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Maybe it was the string of customer-service disasters, starting with the Costa Concordia tragedy last year and leading up to the recent Carnival Triumph “poop” cruise, on which passengers were left adrift in the Gulf of Mexico for five days without working toilets.
Maybe it was the threat of government regulation from Sen. Charles Schumer (D.-N.Y.), a vocal critic of the cruise industry, that made it move.
Then again, maybe we should just take the cruise industry at its word on its decision, announced just before the Memorial Day holiday, to introduce a passenger “bill of rights.”
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A new Supreme Court case will determine how airlines talk to the TSA
The Supreme Court is set to hear the case of whether airlines can be immune from reporting anyone as a threat.
William Hoeper is an Air Wisconsin Air Wisconsin [sic] pilot who has just flunked his fourth flight simulator test, which was taking place in Washington, DC, and which meant he was going to get fired. He takes the test, fails, screams at the people who administered the test, and departs to Dulles to leave the city.
Here’s where things get tricky. The airline reported him as a threat.
Hoeper sued the airline and won $1.4 million in a jury trial.
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While TSA checkpoint lines at US airports are moving quickly, for now, the same isn’t true at Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Wait times are approaching 3 hours at some airports during peak hours for international travelers waiting to check in with CBP upon arrival in the US.
At New York’s JFK International Airport, American Airlines Terminal, CBP reports that in May, the last month reported, during the peak morning time from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m., the wait time to get through Customs averaged 55 minutes, but was as long as 1¾ hours. Even in the hour before and after that slot, the wait at Customs averaged almost 40 minutes, and peaked at more than 1¼ hours.
At JFK’s Delta Terminal, it was even worse in their peak afternoon time, with wait times as long as 2 hours.
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Air rivalry intensifies as Airbus A350 makes first flight
Rivalry between Boeing and Airbus intensified when the new Airbus A350 made its first flight on Friday.
The lightweight carbon-plastic jet flew over the Airbus plant in Toulouse to salute production workers before wrapping up a four-hour inaugural flight that Airbus officials said had achieved more than expected.
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It’s Fathers’ Day. I was lucky, I had a father who got me traveling and I am still traveling. Plus, besides travel and a chance to see another side of the world, his advice on work and life still rings true.
My dad was an Air Force officer. He eventually became the top ranking colonel in the Air Force and didn’t make general because, in the end, he chose family over career. But during the first 18 years of my life we traveled across the Atlantic, through America’s southeast and to Europe. I lived on two continents, in multiple homes, went to seven schools, and visited 21 states and 35 countries.
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