News and notes from around the interweb:
- How a credit card is made. (The actual, physical card, not the benefits.. which themselves involve a negotiation between card issuer, card network, and co-brand partner.)
- Another US Airways flight gets hit by a truck. That’s costly, and they’ll need to make it up somewhere in merger synergies…
- The observation deck on top of the old Encounter restaurant at LAX will re-open Saturday. It’s one of the many great places at LAX (like the In ‘n Out Burger next to the Sepulveda Parking Spot location – free bus!) to watch aircraft.
- The end of digEplayers? Alaska’s CEO says they’ll add servers to their planes and start streaming 1000 movies inflight in a year.
- Good Costco joining deal.
- The Truth About the Luxury of Qatar Airways (HT: Lucky) It is a biased article with an axe to grind, for sure, but also reflects an underlying truth (and the airline’s treatment of its non-European employees is likely worse). It strikes me more a story about life for foreigners in Middle Eastern countries than about any specific company, as well.
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“It strikes me more a story about life for foreigners in Middle Eastern countries” – Be that as it may, if this is the life that their employees have to endure, we should not turn a blind eye towards the situation. When the working conditions of the labor force employed by the Walmart clothing suppliers in Bangladesh or Cambodia or Vietnam are revealed, something is done. There are severe consequences to maintaining slave labor in the US – the Saudi female being held behind bars in California and the Indian diplomat being sent packing, being the two recent high profile examples – why should we ignore and excuse the doings of Qatar Airways? If one wishes, he/she could refrain from talking about it in a travel blog, but once it is brought to the table, one cannot turn a blind eye towards it, just because it has nothing to do with the inflight service. Either don’t soil your hands with this story or once you have, don’t limit the discussion as if everything non-travel-related is ancillary. Of course, you are the owner of and the final authority on your blog.
Ugh please don’t like to pointsandpixiedust. Her blog is the most vapid of all the boardingarea sites. Most of her content is completely useless and she clearly seeks every opportunity to post affiliate links. I cringe every time I see one of her postings. Do you guys let any blog join boardingarea now?!?!
My Citi AA card cracks every couple months and I have to get a replacement. How much are they really saving making such cheap thin cards?
Back in 1995 it was a plane that hit a de-icing truck at Montreal-Mirabel airport. It was a B747 and didn’t end well: 3 people died. Radio procedures were changed everywhere afterward.
Kudos on posting the Qatar Airways story, Gary. As the story itself indicates, the regimented plight of the Qatar Airways flight attendants is lousy but pales in comparison to the (mainly) South Asian workers carrying out more menial tasks for the airline and in Qatar generally. (There have been numerous reports of particularly egregious violations and even deaths suffered by construction workers employed for building the upcoming World Cup venues.) Still, to the extent your travel blog can peel back the glossy veneer of some relevant companies’ policies and practices, it’s good for all of us to learn from your links and comments. Personally, it makes me all the more interested in reading and referring others to your blog.
I am not sure why the QR article is being called biased. Commenters on Lucky’s blog confirmed that QR is worse than EY & EK when it comes to employee relations. The article is seems to be pretty factual when it comes to labor relations in Qatar and demonstrates that QR has levers of power that it uses to keep workers in line — e.g. sponsorship system and needing an exit visa.
@Ivan Y – biased isn’t the same as wrong, just selective and with an agenda. Nonetheless useful.
I had an opportunity to visit a credit card production plant as part of a work project. Absolutely fascinating with the number of controls in place, including how they deal with the hologram stickers, and separation of personnel between card production and card personalization.