I haven't blogged for a while.
We have done a bit of travelling, but the odd weekend in Sydney doesn't usually justify blogging about.
In the mean time, there is something that occurred to me on our last trip to Sydney, that may be worth a few lines.
It's all about the headphones.
Many airlines have only one class, particularly on short-haul routes.
As I have probably mentioned before, I work for Air New Zealand, and Sarah works for Qantas.
As a rule we travel on one of these carriers.
Air New Zealand had gone semi-budget on the domestic and trans-tasman routes. These are usually on Airbus A320s. There are all sorts of flash things on the long-haul, the bigger aircraft. "Cuddle class", premier economy and business class. We are waiting for the Dreamliner to arrive, and that will be even better.
But this is about the short-haul.
Most headsets you get on an aircraft are crap. We all accept that.
On the "budget-and-proud-of-it" carriers, they even acknowledge this simple truth. I travelled on Jetblue out of New York, and if you didn't keep your free headset for the next flight, it goes in the bin. That's right! Straight into the bin. "They are crap, people. We are not even going to PRETEND to recycle them." No recycling here, sport!
Others pretend that you are getting the quality product, but we all know that's bollocks.
The normal headsets on our A320 is the standard economy model found on the longer flights.
After every flight, the used ones are gathered up and sent to someone for repacking. In NZ, this job is done by what we used to call a sheltered workshop. This is an organisation designed to give 'challenged' people employment. I often wonder if the electrics are ever tested, or if they just get cleaned and repacked. How many of us tear open the pack to find a headset that doesn't work, or which sends 100 decibel crackles into your ears if you touch the plug?
Anyway, these headsets are definitely not noise-cancelling. It's like watching tv in a bus station!
While you are watching your movie, you can hear what the wife is saying to you, you can hear the kids 2 rows back, and you can have a conversation with the hostie about what you want to drink and what colour meal you want.
However, these flights also carry a bag of the noise-cancelling sets. These are for the guys who paid extra, or who are frequent flyers. And the people that the hostie knows, or who works at the airport. That would be me. How lucky am I?
Have you ever tried noise-cancelling headphones? Amazing!
Put them on and they are just nice, comfy headsets. But flick that switch, and your head gets sucked into a vacuum. Deathly silent. You don't realise how much ambient noise there is until you turn it off. Wow!
Then turn on the movie or the music, and the experience is complete.
No wife, no kids, no hostie. No interruptions.
Now just to be clear, these are not the full-arsed switch on noise cancelers. But they ARE a shitload better than the budgie ones.
Now, here's my observation.
You sit back in cattle class, and nobody cares about you, except for the obligatory drinks and food runs.
Doesn't matter if the flight is 2 hours or 10 hours. Same principal. You could be a serial killer back there and be onto your third victim before anybody notices. And that's only because you chose somebody that had pre-ordered a special meal, and the crew eventually turned up to deliver it.
(Special! Now that's what I call an oxymoron! I was always amused by our list of "special" meals. The first on the list was "bland". Seriously, how can that be special? Isn't bland the default for airline food?)
Anyway...
But if you sit up the front, or you are one of the select group mentioned above, and you get those good headsets? Then see what happens? No sooner do you put on that magical headset designed specifically to shut out the world, that the hostie turns up for a chat!
Come and chat when I only have the crappy headphones on, and I will happily talk to you while still listening to the movie. But oh no. Nobody wants to talk to the peasants with the crappy headset on. But put on the good ones, and you can't get a break from the 'customer service'.
What is that about?
Now before I get strung up by my friendly waitresses, let me clarify. I'm not picking on the lovely girls out of Christchurch. There are a couple there that I would happily open a magnum of conversation and spend the entire flight with.
This is a general comment about all hosties. I think it's part of their training to engage the top end traveller, and how better to spot them than to tag them with the fat headphones. Saves accidentally giving the good stuff to some peasant who won't fly again.
We have done a bit of travelling, but the odd weekend in Sydney doesn't usually justify blogging about.
In the mean time, there is something that occurred to me on our last trip to Sydney, that may be worth a few lines.
It's all about the headphones.
Many airlines have only one class, particularly on short-haul routes.
As I have probably mentioned before, I work for Air New Zealand, and Sarah works for Qantas.
As a rule we travel on one of these carriers.
Air New Zealand had gone semi-budget on the domestic and trans-tasman routes. These are usually on Airbus A320s. There are all sorts of flash things on the long-haul, the bigger aircraft. "Cuddle class", premier economy and business class. We are waiting for the Dreamliner to arrive, and that will be even better.
But this is about the short-haul.
Most headsets you get on an aircraft are crap. We all accept that.
On the "budget-and-proud-of-it" carriers, they even acknowledge this simple truth. I travelled on Jetblue out of New York, and if you didn't keep your free headset for the next flight, it goes in the bin. That's right! Straight into the bin. "They are crap, people. We are not even going to PRETEND to recycle them." No recycling here, sport!
Others pretend that you are getting the quality product, but we all know that's bollocks.
The normal headsets on our A320 is the standard economy model found on the longer flights.
After every flight, the used ones are gathered up and sent to someone for repacking. In NZ, this job is done by what we used to call a sheltered workshop. This is an organisation designed to give 'challenged' people employment. I often wonder if the electrics are ever tested, or if they just get cleaned and repacked. How many of us tear open the pack to find a headset that doesn't work, or which sends 100 decibel crackles into your ears if you touch the plug?
Anyway, these headsets are definitely not noise-cancelling. It's like watching tv in a bus station!
While you are watching your movie, you can hear what the wife is saying to you, you can hear the kids 2 rows back, and you can have a conversation with the hostie about what you want to drink and what colour meal you want.
However, these flights also carry a bag of the noise-cancelling sets. These are for the guys who paid extra, or who are frequent flyers. And the people that the hostie knows, or who works at the airport. That would be me. How lucky am I?
Have you ever tried noise-cancelling headphones? Amazing!
Put them on and they are just nice, comfy headsets. But flick that switch, and your head gets sucked into a vacuum. Deathly silent. You don't realise how much ambient noise there is until you turn it off. Wow!
Then turn on the movie or the music, and the experience is complete.
No wife, no kids, no hostie. No interruptions.
Now just to be clear, these are not the full-arsed switch on noise cancelers. But they ARE a shitload better than the budgie ones.
Now, here's my observation.
You sit back in cattle class, and nobody cares about you, except for the obligatory drinks and food runs.
Doesn't matter if the flight is 2 hours or 10 hours. Same principal. You could be a serial killer back there and be onto your third victim before anybody notices. And that's only because you chose somebody that had pre-ordered a special meal, and the crew eventually turned up to deliver it.
(Special! Now that's what I call an oxymoron! I was always amused by our list of "special" meals. The first on the list was "bland". Seriously, how can that be special? Isn't bland the default for airline food?)
Anyway...
But if you sit up the front, or you are one of the select group mentioned above, and you get those good headsets? Then see what happens? No sooner do you put on that magical headset designed specifically to shut out the world, that the hostie turns up for a chat!
Come and chat when I only have the crappy headphones on, and I will happily talk to you while still listening to the movie. But oh no. Nobody wants to talk to the peasants with the crappy headset on. But put on the good ones, and you can't get a break from the 'customer service'.
What is that about?
Now before I get strung up by my friendly waitresses, let me clarify. I'm not picking on the lovely girls out of Christchurch. There are a couple there that I would happily open a magnum of conversation and spend the entire flight with.
This is a general comment about all hosties. I think it's part of their training to engage the top end traveller, and how better to spot them than to tag them with the fat headphones. Saves accidentally giving the good stuff to some peasant who won't fly again.
