Qantas: And now even the toilets don’t work!

by Abha Malpani on

The way Qantas is going, the airline is better off shutting down: Hole in the aircraft, tires blowing up, fluid leaks, doors not closing, hydraulic failures, rudder problems, and now dysfunctional toilets.

A Qantas 737 from Sydney to Perth was forced to land because the toilets wouldn’t flush; they’d forgotten to empty the them after the last flight. The plane was diverted to Adelaide to sort out the toilet situation.

This isn’t the first toilet issue for the airline. Not long ago passengers were doing their business in the airline’s sick-bags as they were not allowed to move from their seats for an hour as the plane tried to land.

This is the 5th or 6th flight issue with Qantas since July 25 when “explosive decompression” caused a four meter hole to rip across the plane when it was at a height of 29,000 meters.

Qantas oh Qantas. Sort your sh*t out!

Drunk Irish passengers start brawl on flight bound for Greece, pilot makes emergency landing

by Jeffrey White on

In another example of the kind of incident becoming all too common these days, a brawl broke out on board an Irish charter flight to Greece recently, which resulted in the plane having to make an emergency landing in Italy.

This one involved five drunk Irish men (read: stag party).

Witnesses say the fracas broke out first between two of them, though over what has not been made public. One started going through the cabin smashing overhead compartments. More joined the melee.

“They had a couple of drinks on them, they were extremely aggressive,” one witness tells Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper. “There were loads of girls and a couple of children and I think some people felt a bit threatened.”

Obviously the captain did too. He diverted the flight to Venice, where a gaggle of Italian cops were waiting to haul off the men.

The flight, operated by Irish charter company Futura Gael, left two hours later and arrived in Heraklion, on the Greek island of Crete, without further incident.

It’s unclear just how out of hand things became on board, or whether any of the 162 other passengers on board were injured. Futura Gael has issued apologies to the passengers for the incident and delay, and says it is conducting its own internal investigation.

There seems to be a lot more of these incidents happening lately.

More troublemakers in the sky


Nokia and Lonely Planet team up to bring guides to your phone

by Scott Carmichael on

Nokia has teamed up with Lonely Planet to bring their travel guides to select Nokia Mobile Phones.

Nokia phones with support for the free “Maps 2.0” application can purchase and download Lonely Planet guides directly to their phone. Each guide costs $13.99 which is slightly cheaper than their paper versions, which normally sell for around $18 each.

Lonely Planet currently has 100 different guides available for mobile use, with more on the way. By combining the GPS receiver built into many current Nokia phones, you can make the move from paper guides, to an advanced guide with turn by turn directions. Of course, for some people there is no replacement for a good old paper guide full of scribbled notes and bookmarks.

This is the second phone Lonely Planet has added mobile support for. Previously, they introduced a lineup of spoken phrase guides for the iPhone, it is however the first time they have made their popular guides available for a smartphone.

With more and more phones adding GPS receivers, it is probably only a matter of time until other phones get access to the guides, location based services are taking off in a huge way, and within the next few years it is expected that 50% of all new phones will have GPS built in.

To get Lonely Planet guides on your Nokia phone, you will have to install Maps 2.0, you can check whether your phone supports this here. To download a guide, simply open your maps application, click “extras”, then “guides”. Alternatively, you can download the Nokia maps loader program to your PC and install the guides locally. If you are traveling abroad, I highly recommend purchasing the guides you need on your PC, to save the insanely high data charges when you roam on an international network.

Source: Nokia press release

Expansions in the business-class-only service

by Grant Martin on

The all-business-class model for airline carriers has been a touchy subject over the last few months. With all but two of the airlines now out of business (OpenSkies and Singapore Airlines‘ select flights), many wonder if the original approach was a good idea.

Yet OpenSkies (EC, owned by British Airways) and Singapore Airlines (SQ) continue to press on — and even expand. Earlier this month, OpenSkies announced that they would be adding service further into the European Union, while SQ just expanded their A340 service from Los Angeles into Singapore.

How can these carriers thrive in such tight times? How can they survive where so many others failed? Well, there’s no doubt that the deep pockets of each carrier are helping ride out the storm of high oil prices. While Americans sort out their financial woes, each airline plans to build a product and loyal customer base, get the word out on their product as much as possible and fight for a place in the future market.

Things could be a little rough for OpenSkies. With the American economy suffering and the EU economy headed in the same direction, demand for business class seats is going to be dropping off pretty quick. Unfortunately, the worst may yet be to come.

According to Singapore Airlines, their business-class-only service has conversely enjoyed packed flights and thriving business.

The true gauge for each airline, regardless of their current situation, is long term sustainability independent of their parent airline or routes. If the routes fail to generate profit after a few years they will surely disappear, but perhaps if we’re all lucky and the trend picks up, OpenSkies’ and SQ’s business-class-only flights will be here to stay.

Wooden hotel keycards to debut next week in Denver

by Meg Massie on

From changing linens and towels daily to keeping the air conditioner in every room turned to 55 degrees in the summer, hotels have been coming under fire for a long time over their wasteful use of resources. With the environment in the spotlight as the 2008 US Presidential election approaches, hotels are beginning to take steps toward better environmental practices.

This morning, Sustainable Cards, maker of the United States’ first wooden hotel keycards, announced that 70,000 biodegradable wooden keycards will be used in Denver hotels during next week’s Democratic National Convention.

Wooden keycards have been used in European hotels for almost ten years. Sustainable Cards argues that these keys are just as durable as the plastic versions, but unlike plastic, wood is renewable and biodegradable. Right now, it is estimated that hotels in the US produce 1,300 tons of waste each year from plastic keycards alone.

If you are one of the first Americans to use these eco-friendly keycards in Denver, Sustainable Cards wants your feedback on their website. Of course, we want to hear about it, too. Leave your comments with us, and if you want more hotels to embrace these biodegradable keycards, let them know about it, too. Fill out comment cards when you stay or send suggestions via hotel websites.