JFC Travel Blog

This is the first time I’ve tried KLM’s rail-air service between Amsterdam Schiphol and Antwerp. The main reason for taking this routing rather than a direct flight between London City and Antwerp on VLM was the prospect of earning Flying Blue miles. (more…)

There’s a few articles floating around showing ‘expert’ research from Holiday Which magazine that states that flying is cheaper than rail travel, however these people never consider like for like. (more…)

VLM Airlines, the airline that operates the largest number of services from London City Airport, has announced an increase in capacity on their London - Rotterdam route. (more…)

A friend and I decided to take a weekend trip to Rome. We booked our flight on Alitalia flight number AZ0209 from Heathrow to Leonardo da Vinci/Fiumicino International Airport (FCO). Unfortunately, I had a little trouble getting to Heathrow thanks to delays on the London Underground and by the time I got there, I felt quite stressed. Thankfully, the queues for security in Heathrow were unusually small and quick and I was glad to be able to relax a bit in the Alitalia lounge and have a beer or two before we left for our flight to Rome. (more…)

Popular frequent flyer discussion site FlyerTalk is currently down and had been inaccessible for the past few hours. It’s a very useful resource for frequent flyers so hopefully the problems will be resolved soon.

UPDATE: It’s now back

Anyone who has travelled through Europe, the US or one of a growing number of other countries has probably noticed the latest addition in our defences against terrorists and that’s the war on water.

Ever since the UK was the subject of an alleged terrorist plot to blow up airlines with liquid explosives we’ve suffered from rules that do nothing to prevent terrorism but just make life difficult for the normal traveller.

First of all, an xray can not detect explosives, there’s no way for a security officer to know whether your 100ml bottles of liquids are what it says on the label. So they say that’s why we have to use small containers so the quantity is too low to cause damage, but people can just combine their allowances when they get through security. But then they say that’s why the allowance applies to the bottle size and not just to its contents (e.g. you can’t carry 50ml of liquid in a 500ml bottle), not having a larger container makes combining the amounts difficult, however you’re allowed to buy larger drinks bottles past security in the shops so they can just buy a bottle of water when they get through and empty it.

So even if liquids are a threat this will not make any difference whatsoever. There’s too many ways around it. All it does is divert the screeners attention away from looking for more serious items in luggage.

Instead of investing to improve our security the governments would rather that their screeners spent so much time checking that people’s shampoo bottle is the right size rather than improving security to realistic levels. It’s disappointing that more and more countries are following suit.