Do you wear a belt?

[pdanev]

My gf's flying to the Philippines and she took her d2 with a few movies ripped with her. The screen's only 320x240, but it's better than nothing. Some airlines don't even have dvd players in each seat yet.

That's only true for short flights. Long haul flights (6-7h+) do have a screen 99% of the time if you are flying with a respectable airline, and not one that charters planes from prehistoric times. How much control you have over the screen is a different question, but at least you have something most of the time.

edit: as for the life of a 747, it really depends. How often it was used, what routes, long vs short, what areas on the earth, turbulent or not etc. But to give you a figure, here's a quote from airliners:

"The oldest 747 that I had the pleasure to fly in and is still in service would be El Al's 4X-AXQ (747-238, ex-Qantas) he was "born" in 1974 and he still flies...."

 

[JayChou]

thank you guys!
Launch minus 3 hours. (to the airport)

 

[LeMans GTR]

You get noise-cancelling headphones on BA's first class. True story.

Are you flying Cathay? Better hope it goes better than the one on Friday.

Whats wrong with Cathay, I flew with them when I came to Hong Kong

OT: Lucky rich bastard flying first class

 

[chaos386]

You get noise-cancelling headphones on BA's first class. True story.

Are you flying Cathay? Better hope it goes better than the one on Friday.

You get noise-canceling headphones on Gulf Air's business class as well (on the whole, their service was excellent, even a bit better than British Airways's. Lufthansa's is crap, however). They even work when you aren't listening to anything, so you can pair them with the earplugs they give you to have a nice, quiet sleep.

As for the multi-pronged headphones, I think that's only so you can't use them off the plane. I know on BA they use two-pronged headphones, but one of the plugs doubles as a normal 1/8" plug, so you can use your own headphones if you want.

 

[Shawn]

^ Is Gulf Air good nowadays? My dad used to take it regularly and complain about them all the time when he went to Bahrain a lot. I think something to do with frequent delays out of Tehran.

@LeMans GTR: Some Cathay flight made an emergency landing in Vancouver after dumping all of its fuel on Friday. Turned out it was a faulty warning light so it set off again... after being refueled.

 

[chaos386]

I've only flown Gulf Air once recently, from Bahrain to Frankfurt when the British Airways flight was canceled (the next flight in my trip was Frankfurt to SFO via Lufthansa), but the flight itself was excellent. I was in business class, and there were steward(esse)s coming by offering tea, coffee and dates, the meal was served on real flatware, you chose it from a menu (I had the cinnamon apple pancakes for breakfast ), all the food was very good, and you had the usual multi-channel entertainment system (not on-demand like what some airlines are offering now, but at least it worked *cough*BA&Lufthansa*cough*) with pretty nice choices. I watched The History of BMW and a recap of the 1973 grand prix season.

After BA lost my luggage for the second time, I'm seriously thinking of switching. The only problem is that for trans-atlantic flights, I'd have to use AA for part of the journey.

 

[Shawn]

Oh man, best thing about flying business or first class is the improvement in food. There's just so much room for improvement on basic airline food.

BA always loses my luggage... if you're connecting in Heathrow there's absolutely no hope that your suitcase will make it on to a connecting flight.

 

[chaos386]

Yeah, that's why Lufthansa's business sucks so much: you get the same food as economy!

And I'm still amazed at how BA can lose my luggage when I have to stay an extra day in London (giving them plenty of time to transfer my bags), but when I flew on two separate airlines from BAH->SFO, all at the last minute due to my canceled flight, my luggage came through fine. They say Terminal 5 will fix things, but we'll see.

 

[BlaRo]

Do I wear a belt? Hell, I don't even wear pants!

Silly thread title, but it's a legitimate question. Have a good flight and as long as you're not flying Northwest (the short bus of the skies, I say) you'll be all set.

 

[Ottobon]

What if you dont have a pair of jeans that fit you just right?

buy some and stop dressing like a criminal

 

[swek]

And I'm still amazed at how BA can lose my luggage when I have to stay an extra day in London (giving them plenty of time to transfer my bags), .

I read a while ago that BA is the worst airline when it comes to lost luggage. So no suprise there.

 

[Blind_Io]

I always wear a belt when I fly, but I keep meaning to get one from REI with a plastic buckle so I don't have to strip for the damn TSA monkeys.

 

[chaos386]

I read a while ago that BA is the worst airline when it comes to lost luggage. So no suprise there.

I think it's really Heathrow that's at fault. They're running over capacity and dealing with the construction of a new terminal. Hopefully, things will be better by March of next year due to either one of two things: Terminal 5 will be finished, and the EU-US "Open Skies" agreement should go into effect, meaning BA will be able to use other EU airports to make trans-atlantic flights. *crosses fingers for Schiphol or Frankfurt*

 

[JipJopJones]

I'm the worst to be behind when I go though those things. I load up my pockets and I don't unloadthem to go on holiday.

 

[Shawn]

Unfortunately I don't think this is a temporary problem. In 1997 me and my parents flew to London and then on to Manchester. We had a new house back then and my parents bought loads and loads of house goods and furniture to freight back with BA. Long story short, they lost every single item we'd bought and none of them were ever found.

So I don't think it's a temporary problem because of the new terminal or tightened security... BA just doesn't seem to care about this losing luggage problem and it sucks since otherwise they're awesome.

Is it an actual possibility for them to use other Euro airports for connecting flights? That would be sweet me thinks. Amsterdam-Schipol and Frankfurt have nothing on Heathrow in terms of shopping and lounges, but less traffic means less headaches for the traveller.

P.S. We've completely 'hijacked' this thread... oh the irony. :lol:

I think it's really Heathrow that's at fault. They're running over capacity and dealing with the construction of a new terminal. Hopefully, things will be better by March of next year due to either one of two things: Terminal 5 will be finished, and the EU-US "Open Skies" agreement should go into effect, meaning BA will be able to use other EU airports to make trans-atlantic flights. *crosses fingers for Schiphol or Frankfurt*

 

[hajj]

Unfortunately I don't think this is a temporary problem. In 1997 me and my parents flew to London and then on to Manchester. We had a new house back then and my parents bought loads and loads of house goods and furniture to freight back with BA. Long story short, they lost every single item we'd bought and none of them were ever found.

So I don't think it's a temporary problem because of the new terminal or tightened security... BA just doesn't seem to care about this losing luggage problem and it sucks since otherwise they're awesome.

When I went to school in the UK I always had to take a connecting flight in Manchester, Birmingham or Gatwick and so did others. Within the two years and 24 journeys they lost my bags more than half the time and this was not in Heathrow. My friends were also roughly on that level. BA is simply to stupid to handle luggage, but they do take chances though.
Once my flight to Manchester was canceled and I had to fly to Heathrow and take the bus to Gatwick, since the Heathrow - Manchester flight was full. I refused to take my bags myself, so they sent them over Manchester and it took them a week to get them to me.:lol:

 

[Devon]

It's a bit late, but to answer the question. No - I don't wear a belt. I find it inconvenient taking it off and putting it on again (silly I know).