Cheap or Low Cost?

Cheap or Low Cost, call them what you like, the Budget airlines have changed the way we fly.

Now, in my opinion they are doing something else as well!  They are teaching the more traditional carriers how to behave when it comes to passenger service.

Now of course I am not including Ryan Air in that statement,  every seasoned and regular flyer knows that life is far too short for Ryan Air, but the others are definately making a real effort and are certainly showing the flag carriers a trick or two.

Yes I know, for some strange reason, EasyJet prefer to have you stamped dangerously onto an aircraft rather than allocate you a seat but at least when you get to the flying cigar tube, you are greeted with a smile and generally by someone who is clearly enjoying the job of sky waiter unlike the sourpuss poh faced girls who man the British Airways flights and think of them selves as a cut above the average passenger.

They are paid far less and even have to clean up the mess passengers make of their aircraft during the flights so if anything, you would think the staff aboard the low cost carriers would have more reason to be in a grot!

Here think I ought to rate the sleazyJet team as being even better than say FlyBe or BMI Baby.

In fact, if Sleazy where to allocate seats, they might become my short haul airline of choice.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment, I cannot be the only cantankerous traveller in the world can I?

Bordeaux Beggars Belief

I had reason to visit Bordeaux for a one night stay recently and it is not a city to commend.

It may well be France's sixth largest conurbation but I doubt that the country is proud of it either.

Beggars, loads of them, not quite to Mumbai standards, but never the less enough to notice and eventually get annoyed at.

It also seems devoid of anywhere nice to eat, what I might call middle priced food.  After an hour and a half of walking the streets peering into empty restaurants we eventually found one that served a half decent meal which with wine cost at least £35 and used ingredients that must have cost less than 10 even allowing 3 for the wine.

If for any reason you find yourself looking for an hotel and someone recommends Le Dauphin ask your self why?

Not since the days I lugged a back pack around the globe in the 1960's have I stayed in a doss house hardly better than the worst possible youth hostel.

Breakfast was rubbish and the only reason I went was because the fire alarm sounded constantly from 0720 for 10 minutes until someone arrived from a security company to switch it off.

By then I was too awake to return to my bed.

The staff, rather sensibly, do not live in the hotel and are absent from 5 30 in the afternoon until breakfast time. So they were little help and had it been a real fire I fear lives would have been lost.

Cheap yes but value for money? Defiantly no!

No Smoking

On every flight I take I am reminded during the safety announcement that passengers may not smoke during the flight that smoking on board is an offence under international civil aviation law.

I am told that smoking in the lavatories is specifically forbidden and that each toilet compartment is fitted with a smoke detector which if you fiddle with it causes you to break even more civil aviation laws.

So why is it that an airline still finds it necessary to fit signage on the inside of the lavatory door warning passengers that they risk fines of £2500 if they get caught smoking of tampering with the detection devices?

But what I really do not understand is why on the aircraft I am describing an Airbus A321 which is less than seven years old this sign is placed immediately above the ashtray that has so thoughtfully behind the door by the aircraft builder.

And NO I was not flying with Ryan Air!

Public Transport Etiquette

When I was a lad, I was taught that if I had a seat on a bus, tram or train, it was good manners to give it up if a lady or an elderly person were to board and not be able to sit down.

I was taught that pregnant ladies fell into the same category and should be shown the same high accord

It was, I was taught, just good manners to do so.

When I moaned, I got a clip around the ear and was told I would be very grateful when my time came.  Then, old and decrypted I would be very grateful that my fellow travellers had the same high standards as I was brought up with.

Well let me tell you, that time has come, and now I find, if I am lucky enough to get a seat, I get deathly stares from mothers whose five year old Johnny has to stand as the bus sways around a corner and heaven help me if I get on a crowed train and seven year old Matilda is ensconced on a pew.

I have as much chance of her offering her seat to the kindly old gentleman as getting a free trip from Richard Branson on his Intergalactic Space Shuttle 

Who Can Explain the No Electronics Rule

Who Can Explain the No Electronics Rule? 


Certainly not the stewardesses who have no clue at all why it is that in this modern day and age you cannot read an iPad while the seatbelt sign is alight in an aircraft preparing to land and take off.

Yet you can read a book or write notes with a pen onto paper so clearly distraction is not the issue.

Nor is that old humbug that using your device might affect the safe navigation of the aircraft.  iPads like iPhones have safe flight modes and when activated ensure the device does not transmit anything.

No the reason, it seems, stems form rules made way back in the 1960's  when commercial flight was still in it's formative years.  Back them portable tape recorders and wirelesses were the issue.  The microchip had not been invented and solid state was just a designers pipe dream.

Isn't it time then that old fashioned rules were looked at, dusted off and where necessary revised?  It's not as if it has not been done before.  Back in the 1960's you were allowed to carry lighters and matches on board and use them to set fire to cylindrical, paper covered, sticks of tobacco.


Now that was dangerous and flying is definitely better now that smoking has been banned.

The Cantankerous Nomad has strong views on travel but what are yours?

Schipol Airport Fails not once but Twice

I have only been to Schipol Airport four times in the last month so I do not know how often this happens but on the last two occasions when I have been herded ( can you think of a better word?) into the standing room only departure gates in Zone H the emergency exit doors have failed to open when staff have tried to get in or out on th the airport.

Now given that these are emergency exit points and the only other way out is up through a narrow set of stairs leading into the room this strikes me as somewhat dangerous

Remember it is Schipol Airport who claims to be the worlds leading airport and it is the designs and procedures of that airport that others around the world strive to emulate.

God help us!

The Cantankerous Nomad has strong views but what are yours on this subject?

Thank Goodness for the Stewardess

Thank Goodness for the  Stewardess who stands at the top of the aircraft steps to greet you.

There, she imperiously stares at you, demands your boarding pass which was checked no less than a minute ago as you left the terminal building and studies it profoundly.

She then hands it back and tells you you are in seat 11C.


Now that's something I would never have known had she not provided me with the information!

After all it was me who booked in and printed out my own boarding pass using my own paper which the checker in the terminal had the cheek to tear in half and keep a section.  And it was me who, having printed out that same boarding card, had checked to see where the computer had allocated me a seat.


You know what? I knew I was in seat 11C long before the stewardess did, but of course she has been trained to treat all passengers as imbeciles.

The Cantankerous Nomad has strong views about travel but what are yours?