth, birthday. The girls were quite upset about me having to leave today, and I wasn't exactly brimming with enthusiasm either.
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