The Road to Loyalty

Last year, I became an honorary Aer Lingus Gold Circle club member. I will admit and acknowledge, straight from the off, that membership of the Gold Circle on an international level doesn’t at all carry the same connotations of importance and potential wealth as membership of say, Lufthansa or British Airway’s loyalty programme variants, but it was a step up in my case as I came from the beleaguered BMI, which was struggling on its last legs before... Read More

The Disillusioned Frequent Flyer

Having recently got a heap of holiday leave approved for the end of the year, myself & Anna set about looking to book our flights – with Etihad naturally, what with me having thousands of frequent flyer miles with them. I’ve so many in fact, that I’d enough at one point to fly almost round trip to Abu Dhabi with them – and despite writing in the past about how their ‘changes’ basically meant getting meaner and meaner with the miles,... Read More

Etihad is interested in Aer Lingus. Great – Here’s Why…

So there’s been some talk in the papers lately (how old do I sound even writing this?) that Etihad, the Abu Dhabi-based carrier now owns a stake in Aer Lingus which puts it right up there with the big players like Ryanair, the Irish Government and strangely, Denis O’Brien. The word on the street – and by street, I mean the Irish Times – is that they’re even trying to work out some sort of co-operation with regard to fleet purchasing, sharing... Read More

Flying the Friendly Skies

My second living room... Despite being in a job that requires absolutely no travel whatsoever (unless it’s mind travelling), I seem to be on a plane at least twice a month. How this thought came to me was recently, as I sat on yet another Aer Lingus flight towards Dublin and I realised I’ve actually read the same article about what there is to do in Frankfurt so often and the authors accompanying profile, that I actually not only know every attraction... Read More

Was I Really There?

Clouds setting on this awful development... One of the great things about being in Germany and not Malaysia (for the time being), is the ability to go back home to Ireland whenever you want – if, of course, you want. So far, that’s meant I’ve been able to be back three times in total this year; which would have almost certainly been only once if we were still in Malaysia, if at all. This weekend, I made a very impromptu ad-hoc last-minute (you... Read More

What’s ‘bed’ in German?!

After a really great Easter back at home eating good food, drinking good drink, and catching up with friends, it was high time to head back to Germany to begin the settling down properly. Unfortunately, when we planned our period of yo-yoing back and forth between Dublin, it seemed most likely that we still wouldn’t actually have a place to live when we came back to Frankfurt and thus would have to continue our apartment search. Like I say though,... Read More

Winter Cold, Literally.

Welcome to Ochtrup! While I was in Ireland, I was absolutely fine – a bit cold obviously, as you’d expect from someone who’s spent the previous 6 winter months living in tropical climes. But on Tuesday, I departed for Germany, leaving Dublin Airport 40 minutes ahead of schedule, having a beer along the way, to arrive 40 minutes early into Dusseldorf. To then spend one night in relative normality before waking up the next morning with a cold... Read More

The Summer’s Best Escape Routes…

Will it or won't it...not a safe bet this summer, I'm afraid... Last week I made a bold speculation that the airlines may very well be screwed over for the next 2 years – if, as it did the last time it erupted, the Icelandic volcano continues on for that length of time. What that means, until such time as the respective European aviation authorities manage to gather around one table and sort out a unified response and guidelines on what... Read More

Tearing Across to Edinburgh…

The sun breaks as I struggle to stay awake... Since the all-too-dull return to college in September following my 3 months or more of travelling and flying roughly every third day, things have been all quiet on the travelling front. So it was with great excitement that I got up for a sneaky 48 hour trip to Edinburgh, a city I had actually initially planned to go to college in (in hindsight, I’m not entirely sure how I was convinced to go to DIT instead... Read More