More like the long-haul edition… Round ‘em up!:

Airports feeling more like the post office
It’s not because of the lines. It’s the signs reading “WANTED” with photos of criminals. But airports won’t display run-of-the-mill criminals. Oh no. They’ll feature wanted-posters for terrorists. But honestly, why limit the posters to terrorists? Why not seek out a whole range of wanted criminals? After all, will Osama really be catching the 10:30 flight to Pittsburgh?

Free jetBlue tickets
Buy a ticket to London on Eos Airlines, get a free ticket on jetBlue. Membership in jetBlue’s True Blue frequent flyer program required. (Via the Cranky Flier)

Halfway to a free ticket on Southwest
Register by January 31, 2007 for Southwest Rapid Rewards and get 8 credits, halfway to a free flight. The promo is aimed at the Washington, DC market but seems to be open to anyone. (Via View from the Wing)

The War on Margarine proceeds apace
Loews Hotels are banning transfats, phasing in various bans over the coming months. No margarine will be used their kitchens, or available for your morning toast. Will a foie gras ban follow?

What’s in a name?
Brazilian airline Varig, a shell of its former self, is renaming itself “Nordeste.” Will they remain in Star Alliance? Will anyone care?

Speaking of Brazil…
It’s both a good day and a bad day for the pilots of the Embraer jet that survived the mid-air collision over the Brazilian jungle. They were finally allowed to leave Brazil and head home to the United States, where they were held (but not under arrest) since the incident over two months ago. However, they’ve been formally charged with involuntary manslaughter in the accident and have promised to return to Brazil for the trial. Blaming the pilots for the failures of the air traffic control system appears to be the Brazilian government’s m.o. Shame on them. For near-daily updates on this affair, Joe Sharkey’s blog is the place to go.

EU expands “borderless” travel
The European Union is expanding the number of countries that fall under the Schengen Treaty’s rules for travel between states. Under Schengen rules, you don’t need to undergo passport controls when you move between participating countries. If you’re flying in from outside the Schengen zone, you’ll be fully screened. Of EU members, only the UK, Ireland, and Cyprus will NOT participate in Schengen. Non-EU members Iceland and Norway participate; Switzerland joins next year.

Helicopter service to Newark Airport
US Helicopter is adding Newark to its roster of airports served from the heliport in downtown Manhattan. Service begins at $159 each way, with a scheduled flight time of 8 minutes.

Richard Branson calls for electric tugs at airports
As part of its re-entry into the Chicago market, Virgin Atlantic called for O’Hare Airport to employ electric tugs, to pull planes from the gate to the runway. Doing so would apparently cut aircraft emissions on the ground by 18%. Da Mayor is intrigued…

Upgraded: The five-star hotel, now with seven stars!
Much like video game point inflation, star-rankings are just getting silly. Following the success of their Palazzo Versace hotel on the Australian Gold Coast, the fashion powerhouse is joining forces with Australian developer Sunland Group to create 15 “seven-star” hotels. Seven stars!?! What makes a seven-star hotel better than a five-star, or the equally absurd (but unheard-of, at least to me) six-star hotel? Apparently, live exotic fish in the pool and “specially-cooled sand.”

Downgraded, potentially: Starwood Preferred Guest points
Seven seems to be the magic number for hoteliers today. Gary Leff spreads the rumor that Starwood is planning to add a tier to their point-redemption rules: Category 7. The ultra-expensive resorts (Bora Bora, Maldives, etc.) would likely end up in this top tier, but other hotels might try to bump up their categorization, thereby costing you more points for free-night redemptions.

Downgraded: TripAdvisor’s reputation
The Times of London sends reporters to hotels and restaurants, offering to write positive reviews on TripAdvisor in return for an unspecified payment. Several properties were amenable to the scheme. More widespread, though: Owners writing their own glowing reviews. (The flipside, not mentioned: Owners tagging genuine, but negative reviews as “unhelpful.”) At least they still work on a five-point scale… My tip: I’m more likely to trust detailed reports that include both the good and the bad (no stay is perfect) and user-generated photos.

Downgraded: L.A.’s image
Who will recognize the City of Angels without its palm trees? As they die, they’re being replaced with oaks, etc. Sunset Boulevard, R.I.P.

Downgraded: Travel guides, travelers’ brains
Pimp my vacation! Where would Christina Aguilera par-tay in Avignon? Where is the best place to get rip-roaring, fall-down-the-stairs drunk as you go city-hopping with your Eurail Pass? And where in Italy will you find the “most awesome ancient ruins”? (real quote) MTV and Frommer’s have joined forces to create travel guides that will point readers “to some of the world’s hottest party scenes and outdoor adventures.” Did Beavis and/or Butthead get a travel writing gig?

Downgraded further: Common sense
If you only have a gallon-sized Ziploc bag, instead of the required quart-sized bag, but you only fill it with 2 tiny 3-ounce bottles, which would obviously have fit into the smaller bag, does TSA let you pass through security at Boston’s Logan Airport? No. Go buy a freedom-inducing 1-quart bag from the newsstand for fifty cents, terror-boy!

Downgraded: Brazil
Not much has been heard in the American news media since the horrific mid-air collision that cost 154 people their lives. The American pilots of the surviving Embraer business jet are still being held in Brazil. Joe Sharkey, the New York Times columnist who was actually on board the luckier plane, has been relentlessly following the story on his blog. While lawsuits and the Brazilian government (and media) are pre-emptively assigning blame to the pilots and their use of the radio transponder, Joe argues that Brazil is trying to cover up their own (military-controlled) air traffic control system. Apparently control of the skies is filled with coverage gaps, language trouble, and overworked employees who take time off in large groups — ostensibly for psychotherapy. Let’s just say that my faith in the safety of air travel is Brazil is minimal at best.

(image)

The New York Times’ Joe Sharkey, who was on board the Embraer jet that collided with the ill-fated Gol Airlines Boeing 737 over Brazil, has a firsthand account of the incident today. It’s a worthwhile read, in which he describes the moment of impact, the sight of the sheared-off winglet, the passengers’ serious but unpanicked demeanor, and the pilots’ focused (and ultimately successful) efforts to wrestle their damaged plane to a runway they didn’t realize existed. Go read the whole thing.

Since Sharkey wrote the piece, the cockpit voice recorders of the doomed 737 have been found, so we’ll hopefully learn soon what happened exactly, and how the larger plane could be taken out by the smaller one.

On his own blog, Sharkey has come under vituperative attack, largely by Brazilians, it seems, for expressing concern about the Embraer’s pilots who were held for questioning, and not expressing sufficient grief at the loss of the 155 passengers in the Boeing.

Give the guy a break. He’s clearly shaken up after a brush with death, and he’s grateful to the pilots who safely landed a plane that was starting to come apart. It’s only natural to think of things through the lens of your own experience.

Previously:
- How could this tragedy have happened?

(image: AP via NYT)