Thanks to a change in the laws regulating gambling, land casinos are becoming popular in New Zealand. Today, the country has six casinos in total. Due to the relatively small number of casinos in the country, the industry focuses on offering superior quality as opposed to quantity. Of course, online gambling has grown too, providing […]
Top 3 Airports With Casinos
Have you ever been at an airport waiting to connect your flight for hours on end? We all have, and yeah, it always blows to twiddle your thumbs for hours waiting for a flight that might delay or not. Aside from drinking mugs after mugs of coffee, there really doesn’t seem to be much one […]
Be careful not to touch anything at the Wynn Las Vegas
Family friends recently returned from a trip to the Wynn Las Vegas, but the first story they had to tell wasn’t about luxurious accommodations, gambling, restaurants, or shows. It was about the snacks on top of their minibar. The motion-detector minibar wasn’t new to me. Those are bad enough: You move any item in the […]
Which Americans have passports, and which Americans don’t?
30% of Americans have passports. But where do those Americans live? New Jersey takes the prize for the highest percentage of passports issued: 68.36%. At the low end: Mississippi, with just 19.86%. Via C.G.P. Grey, see the graphic below: For the “yes, but…” file: This dataset actually reflects addresses for issuance, not ownership of US […]
Upgraded: Stopovers in Istanbul, with free tours courtesy of Turkish Airlines
Sure, some airlines let you work in a free stopover. But Turkish Airlines goes one step further and offers up a free city tour on a stopover as short as six hours. Maybe getting into a shuttle bus and tooling around Istanbul after seven hours on an Airbus isn’t your cup of tea, but if […]
The mysterious popularity of ginger ales on airlines
A recent article on Chow.com identifies a trend in American aviation catering: The surprisingly high demand for ginger ale on America’s planes. Why ginger ale, and not Coke, 7UP, or Bloody Mary mix? The most popular theory among flight attendants is that it relieves nausea. “If [passengers] have motion sickness, it settles their stomach,” says Elizabeth […]
So what happens to planes that fly through volcanic ash clouds?
It’s been a bad day for travel to, from, or across northern Europe, with flights canceled wholesale due to the eruption of a volcano in Iceland. So, what would happen if a commercial airplane flew through a volcanic ash cloud? It’s happened before, to a British Airways 747 traveling over Indonesia in 1982: Aircraft avoid […]
Air New Zealand reveals new lie-flat design for economy class
Air New Zealand is launching new seats in its long haul economy class, with a section of the plane fitted with “Skycouch” seats designed to create a three-seat wide airborne equivalent of a foldout couch. It’s an effort to create the first lie-flat bed in coach, a worthy goal if ever there was one. Starting […]
Snowglobes are banned… for your safety
It didn’t make it into Gadling’s top ten list of items not to attempt to carry through a TSA checkpoint, but Matt Daimler, founder of the invaluable SeatGuru.com, sent in this photo he snapped at LaGuardia Airport security: That’s right, don’t bring a snowglobe in your carry-on this holiday season. Bah humbug and all that. And […]
Huh?? FAA rule bans storing anything in seatback pockets
A couple weeks ago, Joe Sharkey posted a tale on his blog of a flight attendant requiring passengers to keep their personal belongings out of the seatback pockets. He thought it was an overzealous airline employee. He was wrong. The original story (that prompted him to do further digging) has strangely disappeared from his BoardingArea […]
