TheFiend

I booked flights for our October trip in June and since then Etihad are not only changing their fare structures but in July they changed the Frequent Flier mileage awards depending on fare classes... Luckily my booking was made before the changes so I still qualify for the older membership benefits on our flights. I think this will be our last trip using Etihad. The one good thing about the Etihad Guest program is that you can convert your guest miles into some useful using the PointsPay program where your miles can be convert to credit on a pre-paid Visa card. the last time I flew with Etihad I converted the airmiles to £93 which I then used to buy Amazon Gift Certicates.

Mrs Fiend crams our suitcases full of Thai foodstuffs to bring back to the UK so we're usually hitting the 30KG when we're flying back to the UK. I just hope Qatar and Emirates don't do the same as Etihad with their Frequent Flyer schemes.

Looks like they are removing the higher baggage allowance for the base level Etihad Guest members as well, with only Silver, Gold and Platinum getting the increased allowance. If that's the case then my October trip with Etihad might be the last time I fly with them. According the website it now looks like they are going to charge an extra $52.50 for the 32KG baggage allowance that base level members previously had included in their membership .

Well, if you want cheap flights then you should expect "cheap" service and loads of restrictions...

I also admit I know nothing about footy... I just do it for a a laugh!!!

My FLB and Cherry Bar leagues auto-renewed.... and I've joined your leagues as well.

I tend to agree it's a photoshop, but a good one at that. Looking at the way its "loaded" the black one should be dipping down on the passenger side as well as the white truck isn't centrally loaded.

Being able to travel into Europe doesn't interest Mrs Fiend.... Some of her friends have got the UK passport but that hasn't made her want one. What she sees as being more important was having a house in Thailand for us to retire to... which we now have and I must be lucky as apart from paying the deposit on the house it is her that is paying the mortgage and she even went as far as getting a second job 4 nights a week to help her pay the mortgage.

Mrs Fiend doesn't want UK citizenship..... she is just happy staying here on an ILR visa.... she sees the cost of her applying for Citizenship as a waste of money and sees no advantage in having one.

Since I started visiting Thailand I've flown Emirates, Etihad, Qatar and KLM, mainly flying with Emirates. Flown Etihad once and Qatar once. Wasn't too impressed by my first experiences with Etihad and Qatar but at the moment they are coming in as the cheapest options from Manchester so my next trip is with Etihad. As for KLM, never again... once was enough!!!!

How bad is the noise coming from all those air handling units on top of Central Festival Plaza? It was clearly audible on the video when he went out onto the balcony to video the view.

Shame, you might have enjoyed it!!! Wasn't quite what I was expecting... I thought the star of the show is a falang dwarf that does a few routines with a drag artist...

Hopefully I'll be able to avoid that one!!!

Mrs Fiend dragged me along to see the "Ladyboys of Bangkok" cabaret show performing at my local theatre.

My experience is Bangkok is great compared to the last 2 times I have returned to the UK where I've had to suffer huge queues to get through immigration at Manchester!

That's why I always only bring cash with me to Thailand and I never withdraw cash from an ATM whilst.... Unfortunately for Mrs Fiend our trips tend to coincide with her pay-day whilst we are there, so she gets stung on FX charges when she takes out some cash to leave for her mother.

I had a look up there whilst waiting for a flight to Sukhothai last month and you couldn't really see much and not a brilliant place to take photos.

Nice shot of the Lufthansa A340, my second favourite plane, the A380 being my favourite!

Just booked another trip... this time it was Etihad coming in cheapest for us.... £470 MAN-BKK return...

I've just flown Man-Doha-BKK with A330-200 to Doha and A380 to BKK. Wasn't to impressed with the first leg, but had a much better experience on the A380. And whilst we were sat waiting to pull back off the gate in Doha spotted one of the 2 Qatar A350 parked on the gate next door. Noe that is a great looking plane.

In 3 hours time we'll be in the Volvo C30 and heading off down to Manchester Airport!!! Had a small panic yesterday as Mrs Fiend had misplaced her old passport containing the ILR Visa for getting back into the UK.... eventually found it and calm was restored!!!

In April,it wasn't looking good when it dropped the £ dropped to 47.6... so for a 10% rise in one month has given my spending money for my trip this week a nice little boost!!!

This time tomorrow I'll be on my way down to Manchester airport, bound for Thailand. Bags are just about packed, so today I'll be checking everything is sorted before we leave. My 3 cats need to be dropped off for their holiday at a local cattery, and Mrs Fiend wants to buy some chocolate/sweets for her nephews so that means a trip into town as well. I'll be spending the first 3 nights of this trip in Sin City and I see that Adam has organised a LK Metro GoGo Bar crawl on Wednesday so I'll make an appearance on that I think. Any body else going? Also thinking of doing Walking Street on Thursday so is anybody up for a crawl on Thursday?

Cumbrians are a hardier lot too.... Even with six inches of snow on the pavements I've seen lasses out in boob tubes and mini-skirts!!

Wimps, the pair of you!!! I've been wearing shorts all through the winter.... And yes I am ting tong but it was a fairly mild winter up in Cumbria!!!