News and notes from around the interweb:
- Ryanair apologises after customer had to sit beside pool of vomit for flight. Apparently airlines do not learn from each other.
- United has announced that starting next August they’re going to require a boarding pass for same-day travel to access their clubs. They’ve clarified that the boarding pass may be for any airline (no United or Star Alliance partner boarding pass required). Matthew thinks this the change is really meant to limit employee use of the clubs.
- Australian aboriginal cultural ambassador isn’t allowed to carry his boomerang on plane. He says,
“I don’t see anyone pulling up the Pope when he walks on with his thing of beads because he might choke someone on the plane.”
Except of course that the Pope flies private (“Shepherd One”). Meanwhile via Heels First the TSA confiscated four batarangs at Boise airport.
- ANA announces two new Star Wars-themed logo jets.
- Showrooms rather than sales may be the future of airport retail. We could be seeing it with airport lounges from National Car Rental and with Cadillac’s American Airlines promotion.
- Greece has approved a $1.3 billion privatization deal for Germany’s Fraport to run 14 airports including Thessaloniki, Corfu, Rhodes, Kos and Santorini (but not Athens).
- American Express has received a billion dollar investment from activist fund ValueAct which provided a boost to its shares. (HT: Doctor of Credit) American Express has struggled to demonstrate to markets that it’s still a growth business.
Are you sure that “American Express has received a billion dollar investment from activist fund ValueAct”? I am pretty sure that ValueAct acquired the stake in the open market, meaning AmEx has not received a cent of ValueAct investment. Probably what you meant to say, but your wording could be interpreted as a primary issuance.
Also, the stake was reported on August 7th…
“American Express has struggled to demonstrate to markets that it’s still a growth business”.
Why would that be true, now that they have limited personal credit card sign up bonuses to once in a lifetime instead of one year after closing a card? Oh, wait….
OK, yeah, exactly what I predicted would happen when they announced that policy in Spring 2014.
Sounds like an under-the-table deal to make the Germans happier about the overall deal. Didn’t Greece already mortgage ATH to Morgan Stanley or one of those big US “banks”…about the same time Chicago did pretty much the same with its parking meters?
Re: ua’s restriction on access — several years back, when the airlines wanted to limit lounge access by employees, they simply didn’t sell them passes. No need for this boarding pass thing.