Why oh why would anyone fly with an American airline if they had the choice. A couple of my holidays over the last year have involved flying with an American airline. If I have the choice I'd prefer not to do so again. I was on Hawaiian airlines for my Syndey to Honolulu flights, but it was no different to my time on United a year ago. Leg room, tiny. Entertainment system: rubbish, no personal systems on an eleven hour flight, unless you want to pay an additional $15 for it. The food looked awful, tasted of nothing much and there wasn't much of it. The check-in computers were not easy to use so I had to deal with grumpy staff when the system didn't work. At what point will they look at the Middle-Eastern airlines such as Emirates and learn what flying should be like.
Contrast with my flight on Qantas back to Canberra from Sydney the following morning (the plane was late so I had to spend an extra night in sydney because of my missed connection). Check-in system was easy to use and didn't need staff input. I don't understand why you would automate half of the check-in procedure but still need a staff member for the other half, it saves little time and only creates frustration, the new Qantas system was fully automated and very good. The staff were friendly and on an hour-long flight I got a tasty fig scone and a nice cup of tea. Marvellous! Plus a Brocken spectre, which is always a nice treat on flights.
But it wasn't all bad, the airport staff at the Hawaiian airports were very good, not like other US airports, and it was down to a very slow system at Sydney customs and immigration that lead to me missing my final flight and spending an extra night in Sydney.
And it could have been a lot worse I admit, I could have been flying Ryanair, or, god forbid, Iberian.
So I'm back from my holiday in Hawaii, which was as awesome as you might expect. I've been wondering about how much to blog about this holiday, since it had little to do with Australia, life in Australia or Science. And neither was I properly travelling so as a travel blog it wouldn't be that interesting with insight or amusing stories. I've decided that I'm going to blog about the sciencey parts of the holiday and leave the rest. So expect some cool volcano related posts over the next week!
Contrast with my flight on Qantas back to Canberra from Sydney the following morning (the plane was late so I had to spend an extra night in sydney because of my missed connection). Check-in system was easy to use and didn't need staff input. I don't understand why you would automate half of the check-in procedure but still need a staff member for the other half, it saves little time and only creates frustration, the new Qantas system was fully automated and very good. The staff were friendly and on an hour-long flight I got a tasty fig scone and a nice cup of tea. Marvellous! Plus a Brocken spectre, which is always a nice treat on flights.
But it wasn't all bad, the airport staff at the Hawaiian airports were very good, not like other US airports, and it was down to a very slow system at Sydney customs and immigration that lead to me missing my final flight and spending an extra night in Sydney.
And it could have been a lot worse I admit, I could have been flying Ryanair, or, god forbid, Iberian.
So I'm back from my holiday in Hawaii, which was as awesome as you might expect. I've been wondering about how much to blog about this holiday, since it had little to do with Australia, life in Australia or Science. And neither was I properly travelling so as a travel blog it wouldn't be that interesting with insight or amusing stories. I've decided that I'm going to blog about the sciencey parts of the holiday and leave the rest. So expect some cool volcano related posts over the next week!
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