A must read for all FT'rs
Aug 15, 2005 | 11:01 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: London, UK
Posts: 1,987
A must read for all FT'rs
Few weeks ago I came across of very positive review of "Air Babylon" by Imogen Edwards-Jones in Sunday Express. I thought that such a travel related book would be available from airport outlets, but I was wrong. Despite of trying three times in last two weeks at LHR and LGW, I hit blanks. Eventually, on my shopping trip to Croydon last weekend I managed to get the book at Waterstones. It is a very entertaining read, even (as some claim) if it's not very truthfull in its contents. But if it is, then we all should be very worried... 
Last edited by DogHead; Aug 15, 2005 at 11:03 pm
Aug 15, 2005 | 11:15 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: ORD/MDW
Programs: BA/AA/AS/B6/WN/ UA/HH/MR and more like 'em but most felicitously & importantly MUCCI
Posts: 19,811
It's apparently not available in the States -- Amazon US shows it as "out of print, limited availability." The companion tome "Hotel Babylon" is available here though and looks like fun.
Aug 16, 2005 | 1:08 am
#3
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: OKC/DFW
Programs: AA EXP/2 MM
Posts: 9,999
This actually looks like a fun read although I am not sure it surpasses FT for interesting travel stories. But at any rate, I don't think MilesBuzz was the appropriate forum to post a thread about the book. Maybe TravelBuzz...?
Aug 16, 2005 | 4:15 am
#5
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 4,135
I read this book and must confess I really didn't rate it. It's bunch of airline staff anecdotes which have been fictionalised into one employee's day (a dispatcher type of character, who also is going on a long-haul staff travel trip at the end of his shift, natch).
The anecdotes were amusing / interesting to a degree (although to someone who's a regular on this board I doubt there's anything you haven't heard before) and while this might have worked as a collection of anecdotes written up in a non-fictional manner, the fictionalisation just makes it thoroughly unbelievable and irritating. Foe eg one guy dealing with 3 on board stiffs in one 24 hour period? 2 on the same plane? Come on...
The anecdotes were amusing / interesting to a degree (although to someone who's a regular on this board I doubt there's anything you haven't heard before) and while this might have worked as a collection of anecdotes written up in a non-fictional manner, the fictionalisation just makes it thoroughly unbelievable and irritating. Foe eg one guy dealing with 3 on board stiffs in one 24 hour period? 2 on the same plane? Come on...
Aug 16, 2005 | 5:18 am
#6
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: SIN and wandering.
Posts: 1,549
I have read "Hotel Babylon". The book is written in a fictional manner with all the horror stories that one expect to hear about hotels. Found it highly exaggerated as I had worked in a hotel and know how it is like. FT is probably a better read, and more real too! 
