390 hot cows set off a fire alarm in the cargo hold of a Boeing 747. A pilot flying a Boeing 747 was forced to issue a “mayday” call and make an emergency landing after overheating cows were mistaken for a fire. Pilots sent out a distress signal and received permission to come down at Heathrow Airport, London. Yet when technicians inspected the cows’ deck they found no evidence of flames or even smoke. Cows emit large quantities of methane and maintain body temperatures slightly higher than that of a human – the combination of which may have explained the sounding of an alarm. It’s sort of like what’s going to happen quite regularly once new restaurants are up and running at Washington’s National airport. (HT: @mipo777) You can join the 30,000+ people who see…
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Category Archives for General.
Two Offers: 500 Free Virgin Miles and 500 Accor Points With Your Next Stay
Head for Points reports 500 free points for downloading the Virgin Atlantic shopping portal toolbar. Download the Mile Finder tool before 14 May 2014 and earn 500 bonus miles. One time only bonus for downloading the Mile Finder. We reserve the right to remove the download bonus of 500 miles if you subsequently uninstall the Mile Finder Points should show up in about 48 hours. Head for Points also points to an offer you can register for 500 bonus points on your next stay with Le Club Accorhotels within 3 months of signing up. (The offer lasts through November, so wait to register if you don’t expect a stay within 3 months.) The offer is pitched at those that have been members for a year, although there are reports of success by others to. Some…
American’s New 777-200 Retrofit Revealed.. And Business Class Could Be Very Good Indeed
American got a page up about their Boeing 777-200 retrofit. Here’s the business class seat: I mentioned yesterday that they would unveil their new product this week. And no doubt there will be more beyond these two photos of the seat to come. I’ve written that I think American’s 777-300ER business class seat is the best across the Atlantic though of course it’s not on nearly enough planes yet. It’s an improvement on the seat that US Airways pioneered, and is essentially the same seat flown by Cathay Pacific and EVA Airways as well as Delta on their Pacific (and Tel Aviv) routes. This one could be better as a result of more personal space, because of one major change noted below. Here’s how they describe the retrofit: The retrofit offers significant updates throughout the…
Calculating the Best Hotel Deal, Free Wall Street Journal Subscription, and ReloadIt Cards (Bits ‘n Pieces for April 7, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: In Lucky‘s Fly & Dine interview he endorses the Andaz 5th Avenue’s lemon poppyseed pancakes. MileNerd shares the math on how Rocketmiles can be a good deal… even compared to Priceline. Free 26 weeks of the Wall Street Journal for taking a survey. That was fast: 99% of the tickets for Frequent Traveler University Advanced sold overnight. Why the TSA thinks you have no right to leave the screening area without its permission Safeway-owned stores enforcing cash only for Reloadit cards You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t…
AMAZING DEAL: US Airways 100% Bonus on Shared Miles Back This Week Only
US Airways is back with a 100% bonus on shared miles through April 13. Limited time offer: Give up to a 100% bonus when you Share Miles! Share miles from April 7th until April 13th 2014 and your friend or family member will get up to 100% MORE in bonus miles – up to 50,000 miles. The bonus is actually tiered, you need to share at least 30,000 miles to get that bonus. Lower amounts receive a lesser bonus according to the following schedule: This is effectively buying US Airways miles for 1.1 cents apiece. You transfer 50,000 points from account A to account B at a cost of $567.50. Account B receives 100,000 miles. If you have a spouse or significant other, transfer 50,000 points to them and they receive 100,000 miles; then they…
Frequent Traveler University Advanced is Here – And Spots Are Limited
Here’s the booking link. One of the most requested things we’ve gotten for future Frequent Traveler University events is a different program — while each one has several different topics and speakers, they’ve also had many similar program components, and a large group of people of very mixed experience levels. We’ve listened and have begun to put together a more intimate event called FTU Advanced that will be held at the Chicago Marriott O’Hare July 18-20. Smaller, more intimate, for greater in-depth discussion More advanced. FTU events welcome everyone, at all experience levels, and of course everyone is welcome. But the program will feature a more focused conversation geared to people that have spent more time with the activity. A different program. We’ll be able to go more in-depth, and we’ll be able to go more hands-on. There will…
American to Unveil its New Boeing 777-200 Business Class Seat This Week
American is finally nearing the roll out of the last of its new inflight hard products that have been under development the past few years. Their 777-300ER business class seat is phenomenal. It’s what Cathay Pacific has (as well as what Delta flies across the Pacific and to Tel Aviv), and an updated version of what US Airways pioneered. American’s new domestic narrowbody product, first launched with their new Airbus A319s and now also available on some 737s. The new Airbus A321 product dedicated to New York JFK to Los Angeles and San Francisco. (I flew the inaugural in business class and was very jealous of the 1-1 seating in first.) The new 767 business class looks like it will be outstanding, competitive with what Delta and many European airlines offer, and as good a…
Always Check the Details of Your Hotel Bill!
I recently stayed again at the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables. I’ve written about the property here, here, and here. While ‘just’ a city Hyatt Regency the staff is friendly, the rooms large (or at least I always get nice enough complimentary upgrades), and Hyatt Diamond free breakfast can be taken through room service. It’s a good hotel for the price in a location I frequently seem to find myself. On my most recent visit I was paying out of pocket. Several area hotels were sold out. And rather than finding a sub-$150 rate, the hotel was getting ~ $289. Gulp. Fortunately Hyatt Gold Passport has added cash and points awards that accrue stay credit and count towards promotional bonuses. That meant, as a category 3 property, I’d be paying $75 and 6000 points for the…
Are Priority Security Lines Unfair and Undemocratic?
Law Professor David Post gets a bit unhinged over airport priority security lines. (Line breaks added for readaibility.) Traveling down here from DC, I had my usual angry reaction, when standing on the TSA security checkpoint line at Reagan-National airport, at what has become the norm: special treatment for First Class and other “priority” travelers. You don’t have to be an Occupy Wall Street-er to find this entirely outrageous. I get it that money can buy many things, and that that’s not an inherently bad thing – but one thing it should not be able to buy is improved government service. We have a word for that: ”bribery.” If passengers could pass $100 bill to the TSA agent on duty in order to get moved to the fast lane, we’d all condemn that heartily. Why…
Aircraft Blankets: Clean or Not? (aka “What’s Grosser Than Gross?”)
The following question about aircraft blankets was tweeted at me a few days ago: So I asked American Airlines what their procedure is. Here’s what they said: We have verified that AA does not ever fold a blanket, and we do not ever place used blankets or pillows back into a sealed wrapper. We have procedures to replace these used items with fresh ones throughout our system and throughout the course of an aircraft’s flying day. For example, here at DFW such used items are pulled from an aircraft by our contractors and sent to an industrial cleaning facility in South Arlington. They in turn launder these, seal and re-supply our inventory. This is all contractual and there is oversight to ensure procedures are adhered to. (Emphasis mine.) It’s a disgusting story. And we all…
