Air New Zealand is testing something which I view with grave concern. They are testing a system that hijacks cell phones on their flights, and charging extortionate data rates along the way. The proposal is to place a mini cell-site inside the aircraft, and have it connect to satellite. Any calls or data traffic made …
Category Archives: Air Travel
Air NZ automatic insurance ripoff
I am a huge fan of Air NZ – the people that work there are great, the experience on the ground and in the sky is superb and they were deserved winners of a number of awards this year. However as customers we owe it to them to be ever-vigilant in helping them maintain their …
Air New Zealand looks at bulk discounts
Back in January I drafted* a lengthy post on what Air New Zealand could do better, and part of that was on regional airfares. I sampled five regional, seven domestic, two trans-Tasman and two international fares for travel in a month’s time. The results were startling, though not surprising: It’s twice the cost per kilometre …
Never surrender Air New Zealand
Yes – I know the trans Tasman fares are pretty low, making it hard to compete. Yes I know that code sharing gives more flights. But I also know that Pacific Blue is not Air New Zealand, and when I want to fly on Pacific Blue I book Pacific Blue. I also know that merging …
Qantas slowly catches up
Astonishingly Qantas has only now introduced seat selection for Australian domestic flights.Sadly it appears to be avaialble to Gold members (and better) only. Air New Zealand has had this for quite some time.
Wotif launches Wotflight – let’s test it out
Wotif have launched a new site – Wotflight. It only applies only to Australian flights for now, but it is certainly worth a look. I like the simple approach, and there are some nice user interface elements. Looks great doesn’t it? Clearly there has been a good designer involved. I went ahead and tried to …
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Puffin signals doom for jetpack
NASA seem to have cracked the three crucial problems with jetpacks with their Puffin personal flying machine. The kiwi jetpack is obnoxiously loud, and it, well it doesn’t really fly. It’s also only suitable for smaller folk. The Puffin approach puts the pilot between two stubby wings, is powered by quiet electrical fans and will …
Enrolling in Budget’s Fastbreak is Easy!
Actually – No – it is not. Making people print out a PDF and mail it back to you to register is no longer acceptable. It has not been acceptable for years. Avis does a bit better, as does Hertz. However although it appears online sign-up to their programs is possible, they each have intimidatingly …
Air New Zealand is the best – here are some reasons
A selection of reasons why Air New Zealand won the Airline of the Year in the Air Transport World magazine awards. Most of these refer to posts made here over the past three years, and the overarching reason is simply that Air New Zealand is a very well run business. They have kept their fares …
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Brand dilution: not Grandma’s biscuit
Eaten on Air NZ just now. It wasn’t very good.
Woo Hoo I’m Gold – Thanks Virgin Blue
Excellent news from Virgin Blue in my email inbox just now. It was a bit of a surprise, as I have not flown with them for a while, and I thought that my status would be expiring if anything. and yes – turns out that was a bit of a mistake. A big mistake. I …
The 31 reasons that inflight wifi is not making money
From the WSJ we hear that sales for inflight wifi have been disappointing. It seems that when you give it away the usage is pretty high, but things change when there is a price: “.. in tests and now in regular service, usage drops off considerably when travelers must pay for the service. Alaska Airlines …
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Time to update the airline safety procedures
Notice anything? That’s right – nobody is wearing a lifejacket. I’ve always been amused at the traditional picture of a plane floating gently in the water on the safety briefing cards. Now that we finally have one after billions of flights we can see that the safety policies based on flying 50 years ago are …
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Signature architecture at Wellington Airport
Love it or hate it – it’s great to be in a city where folk are brave enough to build something like this. Nice one Infratil. What a great way to arrive into New Zealand.
Don’t buy tickets from American Express
That’s the only conclusion I can make from an Amex survey that shows Airfares to Europe have increased by 28%, while others in the industry says they have dropped.
Lance Wiggs 