Frequent Flyer Friday #5

Celebrating Friday with a short interview with a frequent flyer.

Darren - Travel Rants

Darren loves travelling and enjoys helping out travel consumers. His Travel Rants blog has been attracting attention for years and he recently started My Life in Leeds (a good excuse for socialising in the name of research!).

First, some questions to see what kind of frequent flyer Darren is.

What is your home airport?
Darren - Leeds & Bradford International Airport.

What is the airline you usually fly?
Darren - Primarily European low cost airlines, i.e. EasyJet, Jet2.

Which of the following best describes your flying pattern?
× infrequent (eg annual) leisure trip
- jetsetting for pleasure
- frequent (eg monthly) business travel
- road warrior
- mileage runner
- I live on planes
Darren - Infrequent, usually 2 or 3 times a year.

How do you mostly earn your frequent flyer miles?
- promos
- credit card spend
- business and leisure travel
- taking extra flights on trips I need to take
- mileage running
Darren - I don’t generate frequent flyer miles because I fly on low-cost airlines.

Please describe how you travel in 4 words
Darren - Low cost, on budget.

Now for some travel advice from Darren.

What is inside your carry-on bag right now?
Darren - Guide book, iPod, mobile phone. Cannot travel without these items.

Please give a tip on travel.
Darren - Check and double check the passenger details before purchasing your flight ticket online. So many passengers enter the incorrect details and are they stung with name change admin charges.

What is your least preferred airline, and why?
Darren - Ryanair, simply because of how they treat their customers.

Are there any other airlines you try to avoid flying? Why?
Darren - Onur Air, a Turkish airline. Unhelpful flight crew and awful food and lack of in-flight entertainment.

What is your preferred airline for regular travel, and why?
Darren - EasyJet, low cost, have always been on time, and polite/helpful staff.

What is your preferred airline for a special trip, and why?
Darren - I loved flying with Malaysian airlines; great in-flight entertainment, nice food, and incredibly friendly air-crew.

Thanks Darren for your advice and information about flying on European low cost airlines. Have a great weekend.

For other frequent flyer friday posts please check out the index. If you have any questions you'd like answered, or wish to nominate someone for an interview, please drop me a line using the please use the contact me link. For all sorts of reasons I can't make any guarantees, but if you're interested chances are others are too and so we'll get some good interviews.