This week on Musings of The Global Traveller

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Here is what you have missed at this old site this week

How to get to Tibet

Priority Club's hard IT lesson

Mileage earning & redemption for AA/BA US-UK flights gets closer

Welcome to the year of the tiger

Jetstar consumer guarantee is useless

How to get to British Indian Ocean Territory

First class lounge suites for ANA at Narita

Lufthansa pilot strike from Monday 22nd Feb

Why I need to book a hotel during 2 hour transit

BA wins cabin crew court case

Lufthansa strike 22-25 February update

It is time to switch

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Competitours - experience Europe in personalised "Amazing Race"

Last year I wrote about the launch of Competitours - a cross between the traditional European tours, independent travel and The Amazing Race. It seems the initial tours went well for Competitours is back again for 2010 with apparently not many tweaks, at least on the surface. Published dates run from May to August.

For frequent flyers and frequent stayers, there are now discounts available if using miles for the trans-Atlantic flights and points for a couple of hotel nights.

This will be great for the young at heart, with a sense of adventure, looking for a "safe" journey. For those looking for a greater challenge and to experience more of the world, there is an alternative - the Global Scavenger Hunt. Entries are still being accepted for the 2010 round which is in April.


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Changing flight loyalty

The other day a friend was commenting to me on how much his flying patterns had changed in the 8 months since Qantas was replaced with their low cost subsidiary Jetstar on New Zealand domestic (and some trans-Tasman) routes. Like me, he was on the final Qantas domestic flight last year. Well over 80% of his (extensive) domestic travel has switched to Air NZ.

It is not hard to understand why there is a big change. The domestic airline lounges are closed and replaced by pay per use lounges. The great Jetconnect crew are gone. The simple fares are replaced with a lower base fare and a vast array of surcharges and fees. The flight schedules are still not great. Customer service is poor, with many reports of passengers denied boarding due to check in queues, passengers misconnecting with Qantas international flights and left to buy a new ticket, difficulties in obtaining refunds, and so on.

I had a look at my own travel record and noticed I've not only flown much less Qantas group flights within New Zealand but also my international travel with Qantas has similarly mostly switched to other airlines. In the 3 years prior to the change, I flew 325 Qantas flights with a mixture of domestic, trans-Tasman and longhaul flights; and also a mixture of all cabin classes (almost all business or first class for the international flights). In the past 8 months I've flown just 7 Qantas group flights. Even if I add in the 4 Qantas flights I will take over the next 4 months, my Qantas group travel has dropped from over 9 flights a month to under 1 a month - a 90% fall.

It seems I'm far from the only passenger to switch loyalty. The few times I have flown Qantas internationally the lounge at Auckland has been almost deserted. Elite and premium passengers within and to/from New Zealand have deserted in droves.


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Win 1 million Miles and More miles

Come up with a catchy name for Lufthansa's A380 and you could win 1 million Miles & More miles. Good luck.




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Bomb joke backfires

Another day, another report that someone making a joke at an airport gets into trouble. This time it was an Australian visiting Hamilton airport (source NZ Herald), who was arresting for joking about a bomb in his temporarily unattended bag and who also lost a Swiss army knife in the process.

I can't help thinking there must be more to the story.

With so few jet flights, Hamilton does not have a lot of airport security (in NZ passengers flying prop aircraft do not need to clear security). Indeed on this particular day only the 6am departure to Sydney warranted screening.

Airport security staff in NZ, whilst being professional, generally have a great sense of humour.

The article refers to the man arriving from Sydney and the alarm being raised just before 8am. The Sydney flight arrives at 12:20am. While it is possible to remain in the terminal until morning, it is neither comfortable (see my sleeping in Hamilton airport post from 18 months ago) nor commonplace - when an airport shuts down most people do not want to be "locked in".

The airport would have been noisy by about 4am at the latest and transport options into town would have been available for some hours by 8am. The airport doesn't have much facilities - a cafe, newsagent and toilets. So there was no apparent need to be hanging around for an extended period.

Why was the Swiss army knife confiscated? Since the man was landside there shouldn't have been any issue in having one in his bag. Did the security staff think it would be used against them?

In summary, while on the surface this seems like just another bomb joke incident, there are aspects which do not add up.


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