French Given Etiquette Manual To Combat Rudeness

by Reena Ganga on

French tourism authorities desperate to overhaul the country’s reputation are handing out a manual aimed at teaching locals how to be polite to foreigners. France is the number one tourist destination in the world with nearly 30 million people visiting the capital in the past year; however, many foreigners leave Paris feeling snubbed by the locals.

The unhelpful tone and attitude used by shopkeepers or the unwillingness to speak English to tourists has earned the French a reputation for rudeness causing tourism bureaus to fear they will start losing visitors to friendlier cities in Europe.

The six-page booklet “Do You Speak Touriste?” teaches locals how to greet foreigners in a number of different languages and explains some of the cultural peculiarities of various nationalities. This includes referring to Brits by their first names, welcoming Italians with a firm handshake and greeting the Chinese (who are described as “fervent shoppers”) with a smile and a “Ni Hao.“Around 30,000 copies of the etiquette guide have been handed out to wait staff, taxi drivers, hotel managers, retail sales staff and other Parisians who regularly come into contact with tourists.

This is not the first attempt to encourage the French to be more polite to visitors – just last year the Parisian transport authority launched an ad campaign to end rudeness, and back in 2008, a group of locals set up a meet and greet service designed to showcase the friendlier side of the local folk. Five years on, the effort to combat rudeness continues… old habits, it seems, die hard.

TSA As Fashion Police, Agent Criticizes 15-Year-Old Girl’s Clothing Choices

by Rob Annis on

Not content to save airline passengers from bottles of hand lotion larger than an ounce and Chewbacca’s light-saber walking stick, one TSA agent reportedly took it upon himself to criticize a 15-year-old girl for an outfit he deemed too revealing.

The teen girl was traveling with a group of other high school students on a college tour when she came up to the Homeland Security agent checking IDs and boarding passes. The agent reportedly glared at the girl, telling her moments later, “You’re only 15, cover yourself!” in a “hostile tone.”

That might have been the end of the story if not for two things. First, the shaken girl immediately texted her parents about the embarrassing situation. Second, one of those parents happens to be Boing Boing founder Mark Frauenfelder.

So what was the teen girl wearing that was so scandalous? A pair of black pants topped by a camisole and a long-sleeve flannel shirt, according to a cellphone photo later tweeted by the elder Frauenfelder.

Although the girl’s outfit doesn’t appear to be revealing at all, Frauenfelder wrote in a subsequent blog post that, “it doesn’t matter what she was wearing, though, because it’s none of (the TSA agent’s) business to tell girls what they should or should not wear. His creepy thoughts are his own problem, and he shouldn’t use his position of authority as an excuse to humiliate a girl and blame her for his sick attitude.”

As the sartorial controversy began to sweep across the web – A is For’s Maureen Herman and Jezebel’s Madeleine Davies jumped on the story as well – the TSA released a statement saying it was “thoroughly reviewing the circumstances behind” the younger Frauenfelder’s “unpleasant experience.”

First-Class Lounge For Pets Opens At Chicago O’Hare

by Reena Ganga on

Luxury pet hotels, pet portraiture, pet birthday parties and even pet facials – these are just some of the ways the travel industry has bent over backwards to make our furry friends feel like they’re on vacation too.

Now, our four-legged besties are getting the first-class treatment at airport lounges, thanks to the opening of a lounge designed especially for pets at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

The on-site kennel is located in United Airline’s new cargo facility and has 28 separate enclosures designed to hold different types of animals comfortably until it’s time for them to fly. The kennel is temperature-controlled, as are the purpose-built vans that shuttle the pampered pooches from the lounge to their flights come boarding time.The lounge, which opened at the end of last month, is the third such pet facility that United is operating in airports across the U.S., with similar services available at Houston and Newark airports.

United says the lounge staff is trained to provide first-class care for the animals, which includes walking, bathing and grooming them. After all, even pets like to stretch their legs, take a hot shower and freshen up their look when they’re in transit, right?

Airline Creates An ‘XL Class’ For Overweight Passengers

by Libby Zay on


Tiny Samoa Air was the first airline to charge passengers based on weight, and now, the company is creating a special “XL class” for larger passengers.

The controversial “pay what you weigh” airline is now creating a wider row on its aircrafts to comfortably seat passengers who weigh more than 130 kilograms (286 pounds). The new row gives larger passengers an extra 12 to 14 inches of space, alleviating the discomfort large people often face when sitting in small airline seats.

“Quite often the access is difficult, and even the space between the seats is enough that even when you’ve squeezed into the seats there’s no room for your legs. That’s where the XL has come in – we do it with shirts and clothing and other things where we have different standard sizes,” Chris Langton, the airline’s head, tells Business Insider.

Samoa Airline’s efforts to accommodate larger passengers make sense in Samoa, a country with one of the world’s highest rates of obesity. When flying on the airline, passengers pay a fixed price per kilogram for themselves and their luggage that varies anywhere from about $1 to $4 per kilogram, depending on the length of the route. Samoa Airlines seems to believe other carriers will follow suit and soon develop similar methods of calculating rates for passengers.

Miami Airport To Test Passenger Self-Boarding

by Libby Zay on

Miami International Airport has plans to test a self-boarding system that would cut out airline gate agents and, hopefully, make the boarding process flow better, Skift reports.

Maurice Jenkins, the airport’s director of information services and telecommunications, tells the news outlet the airport already has the equipment it needs to get the process started, and will soon roll out tests with several airlines. He also mentioned the airport is looking at testing self-service kiosks in customs, but that would be further down the pipeline.

According to the Star Tribune, at least 17 airlines across Europe and Asia already use self-boarding machines, and several U.S. carriers are testing the devices. The process is simple: an automated turnstile allows fliers to scan their own boarding passes at the gate before passing onto the plane. Although this essentially means travelers can bypass all interaction with airline employees until the point they step onto an aircraft, it doesn’t mean passengers will get to skip any form of security, so everyone who uses the system will have already passed inspection.

We all know how bad people can be at forming a line at the airport, so we’re curious to see this implemented. My only question is, who will police the size of our carry-on bags now?