RE: Pic Of The Day-Soccer fever!

The only place England needs to show off, is on the soccer field. I read in the newspaper yesterday, during their stopover in Dubai en route to the World Cup, the British soccer team and their entourage (totalling roughly 120) ran up a hotel bill of roughly $54,000 U.S.! That’s a lot of drinking!

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RE: Pic Of The Day-Soccer fever!

You can pretty much count on LAX as the stopover. Varig usually has 2 dailies to LAX from Sao Paolo, one of which continues on to Tokyo, so, that would seem logical. I don’t know what their schedule has been like since 9/11, however. They might have even gone to 1 daily frequency. Either way, It it surprising they don’t use the MD11 as you mentioned, since that is the aircraft they use on the LAX/NRT run. Before the MD11, it was a 747-300.

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RE: New low cost in UK

I think the union jack is what adds that extra spice to the livery, even though it doesn’t match the rest. If the tail was purple as well, I don’t think it would look as good. The union jack is what initially caught my eye when I saw it.

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RE: Pic Of The Day-Soccer fever!

I like Portugal to win it all. My darkhorse pic is Croatia. Iv’e gone off on a tangent here…

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RE: Virgin Red-New US low cost airline

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 19-05-02 AT 09:27 PM (GMT)]You make very good points. However, obviously if this was up to the shareholders, it would be great for both airlines! Why the hell wouldn’t it! Unfortunately, whatever is best for the shareholders, isn’t always best for the industry. Why do you think the United/USAirways merger was shot down? Because it would have created a huge monopoly in the US domestic sector by giving them nearly 50% of the market and increasing their east coast routes where USAirways dominates, not to mention strenthening their presence in Europe, where they currently only serve 8 destinations. The only reason the AA/TWA merger happened, was because TWA was finished. They were going to have to file for Chapter 11 bankrupcy protection for seemingly the 3rd time in the last decade. So even if AA and BA are both ‘troubled,’ they are by no means hanging by their last thread, so to speak. You mention that other airlines would be forced to use Gatwick. Yeah, well, the bottom line is, they don’t want to, nor should they be forced to! USAirways, Northwest, Continental, and Delta should be alloted some slots at LHR as well, and perhaps forcing AA/BA to take some more slots at LGW as a result. Finally, you mention it being good for competition, I don’t recall when any mega-merger was ever good for competition. When you have a giant dominating the market, they set their price, and everybody else is forced to comply. Sure, you have a little guy come in and set low prices and the big boy lowers theirs even further till it bankrupts the little guy, and it’s end of story for them. Once in a while you get one that sticks, like easyjet, Southwest, etc. But for the most part, they don’t last. That’s the very reason I refuse to buy fuel from Mobile/Exxon. Their the bigboys and regardless of what OPEC does, they control the market. Regardless of what the UK gov’t decides, the US gov’t just won’t let this happen, for all the right reasons. I have 2 words: MICRO SOFT.

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P.S. I forgot to address the FRA/AMS issue. Hell, if I’m a biz traveler and I had to choose a transit airport other than LHR, I wouldn’t go via LGW either! I’d much prefer FRA or AMS. Both, very nice airports. If the UK econonmy suffers, then so be it.

RE: Airport picture of the day

What ever happened to Virgin Sun anyway? Everything else Branson does seems to be very successful.

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RE: JAL best by far

Air New Zealand is not the only airline that asks you to put the blinds down while they are showing a movie. I’ve flown on numerous airlines that have the same policy. In my opinion, it’s not that big a deal. In fact, I think it’s a pretty decent policy considering the open blinds bring in considerable glare making it difficult for the majority of the passengers to watch the movie. Comet, you still must be pretty pissed about that whole ANZ ordeal considering I’ve seen no less than 3 mentions of it on here. Was it truly that bad? I’ll admit, if a stewardess did to me what she did to you, racing over and slamming it shut like the way you described, I would have been less than pleased. However, you did get to see the flightdeck. I think that should make up for hell of a lot, considering I don’t know of any airlines that allow that to happen, especially after 9/11. The only time I’ve had the pleasure of seeing what the view looks like from the windscreen is the time I ‘sneaked’ up to business class on an LH A310 ATH-FRA flight. The only reason that happened is because the pilot had the door open so I just peaked through. I’ve had bad experiences with ‘bitchy’ flight attendants in the past, as well. That’s going to happen on occasion. Air NewZealand was voted one of the top economy class cabins/seats a few years back, along with the likes of Virgin and Cathay Pacific, I believe. That didn’t happen by accident. I’ve flown ANZ twice from L.A. to Sydney, and I encountered great in flight service. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone who flies ANZ will, because my likes and everybody else’s obviously differ. The point I’m trying to make is, you coming on here and ‘advising’ us not to fly Air NewZealand, just because they have a policy of lowering the blinds while a film is on during the daytime, is absolutely ludicrous. Tell us you had a bad experience, end of story. Shall we start putting an embargo on every airline that someone has a bad experience on? The list would become rather long. My advice? Go to the website, and send an email, letting them know your amount of mileage you have, your frequent flyer number, how much you love their company, etc. I’ve gotten a few nice vouchers by doing that. But hey, that’s just me. I’ve gone on long enough….

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RE: Jal best in the air?

I’ve flown ANZ twice between L.A. and Sydney, once in business class, and once in a ecomony. Both times I’ve had a very favorable experience. They’re easily the 2nd best airline I have flown.

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