Aside from being one of the smallest islands divided among two nations (France and Netherlands), Saint Martin is a
YouTube has a host of amateur videos, and I’ve scoured through the lot to find the cream of the crop. Have a look, after the jump:
Need Cost Savings? Remove Airplane Seats
Apparently, there’s an FAA rule that airlines need a certain number of flight attendants per number of seats. So, in a cost-savings move, JetBlue plans to remove 6 seats from each plane, so they can fly with one less attendant per flight.
We certainly can’t complain about an extra 4 inches of leg room that this will result in (for the first 9 rows, at least), but it’s certainly odd that reducing seats and staff could actually assist those of us jammed in those cheap seats.
The savings? 900 pounds (does that include the fired attendant?) and $30 million.
The lesson? Try to sit toward the front of JetBlue planes to take advantage of those extra inches…until they figure out a way to charge for it.
Fake Boarding Passes
The NY Times had a story about a grad student at Indiana University who created a web site with a fake Northwest Airlines boarding pass. Designed so that families could print out the fake pass get past the TSA check-points to see off or greet their loved ones, it got him in hot water: a cease and desist letter from TSA and an FBI raid of his home.
Obviously, the pass couldn’t be used to board a plane, but it sure points out the foolishness of this ID-plus-boarding-pass check at airports these days. I’ve noticed it’s common to have two different people do a check, in the same line, thirty feet apart.
Security experts note that the fake pass ploy is obvious and surely would have been thought of long ago by bad guys, so this is nothing surprising. In fact, one security consultant said he’d get rid of this useless checking altogether–and get rid of secret no-fly lists too–and spend the money on well-trained, plain-clothes agents milling around airports looking for suspicious activities. He said airport current checks are designed only to “catch the sloppy and the stupid.”
Upgrade: Travel Better Blog
Should majority of your travel concern be invested in what’s happening with the airlines, whether your miles can be used for magazines or how to live it up in first-class for coach class prices then you’ll need (or want) to scurry over to the Upgrade: Travel Better blog. While we try to do our best covering the latest news in merger rumors and who’s increasing legroom for the extra leggy traveler it can sometimes be hard and a bit boring to follow if you ask me. As you can probably tell, I personally love blogging about language and fun foreign destinations. Forget the cost and the legroom issues – just go! Just kidding. Someone has to look out for your pocketbook and which airlines are best for your needs. I’m glad this blog tends to stay pretty up-to-date with all the carriers.
Run Rabbit, Run!
I was just about to write a posting about those 80 rodents who escaped from a bag on board of Saudi Arabian Airlines, but Neil beat me to it. Not only that, he completely ruined it for me!
I first read the story in the Czech media and they reported it was actually 80 rabbits, not mice. (I guess translators from Arabic to Czech are hard to find these days. Either that or this is a good example of journalists creating news.)
Here I was, trying to figure out how a passenger could fit 80 rabbits into a carry-on bag, ready to vote for Saudi Airlines as having the most liberal policy for cabin baggage…and “fact-obsessed” American media report it is mice. Mice? Any schmuck could fit 80 mice into a convenient Samsonite roll-on. With all those handy compartments, they could even be quite comfortable. Now, pulling 80 rabbits from a bag, that’s a magic trick.
Makes me wonder, whether we can expect rodent detectors to be introduced at airport security in the near future.