"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
He mentioned flying a Korean airline. As North Korean ones are
apparently banned from these parts, that only leaves South Korea.
--


The EC now permits its citizens, if issued with appropriate documentation,
to take flights not originating or terminating within
the EC. (fair usage restrictions apply)

In message , at 06:42:19 on Tue, 13
Oct 2009, Buddenbrooks remarked:
He mentioned flying a Korean airline. As North Korean ones are
apparently banned from these parts, that only leaves South Korea.

The EC now permits its citizens, if issued with appropriate
documentation, to take flights not originating or terminating within
the EC. (fair usage restrictions apply)

Wriggle wriggle.
--
Roland Perry

"MC" wrote in message
ster.com
"Bruce" wrote in message
...
On 12 Oct 2009 08:43:40 GMT, Adrian wrote:

"Ian F." gurgled happily, sounding
much like they were saying:

Did you have a bad experience, or are you just reacting to the
chattering campaign about them?

I've had a couple of bad experiences - herded around like cattle,
talked at by snotty-nosed ground staff like I was a piece of ****,
shown no respect whatsoever...

I'm a reasonably frequent flyer and I'm too old and
dyed-in-the-wool to worry about saving a few pennies to be treated
like that. I'd far rather spend the extra and be shown some degree
of care. And this is not just me - I know dozens of friends and
colleagues that feel the same way. I have always found easyJet to
be far superior in every way to
Ryanair, although, understandably, not on a level with the major
airlines. I would travel with them like a shot, but I will never,
ever, ever travel Ryanair.

I've never flown Ryanair - nor do I ever intend to, mainly because
of their attitude to quoting a cheap fare then chiselling every
penny out of you in compulsory "extras" - but I've also sworn off
SleazyJet after direct personal experience about ten years ago.

I was meant to be flying back from Schiphol to Luton, on a late
evening flight. The plane had a technical problem, so wasn't
available for boarding. It happens. What SHOULDN'T happen is all
the passengers being left at the gate with no staff, no
information, no access to refreshments - for SIX HOURS. We finally
got to Luton at about 3am, IIRC.


I used to commute weekly from Heathrow to Schiphol in the late 1980s.
I had a similar experience with BA, involving a five hour wait at
Schiphol on a Friday evening, with the aircraft still not having left
Heathrow on the preceding flight. No attempt was made to transfer us
to KLM, which would have saved several hours, and only after many
complaints were refreshments provided.

I decided to reject BA in favour of BMI (called British Midland in
those days). It happened twice more with BMI, once with a four
hour delay and once with a seven hour delay, meaning I arrived home
in West London about 2:00 AM. But the overall service of NMI was so
much better than BA that I stayed with them. Plus, it was only two
flights in around 50, so it wasn't too bad.

My point is that flag carriers such as BA and "full price" airlines
such as BMI have similar problems to the low cost, as do rail
operators. What they all share is that they are all spectacularly
bad at dealing with them, in most cases. However. it was one area
where GNER absolutely shone.

Er... this was 20+ years ago. How can you compare your experiences
with modern flying trends. The airline industry and regulations have
moved on enormously since then. Budget airlines were still only a
twinkle in the eyes of a lot of the current budget airline bosses.

I have flown almost exclusively with BA in that last 8 or 9 years and
have never had a problem with them apart from one occasion when we
had to wait for 2hrs, onboard, before we could depart. However, the
crew were very good with refreshments etc... during that time. Had I
been sat on a Ryanair plane I somehow doubt the "FREE" refreshments
would have bee so forthcoming. The only times I have ever had reason
to complain was when I have flown with budget airlines. One time was
BMI Baby the other Thomas Cook Airlines.

I've had a couple of occasions when BA cancelled flights because of bad
weather at Heathrow. In neither case did it deal with them well. I'd
agree with Tony that British Midland was better than BA in the 1980s,
but it lost its way later, when it couldn't decide what kind of airline
it wanted to be.

"Buddenbrooks" wrote in message

wrote in message
...

Same here. I also find getting to Heathrow a lot easier than
Stansted or Luton, for example.


Unfortunately the time from touchdown to hire car is longer than the
flight from schipol when you go via Heathrow.

You will have to get used to it, the trend from the 60s onwards is
for air travel to become functional and the term 'jet set' is
probably meaningless to the majority, certainly not
bringing to mind upper class exclusive travel.

Give it a few years and Business Class air travel will be the same
concept as the business class section of the underground trains.

Actually, long haul business class has improved steadily over the years,
and is now as good a sfirst class used to be.

In message , at 10:37:43 on
Tue, 13 Oct 2009, Recliner remarked:
Give it a few years and Business Class air travel will be the same
concept as the business class section of the underground trains.

Actually, long haul business class has improved steadily over the years,
and is now as good a sfirst class used to be.

I'd agree with that. Airlines that have lie-flat or almost-flat seats in
business class really don't need to have a FC at all (and some don't any
more).
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 10:37:43 on Tue,
13 Oct 2009, Recliner remarked:
Give it a few years and Business Class air travel will be the same
concept as the business class section of the underground trains.

Actually, long haul business class has improved steadily over the years,
and is now as good a sfirst class used to be.

I'd agree with that. Airlines that have lie-flat or almost-flat seats in
business class really don't need to have a FC at all (and some don't any
more).
--
Roland Perry


I have used BC many times on a few airlines but I have found the "new" Club
Class on BA to be the best I have experienced. BC on many airlines does,
indeed, far surpass "old" FC cabins but the new FC cabins can offer
excellent privacy. Has anyone had the fortune to travel FC on a Singapore
Airlines or Emirates A380 )

http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_U...uite/index.jsp

http://www.emirates.com/om/English/f...rst_class.aspx


MC
--
Thank you for listening

In message , at 21:19:24 on
Mon, 12 Oct 2009, Paul Corfield remarked:

If I want to experience bus travel then I'll use a bus thanks very much!

Or quite a lot of trains. Indeed, Ryanair's planes are mainly pretty
new, and not bad to travel on at all.

Well yes but I would not call a decent Inter City train a bus.

Ah the "Jimmy Saville Age of the Train" canard. Everyone seated alone at
a table-for-four on an HST.

Eurostar does not resemble a bus.

And most trains don't resemble Eurostar.

I travel on buses all the time and they're fine for their job

So do I - and they get a bad image. Having spent a week in Geneva, you'd
be surprised at the number of oytsiders prepared to pay £20 for a taxi
ride that was slower than a very acceptable [free] bus. Although some of
that is probably the worry of having to understand announcements
exclusively in French abut where to get off

And despite their widespread reputation for efficiency my 5.30am bus to
the airport was ten minutes late (and the roads deserted of course, so
no excuse there).

as are plenty of trains and plenty of airlines. Even jammed full Class
378s are not buses - they're high capacity trains doing their job.

You might not get many people on (eg) rammed unrefurbished 158s agreeing
with that point of view. Trains can be very good, but also very bad.

I don't feel I have lost out by not travelling by Ryanair. I would hope
Mr O'Leary's planes are pretty new given the huge rate of expansion that
he has managed with his airline

I'm sure it's part of his business plan to buy new planes to give easy
and consistent maintenance and operations. As opposed to BMIbaby who
have a rag-bag collection of surprisingly old planes.

Even if I was to discount half of the negative comments and reports I
have read about Ryanair I would still not travel with them.

Which is the same reason most people won't travel by train.
--
Roland Perry

On Oct 13, 2:51*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

Which is the same reason most people won't travel by train.

Indeed. Ryanair, as with trains, can be fine. I have used them
several times and have never had any kind of problem (other than lack
of legroom), nor been hit with any "hidden" fees.

Neil

In message .com, at
14:49:38 on Tue, 13 Oct 2009, MC remarked:
I have used BC many times on a few airlines but I have found the "new" Club
Class on BA to be the best I have experienced.

There are many things right about it, but also a few rough edges. It's
really difficult to serve food to people with window seats, for example,
because the people seated on the aisle get in the way.

BC on many airlines does, indeed, far surpass "old" FC cabins but the
new FC cabins can offer excellent privacy. Has anyone had the fortune
to travel FC on a Singapore Airlines or Emirates A380 )

Not yet, but I may travel in Business on an Emirates 380 in the spring.
FC is a stupid price!
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message

In message , at 21:19:24
on Mon, 12 Oct 2009, Paul Corfield remarked:

I don't feel I have lost out by not travelling by Ryanair. I would
hope Mr O'Leary's planes are pretty new given the huge rate of
expansion that he has managed with his airline

I'm sure it's part of his business plan to buy new planes to give easy
and consistent maintenance and operations. As opposed to BMIbaby who
have a rag-bag collection of surprisingly old planes.

Yes, Ryanair buys huge batches of identical planes from Boeing (but
always with the threat of defecting to Airbus, as easyJet did), for
knock-down prices. O'Leary proudly shows off about ordering them during
recessions, when he can get the best deal. They are then kept for a
relatively short time, before being sold on, with little or no
depreciation (as Ryanair buys them for less than the second-hand price).