So if you find things better or worse, recently opened, or long since closed, please tell me. While I fly a lot, there can be some weeks when I'm not at LHR, SIN, BKK, SYD, FRA or LAX. As soon as I get updated information and can verify it, I will update the site, and make sure that flyers in future get the most up to date reviews. I genuinely value all the feedback I get, but please note that due to my insistence on independently checking all updates which are sent to me, it can sometimes take a few weeks to get new information on the site. Normally I can do this by checking direct with the airlines concerned. Sometimes alas, particularly when an airline installs new seats or a new lounge, a site visit is required - which I end up travelling to, and paying for.
Please note that all reviews on this site are an honestly held opinion based on provable facts, with well-founded fair comment by a non-trading individual. There is no intent to cause harm to the reputation of any airline, and my comments shouldn't be taken too seriously, with firm & domain names used for tribute or criticism.
Some web search engines will of course come up with these names linked to my site when searching webpages. If you have a problem with that, please contact the search engine directly. I also own other domain names pointing to this site, making legitimate non-commercial fair use of the Domain Name, operated solely in tribute to or in criticism of these businesses. This includes airlines which are on my "todo" list, which I have flown on, and am in the process of reviewing, but which are not yet live on the site. There is no intention to be unfairly detrimental to the rights of these airlines, or to transfer trade away from them.
I think it's worth replying to some of the common Emails I get here though...
"Where do you live?" On a plane.
"You love Singapore while being rude about Qantas. Are you from Singapore?" I am not from Singapore. Please see above.
"You are clearly biased toward your national carrier. Your review of Qantas contrasts so greatly from the other reviews that I have to wonder whether you are a Qantas employee" I am not employed by Qantas. Please see above.
"Your review of bmi makes it sound like Ryanair. I flew with them last year and they were great. You are clearly biased! Are you from Ireland?" I am not from Ireland. Please see above. And please do fly on bmi again - to see why regular fliers now do anything but fly with them.
It is certainly untrue that British Airways is a great airline, certainly compared to highly managed Asian airlines like Thai or Malaysian. It has been proven that in terms of cabin service, and in inflight entertainment where all passengers get the best. That can't be said the same about British Airways whom have hardly even installed personal TV. Their planes aren't exactly "NEW" and should deserve "grubby" and "old" too if your review were to be un-biased. Please look up my reviews on Skytrax, where they have un-biased reviews and reviews..."
All my reviews are unbiased, and I guess this proves it. Most passengers have a favourite airline which they fly on most of the time (which is exactly why I don't, so retain the objectiveness of my reviews), and many of the Emails ask me to look more favourably on airline A, while being negative about airline B (indicating that it is terrible, and that I should have pointed this out). When I ask the Emailer (if there is there such a word?) for more specific details, it turns out that airline A is their home airline, and airline B is some foreign rival they flew on a few years back. Alas Skytrax fails pretty much consistently on this score, normally because it's written about just one flight (so you don't get an overview of the airline) and the reviewers normally want to rant about checkin staff or cabin crew. As a result the reviews are pretty pointless when it comes to someone reading a review and wanting to actually book a ticket. For the record BA have Seatback TVs throughout their long-haul fleet, and are rapidly installing AVOD. If only the same could be said of Malaysian or Thai. Then refer to above.
"I've got the same information on my site/webpage/blog/forum - did you nick it from me?" It is inevitable that with a review of something that many people travel on, there is a lot of common information. For example, the number of planes in a fleet, good seat information, Frequent Flyer perks and the like are all common - so I'll have the same info as you. Be assured, it's all come from endless hours of sitting in a tin tube, as are the pictures. An important point here comes in regard to the news section of the site: one person's write up of a press release of an event may sound like another, if only because there are only so many ways you can write up "A380 now flies from Melbourne, and has new seats". But just because I've written it up in the same way, doesn't mean its come from anywhere else other than the airline concerned (or in some cases employees of that airline, who have written to me). To make the source clear, each news story item now includes a link to the relevant press release. Savvy? And while I'm on the subject - please don't nick the pictures for your site. It is getting to be a habit seeing my pics appear elsewhere - the last time was on an airline booking agency at USM airport. Now that was an interesting conversation.
"You have clearly travelled a lot on Airline YYY, but there are only a few meals, why?" If the meal is identical to one I have already photographed, I really can't be bothered to take another photo. And sometimes I'm so stuffed after a dozen flights in a row, I have to reject the food. At other times, the cabin crew have asked me to stop taking photos, and I naturally go along with their request. "Who reads Airreview?" From the latest stats from statcounter.com the vast majority (36%) of visitors are from the UK, while 17% are Australian, a relatively tiny 7% are from the US, 3% are from New Zealand, 2% from Singapore, and so on.
"Why did you recently change your URL?" I wish I hadn't - it's thoughly messed up the links from search engines, etc. Alas my only server - at TV Centre in White City (London) ceased operating following the demise of www.beeb.net and after a totally annoying experience at the home of www.110mb.com. I walked. I now pay for full commercial server space. At least it works and it's fast. Of course, if you link to, and connect your favourites to www.airreview.com, then that's much better as it never changes and you can always find me.
"Any other legal comments?"
By browsing this site, including (but not limited to) all its sub-areas & sub-domains such as news, lounge photographs, and seatmaps, you agree to be bound by copyright within New South Wales, and should there be any copyright dispute, to agree that regardless of where you are located, courts within New South Wales shall be permitted to pass judgement in accordance with the State of New South Wales (Commonwealth) Copyright Act 1968. Under this act individual non-commercial use may have been made (for example, but not limited to, the reproduction of information contained in airline press releases, timetables, or inflight magazines) of external material. Airreview has attempted to contact copyright owners of material included in this website. We apologise if material has accidentally been included for which permission has not been specifically sought. If you believe you are the copyright owner of material included in this website, please contact me. Apart from any use permitted by the Copyright Act (including fair dealing), none of the material on this website may be downloaded, printed, emailed, stored in cache or otherwise reproduced without the written permission of yours truly. So there.
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"What access do the airlines give you so you can take interior photos of the planes?" None at all - I just make sure I'm first in the queue to get on the bird, and walk around the cabin taking photos. Understandably, on some airline this provokes a bit of a reaction from the cabin crew, and I end up having to take photos when I'm in the seat.
"Why do only some premium lounge reviews refer to other airline's lounges?" This one has always been a thorny problem - if a business/first lounge is used by another airline do I review the lounge in both the airline's reviews, just in the airline it is "owned" by... or what? And how about seconded lounges with an airline that I have yet to review? And how about corporate lounges? The only sane answer I've come up with is that if I review the airline, theire "home" lounges are always in that section. If it is used by two airlines, the base review will be in the "home" airlines page, with a link and separate pictures in the alternate airlines page. If it is a coporate lounge it will be (with separate pictures) in all contracted airlines pages. If it is owned by one airline which is not reviewed, but used by one or more other reviewed airlines, a full review will be on both their pages until such time as I get around to reviewing that sub-airline, at which point the review may more. Other policies I make up on the spot. Your mileage may vary. This policy is not applicable to Bangkok Airways.
"Why start Airreview?" I write travel guides, and after a while I found I got very bored with the original airline I was very loyal to, and for a laugh tried some others. Surprised (horrified would be a better word...) about how wildly one airline can differ from another, I started making a few notes on which airlines had what services. At the time the internet was in it's infancy, and most airlines' websites just had the usual bollox about "a great cabin ambience in all 3 cabins. Food & wine to suit are available, and there is a film (two in business)". I thought it would be fun to put on a few pages on the internet - 4 to be exact - to share what I'd leant with other passengers. That was way back in 1999. And it grew to become the all consuming monster that it is, where I'll end up flying not on a mileage run, but on a lounge & meal photo run. It now takes up so much of my time, there are occasions I wish I'd never started it.
"Who funds Airreview?" Yours truly. All the flights come out of my own pocket.
"I will say that you seem to have had very bad experiences on many of your flights" No, I just call it how it is. I know many people in the travel industry are not used to straightforward reviews - however if something is bad, I'll say so, not dress it up in the flowery sales talk the airlines would rather I use.
"You are highly critical of the choice of wine on XXXair. We offer a wide range of wine to suit all tastes." (This from the press office of one of the airlines reviewed). That'll be a choice of white or red then? I'm sorry, but if you Email me PR rubbish, I'll call it as it is. Please see above. However please note as I previously mentioned (you were listening weren't you?) Airreview makes use of proprietary company names within the context of a fair analysis of that companies performance, and in no way makes any claim over the use of these names. I take no responsibility if these names which I use purely to review the airline are in common use on the airline, but which the airline also makes no claim over, and this also extends to regional or geographic names which the airline may be using: for example if the airline in question offers me something they claim as Stilton, which which does not meet EU rules on it being Stilton, don't come after me and say that their blue cheese isn't Stilton if they offer it to me as such - I simply report what the airline has, and that's the airline's problem (and the same with any other product on board). Also note that some reviews on here could be up to 20 years old, and just as newspapers may have out of date reviews which refer to the older name of a product, so may I, which may not reflect changes in company names or the new EU naming rules, or indeed how the airline refered to a product at the time. For the avoidance of doubt, all reporting is taken as 'an honestly held opinion' and which is 'contemporaneous at the time', and this time may have been when a product was legally permitted to be called whatever it is you are complaining about. However if I do make a mistake, and accidently give an incorrect label to any foodstuff, wine, seat, film, or any other product or information on this site, or if you wish to point out that a product name or designation has been changed, I will of course try and rectify it as soon as possible. Just drop me an email - getting all legal on me would be as pointless for you as me. I try and rectify any unintentional errors as soon as possible, but by reading this website you agree that I am not liable for your own legal costs if you choose to get all legal on me rather than just letting me known under the Australian 'Without Prejudice' rules: indeed, if I may suggest, to go down this route first is pretty wreckless and downright odd. Note that billing me for your proir legal costs is not only totally un-enforceable, but is regarded by the courts as constituting misleading and deceptive conduct, and I may take it as such if you proceed in such a way. So don't email me a massive legal bill with bank details in Thailand to send all my money too (I presume the last three of these I've had have been spam anyway). Isn't it much easier to just drop me an email and have a chat about how you would like me to describe your wine, and exactly how you'd like the label spelt? Or indeed, maybe I could describe to you what wine might be better in the cabin anyway.
"Why do you use basic HTML, instead of Flash presentations and other ways to make your site prettier?" Simply because many of my readers will be viewing this site from a slow or dial up connection, on computers which have primitive browsers. Sure, I could make the site wizzy with lots of animations - but this would make the site pretty much unreadable from an internet cafe in Bangkok, or from the internet pillars at Sydney airport. I have deliberately kept all the information on each airline on one page, rather than splitting it up into sub-pages with links - so that readers can view all the information in one go, and compare the airlines. Alas as all the pages I have are vast - if you print out the Singapore guide on A4 it goes on for 47 pages - and if I then put it all with wizzy animation, it will take hours to load. As it is, each page should load on dialup in less than one minute. True, this makes the site look rather amateur, but then it is (it is after all, just something I do as a hobby). And in any event, for me, content is king, not the look of the site.
"Why are you so obsessed with the wine available on the flight? Although I occasionally see a few passengers drink alcohol on board, it is hardly part of the flying experience..." Perhaps not if you fly with airlines based in the USA, but most other passengers like their G&Ts or the odd beer. A good selection on board can make a short dull flight quite fun, and that is why all scheduled European & Asian Airlines (except bmi) offer a free bar service longhaul.
"How many free flights do the airlines give you?" None at all. I pay for all my flights myself, and never alert the airline to the fact that I'm on board. If I'm lucky enough to get upgraded, it's because I use the methods described on the site. I will add however, that being in the top tier of the Frequent Flyer clubs of many of the airlines does pay dividends on this score.
"Can you fly in First on Singapore & BA and compare the two services, before I book my flights to Sydney?" I would be delighted to, when I win the lottery. See above - I book & pay for all my own flights. I accept no payment or free upgrades from the airlines, so unless I get real lucky, I'm afraid you'll have to wait until my numbers come up.
"I love your pictures. Can you send me them all please for a book/article/TV item I'm thinking of writing?" Thank you. Yes. And no. I can't send you them all - there are vast numbers of them. If you already have the proof of the article ready, please send it to me, and then we can negotiate terms.
"You say the SQ245 is a 777-200 with non-bed Raffles. I was on a 777ER beded with Wisemen3000. Why can't you be more accurate?"
! I'll leave the arcane definition of which aircraft type is on which rosta to the anorak brigade. I can only tell you what is on the scheduled service - but, as the airlines warn, aircraft types can change at short notice.
"You say the QF Dash 8 has no air conditioning. In fact the Dash 8 has a pressurised cabin"
Please read the page. I say no air-con that works on the ground. QF's early Dash 8s have no APU that powers AC. And when it comes to aircraft, please see above. I'm purely interested in the service on board.
"Why don't you start a forum on the site for people to add information, or discuss your content?"
Because again that would bias my editorial integrity. While I always do value feedback, I like to maintain an objective overview of the content. There are plenty of forums on the internet discussing everything from the very good airlinemeals site (alas, this site has recent collapsed due to the illness of the father of the editor), to the terrible and really rather hopeless Skytrak - a site which just turns into passengers ranting about the checkin staff: hardly objective! Then again there is a good forum about collecting frequent flyer miles, Flyertalk, but despite its size there is a small hardcore clique of posters, but it is very intimidating for anyone new genuinely asking for information, where they generally get a kicking from the clique, who will then rapidly go off topic and discuss the latest Tesco promotion. Having said that, if you fly a serious number of miles each year, I do thoughly recommend joining in the discussions on good techniques that can really ramp up your mileage earning. There is also airliners.net, but this is of little interest to the ordinary passenger or anyone other than the few people who like to really know what plane they are on, and the professional pilots rumour network. Again, good, but this deals with the minutie of which pilot wants to get on a soapbox about their airlines latest shenanigans. Finally the good loungeguide.net does offer very good review of premium lounges - but thats it. Nothing more. And for those who want to know where to sit there is Seatguru.com however (I personally believe with an honestly held opinion) it is notoriously inaccurate, with major mistakes on most non-US airlines, and can be pretty much ignored. So it all comes back to there should be a one-stop-shop for those non-experienced passengers who want to know what their ticket is going to give them. And there's only one place for that - and alas I seem to won the job of putting it on the net. Quite frankly, I wish I'd never started, and I now tend to go on & get a life, and only update the site when I'm actually sitting on the plane, thanks to the wonderful inflight internet access (less so, since Boeing Connexion was axed, but thankfully other airlines have alternatives).
 Airreview My trusty Toshiba libretto, working on the site at 35,000 feet. |
"So where and how do you write material for Airreview?" On my trusty Toshiba libretto: one of the smallest laptops that was available "back in the days" - it is 6 inches long by 4 wide, and with a battery that will last for 8 hours on a long haul flight. It's been battered by many, many adventures. For the past year or so while I'm on Sabbatical, my favourite place to update Airreview was in a bar in Malta, the First Class lounge at Bangkok, and on the beach in Sydney. And while we're about it, I write pretty much all the content in international airspace, so don't get all legal and say I wrote a review in Hong Kong so Chinese law applies (or whereever). It doesn't.
"Why do you keep on Emailing me?"
I don't. Have you received an Email from an airreview.com address? It is NOT from airreview. My email address has been spoofed by junk emailers. There is much more on the spoofing problem here. Alternatively, you may be receiving bogus Emails. Again, there is much more on the bogus address problem here. Sorry - these Emails are nothing to do with me, so I can't help you.
"Any more comments on the food, drink or alcohol that appears on airreview?"
Airreview is a non-commercial, not for profit blog, written by a non-trading individual, which does not market or promote any product listed, and does not make any direct or indirect commercial use of any name, and as such assert my rights as an individual writing a (non-marketing) review to be exempt from the relevant parts of Australian RSA regulations, UK licencing laws, and EU laws regarding alcohol, promotion, designation, and marketing. Also note that some products listed here are no longer sold, and some have either changed their name, product line, designation, area, or some other facet of their product. As such these wines, beers and spirits must be legally viewed within a historic context, in some cases dating back over two decades, when the product could legally be called and promoted under its original designation. Airreview promotes the responsible use of alcohol, and also respects the legal drinking age in countries where it is restricted. Airreview aims to correct innocent mistakes as soon as they are pointed out, and apologises for inadvertent omissions, but will not pay your costs in this respect. Correspondence on this matter will not be entered into. By browsing this site you agree to these terms and conditions.
"I hate Airreview. Will you just shut it down? You are telling people information they really ought to find out themselves."
a. It's your right to say that, and mine to disagree. b. No. c. That's the whole point of the site. Everything from the consumer magazine "Which?" to Haynes Manuals at launch got a kicking from people who already knew the information in them - but my point is that none of this information is out there in an easily digestible form other than on my site. So, I'll stick at it, thank you very much
"I love Airreview. I want to buy it."
See above on being non-commercial. I'm not doing this to make money. Please look up "altruism" in the dictionary, then learn something. And while we're about it, remember this site is run purely for fun, and run as a non-commercial entity, with no legal liability, with reviews published as in terms of personal opinion, and comments take the form of an opinion, and that the opinion is one which an honest person could have held the basis of any fact which existed at the time my opinion was published (in terms of the law), and there is no intent in any way to damage the reputation or trade of any company or entity. It you really object to my personal and honestly held opinion which I report as a person who reviews (in a personal way) many entitys or airlines - just drop me a line. I'm happy to talk to you: just don't send me a snotty letter asking me to transfer millions into your bank account as compensation for an alledge slight: I get dozens of those a year, and I've set up email filters so if you send me an email demanding money for a legal letter you are writing me, it is treated as spam and I won't get it. Equally, please keep the subject line as is - this is the fastest way to ensure it'll get past my hotmail filters.
Would you still like to Email me? Click Here.
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Page last updated June 2008.