News and notes from around the interweb:
- TAP Air Portugal is eliminating agency help desk assistance, moving to email only and dropping phone
- Hyatt won’t disappear off Expedia though we don’t yet know who caved or how much to Hyatt’s demands for lower commissions and access to customer information in advance of a stay.
Andaz Maui - Bank of America will offer a weak new entrant into the premium rewards market but it will have a 50,000 point signup bonus.
- Planes were being diverted away from Istanbul while this aircraft made an emergency landing (HT: Alan H.)
Incredible footage has emerged of a hero pilot’s heart-stopping emergency landing as he flew completely ‘blind’ to bring 127 tourists safely to earth after golf ball sized hailstones shattered the windscreen of his ‘severely damaged’ jet.
Captain Alexander Akopov, who works for the Turkish company, AtlasGlobal, has been awarded the Ukrainian ‘Order For Courage’ after landing the hail-damaged passenger plane at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport during a fierce storm in Turkey on Thursday.
- The metro line that 3 years from now may finally reach Washington Dulles airport is only getting half the riders that were expected so far.
- American’s first Boeing 737 MAX has been fully assembled. The plane will have high speed internet, but the tightest seat pitch ever for a legacy US airline and no seat back video. (HT: JT Genter)
The 1st #737MAX for @AmericanAir has rolled out of final assembly. pic.twitter.com/1JOWJj5snW
— Chris Edwards (@AeroimagesChris) July 30, 2017
On the Bank of America Card, will the points transfer to miles and what rate, or is it one of those that you book through them?
On American’s 737 Max, it looks like American is serious about their race to the bottom as far the average consumer goes. Tightest seat pitch for a legacy airlines, correct if I am wrong, but doesn’t this thing also have the new slim line seats otherwise known as rice paper.
So the “hero” is the dimwit who flew into the storm causing damage, and wouldn’t he/she have done the same landing had there been none, 127, or 480 tourists on the plane?