Welcome to the Planetflyer website, with flying-related stories from being a passenger to being an aviation nut and geeking out in museums. You can also click on the map below to see where in the world they took place.
The Planetflyer articles appeared originally in the Blogspot Planetskier series, at TGR posts, or at the Relaa website. See also the articles about skiing, caving, urban exploration, climbing, cycling, swimming, and saunas.
All flying-related articles:
| DFW's AA Flagship Lounge vs. Capital One Lounge. Which is better? If you flying to or from the North America on Finnair, the changes are that sooner or later you'll have to fly through Dallas Forth Worth airport. This presents a major first world dilemma: should you use the American Airlines Flagship Lounge or the Capital One Lounge? Both boast to be the best. But what's the truth? Full story March 2025, Dallas Fort Worth airport, Dallas, Texas, USA Flying | |
| PLANEWEAR - Best airport shop in the world? I was flying through the Seattle-Tacoma airport, and I run into an unusually interesting airport shop. And maybe not just interesting, possibly the best ever airport shop that I have ever seen, anywhere. At least for plane enthusiasts! Full story March 2025, Seattle-Tacoma Airport, Seattle, Washington, USA Flying | |
| Tire Change Oopsie, this will take some time. Apparently the front tire had to be replaced on my plane. On the gate! Full story January 2025, Belgrade Airport, Belgrade, Serbia Flying; Travel | |
| DAT flight Finnair has a large fleet, but in the last couple of years they seem to be having to lease other planes. Today I was on a Berlin-Helsinki flight that was flown by Danish Air Transport or DAT plane, an A320. Nice seats, decent service (including frequent flyer benefits for Finnair, like a free drink). Full story January 2025, Berlin Brandenburg Airport, Berlin, Germany; Helsinki-Vantaa, Vantaa, Finland Flying; Travel | |
| Turkish Airlines long haul experience .. in the back This was my first experience flying Turkish Airlines on long-haul flights. I had initially wanted to get the cheap tickets from Frankfurt to Ulaanbaatar on Mongolian Airlines, but they didn't seem to be available on my dates, so I opted for going from Helsinki to Istanbul and then to Ulaanbaatar. The layover in Istanbul was only an hour and five minutes, which was unnerving. But I made it, so did my luggage, and overall had a happy experience with Turkish Airlines. Full, hot meals on intra-European flights, eyeshades for the tourist class passengers, etc. Nice! Full story January 2025, Helsinki-Vantaa, Vantaa, Finland; Istanbul International Airport, Istanbul, Turkey; Chinggis Khaan International Airport, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Flying; Travel | |
| Hattivattis heading for the exit I just love the Moomins. Visited the Moomin World countless times (including going skiing there). This is why I am always delighted when I pass by the Moomin shop at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Although this time, the Hattavattis (Hattifatteners) seemed to be on their way to the exit ... Full story January 2025, Helsinki-Vantaa, Vantaa, Finland Flying; Travel | |
| Iberia Business Class We had a four day mini-vacation in Spain, Andorra and France, on Finnair flights. Except that the Finnair flights turned out to be operated by Iberia. Apparently Finnair is wet leasing the Helsinki-Barcelona route flights from Iberia. So, Finnair tickets, lounges, and system, but Iberia service. We managed to upgrade ourselves on one leg of this trip using points that would have expired otherwise. Full story December 2024, ElPrat Airport, Barcelona, Spain Flying | |
| Menolippu kaikkialle - Ticket everywhere I bought Anna-Katri Räihä's book "Menolippu kaikkialle" (one-way ticket to everywhere) for myself this Christmas. Have not read it yet, but looking forward to it! Anna-Katri is the first Finnish woman to have travelled to all countries in the world. That's quite an achievement, the few hardest ones must have been very challenging or even dangerous. Well done! Full story December 2024, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland Travel; Flying | |
| LOT to Balkans Finnair flies to a lot of destinations, but one thing it does poorly is flying to Greece, islands in the Mediterranean, and countries in the Balkans except for Croatia in the summer. One can use Lufthansa of course, but I've been often disappointed with them canceling and delaying flights left and right. There's also KLM (which I have good experiences of, recently) and Air Baltic (which I have not tried enough, despite their nice new planes). However, combining a Finnair flight to Warsaw and onwards with LOT is also a good option. Full story December 2024, Helsinki-Vantaa, Vantaa, Finland; Warsaw Airport, Warsaw, Poland Travel; Flying | |
| Helsinki-Vantaa Special Baggage Helsinki-Vantaa has always been a nice place where your skis can re-unite with you on the regular baggage belt. But no longer! Now you have to go to Special Baggage Belt (belt 1) to get them! Full story December 2024, Helsinki-Vantaa, Vantaa, Finland Flying | |
| Space Sauna We visited Cité de l'Espace, a science museum dedicated to space exploration in Toulouse. It is a wonderful museum for the kids to explore, though I was not super impressed as most of the displays were replicas. But one thing that definitely caught my attention was the Mir space station (replica, of course), and in particular the shower and sauna tank they had. Full story December 2024, Cité de l'Espace, Toulouse, France Flying; Sauna (None) | |
| Musée Aeroscopia This has to be one of the best aviation museums in the world, in the top five or ten at least. What a find. We did not intend to visit France, originally, on our short four day vacation. We already had two countries to visit... but .... having found this, there was no way we could not visit this one too. I'm really glad we did. Full story December 2024, Musée Aeroscopia, Blagnac, France Flying | |
| Count adventures, not calories True wisdom from Iberia! Full story December 2024, ElPrat Airport, Barcelona, Spain Flying | |
| Dublin Airport T1 Lounge While I'm flying economy as always, I have some status with Finnair which lets me in various lounges. At the Dublin airport I visited the T1 lounge. Didn't have too many expectations, but the breakfast serving was quite good, they had the usual hot stuff and bread and croissants. But also a good selection of juices, porridge, chia seed-based porridge, selection of cheeses, etc. Full story November 2024, Dublin Airport, Dublin, Ireland Flying | |
| Sauna, snow, and departure Trip to the IETF conference in Dublin started. But it feels like I’m going in the wrong direction when after a long warm spell it just now started snowing .. fortunately bumped to old friends at the airport. And managed to squeeze in a traditional stop at the airport sauna on the way in, too :-) Full story November 2024, Helsinki-Vantaa, Vantaa, Finland Sauna (Normal); Flying | |
| Helsinki-Vantaa Arrival Shop - Never a Chance to Shop What's up with the Helsinki-Vantaa's arrival shop? It does not seem to be open in the evenings or even during the day. The airport is busy, why not have it open? Full story October 2024, Helsinki-Vantaa, Vantaa, Finland Flying; Travel | |
This is the 1th set of articles. The next sets are set 2, set 3, set 4, set 5, set 6, and set 7.