Travel Industry News, Views and Opinions

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Brian and team, who work for a digital marketing agency run this Digital Crosstalk blog.
Occasionally we might blog about companies and people we work with but for the most part we'll simply be blogging about stories and events which we find interesting.

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1st
MAR

Stewardesses in plane punchup cause flight cancellation

Posted by Brian | Filed under air

: Image via Wikipedia

A war of words between two airline stewardesses resulted in the cancellation of a flight, just moments before it was due to take off.

The flight was due to take off from Rochester, New York bound for Atlanta when the two crew members became embroiled in a spat which resulted in the captain aborting the flight and ordering passengers to disembark the plane.

One passenger claimed punches were thrown in the incident which is believed to have arisen as the plane was returning to its gate after a passenger on board the plane fell ill.

Pinnacle Airlines, the flight operator refuted claims of physical contact between the two, and stated that the disagreement was purely verbal.

Both stewardesses have been removed from duty pending an airline investigation and the flight was cancelled. Alternative travel plans were made for passengers reports the Telegraph.

Tags: Airline, Atlanta, Aviation, flight attendant, New York, Pinnacle Airlines, Rochester New York, Transportation

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1st

Ryanair passenger eats $10,000 scratchcard

Posted by Brian | Filed under air

: Image via Wikipedia

An angry Ryanair passenger who held a winning in-flight scratchcard couldn’t stomach it when informed he wouldn’t be able to claim his prize on the flight. But as it turned out, he could stomach it afterall – when he ATE the scratchcard.

The man, who was flying from Krakow, Poland to East Midlands Airport won $10,000 with the scratchcard, but when staff informed the passenger that he would have to collect his jackpot directly from the operating company.

Stephen McNamara, a spokesman for the airline said that passengers and cabin crew tried to placate the man but he stood up and ate it anyway, ruining any chance he had of collecting his prize.

The money will now be donated to charity with passengers being asked by the airline to vote online to decide which charity should receive the windfall.

Tags: Airline, eat, krakow, poland, Ryanair, scratchcard

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25th
FEB

Elvis exposes biometric passport security flaws

Posted by Brian | Filed under blogging

: Elvis Presley via last.fm

The introduction of biometric passports was supposedly to tighten security and make travellers feel a little safer. But hackers have showed they’re far from foolproof in a CNN report.

In the pursuit of improved security, Adam Laurie and Jeroen Van Beek demonstrated just how easy it is to fool a passport scanner using a fraudulent biometric chip. Checking in at a self-serve passport machine at Amsterdam’s Schipol airport in September 2008, the hacker was able to clear passport control with a faked Elvis Presley passport!

Van Beek said: “What we did for that chip is create passport content for Elvis Presley and put it on a chip and sign it with our own key for a non-existent country. And a device that was used to read chips didn’t check the country’s signatures.”

Biometric passports, which contain data stored on an embedded chip are now standard issue in much of Europe, the United States and in numerous countries around the world but the hackers maintain biometric passports are still vulnerable to fraud.

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25th

Alcohol-free resort launched for recovering addicts

Posted by Brian | Filed under Uncategorized

: Image by Valter Jacinto | Portugal via Flickr

Many holidays abroad usually involve some level of alcohol consumption amongst its participants. However, Europe’s first alcohol-free holiday resort has been unveiled in Portugal, and is being aimed at recovering alcoholics.

A report in the Telegraph says that Renovatio – the company behind the project – is to launch the service – called ‘Sober Holidays’ – with the aim of providing holidaymakers with a ‘safe, supportive environment’ which it claims is not available at other resorts.

Fashioned from a restored 19th-century villa, the resort property is situated on the Algarve near to Faro airport and will open for business from April. The resort will offer a host of activities from mountain biking and hiking to bird-watching and tennis. The surrounding countryside also hosts 14 golf courses.

The company claims that counselling sessions are not obligatory, and they are not affiliated to any other organisiation. They will however offer access to three weekly English Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, while weekly Gamblers Anonymous and bi-weekly Narcotics Anonymous meetings will also take place locally.

Sober Holidays are open to guests with a minimum of 60 days sobriety with prices starting at €395 for a three-night break, and €595 for a five-night break. Both tariffs operate an all-inclusive board basis.

The property used by Sober Holidays is owned and operated by Andrew O’Loughlin, himself a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for four years.

“On any conventional holiday, alcohol is everywhere,” said Mr O’Loughlin. “I could not find anywhere in Europe that offered an alcohol-free environment. I’d spoken to recovering alcoholics who had not been on holiday for five years. If we can stop one person relapsing on holiday, then it’s worth it.”