The totally off-topic thread

[Mal]

All this talk of Boeings, and images of where people are reminds me of the following:

Google Maps

This is the intersection (very close to Boeing), where I got pulled over by Police for *allegedly* rolling through a Stop sign. The police car was parked on the right hand side in the driveway.

No fine. Talked my way out of it. And that street has a very low speed limit ... I wonder what speed I was doing at the time

 

[anat0l]

Some people have the luck, I just got my first offload ever, thanks Qantas.

AA1254 ended up being 2 hours late into LAX so I guess Qantas gave my seat away. :evil:

It's rather annoying.

Did you have a complete misconnect (i.e. arrival time > departure time of next flight)? If not, a shame that QF didn't hold the aircraft for you. Then again, holding aircraft is getting out of fashion, and probably not fair to the rest of the pax on the flight.

Hope you got something out of the deal, e.g. at the very least, a rebook for the next day. Accommodation, probably not, since separate PNRs, although QF WP might get you a bit of love (or perhaps not).

 

[MissBurrill]

Mum and Dad flew to Malaysia the other day on Dad's birthday. The Malaysian customs lady wished Dad a happy birthday

 

[anat0l]

Does anyone want to tell me (and everyone else):

• How bad the thunderstorms are in SYD?
• How a thunderstorm could be as dangerous as a snowstorm in shutting down flight operations at an airport? (That is, what are the safety implications trying to land and take-off in a thunderstorm. My only guess so far is poor visibility. Just checked FlightStats, giving visibility at SYD at 1 mile.)

 

[Mal]

[*]How a thunderstorm could be as dangerous as a snowstorm in shutting down flight operations at an airport? (That is, what are the safety implications trying to land and take-off in a thunderstorm. My only guess so far is poor visibility.)
[/list]

Ground operations at SYD (and other airports too) shut down when there is lightning detected within <X> km's of the airport. It's a WH&S issue - no ground staff can go out onto the tarmac as there is the threat of them becoming grounding rods for lightning.

Well, that's my recollection of it all anyway!

 

[Mal]

Mum and Dad flew to Malaysia the other day on Dad's birthday. The Malaysian customs lady wished Dad a happy birthday

I got something similar when I was arriving into TPE a couple of days before my birthday. The customs lady was very disappointed that I wasn't there for my birthday, but instead was just over-nighting before heading out of Taipei.

I did promise that next time I returned I would spend a few more days

 

[markis10]

Does anyone want to tell me (and everyone else):

• How bad the thunderstorms are in SYD?
• How a thunderstorm could be as dangerous as a snowstorm in shutting down flight operations at an airport? (That is, what are the safety implications trying to land and take-off in a thunderstorm. My only guess so far is poor visibility. Just checked FlightStats, giving visibility at SYD at 1 mile.)

Thunderstorms contain an area of severe updraughts and downdraught's which treat aircraft like Markis10jr treats his toys (read next major league baseball pitcher into that), they also are associated with microbursts which is a localised sinking of air, not a good thing when you are on short final!

Aside from the threat of lightning, which aircraft can handle, microbursts have been responsible for some of the worst disasters on record and many close calls: Media Releases: 20 September 2002 - ATSB releases report on microburst windshear serious incident

 

[serfty]

Sometimes we all take short(ish) connections for granted. Hope things sort themselves out for you.

Especially out of SFO!

AA1254 landed 9:52 PM, 102 minutes late.

BB was to be re-routed via SYD.

QF12 departed 11:37PM (schedule 10:25pm).

21:52 would almost certainly not meet MCT for a 22:25 flight LAX T4 AA to TBIT QF, even though he possibly would have made it given QF12 was over an hour late in departing.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Especially out of SFO!

AA1254 landed 9:52 PM, 102 minutes late.

BB was to be re-routed via SYD.

QF12 departed 11:37PM (schedule 10:25pm).

21:52 would almost certainly not meet MCT for a 22:25 flight LAX T4 AA to TBIT QF, even though he possibly would have made it given QF12 was over an hour late in departing.

I was actually rebooked from QF16 to QF108, so timing wasn't a problem as I arrived in plenty of time, but I guess they had too many passengers and not enough seats.

 

[Keith009]

Points or operational?

Yes it was an op up, or "involuntary upgrade" as serfty calls it. Not a big op up, as I was seated in a J seat with PE service (hence didn't bother to upgrade with points... will be a real shock to the system when they finally phase out these services and I have to actually sit in PE!), but still an op up.

 

[Keith009]

Some people have the luck, I just got my first offload ever, thanks Qantas.

AA1254 ended up being 2 hours late into LAX so I guess Qantas gave my seat away. :evil:

It's rather annoying.

Sorry to hear. I know how frustrating it is to miss flights, especially when due to events beyond your control. I hope everything gets sorted out soon.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Sorry to hear. I know how frustrating it is to miss flights, especially when due to events beyond your control. I hope everything gets sorted out soon.

Upgrade to premium economy would be nice.

I think Qantas are being a little cheap as they probably could have got the extra passengers onto V Australia or Air New Zealand; or even Air Pacific for that matter.

Instead they have used the Westin LAX for the hotel, which is cheaper than buying seats on a competitor airline.

 

[markis10]

Upgrade to premium economy would be nice.

I think Qantas are being a little cheap as they probably could have got the extra passengers onto V Australia or Air New Zealand; or even Air Pacific for that matter.

Instead they have used the Westin LAX for the hotel, which is cheaper than buying seats on a competitor airline.

Bundy, there has not been a seat spare on any service since Friday ex LAX.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Bundy, there has not been a seat spare on any service since Friday ex LAX.

Now expertflyer isn't the most reliable source of information but Air Pacific had some seats available for last nights departure.

 

[Flashback]

Now expertflyer isn't the most reliable source of information but Air Pacific had some seats available for last nights departure.

But would you have wanted to fly Air Pacific? :shock:

 

[markis10]

Now expertflyer isn't the most reliable source of information but Air Pacific had some seats available for last nights departure.

THat's better than being stuck I suppose, personally I would wait the day and come home with QF.

 

[Bundy Bear]

THat's better than being stuck I suppose, personally I would wait the day and come home with QF.

I had a look at V Australia. VA8 is a direct LAX-BNE maybe Qantas could put me on that flight, it has seats avaialble.

That way I could then get Qantas original credit but fly on V Australia.

Oh and I would be home 3 hours earlier than if I went with Qantas.

I have done it the other way this year; booked with Virgin Blue and ended up on Qantas.

Yes I would lose a lounge but really TBIT isn't that good.

 

[Bundy Bear]

But would you have wanted to fly Air Pacific? :shock:

I have already flown with Air Pacific this year and it wasn't too bad.

Qantas domestic and international has this stupid 31" seat pitch(30") on some seats of the 737-800

Now Alaska and Continental both have decent seat pitch of 32" compared to Qantas.

Another story, I was flying Alaska Airlines in economy yesterday and they were boarding First Class and MVP Gold(Alaska top tier) and then they announced boarding for those with status on other code share partners of Alaska.

So I board when they announced rows 15-30 and I was row 10, someone in front of me tried to board with a row 12 seat and they got rejected, so handed them my boarding pass with my Qantas platinum card, Oneworld Emerald traveling on the AA code share counts. I was about to pull the DYKWIA if they told me to go away.

I got overhead bin space. Traveling without checked luggage makes life easy.

Now will I get the miles and SCs to post, that could be another drama.

 

[markis10]

I had a look at V Australia. VA8 is a direct LAX-BNE maybe Qantas could put me on that flight, it has seats avaialble.

That way I could then get Qantas original credit but fly on V Australia.

Oh and I would be home 3 hours earlier than if I went with Qantas.

I have done it the other way this year; booked with Virgin Blue and ended up on Qantas.

Yes I would lose a lounge but really TBIT isn't that good.

Sounds like capacity is freeing up ex LAX, AFAIK hell has not frozen over yet so the chances of you being on VA are........

 

[serfty]

I was actually rebooked from QF16 to QF108, so timing wasn't a problem as I arrived in plenty of time, but I guess they had too many passengers and not enough seats.

Surprising; I did look at QF108 but discounted it as at was scheduled to depart at 23:50, that's more than slightly off tap in my book. I would be complaining to Qantas ASAP.:-|