Flying ..

I'm writing this blog while flying over just south of Kansas City right now .. yep, on a flight :). This is a Virgin America flight from Washington Dulles to San Francisco and it has on-board wifi! I had to pay $12.95 for it but 6 hrs of wifi on a flight for that price when the plane ticket was $110? Anytime! (Oh yeah, this plane (an Airbus A320) has power in every seat too.)

I just tried a Skype Out call but that didn't quite work as well as it could've. That's ok; I'll still accept the wifi!

I flew from Colombo on Emirates .. Colombo to Dubai on a 777 and then on one of their new A380s from Dubai to JFK. WOW. I have to say that plane is absolutely as quiet as everyone has claimed .. its incredibly comfortable. I didn't have the pleasure of being upstairs (which is where business class and more is) but even the economy seats had power, a USB connector to play my media on the inflight entertainment system etc.. Combined with the always awesome Emirates service, that was an amazing flight :).

I first went in a plane in 1980 .. from Colombo to Muscat, Oman where my father was then working. I started flying long distance in 1985 when I came to the US. In the last nearly 25 that I have been flying back and force from one side of the world to the other, I can't say that air travel has improved significantly in terms of the time it takes to get from Colombo to the US or the convenience. However, once the quality of Emirates combined with the comfort of A380 style planes and now wifi on board become more prevalent, I think that equation finally starts to shift in the right direction.

Next all I need is a non-stop flight from Colombo to JFK and another to SFO. The planes can do it now .. just a matter of getting the economics to work. Then I'll be in flying heaven! A one-day meeting in the US would not be outrageous to fly to then ;-).