An Iranian passenger jet operated by Sepahan Air crashed Sunday morning after takeoff in a residential area near Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport. Thirty nine people were killed and nine onboard were injured. The plane apparently was an ‘IrAn-140’ — a twin-engine turboprop that’s a variant of an Antonov An-140 assembled in Iran. The flight was headed for the city of Tabas, about 580 miles southeast of Tehran. The plane suffered an engine failure and its tail struck an electricity tower before impact. My thoughts are with the families of passengers, crew, and anyone injured on the ground — as well as with Sepahan Air. Much information that comes out in the immediate aftermath of a disaster turns out to be wrong, so some of these details may change. It’s too early to identify a cause, although…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for August 2014.
Here’s Why You Should Consider Connecting In Dublin On Your Next Europe Trip
About a week ago, the UK’s Telegraph ran a piece, Is Dublin Airport Eating Heathrow’s Lunch? The answer is clearly no, because London remains an important world business destination, even if it’s an abominable connecting airport. And Heathrow remains terribly even transferring British Airways-to-British Airways… last year my Dusseldorf – London – San Francisco connection involved two buses and a train as I arrived at a terminal 1 bus gate, then had to bus to terminal 5, and we departed out of a T5 satellite concourse. If you’re going to connect in Europe, Dublin is a really good place to do it. If you are starting or ending your trip anywhere west or north of London, it’s a no brainer not to fly all the way to London (or beyond) and backtrack. Plus flying Westbound…
Here’s How to Fix the TSA, In Song
The TSA is offering a $15,000 prize for the best idea that improves the security screening process. TSA is looking for the Next Generation Checkpoint Queue Design Model to apply a scientific and simulation modeling approach to meet queue design and configuration needs of the dynamic security screening environment, Yeah, that makes sense. And that description may be part of the problem. Here’s the contest entry website. The TSA guarantees they will award a prize. A total of $15,000 is available, and could be awarded to one single entry. At a minimum there will be a $5000 first prize and there could be in theory (4) $2500 prizes (no prize under $2500 will be awarded). My good friends at ReasonTV released a video entry from Remy. He wins. (Shout outs for the prompt to K.K.,…
Free Upgrades, 50% Hotel Discount, Miles Purchase Savings, and Thousands of Bonus Miles: What You Need to Know Today!
News and notes from around the interweb: Earn up to 100,000 United miles flying between Chicago and Shanghai Finally! Someone agrees with me that
Your Credit Score May Go Up This Fall: What New Scoring Methods Mean for You
FICO credit scores are getting revised starting this Fall, with two big changes being made under pressure from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which wants to see more credit extended. Unpaid medical bills will be less significant in calculating credit scores Past unpaid bills will no longer impact credit scores if they’ve been paid in full or settled. These are changes that will affect a large portion of the population. More than 63 million people have medical collections on their credit reports More than 106 million people have collections of some kind on their reports, and nearly 10% of those have been paid in full All told, the credit scores of 60 to 70 million people could rise with these changes that roll out in the fall.
Here’s Why US Airlines Charge for Lounge Membership
Yesterday tommy777 went on an epic rant about US airline lounges and American’s clubs in particular. There’s no question that US airline lounges do not compare to their Asian counterparts. I’d disagree that European lounges in general are superior. I’ve been to too many contract lounges, shared lounges, and even some airline operated lounges in Europe that are awful. I’ll never forget the now-closed Boticelli lounge (Alitalia) in Milan where they gave you shower shoes because the drains were clogged. They didn’t have hot water, either. Or enough seating. And there were lines 20+ deep to get a coffee. Many South American lounges are equally bad. Nonetheless, it’s 100% true that American has offered the least free food. I don’t mind paid food options when those options are good, unfortunately they vary a lot from…
The Airline That Hates Elites
Frontier is compressing down to one elite status tier in their frequent flyer program. Starting February 20, 2015, the EarlyReturns program will retire Ascent and Summit elite status and launch a brand new elite tier, Frontier Elite. Status is earned by flying 20,000 miles or 25 segments during the calendar year. Members get: Priority check-in, boarding, and security Advance seat assignments Complimentary carry on bag Extra legroom seating at checkin only The ability to redeem extra miles for better award inventory Standby and same-day confirmed fees waived Unaccompanied minor fees waived Phone booking fee waived Notice anything missing? No free checked bags for elites No more change fee waivers No more advance seat assignments for extra legroom seating Dedicated elite customer service Bonus flight miles Complimentary beverages Free name changes Guaranteed flight availability How would…
Miami is the Airport of the Year! The Most Bizarre Passengers! The Best Korean Food..
News and notes from around the interweb: Miami wins an ‘Airport of the Year’ award from the Air Line Pilots Association. Naturally, they used a methodology that may even be worse than how US News picks the best frequent flyer program. Put it this way, I don’t trust any pilot to fly an airplane if they voted for Miami as being the best airport. I need to try this the next time I’m annoyed by an airline’s call center. 21 Photos of Bizarre Passengers on Planes (HT: Rob R.) What Makes a Good Korean Restaurant? (HT: Marginal Revolution) By the way, this one is very good. Lyft’s New Ridesharing Service is the Beginning of the End for Public Buses You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign…
Here’s American’s New Airport Lounge Strategy, and What Makes an Airline’s Lounge Indispensable (No Matter How Good the Alternatives)
I recently saw a photo cross my Facebook stream of a soda machine in the American Airlines Admirals Club in St. Louis and it somehow struck me. That was new. Pretty minor, but new. That small change anchored a sense that something was up, along with American opening a new lounge in Buenos Aires which looked pretty good. American also just opened another lounge at LAX, of all places in the midfield terminal used for regional flights. That’s something which would sure make waiting over there more pleasant, as it’s pretty barren otherwise. I spoke with Mimi Chen from American’s Premium Services to understand what was going on.
American AAdvantage Won’t Be Going Revenue-Based Any Time Soon
Yesterday I referenced an interview with Doug Parker, Chairman and CEO of American Airlines, where he said that American and US Airways would combine frequent flyer programs in the first six months of 2015. I noted that was intriguing because American has been clear it won’t combine reservation systems until the end of 2015. Instead of a big bang, combining everything at once, it appears they’re going with a phased-in integration. That to me was news — both the timeline, and that it appears to differ for the frequent flyer program and the airlines themselves. What I didn’t highlight were Parker’s reported comments about revenue-based frequent flyer programs.
