A semi-serious blog entry as there’s been a bit bounding around about referral fees and affiliates and as such on various other blogs, and how it affects the quality of the blog information (i.e. a blog entry turning into an advert for a product).

I’ve been watching this very carefully and how others are handling the situation, and thought it is best that I state my position on the matter.

I have updated my Links, Ethics and Legal notes page (which is reviewed at least every 2 months), which contain the main messages to these changes:

Funding
Links may contain content that have been linked to advertisers. GhettoIFE.com cannot take responsibility for the offers listed or given by our advertisers.

Referral links may be offered to you that may offer some compensation to either this site, our affiliates or to the visitors. These will be kept to an absolute minimum and will be listed appropriately. Your consideration of using these links is appreciated if they are offered.

GhettoIFE.com does not provide nor receive commercial endorsements unless specifically stated in a post.

Reviews and Opinions
Any reviews are the opinion of the author only and reflect what the author saw at time.

Opinions are based on the authors thoughts and not through commercial incentives.  Should a commercial incentive be a factor, it will be declared within the report.  Additionally, commercial gifts will be declared to the blog if it is deemed by the author that it may impact the reading of your report.

In addition, I’d like to draw your attention to the following specific types of products and how they will be handled:

• Credit Card Spamming – is off the the table.  Most of you have been inundated with Chase’s Sapphire Card as being the best piece of plastic on on the planet. As the blogger is in the UK,

1. I’m only going to show UK credit cards when deals
2. Cover them if they are are updated, appropriate and of reasonable value, and importantly
3. No affiliate links will be made available – only direct links to the product in question.

• Groupon Deals – are on the table if they’re are interesting and relevant to the subject (and if I’m blunt, these are becoming rarer by the day).   You won’t see these otherwise from me.
• Quidco/TopCashaback (etc) affiliate link – If there is a good deal via Quidco, I’ll point you in that direction. If you haven’t signed up to Quidco, an affiliate link will be provided, with a 50/50 split on a new member joining. This I suspect will be equally rare.

I still intend GhettoIFE to be still as independent and sarcastic as ever (even after the move to BoardingArea), and to hold both airlines, governments to account where needed, to handle news that comes in a balanced format, and my reviews and trips covered in  own unique manner. Similarity, I will continue to focus on the content of this blog, honing in on UK and Europe Coverage as a default, with interesting World coverage.

By removing the temptation of affiliates and such, I feel can look after my writing better. Heck, I might actually use the spell checker every now and again.

Whilst I have no issues how others choose to run their blogs, I hope this clarifies my personal position on how this blog operates.

If you have any questions about these minimal changes (and in-fact the most I did was bold a couple of things, tidy up the spelling in a couple of paragraphs), please feel free to email me at blog@ghettoife.com or use the comments box.

For those remotely interested, I can list what gifts I have received by writing this blog (other than your comments):

• 1 Polo Shirt (large)
• 1 T-Shirt (large)
• 4 Pens
• 1 box of business cards

And yes – that’s it so far…

Thank you for reading

I’ll take a moment to stop yattering about A380′s, Boeing 787′s, Mad aircraft deployments and all the normal stuff that I talk about about – to talk about something a bit more important today – Remembrance Day.

If it was not for those people who have given their lives in conflicts around the world, it would simply be not possible to travel the world in freedom we expect today.

On the 11th hour on the 11th day in 1918, the Great War (World War 1) ended.

In the fields in France and Belgium, poppies grew disturbed by the soil from the fighting of 4 long years.

As is tradition in the UK, both on the 11 (the day of the armistice) , and on the Sunday that follows, respect is given for two minutes silence for those who have fallen in past conflicts.

See http://www.poppy.org.uk for more information

The words can be heard in service after service through the land:

They shall grow not old,
as we that are left grow old;
age shall not weary them,
nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun
and in the morning,
we will remember them.

Well from the looks of it, we’ve migrated and have arrived at BoardingArea.com safely!

For my new readers, Welcome to GhettoIFE! This is a very different sort of Frequent Flyer blog to the norm. I’ll be focusing on UK and Europe mainly, but also I’ll be casting my eyes worldwide on the latest happenings. In addition, you’ll find out things such as:

• My Travels
• Airplane Photography
• Safety Videos
• Analysis on the days events
• Direct and forthright comment when the need occurs
• … and all the details in life down the back of the plane (and on the rare occasion, on the front of the plane)
• And for those who are confused what GhettoIFE is, head here

GhettoIFE.com is updated once or twice (or even three times) a day depending on what’s going on in the world when I’m at my base, and a lot less frequently when I’m away travelling.

All the posts have a slightly twisted and humours bent, and of course comments are open. Please feel free to drop your thoughts in.

For my older readers, yes it is business as usual. Well mostly usual. As usual as it gets for me.

You can also find me on Twitter at @GhettoIFE where I’ll post the odd thing.

It’s great to be here, and it’s great to have you all aboard. Lets fly!

Ok. I give in.

I’ve been resisting this, but I suppose I have too.

As of today, you’ll be able to follow me on Twitter at @GhettoIFE (http://twitter.com/#!/GhettoIFE)

This isn’t the biggest change at GhettoIFE.com towers however. There are some more changes that are in the pipleline… some very exciting ones from my point of view.

I’ll be making an announcement on those changes when the time comes. But for now, it’s business as normal. With a Twitter feed.

(and yes, this early morning post is sort of becoming semi-regular now…)

Hello gentle readers (both new and old). A few announcements:

1) More old trip reports are appearing as I get the chance to tidy and press publish.I’ve added:

• If you’re going to San Francisco – The SFO MegaDO 08 – with BMI and United  – LHR-SFO-LHR (also on FlyerTalk  
• Gold Run – Mr Kevincm Goes to Washington with Aer Lingus and US Airways – BHX-DUB-PHL-LGA-DCA-BOS-PHL-DUB-BHX (also on Flyertalk)
• Come and be Scared with US! – LHR-PHL-SEA-PHX-ORD-PHL-LHR with US Airways  (which posted itself by accident)
• There are a couple redux trip more on the boil – I’ll be placing them online in the next couple of weeks as and when (including some classic BMI trip reports… when BMI was an airline and not a joke!)

2)  I have a backlog of posts I am slowly working though (least of all – an Analysis of ANZ’s new seats, Deltas seats). Whilst I can’t bring everything to the plate quickly, I’ll cover bits and bobs as time allows.

3) Highlighted titles -You may have noticed I’m using **’s in my titles for important breaking stuff. I’ll continue too to mark out if something important has happened in the world.

4) More GhettoIFE related stuff. As I come up to my next round of travel in March, I’ll be looking more at devices that fall into the GhettoIFE category and seeing if they’re any good, or if they’re really toilet. I’ll also be publishing my guide to building GhettoIFE for the Apple iPhone and possible adaptation methods for other devices (of course if any manufactures wish to have their device “accredited”, feel free to drop me an email)

5) The Airplane p0rn section is growing each week. For some reason, A330′s seem to be very popular at the moment.  Got a request? Drop it into my inbox

6) The Tagline at the top has changed. Sometimes shorter is better

I can’t count still.

Thank you again for choosing and viewing GhettoIFE.com!

Wishing you all Happy New Year and safe travels over the coming year!

GhettoIFE.com will be out and about next year with more travels, and will keep ontop of the stories, the fun and the madness that is the world of civil aviation especially in these times.

Note: Yes – It’s an automated posting that I wrote the day before. I’m probably in bed when this goes live

Well it’s Christmas day in GhettoIFE land.

May you day be peaceful with your IFE (In-Flight Entertainment) working – be it inbuilt, custom made or a television in your front room with you and yours safely.

… yes I do have a minor web empire. And minor, it’s very small – but hey – lets do some shameless self promotion.

• On Photoblog (you can access the most recent entries on the left hand bar), It’s the Christmas season, so it’s time for the Advent Calendar that’ll be running all December. Have a look – it might put you into the semi festive spirit.
• On Raven Imaging (It’s one link on the left with the letters NSFW – I’m sure you know what that means), I’ve been busy with my camera again.  If you want to see what I do professionally, pop along and have a look.
• On GhettoIFE.com, it’s the usual commentary, analysis and everything else that GhettoIFE.com does well. During Christmas and New Year, there’ll be lots of Airplane p0rn to keep everyone happy (also I’ll be having some personal time. The joys of automated posting.).

It’s a pleasure to have you aboard GhettoIFE as we cruise into this festive season.  And Thank You  for reading!

It’s winter cleaning time here at GhettoIFE.com towers – so over the next few weeks you might find that certain keywords are being enhanced to increase visibility and user friendliness.

Ok. That’s the airline spin version – now for the translation

I’m cleaning up the blog a bit as the labels/keywords list is getting a bit unmanageable.  It should hopefully slim down a bit, with duplicates, variations and bad spelling errors being wiped out along the way – however it is taking time and will be done in a couple of weeks.

Thank you for flying GhettoIFE.com!

Bit of blog adim between Delta trying to take over the world and the Dubai airshow, it’s time to congratulate Gray at Wing and a Prayer as he has migrates from WordPress to Boarding Area Business Travellers Blogs

His blog competes with mine in dry humor and sarcasm, but has some very good adventures including a great East European and Iraq adventure, as well as news and views with an Anerican slant (including a close watch on United Airlines… which no one does at all)

Congrats again Gray – Enjoy the cookies at Boarding Area

The real world is keeping me a bit too busy at the moment due to the joy of the return to work and my friend’s graduation.

There should be a post a bit later on – I’ll be rounding off the ERJ-170 post a bit later today.