Israel: Passengers must be seated half an hour before landing

by Iva Skoch on

Israel is tightening its security again, because of the fears following the recent death of a Hezbollah terror mastermind Imad Mugniyah, UPI reports. Passengers on all domestic and international flights landing in Israel must now be seated 30 minutes before landing. The prior security arrangements required only 15 minutes.

The Transport Ministry said it is giving the flight crew more time to spot suspicious passengers and to make it harder for passenger to hijack a plane.

I would think that “more time to notice suspicious passengers” should happen in the beginning of a flight, rather than at the end, but what do I know about airline security.

Globe-trotting with Bill and Warren

by Iva Skoch on

Now, doesn’t this scene look like loads of fun? Bill Gates and Warren Buffett hanging out on a Boeing Business Jet, totally relaxed, drinking soda, playing cards and talking biz? It’s not fun as in Hooters Air kind of fun, but the actual plane looks better. (If you look very closely, you will notice that Warren reads The New York Times, not The Wall Street Journal. Who knew?)

This is an actual ad for NetJets, a company Warren Buffett bought in 1998, I saw in The Economist this week. Netjets provide fractional jet ownership programs to those who find your typical first class cabin simply suffocating.

I wonder how much Warren had to pay Bill in order to be in his ad?

Cage match: Eurostar versus Easyjet

by Grant Martin on

We’ve all seen the one cent ultra-cheap fares that Ryanair, Easyjet and and other low cost carriers (LCCs) frequently offer from European hubs. It’s a great way to skip around the EU if you’re flexible and haven’t got a lot of cash; it thus has recently become pretty popular with students and vacationers on a limited budget.

And as most of us know, the one cent fares come with strings attached. Taxes and fees can add multiple dollars and fees and constraints on routings often require you to travel to an out-of-the-way airport in order to catch a flight at a strange time of the day. Additionally, extra charges during transit such as baggage and meal purchases can add further cost to an airplane journey.

Needless to say, when traveling over a longer distance, it’s usually a good idea to take the low cost carrier, plan well and be frugal during your travels. But over shorter distances accessible by rail or coach, that line blurs.

Eurostar, for example, recently started offering high speed rail service between London and Paris at very competitive rates. While none of their fares sink as low as the one cent LCC sales that frequently surface, their service runs direct between downtown London and Paris, has looser restrictions on baggage and ultimately saves transit time.

What’s the savings, you ask? On a recent trip between the office in Loughborough and my sister’s apartment in Paris I decided to run a comparison. I’ve calculated the price of transit from city-center to city-center with Eurostar versus Easyjet, the only budget carrier to connect between the two cities. I’ve also included any additional fees for transit to airports, taxes and baggage, then tabulated the costs side by side. For ease, I’ve converted everything to dollars so you can see the easiest comparison across numbers. Take a look:

EasyJet Eurostar
Ticket 15.7 98
Tax 61 0
Two bags checked 31.92 0
Train ticket between London Victoria and Luton 21.8 0
Train between Charles De Gaulle and Gare Du Nord 12 0
Total 142.42 98
Total transit time 5 hours 3 hours

The result? In the end, Eurostar ends up saving you time and money. Combined with the comfort and timeliness of the service, the high speed train is the easy pick when traveling between London and Paris.
On my most recent Eurostar journey I paid an extra 116$ to travel on leisure select. This involved a secluded seat to myself, free champaign, hot bangers and mash and bottomless coffee over the entire journey. When you compare the 214$ total price against Easyjet’s 142$, I think its still worth it for the hot food, time saved and comfort.

So next time you’re considering that low cost carrier for your short intra-european trip, make sure you thoroughly check your options. While trains and coaches don’t necessarily have the romantic allure of one cent fares, they may ultimately end up saving you time and money.

Update! Southwest comments on whether we’re too pretty to fly!

by Grant Martin on

Last week’s article on the two young ladies escorted off a Southwest Airlines plane after causing a ruckus caused quite a stir. Seems that many people feel that the girls got what they deserved and were misbehaving on the plane– while others have jumped to their defense.

Unfortunately, most of the details on the issue are still speculation, so we can’t really make any definitive statements on who was actually at fault. But Paula Berg from Southwest did decide to chime in on the unfolding events.

She says:

” It is important to clarify a few points:
1. The two ladies are not “banned” from ever traveling on Southwest in the future.
2. Our Crews’ decision had nothing to do with the ladies’ appearance, but rather their behavior and interaction with another Customer onboard.
3. Our Employees have an obligation to maintain a safe environment onboard.

Clearly, we would have gone out of business a long time ago if we discriminated against beautiful women – or anyone for that matter. We carry 96 million Customers a year, and they’re all beautiful in our eyes! “

Perhaps, as the original Gadling article speculated, things have just been blown out of proportion.

American Airlines denies wrongdoing in passenger’s death

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Earlier today, we brought you the story of Carine Desir, a woman who died aboard an American Airlines flight from Haiti to New York on Friday. Her cousin who accompanied her on the flight, Antonio Oliver, claimed that the flight attendants initially refused the woman’s pleas for help, and eventually supplied her with empty oxygen tanks after she complained of difficulty breathing.

Today, a spokesperson for the airline denied Mr. Oliver’s version of the events, stating that “American Airlines, after investigation, has determined that oxygen was administered on the aircraft, and it was working, and the defibrillator was applied as well.”

The flight attendants tried to help the woman one to three minutes after her initial complaints, the spokesperson said, and they “acted very admirably.”

Despite the airline’s denial of responsibility, I predict a lawsuit will be filed in 5, 4, 3…