Tag Archives for taiwan.
At Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport, police opened fire on a white Tesla suspected of illegally picking up passengers, firing eight rounds after the driver refused inspection and tried to flee. The passenger — a Hong Kong woman — was thrown from the moving car and seriously injured as officers disabled the vehicle and arrested the repeat-offender driver.
Chen Siming, regularly jailed in China for commemorating his country’s 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square, managed to leave his country in July and turned up this weekend in the transit area of Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport seeking refuge from persecution.
Taiwan had early success containing Covid-19. Like much of Asia it was heavily locked down during the pandemic. And despite re-opening, pandemic restrictions haven’t been completely lifted. It’s not yet seen as a major tourism destination. Fewer than one million tourists entered Taiwan in 2022.
That’s a problem for Taiwan because cultural exchange and deepening ties with the rest of the world are its best path forward for securing support that will deter Chinese invasion. So they’re literally going to pay tourists to visit!
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s military plane has touched down in Taiwan. It’s been the most tracked aircraft movement in history. The Boeing C-40C using call sign SPAR19 took off from Kuala Lumpur and over 300,000 people were tracking the plane in real time at once. So many people were watching it that tracking sites couldn’t handle the server loads.
Taiwan has a strategic interest in closer security ties with the U.S. Seeking cooperation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security advances that interest. So does adding flights between Taiwan and the U.S. ahead of real passenger demand, which will mean fare deals and award availability.
Whether or not Taipei gets a preclearance facility depends largely on U.S. judgments about its relationship with China.
The two major Taiwanese airlines, Star Alliance member EVA Air and SkyTeam’s China Airlines, are running flights to nowhere in August. Both carrier’s flights instantly sold out.
New carrier Starlux Airlines has applied to start offering these flights as well.
Taiwan has been one of the real Covid-19 success stories. Part of the price of their early lockdown is that they’ve cut themselves off from the rest of the world for longer than most.
United is offering discounted award travel to Nagoya or Taipei via Nagoya. Ticket by June 30 and travel between April 28 and September 15. Roundtrip between North America and Nagoya or Taipei Economy Saver Award was 60,000 miles Now only 44,000 miles Business Saver Award was 90,000 miles Now only 70,000 miles First Class Saver Award was 120,000 miles Now only 100,000 miles
EVA is introducing online meal selection for premium class passengers, and throwing in 500 bonus miles for using the feature by September 30. “The option to pre-select from a menu of delicious main courses adds to the comfort and convenience of an already exceptional inflight experience,” said K.W. Nieh, Executive Vice President, EVA Air. “EVA’s goal is to continually find new ways to upgrade and enhance services, and we believe this new feature is one our passengers will especially appreciate.” EVA is making its online pre-selection process more delicious by posting mouth- watering pictures with descriptions of the tasty entrée choices. Passengers outbound from Taiwan will have a wider selection of menu choices. But airport handling restrictions prevent EVA from offering this service for destinations like Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Hanoi, Phnom Penh, Paris,…
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
