Nowadays a good number of airlines offer chauffeur service for premium cabin passengers as a way of differentiating themselves. The terms of using the chauffeur service vary, whether it be a fare class restriction, ticketing restriction, etc. Then there are some airlines which are especially generous, and offer chauffeur service even on award tickets.
I've always been intrigued by chauffeur service as an airline product offering. In many cases it's not cheap to offer (especially when it's contracted out in cities like London and Paris, or even Venice, for example), and is there really any marginal return on offering a chauffeur? Presumably if someone is traveling in a premium cabin on the company's dime they could also expense a car service.
I think one situation where it makes a lot of sense is with Emirates and Etihad in the UAE. The two cities are only an hour apart by car, so it kind of narrows the gap between the two -- it's a way for people to "fly" Emirates to Abu Dhabi, and a way for people to "fly" Etihad to Dubai.
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American Airlines has re-launched their inflight magazine, American Way. I spoke with American’s Vice President of Marketing, Fern Fernandez (regular readers may know him from US Airways, since the Dividend Miles program reported up to him). Fern told me that they produce 700,000 copies of the magazine each month, and they estimate that it gets […]
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Halle Barry’s husband hit an airport employee with an empty child’s car seat at LAX’s Tom Bradley International terminal yesterday. TMZ has video. It doesn’t look like much harm was done to me, but the employee went to the hospital. (HT: Alan H.) At the Freddie Awards last year in Seattle, the told the crowd […]
The post Halle Barry’s Husband Assaults an Airport Employee, Ryanair Falls for a Joke, More on That Delta Gun Smuggler, and Avoid United Express in Denver! appeared first on View from the Wing.
Many think of the Hawaiian Islands as a series of lush tropical paradises, but the island of Kaho'olawe is mostly dry and barren, and for almost 50 years was a target for Navy munitions. However today volunteers are helping to restore the island by cleaning up unexploded ordinance and replanting vegetation.
The island of Kaho'olawe is located in the rain shadow of the volcano Haleakala in eastern Maui. This island receives less than 30 inches of rain a year. The fragile forests that once covered the island were wiped out from warfare between islands and tribes, and most of the topsoil eroded by wind into the ocean. When King Kamehameha III abolished the death penalty in the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1830, the island was used as a penal colony for 23 years. Various Native Hawaiian and American interests have started ranching, sugarcane, and reforesting operations, but droughts would always recur and supplies of fresh water could not be replaced due to the low average rainfall and eroded soil.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States military seized the island and trained soldiers and sailors there, using vast tracts of land as a bombing range. The bombings would continue until 1990 when all live fire exercises were stopped and the island was given back to the state of Hawaii.
The Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission now directs the removal of unexploded ordinance and restoration efforts on the island. The island and two miles of ocean from the shore are off limits to the public, but Native Hawaiians can fish in these waters and perform religious ceremonies on land. Volunteers can sign up on the KIRC's web site, however there is a two-year waiting list as of 2013. Volunteers stay on the island for four days performing a variety of tasks to help restore the island to its pristine past.
In 1854 a solution to London's chronic overcrowding was required, and not only for the living; cemeteries were full and the threat of disease was high. To deal with this ever-growing problem the London Necropolis Railway company was set up, using the newly industrialised railway to transport corpses (and their accompanying mourners) to a giant new cemetery in Brockwood, Surrey.
Nothing remains of the original LNR station which was located at near Waterloo and demolished during expansion of the regular railway terminus in the early 1900s, but the replacement station, opened in 1902, still stands nearby, or at least it's grand facade does. Designed by Cyril Bazett Tubbs, and specifically intended to be as attractive and un-funereal as possible, the building featured a ticket office, waiting rooms for mourners (separated from one another for privacy), a mortuary, storage rooms and a luxurious chapel, where those unable to make the journey to the final resting place could pay their respects. Tickets were issued in three classes and also for each coffin to travel, often with up to five funeral parties travelling together on one service (the names of the deceased were displayed on carriage doors to avoid confusion).
The LNR ferried over 200,000 bodies between Waterloo and Surrey over the course of the 87 years before closing its doors for the final time in 1941, after heavy bombardment from German bombers during World War II. Due to this, little of the London Necropolis Railway station still exists, however, the driveway and some rooms on the ground and upper levels can still be seen at 121 Westminster Bridge Road, as well as Tubbs' elegant and imposing frontage. The site is now a private company and there is no public access.
