A sign of the times

[awesum4]

This topic is not to discuss the reasons for the current situation, that was discussed rather heatedly in another thread which caused it to be shut down.

My daughter and son-in-law have just flown from Dublin to Singapore via Dubai after 3 months travelling around Egypt, Turkey and Europe.

They flew Emirates because I recommended them. On the way out their plane was diverted to Istanbul as missiles were flying.

On the return they had an 8 hour layover in Dubai. Then they boarded an A380, my favourite plane, plenty of legroom in economy and brilliant service staff.

But their plane had a total of 50 passengers presumably because people don't want to take chances of getting blown apart. The section they were in had 5 passengers, 120 seats and 4 staff.  They each had a row of seats to lie down and sleep on, and an endless supply of free  bourbon and coke.  Having drunk very little on their holiday due to the high cost of drinks in Europe they slightly over indulged.

So there is a silver lining to this miserable cloud.

[teelack]

I think that posts like this are important. It is real experiences by real people that tell the true story of what is happening out in the world. 

It also maybe gives credence to a recent news report about flying after the non war. The comment was that travellers could expect some great deals in order to fill planes after such a slack period for air travel. 

[TheFiend]

I flew with Qatar Airways MAN-DOH-BKK on 11th April and then BKK-DOH-MAN on 2nd May and on all 4 flights there wasn't many empty seats, but they were running fewer flights which probably caused the higher load factors.

[yselmike]

KLM is pissing about.Next February from Amsterdam and the lowest price is about €1200 no checked luggage or seat selection.The next level showed " seat selection at check in". that would be online 24/48 hours before.That used to be standard operating procedure.I read that as I won't be able to choose any available seats when I check in online it will be done for me,almost certainly the dreaded middle seat,unless I pay for the next level.