News and notes from around the interweb:
- United will open new club lounges in San Francisco and Atlanta in November. Here’s one way to get United Club lounge access for free.
- Definitely not how I travel.
- Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck Restaurant has re-opened in Bray, England not terribly far from Heathrow after a 9 month hiatus where the entire restaurant moved to Melbourne for 9 months. I had lunch there and found it far more form over substance, and nothing like the molecular gastronomy I had experienced at El Bulli
- Emirates says they won’t announce any aircraft orders at the Dubai airshow. They’re considering the 787-10 (but they believe it’ll be payload restricted on trips over 8 hours for departures from the desert though that only represents 15% of their departures) and the A350.
- Thai Airways says they aren’t getting rid of their Airbus A380s because “the A380s would make strong business sense if all the 507 seats were filled.” Ummkay…
- Often Diners Club floats under the radar, but clearly the new Amtrak-Bank of America co-brand deal gives BofA financial institution exclusivity for earning Amtrak points because in addition to Chase transfers ending, transfers from Diners Club will end December 31 as well.
- Why the TSA Doesn’t Stop Terrorist Attacks (HT: Paul H.) though the video gives way too much credit to air marshals who don’t stop terrorist attacks, either
Our travel styles are just a *tad* different 🙂 Thanks for the link!
Thai Airways’ problem is pricing – they don’t seem to have a good way to adjust prices to seat availability: You sometimes have high fares, yet award seats are available – and you end up with a half-empty plane! Getting rid of the A380 won’t fix that problem – a better pricing solution will…
I heard a cool El Bulli story yesterday. Apparently closed because the chef wanted it to go out on top and leave a legacy and has now turned his expertise into a gourmet cooking academy or something of the sort. Neat that you experienced it in it’s prime. Cheers Gary!