News and notes from around the interweb:
- Who knew? Google Street View lets you tour a Thai Airways A380, first class check-in, lounges and even the first class spa
- Delta, which has sponsorship deals with both the Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks (the latter because they’re trying to buy some love away from Alaska in Seattle), picked sides in the teams’ upcoming matchup. Twitter was mad.
- Another silly Priceonomics piece relevant to frequent flyers, this time arguing that credit card interchange fees are a ‘tax’ failing to realize that the process of lending and providing for instant payment is actually a value-creating service. Retailers wish that was free of course, but get money in their bank instantly, reduce risk of employee theft, and don’t have to worry about bouncing checks. Interchange fees, once as high as 6%, are on a downward trend and will be competed down further by new technologies. They’re just not a scam. (HT: Bryan S.)
- Delayed flight is like child abuse. A Qantas plane went mechanical. The airline covered hotel rooms. The new departure was delayed two hours. And apparently there was a catering glitch.
“What really annoyed me is the business class people got a food service and there were a lot of kids in economy class that went 15 hours and they didn’t feed them.” … “Food and beverages were provided to customers throughout the entire flight but some economy meals were not loaded onto the aircraft due to a catering issue,” the spokesman said.
- Air India pilot caught shoplifting sunglasses at the airport.
- Japan’s railway keeping a train station open for just one girl until she graduates high school
At least Delta picked the winner.
Hah!
I’m a little confused about the Qantas flight. The passenger makes it seem like there are 15 hours of total delays. Sounds like five hours, plus a ten hour flight.
Plenty of blame to go around on this one but, without having been there, I wouldn’t be able to allocate it. From the airline’s point of view, shame on them for messing up the catering.
From the parents’ point of view, you need to be ready for something like this catering issue. My standard packing advice for snacks: Think of how much you need for the entire flight. Then double that amount. Then double it again. Then triple it. That’s what you’ll go through in the first half hour.