Articles from this Category
3 August 2023
Above: Mdina soon after take-off. Getting to Istanbul Today we begin our big trip back after over five weeks of summer. I’m bound for hometown Kuching whereas Kim will plunge into the depths of winter in Auckland. We set the alarm for 0600 but I had woken at 0500 anyway. Getting a rideshare to the […]
8 July 2023
Getting to Incheon airport Today, the plan is to fly to Istanbul on staff standby tickets. There are three flights during the day with one to two hours between each one of them and a final and fourth flight at night. We chose to try Asiana Airlines at 1025 as it would be silly not […]
25 June 2023
Another odd itinerary Kim and I depart again today on another of my odd itineraries. It evolved from a couple of requirements: Using Korean Air expiring points which were best used for a flight from Okinawa to Seoul, and Using a leftover Emirates ticket from nearly 3 years ago from Larnaca to Malta. That hop […]
28 April 2023
We landed in Auckland about 30 mins earlier than our 0925 scheduled time. I had taken care to throw out the wooden toothbrush from the new Air New Zealand amenity kit (which came in a black tough paper bag). I wonder if anyone has been fined for not declaring the wooden item (it is a […]
29 March 2023
Happy to leave! It is spring in New Zealand but I had been secretly counting down the days till I depart. The house is undergoing renovations and it has been disruptive, culminating with lots of white gib dust in the plastering process. On top of that, the month back in New Zealand hadn’t been the […]
20 February 2023
Above: My 377-seat A330-300 from Sydney to Auckland for AUD27 plus taxes. With the train to the airport back in operation, it was a swift and easy ride, arriving at the terminal at 0825. I expected a long wait for the AirAsia X counter to open but it opened at 0840, which was 3h30 prior […]
17 February 2023
Leaving hometown Today I leave hometown and head to Kuala Lumpur then Downunder to Sydney for a two night stay and then back home to Auckland. It’s a rainy day and I’m over the humidity in Kuching. I decided to head out to the airport early in case there’s a flight disruption and I’d try […]
29 January 2023
Arrival Despite the 55 min delay departing Auckland, we arrived into Singapore about 10 mins early. As usual, Changi airport arrival is a breeze and I was in the public area pretty quickly. No wonder it’s often rated as the world’s best airport. Transport to the J8 proved expensive at SGD31 on Grab app. Ojek […]
29 January 2023
Above: Check-in queue for Air New Zealand. Checking-in manually I woke at 0630 and was pleased to see that my 1105 flight had not been cancelled whereas most morning flights had been. It was still no guarantee as flight can be cancelled last-minute. When a 55 min delay notification came through, I felt some relief […]
26 November 2022
Arriving back into Auckland I woke and it was already breakfast time! Wow, five hours of the flight had suddenly disappeared! Breakfast was super-generous and the slice of cake would have been better placed on last night’s dinner tray. The crew continued to be cheerful despite having worked hard with special meals and only having […]