News and notes from around the interweb:
- Some business class seats on an aircraft are better than others, and Lufthansa plans to charge extra for the better ones. They say this isn’t basic business, but it is a form of it, not getting the full possible business experience without upcharge. Let’s not forget the pioneer here years ago was British Airways which charges for business class seat assignments unless you buy a full fare ticket or have enough status. Lufthansa isn’t going that far.
- Long read: What really happened to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
- Some armrests that seem fixed in place actually lift up, here’s how to do it
- Alaska Airlines shopping portal bonus, 500 miles after $200 spend
- Qantas plans to announce the biggest
devaluationoverhaul of its frequnt flyer program ever this Thursday.The details will be revealed at a Sydney press conference called for 10.30am on Thursday June 20 to be hosted by Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce and Qantas Loyalty CEO Olivia Wirth.
“Significant changes” are said to be on the cards, with likely impacts on earning status along with redeeming frequent flyer points on seats and upgrades.
- Next month American adds a 6th Miami – Havana flight. Someone didn’t get the President’s memo.
Fishing on the Malecón in Havana - Drawings of the Centurion and Plaza Premium lounges at Denver airport (HT: Doctor of Credit)
I call bullshit on Lufthansa. This is not beneficial to the customer, and trying to use some warped logic to make it sound good just makes them look like liars. If they choose to charge people, I’m not good with that but I understand. Just don’t try to paint this as being an improvement.
MH370 article by The Atlantic is long, detailed, and very descriptive as to the likely events that transpired. Very unfortunate that so many innocent passengers (plausibly) died because of a troubled pilot. Which, as the article points out, has happened a number of times.
MH370 hits close to home. I happened to be in the air nearly 14 hours, returning from Korea when this flight departed and was lost. After landing at ORD, the first news I read on my smartphone included the search for that flight.
The article adequately debunks the theory that the airplane may have had a mechanical malfunction. If you are a conspiracy theorist, you may think the FBI or Malay gov’t fabricated the circumstantial evidence with the pilots flight simulator history, and purposefully ignored all of the military radar, communications, and satellite data. Instead, we read that there are many systems in play to minimize all but intentional tragedy. The description of the satellites at work to make a phone call, if you can follow it, is very entertaining for those that like that sort of thing.
But we also learn that pilots and crew that go on these round the world excursions can be away from their families for extended periods of time. For this pilot, it seems that personal issues finally caught up with him.