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Prince Charles flies British Airways Club World- "Such is the end of Empire"

The Times of London reports on the Prince of Wales' diary re: flying BA to the HK handover ("Flying Club Class (!) the Great Chinese Takeaway):

... Of the outward journey, the Prince said that his British Airways 747 departed with a large party of official representatives from Britain and he found himself and his staff “on the top deck in what is normally club class”.

“It took me some time to realise that this was not first class(!) although it puzzled me as to why the seat seemed so uncomfortable.”

The Prince said he then discovered that other dignitaries, including Edward Heath, Douglas Hurd, “the new Foreign Secretary Robin Cook”, several former Governors of Hong Kong, Lord Wilson and Paddy Ashdown, then the leader of the Lib Dems, were all “ensconced in First Class immediately below us”.

“Such is the end of Empire, I sighed to myself.”

Another way to kill time on the internet: "Website allows monitoring air traffic communicatons"

From the LAT's Daily Traveler:

Website allows monitoring air traffic communicatons

Every once in a while I come across a website that just brings out the geek in me (I’ve taken lessons over the years on repressing the geek within). I found LiveATC.Net when I was researching the post below about the Turkish Airways plane that skidded off the runaway at JFK on Sunday.

Super size me, Prague style: Volunteer to spend entire month eating typical Czech food

From PragueMonitor:

Volunteer to spend entire month eating typical Czech food

PRAGUE, Feb 6 (CTK) - The Aerofilms company has hired a volunteer to spend an entire month eating nothing but typically unhealthy Czech cuisine as part of an experiment accompanying the local distribution of the feature documentary Super Size Me, Ivo Andrle from Aerofilms told CTK today.

Wearing a fake beard and pretending to be Richard Branson's brother- the art of blagging upgrades

Remember when Virgin had a campaign about blagging upgrades? The BBC visits the subject of upgrades for those who still want to try:

  The holy grail of flying               

Wearing a fake beard and pretending to be Richard Branson's brother - people will try anything to get a free upgrade on flights. So what's the secret?

The lure of leg room and free champagne can make passengers go to great lengths to get a free upgrade on their flight. Attempts include baking check-in staff a cake and wearing a plaster cast to fake a broken leg, according to one travel survey.

Staff at Virgin Atlantic even reportedly had one man turn up wearing a fake beard and claiming to be the brother of the airline's chairman, Richard Branson....