Eneukman

My mobile's with Vodaphone's pay as you go network and I can use it in Thailand though calls back to the UK are expensive at nearly £2 per minute .......... especially when all you get is an answering machine! I also have to pay the international aspect of any calls made to my mobile. Mine is purely for emergencies so it is hardly used. Alan

How about the Kama Sutra? ;D ;D ;D ;D Alan

If you want extra leg room on QANTAS, I can definitely recommend business class - especially if you can get a free upgrade as I did in November. ;D ;D ;D. Seat didn't go right back then to form a flat bed as BA have but seat belt was much longer so you could move onto your side to sleep. Got not too bad a night's sleep. Alan

Sounds like a bloody good deal to me. I don't have the luxury of being able to change travel dates at will so that wouldn't worry me unduly - so long as i had good insurance cover for the unexpected preventing me from travelling. Alan

Derek, I can't comment on the on-line booking but when i travelled to Bangkok last November I was on the QANTAS flight. My knees seize up on long flights so I always insist on aisle seats, which as i check in at Edinburgh isn't normally a problem. This time, however, i was amazed when checking in at Edinburgh some 7 hours before the Bangkok flight was due to leave Heathrow, I was told that there were no aisle seats available! It seems that seats on QANTAS flights can be reserved 24 hours in advance and I would suggest therefore that you check in as early as possible and kick up a fuss at t

I've booked tickets 2 or 3 times through Travelocity (www.travelocity.com) and have received my tickets more or less by return. I don't know what their view is if you have to change your travel dates and this would have to be checked out before booking. By the way, if you're trying them out and are leaving from somewhere like Edinburgh, it may well be cheaper to book each leg cheaper rather than doing a search for flights between Edinburgh and Bangkok. Alan

I've flown with both BA and QANTAS and I very much prefer BA. Alan

The Dusit also has in-room safes though it's a hit or miss if you get a room with an electronic safe or one with a safe that you open with a key. Alan

I think the words "Bangladeshi Airlines" would have put me off from the start. I think the motto here is, if you have never heard of the airline before, ........ caveat emptor. Alan

Not quite, Doolish, According to my info from a girl whose brother works for BA QANTAS stands for "Queers And Nancies Training As Stewards" ;D ;D ;D Having said that the last time I flew with QANTAS, I had a very nice Thai stewardess - so perhaps the above only applies to the male stewards? Alan

Tom, You're not alone in despising call centres. I do as well, particularly those that take you through 50 options with the option you want being the last one and then having to repeat the whole process 10 times before finding out that the area you want to speak to closed for the weekend 2 minutes ago. I have booked tickets through Travelocity before, http://www.travelocity.com/ though only within Europe. This site promises to search various airlines for the best price to destinations all over the world though EVA and many of the budget airlines are conspicuous by their absence. One t

Thanks for the link, Tom. As I'm not tall - a mere 5ft 6in, seat pitch isn't of that great importance to me PROVIDED I can get an aisle seat as my knees tend to seize up quite easily and I need to get up and walk about on a regular basis. Getting an aisle seat is normally not a problem as checking in at Edinburgh means I beat all the queues at Heathrow. Also by buying my ticket at BA's travel shop in Edinburgh allows me to reserve an aisle seat there and then. Additionally, as i don't sleep particularly well on long haul flights, I do like to have a decent in-flight entertainment syste

"I need a nice friendly Thai night nurse to rub my chest and other bits" Don't we all, Ray? ;D ;D ;D ;D Alan

Heiner, My Vodafone mobile works in LOS though it's bloody expensive to phone home - around £2 a minute. The power supply is similar to the UK as far as I remember but you will need an adapter to plug it into the wall socket. I bought my adapter in BHS but they should be widely available in any electrical store in the UK. Also, i believe you can buy adapters in Pattaya but those who live there can confirm that for you. If I'm wrong on anything here, someone please correct me. Alan

Haven't tried that before but I'll look at that for my next trip. Fatboy. So long as there isn't too long a wait between flights, I won't mind too much. One bonus I get with BA though is that as a shareholder, I get a 10% discount on my flight and holidays in the BA brochure. The discounts I've had over the last 5 or 6 years since i bought the shares now amount to more than the shares themselves are worth these days. ;D ;D ;D Alan

Adrian, I'm afraid in my book that if a plane pushes back from the stand without ensuring that there is enough water on board for the whole flight, then that is down to incompetence. It should have been checked well beforehand. This actually happened at Heathrow rather than Bangkok. To be fair to QANTAS, the flight was good and I did enjoy the luxury of the free upgrade to Business Class. The previous time I flew QANTAS they were a bit late pushing back from the stand (not by much by airline standards) and the captain came on the intercom to apologise for this blaming congestion at the

If you have a safe with a combination lock in your room, just make sure that no-one is looking over your shoulder when keying the number in. Having said that, I've never had a problem of anything being pinched by girls I've taken back to my room regardless of what type of safe the room has. Alan

Have to agree Baz .................. no way i'm going to overnight in Heathrow before flying back up to Edinburgh unless there are no alternatives. Living in Edinburgh, I can be home less than 4 hours after arriving back in the UK depending on connecting flights. Alan

It seems that I'm in the minority here in that I don't mind flying with BA. I like the seat back TV's they have particularly as I'm not that great a sleeper on long haul flights. Plus I get a 10% discount as a shareholder on flights and holidays from their own brochure. Last time I flew cattle class with QANTAS (to Bangkok) they didn't have seat back TV's though they did have them in Business Class in November. Business Class is definitely the way to travel but the only way I can afford to do that is to get a free upgrade ;D I have yet to experience the delights of EVA Air and it see

Ruu-dak I once had luggage delayed on my way back to Edinburgh from Bali. I'm not sure where it got delayed about as my journey back involved no fewer than four flights - Bali - Jakarta - Singapore - Heathrow - Edinburgh. I can't be certain, but I suspect the delay may have been in Singapore and that was with at least 2 1/2 hours between the flights. The other possibility is that it got delayed at Heathrow where the connection time was nearer 1 1/2 hours. By the way, I found the airport at Singapore to be a great place to hang out between flights - much better than Heathrow or Amsterda

I have never flown with EVA but have flown with QANTAS who are a bunch of total incompetants. (I did manage to swing a free upgrade to business class with QANTAS on my flight to Bangkok last November but that's another story!). They had pushed back from the gate when the pilot came on and announced that they did not have enough water to get them to Bangkok so they were deciding whether to go back to the gate or stop somewhere en route. He decided to go back to the gate which meant they were 2 hours late taking off!!!! Their reward for this would have been few penalties for noise breach

I recall coming back home from Turkey a few years ago when all the passengers had to identify their case before it went onto the plane. Fine if it's dry but not much fun when it's freezing cold and pissing with rain as is often the case here in edinburgh at this time of year. Alan

What happens if your flight departs from outwith the US but you have to change planes in the US to travel on to another country? Is it scanned in the US? This seems to be a case of overkill. If they want to scan it, do what they do in Thailand, scan it in front of you though as they no longer put a "tie" round your case, there is nothing to stop you adding things to your case afterwards. Also my case has a number of outer compartments into which i could put things after it has been scanned. If they really want to open your case, they can simply request that you go to a dedicated desk i

which is why i didn't tell mine I was going to Pattaya ;D ;D ;D Alan

Steve, I'm not aware of any restriction as to how many days supply of prescription drugs doctors can prescribe. My doc gives me a prescription for an 8 week supply of the pills I take to keep my blood pressure under control. Alan