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A Febre do Nespresso

Nunca fui grande fã de modas efervescentes. Uma delas é a febre do Nespresso.
Para mim café foi sempre sinónimo de sair e sentar na esplanada, a
conversar ou ler um jornal.
Não gosto do comodismo de ficar em casa por ter café lá, nem de beber
café sem estar a trabalhar.
Tendo mudado de casa e havendo mais frequência de visitas optámos por
comprar uma máquina de café para ter casa.
Decidimos ter uma que funcionasse a cápsulas. Vimos as máquinas
Nespresso, Nescafé e Delta Q.
Ganha a 1ª sem qualquer dúvida, pela variedade de tipos de café, e
pela maior probabilidade de haver falsificações de cápsulas.

O frenesim por esta marca, derivado da forte campanha com o George
Clooney estende-se à compra das cápsulas.
Já de si chega a ser surpreendente que num País habituado a bom café e
ao convívio, que ter uma máquina destas seja tão válido para afirmação
social.
Muita gente corre às (poucas) lojas para ir comprar as cápsulas,
quando as pode mandar vir pela net.
Sai mais barato comprar na loja, …

Tentáculos das 3 alianças na Europa

Portugal: 
Star alliance: TAP: regional, médio, longo. Forte para Brasil e Palop. 
Sem companhias do grupo LH.
OneWorld -zero
SkyTeam - zero desde que PGA absorvida pela TAP.
Indice de Lowcosts: Easyjet e Ryanair a invadir tudo


Espanha:
Star Alliance - Spanair, muito fraca, médio curso
OneWorld - Dominio total, IB+BA levam América hispânica. regional, médio, longo. 
SkyTeam - Em forte crescimento com a AirEuropa, regional, médio, longo. Competição tímida p\ America hispânica.
Indice de Lowcosts: Easyjet e Ryanair a invadir tudo


França:
Star Alliance: zero
OneWorld: zero, tirando a timida BA open skies
SkyTeam: Dominio total da AF, regional, médio, longo. Low cost transavia. Forte para todos os cantos do mundo, em especial os DOM-TOM.
Indice de Lowcosts: Easyjet e Ryanair a invadir tudo


Alemanha:
Star Alliance - Dominio total da LH, regional, médio, longo. Low cost germanwings
OneWorld - zero
SkyTeam - zero
Indice de Lowcosts: em Frankfurt-FRA e Munique não aterra uma que seja


Italia:
Star Alliance - a cres…

Comentário á Finnair e ao futuro da airlines de bandeira

Notícia: O Sindicato de Pessoal de Cabine finlandês (SLSY, na sigla original) está a amaeçar fazer greve na próxima terça-feira, 30 de Novembro, anunciou a companhia aérea Finnair.
De acordo com a transportadora, o processo de negociações com o sindicato está ainda a decorrer, mas, caso a greve se concretize, os voos da Finnair da da Blue1 serão fortemente afectados.

O aeroporto de Helsinki Vantaa passou para um segundo plano da aviação e a Finnair tem (e está) de encolher e perceber que vai ser uma airline periférica da OneWorld. Ninguém quer ir para Helsinquia se não for para negócios ou para turismo (nada do outro mundo). Não ficam ao pé de nada (aliás o Báltico Este é que fica ao pé deles) e não são centrais a nada.


A meu ver, e até prova em contrário, é mais uma airline que se tem de render ao ser potencial politico internacional e geográfico da Finlândia.
Estão mal posicionados, não tiveram colónias? Pois não há nada. Ainda vale terem imigrantes do Oriente senão nem valia a pena voar…

Would you have believed...

... 6 years ago that would once see T-Mac playing 10 mpg, having scoreless games, in a crap team that retains 3 starters of the 2004 championship winner?

And that Gran Hill would be playing as starter in the Conference finals, still playing an athletic game, throwing down a few dunks???

I'd, personaly, would have LMAO

Cubana's experience was-..

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Some conclusions: - Cubana service sucks and no way anyone should fly longhaul for 9 hours when UX (air europa) is about the same price. - Wanna fly Russian? Cubana has no accidents since 1999, so no so unsafe as people think - Internal flights are fixed and published price, and if they rob someone it is the airline and not the passenger - Cubana people may be too laid back, but are not incompetent nor bad tempered. If you are patient and polite, things get done. I saw the Captain in several flights talking hapilly with passengers without the "I am the master" attitude - Add 1 hour extra for check in all flights - The terminals are not pretty, but are reasonably functional - The Russian planes are OK, the interior is the drawback. Again, worth the experience. Flights to Canada are operated with 2 leased TACA's A320s, these are surely OK. - Spotting at the airports is something to be very careful about, the police make you switch it off if they see you. Avoid any proble…
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We decided to try an internal flight if operated by a russian airplane, options were Antonov 24, Ilyushin 62, the 96 again, and the Yakovlev 42. The Il62 flies only outisde the country, to Venezuela and the An24 we never understooed what were the destinations (Cayo Coco, maybe). The possibilities narrowed then to the Yak42 since we had manages to fly the IL96 without the 767 “danger”. Decision was taken ton Sunday 3rd of October to try Santiago de Cuba (SCU), 950km away from HAV, since the hotel asked us almost the triple of the rate of the first two days for extending our stay one night more. Booking online with Cubana is impossible, na internet only exist in some hotels, and some at 56k after passport registration. Cubana de Aviacion office does not open on Sundays so we went to the NH Hotel central Park travel agency in the morning. The lady there was surprised of someone wanting a tikcet for the same day as if such hurry was incompreensibe but was very helpful. We asked if we coul…

Aboard the IL96

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A few hours later we got the dinner, a tray with decent typical airliner meal. Only that the crew either threw or put it on the table with some violence, with a “eat and shut up” attitude. Food was OK, and we noticed they did not fill the soft drink glasses much and those were tiny white plastic cups that you normally buy 20 a pack in supermarket for picnics. After eating the pax converted the cabin into a living room and a bar was established in the rear galley, with surely being illegal as it was not announced and all was paid cash in a discrete manner. With alcohol pumping in the noise became higher until most of the people went to sleep. The crew had to ask via the PA for the noisiest to let the others rest (as no other type of time killer was possible). A female flight attendant dropped some drink on a 3 year kid sitting in the middle row, and continued without a word. The kid’s father was nearby and went to complain. The F/A had the “Shut the f**k up” face and the man pulled a f…