spouse of scouse

Cathay Pacific have also reported a drop in passenger numbers and profits, and have warned that they may need to remove some flights from their schedule.

Bad timing for my nephew. He's just spent 3 days in Hong Kong being interviewed to join the company as a pilot (First Officer?). So proud of him though, the interview process is over three days and it's a 'knock out' process. If you don't pass the first day in a flight simulator then you don't get invited back for the second day, etc. He went right through the 3 days so we're all keeping our fingers crossed for him

scrubbedexpat091

Yes they cut some flights in Vancouver last month, the company I used to work for provides ground handling for them in Vancouver, and next spring Cathay is cutting Vancouver-New York as well. (Cathay has traffic rights to operate flights Hong Kong to New York via Canada.)

I believe Hong Kong Airlines has cut Vancouver completely. On a airline related FB group someone mentioned Hong Kong Airlines wont have in-flight entertainment beyond Monday as they couldn't pay the bill to the vendor who provides it.

Surprised at this point if anyone would provide them services without being paid at time of service.

Good luck to your nephew. Sounds like he is a good pilot.

I took some lessons when I was 20, quickly found out it was not for me.

spouse of scouse

Thanks mate. I've been up with him a few times, once he flew scouse and I to Margaret River down south for the day, it was such a treat (even though small aircraft scare me a bit!)

scrubbedexpat142

Same for SAA.

caretaker

Electric Beaver In Vancouver:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/video?...stId=1.4724509

spouse of scouse

I'm just about to book flights with Turkish Airlines, Perth to Manchester return, with stopovers in Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur. If anyone's flown with them and has good things to say please do so, if you have bad stories about them please don't tell me Just kidding, please do!

TA don't fly out of Perth so outbound it's Malindo Air to KL, inbound it's Malaysia Airlines KL to Perth.

scrubbedexpat091

I have never flown them but I do have a friend who flies them often, and seems to love them. Fair amount of youtube video's on them as well, overall they seem like a decent airline.

Istanbul airport looks lovely as well, man I wish airports in North America were this nice...

spouse of scouse

Thanks JS. that's great to hear. Their business class flights are around $3,000 cheaper for each of us than Emirates, so that's $6,000 of spends for the holiday!

scrubbedexpat091

They seem to have found their spot where they manage to offer decent service, at a decent price for more price sensitive customers without having to resort to being no frills or low frills.

I'd fly them if I were ever going somewhere they flew... Oh business class is the best, one reason I really have no interest in long flights anymore if I could afford it, is because coach seats suck so bad these days...

BuckinghamshireBoy

We have flown Turkish Airlines within Europe, including a 'difficult' transit from international to internal at Istanbul (that bit won't bother you though), found them very good, with incredibly helpful staff. MAS (if they're still called that) are not bad either.

materialcontroller

Some coach seats may suck. I dunno, I haven't tried them all.

In economy, I felt far more comfortable on Lufthansa's B747-8i between Frankfurt and Buenos Aires (a 13h45m flight) than I did on BA's tired old B747-400 between Heathrow and JFK for 7 hours. Aer Lingus also have great economy seating on their A330's.

spouse of scouse

Oh believe me, I'm as price sensitive as they come Not uncommon for me to do two weeks heavy research before booking flights.
You're right, there's a huge difference between airlines. I can and do travel in economy for up to around 6 hours, some (Emirates, Qantas) have been really good. But surprisingly (to me at least) I recently had a 5 hour economy flight on Singapore Airlines in an old 'regional' aircraft and the seat was narrower and harder than those on EasyJet flights! I would love to be able to fly economy for long haul flights because it would mean I could visit Europe more often, but the old body just can't hold up for that long.

spouse of scouse

MAS is Malaysia Airlines Berhad now, they were (re)nationalised in 2015. The horrible events of 2014 didn't help their already well documented profitability struggles. The disappearance of flight 370 was felt very keenly in this region, still is. So many attempts to find the aircraft, all failed. Then flight 17 being shot down over eastern Ukraine in the same year, another terrible event. The airline just couldn't recover.

scrubbedexpat142

Bit harsh SoS - most airlines have availed themselves of new bodies!

spouse of scouse

I wonder if they have a spare one for me?