News and notes from around the interweb:
- Alaska Airlines is testing virtual reality entertainment in first class on Seattle – Boston flights
- A380s burn as much fuel as two 787s, the economics are horrible for Qantas according to the airline’s former chief economist.
- Virgin Atlantic has started adding fuel surcharges to Delta awards Update: they have stopped doing so.
- Delta is targeting business travelers for free drinks
- Matthew Yglesias on Airbnb regulation. If you don’t like certain negative affects of homesharing there are better policies than cracking down on Airbnb but of course those aren’t discussed as much because hotels don’t lobby for them.
Emailing the city council about AirBNB regulations. pic.twitter.com/7OIKaR95Ux
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) October 1, 2018
- The Wilmington train station is named after Joe Biden. And unsurprisingly the government railroad in Delaware is massively overstaffed according to an inspector general’s report but Amtrak won’t comment on changes. Because decisions are made there based on political considerations and not economics or ridership.
Joseph R. Biden Jr. Railroad Station - Dubai airport offered a water cannon salute to an arriving Saudia flight in celebration of Saudi Arabia’s 88th birthday. And it went wrong. (HT: One Mile at a Time)
مطار #دبي الدولي يستقبل رحلة الخطوط #السعودية بالتحية المائية التقليدية بمناسبة #اليوم_الوطني_السعودي #اليوم_الوطني88 #عزكم_عزنا #مصدر_للأخبار pic.twitter.com/TBVlpHz5ze
— مصدر (@MSDAR_NEWS) September 20, 2018
- Non-travel: Facebook is using your two factor authentication phone number to target ads You think you’re giving them information for security but two factor authentication turns out to have two purposes.
As a millennial renter who is priced out of buying homes due to ever rising home prices and stagnant wage growth and crippling student debt, boo freaking hoo. We treat home owners like they’re some kind of underprivileged class when they are the richest people in our society. I wouldn’t mind at all if Airbnb were shut down overnight. They’re not even cheaper than hotels anymore and they drive up housing prices like crazy. I hope that local and state governments really lay down the ban hammer on them.
Typo, Virgin Atlantic, not Australia on Delta awards
@Mark – thanks, fixed
@Ray Neither shutting down airbnb nor imposing rent control will help you in your plight for affordable rental housing. What cities need is more residential construction. You should direct your anger at nimby policies such as height and density restrictions. In DC, 80 percent of residential buildings are single-family homes (DC Policy Center, 2018). You don’t need a degree in economics to understand why this results in very high prices.
Not getting into the student loan thing except to say that as a millennial who went to a public university, I can’t empathize with those who have “crippling” debt.
We formed the Pasadena HomeSharing Network (http://www.pasadenahomesharingnetwork.com) and spent 3 years negotiating with the City of Pasadena (CA) to get reasonable short-term rental regulations enacted.
These prohibit “vacation rentals”, I.e. whole-house/apartment rentals by non-resident owners, and limit the time a resident owner rents her/his whole living space to a total of 90 days/year.
The city collects the same transient occupancy tax from our guests as it does from hotel guests. All short-term hosts must be licensed.
There was no opposition to these regulations from affordable housing groups — we do not take any potential long-term housing off the market. Hotels also did not oppose us, as there is a shortage of rental rooms in Pasadena.
We do not know how many non-owner-occupied short-term rentals remain available illegally, because it is up to the city to police them.
I know everything against the A380 is true…but it still makes me sad.
As someone looking to move into DC that is a professional still paying hefty student loans the cost to rent can be crippling. Some of these places are charging $2200+ for 550sqf and nice amenities but have w/d hookups in unit. Ultimately you are paying for location. These buildings have MANY units for rent some people can’t pay or justify paying that much for so little in return. Airbnb isn’t too blame imo some part of the supply and demand of housing is off in DC. The person renting out the home is probably doing it to just afford the home or make extra cash. The home is still owned and people live there so what difference does it make if tourist come in for a weekend. The Jersey shore has been doing it since forever and it works.
“The Wilmington train station is named after Joe Biden.” And? Joe Biden hasn’t been in office for almost two years, including for the 2017 period cited in the article. And the train station isn’t even involved in the cited over-staffing, its two machinist shops located in the state. Per the article, Amtrak could save $3 million per year from its $219 million budget for machinist shops if it reduced staffing. How does a 1.3 proposed budget reduction equate to “massive” over-staffing?? The commentary to the linked article is disingenuous at best and outright wrong otherwise.
Ray u are wrong Airbnb’s are sooooo much cheaper than hotel rooms!!!
a joe biden train station???too funny and over staffed of course,,run by the over staffed government and unions!!