This morning’s Singapore Airlines Singapore – Mumbai flight SQ422 initiated a go around as it attempted to land and there are two competing explanations for what happened.
The Airbus A350 was cleared for approach into Mumbai’s international airport using runway 9. However air traffic control sources suggest that the flight was actually on final approach to runway 8 at Juhu airport, a general aviation facility in the Mumbai suburbs.
Instead of pasteurizing at 170 degrees it’s heated to 270 degrees killing more bacteria that would cause milk to spoil. As a result it doesn’t need refrigeration.
With their best ally — Steve Bannon — gone from the White House, Delta along with American and United have enlisted Newt Gingrich to push for their cause.
Last Wednesday North Korean tested a ballistic missile. When they test missiles they generally don’t post NOTAMs for flights to avoid designated air space (and it’s not clear that historically they’ve known where the missiles would go).
This time the missile was reportedly seen by the crew of Cathay Pacific CX893 from San Francisco to Hong Kong, the midnight Airbus A350 departure.
Mexico’s most celebrated restaurant is Pujol, originally designed to offer an upscale version of street food. This year it moved into new quarters, instead of simply cooking in restaurant space they have space designed for their restaurant.
The kitchen has no burners, they sear on a wood grill and finish in the oven, and everything is organized around a central island. They have a comal for making tortillas. They have an outside brick oven pit. They serve a mole that’s been aged for more than 3 years.
My connecting flight in first class from Seoul to Singapore was included in my 95,000 mile award ticket. And while for this flight I wouldn’t have Korean’s new Kosmo Suites, I’d instead have their older open first class seats, I would have the entire first class cabin to myself.
Marriott will give you 1000 points for answering a simple question on Twitter.
And here’s the answer.
As costly as it was for American Express to lose Costco, it would have been more costly to retain Costco. As big a win as Costco is for Citibank and Visa, it’s a deal afflicted by the winner’s curse because Citi/Visa had to overpay to secure it.
But American Express lost 10% of its credit card portfolio overnight. And it signaled a huge change for the company’s business to Wall Street. It set in motion a huge set of changes at the company, at competitors, and in deals other banks made with other airlines.
While award tickets have gone up in price, they haven’t gone up 10-fold over the last 30 years the way that signup bonuses have, so maybe award chart devaluation isn’t so bad after all.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
