I just wanted to say that over all my years of travel there have been many websites that helped me out – but one really stands out of late. Kayak, which now owns rival SideStep, is a flight comparison engine that works in browser to search multiple flight sites and suggest the best price. It’s not always right when it gets to the final price, but even so it will generally point you in the direction of the cheapest flight. Thanks, Kayak!
Tag: flying
The Start of the Wedding Weekend
After a long, boring flight (note to Air Canada – finish fitting your trans-atlantic planes with in flight!) I’m now in Oakville for the start of Mathew and Micah’s wedding weekend. Lots to do and not enough cars to do it with, so there’s a complicated schedule of car juggling going on (big thanks to the Johnson clan on that one).
And on an unrelated note I’ve finally gotten around to putting a photo up for vote in JpgMag in their ‘Democracy‘ theme. Please feel free to head over there, check out my ace photo and then vote for me. See, I understand democracy – it’s all about getting the masses to do stuff your way {;)
Yeah, I’m on the plane.. ON. THE. PLANE!
There is some movement across the EU to allow in-flight calls from mobile phones. At the moment this discussion is in its early stages, as all the national air regulators need to approve it, but the very fact that it is even being discussed seriously worries the hell out of me.
Even ignoring the possibility of remote triggering of terrorist devices, my vote is firmly against allowing in-flight mobile phone calls purely for social reasons. Smoking, that most anti-social of social behaviours, has already been banned on the grounds of safety but people of my age may well remember the frustration of being on a long haul journey when smoking was allowed. So instead of that pervasive stench, imagine the constant nattering of people on seats all around you loudly talking into their phones, or the beeping of text messages arriving. Argh! It’s already making me feel tense and I’m on the ground right now. Innovation in communication is a wonderful thing, but sometimes common and social sense should win out.
Fly The Safer Skies
As many of you know, I’m not the happiest bunny when in a plane – which is of course mildly bizarre since I seem to spend so much time in them. Guess it’s either my ‘latent ‘masochistic tendencies or the realization that however painful the journey, the destination is generally always worth it.
So I guess it’s encouraging to see this video of a plane wing being stressed well beyond its operational limits… [Thanks to metafilter]
Can Anyone See England?
So yesterday I flew back to England, which turned out to be quite lucky since Heathrow domestic flights were cancelled yesterday and again today due to fog. Yep. Traditional English fog, something that ‘rarely happens’ according to Heathrow spokes-folks, is blanketing the whole country. So all things considered our flight got off quite lightly with only a half hour delay, something that we were all glad of. Oh, and Charlie Rose was on our plane.
It’s nice to be back catching up with the folks, eating Pizza Express pizza and also watching Brit-TV again in between fighting the jet lag. So many wonderful new shows to catch up on… and of course the Doctor Who Christmas special in a few days. Yay!
Stupid person diverts plane
The other day a plane was diverted in the US due to a woman’s flatulence. No, it didn’t cause turbulence or anything like that – but almost all news sources reported that flatulence caused a plane to divert, land at another airport, waste everyone’s time and then carry on its journey. Wow. That must have been bad flatulence.
Oh wait a minute. It wasn’t her flatulence that caused the situation. It was the small fact that she lit matches to burn off the smell. Lit matches. On a plane. Wow. How stupid do you have to be to not realise this is a pretty dumb thing to do – especially in the current state of heightened security?
And to add insult to injury, the authorities apparently let the culprit off without even a fine. Even after the costs (fuel/time) of diverting a plane, the fear to other people and so on. How’s that going to discourage other people from being so stupid? I guess she wasn’t foreign looking with a beard then, otherwise she would have been in jail in seconds, if not killed by everyone else on the plane.
Sigh.