Current ash cloud activity and forecast
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I got back two weeks ago from a tour of the Greek islands. I had heard and read that Greece and the islands were very beautiful, but I had also heard that the landscape is dry and rocky.
It is dry and rocky and it is also breathtakingly beautiful. And the sea is the bluest water you can imagine, and in late October still a perfect temperature for swimming.
If you are at all interested in history and classical literature, it’s also intensely fascinating.
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I just take a visa and a Mastercard with no fees for international transactions or cash withdrawals(usually theirs a small limit).
The only thing I might get before going is some USD. But not much.
And i seperate the cards. One with me, the other in my carry on.
Plus ive got them added to apple pay.
Money moves so easily now.
Really its our banks which are ■■■■■. Get a travel money card like Wise or Revolut.
Banged on about it before in this thread but dont bother with any australian bank issued cards. The fees are too high.
I only pick up local currency(cash) on arrival.
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Thanks for your advice. Have some small USD for tipping and also a Wise & Macquarie debit card, both cards & Applepay. (Can recommend the Macquarie card- no fees & works on Mastercard conversion rate which is pretty much the same as Wise). It’s the only Australian card we found that steps up for travel.
The new group boarding feels like it takes 2-3 times longer. I’m usually early at the gate, now I might as well just turn up right before departure time.
@Aceman why do they make us do this?
Never get it an airport unless desperate. Especially in South America change money at a money changer in a shopping area, the rates are sometimes 20% better
Oh id just go to atm and get the mastercard/visa rate.
But yeah if theres some rate better than that and if I want to change the USD carrying.
Then your getting stung twice. The cost to buy the USD at home then the cost to buy the pesos/real etc away.
Better off on the cross rate at the time via an atm i think
Every country in South America and actually in most of the world will take Aussie dollars no problem, it has been over 30 years since I carried USD.
Yeah i dont much either,
Id still take some greenback if i was stuck without plastic in a remote town in South America though.
But really they are as good as here with plastic now.
They even have free bank accounts for everyone linked to i think mobile phones or citizen id numbers. Much more cashless.
You will see beggers holding up signs in Brasil for example with numbers for people to tranfer money too
Because it’s better for people like Aceman who can board comfortably before all the Riff-raff. 
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It’s way quicker and more orderly.
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On Domestic flights I stay in the lounge until the final call.
Internationals though I like to be on my second champagne by time everyone has boarded 
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O for the days when QF provided champagne on domestic flights.
Hey @Aceman , are you happy that your favourite Pollie, Cathy King has kicked in $80 million to save Rex ?
A little from column A and a little from column B.
Obviously it’s good for the remote areas that have no service and it’s good for the employees but the question is how long can you keep throwing money down the well. It was a poorly operated airline and through a mix of bad management and hubris they no longer stand for what they originally planned for. They have operated for years under protectionism from their mates in the Nats and even had the gall to name one of their aircraft after one of them.
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Well they have a change in Management so we will see what evolves. QANTAS named planes after all sorts of Melbourne and actually in Victoria railway carriages were named after some of our sporting heroes !
I flew a lot with Rex to country places that no one else went and they were very good. Pity they got delusions of grandeur.
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No doubt Rex or someone else is required for regional areas but I don’t know how long you can continue to keep propping up a business model that isn’t working. Who knows if new owners come to their rescue as their fleet are all tired and getting to the point of being unsafe so a whole new fleet is required and that’s a big cost so I’d think any potential new owners would be a tad nervous.
Virgin and Rex were looking at a sort of partnership or takeover a while back and that is really what needs to happen or something similar
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I had to go to Adelaide with work a few months after I moved to Port Fairy. No planes from Warrnambool, didn’t want to go to Melbourne or Avalon so drove to Mount Gambier (180km) and caught a Rex flight. Wasn’t bad. We flew low enough to see all the landscape and Lake Alexandrina.
Stinking hot day in Adelaide too.
I have flown REX regularly over the past twenty years and agree with @Aceman that the Saabs are very tired and getting to the point of being unsafe. Quite a few times my flights have not made their destination and had to be diverted to another airport due to technical/mechanical issues. Hence their nickname Random Express.
Board and Management have been very aggressive and threatening towards government, regional airports and communities in the past, especially when their monopolies have been challenged and when there are proposed increases to landing fees or proposed increases in airport security. Past hubris has come home to roost.
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Going through our “travel drawer” tonight, I found a file of things I kept from a trip to Eastern Europe around 2011. Tickets, travel cards, maps, phone cards, postcards etc. It also included a few trinkets we’d bought that I’d forgotten about. One envelope contained a bunch of early 90’s obsolete Yugoslavian banknotes I’d bought from a market stall in Belgrade, including this… a 500 billion Dinar note…
So, I’m a billionaire I guess… in fact, I’m probably a trillionaire between the 10 or so different notes in the envelope. Unfortunately they’re barely worth 20 dollars in AUD, so I’m not throwing my job and retiring to the Bahamas just yet.
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