News and notes from around the interweb:
- Coverage of the brand new Singapore Airlines first class lounge and Private Room in Singapore: Mainly Miles, Point Hacks, and Milelion
Looks like a huge improvement over the old Private Room, restricted to Singapore Airlines first class passengers only (no partner airline passengers), which offered nice menu-based dining but wasn’t a super comfortable place to spend long layovers.
- Entering the United States by air requires a negative coronavirus test. Some people who can’t provide one are using a workaround: flying to Canada or Mexico, then entering via a land border. (NYT) Took the Times awhile to catch on.
- Virgin Atlantic monthly award calendar still exists. Here’s how to find it.
- Sara Nelson demands Houston Intercontinental airport take down NRA posters calling the posters ‘triggering’ to United flight attendants. Her advocacy of government content-based speech restrictions should surprise no one, as well as that she’s surely aware her ask is highly likely illegal so pure grandstanding. (If she cared about actually having the ads removed she’d advocate for a time place and manner restrictions, that they adopt a policy of no ads of any kind after a well-defined tragedy, which would be a more defensible policy.)
- Norwegian has agreed to purchase 50 Boeing 737 MAXs plus take options for 30 more
The fifty aircraft on firm order will be delivered between 2025 and 2028. Their arrival will be close to the schedule of the phasing out of 737-800s when their lease contracts expire. This means that the net size of the fleet will remain at the current level, says Norwegian, which will be around seventy this summer. The airline said in February that its short-term strategy sees an expansion of the fleet to between 95 and 100 aircraft by 2024.
- Dave Portnoy of Bar Stool Sports hates American Airlines delays and Centurion lounge overcrowding. (NSFW)
I’m with Dave on this one, American Express wait line are ridiculous and they need to implement the kids/guest restrictions this summer.
Re: “… her ask is highly likely illegal …”, is that correct? Alcohol and cigarettes cannot be advertised everywhere, maybe the same legal reasoning can be applied to guns. The analogy can be extend a little bit further; overall none of the three (alcohol, cigarettes, guns) provide a significant benefit to society, produce infinitely more harm than any perceived benefit, and are only legal because of intense political factors.