Showing posts with label Boeing 757. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boeing 757. Show all posts

AIR NZ VS V AUSTRALIA 777

Sunday, August 21, 2011 Unknown
I use Flight Memory to keep a record of all of my flights- every single one of them since I first flew in 1968.

For my 737th flight, I flew a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 from Portland to Spokane and had a brilliant flight.
747th was on a Qantas 747 from Melbourne to Los Angeles. The Qantas team put on a great flight- and Qantas even followed up with a souvenir 747 in the post
United Airlines turn came next with flight 757 on a B757 from DC to LAX and it was terrible.

767 is fast approaching on an Air NZ Boeing 767 Business Class from Perth to Auckland.

For my 777th flight, I have a choice between:

Air New Zealand Boeing 777 Auckland to Los Angeles

OR
V Australia Boeing 777 Sydney (or Brisbane) to Los Angeles











Who would you choose and why?
Enhanced by Zemanta
Labels: , , , , , , , 0 comments | | edit post

My 757th Flight on a United 757-uber fail

Tuesday, June 28, 2011 Unknown

Thanks to Flight Memory.com and my  friend Tony (see blog post), I know exactly how many fights, miles and hours have been spent in pressurised tubes of metal flying around the world. Even after many flying hours, and despite the determined efforts by some airlines to make travel as horrible as possible,  I am still wildly excited about plane travel.

United flight 967 at gate in LAX
Flight 737 on a Boeing 737 with Southwest was a fun experience. Flight 747 on a Qantas Boeing 747 was made very special by the delightful cabin crew. Flight number 757 was United's turn on one of their aging Boeing 757s and it epitomised the worst of air travel.

In DC for a client conference, the flight back to LAX was my 757th in my life so I sought a Boeing 757 flight.
Thanks to my friend Troy, we found United flight 967 out of Washington Dulles


What went wrong with United 967:
  • Modern flying means being cramped
    My seat is in red!
    There was one empty seat left on the plane-the one next to me-was I lucky or what? My seat 40C, aisle seat at the very back of the plane was not near the extra legroom room Economy Plus section nor was it in the  757s' very generous exit rows and despite United automatically wait-listing me for an upgrade it wasn't  in the First cabin either. Like most United flights, they actually had oversold it (ie sold more tickets than seats on the plane hoping enough people would not show)

  • Washington Dulles airport is a horrible trek
    The airport is 41km out of downtown DC. A new metro line is being built and will be finished by 2014 but in the meantime there is a slow local bus or a coach/metro combination or taxi with bad traffic.  I opted for a cab organised by my hotel which was driven by a lovely 20 year old college guy from rural Maryland. Turned out to be driving the cab for a cousin and he did not know the way out to Dulles airport:  "Dude I am on the left land of the freeway heading toward Richmond, where should I be? "

  • Check In Friendly Fail
    I never usually check luggage in but was carrying extra stuff as I was Australia bound. The Premium Economy check in line was fast but the actual human interaction was underwhelming- Mr Check In couldn't give a damn. It never ceases to amaze me how US airlines fail to support their employees to be friendly at every touch point. I know check in staff are underpaid and stressed but United needs to help them make an effort to make customers feel welcome. I get tired of the videos by United saying what a great airline they are and how happy they are we have chosen to be with them when every employee makes me feel like they resent me being there. The actual welcome aboard was friendly and the Crew even offered to stow some extra luggage in a closet for me.

  • My Technology Prowess uber fail
    I had chosen to download the boarding pass to my phone.  As I stood in the security line holding my carry on bag, my passport and my cell phone, I somehow advanced my Iphone screen so the boarding pass disappeared.  There was no cell phone signal in then security area so after 7 minutes of trying and letting people in front of me, I returned upstairs. There I found cell phone coverage and re-loaded the boarding pass. I have now sworn off mobile boarding passes particularly as I have no hard copy evidence of my boarding pass

  • On my 757th flight
    United Nil Interest in my 757th flight
    Despite tweeting about it and mentioning it to ground and flight staff,  there was no reaction. Airlines I know are  more focused on more important matters such as safety and viability and not eccentric passenger quirks! Oh well- it excites my dork side!
  • Two Hour Weather Related Delay
    The doors closed two minutes after departure time but we sat at the gate while ATC gave us  a “rerouting” to avoid nasty weather. After a while we pushed back, we lumbered slowly around the airport to come to a halt on the tarmac with a line of other planes. Soon there were planes everywhere all grounded because of the weather. After about two hours we finally were cleared for takeoff. As the rain started, we launched off into turbulent skies. To his credit, the captain briefed us 3 times while we were waiting but I think one every 15 minutes would be better -we were given a glass of water and a football show during the wait time
  • Meals run out
    With the removal of catering for economy passengers on United, on a 5hr 5 minute flight, the airline sells snack boxes, chips, candies, cookies. At row 36, the crew ran out"that's right, no food left"nine hours between meals.



  • Movie was single screen – The 757 is an older plane so in seat entertainment is I didn't engage in watching as my sound was crappy

  • Drink service was slow on a fully laden flight with with the poor woman was serving by herself

  • Cabin Safety
    757 Safety Card on flight
    I love watching approach and landing but the guy by the window in my row was a closed window man. Airlines in Australia and NZ insist on window shades being open for landing saying its for safety. United has no such stipulation. I find it amazing that we can fly over amazing landscapes and passengers snap their shades closed to watch movies set in the same landscapes! He would peek out his window every now and again and when he did I would edge forward and stare outside. Finally he left the window shade for our last 45 seconds of flight. 

When we finally landed in a stunningly smooth landing.  We got thanked for flying the friendly skies. my entire row laughed at this point. If nothing else, the last row bonded!


Luggage return was fairly prompt.  I got to the empty V Australia counter at 923pm for my 1020pm Sydney bound flight to find it was closed.  Thankfully the supervising agent re opened it for myself and two other weather delayed passengers.


Rating: 4/10 for my Flight 757. Seeing my average rating of all flights with United is out of ten -that's consistent with my overall United experience. I did like being on the 757 and am excited I managed to score another significant flight..now for 767 on a 767.

Okay Mr Jeff Smisek you apparently are producing a great airline---hurry up!


Enhanced by Zemanta
Labels: , , , 3 comments | | edit post

My 757th is coming quickly..my very next flight in fact

Saturday, June 11, 2011 Unknown
Just travelled on my 756th plane flight and I can reveal that the 757th flight of my life will be on a United Airlines Boeing 757 from Washington Dulles to Los Angeles Thursday 16th June, 2011. United has 135 of these planes- almost a third of its main line fleet.

This follows my 737th on a Southwest 737 and my 747th on a Qantas 747.

Who will my 767th be with?

Labels: , , , 1 comments | | edit post

How I got hooked on Flightmemory.com

Thursday, June 02, 2011 Unknown
My friend Tony became very ill and was confined to home. Frustrated out of his mind, because he was unable to work, Tony rested and surfed the internet to satisfy his passion for all things "Boeing". In fact his slogan was "if its not Boeing I ain't going". 

It was Tony who got me to Seattle when Boeing first unveiled the 787. It was Tony who got me onto Flight memory.com

Four years ago, Tony rang me up: "got your frequent flyer statements?” 
“yes”. I said. 
"Good. Bring them round to my place",
 “Why”.
"Don't ask.  So round went my frequent flier statements"



A couple of months later,  he rang again, “when you were a kid, did you keep a record of your flights?". Indeed, I had my BOAC Junior jet club book, which my parents had started with my first flight with BOAC in 1968.


One day when I was at work, Tony sent me a Skype message with one word: "incoming" There was a link to my own flightmemory.com page. Flightmemory is away of keeping a record of all of your flights. Tony had typed in several hundreds of these flights and maintained my flight memory until the month he died.

Flightmemory records:

  • date and time of flights
  • number of hours, kilometres and miles flown 
  • airline, plane, plane number and name
  • seat and reason for travel
  • my ratings of flights (something I have started doing more recently)
It then creates maps of travel. This is my lastest one:
You can even order glossy hardcopies of your maps to hang on a wall.

I have kept it up since. Thats how I can tell you the following:
Date
Sector
Airline
Craft
100th
21/11/96
Lismore-SYD ( Sydney)
Kendall
SAAB 340
200th
15/10/04
SYD to HNL (Honolulu)
Air Canada
Boeing 767
300th
24/06/07
AYQ (Ayers Rock)-SYD
Qantas
Boeing 737
400th
05/06/08
SAN (San Diego)
- LAX (Los Angeles)
American Airlines
Embraer 140
500th
18/04/09
BOI (Boise)-
DEN (Denver)
United Airlines
CRJ 700
600th
20/11/09
LAX-AKL (Auckland)
Qantas Airways
Boeing 747
700th
09/12/10
SIN (Singapore)-
SYD
Singapore Airlines
Boeing 747
737th
01/50/11
PDX (Portland)-GEG (Spokane)
Southwest
Boeing 737
747th
23/05/11
MEL-LAX
Qantas
Boeing 747
757th
June 11
Booked for a USA flight
US Carrier
Boeing 757
767th
?
?
?
Boeing 767
777th
?
?
?
Boeing 777

Too bad that the 787 is not flying yet! I am interested that almost all of my "significant" flights have been with Boeings and none with Airbuses! Maybe aim for my 800th on a 380?!

Tony, RIP. 
Labels: , , , , , , 38 comments | | edit post

I did it! My 747th flight- in a 747!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011 Unknown
Leaving SYD airspace
The flaps on the mighty beast were fully extended. Moving onto the runway, the familiar roar of the four 747 General Electric engines came to life. Rolling down the runway, we accelerated slowly, leisurely using a huge amount of runway, before climbing smoothly and steadily out of Melbourne (Tullamarine) Airport. The climb was gentle and we turned almost casually over the farmlands north of the airport before executing a neat turn to head toward Sydney, the Australian coastline, the Pacific Ocean and Los angeles International airport (LAX)

I say "familiar" because this was my 93rd take off in a 747. Collectively in 747s I have travelled about 19 times around the earth or the same distance almost to the moon and back. I bet the astronauts would have liked something that big to fly to the moon in but they may not have wanted to share it with 400 other people for that trip!


This flight was different though because it was my 747th flight of my life. I was very excited to organise my 747th on a 747 with Qantas!  I had managed to get my 737th flight on a 737 with the all 737 airline Southwest.
For me choosing Qantas for my 747th flight was significant as they are the airline who for six years were the world's only all 747 airline.


My 747 flights between 1971 and 2011



My first 747 flight was in 1971 when I flew from Hong Kong to Sydney with Pan American on my 7th birthday.  Forty years later, on my 747th flight on an actual 747.



I have travelled with Qantas 234 times (41 of them in jumbos) to five continents.  Today's flight was back to the USA but marked the beginning of a journey which would end in Brasilia, Brazil, South America thus adding a sixth continent to my travel collection.

Check in, customs clearance and security at Melbourne airport took less than 20 minutes. There was a queue of older people in wheelchairs being pushed through the express immigration line which slowed things a little.

The Qantas First lounge staff welcomed me with interest and congratulated me on this goal. They asked me how I came to know all of my flights and I explained about my Flightmemory (watch for future blog).

Boarding was relatively calm with quite a light load- I would say the plane was less than 2/3 full. Seeing the flight the day before was full, that was a surprise.  I was in the bulkhead in the very front row of Economy (row 52) in a window seat with an empty middle seat. The arm rests in this aisle cannot be raised (a fact that the check in staff did not know until I told them and they checked). This limits any ability to stretch out into that empty seat -still its good for storage and the leg room in that row is always appreciated.

Our plane was VH-OEH (named Hervey Bay but not displayed on the plane).

Marika on board (pictured right) extended the congratulations with a welcome aboard champagne. Thank you! The service was the good old style Qantas service with a very experienced crew efficiently discharging their duties in a friendly fashion. Lunch was served as we flew over Sydney's Botany Bay.  I chose Portuguese chicken for the main course.

After lunch, came an ice cream and then the little snack bag that tides passengers through the night. Quelle Horror! Qantas has reduced the contents of the bag! I could not work out which item has been removed but there was a lot more empty bag!



I really appreciated the extra service and attention I got because of this being flight 747. I ended up getting three Boarding passes for my souvenir collection including one with a highlighted Happy 747th!  One of the Boarding passes was signed by the Captain who I met upon our Los Angeles arrival.

Takeoff was delayed by paperwork issues but we had a fast crossing because of strong tail winds which means we touched down into LAX ahead of schedule. I was moved to business for the very smooth landing where I sat next to new Australian Dancing with the Stars Judge Josh.

On Q, the on board entertainment system worked well although after V Australia's system, it feels a little more clunky. Still it is way better than the non existent system, United has on this sector.

I am glad I did this flight. For a plane geek and a traveller who flies about 100 times a year (about 8 times a month), to celebrate my 747th on a 747 was indeed an early birthday present. Thanks to Captain Thoroughgood, and his pilots, John, Marika and the on board cabin crew and First Class lounge staff for making it such a memorable flight.

Getting onto the 747 for my 747th proved to be more problematic than  I had expected. I originally booked QF 25 Auckland to Los Angeles, not realising that Qantas had changed the plane on that sector from a 747 to an A330, a timetable change that I had missed. That was not going to work! I contacted Qantas Customer Service to see if they could shift my flight onto a SYD or MEL-LAX 747. "No can do"- Qantas Customer Service didn't share my “enthusiasm for my aircrafts” and told me to call the usual call centre. My bad but I thought the flying Kangaroo might have tried to accomodate my unusual request. The staff at the Qantas call centre who were very friendly and determinedly helpful,  found that making that change would cost more than a new flight. So I moved QF 25 to another date and made a completely new booking for this auspicious 747 occasion. Thank goodness I fly a lot.

I then had to change that new booking to a different date so incurred some change fees. The booking agent who made the change assured me that I was on a 747. Imagine my horror to learn that the actual equipment was an A380. Don't get me wrong, I love the A380 but that defeated the point of 747 on a 747. More change fees! Slightly annoyed because I felt these change fees were unjustified due to being given wrong advice. My final trip date was shifted because of a family emergency but we got there!
Our Pilot Capt Robert Thoroughgood

Rating for this flight? 94%- slightly higher than my average Qantas rating! Even customs at LAX was good!


In ten flights time, will be flight 757 – and you guessed it, I am booked on a Boeing 757. The trip is a domestic USA one. Four US domestic airlines have 757s: American, Delta, United and USAir. Guess which airline I am flying with?



Labels: , , 9 comments | | edit post

Airports of the World: Reykjavik

Saturday, October 16, 2010 Unknown
Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland is the Northern most capital city in the world. The city was founded in 1786 as an official trading town. Today, Reykjavik is home to just over 200 000 people. Located at 64°07′48″N - only 2 degrees south of the Arctic Circle, the city has 20 hour days in summer and  four hour days in the depth of winter. (By contrast Boston is at 42° 21′ 28″ N,  Montreal is at 45° 30' 0 N,  and Edinburgh is 55° 56′ 58.4″ N)
Two airports serve the Capital:

The first is Reykjavíkurflugvöllur (Reykjavik airport) IATA Code: RKV. The airport is located 2km from downtown.  Originally this airport was built by the British military during World War II, In 1946, the British handed the airport operation over to the Icelandic government.
Churches,  offices, houses and shops are close by the runways and planes seem to brush the rooftops as they come in.
Downtown Reykjavik









The airport serves mostly domestic flights  plus flights to nearby Greenland (run by Flugfelag Islands). Pictured below is my mate Paul heading off to the town of Akureyri The capital of north Iceland located at 64.33°N.



I have a video which will prove I AM  a complete geek. It is of an icelandair 757 taking off from Reykjavik Airport  for an airshow. The runway is 1,567metres  (5,141feet) long so takeoff is tight which makes it exciting!


The other airport is Keflavík International Airport (IATA: KEF) which was built by the by the United States military in 1942 for heavy bombers. The airport maintained a military designation until the 1980s as a key part of US Cold war readiness. Passengers from the 1950s to the 1980s actually had to go through a military base to get to flights! This airport is 50km from downtown.
Travel between Keflavik and Reykjavik

The main airlines are Iceland Air and Iceland Express. with flights connecting the USA and Europe to Keflavík.

A handy flight bus connects to to the (small) main bus terminal in Reykjavik  from where connecting mini buses will take you to your hotel.

Iceland is an amazing wonderful unique place! My holiday there in August, 2009 was one of the best in my life.  There are some great stopover packages between the two and with the Icelandic currency so low, now is a great time to go.

I recommend the hotel Room with a View.
Labels: , , , , , 0 comments | | edit post

The Skies get friendlier

Monday, August 09, 2010 Unknown
This is Part Three of a Three Part description of my flight with United from Mel to Syd to LAX to ORD (Chicago). This covers the longest hop from Sydney to Chicago.
Part One: Across the Pacific the "Friendly Way"
Part Two: Mel-Syd unfriendly-way

My Craft foreground-the other United plane heads to SFO
After a brief sojourn in the Air New Zealand Lounge (the heavenly Koru Club), we boarded our Los Angeles, California bound 747 pictured right at Sydney airport.

At 105pm, there was a Business class seat left so it looked like my upgrade for the 13 hour cross Pacific hop was happening. BUT at 110pm, it had been filled by a business fare paying passenger- I still had my Emergency Exit seat!  Really appreciated the service of the lounge staff as they tried to get me the upgrade...Thanks team. 

Welcome aboard was good and staff more engaged and way way way more friendly (what happened on the last flight???) but again a lack of hands or help to guide people to their seats. I saw one woman approach a flight attendant because someone was in her seat. "tell him to move" replied the attendant !

On the other side, one passenger later demanded the cabin crew suspend meal service so he could use the restroom. Upon being told to use the other restrooms he abused the FA. Shame you cant throw some passengers overboard.

Me (Martin J Cowling) on Board the 747 
The passengers around me included a large contingent of navy reservists from USNS Mercy which had been assisting Indonesians with medical supplies and attention. Dave, the  guy next to me a firefighter from North Carolina was  heading home after  a very powerful period of Service in various Indonesian communities and a brief R & R in Darwin. Dave is hoping to come back and vacation in Australia and or NZ (Hey Dave, I hope you made your Chicago connection!)

Takeoff over Sydney's Cronulla Beach was stunning. 

Beverage service brought another drink and those mini pretzels  followed by a choice of  Asian Chicken or tortellini was adequate. On FA recommendation, I went for the pasta. To my surprise United still do effectively three meal runs with a middle of the night meal service. (Qantas gives out a snack Bag and bottled water before switching off the lights. In the middle of the night, United gave us a sandwich with a non-descript meat plus coke slaw and  a bland pecan cookie. This was followed by a drink service and then a rubbish collection service. The effect of all of this was to wake people up. 

This added to the restlessness on the flight.  After each movie, for example,  people would get up, wander and talk. Individual entertainment  units do keep people on their seats and docile. On top of this was that  the lights don't seem as dim as they do on other crossings I have had -and people chatted a lot making sleep harder.

Breakfast (pictured left) was the worst I have ever been given on a plane. The eggs tasted worse than they looked and the blob of yellow dumped on the plate did not look good! The sausage was bland, the mushrooms had some flavour but looked sad. The croissant was awful. I could have had fruit as well but I was starving.

Touchdown in LA was Perfect!! Thanks Pilots! (110%!!!!) And we were early!!

On this segment;
Welcome aboard: 7.5 out Of ten
Cabin Crew: 7.5 out Of ten
Beverage / Meal Service: 4 out of ten
Entertainment: 2 out of ten 
Farewell from plane: 8 out of ten


So on board this segment: 29 out of 50 

Total score for my United airlines experience so far: 96 out of 150...64%

Customs and immigration were not so bad. The good thing about flying United Airlines as opposed to Qantas or Air New Zealand is that most of the passengers are Americans so the line for "Visitors" at US immigration is far shorter!!

I had my boarding pass so quickly re entered security, grabbed some food and had time to check the net including finding another negative review of UA840

Boarded the third segment of United 840 to find the purser from the SYD to LAX segment was travelling to Chicago as a passenger (she told me she was going to Europe). My friend Dave (see previous post) was turned away at the door of the aircraft as it was  a completely full flight (I did note there were quite a few crew travelling for free as passengers. Whats the best priority here I wonder?)

Staff on this flight were incredibly friendly, pro active, polite and went out of their way to help. The contrast to my Melbourne-Sydney flight was palpable. 

United flight 840  starts in Melbourne, Australia and finishes in Chicago, USA  travelling via Los Angeles. En route, it changes planes and crews twice.  To me, it seems strange that the one flight does not have to have the same craft or crew? What makes it the same flight?

Meal service consisted of a free drink and the sale of snack boxes. I bought the Eat for Good snack box. It impressed me for three reasons:

  1. The contents are on the healthier end but not that exciting...after 15 hours of travel, I would have killed for fresh fruit,
  2. $1 from each box is donated to Feeding America®
  3. packaging was designed by an 18 year old high schooler engaged in a development program in Chicago

Not so impressive is the claim that 1 in 6 Americans goes hungry. One has got to question what is going on in a country when this is the situation?

We landed early---again!

Welcome aboard: 8 out Of ten
Cabin Crew: 10 out Of ten
Beverage / Meal Service: 6.5 out of ten
Entertainment: 4 out of ten 
Farewell from plane: 7.5 out of ten

So on board this segment: 36 out of 50 

Total score for my United airlines experience: 132 out of 200...66% NB I did not check bags. My last Qantas flight across the Pacific, I gave 95% to. My Air New Zealand flight on the same route got 96%. United has a long way to go to match the service, food, aircraft amenities, cleanliness and entertainment of its competitors on this sector.  See my list of top 21 carriers.


Would I fly them again? 
For a substantial price discount? Yes. 
For the same price? Only if I knew I could get an upgrade to business class.
Labels: , , , , , , 20 comments | | edit post