ASIA

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Norwegian 787s Are Returning With Low Cost Transatlantic Fares – Under A New Name

plane on runway
Mar 15 2021

Norwegian ceased its transatlantic business and is trying to stay afloat as an intra-European carrier. But the founder of Norwegian thinks his ultra low cost long haul business model – that has never worked before – is suddenly ripe for success. And he’s trying again with Norse Atlantic Airways.

OSM Aviation, which provided staff outsourcing to Norwegian, is 53% owner of the new venture. Expect low cost labor flying 9 to 12 ex-Norwegian Boeing 787s and even planning to offer connections with Norwegian.

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Pittsburgh Airport Will Use Artificial Intelligence To Know When To Clean The Bathrooms

toilet
Mar 09 2021

Airport bathrooms have always been sketchy places, and not just because you might run into former Idaho Senator Larry Craig. Whether it’s a hand poking through a men’s room wall at the Hong Kong airport, someone replacing the soap with a bodily fluid in Detroit, or a collapsing toilet sending a man to the hospital in Hefei, China, these are places you’ve wanted to get in and out of as quickly as possible.

With the Covid-19 pandemic airport bathrooms have taken on a new urgency because of risk of virus spread.

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Leaked Memo Exposes British Resort Chain Refusing Reservations Based On Ethnicity

Mar 08 2021

Britannia Hotels has 61 properties across the U.K and has been called ‘Britain’s worst hotel chain’. Their Pontins brand includes 6 resorts.

An internal memo from Pontins resorts leaked showing that the chain made an effort to avoid accepting bookings from people with Irish surnames, or who booked by phone with Irish accents. They even cancelled bookings that made it through in error.

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Japan Airlines’ Mysterious New Dallas – Nagoya Flight

japan airlines plane
Mar 06 2021

Dallas will actually have flights to more international destinations this month than it did two years ago (56 vs. 52), thanks to American Airlines destinations that have been added to Mexico and Central America offsetting losses in long haul.

But the flight that’s most striking to me is the addition of Dallas – Fort Worth to Nagoya, Japan. It’s striking to see a new destination in Asia, a previously unflown route, and while Japan is closed to most U.S. visitors. And it’s surprising to see the flight so full.

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Passengers Arriving in Beijing And Shanghai Being Forced To Undergo Covid-19 Anal Swab Testing

Mar 05 2021

Several weeks ago China deployed an ‘anal swab’ test to detect Covid-19, believing it to be more accurate than other testing methods. Passengers in several Chinese airports are now being subjected to these tests, where authorities “insert[..] a cotton-tipped stick three to five centimeters (one to two inches) into the rectum.”

Now China is using this for passengers from ‘high risk countries’ and when multiple people test positive on a flight.

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You Can Still Book Delta 65,000 Mile Transatlantic Business Class, Despite Devaluation

At the beginning of February Delta devalued SkyMiles partner award pricing for the second time during the pandemic, and in a big way. Since the start of Covid-19 one way business class between the US and Europe on Air France and KLM went from 75,000 to 95,000 miles and now starts at 120,000 SkyMiles – for a 60% increase in less than a year at a time when flights are empty and prices low. Because they can.

Delta says they have no award charts any longer, but that isn’t true. They just hide their award charts. Mexico is a separate region from the United States, and while they’ve massively increased their award chart pricing for partner travel to and from the U.S., they haven’t (yet) done so for travel to and from Mexico.

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