My husband and I flew Spirit Airlines once. The delays and the nickel-and-diming caused us to vow: Never again. And we’ve kept that vow, not just for Spirit but for Frontier and other low-cost, no-service companies and their flying misery machines.
On Sunday, a riot broke out at Hollywood-Fort Lauderdale Airport after nine or more flights were canceled. Apple News “the airline blames a pilot slowdown and is suing pilot the union, alleging that they have been deliberately stalling flights as retaliation over contract disputes. According to the lawsuit, Spirit had canceled 81 flights in one day across the country and approximately 300 over the past week. People tweeted videos of the massive crowd surrounding the counter, some showing the escalation of the mass argument from verbal to physical when authorities stepped in.”
Response to Trump administration immigration crackdown.
The saying, “What goes around comes around” applies to international travel. In response to deportations, border stops and other crackdowns on foreign visitors to the U.S. and immigrants too, the European Parliament voted to end visa-free travel for Americans within the EU.
The U.S. government could not bring itself to agree to visa-free travel for citizens from five EU countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania), so American citizens will be required to obtain visas. The vote urges the revocation of the scheme within two months, meaning Americans will have to apply for visas. The intricacies are complicated and may end up before the European Court of Justice.
Current policies have become known as the “Trump slump.” The U.S. Travel Association has said the administration’s immigration policies are hurting tourism, citing “mounting signs” of “a broad chilling effect on demand for international travel to the United States.”
Then again, there are a lot of people, including VIPS, whom the U.S. seems to discourage from visiting. Heavy-handed airport detentions of visitors from abroad do nothing to encourage inbound visitation. Consider that in the few weeks since the inauguration, the following are among the high-profile visitors help up at the airport:
Kjell Magne Bondevik, a former prime minister of Norway was detained for an hour at Washington’s Dulles International Airport. His “crime”: visiting Iran in 2014 for a human rights conference.
Mem Fox, a 70-year-old children’s book author from Australia on her 100th visit to the U.S., was detained at Los Angeles International Airport for two hours and treated so rudely that she collapsed in tears in her hotel room and vowed never to come back.
Henry Rousso, an Egyptian-born French Holocaust historian, was detained for 10 hours at Houston’s Intercontinental Airport en route to give a talk at Texas A&M. He was told that he would not be permitted to receive an honorarium for his talk on a tourist visa. He had frequently visited over the last 30 years.
Celeste Omin, a software engineer from Nigeria was detained in New York when coming to work at Andela, a startup that connects the top tech talent in Africa with employers in the U.S. Andela accepts less than 1% of applicants into its program and is backed by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan.
A former head of state, a renowned author, a renowned historian and a top software engineer! There are doubtless more, but these four come to mind.
Qatar Airways’ inaugural being welcome with water at Auckland.
The first run of the world’s longest commercial flight — Qatar Airways’ 9,032-miler from Doha to Auckland — has been completed. Flight QR920 landed ive minutes ahead of schedule after a daunting 16-hour, 23-minute flight across 10 time zones — longer than the entire “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” trilogies that were filmed in New Zealand, the airline noted the airline. Bring on the compression socks.
Four pilots and 15 cabin crew members were aboard. The latter served 1,100 cups of tea and coffee, 2,000 cold drinks and 1,036 meals during the flight. I hope to food on Qatar is decent and the seats not too uncomfortable. In keeping with international tradition to welcome inaugural flights, the Auckland airport rescue service showered the plane with water cannons on arrival.
The Qatar flight replaces Emirates’ 8,824-mile flight from Dubai to Auckland in the record books. Last year, I flew for 14 or more hours from Los Angeles to Shanghai. I watched four movies, read some and napped a little. By that measure, Qatar Airways’ new flight would be good for five movies.
En route to and from Lima, Peru, and Havana, Cuba, in the last few months, I spent interminable hours at Miami International Airport. During one stopover, I was so uncomfortable that I booked a day room for a few hours at the dispiriting airport hotel.
Things are about to get better with the opening of the cheerful North Terminal Marketplace, a row of 10 new restaurants and shops to provide a multi-cultural taste of Miami without leaving the airport.
The diverse collection of dining and retail locations includes iconic brands and local small businesses: 305 Pizza; Chefs of the Caribbean, which serves island favorites such as conch fritters and Jamaican patties; Cuban Crafters cigars; Estefan Kitchen Express, owned by music superstars Emilio and Gloria Estefan; Fig and Fennel, a farm-to-table eatery owned by Miami Beach hot spot Icebox Café; Half Moon Empanadas; a Miami Marlins merchandise store; Maru and Friends, which features collectible, ethnically diverse porcelain dolls by award-winning artist Dianna Effner; My Ceviche, the popular seafood deli with five locations in Miami; and The Penguin Store, by Miami-based Perry Ellis.Members of the local business community will join MIA officials and Marketplace tenants for free menu samples, giveaways, discounts and entertainment. I’m not dreading my next stopover quite so much.
With the normalization of U.S. -Cuba relations, airlines are gearing up to start scheduled (i.e., non-charter) service. JetBlue is the first to pull away from the gate with one-way fares from $99 beginning August 1 flying between Fort Lauderdale airport (FLL) in Florida and Cuba’s Santa Clara (SNU) . The carrier has been servicing Cuba with charter flights. If all goes according to plans, Camagüey and Holguín flights are to be added in November, eventually also Havana flights are to begin.
I’ve visited Fiji, a beautiful island nation in the South Pacific populated by people who exemplify the Polynesian tradition of hospitality. I’m dismayed to read about Winston, the most powerful ever recorded with winds of 180 mph with gusts over of 220 mph, that slammed into Fiji. It has resulted in relatively few fatalities — thus far.
The lei is not just a Hawaiian sign of welcome, but a Polynesian one. Bula as experssed by a string of beautiful blossoms and the sweet scent of plumeria and other tropical flowers.. l
Some 900,000 people are scattered among the 100 or so inhabited islands of the total of 332. Communications, water, electricity and sewerage must surely have been impacted, but how strongly is still unknown. And then there are the airports. I flew Air Pacific to Nadi, one of the country’s largest cities, and from there to smaller islands — each with a ferry pier and/or a grass or asphalt airstrip. Fiji boasts secluded and yes, romantic resorts on outlying islands.
In the interim, Air Pacific has become Fiji Airways, and my husband and I are scheduled to fly to Australia with them early next month. We have a stopover in Nadi. Reports are that the storm tracked between the two biggest islands. Suva, the capital, and Nadi, where there main airport is located, are both on Viti Levu. The country will reportedly still be under a curfew and state of emergency when we pass through.
American cities on Fiji Airways’ route map are Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Honolulu. It also serves Australian and New Zealand and is a popular and convenient getaway for folks from both. Here’s hoping for the visitors and the tourism infrastructure catering to them that clean-up is fast — more importantly, for the Fijians that their beautiful islands are restored to full function very soon.
I have long felt that Denver and Munich are twin cities in spirit, separated by history and time zones. Both are near the mountains but not in the mountains. Both display the energetic pulse of a young, active population. And of course, they are both famous for beer. And come May 11, they will be on either end of new nonstop flights. My husband and I were just talking about our next European trip, so we might well book this one.
A Lufthansa Airbus A330-300 will fly the five-times weekly service. The new eastbound LH 481 will operate on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, departing Denver at 4:05 p.m. and arriving in Munich the following morning. The westbound LH 480 service will also operate on Tuesdays, Wednesday, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, departing from Lufthansa’s Munich hub at 11:45 a.m. and arriving in Denver at 2:30 p.m.(all times local) after a 10 hour, 45 minute flight.
The Denver-Munich route is the first time that the A330-300 has been scheduled for regular service at Denver International Airport — 177 in Economy and Economy Plus, 30 in Business and a handful in the ethereal front cabin.
Allegiant passengers forced onto aircraft wing upon landing in Boise.
Who ever expects that an airline ticket will include unbreathable cabin “air”? Some passengers on Allegiant Air that landed in Boise the other day, who ended up standing on the aircraft wing, found out that it could happen. According to a report in the Idaho Statesman, “Passengers were forced to escape onto the wing of an Allegiant Air plane after fumes leaked into the cabin on landing. The worrying incident happened after Flight 330 had landed at Boise Airport in Idaho, U.S. from Los Angeles.”
Passengers waiting on the wing of a just-landed Allegiant Air plane after foul cabin air forced them to except. It happened in Boise. Good that it wasn’t winter or windy. The carrier reportedly compensated them with $50 for the inconvenience.
Passengers reported smoke and a smell of fuel in the cabin the plane taxied to the gate in Boise. Some of the 163 passengers escaped onto the wing after fumes leaked into the cabin upon landing. Even after the emergency evacuation, some were dismayed at the way the airline dealt with the situation. “Passengers Criticize Allegiant Air’s Handling of the Evacuation.”
This follows another Allegiant Air emergency landing in Clearwater, Florida just a week earlier, when minutes after takeoff, the crew reported smoke in the cabin and was forced to return to the airport. Four passengers and one flight attendant reportedly sustained injuries that time.
According to a press released issued by BerlinRosen Public Affairs on behalf of a client that I can’t seem to identify, “Allegiant pilots have been raising concerns about the airline’s bare-minimum approach that’s infused all aspect of its operation. Earlier this year, Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition (TAMC) released a report that shows the airline experiences a high rate of air returns and diversions due to mechanical issues. Between January and March of 2015 alone, there were 38 new instances of fixable mechanical issues such as engines failing, pressurization problems, smoke in the cockpit, radar being inoperable and anti-ice devices on windshields failing.”T
his follows another Allegiant Air emergency landing in Clearwater, Florida, just a week earlier, when minutes after takeoff, the crew reported smoke in the cabin and was forced to return to the airport in Clearwater. Four passengers and one flight attendant sustained injuries. This is a result of what I think of as the Walmartization of America, turning us into a nation of bottom-feeders. Cut costs to the bone, no matter what the possible consequences. It is fortunate that there were only survivable injuries in the Clearwater incident and none reported in Boise, where BTW, Allegiant reportedly gave each affected passenger a $50 certificate. I wonder how many people will actually use it. I wouldn’t.
Denver International Airport — the nation’s 5th busiest and the world’s 15th busiest — has operated for more than two decades without a hotel connected to the terminal. The Westin Denver International Airport, which is set to open on November 19, will change that.
The 14-story hotel with 519 guest rooms will serve both business and leisure travelers and locals when the 82,000- square-foot open-air public plaza is completed. It is expected to become Denver’s newest venue for entertainment and will create a community connection between the airport and downtown Denver. When airport rail service begins, reaching it will be swift and easy.
The hotel’s reception area provides a reflected view of the terminal’s signature tented roof.
A couple of months ago, I took a fascinating hardhat tour of the architecturally inventive hotel. It is designed with walls of towering, shimmering glass offering view of DIA flight paths and both the mountains and the plains. Building upon imagery of flight and aviation, the sleek hotel resembles a bird with its wings extended as it hovers above the public plaza, framing and accenting the signature tents of the Jeppesen Terminal roof.
Is there anyone who hasn’t liberated a little in-room hotel amenity bottles of shampoo or body lotion from the hotel bathroom? I certainly have — mostly a little bar of fine soap or a bottle of body lotion that I haven’t used up. If I were staying at Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel and Spa, some of the new Rooftop Honey Amenity Line of facial and bath soap, bath gel, shampoo, conditioner and hand and body lotion would be coming home with me. The products are made with real honey – in fact, with honey produced on the rooftop of the hotel. It’s thought to be the only hotel amenity line in the country to be made with a hotel’s own honey.
Back in 2010, The Brown Palace began to nurture a colony of bees on the rooftop, intending to use the honey at the hotel’s signature Afternoon Tea. The hotel even began producing a specialty craft beer served in the Ship’s Tavern. Now come the beauty and skin products since honey is known to moisturize, work as an anti-aging agent and fight bacteria. The sweet smelling, paraben-free Bee Royalty Honey Amenity Line is created with natural essences and honey harvested from the hotel’s rooftop beehives, and is also used in The Brown Palace Spa.
Guests who fall in love with the line can purchase more exclusively at the hotel’s spa. FoMoInfo: 303-312-8940.
Award-winning travel blog. Colorado-based Claire Walter shares travel news and first-hand destination information from around the corner, around the country and around the world.
My husband and I flew Spirit Airlines once. The delays and the nickel-and-diming caused us to vow: Never again. And we’ve kept that vow, not just for Spirit but for Frontier and other low-cost, no-service companies and their flying misery machines.
