Mundane travel thread

Train strikes on Saturday fucking up my plans for the Everton game.

Having to get Hull trains up, book overnight stay in Nottingham and hope EMR running ok to London on Sunday.

I've never met a train driver knowingly but I'd be tempted to punch the cunt in the face if I ever did.

Decent post, good work.

I'm conflicted. I support them in theory. BUT STOP FUCKING UP MY FOOTBALL PLANS.

Anyway, seems Northern are running, so I can still get there. Just going to be busy and a bit more hassle than normal.

Centrism in a nutshell

I'm curious the basis of your support for them? They seem well compensated for their role. Actually have more sympathy for the RMT folks who were striking and were on much much lower packages.

Flying to Bangkok next summer with sprog 1, 17 months old in May, sprog 2, 11 in May, and the wife.

Considering splitting the flights both ways and booking an airside luxury hotel with spa, bar and pool. Half of me thinks it is a great idea, and the other half of me thinks I'll be sitting in the hotel thinking we could be there already. Opinions?

We did that when we flew to Perth a number of years ago from the UK, we stopped for 24 hours in Singapore to stay in a nice hotel, get a proper sleep and get a few fancy foreign drinks in. 10/10 would highly recommend.

To be fair, there is a lot more to do in Singapore’s airport than there is in Perth.

Another vote for stop-over. Chance to visit somewhere you wouldn't normally, make it part of the trip.

It’s frustrating that most Oz flights now stop off in Doha/Dubai/Abu-Dhabi… places I have zero interest in visiting.

Singapore is lovely though. Both inside and outside the airport.

I don’t tend to do a stop, mind. I kinda like the hardcore long-haul experience, and I don’t have issues with jet-lag. Of course, I also don’t have children.

Make sure you visit Orchard Towers if you stopover in Singapore.

The four floors. Didn't realise that was your thing!

We’ve done the Singapore stopover en route to Sydney and enjoyed it (although I wouldn’t want to spend more than a couple of days there). But Bangkok isn’t as far as Sydney. If you’ve got kids settled on a plane, especially the young one, I’d do it in one hop and get what could be a pretty horrible experience for you and your fellow passengers out of the way as soon as possible. Then spend the extra time and money in Thailand. Of course your kids may be well behaved and seasoned long haul travellers, unlike most, in which case do the stopover if it’s somewhere you want to visit.

Different laws for each country but check local air taxes, if you want to leave the airport, they can add a lot extra costs to a short stopover.