News and notes from around the interweb:
- This bell pepper was simply aged to provide business class passengers with extra flavor? At business class prices, quality control isn’t an unreasonable expectation.
I really don’t hold @united to any high standards, but surely you guys are above serving rotting moldy vegetables! SURELY! pic.twitter.com/fYjUwbvOLN
— Nneka (@Playm8z) November 5, 2024
- EVA Air Infinity MileageLands 50% off economy reward tickets and 30% off upgrades “members can book one-way award tickets from/to Los Angeles and San Francisco at 50% discount for only 25,000 miles on certain travel dates and flights. Upgrade Your Flight at 30% discount for as little as 12,950 miles.”
Ticket issue dates: 2024/11/04~ 2025/04/30
Travel dates：
2024/11/04~ 2024/11/30
2025/02/01~2025/05/15
The first flight of the award ticket (outbound flight travel date) must be flown between
2024/11/04~ 2024/11/30 and 2025/02/01~2025/05/15. - Boeing’s Breakup Is Not If, But How And When (HT: Andrew C)
- Frankfurt airport is using cashew nuts in place of asphalt on the airport apron. And the cashews are organic, because stupid.
[F]or this primarily newsworthy vanity project they only needed 200 meters of an airport airport apron road, often called a Zip Road or Zipper.
…Bio-bitumen can cost around $830 per ton when made with 20% bio-oil (80% still petroleum based). 100% oil based bitumen is around $370 for the same amount. So that means the 20% organic portion costs the equivalent of $2,670 per ton, or about 8x the price of a petroleum solution. Also, does anybody ever consider the environmental damage of mass producing cashews in order to pave roads?
- Airline shopping portal promotions:
- American: 4,000 miles for $1,600 in purchases through November 17
- Alaska: 1,500 miles for $650 in purchases through November 18
- Delta: 2,000 miles for $1,000 in purchases through November 18
- Southwest: 4,000 miles for $1,000 in purchases through November 24
- United: 5,000 miles for $1,200 in purchases through November 22
- American: 4,000 miles for $1,600 in purchases through November 17
- Marriott’s Design Hotels are often quite nice. I like The Robey in Wicker Park and Santa Monica Proper (Proper Hotels, generally) but they really don’t do much for benefits. Only half are even in the program.
Here’s the brand head’s vision.
Marriott’s Design is weird because it’s more than Mr and Mrs Smith but not quite a full brand. Marriott owns Design. And yet, some properties (at least historically) were both Design and then another loyalty program, like Nordic Choice.
If they give me the cashews, I’ll eat them for free and donate the shells.
It’s getting exceedingly difficult to read this blog, which seems to have become a conduit for every unsourced claim out there. For all we know the photo might not even be showing food served aboard a UA flight…
@DCS … +1 . Exactly so .
Rotting food makes for good poops in the seat
@DCS, precisely zero information tying the picture to anything and no dates, times or flight numbers. Maybe this is part of a scam.
I also think that the talk of Boeing being broken up in premature and may never happen. What may happen is it may be under ever increasing government control which may make it unable to generate enough income.
Do people spend $3000 for food – or do they spend $3000 to be transported safely from one place to another? I’m pretty sure that an airline’s primary business is supposed to be providing safe, reliable transportation. It apparently doesn’t matter much to airline bloggers if a flight is six hours late or the plane crashes, as long as there’s gourmet food on board.
When you are spending $3,000 on a flight that you could otherwise get for $500 to $1,000 in coach, you are renting a more expansive seat with better cushioning and more room around it. A certain amount of the extra money is going toward good food presented in a classy way. Airlines even advertise these extras received for getting the much more expensive seat. If a good meal presented in a classy way is part of the package, I see no reason that a passenger not getting what they bought should just shut up and say nothing.
It’s not about the presentation of the food, it’s the quality. I’m in Polaris class right now from Den to Narita and lunch was horrible. I get better meals in business class on flights between two European cities. I expect to get a decent meal when I pay a premium to fly business class.
“I’m pretty sure that an airline’s primary business is supposed to be providing safe, reliable transportation. It apparently doesn’t matter much to airline bloggers if a flight is six hours late or the plane crashes, as long as there’s gourmet food on board.” Are you kidding me, bloggers never post on delays or crashes? So when a restaurant critic comments on ambiance or service, you just say, “an restaurant’s primary business is supposed to be providing safe, tasty food”?
BTW, there are available services that will tell you all about on-time performance, and I’m quite certain you’ll hear about every crash of a commercial airliner.