qantas
Design
2:00PM Nick Broughall | If you ever find yourself flying cattle class in the Qantas A380 over to Los Angeles, at least you can take solace in the fact that the economy seat you’re sitting in won an International Design Award. More »
Qantas Economy Seat Wins International Design Award
2:00PM Nick Broughall | If you ever find yourself flying cattle class in the Qantas A380 over to Los Angeles, at least you can take solace in the fact that the economy seat you’re sitting in won an International Design Award. More » 
Entertainment
3:00PM Nick Broughall | The Airbus A380 has been flying in and out of Australia for over 12 months now courtesy of Singapore Airlines, but for those of you with a preference for flying Qantas, their first A380 has been flying for a couple of months. Lifehacker Editor and perennial traveller Angus just happened to get a seat on one of the new monstrously large planes on a recent trip to the US, and has reviewed the in-flight entertainment experience in his Road Worrier column. More »
Qantas A380’s In-Flight Entertainment Reviewed
3:00PM Nick Broughall | The Airbus A380 has been flying in and out of Australia for over 12 months now courtesy of Singapore Airlines, but for those of you with a preference for flying Qantas, their first A380 has been flying for a couple of months. Lifehacker Editor and perennial traveller Angus just happened to get a seat on one of the new monstrously large planes on a recent trip to the US, and has reviewed the in-flight entertainment experience in his Road Worrier column. More »
Press
747 Electronics Fail, Pilot Flies Blind Across the Pacific Piggy-Backing to Another Plane
3:59AM Jesus Diaz | According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the 284 passengers on board Quantas Flight 12–a Boeing 747-400 flying from Los Angeles to Sydney–couldn’t believe their eyes when they looked through their windows to see another Boeing from Air New Zealand flying just a few thousand feet from their aircraft. The explanation, as the commander announced, was simple: He was “flying blind” after their aircraft’s weather radar broke three hours after take off. Fortunately, as Qantas explained, the Air New Zealand flight was able to relay the data their 747 needed all the way to the other side of the Pacific: More »
Gadgets
Qantas Now Pretty Sure That Your iPod Didn’t Almost Crash Their Plane
7:00PM John Herrman | Early last week a Qantas Airlines Airbus A330 surprised (and injured) its passengers with an inexplicable 300ft climb, followed by an even larger drop. Initial reports seemed to place blame on interference from personal electronics — something that Qantas had claimed before. After the news made the rounds the situation became muddied, with Qantas claiming that the initial news reporting misrepresented their claims and reporters backing away from the story. In any case, rest easy, Australian in-flight gadgeteers — it wasn’t your fault. More »
Press
Qantas Looking To Blame A330’s Sudden Drop in Altitude On Passengers’ Gadgets?
3:45AM John Mahoney | Earlier this week, a Qantas A330 inexplicably climbing 300 feet then nose-diving back down. In the cabin, 71 people were injured. Interestingly, the ATSB is now looking at in-cabin interference from personal electronics as a possible cause of the “irregularity with the aircraft’s elevator control system.” Wait, what? Really? AU: I feel the need to clarify this: the original article on this stated that investigators were looking at “onboard computers” being the cause of the sudden dive. An enterprising (and unnamed) journo at AAP decided that “onboard computers” must mean “passenger laptops” and hence the rumour was born. While the investigators havent ruled out passenger laptops as a possible cause, they also haven’t ruled out the possibility that the co-pilot rendered the entire cockpit unconscious with a stench-laden, in-flight meal-fuelled fart (okay, they may have ruled that out). My point is that this is a media beatup fuelled by some shoddy journalism. You may continue flying with your gadgets without fear of dying. UPDATE: Check out this APC piece by David Braue about the whole incident. It’s a good look at the real facts involved with the story. More »
Phones
12:02PM Nick Broughall | Someone at Qantas loves the iPhone. Not long after they announced that they had an iPhone friendly website available, they’re now unveiling plans to let travellers check in without paper, instead using their iPhone’s screen as their documentation.
From the sounds of the announcement, it will be available for a number of mobile devices and PCs – not just iPhones. They’re also planning on allowing online check-ins for international travellers (currently only domestic travellers can check-in online).
The process will involve having a 2D barcode sent to your phone after you check in online, which is aimed at speeding up the check-in process.
[Qantas via APCMag] More »
Qantas Wants Quicker Check-Ins With Your iPhone 3G
12:02PM Nick Broughall | Someone at Qantas loves the iPhone. Not long after they announced that they had an iPhone friendly website available, they’re now unveiling plans to let travellers check in without paper, instead using their iPhone’s screen as their documentation.
From the sounds of the announcement, it will be available for a number of mobile devices and PCs – not just iPhones. They’re also planning on allowing online check-ins for international travellers (currently only domestic travellers can check-in online).
The process will involve having a 2D barcode sent to your phone after you check in online, which is aimed at speeding up the check-in process.
[Qantas via APCMag] More »
Online
9:29AM Nick Broughall | A few years agio at CeBit in Sydney, you could gain entry be scanning a barcode that you’d received via MMS on your phone. It was awesome. Then it disappeared, never to be heard of (by me) again. But now, according to Danny Gorog over at APC, the next generation of that tech is on its way to iPhone users around the country, with Qantas developing ways for you to check in to your flight using your iPhone.
It’s still a little while away yet, so in the meantime you’ll have to settle for just being able to browse the Qantas website in a format especially designed for your iPhone. ANZ and NineMSN are also jumping on the iPhone-friendly website bandwagon, although both only have limited functionality as well at the moment.
The real question is though – is this just a few companies trying to leech some of the iPhone’s neverending hype machine, or are they trying to create a truly convenient service using the iPhone’s impressive feature set? Only time will tell…
[Qantas for iPhone via APC Mag] More »
Qantas Jumps On The iPhone Jet, Hopes It Doesn’t Fall Out Of The Sky
9:29AM Nick Broughall | A few years agio at CeBit in Sydney, you could gain entry be scanning a barcode that you’d received via MMS on your phone. It was awesome. Then it disappeared, never to be heard of (by me) again. But now, according to Danny Gorog over at APC, the next generation of that tech is on its way to iPhone users around the country, with Qantas developing ways for you to check in to your flight using your iPhone.
It’s still a little while away yet, so in the meantime you’ll have to settle for just being able to browse the Qantas website in a format especially designed for your iPhone. ANZ and NineMSN are also jumping on the iPhone-friendly website bandwagon, although both only have limited functionality as well at the moment.
The real question is though – is this just a few companies trying to leech some of the iPhone’s neverending hype machine, or are they trying to create a truly convenient service using the iPhone’s impressive feature set? Only time will tell…
[Qantas for iPhone via APC Mag] More »
Networks
1:58PM Nathan Taylor | At the end of last week, Qantas revealed that it would be offering in-flight Net access on domestic flights by the end of the year. The service will appear first on domestic B767-300 and A330-200 aircraft.
It also revealed the technology it would be using for its service. You’d think Wi-Fi would be the sensible choice, right? Apparently, you’d be wrong. It’s using a mobile phone base station designed by AeroMobile to provide GPRS connectivity to mobile phones. The base station will also provide text messaging support, but no voice call support (the technology is capable of voice, but Qantas isn’t turning it on).
To access the Net while you’re on-board, you’ll need a mobile phone with international roaming and GPRS support. Of course, if you want to access the Net from a PC, you’ll also need a PC connection kit for your phone.
We have no idea of the pricing as yet, but given it’s based on an international roaming profile, we expect it to be very, very expensive. We’ll keep you posted as more details come to light. [apcmag.com]
More »
Qantas Providing Internet Access and Texting on Domestic Flights
1:58PM Nathan Taylor | At the end of last week, Qantas revealed that it would be offering in-flight Net access on domestic flights by the end of the year. The service will appear first on domestic B767-300 and A330-200 aircraft.
It also revealed the technology it would be using for its service. You’d think Wi-Fi would be the sensible choice, right? Apparently, you’d be wrong. It’s using a mobile phone base station designed by AeroMobile to provide GPRS connectivity to mobile phones. The base station will also provide text messaging support, but no voice call support (the technology is capable of voice, but Qantas isn’t turning it on).
To access the Net while you’re on-board, you’ll need a mobile phone with international roaming and GPRS support. Of course, if you want to access the Net from a PC, you’ll also need a PC connection kit for your phone.
We have no idea of the pricing as yet, but given it’s based on an international roaming profile, we expect it to be very, very expensive. We’ll keep you posted as more details come to light. [apcmag.com]
More »
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