The fail-safe way to upgrade to business class!

Ever been on a ten hour flight and looked longingly towards the front of the cabin where those business class folk recline in luxury in their soft, padded, leather-bound, luxury seats?!

Yep, me too. I mean, they don't even have to contend with the thought of suffering from DVT on landing or painful muscle cramps causing you to jump, bolt upright in your seat on multiple occasions during the flight. Ok, seat space may effect me more than most due to the fact I'm a tad on the tall side, but an upgrade to business class sure would make a long-haul flight a more bearable for anyone.

So, how can you actually go about getting an upgrade into the elusive business class section?

Many upgrades happen because it makes sense for the airway. By moving you, they can make room for a larger group if the flight is close to capacity. Therefore, if you are a lone traveller you have a far greater chance of an upgrade for this reason. This upgrade tip is especially true in the school holidays when flights are more family orientated.

But without a doubt, the best tip is to just be polite! Its a simple yet effective way of making an impression on the staff at the airport and on the plane. If you're brave enough, just ask politely at check-in or once you're on the plane. If you come across as relaxed, charming and well-dressed you can certainly increase your chances!

The story of the season: flight cancelled for safety reasons - shock, horror

So that’s the Festive Season over with, snow is on its way, and it’s time to think of holidays. Happy New Year!

The big aviation story over the Christmas period was all about a group of children on their way to see Santa at Rovaniemi in northern Finland just before Christmas. Rovaniemi is in that part of northern Finland that forms part of Lapland, though any self-respecting Sami will tell you that the word Lapp is pejorative and that the area, that spans northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and part of Russia, is in fact Sameland. But I digress.

The big story of the day was that these children, their families, parents, grandparents, Uncle Tom Cobbley and all, had gone to Manchester Airport at the crack of dawn in a state of excitement to see Father Christmas, who purportedly resides in Sameland, despite the fact of his origins being those of St Nicholas of Myra in Turkey. Well anyway, after some waiting around it turned out that the flight was cancelled, as the pilot was concerned that the weather conditions at Rovaniemi would not be conducive to a safe landing.

When the story the was taken up by the media you could not turn on the TV, go to a newspaper’s website, or turn on the radio without being regaled with a tale of woe about how cruelly disappointed these dear children were, with the newsreel being repeatedly re-played, with airport scenes of distraught parents - so distraught in fact that the police had to be called in before they attacked staff members. Oddly, it was the parents that appeared to be terribly upset, while the children appeared stoic.

In all the drama, it didn’t seem to occur to any of the journos, parents and the like, that it is better to be disappointed and alive, than on your way to see Santa and risking a tricky landing.

Pilots have to make loads of decisions about safety, and it is important that airlines put safety above all else, something that the grown-ups who were weeping and wailing at the airport, and the media frenzy that followed them, might remember.

Welcome to Life Above the Clouds!

Thank goodness for the Wright brothers! For it was they who designed and built the world’s first practical fixed-wing aircraft, which proved to be the prototype for the planes that we know and love today. Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully took to the air in 1903, and since then, with ever improving technology, aircraft have developed from precarious flying machines into the jet engine powered planes of today that take us on short holiday hops to nearby countries, or around the world on long haul.

Thanks to planes, by the end of the sixties reasonably priced package holidays abroad had become a reality for most people in the UK, and once-popular British seaside resorts went into a serious decline as a result. By the seventies and eighties long-haul flights to the USA, Asia and Australia were no longer the preserve of the well-heeled, and increasing numbers of people started to consider travel further afield.

Now it is possible to fly non-stop from the UK to the Far East, and flight is becoming a little greener with the introduction of planes such as the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which will use 20% less fuel than similar sized planes.

In Life Above the Clouds I will be blogging about flying, flights, flight destinations, airports, airplanes, new flight routes, bargain flights, cheap flights, business flights, luxury flights, security, most popular routes, and anything else that springs to mind in terms of being in the air in the pursuit of hot destinations.