Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

I'm heading home to Jersey for Christmas, so I decided to book flights on line. My ex-iXL colleagues back in my Scient days had built this really funky booking system for the ba.com web site, and (though I say it as one of the OnFired) it's one of the easiest online booking services around (though these days it would be better re-coded as a rich internet application using XML and Flash....).

Logging on as a loyal Executive Club frequent flyer I choose "Economy, Lowest" and see what flights are available. They're a bit expensive, and the return date I want isn't available. And the flight out on the day I want to travel is somewhat, err, early for my tastes.

So, just to see what happens I choose "Business, Lowest". In general business class flights in Europe aren't much more expensive than the equivalent flexible economy fare, so it's not as strange a thing to do as it may first seem.

But this time, things were a little odd.

I got quoted lower prices for a flexible economy fare than for my initial request, and get the days and flights I want.

Airlines trying to maximise utilisation mean that occasionally very odd things happen. It's a sign of the joys of allocated seating and fare policies. I'm glad I'm not the man who writes the seat loading algorithms...

Ah, well. Something to remember for the future. Just in case.

I've been flying now for nearly 38% of the history of powered flight, so I thought it would be interesting (in an extremely geeky sort of way) to attempt to list from memory all the different aircraft types I've been in, over those years. As I come from an island, and as I work in jobs that require a reasonable amount of international travel, it's likely to turn into quite a long list (and possible a meme)...

( ...we cut tag to hide the inner plane spotter... )

So what have you flown on in the past?