The wisdom of my accumulated air miles

It’s been a while since I dipped into the Fast Lane mailbag and, since it’s still rather full from the holidays, I thought I’d use the one hour and 35 minutes I have on this flight from Fukuoka up to Tokyo Haneda to trawl through some of the correspondence I’ve highlighted for follow-up.

As regular readers will know, I respond to most letters personally and save only the most frequently asked questions for attention on this page. With a call for a fresh round of checks on the Airbus A380 due to cracks inside its wings, it’s perhaps not surprising (given the number of air miles this column clocks up in a year) that there have been a number of aviation-related questions over the past few weeks.

. . .

Q: What’s your favourite aircraft for long-haul flights?

A: Despite the advent of the A380, I’m still a fan of Boeing’s 747-400 and eagerly await the launch of the new 747-8 at Lufthansa. I find the upper deck of the A380 oddly cramped and the lower deck too hangar-like, so it’s good news that there’ll be a new generation of Boeing 747s plying the skies. If I can’t get a 747, then my aircraft of choice is a Boeing 777-300ER flying for Singapore, Cathay Pacific, Air New Zealand or ANA.

Q: How do you feel about in-flight internet? I like to escape from work while flying and fear that the internet will be an intrusion.

A: If you want to run away from work while flying (particularly when it’s your company paying for the flight), then you’re in the wrong job and should use all that thinking time to consider a career change.

As for Wi-Fi-enabled aircraft, I liked Connexion by Boeing and, like most things, I can simply choose not to log in if I want a bit of peace and quiet. For sure, I don’t want people doing video conferences and holding up their computers so that friends and family can go on a virtual tour of the cabin, but there’s value in being able to keep in touch with the office and the rest of the world.

Q: Don’t you get sick of all those airports and the hassle?

A: I plan my travel very wisely and have a travel agent who really “gets it”. I know which airlines I like, the airports I hate, and plan accordingly. I’m trying to reduce my short-haul travel in Europe as it’s becoming as bad as the US and will do more rail – even if it means more days out of the office. Having just done a series of short-haul flights on Asian carriers (Singapore, JAL and ANA), a smart European carrier would follow the Asian model (bigger seats, bigger planes) and not the US model – which hasn’t been working for decades.

Q: What’s your verdict on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner?

A: The jury’s out. It’s still early days and there are teething problems that need to be fixed. The main issue is the ambient noise on board. When I flew from Frankfurt to Tokyo, there was a high-pitched whining sound that was most irritating. The ventilation is quite noisy too.

If I’m brutally frank, I think expectations are too high, as the aircraft is basically an update of the Boeing 767. As with all launches, there’s a lot of hype and Boeing has certainly made a big deal out of it, but it’s not a radically different experience for passengers. While aviation buffs will know better, I think most of the flying public are expecting an improvement on the 777 and unfortunately it’s not – at least from this passenger’s seat.

Q: Which are your top five airports in the world?

A: This changes from month to month – still, based on most recent travels, I’d vote for the Qantas domestic terminal in Sydney for its clean design, easy navigation and human scale. Across the Tasman Sea, the people at Auckland are doing an excellent job. Their airport is no beauty from the outside, but it has good proportions, excellent staff and a security set-up that should serve as a model for others to follow.

As I’m inbound to Haneda at the moment, I’d have to say this is a favourite – particularly its domestic terminals for ANA and JAL. Like Qantas’s facility, both ANA and JAL have long (rather than deep) terminals. Boasting multiple security points to help access gates more easily, Haneda doesn’t attempt to be tricky with grand architectural statements or service experiments – it just gets all the basics very right.

In Europe, it’s a tie between Munich and Helsinki, as both are well-designed for transfers and Lufthansa gets top marks for its lounges. Finally, I’m going to be sad to say goodbye to Berlin’s Tegel. It was designed with the passenger in mind and, on days when the security staff were agreeable and had a bit of caffeine flowing through their system, you could get from cab to aircraft in three to four minutes.

Q: Have you ever considered getting your pilot’s licence?

A: I think piloting a plane for business is best left to professionals. How could I pen this column if I was also flying myself to Tokyo?

Tyler Brûlé is editor-in-chief of Monocle magazine

tyler.brule@ft.com

More columns at www.ft.com/brule