Geo772

The main reason strobes will be flashing on stand is that engineering will be performing a check of the external lighting as part of the routine maintenance of the aircraft. Strobes, Beacons and Navigation lights are checked as part of a Daily check, while other lights will be checked at slightly longer intervals. Landing and Taxi lights faults are usually obvious to the flight crew who will report them in the aircraft technical log.

There are also certain maintenance activities which require beacons to be used. This warns other ramp workers not to approach the aircraft, for instance when running an engine or stand or moving control surfaces. These activities will always be accompanied by a headset operator who will be the eyes and ears for those on the flight deck.

LondonAussie

Bit of a random one, currently on an A319 that�s seen better days (broken coat hooks, seat pockets with holes in them, etc). One thing I�m a little more concerned about is the inner window pane slightly dislodged, leaving a crack I can fit my finger through. Pointed it out to crew who said not to worry� but did want to ask what the purpose of the inner pane is. It feels like plastic, which I suppose makes sense but had never thought about it before and assumed it was glass.




Sorry not the best photo and unsure how to make it smaller .

The middle seat fold up tray on these older aircraft seems a much simpler and better design, also.

Waterhorse

It�s there to stop bored and silly passengers getting to the real windows

LondonAussie

That's very reassuring, thankyou!
Today I am that bored and silly passenger.

FlightDetective

The train from Seattle to Vancouver is wonderful, very relaxing indeed.

I went on it about five years ago - https://travelupdate.com/cascades-amtrak-train-review/

Robert279

Or the Victoria Clipper via Vancouver Island and the BC Connector and Ferry to YVR (slow - but a great trip)
Or Harbour Air's seaplane / floatplane (quick)

fbrdky

Have you considered flying from LGW? I'll be flying LGW-YVR in mid August (Avios redemption ticket in Y). I chose LGW over LHR as it gets me into YVR a bit earlier, even though the hardproduct (old 77W vs A350) is not as good

Statusless Person

Hello all

I am curious about the concept of ticketing. I have read a few things recently about individuals not being ticketed although a traveller has paid for a ticket. It appears this is a process that is connected to, but is different from, the mechanism of purchasing a ticket. I am wondering why this is so. Is this a hangover from the days of paper tickets, outdated/different IT systems or something else?

From a customer perspective, I would have thought that if I search on BA.com (or any other site that will allow me to purchase a BA ticket), find a ticket that BA is willing to sell me and purchase that ticket and the transaction is successful, then that *should* be everything done and dusted, but in some cases at least, it isn't.

Thanks in advance for any enlightenment.

SP

KARFA

It usually is related to how you book and how payment is taken. So if you pay online it would be very rare not to get an email eticket within a few minutes.

If you book over the phone, and if your details are taken but it has to be sent off to a back office to complete, then it is possible payment isn't taken and it isn't ticketed in the 5-7 or so day period before the CVV number drops out.

IAMORGAN

This is what I have gleaned from being an armchair observer, in hopefully an easy to explain sort of way!

A reservation/journey/itinerary, a ticket, and a payment are all separate.

The reason is that airlines such as BA all sell via multiple methods (channels). For example, not just ba.com but also travel agents, or via BA�s other partners such as Oneworld alliance member airlines to facilitate connecting journeys all booked in one fell swoop.

If you think about it, all of these different systems have to be able to talk to each other and buy and sell in real time. As I could be on ba.com in London looking at the last seat on a flight from London to Aberdeen on ba and you could be at the same time on the phone to American Airlines booking the same flight to Aberdeen from London on ba, but connecting via London from New York on American. John Smith could be sat in Brisbane changing her trip from Sydney to Aberdeen via London on the Qantas app and somebody else could be a PA logging on to a travel agent�s portal to book a flight to Aberdeen.

To put it simply, there has to be a way of that kind of airline ticket interchange / stock market, reconciling all the credits and debits (in most of those cases the customer is not paying BA directly). Before we�ve got into the fact that John Smith needs a wheelchair but could walk up stairs, wants his air miles credited to Iberia and wants his bags tagged all the way.

So you have an itinerary/booking - the �wrapper� in which all that data is held.

A ticket which is generally your �proof of purchase� / voucher / coupon / purchase order saying this person can fly from wherever to Aberdeen on the following terms. The ticket may need to be issued by one airline but used on another airline�s flight. Unless BA is to see in the bank account of American or the travel agent. But the ticket isn�t a reservation on a flight. Your ticket could be valid for 6 months.

Your reservation on each flight (segment) which can only be fulfilled if you have a valid ticket (coupon).

When you change flights, that coupon/purchase order value needs to get put back onto the ticket, so that it can be redeemed on the changed flight, as imagine on the New York example the trip was changed from the American Airlines flight to the BA one (part of Oneworld) - how does BA know you�ve paid American (or more correctly, how does BA know American is going to pay BA for carrying American�s customer)? Answer lies in the ticket (coupon).

It made more sense in the olden days as your paper ticket�s coupon would be collected. Nowadays the same thing happens, but electronically. That�s why, particularly with travel agent bookings or where bookings are changed, there can be ticketing issues.

Just like on a train - how many times have you heard the ticket inspector (Train Manager) say �that�s your reservation not your ticket�?

corporate-wage-slave

The one thing I would like to add to that relates to that final paragraph: an awful lot about how this area works right now stems from the days of paper ticket and a small metal plate that was used to roll over the carbons via an imprinter. So AA got the first plate number, 001, and BA got plate 125. A travel agent or ground agent would use their nail file to flip out the plate and hey presto they were issuing tickets for another airline. You collect in the money - ideally beforehand - and then closer to travel you write out the ticket, roll the bar over to imprint the ticket, perhaps with multiple sectors, and thus multiple pages in the ticket booklet. But it was only at the gate that the coupon could be collected and banked by the airline - they could exchange these coupons for real cash since they could prove that they had provided transport. In those days tickets could often be endorsed to another carrier with a little sticker attached, and totally inflexible, use-it-or-lose-it tickets were relatively uncommon.

So when you make a complex change to a ticket now, it may require human intervention to get the new fangled electronic version of the ticket issued. If for whatever reason it wasn't done then it was equivalent to paying a travel agent for the ticket, but then trying to travel without having collected that paper ticket from the agent.

MattHedges

Is it just a myth that some passengers buy 2 adjacent seats so that no one will sit next to them. Does it happen and how do they do it at time of booking.

What if a fellow passenger sees the vacant seat and parks themselves there hoping to give their iwn companion more space in another seat. Can the passenger who booked extra seat complain and how will it be handled.

KARFA

there is a proper mechanism to buy a comfort seat, see under "Booking an extra seat for additional personal space" https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...ving-your-seat

what won't work is simply buying two normal tickets since the non existent person would just be offloaded some point before the flight since they don't show up to the airport or the gate on time, and that seat would then be available to anyone else such as standby passengers etc. you would have no ability to prevent someone else sitting in that spare seat.

MattHedges

So with a paid comfort seat for extra space, no one can use that vacant seat and the staff will be aware to prevent it from happening or rectify the situation in favour of the person who purchased the comfort seat....?

Can I help you

Correct.