Monarch airlines collapse

Frontstep

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I remember feeling quite smug sitting in business class on a Kuwait airlines plane thinking I had a bargain, till I read on the plane about their fleet.
 

ajlsl600

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my all time fav was bcal always had nice staff , now emirates for reasons observed above, i also only fly ****** awful if there are no other options for the same kind of reasons observed above.not thrilled with air france either, brussels airlines not too bad. kenya airways ok as well,eithiopean was very good ,but here not so now also did lots with klm and found them ok as well
 

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Ha! Kenya! I used to support their operations in Deepest Darket Africa when they still flew Tristars. I’ve seen their... maintenance standards... up close. I never got so much as a deadhead flight with them for that reason.

Jambo, m'suri sanna! (Spelling?)

Had a Tusker or two myself there :)

....and as for Eithiopian, I well remember one of their 707s back in 80/81 had the perfect imprint of a chimp on the trailing edge flaps. ....now that's what I call a bit low over the trees hahaha..... poor sod was probably minding his own business munching some fruit on the top of a tree...... thwack....
 
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Craiglxviii

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Jambo, m'suri sanna! (Spelling?)

Had a Tusker or two myself there :)

....and as for Eithiopian, I well remember one of their 707s back in 80/81 had the perfect imprint of a chimp on the trailing edge flaps. ....now that's what I call a bit low over the trees hahaha..... poor sod was probably minding his own business munching some fruit on the top of a tree...... thwack....

Look at that big silver bi<splat>
 

AMGeed

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Ha! Kenya! I used to support their operations in Deepest Darket Africa when they still flew Tristars. I’ve seen their... maintenance standards... up close. I never got so much as a deadhead flight with them for that reason.

I had the dubious pleasure of an overnight flight from Dubai to Nairobi with Kenya on an A320. Flight delayed, food inedible, no alcohol, a fat guy sat next to me who fell asleep and slumped in to my side and proceeded to spend the rest of the flight letting vile farts go all night. Landed to find luggage not arrived for the onward flight to Zanzibar.

Arrived in Zanzibar to an arrivals hall with desks cobbled together from pallets and a $20 charge to enter the country.
Travelling with my brother in law, no change of clothes and he loaned me some underwear I proceeded to soil after an unwise shart after drinking that sugar cane drink and eating some very dubious looking meat from the street market!

When it was time to return to Nairobi, no seat for me, overbooked. Had to bribe the check in staff with $50 to get on the flight.
Looked out of the plane porthole on take off to see dozens of suitcases being thrown onto the apron in a monsoon.
Arrived back in Nairobi to riots on the streets and a lock in at the airport. I had 8 hrs to kill and it was a really third world airport at the time.
Like Thai Air, Kenya Airways maintainance programme, or lack of it, ensured I'll not use them again.
 

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Was in South Africa, going on to Perth, Western Australia once. But due to the embargo about apartheid there wasn't a direct flight, so you had to go to Harare on a pond hopper from Jo'berg ticketed as Air Zimbabwe. Landed at Harare International airport that was a single garage, the concrete panels between posts type. You deplaned, took baggage out of the pond hopper, entered the terminal (garage) and checked in for the Air Zimbabwe flight to Perth that was actually a Qantas fully liveried 747 c/w crew. Your baggage was taken out the terminal entrance and awaited you after check in where you then took it to the apron by the plane and passed up to the guys in the hold to load. Then you went and sat on some boxes in the Business Lounge that was a patch of grass and were handed a non labelled Castle Beer bottle sans bottle top, which you just poured away. You never accepted an open Castle beer, and always checked on opening there were no creatures in the neck of the bottle. The on board booze was a welcome treat.

Was in Indonesia where I got dysentery from being hungover and mistakenly used bottled water to clean my teeth instead of beer. A weekend in Bali at the Oberoi, where I went through several pairs of pants just flushed them as I squatted just in time. At the time there was a pilot strike in Oz where I was going back to, so instead of direct to Brisbane then onto Mt Isa, I had to go Denpasser to Perth, then hop up round the north west via Port Hedland, Broome and a long stop in Darwin where my late father had been stationed at one time and I always wanted to see. I saw the inside of a bog whilst my world fell out of my bottom for 7 hours. Then a pond hopper to Mt Isa where I had to go underground in extreme heat and humidity and was fortunate not to mess my overalls. The good thing was I lost the 5 stone I'd put on over the previous few months due to grabbing junk food at all hours due to my work schedule and hours and travelling.
 

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The big joke is that everyone who didn't travel was jealous of you and thought you were living the life of Reilly!
 

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I remember sourcing some engine seals for them (the weather seals that keep water out of QEC jet turbine nacelles) along with some enormous gaskets that had to be kept completely flat. Discovered the goods in staff had been throwing them away and the parts had been rescued from a skip in Christ only knows what condition.
 

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The big joke is that everyone who didn't travel was jealous of you and thought you were living the life of Reilly!

Oh how so very true.

I had a routine prior to flying off, usually out on a Sunday night from LHR or LGW, if I had notice to go. I had a 'uniform' to travel in, nice Chinos, loose fitting short sleeve casual shirt, leather bomber jacket with poachers pockets for secreting cash, documents etc and comfortable shoes. Lunchtime Sunday would be down my local for my last decent pint, Wadsworth 6X, chilli nachos with mates who knew I was off again. One guy once asked where I was off to that night and how did I travel etc as he thought it was a life of Reilly. I handed him my itinerary and explained the various key bits like destinations, flights, cabin class (1st & Business), aircraft type; that was a 3month trip to South Africa, Zambia, Oz, Indonesia, Philippines. Ohh wow ooh, so I gave him my ticket and said you want to go instead? As I explained it's like being on a bus, just for longer and faster and higher, the hotels were the same no matter what city or country you were in.

Fortunately due to my seniority I did get to see and do lots of things and usually took my ski boots, jacket, pants and gloves to ski lots of places.

When you explain it to non travellers they just can't comprehend it.

If I had my time again, would I do it? You bet. It was a way of life with some fantastic memories, good and bad. You only pass this way once, and I made the most of it, as did the guys who travelled. A fantastic education.
 

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The main thing is that over the years I was pleased that many of my commercial contacts became personal friends - inone or two really quite close - I still have a couple that have to travel to UK and come to stay with us and within five minutes the years have disappeared... Those who envied your position didn't understand either that when you went on a trip you never really stopped working. I'd do it again too - even the horrible bits but those were due to being stitched up by other company members although happily that happened quite rarely.

The only downside for me is that nowadays I hate flying and the "stupidity" of airports. So now that I'm picking up the tab (and of course we're both much older and "creaking" now...) we've found that for holidays, cruises offer the best all-in deal with generally high customer service etc - and if you don't mind being bombarded with email "bargain" shots you can find very good deals. The only negative is that you can't forecast the category/age-group of your fellow passengers - one time we got a 21 day cruise on the Queen Victoria for absolute sweetie money... In the the dining room on the first night I said to SWMBO: OMG everyone's so OLD! But she reminded me "We're old!!!" although I must say some of them seemed positively ancient!
 

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Ha Ha

I too don't enjoy the nonsense that airports have become, hence why when we do travel it's Business Class on Emirates or Virgin Upper Class (not really Business Class, but) as we can be in the lounge at LHR in an hour from home with the chauffeur service and fast track through security.

True friends, the few you make during your life, you do pick up where you left off and time is immaterial from whence you last met face to face. Being the son of a serviceman, that has been true throughout my life.

Although we recently did a cruise from/to Southampton, we always get the best price for travel as we are flexible to a degree. The recent QM2 was a a fraction of the initial brochure price, booked 6 weeks prior to sailing. My mother does the late booking all the time, paying a fraction of the original fare, plus gets the 'loyalty' bonuses to boot. We had a large table for dinner on the recent cruise and we too had older, seasoned cruisers on the table who droned on and on about their cruises. It was their first QM2, so I just said 'my wife and I only cruise on the QM2', that shut them up. They didn't need to know it was only our 2nd one!!

I'm a late life first time father, so I get used to the grandad comments!!

Fortunately where I worked in those halcyon days of travel, there was a very strong no bollox/politics policy led from the top. Any players were soon off. I did once have a new Director threaten me in a motor control centre on a big project that he had screwed up on, not just threats about my future, but physical punch up type threats. He didn't see my forearm smash him in the windpipe after he pushed me against a panel, and I held him up by his throat to correct him. He then didn't understand faxed documents illustrating his reckless forging of documents travelled faster than the aircraft he took home later that night. That when there was a Board meeting back at HQ where he attempted to white ant me in front of the rest of the Board, who knew me and who I worked for and why I was in that mcc, and was then faced with over 300 dodgy documents the MD had from me. I was the company trouble shooter, hence why I travelled. And my expenses were never questioned ;)

Happy days.
 

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Eek. I get this from the missus. “Oh you’re off on a jolly again”...
 

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And it looks like Lufthansa are buying out Alitalia ....
 
OP
Frosty149

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  • Thread Starter
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Eek. I get this from the missus. “Oh you’re off on a jolly again”...
Same as that...
After only a few days of hotel food, I'm dreaming of simple stuff like bangers and mash or egg on toast....
 

davemercedes

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Same as that...
After only a few days of hotel food, I'm dreaming of simple stuff like bangers and mash or egg on toast....

That is so true.... and after flying around the world for 28 hours to get home and pretty tired of my "luxurious" life, I really looked forward to things like bangers and bacon sarnies etc. But SWMBO came up with "Now you're home, shall we go out for a meal, I haven't been out for ages.... ?"..... It was very difficult (and more than my job's worth!) not to say that I was suffering in order to treat her to a meal out!
 

Craiglxviii

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That is so true.... and after flying around the world for 28 hours to get home and pretty tired of my "luxurious" life, I really looked forward to things like bangers and bacon sarnies etc. But SWMBO came up with "Now you're home, shall we go out for a meal, I haven't been out for ages.... ?"..... It was very difficult (and more than my job's worth!) not to say that I was suffering in order to treat her to a meal out!

“It’s alright for you, you get to jet off...” ;)
 

LostKiwi

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“It’s alright for you, you get to jet off...” ;)
I've had that this week,....

Tonight I'm travelling to France, Portsmouth to St Malo.
There is a force 6-8 gale in the channel where we cross.
I get to St Malo and drive 6 hours to the house in the Smart, stay overnight then get a lift to the station form the neighbour, train to Bordeaux, bus to the airport then fly back to Luton. The forecast all weekend is rain. Lots of it.
"You're so lucky going over to the house". Hmmm......
 

Craiglxviii

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Well, you are! ;)

Yes dear... :D
 


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