What were The Flight Detective’s Top 15 articles for 2023?

Each year at this time, I will put together my most viewed articles for the year. I’m a little late this time, as I was busy between Christmas and New Year and somewhat distracted. For your patience, you get a Top 15 to check out.

Some of my favourite articles appear in the list this year, which always makes me happy. In past years, some of the things I dashed off in five minutes or less proved very popular, while pieces that took a lot of research did not fare so well. As usual the headings are the links to the article.

15. Robin Day Explains His Design Philosophy Behind The BOAC Super VC10 Cabin

I’ve always loved the Vickers VC10 and I own quite a few books about the British aircraft. For some reason I was on eBay and someone had posted a supplement for a magazine in the 1960s clear enough for me to transcribe.

This was written by the interior designer of the cabin, Robin Day. I found it fascinating, which is why I reproduced it. You can visit the website for Robin and Lucienne Day here.

14. Have You Seen This Hilariously Cheeky Lufthansa TV Commercial From 1967?

A fantastic TV commercial from 1967, with all the trimmings such as sexist humour, boobs (yes, really) and more. I had to post it and it was quite popular.

I think I must have contributed to the video getting some attention from YouTube. External linking was disabled and you are only able to watch it if you search on YouTube now. The one you want is “Lufthansa Boeing 707-430 Commercial – 1967” – you won’t regret it!

13. When Booking A Flight, What Does 5 Seats Left Really Mean?

Originally published back in 2019, this one always does well year in, year out. Educational articles like this are always handy because irregular flyers would not necessarily understand this.

Luckily it’s one of those things that never changes, so it’s just as relevant today as it was five years ago. It’s also pleasing to see an article that has legs!

12. How Much Do Cabin Crew Get Paid At Ryanair In Dublin?

Once upon a time, cabin crew salaries were shrouded in mystery, and you only found out if you were one of the lucky ones who landed a role. Things have changed in the intervening years and now the amount tends to be spelled out in detail.

Salary transparency should be across all industries. All roles should have the salary on offer explicitly stated in the employment advertisement. However, I know that is not an opinion shared by everyone.

11. What Was It Like Flying American Airlines From New York To Los Angeles In 1954?

There is a veritable treasure trove of video on YouTube and it’s fantastic that some really vintage stuff has been digitised and uploaded. Travel back in the day was different, yet also comfortingly similar in many ways.

I hope that one day, the airlines pay to have these gorgeous old films restored and put on their inflight entertainment systems for everyone to enjoy. They are real time capsules of a bygone era and I love them!

10. Qantas Is Leasing Finnair A330s And Some Aussie Frequent Flyers Are Revolting!

I quite liked the double entendre in the heading and it certainly attracted attention. The fact that Finnair has arguably a better long-haul business class seat than Qantas tickled me, especially when I noticed some Australian frequent flyers trying to disparage it.

Parochialism is alive and well down under and there’s always another new surprise when I go back to my home country. Still, it’s always a nice place to visit!

9. Revealed! The Unique Qantas Boeing 767 Split First/Business Cabin

I have to say I was dreadfully proud of this one! When I was a kid, I had a brochure showing this unique configuration and when I remembered it I could not find any pictures of it online.

As I was itching to write the piece, I e-mailed the Qantas Historical Foundation and voila! They found the brochure, scanned the relevant pictures, sent me a LOPA PDF and Bob’s your uncle – an article was born. It was very well received!

8. Nice! Dublin Airport Preclearance Security Is No Longer Required (For Some People!)

Travelling to the USA and Canada from Ireland should be everyone in Europe’s first choice. Passing through the customs and immigration formalities before you take-off means you land in the US, collect your bag and go.

You originally had to go through security in Dublin, then go down to Preclearance and do security again. Sense has finally prevailed and I believe Dublin has now been certified to a standard that satisfies the USA, meaning no second check. Happy days!

7. Review: American Airlines’ Surprisingly Good Premium Economy

I always find that anything to do with economy class or premium economy does really well. The reason is because the blogger market is saturated with business class and first class reviews.

Most people just want to know what their economy class flight is going to be like. Smaller pool of people writing about it, larger target market and therefore these always do good numbers. What a shame I have to fly economy to get them though!

6. British Airways Adding Extra Food And Drinks For Economy Passengers

What was I just saying? The proof is in the pudding, though that wasn’t one of the new items on the BA menu. It was more about the ice cream service, which is just fine with me.

Of course, there was also the return of the welcome drink for World Traveller Plus customers. When you’re paying for premium economy, you should get something like that, so it was certainly high time this came back.

5. Qantas Reveals Their A220-300 Seat Map – With Secret Extra Legroom Seats!

Qantas quietly released their Airbus A220 seat map, putting it online without any fanfare. Eagle eyed readers of a certain aviation forum immediately cottoned on to the secret extra legroom seats.

Naturally, I was quite happy to mine that information and turn it into something for everyone. Hey, we all crib from here and there from time to time, only I try to make sure what I write is factually correct, unlike certain other sites.

4. Review: American Airlines Business Class Dublin to Philadelphia, The Flight With No Window

For some reason, sitting in an A side window seat with no window had me really irritated from the second I spotted it. I really like seeing outside on daytime flights, and I was deprived of the opportunity here.

While there is usually a row without a window in economy, it’s pretty much unheard of up the pointy end. Now I know which seats I will avoid like the plague when next flying AA.

3. Review: Aer Lingus Transatlantic Economy Class From Dublin To Chicago

It had been a long time since I had flown on the big Shamrock across the Atlantic. Therefore it was interesting to see how they were doing things in 2022.

My only gripe was that I chose a window seat. The person beside me slept for the entire flight, so I was particularly antsy confined to my seat. Remember, economy flights should be aisle seats all the way when travelling alone.

2. Why Did A Qatar Airways Airbus A340 Land At St. Maarten Yesterday?

Another one of those, “people are talking about it on an aviation forum” finds, this one proved to be the most popular of all the articles I wrote this year.

Happily there was video and so I popped that into the article and off it went. It’s always nice to see something very popular straight out of the gate!

1. I Almost Bought Seats On A Ryanair Flight, But Realised That’s Silly And Here’s Why

This one hails from mid-2021 and has been an evergreen article ever since. It helps that it is about Ryanair, Europe’s most popular airline, and is about seats, for which you must pay. Or should you?

It keeps chugging along year after year, so who am I to complain? Especially as it was written during the pandemic during one of the periods where we were not locked down.

Overall Thoughts

I have been exceptionally busy this year with lots of new things taking my time. That has meant fewer articles than previous years, but there’s plenty of fun in store for 2024.

I’ll be heading to Australia in February on Qatar Airways, in business class to Doha and onwards in first class. That should provide some interesting reviews and there are other plans as well.

Thank you for reading, as always. Some of you have been with me for quite some time and I do appreciate that. Special kudos to those who take the time to comment, especially when sharing memories of certain airlines or aircraft. You know who you are! I wish you all the best for 2024.

Like planes? See my “Does anyone remember” series.
Flight reviews your thing? Mine are all indexed here.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.