Virgin have a new ‘lite’ fare bucket which is seat only, no seat selection and bags.
However having a look not available on all flights selected only.
Does not appear on many routes in which they still seem to be price matching Rex. Example is Melbourne to Sydney $79 Choice Fare only, no Lite fares on selected flights. Choice includes baggage. Few hours later when they are not price matching Rex, Lite fares are available but much more.
Best value fares seem to be these VA to Rex price matching fares.
I just did my first travel since COVID for the second half of September. Went to some interesting places - Dubai, Baku (Azerbaijan) and Tel Aviv (Israel).
I had been to all these places before except for Baku. It was good to travel again and seeing the world relatively back to normal. Baku was a really interesting place to visit - honestly one of the nicest, cleanest and safest places that I’ve been. It had that middle east meets Europe vibe. Tel Aviv was a return trip as it was my last travel destination in 2019 and I absolutely loved it. Did a day trip to the dead sea but otherwise mostly stayed on the amazing beach on Tel Aviv the rest of the time.
It had been about 6-7 years since I’d been to Dubai and it’s definitely become a lot more touristy in that time even though it was not the peak tourist season. It is still one of my favourite travel destinations though (despite the heat, which at times outdoors is unbearable). The good thing is most things are indoors, air conditioned. You can also get really nice hotels at reasonable prices and there is plenty to do. Burj Khalifa still has that wow factor for me, I could spend days in Dubai Mall and we checked out one of the new theme parks (at least since I was there) IMG World of Adventure which was indoors and a lot of fun.
It was also interesting to see the different Covid rules in place (or lack thereof) in different places. Dubai was the only place that had mask mandates indoors. I was in Dubai at both the start and end of my trip and in that period the UAE government had dropped the indoor mask mandate by the time we had returned. Azerbaijan was the only pace that required vaccination proof to enter, however I didn’t see a single mask in the country. Israel no vaccination requirement and not a mask in sight either. These countries had completely moved on. Not a single flight that I caught through my trip needed masks either, with the exception of arriving in UAE they asked us to wear masks on the first flight over but not when we came back.
The only place that was super strict was Abu Dhabi in the UAE - they still had QR check-in requirements. We had initially planned a couple of nights in Abu Dhabi but to get the green tick to go into restaruants/shops etc travellers needed to do a PCR test. It wasn’t worth our effort so we ended up just staying in Dubai (same country).
It was 14 days but they just extended it to 30 days last week when the rest of the country removed mask requirements completely.
The weird thing is there is no requirement to PCR test when you arrive in the country and they don’t tell you about this requirement in Abu Dhabi at any airports. Only that there is an optional PCR test available. We just assumed it would be the same as Dubai.
We flew into Abu Dhabi so thought we’d stay there a couple of nights. But tried to go into a supermarket and were told we needed to show the green tick. It was too much hassle to go back, test, wait for a result etc for a short couple night stay (and we weren’t sick but not worth the risk of testing positive and being stuck there) so we just extended our stay in Dubai which is only a 90 minute bus ride down the road.
Angela Bishop talked to Rose Byrne on Studio 10 yesterday (Wednesday US time) regarding the latter’s voiceover as the kangaroo in the tourism campaign.
Spirit of Tasmania has started ops in Geelong today. They still market it as Melbourne just like Jetstar does at Avalon. Melbourne (Geelong) or Melbourne-Avalon.
Would be good if they built a train station opposite with a walkover over or something. Does not need be anything big and fancy, just a platform with a roof/walkway. Doubt many Taxi’s will be interested in 500m trips to the North Shore or North Geelong train stations.
Moving North Shore station down the road a bit to make a fully integrated transport hub would be smart, as you’d be able to include a bunch of extra bus routes to serve heading to Geelong, and a very easy transfer to get to Melbourne.
Obviously some people who live pretty close to the current station would miss out, but if you did it with a level crossing removal and sorted out the horrible intersections around there, I think residents would be overall better off.
The weirdest trip it’d allow for is that you could go from Adelaide to Devonport with just one change, as the Overland currently stops at North Shore.
Observations from the most recent trip to Auckland
Pretty much no outlets open landside (save for a cafe/bar, a small Travelex kiosk and Flight Centre) and only Hudson’s Coffee sold hot food airside with the Plaza lounge closed until 5PM
With restrictions gone, it was pretty much how I remembered going through Customs in Australia, still with the same longish times to get through the initial security check
All bags were screened upon arrival in NZ, compared with very few when arriving back in Australia
Regret the choice of a cab from Auckland Airport, costing $NZ75 at 1:30AM, should have just taken the shuttle for a fraction of the price which I did for the return trip
Seems like Auckland, much like Melbourne and Brisbane, are doing a lot of work on building train lines in the city
Empire Apartments in Auckland can go and get you know whatted, basically didn’t allow a late check-in and had to hurriedly change accommodation about 20 minutes before boarding the delayed flight from Brisbane
Departing through Customs in NZ much the same as Australia, although the bloke doing the explosives test forgot to change his gloves on the first pass of my laptop bag causing what would be a false alarm
Wouldn’t say Auckland CBD was a dead zone, but the labor crisis over there was so bad the McDonald’s near the docks that normally was 24/7 closes now at 8PM
can’t help but feel like they don’t want the transparency these trackers enable. I know in the last few months i have had quite a few flights including ones to heathrow and knowing my bags are loaded is a relief
I would have thought the passengers are actually doing the airline a favour by assisting its lost baggage department by telling them where the damn bag is!
I have stuck one AirTag inside my checked luggage and in about a dozen flights within the last few months, all have tracked accurately to the baggage hold.
Perhaps Air New Zealand don’t want to passengers to see in New York for example that they are are leaving all luggage due to weight problems. Bad enough they are only informing passengers when they arrive in Auckland. I see that particular flight is still having problems.
