Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for October 2018.

Blood-soaked Towel as Passengers Hospitalized After Turbulence On Miami-Buenos Aires Flight

airplane cart spill
Oct 19 2018

When the seat belt sign is on, wear your seat belt. When the seat belt sign is off, but you’re in your seat wear your seat belt.

Yesterday’s Aerolineas Argentinas flight AR1303 from Miami to Buenos Aires provided a strong reminder of this important lesson. Our of 192 passengers on board 15 were injured in turbulence after the plane reached cruising altitude, including 8 who were taken to the hospital on arrival in Buenos Aires.

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British Airways Launching Service to… Charleston, South Carolina?

house on hill
Oct 18 2018

British Airways announced new London Heathrow service to Charleston, South Carolina. The flight goes on sale tomorrow and will operate twice weekly between April 4 and October 24.

It’s seasonal service. It’s just twice a week. And it will be operated by a Boeing 787-8 with 35 business class, 25 premium economy, and 154 coach seats. Boeing 787 aft fuselage parts are manufactured at Boeing’s North Charleston site.

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Passenger Lawyering Up After American Airlines Refuses to Accommodate His Smoking as a Disability

american plane
Oct 18 2018

It is reasonable to be frustrated by a three hour delay. It is reasonable for a smoker to be itching for a cigarette after going without one for several hours, though that’s something to plan for and there are myriad strategies for managing this. It is not reasonable to ‘lawyer up’ and claim civil rights have been violated when an airline employee wasn’t willing to escort a passenger out of the post-customs inspection section of the terminal.

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American Express Introduces Premium Cabin Airfare Discounts via Online Chat

amex promo
Oct 18 2018

For years American Express has had an ‘International Airline Program’ for Platinum and Centurion cardholders which amounted to 2-for-1 business class tickets provided you were buying full fare.

This has had limited usefulness for many cardmembers, often full fare business class is about twice as much as discounted advance purchase business, at most you’d save a few hundred dollars buying business class for two passengers. A limited subset of cardmembers, though, found this very useful.

Last June they revamped the program and made it much more useful. And now you do not even need to call to use it.

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4 Takeaways About Airfares and Passenger Experience From United’s Earnings Call

lounge
Oct 18 2018

United is sticking to its guns as the only airline refusing to let passengers bring carry on bags onboard when buying basic economy fares. They’re opening two more Polaris lounges and may re-evaluate the number of business class seats on board some aircraft. And airfares have a lot more room to rise — and passengers will pay up and keep flying.

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Hertz Becomes First Non-Airline to Join the SkyTeam Alliance

clooney hertz
Oct 17 2018

Hertz has just announced that they’ve become the first ‘non-air affiliate’ of the SkyTeam airline alliance that includes Delta, Air France KLM, Korean Air and others.

While more marketing tie-ins can be better than fewer, a car rental company is a somewhat strange brand to launch with. Renting cars is so nine years ago. Hertz was once the rental company for business travelers. In this extended montage from Up in the Air when George Clooney is grounded in Omaha he wants to buy a Chrysler Sebring from Hertz.

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