Travel Thread

They have definitely dropped a tad but their delays are only marginally worse than Qantas and Qantas actually have double the cancellations of Virgin over the last month. A lot of delays and cancellations are out of the airlines hands.
I do agre though some of Virgin’s standards are slipping though

Virgin has certainly slipped, no doubt.
They’d have to slip a whole lot more before I’d ever consider Shitstar over them though…

I’d jog or swim to the destination before I considered Jetstar……….

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The last two times I’ve travelled Jetstar (from Avalon to Sydney return), they’ve been miles more punctual with both landing and baggage.

Virgin and Qantas have both been crap.

Just booked a stay in New York for our Nieces wedding in late January, in a Marriot near Central Park. 4 star place and it is $2200 for 7 nights.

Except Ace, the Flight Attendants are way more attractive than anything QANTAS has to offer.

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Yes, they are.
And it looks like the Qatar takeover has been given the green light so please give my love to Cathy :rofl:

At her place on Saturday for a Christmas BBQ for the True Believers, so I will give her your best.

I will do what I can to derail QATAR taking over anything.

Kudos to QANTAS. Booked a ‘meet and assist’ service for the oldies coming from AKL. Both are hard of hearing and easily confused. International travel has become a very stressful experience for them. The service was excellent. A friendly face escorted them from checkin to the plane at AKL and from the plane to the exit at MEL. Made a huge difference.

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Interim authorisation came through today.
Qatar will now be 25% of Virgin and will wet lease aircraft to Virgin.
After Qatar were blocked from the front door by the clowns in government I predicted they would get around it and they have. An extra 28 flights per week into Australia already

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As much as everything I have said about Virgin over the past week has been true, I just threw a last ditch Jayden Daniels style hail mary and asked for complimentary business upgrade from Nadi to Brisbane tomorrow…

“Absolutely sir we have seats available, what seat would you like to choose in Business, aisle or window”

Knock me down with a freeeeeeeging feather. “This will use up one of your complimentary upgrades, so you will only have 3 left”.

Lady, it’s taken me seven years to get this one, I think I’ll be ok :smile: :smile:

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Ok, so I’ve finally booked my flights to Japan for the April school holidays. Flying into Haneda. Can anyone tell me good places/areas to stay for the first 3 nights in Tokyo?

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In 2019 we stayed Hotel Century Southern Tower next to Shinjuku stn. Was decent value, quiet & very conveniently located.

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Plenty of good areas to choose from - it’s probably best to work out what sights you wanna see, then search based on rating and your price range for that area. For convenience of getting around or a busy lively area, Shinjuku or Tokyo Station area are good. Last time I stayed near Asakusa because I was gonna take my kids to Senso-ji Temple and Sky Tree.

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First time I stayed in Hanzomon. Not a busy district at all, but the hotel was clean and functional, supermarkets/eateries/a couple of sights (incl. Budokan Stadium) were fairly close and the underground station was right outside the front door. And it wasn’t a station which got insanely crowded (which some can be). The room was small… but Western rooms often are in Japan. Didn’t matter… it was only the two of us then, and the only time we were there was to sleep.

Second time we had a 5 year-old in tow and booked a whole apartment. It was great, and relatively easy to get to by rail from Narita airport, but it was hardly central. It was out past Ueno… a couple of stops on an overground line in to Ueno, then the ring line or the underground lines from there to get around. The convenience of having an apartment was probably offset by the location being further out than ideal.

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Currently in Munich with my wife for the next few days. Any recommendations or must sees? Yesterday we checked out the Royal Palace, Glockenspiel, Frauenkirche and had lunch at Rastkeller Munchen.
Any recommendations would be appreciated.

So long ago since I’ve been there, but Schwabing used to be the bohemian quarter, with fine buildings, bars, parks and sculptures.

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Been out to Dachau yet?
Many don’t like it and it is a tad eerie but still something I’ve done a few times

Get on a tour to see Neuschwanstein, if you haven’t already.

It’s a bugger to get to by public transport (do-able, just awkward), so the organised tours are handy. Think I did the Getyourguide one. If Mary’s Bridge - the place to get “the money shot” - is still closed (as it was when I was there a few years ago), you’ll need to go “off-piste” (read: jump fences when no-one’s looking) to get this sort of angle…

The Deutsches Museum is pretty good if that’s your bag.

Then of course, you can easily kill a few hours in the Hofbräuhaus, or any of the hundreds of beer halls/gardens.

Have an enormous and excellent schnitzel in the lively beer garden at Andy’s Krablergarten…

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That “fairytale castle” Neuschwanstein south of Munich is great to see. Disney modelled their castles on it.

If you don’t want to travel out of Munich there are other schlossen in the city limits to visit,