News and notes from around the interweb:
- Rapper Mos Def arrested trying to leave South Africa on a ‘World Passport’ after overstaying his visa. Because going through an immigration checkpoint with a passport not issued by any government is always a good idea. (HT: Loyalty Lobby)
- Reminder: You have only two days left to book any Amtrak Guest Rewards sleeper car redemptions before Amtrak’s new revenue based program goes into effect and it’s too late.
- World Airline Profit Outlook 2016: margins at a new high of 8.2%. Fertile ground for new entry
- Drunk perv got trashed, then molested my husband mid-flight.
Ricardo Caceres sat down in an aisle seat of a Hawaiian Airlines flight to New York on Saturday and immediately began boozing heavily, according to court papers.
Suddenly, the perverted flier allegedly began touching the chest, groin and belt of the man sitting next to him in the middle seat. The victim’s aghast wife was sitting in the window seat.
Surprisingly the plane didn’t divert. So how was your last coach experience??
- LAX’s connector between Terminal 4 (American Airlines) and the Tom Bradley International Terminal should be open in 6 weeks. If I were LAX-based I’d go out of my way to earn Oneworld Emerald status on a non-US carrier just to use the Qantas first class lounge whenever flying American.
- Like everyone else, United is making money on lower fuel costs but the market thinks it should be doing better than it is. Of course, low energy prices are a unique drag on United revenue given their hub in Houston.
- Airbnb is criticized by Palestinian Authority officials because they do not forbid residents of the West Bank to list their homes
Gary,
Your last headline “Airbnb is criticized by Palestinian Authority officials because they do not forbid residents of the West Bank to list their homes” is more than slightly misleading.
The Palestinian Authority does not forbid, or want Airbnb to forbid, residents of the west bank from listing their homes. The issue in the article is that the homes being listed are in SETTLEMENTS in the west bank, and recognized by the majority of the world, including the US government, as completely illegal.
First, there is the legality question of a US company supporting activity its own government has declared illegal (like a file sharing company in the US helping break international copyright law in Australia).
Second, in the particular case Airbnb is allowing illegal settlers to rent out those illegal settlements. Its no different than if someone went into some farmland out west, built a cabin, and started renting it out – owner of the lands be damned.
Even if you don’t agree with the politics, at least change the title to a slightly less misleading “in settlements in the west bank”
Drunken perv is “thought leadership”? Confused.
@Jed:
Dude, chill. Yes, he could have changed the wording a little, but no need to rant…
BTW – this a a far too complex situation to solve in a few sentences.
Hardly a rant. Just helping clarify. It’s not that complex an issue. He could have copied and pasted the headline he is quoting, for example.
I’ve seen Gary take much worse from those who have accused him of click baiting on headlines. He’s a tough guy and writes a great blog 😉
I think this was an honest oversight, so I wanted to point it out.
As a new business traveler based in LAX, getting OW emerald status is of great interest to me. What would you say is the quickest/easiest way to earn it with a foreign carrier?