Tag: Flight Reviews

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Flight Review: Helsinki to Bangkok in Finnair’s New Business Class (Part 2)

June 6, 2013 at 4:20 PM | by | Comments (0)

Having talked you through the basics of our time in Finnair’s latest business class, we’re finishing up today with more on the airport experience, seat comfort, and in-flight service during our two, 11-hour runs between Helsinki-Vantaa and Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi airports.

Airport experience

Helsinki’s Vantaa airport must be one of the easiest in Europe for passengers rushing to a connecting flight, with a minimum time required between flights of about 30-40 minutes. The business class lounge, however, is not one with which we're super impressed, owing to the fact it's one large open space that's often so crowded you can barely find a seat. If you do magically have your choice of seats, head for the recliners facing the windows. There are at least shower facilities if you want to freshen up before catching your next flight.

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Flight Review: Helsinki to Bangkok in Finnair’s New Business Class (Part 1)

June 4, 2013 at 2:06 PM | by | Comments (0)

We recently showed you some pictures of the business class product Finnair is rolling out across its entire fleet of long-haul Airbus planes, and now we can tell you what it’s like to fly it, having spent nearly 24 hours in the cabin on a recent trip to Thailand.

As it happens, one leg was an overnight and one leg was a day flight, giving us plenty of time to put the product to the test for both sleeping and lounging/working. Flight AY89 left Helsinki Vantaa (HEL) at 5.10pm, arriving at Bangkok Survanabhumi (BKK) at 7.15am the next morning. Flight AY90 left BKK at 8.55am, arriving at HEL at 3.20pm the same day. Naturally, in the name of proper research, we also picked two different seats on opposite sides of the cabin in our quest to find the best seat of all.

We’ll break down our experience for you in parts, starting with how we ended up on Finnair, the cabin & first impressions, and which seat you should choose.

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Flight Review: A Quickie in Economy on Virgin Australia

Where: Australia
May 15, 2013 at 10:54 AM | by | Comments (0)

Now that we've already shared a detailed peek at what it's like to fly up front in the cushy seats of Virgin Australia's Business Class, it's about time to show you what economy has to offer on Australia's newest full-service airline.

The flight: Sydney to Brisbane, Australia.

Since our seat was towards the back of the economy section, we boarded from the back stairs which resulted in a speedy boarding and ultimately got us in the air quicker. A primped cabin crew, outfitted in their red skirt suits with purple scarves, warmly greeted every passenger as they headed for their seats. Just like in business class, these seats are covered in soft leather and have headrests that feature random pops of purple, red or light grey to keep the cabin interesting. Of course the major difference comes in seat size and legroom.

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Flight Review: Under $100 on Air Asia from Thailand to Cambodia

Where: Thailand
May 9, 2013 at 1:31 PM | by | Comments (0)

In all truthfulness, low-cost airlines get a bad rap for being more bottom-line conscious than customer focused, but on a recent flight from Thailand to Cambodia, we wanted to truly see for ourselves if Air Asia was as bad as the reputation of other LCCs would have us believe.

Earlier this week, we showed you how Bangkok's Don Mueang (DMK) is primarily used by Air Asia and other budget-carriers, so after wandering around the nearly vacant terminal, we headed downstairs to hop on a bus that took us to our bird.

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Flight Review: Onboard Vietnam Airlines to Ho Chi Minh City

Where: Vietnam
May 3, 2013 at 9:59 AM | by | Comment (1)

As you can probably tell from our slew of stories on Ho Chi Minh City, we recently traveled to Vietnam. One of the many ways to fly into the country, and the way in which we arrived, is via the green-blue hued planes of the national airline, Vietnam Airlines. Our route had us hopping on at Melbourne to fly nonstop to Ho Chi Minh City and we booked Business Class for a vacation treat.

At first, we considered using the 8.5-hour flight to relax and perhaps nap before what would be a two-week adventure in Southeast Asia, but the airline had a better idea; the flight crew fed us until we were stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey.

Here's a breakdown of what we loved and what we could have done without:

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The Worst Part of Flying on a Cape Air Cessna is Admitting Your True Weight

April 30, 2013 at 3:17 PM | by | Comment (1)

Last week, Jaunted contributor Christine headed down to the US Virgin Islands in a plane smaller than any she had ever been in before. This is her story.

Those who travel around the Caribbean often think nothing of boarding an island-hopping flight on a Cessna 402, but as a first timer I would be lying if I didn't admit the experience was a little daunting.

As I waited at the Cape Air counter in San Juan International Airport, my initial fear of flying from here to St. Croix in the tiny plane was quickly replaced by the pulse-quickening realization that passengers were required to provide their weight. This must be said aloud in front of a line of fellow travelers. Of course, I shaved 7 pounds off of my real weight, which earned me a double-take and an eye roll from the Cape Air attendant checking me in. I silently wondered if she had once worked summers guessing weights at an amusement park kiosk.

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Flight Review: A Quick, International Hop on Thai Airways

Where: Thailand
April 18, 2013 at 2:00 PM | by | Comments (0)

Flying in Asia is fun if only for the ability to try out a new airline or two. Well, we just hopped on a few new airlines (new to us) this week in SE Asia, and the first one we will talk about is Thai Airways.

The airline has a lot to brag about right now, after recently taking the delivery of new A380s, but our flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok didn't call for a superjumbo. Even though we weren't on the A380, the Boeing 777 on our route wasn't anything to sniff at.

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Onboard American Airlines' First Boeing 777-300ER: Getting High

March 22, 2013 at 12:22 PM | by | Comments (0)

There's something new in the air. Smell it? That's the scent of a refreshed American Airlines and their shiniest new toy: the Boeing 777-300ER. AA is the first US airline with the plane and we just stepped off one of its first flights. So let's talk about it.

The Jaunted Series on American's Shiny New Toy


1. The New Hotness
2. Getting High
3. The Final Word

We must've looked over at the tiny display screen on the remote control twenty times during the course of our flight from New York-JFK to London-Heathrow. It sat, snugly locked into its own nook, just above our left shoulder and in the corner of our peripheral vision.

No matter how low the mood lighting went or how engrossed in the old Bond flick "Diamonds Are Forever" we got, eventually we'd have a glance over at the little glowing words "American Airlines." It was a reassurance—this Boeing 777-300ER in which we found ourselves so comfortably situated for 6-ish hours over the Atlantic Ocean is really, truly an American Airlines plane.

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The Newbie Traveler Takes His First Flight on an A380: An Illustrated Journey

February 22, 2013 at 3:19 PM | by | Comments (2)

What would your life be like if you hadn't yet traveled? If you'd spent years reading travel novels and fantasizing over guidebooks, but hadn't made the big leap? This is the case for Andy Miles, who in his late twenties has just embarked on trips to hit cities for the first time. He's walking us through the emotions and observations of a true Newbie Traveler.

Contrary to what I learned as a youngster growing up in Texas, everything is not bigger there. Truth be told, everything is actually bigger in France—Toulouse, France to be exact. The reason for this is because that's where Airbus completes final assembly of their massive A380 airplanes.

After years of waiting, I finally got the chance to experience one of these incredibly beautiful planes myself, on a Qantas flight from Los Angeles nonstop to Sydney, Australia.

Seeing as how I booked my first A380 flight six full months before the day of departure, I had a lot of time to tell my friends about it, i.e. brag incessantly. The thing I forgot about bragging is that in order for it to work, you have to be doing something others care about. Unfortunately for me, I did not hang out with many #avgeeks during this time, so my brags usually fell upon deaf ears and I just came off as "nerdy" for caring about something as uniquely marvelous as a two-story airplane.

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Onboard Concorde: What It Was Like to Fly Mach 2 Over the Atlantic Ocean

January 24, 2013 at 2:34 PM | by | Comment (1)


G-BOAF at the gate at London-Heathrow

This week marks the 37th Anniversary of the maiden commercial flight of the Concorde. To properly celebrate, let's relieve history a bit by traveling along with photographer/videographer Joe Corrigan as he remembers his Concorde flights, roundtrip JFK-LHR in July 2003 on the British Airways supersonic birds G-BOAC and G-BOAF.

I don't know quite what it was about Concorde, but ever since I first saw her as a kid, I was mesmerised. That shape, those lines—there was something about her that drew me in. I was 14 the first time I saw her with my own eyes, as my my uncle had discovered Concorde would fly into Sydney, my home town, on a round-the-world charter. Together we headed to the airport to see her land.

That aircraft, F-BVFC, zoomed in and landed with full reverse and later took off with full afterburner as I watched from afar. I was hooked. The experience was not only visual and aural, but earth-shaking. Everything in the vicinity shuddered under the engine power; you could feel Concorde slice through the air and this in itself made it all the more visceral. It became a dream of mine to fly on her, one I never thought likely to come true.

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What It's Like to Fly for 10 Hours on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Where: Santiago, Chile
January 14, 2013 at 12:05 PM | by | Comments (0)

It flies! It actually flies!

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a headline hog. You can read all about it and its drama (lately more than ever) throughout major media, but there's nothing better than actually stepping onboard with a ticket to ride.

After more than a year of hanging out with the 787 on the tarmac, we finally flew the darned thing as South American airline LAN celebrated the inaugural flight of their new Los Angeles-to-Santiago, Chile 10-hour non-stop with the spiffy new bird.

So, what actually happens onboard a 787 flight? Is it really so different from any other airplane? Having just stepped off of this, our first 787 flight, we can finally answer those questions: lots of stuff and yes.

To describe a 10-hour flight is akin to boring neighbors with photo slides of a water park vacation. Instead, we're breaking it down into the hourly highlights ("the short of it") and, for those rapt with pleasure for every detail, the long of it, in first-person:

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Even the Toilets of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner are Futuristic

January 4, 2013 at 12:29 PM | by | Comment (1)

This is the future.

There may be no personal jetpacks or hoverboards or even cheesecake in pill form, but at least we have advanced enough as a civilization to install self-closing toilet lids in airplane lavatories.

This miracle of modern engineering we only just discovered after @jonk tweeted us to ask if, after having seen auto-close lids on United's new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, LAN's new birds had them as well.

Onboard the inaugural flight of the LAN 787 from LAX non-stop to Santiago, Chile earlier this week, we had 10 hours to explore the 787 in-flight, in both Economy and Premium Business class, and made the question of the lavatory a priority. Check back Tuesday for our full review and photo galleries of the flight, but let's resolve this important issue right here and now.

The answer:

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