At the Qatar press conference on January 12, 2016 in Beverly Hills, with LAWA Director Deborah Flint, His Excellency GCEO Akbar Al Baker, and Qatar’s VP for the Americas Gunther Saurwein (L-R) – Photo: John Nguyen | AirlineReporter
Qatar Airways held a press conference on Tuesday to highlight the carrier’s entry into the Los Angeles market, with His Excellency, Qatar Group CEO Akbar Al Baker, providing his insights into the new service, as well has having some choice words regarding what he views as an unwarranted attack on his airline by the three big US-based carriers. AirlineReporter was on hand to live-tweet the event, and Al Baker did not disappoint.
Our Air France A380 parked at SFO. Photo: John Nguyen | AirlineReporter
Thanks to Delta, I found a smashing deal to fly an Airbus A380 for the first time, and not in economy! My wife and I were married late last year, but postponed our honeymoon because we wanted to visit Europe during the warmer months.
We lucked out and found a very low fare valid for this past September, from San Francisco to Istanbul, in the Premium Economy section of Delta partner Air France. This would be our first time flying the A380, as well as the first time in decades flying on Air France. I was cautiously optimistic about what flying Premium Economy would be like, and I subscribed to the mantra of, “anything’s better than coach,” or even my flight on a CRJ-200 the day before.
Due to the rapid popularity this new safety video from Air New Zealand, our guess that many of you have already seen it. But we wanted to make sure that if you haven’t, you get the opportunity and if you have — well heck, it is worth another gander.
Doing safety videos like this are cleaver for two main reasons. The first is it makes frequent fliers stop, watch and be reminded of what to do in case of an emergency. Secondly, they surely get Air New Zealand some nice publicity for coming up with some creative material.
Air New Zealand is not stranger to interesting safety videos and this is the newest of the collection starring adventurer Bear Grylls. Unlike other safety videos, which normally take place inside an airline cabin, this video takes place in the great outdoors. During the video Bear runs into entomologist Ruud Kleinpaste and local New Zealand animals like the Tuatara (lizard), Kia (bird), and Weta (insect).
More than just a video, there is also a contest where you can win a trip to New Zealand. Count how many times you see the Moa (that big crazy looking bird) and enter at AirNZSafety.com.
Air New Zealand is known for their high-quality product and a bit of quirkiness, and their unique safety videos. The have had some winners, but with their last one, I was not a huge fan. My favorite was their one featuring Richard Simmons, but I could see it getting annoying if you fly the airline often.
The airline’s newest safety video is inspired by the upcoming move, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I am guessing that Air New Zealand did not do this out of the goodness of their hearts, but they have a deal with New Line and MGM to help promote the movie. I am okay with that, especially since the video is quite entertaining.
It is more than just your average safety video. Look closely… there are “secret Elvish codes,” and if you enter them on the airline’s special website, you can win a trip for two to New Zealand. I suggest paying attention to the safety video on-board the plane and search for the clues on the ground via this video.
So what do you think? How does this compare to the airline’s other videos? It seems to be popular with almost 3.7million views at the time of posting.
