Yeah, middle of the road is about it…

I mean, I know how to fasten/unfasten the seatbelt… but I do tend to check life jackets, as there’s so many different kinds around.

And I always have a quick check for the nearest emergency exit.

Having said all that, when I was at Jet Aviation, I used to hang out with a Welsh guy who worked next door at Crossair, and through him, I have a demo lifejacket, safety card and demo oxygen mask in my wardrobe, so I do occaionally try them on, just for the sake of running through it.

dunno… can’t say I’ve tried retro claiming with any alliances online.

Only time I’ve used it was when Qualiflyer was still around to claim a SN flight, but as Qualiflyer was SN’s program too (as well as SR), I don’t think it made any difference.

However, I don’t think that other alliances allow you to retroclaim online, either.

Only time I’ve retroclaimed outwith the principal airline was for a hotel, and there’s no online facilities for that, anyway.

Yeah, I know… that’s kind of why I put when the flights were, so as to make clear that they could have been updated since…

Certainly I know that AF’s A330’s were delivered with PTV’s, and AF were also installing PTV’s on their A340 and 777 fleets when I flew with them (but it kind of hacked me off to to find an article in the Inflight magazine telling me what I could look forward to, whilst forcing me to watch a Woody Allen film on the main screen.).

However, we’re talking about charter flights of less than 5 hours, and I don’t see how PTV’s can be justified for that expense.

Wys asked about PTV’s on BA flights, I don’t think they have any PTV’s in World Traveller on anything but their 747 and 777 fleets, certainly the 767’s it was decided not to bother installing PTV in’s WT, although they are there in Club World.

The new batch of Airbus aircraft (ie not the orignal 4 A320-100’s and 5 (I think?) A320-200’s that were relics from B-Cal) have the LCD screens every four or 5 rows, though, so you may get IFE on those.

the 319’s use them, as do British Mediterranean’s Franchise A321’s (although I haven’t been on a BA A321).

thought it looked like a babelfish sort of translation… 😀

right, the original text is…

Dabei hätte der Super-Airbus – der Zahlenlogik und dem A 340 folgend – einfach A 350 heissen können. Das aber hätte nicht den Techniksprung verkörpert, der mit dem Doppeldecker-Airbus verbunden ist. Die folgende Nummer A 360 steht für einen Vollkreis und galt daher auch als ungeeignet. Die sieben (für A370) sei, so glaubt man Toulouse, im fernen Osten eine Unglückszahl. Dagegen sei die 380 eine ästhetische Ziffer.

Here the Super-Airbus could, logically, and following on from the A340, just have been called A350. But that wouldn’t have have represented the quantum leap in technology required for the double decker Airbus. The Following number, A360 signifies a full circle [ie 360°], and was therefore also deemed unsuitable. The Seven [not sieve ;)] (in A370) is, they reckon in Toulouse,an unlucky number in the Far East. A380, however, was an aesthetic figure.

The original version is at: http://www.sphynx.de/html/a3xx.html

‘Scuse me, 330C, but does that come with a translation?

Not quite sure I understand the techinque jump involved for the 350, although 360 makes sense for degrees, but what 370 has to do with sieves, I dunno?

That might actually be a babelfish translation? any idea of the original source, see if someone can work it out in contextual language?

Looks like it could be German, but I don’t want to start second guessing something I’m not even sure where it came from…

yeah, wasn’t the reason Airbus gave for the A3XX being renamed the A380 rather than A350 that the figure ‘8’ is supposed to be lucky in Asia?

I suspect they probably mean the 7E7… :rolleyes:

So, how come there wasn’t a main headline in all the press telling us they’d got it wrong, there hadn’t been a ‘near riot’…

From BBC News Online
Four Celtic fans have been fined by a Welsh court following a mid-air alert during a flight from Spain.
The privately chartered jet, carrying 148 supporters, made an emergency landing at Cardiff International Airport last December.

The four fans admitted charges including being drunk on board an airplane and behaving abusively and were together fined almost £700 including costs.

The men were arrested on their way back to Glasgow from a Uefa cup match against Celta Vigo in Spain.

Magistrates in Barry, South Wales, heard the pilot made the emergency landing after the air crew said they were confronted by drunken fans causing “ugly scenes” on the jet.

The court also heard a row had erupted about smoking in the toilets.

Other fans were then said to be angry when they were told they would be detained on board to trace the culprits when they landed at Glasgow.

Their protests triggered the pilot to make an emergency landing at Cardiff Airport – where the fans were greeted by 60 police, fire crews and paramedics.

Prosecutor Richard Killick said: “The attitude and demeanour of the passengers towards the cabin crew was already hostile because the flight had twice been delayed and was running 12 hours late.

“When they were told they would be delayed again while staff investigated the smoking in the toilets, the situation degenerated.

“It got to the point where a senior air stewardess was struck on the arm by someone who has never been traced.

“The pilot took the view that the safety of his staff had been compromised and gave a Mayday signal.”

One fan caught drinking – Joseph Duffy, 19, of East Kilbride – was fined £150 with £35 costs after admitting being drunk on board an airplane.

Another fan, a 17-year-old juvenile who cannot be named, admitted being drunk on an airplane and smoking on an airplane while prohibited. He was fined £200 with £35 costs.

James Brennan, 42, of Inverclyde, near Glasgow, and welder Hugh Haggerty, 37, of Glasgow, both admitted offences of behaving in a threatening, abusive, or disorderly manner.

Each were fined £100 with £35 costs.

Dave Pinnell, defending Duffy, described it as “not so much a storm in a tea-cup as a storm in a Celtic T-shirt”.

He said: “Some of the passengers felt some of the aircrew had not handled the situation properly and that the actions of the pilot were unnecessary.”

Five other fans arrested were released without charge by South Wales Police.

Now, without wanting to trivialise the matter, two teenagers being drunk/smuggling a bottle of Vodka on board an aircraft, one of whom also smoked in the toilets, and two men behaving, after the aircraft landed, which is crucially not mentioned in the article, in a ‘threatening, abusive or disorderly manner’, is hardly a near ‘riot’… Especially considering the stresses they’d been subjected to…

So… a mayday was called because of a bottle of Vodka and a kid smoking in the toilets 🙁

(see also http://www.etims.net/features/aeu308followup.html )