The other day I was sitting at the gate at Pudong Airport in Shanghai, downloading a couple of newspapers to my iPhone that I hoped to read during the flight. Of course, I’m keenly aware that use of phones of any kind on flights is prohibited so I did the responsible thing and right before…
All posts in Air Travel
Is Delta Airlines Scamming its Customers With Change-Ticket Fees?
The other day I purchased a ticket from Delta Airlines, the world’s largest airline, for international travel in the month of September. Then, as sometimes happens, something came up and I needed to change the dates of my outgoing flight by a few days. I had no illusions: change ticket fees are expensive. Generally, they…
China Southern Got the South China Sea Memo
The other day, in the midst of a long flight on China Southern Airlines, I turned – as I like to do – to the in-flight magazine. Nihao is actually better than most and, after losing myself in a brief essay on the nature of time (I’m not kidding), I flipped to the back, and…
A banking advertisement you won’t see at US airports.
Spotted in Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris: For my non-French speaking readers, the caption reads: Pakistan is the world’s second largest textile exporter. We see a world of opportunities. And you? Needless to say, this advertisement is pretty much unthinkable in a US airport, and that underlines for me the unfortunately black-and-white understanding of Pakistan…
Bus Station No More? A Quick Traveler’s Note on Delhi Airport’s New Terminal 3
I spent much of the last two weeks in India, and the one that I’m going to share with my readers is a sign that I found in the brand spanking new, much vaunted, Terminal 3, at Indira Gandhi International Airport (the rest of that trip shall remain shrouded in secrecy, occasionally broken on twitpic).…
As the flight ascended, the knife descended.
The other morning, as my flight ascended into the sky over a major Asian airport, I felt something hard fall to the floor beside my feet. Curious, I leaned forward and saw, on the floor, something that I initially mistook as a piece of the seat in front of mine. I picked it up, turned…
Beyond Security Theater: Unsecured Theater, and the Shanghai Metro X-Ray Machines
Not long after the 9-11 attacks, Bruce Schneir, a US security expert, coined the term “Security Theater.” The original definition was made in his book, Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly about Security in an Uncertain World, but for the purposes of this post, let’s use the definition presented in this easily accessed essay from the New…
Fever (even) When You Hold Me Tight: Shanghai’s unmistakable H1N1-related PR mistake? – UPDATED
Shanghai Scrap remains agnostic as to whether or not H1N1 is being hyped all out of proportion to its danger. But Shanghai Scrap is not agnostic about whether or not H1N1 hype is dangerous to the media and those who feed it information. Case in point: late this afternoon, Hong Kong confirmed that its first…
The masks are back?
Compared to the last bird flu scare, China seems to be taking the current, unsettling spate of bird flu fatalities with unlikely aplomb. Consider: in January, there were five Chinese deaths from the feared pathogen; for the whole of 2008, there were only three. Perhaps the relative ambivalence is related to the fact that the…
Northwest Airlines breaks promise, bludgeons consumers.
As long-time readers know, Shanghai Scrap has been, a) offline for almost a month, and b) a rant-free zone for most of its life (ie, a reported blog). But once in a while, really, I can’t help myself. Especially when the topic is Northwest Airlines. So let’s get right to it. On December 29, the…