News and notes from around the interweb:
- Nothing actually scary here: “Malaysia Airlines plane took off in Auckland and flew in the wrong direction – and the pilot didn’t realise until he asked why he was heading towards the Southern Ocean”, in fact the pilot was following his filed flight plan, and sought a more direct route a mere 8 minutes into flight. Total flight time was no longer than usual for the flight.
- Honored to be included in Nomadic Matt‘s 7 best travel blogs of 2015.
- A luxury hotel in Dallas kicked out all the guests to welcome the homeless for Christmas.
- An argument for why Boeing’s swap with United of existing 787 orders for 777 orders was the aircraft maker’s best deal of the year
- The ongoing tug-o-war between the federal government and states over drivers license requirements which of course impact the security checkpoint. DHS says they’ll give at least 120 days’ notice before declaring a state’s drivers license insufficient for security screening.
Few expect the federal government to declare travel difficult for a state’s residents (especially that the federal government will do that to a Democrat-leaning let alone battleground state before the 2016 elections). Remember also that you can clear a checkpoint without any ID at all, you have to answer personally identifying questions and it takes more time.
- Post-holiday Blues: the Complete Guide to Selling Unwanted Gift Cards for Cash
Hi Gary,
Please focus on your excellent work on airline cabin, food, and loyalty program and don’t go on the operational topic: it’s irrelevant.
Suddenly it’s Christmas time and nothing is in the news so everybody write about something that is not even a incident.
They were mislead by the previous day’s flight plan and corrected it via ATC once airborne. That’s it. The screenshot and article title are absolutely not at the level we are used to as frequent readers.
Regards.
@jeanjack – I made the explicit point and in bold that this story, which is making the rounds, is a non-story. So we actually agree..
@jeanjack-
With respect, this is not a paid service, it’s a blog and Gary can chose to write about whatever he wishes. You can also choose to disregard an article you don’t find relevant.
More like attempted sensationalism, and linked from the perfect tabloid!
If you do not have any ‘valuable’ news to impart, don’t trawl the gutter for it.
Certainly doesn’t do you any credit.
The funniest part about “selling unwanted gift cards for cash” is that a huge part of the marketplace is basically built around retail theft. People steal from a store, return for “store credit” aka “gift cards” and then re-sell those cards at a discount. This will become immediately clear when you realize that things like Starbucks cards sell for a much higher percent of original value than say Home Depot or Target – because you can’t steal from Starbucks and get a gift card. This costs those businesses billions. Very few sales are “unwanted gift cards.”