Qantas

So the A-Z Challenge letter of the day is Q. I was very tempted to write one of my usual travel snapshots on Queenstown, the capital of adrenaline sports in New Zealand. Queenstown is beautiful and fun … what a combination! However, I like to include photos with my travel posts and in the case of Queenstown, quite unbelievably, I don’t have any! I was so wrapped up with the bungy-jumping and white water rafting that I just didn’t think to take the camera out 🙂

Try as I might, I couldn’t think of anywhere else I had been that started with Q. And then it struck me … how do I get to all these wonderful places around the world? Well, coming from Australia (a place some would say is the largest island in the world … although I believe given it’s sheer size and the fact that it is a continent, it can’t technically be an island as well but that’s a question for the experts) I get to all these wonderful destination by air. I travelled with a number of airlines but given our letter of the day … the one hat springs to mind in Qantas.

Image taken from http://www.qantas.com

Qantas is the national carrier for my homeland and is affectionately known as The Flying Kangaroo. I feel the need to mention the spelling right off the bat … contrary to the usual rules of the English language, there is no “U” in Qantas. The company was originally formed in Australia’s Outback in 1920 and was named the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service Limited (Q.A.N.T.A.S). Its current day headquarters are in my home town of Sydney. Qantas is one of the world’s oldest airlines and given that it has never lost a plane or crashed a jet, it is one of the safest in the airline industry. I don’t know about you, but that’s kind of important to me 🙂 They are an airline that are conscious of supporting Australians too … from their sponsorship of sporting teams such as the Qantas Wallabies (Rugby Union) or their partnership with the Olympic and Paralympic committees, to their willingness to put on chartered flights to evacuate Australians from global disasters or terrorism acts globally … they do put effort back into the community. Like many airlines, they are a Frequent Flyer program as well … which I have found very handy indeed! There are a lot of fantastic airlines out there, I have several I use frequently but Qantas has a special place in my heart. I have numerous travel related tattoos but the largest by far is on my right rib-cage. My entire side is covered with a Qantas Boeing 747-400, complete with contrails. Now that’s loyalty lol 🙂

 

This post is part of my contribution to the A-Z Challenge for April 2016

Click here for a list and links to my other challenge posts!