Airline ponderings
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Airline ponderings
Returned a couple of days ago from a trip to Italy, France & UK (mix of work & holiday) and for what it's worth make the following observations regarding various airlines:
Flew easyJet Pisa to Paris Orly. It was our first experience of a LCC in Europe and while the "first in best dressed" approach left us a bit cold (haven't tried JetStar) I would say the flight was the most enjoyable of 8 sectors flown on the trip. The A319 was clean, the seats were comfortable with more leg room for my 184cm frame than on any of our other flights (QF, Cathay, BA), the cabin crew were very professional in going about their jobs and completely debunked any theories we might have held regarding how smart you have to be to get a job with an LCC - all seemed fluent in at least 2 languages.
Flew LHR-CDG return one day with BA and their A319s also had good leg room, and the cabin crew were also excellent. However I have never experienced such slow check in even though we only had carry-on bags. We did try to use the BA self service check in booths but discovered that they would not accept our Virgin Mastercard. Whether it was a function of the cut-off corner Virgin use on their cards (the reason BA gave) or whether it was something more sinister relating to "other" issues - who knows?
I travel from Australia a couple of times a year with a variety of airlines and there seems to be a growing trend in a couple of areas someone might like to comment on. One is in the amount of carry-on baggage people get away with - it's a growing battle finding somewhere to put your (appropriate sized) cabin bag when people bring on multiple oversized "cabin" bags, folded up baby strollers, cartons that take up almost the entire locker, etc etc. Maybe someone in the industry can tell me if I'm imagining this but I don't think I am.
The other trend I see is a reduction in the number of toilets in Y class even though almost every flight these days is full or almost so. At first I thought I might be imagining this but I'm sure there used to be more than 2 toilets for each cabin on a 747. I waited at least 15 minutes to use the loo at one stage on the Cathay flight from Hong Kong to Rome.
Again, can anyone comment on this subject? Maybe it's all a plot to get us to fly business class (I wish!). I know there will be previous threads on these subjects but for those who are interested this is the situation 2 days ago.
Cheers
dghob
Flew easyJet Pisa to Paris Orly. It was our first experience of a LCC in Europe and while the "first in best dressed" approach left us a bit cold (haven't tried JetStar) I would say the flight was the most enjoyable of 8 sectors flown on the trip. The A319 was clean, the seats were comfortable with more leg room for my 184cm frame than on any of our other flights (QF, Cathay, BA), the cabin crew were very professional in going about their jobs and completely debunked any theories we might have held regarding how smart you have to be to get a job with an LCC - all seemed fluent in at least 2 languages.
Flew LHR-CDG return one day with BA and their A319s also had good leg room, and the cabin crew were also excellent. However I have never experienced such slow check in even though we only had carry-on bags. We did try to use the BA self service check in booths but discovered that they would not accept our Virgin Mastercard. Whether it was a function of the cut-off corner Virgin use on their cards (the reason BA gave) or whether it was something more sinister relating to "other" issues - who knows?
I travel from Australia a couple of times a year with a variety of airlines and there seems to be a growing trend in a couple of areas someone might like to comment on. One is in the amount of carry-on baggage people get away with - it's a growing battle finding somewhere to put your (appropriate sized) cabin bag when people bring on multiple oversized "cabin" bags, folded up baby strollers, cartons that take up almost the entire locker, etc etc. Maybe someone in the industry can tell me if I'm imagining this but I don't think I am.
The other trend I see is a reduction in the number of toilets in Y class even though almost every flight these days is full or almost so. At first I thought I might be imagining this but I'm sure there used to be more than 2 toilets for each cabin on a 747. I waited at least 15 minutes to use the loo at one stage on the Cathay flight from Hong Kong to Rome.
Again, can anyone comment on this subject? Maybe it's all a plot to get us to fly business class (I wish!). I know there will be previous threads on these subjects but for those who are interested this is the situation 2 days ago.
Cheers
dghob
Join Date: Sep 2001
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Originally Posted by dghob
I'm sure there used to be more than 2 toilets for each cabin on a 747. I waited at least 15 minutes to use the loo at one stage on the Cathay flight from Hong Kong to Rome.
Too mean to buy a long personal title
Originally Posted by christep
CX's 747s have 6 or 7 toilets for economy class (depending on which configuration - 4 at the back, 2 mid-cabin, and, in the "low-J" configuration, 1 at the front) so I don't really understand your comment.
