Flights you have been on

[GRALISTAIR]

LOL. No, her brother and family wanted to meet up at Yosemite. FAT was a beautiful coincidence.

 

[thejuggler]

Just back from another Jet2 hop from Leeds to Ibiza. Flight out a trusty 737-300, not many years left of ops, but still operating every day. Return was on a 6 year old 737-800.

My first flight from Leeds since the new building became operational. New building is welcome, but the departure area is now even more disjointed and it will be a few years before the next phase of work is complete to bring it all together.

Struck lucky on both legs. Going out we were row 16, across aisle seats, all row 16 seats full. Row 14 (exit row) were empty both sides, so quick move fowards.

Coming back row 14, again across aisle, but I was the only one on my row, so me and Mrs Juggler had a 'biz class' experience of an empty seat between us, handy to stretch out and sleep for most of the flight.

Both flights on time. Its a few years since we did a proper package, with hotel and transfers, but everything worked as it should. Pick up transfer info is now provided in real time so you know where the bus is and how many pick ups there are.

For design and passenger flow Ibiza airport is one of the best I've recently visited.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Just back from another Jet2 hop from Leeds to Ibiza. Flight out a trusty 737-300, not many years left of ops, but still operating every day. Return was on a 6 year old 737-800.

My first flight from Leeds since the new building became operational. New building is welcome, but the departure area is now even more disjointed and it will be a few years before the next phase of work is complete to bring it all together.

Struck lucky on both legs. Going out we were row 16, across aisle seats, all row 16 seats full. Row 14 (exit row) were empty both sides, so quick move fowards.

Coming back row 14, again across aisle, but I was the only one on my row, so me and Mrs Juggler had a 'biz class' experience of an empty seat between us, handy to stretch out and sleep for most of the flight.

Both flights on time. Its a few years since we did a proper package, with hotel and transfers, but everything worked as it should. Pick up transfer info is now provided in real time so you know where the bus is and how many pick ups there are.

For design and passenger flow Ibiza airport is one of the best I've recently visited.

The 737-300 are indeed trusty, I came home from Faro on one in the summer and was impressed with how modern they've made it feel but you could hear the difference inside.

We had the same experience (one of the row being empty) on Jet2 recently to Paphos, very much appreciated as had our 9 month old in tow. Made a huge difference. This was our first full blown package with them for many many years too, our return transfer never showed up though, we were very lucky that a Manchester flight was taking off about 45 minutes after us and the coach driver had space on that transfer for us. He originally said no straight away when I asked as assumed we were chancers but then asked to see our transfer details in the app and turned 180 in attitude and was a legend. Even sought out a Jet2 rep at Paphos before unloading anyone's luggage to make sure we got sorted.

Just booked to fly with them to Innsbruck in March which I am very much looking forward to, hoping for clear weather for the views, coming back by rail so landing only.

 

[Class73Electro]

Just booked to fly with them to Innsbruck in March which I am very much looking forward to, hoping for clear weather for the views, coming back by rail so landing only.

The Innsbruck approach is just amazing!

 

[ABB125]

I'm a fairly infrequent flyer (as you can see from the screenshots below!), but this year has been rather rather busier (mainly due to a post-university gap half-year). By the end of next week, I'll have been on two return trips to the USA this month, which provides an interesting opportunity to compare aircraft/airlines.

At the start of the month, I had a short trip to California, with a few days in Los Angeles and San Francisco, taking the train between the two cities (I've briefly mentioned parts of this trip in another thread, but this thread gives an opportunity to be more detailed...). This was with Virgin Atlantic from LHR, booked 1 week in advance purely because flights were cheap! Coupled with some very cheap hostels, the entire trip (including UK travel and hostel in London the night before) cost about £850 for 7 days, which I think is quite good for a single traveller - and that includes some relatively pricey activities over there.
Outbound to LAX was on a 5-year-old A351 (G-VTEA), one of the ones with the bigger Upper Class cabins. Naturally, being the cheapskate that I am, I was in Economy! The plane was nice, the food was decent, service was good, plenty of space in the 3-3-3 arrangement (with the caveat that I don't have much of a flight history to make comparisons with!). I rather liked the camera options you could choose to display on your screen, although the tail camera wasn't working. There was a reasonable selection of films to watch, including several that were on my seemingly endless "things I should watch at some point" list. My favourite feature, though, was the headrest: as well as moving up and down, you could fold the edges to stop your head from flopping to the side if you fell asleep, which I thought was brilliant (not that I slept on this flight). I had an outer aisle seat; loading was pretty good, possibly one or two empty seats. Upon arrival, I was outside the terminal trying to find the right bus within about half an hour, having skipped the US Border queue with the MPC app.
Return from SFO was on a 9-year-old B789 (G-VDIA), in Economy once again - plenty of space this time as well, probably 15-20 empty seats towards the back; theoretically I had an entire middle row to myself, though a woman moved from her allocated seat into the aisle seat on the other side of "my" block of 3. No fancy headrest or live cameras on this flight unfortunately. Food was similar to previously, no complaints. On a side note, I don't know if I was just lucky, but it took under 10 minutes from stepping off the BART train at the airport station to being sat at the far end of the "A" departure lounge, without me trying to go quickly - no queue at all for security!
Overall I was very happy with Virgin Atlantic - now I just need to find an excuse to try both of their A330 varieties!

Tomorrow I'm going to New York with my parents (which immediately expands the slightly to allow for a hotel!), with Air Canada. Heathrow to La Guardia via Montreal on the way out and Toronto on the way back. I suspect that the in-flight service might not be quite as good as Virgin, but I'm prepared to be surprised.
Outbound is booked as a B789 LHR to YUL, then a CRJ900 YUL to LGA - originally the latter leg was scheduled to be on a E175, not sure why that's changed. I'm looking forward to travelling on a "tiny" plane, it's a new experience.
Return is booked as A223 LGA to YYZ, the B77W YYZ to LHR. I'm expecting the latter portion to be slightly cramped and with a relatively old interior.

I'm considering doing another trip to fly on one of Lufthansa's A340-600s to Boston before they are withdrawn, but that depends on whether I can plan something that fist within a reasonable budget.

Also this year, I did BHX to BUD and VCE to BHX as part of an Interrail trip, both with Jet2 (and, slightly annoyingly, the same aircraft both times...). First time using BHX, despite it being the closest airport to both home and university; I've flown in to VCE before, again as part of an Interrail trip. I thought Jet2 was quite good, average seat comfort but I wouldn't expect anything else. Most importantly, though, Jet2 have a very generous free baggage allowance, which was the main reason I booked with them, though the price was also very attractive.

~~
A question for some more experienced flyers - any suggestions for the best Star Alliance loyalty scheme for an infrequent traveller like me? I don't travel enough to justify trying to get lounge access/other status, I'm not interested in that, and most of the time I'll go for price over loyalty regardless - I'd just like to try to benefit from accrual of points in some way. I already have a Virgin Flying Club account, so SkyTeam is covered.
I'd also like to start travelling a bit more, so am hopefully going to be flying a bit more frequently over the next few years. I don't foresee any business travel though unfortunately, nor any premium cabins.

~~
This is my entire flight history, if anyone's interested.
First half: some family holidays and a Sixth Form trip.


Second half: two "fly out train back" and one "fly both ways" Interrail trips, and California.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Well I have retired and leave the USA Wednesday. I will still fly but unlikely to travel within the USA again in this lifetime. I will post my final stats probably next weekend.

 

[John R]

Well I have retired and leave the USA Wednesday. I will still fly but unlikely to travel within the USA again in this lifetime. I will post my final stats probably next weekend.

Congratulations on your retirement.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

I flew from Lisbon to Manchester with Ryanair on Saturday - I have always resisted them in the past because of their 'reputation' but it was absolutely fine and no issues with the digital boarding pass. There was about a half-hour delay leaving but a very respectable flight time of 2h 25m. EasyJet were too expensive and Ryanair also have the advantage of using Terminal 2 in Lisbon - it was very speedy through security checks and border control. Last year I flew EasyJet from Terminal 1 - the queues for security and border control were a nightmare, with a lot of morning departures for Africa, the US etc.

 

[cduncan]

I had my first long haul flight which was to Japan. Both my flights were with Air China and in two parts, with a 3 hour layover at Beijing.

20-21 OCT 2025 CA938 LHR-PEK B-2032 B777 In flight Wi-Fi not working, IFE was functional until it froze

21 OCT 2025 CA183 PEK-HND B-1855 A321 In flight Wi-Fi functional

28 OCT 2025 CA184 HND-PEK B-1855 A321 (same aircraft!) In flight Wi-Fi not working

28 OCT 2025 CA937 PEK-LHR B-2045 B777 IFE not working, In flight Wi-Fi functional

Air China were okay - the food they offered I wasn't too keen on but a few were okay (the rice, omlette and sausage)

I do know 7 days is way short for a long haul flight but will definitely go for longer on my next one.

 

[ld0595]

I had my first long haul flight which was to Japan. Both my flights were with Air China and in two parts, with a 3 hour layover at Beijing.

20-21 OCT 2025 CA938 LHR-PEK B-2032 B777 In flight Wi-Fi not working, IFE was functional until it froze

21 OCT 2025 CA183 PEK-HND B-1855 A321 In flight Wi-Fi functional

28 OCT 2025 CA184 HND-PEK B-1855 A321 (same aircraft!) In flight Wi-Fi not working

28 OCT 2025 CA937 PEK-LHR B-2045 B777 IFE not working, In flight Wi-Fi functional

Air China were okay - the food they offered I wasn't too keen on but a few were okay (the rice, omlette and sausage)

I do know 7 days is way short for a long haul flight but will definitely go for longer on my next one.

I flew Air China to Japan back in May (exactly same flights!) and was pleasantly surprised. 777 on both long haul legs and an A321 on the shorter hops too. WiFi didn't work for me at all but the food and service was decent enough. Not quite to European/Middle East standards but for the price we paid, I can't complain at all. What surprised me was that the flights to/from Japan were at least 40-50% full of Europeans.

Will be flying them again to China in a few weeks on their new A350 (London - Beijing - Chengdu) which I'm quite looking forward to, especially with it being their newer seat.

 

[atillathehunn]

It's been a quiet autumn for me.

September:
Turkish Airlines flight TK1940 Brussels - Istanbul Airbus A321.

Turkish Airlines flight TK706 Istanbul-Kabul. Airbus A330-200.

KAM Air flight RQ101 Kabul - Herat. Boeing 737-300.

United Nations Humanitarian Air Service flight UN367. Herat-Kabul. Beechcraft 1900. An evacuation flight.

October
United Nations Humanitarian Air Service flight UN367H Kabul-Dushanbe. Beechcraft 1900. Another evacuation flight.

Turkish Airlines flight TK255 Dushanbe-Istanbul Airbus A321.

Turkish Airlines flight TK1937 Istanbul-Brussels. Airbus A321.

November

easyJet flight U22167 Manchester - Amsterdam. Airbus A320.

Only 4 more flights before the end of the year. A return Charleroi-Manchester with Ryanair and then a Charleroi-Bergamo and Linate-Manchester (easyJet operated with an ITA airways A320) to round off the year. No more work travel until a trip to Ghana in the new year.

Edited to remove the text as it was, apparently, not readable.

 

[John R]

Arrived yesterday in Perth via Singapore. First leg in Singapore's A380 in Business reconfirmed that I love the seat in that plane - lots of space and storage. Then on to Perth on a 787, and as soon as you board you can tell the difference - it all feels more cramped even before sitting down. Half the seats you sit next to the aisle, the others you are set back a little - fortunately I remembered that from a previous trip on their A350 (same seat), so picked the more private one this time. The seat is narrower, as is the footwell, and there's much less storage space. Oh, and the window is partially obscured by the privacy screen that isn't needed for seats adjacent to a window. Poor attention to detail!

Soft product was very acceptable in my mind on both legs. Staff were very attentive and offered to refill my glass several times. Both flights bang on time too.

 

[AlastairFraser]

It's been a quiet autumn for me.

September:
TK1940 BRU-IST. A321. Cyber attack on Brussels on the day of travel. Zaventem was a mess. All manual check in, with a ripped sheet of A4 with my name, flight number and seat number as my boarding pass. A hand written bag tag (bag made it to destination!). Boarding was a poor bloke looking our names up on a hand-written manifest. We took off quite late, but not bad in the circumstances. Unfortunately, my connection time in Istanbul was only 90 minutes, so I missed it. TK put us up in a hotel in the city centre (only got checked in around 3am...) and then 24 hours to wait for the next flight. I got the last room, which was the presidential suite. A simply unnecessary number of rooms and bathrooms.
TK706 IST-KBL. A332. Uneventful, but it's always stunning. To land in KBL, you do a lot of the descent in a loop over the Jalalabad area, and then in. It's a stunning arc in the sunrise with the Hindu Kush off the wing.

RQ101 KBL-HEA. B733. A new airline for me, but KAM was very pleasant, despite the aircraft being nearly 30. A full flight, but take off pretty much on time. Served a small pastry stuffed with spiced potatoes (tasty), an apple juice and a bottle of water. Not bad for about 45 minutes in the air. The journey is stunning through the mountainous centre of the country before landing in the ancient city of Herat.

UN367. HEA-KBL. Beechcraft 1900. An evacuation flight. All communications shut down, airport closed. No way of knowing if the plane was coming until someone managed to get him on frequency leaving KBL. Beechcraft are fun aircraft to fly, a sporting take off and up to the cruise very quickly. A bit lively. No inflight snacks, just water. Quite full, unusual for UNHAS.

October
UN367H KBL-DYU. B1900D. Another evacuation flight, to Dushanbe this time. The airport was closed due to on-going comms shut down. No way of knowing if we would be allowed to take off. There's delicious samosas and saffron tea in the airport, which is how I end every trip to Afghanistan. A stunning flight, snow capped mountains and a slow descent into DYU. I had to sweet talk my way into the country as a UK passport normally needs a visa in advance, which I didn't have. With a bit of help of my UN ID and diplomatic cover passport did eventually get me a 15 day visa on arrival.

TK255 DYU-IST A321. Terrible flight time. DYU airport is strange - SOPs for the regions are stamps for everything, in triplicate.

TK1937 IST-BRU A321. Uneventful. Landing in a storm was a little bouncy.

November

U22167 MAN-AMS. A320. Uneventful, though the new walking and check in routes at Manchester seem to change more often than staircases at Hogwarts. A mouse running through the busy departure lounge caused much amusement. Presume being deported in the one in one mouse scheme implemented by new Home Sec.

Only 4 more flights before the end of the year. A return CRL-MAN with FR and then a CRL-BGY and LIN-MAN (easyJet operated with an ITA airways A320) to round off the year. No more work travel until a trip to Ghana in the new year.

Sounds like quite a close call in Afghanistan? I wonder what caused the sudden withdrawal (although I suppose you're probably not at liberty to say!)

 

[ld0595]

Likewise, I'd be fascinated to know what the need to go to Afghanistan is, although appreciate that's not always possible!

 

[atillathehunn]

I am happy to tell you what I can. I have been going to Afghanistan for the last two years (since we are on the airlines thread - usually TK, sometimes Emirates->flyDubai. More airlines are flying to KBL now, including Etihad, but their flights from Brussels are less useful).

I go there to work on behalf of UNICEF for a flagship programme delivering essential aid to about 65,000 households. I always go to Kabul, but I often also go to other parts of the country, including up towards the north west frontier, and on this occasion over towards Herat, and then further into the hills on the border with Turkmenistan. Afghanistan is one of my favourite countries - it's enchanting, brimming with some of the warmest people I've ever met. I have had wonderful conversations with Afghans across the country, most of whom are curious, rebellious, fiercely proud, hospitable, and above all - funny. The country itself is stunning, snow capped mountains, streams of crystal clear snow melt, orange groves laden with the tastiest oranges I've eaten, golden hills, forests, deserts, and ancient cities of mosques, tombs, palaces.

This notwithstanding, work in Afghanistan has its challenges. As you might imagine, the UN has some pretty strict security protocols to keep us safe, particularly when we are away from the fortress compound in Kabul, or the mini fortresses in some of the key cities, including Herat. While we were deep in the field, in a beautiful village nestled in sandy hills up near Turkemnistan, all communications across the country were severed. There were rumours swirling about why the government cut all communications (cellular, SMS, mobile data, broadband), including a palace coup, a power grab between ministries. On the second day when it was clear it wasn't a glitch, we were deep in the field accompanied as always by two pick-up trucks filled with Taliban soldiers in an area of the country with a long history of being hostile to the Taliban. We were increasingly concerned that if they believed they might soon be representatives of a fallen regime in an area with a history of tension with the Taliban, we would be useful hostages. I should emphasise they were polite to us throughout, and we shared tea and cumin bread. We thought it best to get back to Herat, to a safe compound. When we got there, a rumour was going round that an evacuation flight would run to get people back to Kabul, so the next day we went to the airport to wait. The city streets were empty, and the airport closed. A bunch of humanitarians sitting round drinking cardamon spiced tea and waiting for a flight and swapping war stories.

On arrival back in Kabul, the city was empty and littered with roadblocks - very eery. The UN was going to emergency footprint, and we needed to leave. We were trying to get seats on the evacuation flights to the Gulf, Islamabad or Dushanbe. Eventually we managed to get one to Dushanbe where we had a couple of days to wait before the next Turkish flight back to Istanbul.

 

[rf_ioliver]

Been commuting between Helsinki and Oulu with Finnair, and the same every week for January through to March next year.. mix of A321s and ATR72s with an occasional E190 thown in.

Finnair's new idea to get more passengers is to increase charges for seating, baggage, boarding etc..."to complete with the low cost airlines"...which is funny because they run as pretty much a monopoly. The joke here is that "Finnair is the most expensive low-cost airline"

Other than that, last week's late night landing back into Helsinki on a A321 was probably the one of the smoothest landings I have ever experienced (A United 777 SFO-FRA in 2016? was the best)

 

[MalaiseForever]

Been commuting between Helsinki and Oulu with Finnair, and the same every week for January through to March next year.. mix of A321s and ATR72s with an occasional E190 thown in.

Finnair's new idea to get more passengers is to increase charges for seating, baggage, boarding etc..."to complete with the low cost airlines"...which is funny because they run as pretty much a monopoly. The joke here is that "Finnair is the most expensive low-cost airline"

Other than that, last week's late night landing back into Helsinki on a A321 was probably the one of the smoothest landings I have ever experienced (A United 777 SFO-FRA in 2016? was the best)

Never had the baggage charges enforced on Finnair. But I do agree it weakens the brand and value substantially.

I find I get enough Avios from every flight to pay for any baggage with points anyway and get a snack/drink onboard too.

Overall it’s a good service but if they got militant about baggage I would probably go with KLM instead for my regular journeys between Manchester and Helsinki.

 

[route101]

Been commuting between Helsinki and Oulu with Finnair, and the same every week for January through to March next year.. mix of A321s and ATR72s with an occasional E190 thown in.

Finnair's new idea to get more passengers is to increase charges for seating, baggage, boarding etc..."to complete with the low cost airlines"...which is funny because they run as pretty much a monopoly. The joke here is that "Finnair is the most expensive low-cost airline"

Other than that, last week's late night landing back into Helsinki on a A321 was probably the one of the smoothest landings I have ever experienced (A United 777 SFO-FRA in 2016? was the best)

Finnair offered me the most expensive price to select a seat to HEL, £25.

 

[MalaiseForever]

Finnair offered me the most expensive price to select a seat to HEL, £25.

The seat charges are ridiculously high. It is over £50 for an extra legroom seat on a short haul flight.

 

[signed]

Currently having my most flights per year ever

Flown:

- A return between Nantes and Valencia on Ryanair (along with a free upgrade to exit row due to changing from a 800 to a MAX 8200)
- Paris Beauvais - Bergamo on a Malta Air livered Ryanair 737-800 (which confused everyone boarding)
- Paris Beauvais - Catania
- Malta - Paris CDG on KM Malta Airlines (anecdotally, getting served a 9.9€ breakfast roll half-frozen at the airport café ain't fun)

And a (sadly downgraded from a A220 to a 737-800) return trip to Prague coming up on Smartwings.

Overall, and that might be a unpopular opinion, but I actually like using Beauvais airport, sure it's inconvenient from Paris, but security in the afternoon is efficient (never used it for a stupid o'clock flight yet), and Ryanair is a good no-thrills airline (though I would pick EasyJet over it of course, but Orly and CDG aren't as nice to use than Beauvais IMHO, especially some parts of CDG where you easily take 30min just getting in or out).

And for the size of it, Catania is the airport I have been out of the fastest, every bus gate dumping you right at baggage claim.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I am now back resident in the UK and fully retired. My final flight tally:

 

[AlastairFraser]

I am happy to tell you what I can. I have been going to Afghanistan for the last two years (since we are on the airlines thread - usually TK, sometimes Emirates->flyDubai. More airlines are flying to KBL now, including Etihad, but their flights from Brussels are less useful).

I go there to work on behalf of UNICEF for a flagship programme delivering essential aid to about 65,000 households. I always go to Kabul, but I often also go to other parts of the country, including up towards the north west frontier, and on this occasion over towards Herat, and then further into the hills on the border with Turkmenistan. Afghanistan is one of my favourite countries - it's enchanting, brimming with some of the warmest people I've ever met. I have had wonderful conversations with Afghans across the country, most of whom are curious, rebellious, fiercely proud, hospitable, and above all - funny. The country itself is stunning, snow capped mountains, streams of crystal clear snow melt, orange groves laden with the tastiest oranges I've eaten, golden hills, forests, deserts, and ancient cities of mosques, tombs, palaces.

This notwithstanding, work in Afghanistan has its challenges. As you might imagine, the UN has some pretty strict security protocols to keep us safe, particularly when we are away from the fortress compound in Kabul, or the mini fortresses in some of the key cities, including Herat. While we were deep in the field, in a beautiful village nestled in sandy hills up near Turkemnistan, all communications across the country were severed. There were rumours swirling about why the government cut all communications (cellular, SMS, mobile data, broadband), including a palace coup, a power grab between ministries. On the second day when it was clear it wasn't a glitch, we were deep in the field accompanied as always by two pick-up trucks filled with Taliban soldiers in an area of the country with a long history of being hostile to the Taliban. We were increasingly concerned that if they believed they might soon be representatives of a fallen regime in an area with a history of tension with the Taliban, we would be useful hostages. I should emphasise they were polite to us throughout, and we shared tea and cumin bread. We thought it best to get back to Herat, to a safe compound. When we got there, a rumour was going round that an evacuation flight would run to get people back to Kabul, so the next day we went to the airport to wait. The city streets were empty, and the airport closed. A bunch of humanitarians sitting round drinking cardamon spiced tea and waiting for a flight and swapping war stories.

On arrival back in Kabul, the city was empty and littered with roadblocks - very eery. The UN was going to emergency footprint, and we needed to leave. We were trying to get seats on the evacuation flights to the Gulf, Islamabad or Dushanbe. Eventually we managed to get one to Dushanbe where we had a couple of days to wait before the next Turkish flight back to Istanbul.

Quite a hectic experience it seems. Thanks for indulging my curiosity.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Wife and I are boarding a Gatwick - Tromso flight, with clothing layers at the ready for a "well into the minus" temperature at arrival into north Norway!

 

[nlogax]

JAL from Haneda to London a couple of weeks ago, 787-9 in J with the older Skysuites. One of the better OneWorld experiences I've had, certainly I managed a decent amount of sleep and then the washoku meal to follow was something else. It really did put the outbound knackered BA 787-8 with old-style CW firmly into perspective even though this wasn't even close to JAL's newest biz offering.

 

[thejuggler]

Just back from a quick getaway to Malaga with good old Jet2. Both flights on time on 737-800s, no issues and Malaga at the weekend was crazy with Bank Holidays on Saturday and today. Both flights about full.

The new egate system was a bit of a faff, but the ten minutes or so we needed to get regsitered was worth it when we saw the queue in the arrivals hall. We were through the egates in 5 minutes, much to the distain of all those in the queue!

On return the egates didn't recognise our passports as they had 'tweeked' the system so it was back to manual checks.

 

[1D53]

I hear bad things about Malaga border control in recent times so you've got lucky!

 

[thejuggler]

Not so much lucky, just doing what was asked, registering for EES on arrival. It was a faff as the scanners, photo and fingerprint system aren't the best, but below shows the alternative.

We had just entered the hall via the ramp in the rear of the shot and gone straight to egates, rather than join that huge queue - that's half of it as it was also to the right of this shot.

 

[Bill57p9]

Flew Edinburgh - Toronto - Gander with Air Canada in October. Would have been better had half the luggage on the Toronto to Gander leg not been offloaded, we believe due to the CRJ being overweight.
Pretty impressed with the Air Canada app: a lot more useful information that apps for other airlines I suffer. Includes things such as tracking your aircraft on the inbound leg and baggage location history. Meant I could watch my suitcase arrive into Halifax...
On finding out from the app once my case landed in Gander, I received an email to tell me it would be delivered to my home address (in Scotland) later that day (which would have been a feat in itself). I went to the airport to speak to Air Canada. On giving my name, the nice lady at the desk told me my case had been sent by courier to my hotel.
What really left me speechless was that she did this without looking it up, even naming the hotel....

 

[rf_ioliver]

The seat charges are ridiculously high. It is over £50 for an extra legroom seat on a short haul flight.

For the next 2 months, I'm commuting with Finnair (and also VR) every week. If you book early enough you can get the first and last flights of the day to and from Oulu from Helsinki for under 60eur - of course midday is over 200eur. If you want a specific seat (why???!!), larger cabin bag, that can add anything from 50 to 150eur to the price. Then there's 2-3eur for a *small* coffee onboard. Flights will be a mix of A321/A320, E190 and ATR72.

VR on the other hand have had a winter sale and Helsinki-Oulu is currently starting at 14.50eur, with a 20-30% markup on Extra Class seating

 

[ld0595]

I flew Air China to Chengdu via Beijing on Boxing Day. My second time flying them and to be honest it was was a decent enough experience for the price.

Both flights were on their A350. They have two different configurations with the exact same number of seats so it's a lottery with what you get - luckily we got their newer one on both flights with their newer business class seat. We got access to the Star Alliance lounges in Heathrow so we toured three of them (Singapore, Canada and United). Managed to get a decent enough sleep as well. To top it off, we got a free transfer to our hotel in a brand new Mercedes EQE.

Cons: The lounge at Beijing was pretty poor so we stayed only a short amount of time. The website doesn't work so we had to check in at the desk and call their support agent to book the car transfer. Food offering was below average, and service wasn't great when one of our suitcases got lost (but in fairness we were united after less than 24h).

In summary, definitely not quite the standard of European or Middle Eastern carriers but for the right price, I'd definitely fly them again!