Boarding a 777 flight – Photo: Alan Light | Flickr CC
’œYou’re a travel writer,’ people say to me. ’œBut you’re afraid of flying? How does that work?’
It doesn’t. A terrible experience happened to me, where a flight from Lagos, Nigeria, to Accra, Ghana, kept losing altitude for 30 minutes straight. Storm clouds surrounded us, and I couldn’t see anything. The captain didn’t come on the loudspeaker to say there would be turbulence, or sorry for the inconvenience, or that we were totally safe and not crashing to the ground due to a terrible malfunction. People were screaming the entire time. I was about to vomit when finally I saw a village through the thick, white clouds and realized we were safely landing.
I’ve never been the same since. I’ve gotten better, sure I usually have to fly in order to travel but I’m not totally cured. Not many people are sympathetic to this fear, however, and it sucks. I find these are good ways to upset someone who has a fear of flying.
Delta has partnered with Starbucks as their new coffee provider – Photo: Starbucks
I will be the first to admit (and I have) that I am a coffee addict. So to surprise no one, I am talking about something close to my heart, and my stomach. Coffee on-board a flight (or while waiting for one) is a big thing, not only to me, but to so many other travelers.
The Delta 737 called “The Spirit of Seattle” seen from the air – Photo: Bernie Leighton | AirlineReporter
Airlines are not known to have the world’s best coffee. Heck, some might even call it plain awful. An airline’s choice of coffee can be an important one, not only to keep the passengers happy but also for their budgets. More and more airlines are taking their choice of coffee quite seriously and I decided to hold the cream and sugar and dive on in.
Front part of Lufthansa’s special retro livery on the Boeing 747-8I – Photo: Lufthansa
Lufthansa was the first airline to fly the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental and now has 16 of the type in service. Over the history of the airline and the 747 program, Lufthansa has been a very good customer. They have operated the 747-100, 200, & 400 (with a good portion of those 747-400s still flying).
The airline, as a whole, has been around since 1926 (in some form or another), during which time they have been through a number of liveries. What better way for an airline to receive their latest aircraft than to paint it in an retro livery?
Eva Air Boeing 777-300ER in flight – Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren | JDLMedia
Another week, another flight. This time my adventure started at Los Angeles International, with a ticket in hand on EVA Air to Taipei. The occasion? To give the carrier’s Royal Laurel (RL) business class a good, thorough testing.
With no line present at the Royal Laurel Desk, check-in was quick and simple. A staff member escorted me to the lounge, managing to whisk me right past the hulking mid-day security line. This does not appear to be a normal procedure for RL passengers, though the premium line looked to have a 15-minute back-up.
EVA utilizes the finely appointed Star Alliance lounge in LAX, thanks to being part of the alliance since mid-2013. Time was short on this visit, though long enough to snag a finger sandwich and a few deserts.
Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren | JDLMedia
Boarding began on time, and I quickly squirreled away my bags above my seat: 1A. A selection of juices and water was on tap for pre-departure drinks. I went with apple, my new favorite as of late.
It is still unreal that Full Aviation Geek Fest Seattle (AGF) tickets sold out in less than 30 seconds. We know that there are many of you who were hoping to get tickets and weren’t able to get them. That bites and we are sorry – blame it on the old rule of “supply and demand.” There were also some technical issues that popped up because of the overwhelming demand that didn’t make things any easier. Again, we apologize. We are looking how to improve the process in the future (and hopefully allow more people to enjoy this epic event), but for now, we still have AGF15 to look forward to!
The sale of Mini Tickets has now closed
