Last night I returned to Shanghai after my longest sojourn away from China in six years (for reasons professional and personal). I haven’t had a look around town yet, but if fresh eyes see anything worthwhile, I’ll post the news. In the meantime, a couple of random observations gleaned during my extended visit to the…
All posts in Airlines
The Hammer Finally Falls: Northwest Reduces WorldPerks Benefits
After this post, I’m going to try and swear off any further blogging about Northwest Airlines. But for those of you who’ve had enough already, I suggest waiting until later in the day for a different post to read …
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…
Northwest Airlines: A First Class Security Hole
Northwest Airlines operates one flight, daily, from Shanghai’s Pudong Airport: Flight 26, to Tokyo Narita. On Tuesday morning I arrived at the airport two hours before flight 26’s scheduled departure and took my place in the very long check-in cue that snakes in front of the Northwest counters. Ahead of me, I could see that…
Shanghai Pudong: Same as it ever was!
I was out of China when, two weeks ago, the Shanghai Airport Authority announced that it was immediately implementing new, Olympics-related security procedures at the city’s two airports. Nothing in the reported accounts of these procedures indicated that they were directed at incoming passengers. But, keeping in mind that these regulations come in the wake…
Northwest Airlines: Flight Risk
Northwest Flight 1652, scheduled to depart Washington National for Minneapolis at 6:36 AM this morning, left the gate on-time. But just as it turned toward the runway, a loud, hacking sound – kind of like a handsaw cutting through sheet metal – began vibrating through the cabin. From my seat – 14D -it felt like…
Northwest: Refresh and Re-Energize in Coach
[Note to readers of this blog: I’ve been traveling for the last several days, and I haven’t had much chance to update content. However, I’ll be adding a post or two over the weekend, and by Monday I’ll be at full strength with a lengthy post on the ongoing reaction to the Pope’s China letter…
Coach Class
A plug for Pico Iyer’s wonderful essay on airfare class divisions: How much would you pay to enjoy six hours away from your fellow humans, in a chair that reclines? $1,500 an hour – or even more? And if someone invited you to spend $9,000 to pass a long afternoon in a fairly cramped lounge,…
Northwest’s passage to China
From a purely selfish point of view, I think the best news to come out of Wu Yi’s visit to Washington was a deal to add 13 more daily flights to China by US carriers by 2012. Currently, there are only 10 routes per day, and so the competition for new ones is always ferocious.…