Travel plan idea blog

Virgin America 'Flightmare' / Some Golfing News

There have been several memorable stories during the last couple of years about passengers being stuck in planes for hour after hour due to delays; and the latest of these is the Virgin America flight from LAX to JFK that recently turned a 6 hour flight into a 16 hour ordeal. The story has been on the news and was even being updated on Facebook as it happened. Apparently the plane had to circle the airport for two hours due to heavy winds and then sit on the ground in Stewart for several hours, before the passengers were taken by bus to New York. Virgin America ended up apologizing and refunding the ticket price and awarding a $100 voucher for a future trip - which I think is quite fair. What does anyone else think...?

New legislation by the FAA effective in April means that airlines can be fined up to $27,500 per passenger if a plane is stuck on the ground for more than three hours and passengers aren't given the opportunity to deplane. For a full plane, this could mean a fine of over $3.5 million. I am flying to England next Friday (on US Airways) so I just hope we won't have any horrendous delays.

If you are a golfing fan, you probably know by now that Tiger Woods has announced that he will be playing at the US Masters next month in Augusta, Georgia. However, the Masters isn't the only golfing tournament coming up; if you happen to be in Siberia towards the end of March, you can enjoy the Baikal Prize Open Championship, a golf tournament played on ice. I was amazed to find that there are several ice golf tournaments held around the world, in Europe, Canada and South America. And in case you are wondering, apparently the most northerly golf course in the world is the Akureyri golf club in Iceland, which every year hosts the Arctic Open. The sun never sets there during June, so you can play golf even at midnight.

I wish I could say my golf was good enough to play in any of the above events, but sadly, miniature golf / putt-putt golf is more my game. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is considered to be the world capital of miniature golf, with an estimated 40 courses, some of which would not look out of place on the Las Vegas Strip. I haven't played any of these courses, so I think that would be a good excuse for a family vacation to Myrtle Beach this summer...

Guest entry by Mancunian

Posted by James Trotta at March 19, 2010 7:44 PM