mike carey

Lunch at 50 paces, can handle that! Oh, that's not what you meant?

I quite like the A380 and haven't found it crammed or claustrophobic, that's more down to the airline than the aeroplane (and I've been in Y, P and J, also trans-Pacific in a B787). I'd put the current preference for the B787 down to more up-to-date technology than anything else. From what I've read the B787 wins on mass (more carbon fibre), fuel efficiency and number of pax (thinner routes). Qantas have cancelled future orders for the A380 (but aren't phasing out the current fleet), and I understand that they can fly the same number of pax more cheaply in two B787s than they do in one A380. The advantage the A380 has is if an airline needs more capacity but can't get more slots. (Last time I flew out of LAX, Qantas had four flights to Australia that evening, A-380s to Sydney and Melbourne and B787s to Brisbane and Melbourne.)

I guess on a short vacation you have to balance between whether you want sex or a vacation. If you don't think you can guarantee both choose a location where you can (hopefully) guarantee the one you prioritise.

Yep, hadn't been keeping up with the forums and then was logged out for a few days. Catching up now.

I've never been all that enamoured of cruises - apart from some special cases like in the Antarctic - but you've made me think about them more, @Benjamin_Nicholas. Then again, maybe it's you and not the cruises.

Agreed, Eric is a hot guy and a gentleman.

Great that someone moved heaven and earth to meet you, Victor. Have to say you're worth the effort.

I've often wanted to play bridge, but I've only ever been a 500 player. Oh, and I'd stand next to Victor any time. Whether he'd want to stand next to me is a separate question.

Lol, I knew I should have called you when I was in NYC. My loss.

That's @samhexum's job.

Just watched the film on my flight home. The story is harrowing and I thought the dark depiction matched that. I enjoyed the movie and the performances of the main character actors. I followed that up with the complete contrast of Love, Simon. Light but fun. Two gay-themed movies on an airline in-flight entertainment system!

@coriolis888 a quick search showed: https://www.rentboyaustralia.com/ (No .au at the end.)

I'm somewhat surprised by the rigmarole you ended up going through. (And it's not entirely clear whether you eventually obtained a visa or an ETA (electronic travel authority) but that's beside the point.) I googled 'US visitor to Australia' and the top of the search was a link to the ETA. That may have been in part because my search history would have skewed the results towards Australian sites. The ETA is basically the same as the US ESTA that we have to obtain (and the Canadian system), although I can't speak to the printable or hard-copy documents that you receive. Paper copies are a back up, the systems depend on electronic details available to immigration officials and airline check-in counters (unless you have the authorisation they won't let you board). I always carry paper copies but I've never needed them. [Note, if the ESTA is a guide, it is only valid on the passport you used in your application.] Interesting that your airline only provided vague details about needing a 'visa'. When I buy a Qantas ticket to the US the website tells me I need an ESTA and provides a link to the US government site to obtain one. Selling tickets to Australian travelling to the US is a bigger part of their business than trips to Australia are for US airlines but you'd think they would try to help their customers with important information like that. You're not the first forum member to travel to Australia and you won't be the last. Perhaps others will weigh in with how the process worked for them. For Americans planning to travel to Australia, unless you have a red flag of some sort, an on-line ETA is the travel document you need to go there.

Over my last couple of visits I've used Chase and Bank of America ATMs and both allowed me to select the notes I'd receive. BoA allowed $100s, $20s and $10s. Clearly neither of these is my bank and they charged a $3 fee but that's a small price to pay for being able to withdraw $100s. (My bank doesn't charge me a fee for foreign ATM withdrawals.) An added bonus for me (obviously not for Americans withdrawing USD) is that I got a 3 cent better rate on the AUD than either using a credit card or changing money before leaving Australia.

It's not that bad. As long as you're inside. It wasn't so much the temperature as the 50 Celsius degree swing from home to Washington.

An icebreaker? Just to be clear, are you talking 'data' or 'stats', Victor?

And I'm sure he'll be watching QF11 (A380) landing at 0600 on Thursday. Or not. (Not to be confused with the B787 QF15 from Brisbane or the other A380 from Melbourne arriving about the same time. All those red tailfins look the same.) (In Sydney, 16L/34R is always referred to as 'the third runway' in the normal public.)

Who knew?

Hey guys, looking forward to renewing old acquaintances and making new ones on MLK/MAL weekend in DC. Hopefully I'll also catch up with some old military buddies from when I was a young RAAFie in the US all those years ago. (No, I don't think they'll be reading this!)

From what I've seen, the Battery Park location is the default for NYC.

Clued me in as well, and for me it would only have meant a round-trip from Australia to Vietnam to make a cheap trip to North America. I wasn't ready to schedule an additional trip so didn't even try to book. Agree with @Benjamin_Nicholas that CX rocks and even without special offers (or mistakes) they are very competitive on fares from Australia.

I guess there are new (or forgetful or foreign) flyers who don't know this, but yes it must be mind-numbing if that's your job. At JFK I asked if an empty bottle was OK, and got a prompt, 'That's fine'. (Not a problem here on domestic flights, the 100ml limit for liquids and gels went away fairly quickly.)

This is curious. When I open the overall forum, the forums that have new content are in bold, likewise with the threads with new content in each forum. When I click on one of those bold threads it takes me directly to the first post I hadn't read.

I may have misunderstood but it appeared to me that the top three clients were the three who happened to be the top each year not the same three from one year to the next. (I'm not suggesting you meant to imply that it was the same three throughout.) So I suspect that a strategy would be to develop regular relationships with clients in general rather than a strategy aimed at three individuals. I await being corrected on this.

Me too. I'm so happy that it worked out as it did. As I've said before you have kept us entranced since you started this thread and today was no exception. I hope that you do make it to Palm Springs.