News and notes from around the interweb:
- United Airlines passengers removed from first class after buying ticket from a travel agent not authorized to sell them
- The 10 U.S. airports most likely to lose or damage your luggage (HT: Paul H) The data doesn’t really show what they say it shows. It’s skewed by leisure destinations where passengers are more likely to have checked bags (like Miami, Honolulu, Vegas) since calculations are done per passenger rather than per checked bag. Moreover it’s generally not the airport itself causing a bag to be lost, e.g. their baggage system, but the airline…
- Europe is poor.
Well, when I book a hotel in the US, I don’t need to check whether it has air conditioning; when I rent a car, it will definitely have automatic transmission; if I order a soda, it comes with ice; my dryer makes clothes dry… https://t.co/l3PRHnIk1Z
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) July 16, 2023
- Emirates President Sir Tim Clark on Penelope Cruz and brand advertising
“We’re not afraid of spending a lot of money on portraying and advertising our wares,” says Clark. “These celebs don’t come cheap.”
There are also the “painful and very expensive” production costs. “Not least of which, you’ve got to have aircraft parked on the ground so they can get on board. But it’s really worth it.”
- Disgusting things not to touch in a hotel room and more on disgusting things going on in hotels.
- Failed McDonalds ventures: the McBarge, McTrain, and McPlane
- Large Jewish Family Tossed From Catskills Hotel On Shabbos (HT: M.P.)
@gary I think it’s a misrepresentation to say “Europe is poor”. Average income levels are not as high, but the quality of life for someone with an average or below average income is undoubtedly better there. I recognize that I’m also generalizing. But as someone with lots of family there, the last thing they’d say is that they’re poor.
@Thomas – absolutely! True, the wages are cheaper than in the US, but the health care costs, housing, food, transportation, telecommunications, and many services are cheaper. Of course, there are some things that are more expensive. But the peace of mind that comes from knowing you aren’t going to be shot by some whackadoodle, you won’t be bankrupted over medical care, and you won’t lose your job because you are too Woke or a Neocon is priceless.
Having spent my life half in Europe and half in the US, I can compare.
Life in the US is great if you are a hard worker or an entrepreneur. In the US you can climb on the social ladder more than what is possible in EU.
In US people with skills are better paid and rewarded than in EU.
BUT, in US the level of stress is much higher, you have to compete, compete nonstop to make it! The entire society is powered by greed, more money, more money, and even more money is what’s driving everything, and that gets unbearable very fast! Success is measured solely by wealth.
In EU, on the contrary, people measure their achievements and success not by money or wealth but by the impact they have on their family, society, and others. Basically quality of life is more important than money or career. Most countries have weekly work limits of 32 to 35 hours.
And that’s why I will spend most of my time back in EU when I retire. Low stress and quality of life are key here.
I know it is hard to comprehend for the High Tech slaves in US (I was one in silicon valley for a few years) that people in EU don’t want to fight, compete, and win the rat race at all costs, and that is what makes EU great.
In Summary in US people live to work, in the EU people work to live!
The ideal plan: bust your a.. for a few years in US to make it big and then spend the rest of your life enjoying a low-stress high quality of life in Europe and let the others stay in the rat race they enjoy …
@Gary, no Europe is not poor. From your eyes of typical American, driven only by money, it may seem poor to you, but Europe is immensely richer than US when it comes to quality of life, family, traditions and culture.
@Thomas – whether those on low income have a better standard of living in Europe or the US is very much dependent on what country in the EU and state in the US we are talking about — I would not consider it an undoubted truism that on average they are better off in the EU. Across a wide variety of professions, from nurses to engineers, the average US salary is about twice the EU salary. Obviously from a global perspective, Europeans are rich. However, compared to us they are not; going without a/c and automatic xmission are small economies they make to stretch their incomes further.
Europe is poor. As simple as Gary stated it Period.. I knew his data backed statement was going to trigger some (specially the left wingers as usual, who are drooling to shot from the waist at every opportunity to bash the US).
I have my own personal dataset from the many former employees that fled Venezuela. The last of them who tried luck in Europe (without results) recently benefited from the Humanitarian Parole and are now in the USA (a huge chunk of them went to the USA a long time ago after losing their time in different parts of Europe, mainly Spain and Germany, for some years).
EACH an everyone of them who are in the USA (as I’ve told in previous comments, they came in all the flavors, from the ‘airport with visa’, thru Mexico when Mexico didn’t request a Visa for Venezuelans, and the last of them thru the ‘long route’ of the Darien gap) are doing from good to excellent!.
The difference from Europe is day and night. They said they would never ever look back.
And by the way, i’m also European (never lived there, it’s because of my Mom, she was born there and did lived many years), and she always says: ‘I could never go back to those tiny boxed places’.
She just LOVED when she first saw the average size of the American hotels.. and the comments have to nerve to talk about ‘quality of life’ LOL. Just imagine your unlimited power government forcing you to stay locked in the average apartment size during covid. Freedom isn’t free, and surely isn’t deserved by everybody.
@MIke
>Life in the US is great if you are a hard worker
LOL. Bless your heart.
Here, I’ve fixed your thought:
Life in the US is great (for the business owner) if you are a hard worker
To clear up the situation, I bet the agency bought the tickets directly from the airline(s) via a credit card to avoid issues.
EuroPoor.