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Qantas Blames 'Cosmic Rays' For Last Year's Roller Coaster-Like Flight
We have a pretty decent respect for Aussie airline Qantas, with its better-than-average safety record and generally trouble-free flights (of course, we're not impressed by the recent beer ban on some flights, but it probably was in the name of safety, so who are we to complain). And now we can feel a little better about last year's mid-air drama over Western Australia, because investigators are blaming cosmic rays.
You might vaguely remember that in October last year, a Qantas flight from Singapore made an emergency landing after some rollercoaster action: it suddenly plunged 650 feet, got back up again then fell 400 feet. This led to some serious passenger injuries (no deaths, though) and a whole lot of serious questions. At the time, a lot of people were blaming passengers using laptops and other electronic devices.
Tags: Airport Check-In / Airline News / Airport News / Airports / Qantas / Australia Travel / → All Tags
Frequent Flyers On Qantas Can Simply Swipe And Fly In 2010
With the rise of LCC (low cost carrier) airlines and their love affair with new technology, it seems like the airport check-in process is becoming the least time-consuming and easiest portion of catching a flight. There's the touchscreen kiosks, dedicated bag drop counters, and even the ability to check-in and print your boarding pass online.
In Australia however, Qantas is still the gold standard, and luckily they're just as into updating the check-in process as we are. Focusing on cutting check-in time for their domestic passengers in half, Qantas is rehauling their system with the "next generation of check-in."
What that means for you Qantas flyers out there.
Tags: Airplane Hell / John Mayer / Qantas / Australia Travel / Twitter / → All Tags
Qantas Has Issues And John Mayer Tweets Them
The flying kangaroo, AKA Qantas, has got problems. As if banning beer on some flights wasn't bad enough, the planes and the pilots have been misbehaving too.
Last week, there was the case of the pilots who forgot to put the landing gear down on their way into Sydney, forcing the pilots to abort the landing and go again later. Those pilots have now been suspended although the lack of landing gear is being put down to a "brief communications breakdown" by Qantas.
Tags: Qantas / Australia Travel / Beer Travel / Drinking Travel / In-Flight Drinks / → All Tags
Beer Ban On Select Qantas Flights Is Un-Australian
Aussies are definitely not impervious to the charms of a cold can of Fosters; after all, they do have record-breaking pub crawls and boats made of beer cans. But if you're flying on a domestic Qantas flight Down Under, there are a few less beers going round these days.
Citing unruly behavior, mostly from drunken mine workers heading home after a couple of weeks working in the desert, Qantas has banned full strength beer and spirits on all flights within Western Australia. This follows existing bans on sales of spirits on intrastate flights in other parts of Australia.
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Get Comfy En Route Down Under With Qantas' Biz Class Sale
Australia seems like a long way from just about everywhere, right? (Maybe not from New Zealand!). So if you want to get there in a bit of comfort, it would be great to splash out on a business class seat. Aussie airline Qantas wants to make this financially easier for us for a while, with a 40% off sale on business class seats from Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York down to Sydney or Brisbane.
Business class is certainly a nicer way to travel on those long, long-haul flights, although the funny thing is that Qantas claims to have invented business class back in 1979; if you prefer to believe Wikipedia, it was actually British Caledonian in 1978.
Tags: Historical Travel / Qantas / Private Jets / Australia Travel / Around the World Travel / → All Tags
Take The Hop, Skip and Jump Route On A Private Qantas Jet To Australia
It seems hard to believe that it is almost 75 years since the first regular flights from Britain to Australia began, but it's apparently true that as far back as 1935, the wealthy were skipping the long boat trips and flying Down Under. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Australia flights next year, Qantas Holidays are putting on a real "trip of a lifetime" vacation on the historical "Nostalgia" and "Classical" routes.
Flying with a group of just 22 passengers on a classic Convair CV580 plane, the 22-day trip from London to Sydney (or the 21-day reverse journey) will be something quite special. With a maximum flying time of four hours per day, there are numerous stops in countries as diverse as the Czech Republic, Syria and Vietnam. Daily excursions could take you over the Himalayas, by water taxi to stilted houses in Brunei, or on a dawn cruise on the Ganges.
Tags: New Year's Travel / Antarctica Travel / Qantas / A380 / → All Tags
Celebrate The Dawn Of 2010 In An A380 Over Antarctica
Want to be the first to see the sunrise on New Year's Day 2010? Then get yourself booked onto a flight on the Qantas A380, which will spend New Year's Eve 2009 flying over Antarctica.
A gang called Antarctic Sightseeing Flights are running the trip, which starts in Sydney and will pick up more passengers in Melbourne before heading down in the direction of the South Pole. You'll spend almost 12 hours on board but it's no ordinary flight—they'll have a jazz band playing, a bit of a party atmosphere, and a strict seat rotation policy so that everybody gets their share of the best views.
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Qantas Retires Plane, But Not Because It Exploded
Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man might have said that Qantas never crashed, but these days he'd be changing his tune. This week Aussie airline Qantas announced that they will retire a few of their ageing Boeing 747s in November, and we're not alone in wondering exactly why.
One of the 747s in particular has been labeled "jinxed" after it was involved in a mid-air explosion last year and an engine shutdown this week that forced a diversion to Perth and had the pilot land with only three engines going.
Tags: Working Holidays / Qantas / Australia Travel / Britain / → All Tags
The Joys Of Youth: Britain to Oz and Back For Under $20
Are you under 30 and British? If not, don't stop reading yet because you can at least be super jealous of those who are. Qantas has planned a ridiculously sweet with STA travel agencies: the Ten Pound Pom promotion, offering tickets from London to major Aussie cities for just ฃ10 ($16).
It sounds too good to be true, but it's for real, and is a nod back in history to a scheme from just after World War II when the Australian government needed immigrants and let British would-be-Aussies pay just ten pounds for their passage from Britain to Oz. This time around it's limited to just 150 tickets for under 30s, with a valid Working Holiday Visa.
STA and Qantas are expecting people to camp out for the tickets, which go on sale at selected STA travel agents across Britain on August 5. They are also offering discount fares for those who miss out on the ten pound fare, starting from ฃ679 ($1,100), which is nice of them but doesn't sound anywhere near as good as ten pounds.
Related Stories:
· 10 Pound Pom [Official Site]
· New Generation of 10 Pound Poms [Brisbane Times]
· Working Holidays Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: daveknapik]
Tags: Tiger Airways / Australia Travel / Virgin Blue / Jetstar / Qantas / → All Tags
World's Third-Busiest Airline Route Gets More Crowded
We have to admit we were a little surprised to learn that the trip from Sydney to Melbourne ranks as the third-busiest travel route in the world, but if that's true, then it sure makes sense that low-cost carrier Tiger Airways has just thrown its two cents in the ring.
Since last Friday, Tiger has been running multiple flights between Sydney and Melbourne each day, with all-inclusive one-way fares starting from A$39 ($31) for the 90-minute flight. There's heavy competition from Jetstar, Virgin Blue and Qantas, but at the moment Tiger's prices are definitely amongst the lowest. If nothing else, this means that if you get Down Under, you will definitely be able to take in both Sydney and Melbourne without adding too much strain to the budget.
Related Stories:
· New Melbourne to Sydney Flight Route Takes Off [The Age]
· Tiger Airways Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: 713 Avenue]
Tags: Airline Fees / Qantas / Seats / Airports / Exit Rows / → All Tags
Is Qantas Blaming Airports For Its New Exit Row Charge?
Charging extra for an exit row seat is, sadly, nothing new, although it's largely been the province of budget airlines or short domestic routes. This week Qantas announced it will introduce the system on its international routes, and with a much heftier charge than we're used to up to A$160 ($125) just to get the extra few inches of leg room (and all that responsibility if there happens to be an emergency).
While passengers backlash against this new charge, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce is busy complaining about how poor Qantas has to pay so much money to airports. He wants to negotiate with Qantas's frequently-used airports to reduce costs, but some airports just won't play ball Joyce said:
Airports are very, very good at earning revenues out of everything you could imagine - if they could charge for oxygen at the airport they probably would.
Hmm. Sounds a bit like the way airlines think, doesn't it?
Related Stories:
· Joyce Defends Qantas Charge For Emergency Exit Seats [The Age]
· Airports Would Charge for Oxygen If They Could [The Age]
· Getting What You Pay For Travel: The Best Seats in Coach [Jaunted]
[Photo: eperales]
Tags: First Class Travel / Qantas / British Airways / → All Tags
Qantas Parks Its First Class Seats (For Now)
It's a tragedy. We've been saving all our pennies to afford to travel somewhere in first class, and now first class is disappearing. If it wasn't enough to hear that British Airways isn't building first class in to its new planes, now Aussie airline Qantas is cutting first class from existing planes.
The Qantas news comes after demand for first and business classes dropped almost 20 per cent, and the Flying Kangaroo then decided to drop first on its San Francisco-Sydney, Melbourne-London and Sydney-Buenos Aires routes. Of course, the first class cabin will still be there, and if you book business class you might end up sitting there, but you'll just be getting treated like a business class passenger.
Unlike BA, though, Qantas isn't saying first is out forever for now, they're not selling first class tickets for those routes between July 6 and October 31. If demand increases again, first class will make a comeback. So perhaps we can keep saving after all.
Related Stories:
· Qantas Scraps First Class on Long Haul Routes [SMH]
· BA Ejects First Class From Flights [Scotland on Sunday]
· First Class Travel Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: x_jamesmorris]
