News and notes from around the interweb:
- 31 Miami airport employees caught on tape stealing from customer bags. Miami is only 4th among U.S. airports in reported theft.
- The Fortune Wings club – which covers Hainan Airlines and Hong Kong Airlines among others – has launched a status challenge. It’s open to elites from the 3 major alliances and also from Alaska, Etihad and Emirates.
- Google Wallet will no longer let you send money to other people via credit card. Debit cards are still permitted.
- The TSA is running out of storage space. Apparently the 153 terrabytes of usable space they currently have is not enough to hold all the data they store on us. So they’re looking to triple it. (HT: Mark P)
- Passports ranked by the number of countries they allow visits without obtaining a visa in advance. US and UK are at the very top, followed by France, Germany, and South Korea just a notch behind. Travel is easier with a North Korean passport than one from Nepal or Rwanda. (HT: Wonkblog)
- Etihad’s CEO warns Europe about protectionism, reminding them they benefit from Etihad lighting money on fire investing in airlines like Alitalia and airberlin when no one else will.
I’d be curious to know what is the best 2-passport combo to get the most countries visa-free. My initial guess would be USA/Singapore? Or USA/Malaysia?
This passport ranking index doesn’t align perfectly with the Henley passport index, and I am curious why the difference. Different time periods?
Well, under this passport ranking index, the UK is going to pass up the U.S. before the end of this year.
Arton Capital is a rival to Henley:
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-02-23/news/government-refuses-to-reveal-who-advised-it-on-citizenship-scheme-4035248129/
So which rival’s passport rank listing is a more accurate representation?
Hey Gary. Thanks for all the great content you put out. I’m a daily reader.
With the website redesign you also changed the amount of content in the emails you send out. As one reading most of your emails from my phone, it sure was nice when the entire article was included within the email. The new format of just showing a preview in the email, forcing a click through to your site, is a bit of an annoyance. Any chance of going back to the old format?
@Antonio,
That would be US and US. Everyone wants to go to the US. Obama wants to leave the US.
Canada is allowed in US lines, but that doesn’t change anything. It is Australia’s e-visa that is a pain in the butt.