flying
Travel
12:00PM Angus Kidman | Travelling by air without checked luggage is often a sensible goal, but sometimes you have no choice but to stow your bags in the hold. What happens to them once you’ve handed them over to a hassled check-in clerk? More »
What Happens To Your Luggage Once It’s Checked In?
12:00PM Angus Kidman | Travelling by air without checked luggage is often a sensible goal, but sometimes you have no choice but to stow your bags in the hold. What happens to them once you’ve handed them over to a hassled check-in clerk? More » 
Travel
11:58AM Angus Kidman | Whether your trip is a globe-straddling epic or a simple capital city hop, being in your preferred seat can make all the difference. Fortunately, there’s plenty of resources online to help with seat planning. More »
Picking The Best Airline Seat
11:58AM Angus Kidman | Whether your trip is a globe-straddling epic or a simple capital city hop, being in your preferred seat can make all the difference. Fortunately, there’s plenty of resources online to help with seat planning. More »
Travel
4:00PM Angus Kidman | Air fares keep dropping and planes are getting more high-tech — what’s not to like? But according to one airline expert, we can’t look forward to much more improvement in the flying experience. More »
Why Airline Travel Won’t Be Getting Much Faster, Cheaper Or More Comfortable
4:00PM Angus Kidman | Air fares keep dropping and planes are getting more high-tech — what’s not to like? But according to one airline expert, we can’t look forward to much more improvement in the flying experience. More »
Travel
12:55PM Angus Kidman | Just a brief note if you’re planning some flight booking this weekend: Jetstar is doing a system-wide upgrade which means that its site will be out of commission from 5pm on Friday February 6 until the morning of Monday February 8. Jetstar is aiming for a 4am restart, but experience suggests there might be some last-minute glitches. The upgrade is meant to improve capacity, which hopefully will mean better odds of getting a cheap seat during the budget airline’s regular Friday sales.
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Don’t Try Booking Jetstar This Weekend
12:55PM Angus Kidman | Just a brief note if you’re planning some flight booking this weekend: Jetstar is doing a system-wide upgrade which means that its site will be out of commission from 5pm on Friday February 6 until the morning of Monday February 8. Jetstar is aiming for a 4am restart, but experience suggests there might be some last-minute glitches. The upgrade is meant to improve capacity, which hopefully will mean better odds of getting a cheap seat during the budget airline’s regular Friday sales.
More »
Travel
9:00AM Angus Kidman | If you’re trying to get some PC-related work done on a long-distance flight, it can be a real nuisance when the person in front tries to maximally recline their seat. Blogger Angus Logan came up with a slightly tongue-in-cheek but workable suggestion: brace the seat in front of you using a bottle to reduce the possible reclining angle. As he points out, the bottle in question needs to have straight sides, and there’s no guarantee an officious airline staffer won’t tell you to move said bottle, but if you have to get some work done, it’s presumably worth a try. (Make sure the bottle’s empty when you clear security to avoid liquids dramas.) Check out Logan’s post for other suggestions on how to deal with the reclining challenge.
Last 4769 mile innovation : approaches to in-plane productivity
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Use A Water Bottle To Stop The Next Plane Seat Reclining
9:00AM Angus Kidman | If you’re trying to get some PC-related work done on a long-distance flight, it can be a real nuisance when the person in front tries to maximally recline their seat. Blogger Angus Logan came up with a slightly tongue-in-cheek but workable suggestion: brace the seat in front of you using a bottle to reduce the possible reclining angle. As he points out, the bottle in question needs to have straight sides, and there’s no guarantee an officious airline staffer won’t tell you to move said bottle, but if you have to get some work done, it’s presumably worth a try. (Make sure the bottle’s empty when you clear security to avoid liquids dramas.) Check out Logan’s post for other suggestions on how to deal with the reclining challenge.
Last 4769 mile innovation : approaches to in-plane productivity
More »
Travel
12:28PM Angus Kidman | Anyone who has ever flown into Los Angeles Airport and then had to change onto a flight back to Australia is familiar with the nuisance of having to go back through uber-strict US airport security to enter Tom Bradley, the terminal which handles international flights. However, while I’ve done that transition dozens of times, it was only on a recent flight that I realise that there’s an alternative for Qantas passengers. If you’re flying American Airlines (which comes in to Terminal 4), then there’s a free shuttle bus from Gate 44 which connects direct to Bradley without requiring a second security experience. (If you’re flying to Brisbane or Melbourne, you may be leaving from Terminal 4 anyway; check the Qantas site for full details.) Flight options are likely to change in the near future as the range of airlines flying to the US expands, but this is still a useful fact to tuck away if you travel to the US for work or pleasure. More »
Dodge LAX Security With Free Qantas Bus
12:28PM Angus Kidman | Anyone who has ever flown into Los Angeles Airport and then had to change onto a flight back to Australia is familiar with the nuisance of having to go back through uber-strict US airport security to enter Tom Bradley, the terminal which handles international flights. However, while I’ve done that transition dozens of times, it was only on a recent flight that I realise that there’s an alternative for Qantas passengers. If you’re flying American Airlines (which comes in to Terminal 4), then there’s a free shuttle bus from Gate 44 which connects direct to Bradley without requiring a second security experience. (If you’re flying to Brisbane or Melbourne, you may be leaving from Terminal 4 anyway; check the Qantas site for full details.) Flight options are likely to change in the near future as the range of airlines flying to the US expands, but this is still a useful fact to tuck away if you travel to the US for work or pleasure. More »
Travel
3:30PM Angus Kidman | Conventional wisdom holds that in times of economic distress, it should be easier than ever to get discounted airfares. However, while there are some good deals to be had, the fundamental strategies for getting cheap flights remain the same as ever. More »
Has There Been A Flood Of Discount Flights?
3:30PM Angus Kidman | Conventional wisdom holds that in times of economic distress, it should be easier than ever to get discounted airfares. However, while there are some good deals to be had, the fundamental strategies for getting cheap flights remain the same as ever. More » 