Air Travel

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Dear Globetrotter:

Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific revealed on Oct. 24 that a data breach in March 2018 exposed the personal information of more than 9 million passengers. Information from passengers of its partner airline, Hong Kong Dragon Airlines, also was compromised.

The data accessed included names, nationalities, dates of birth, mailing addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. At least 860,000 passport numbers also were stolen. At press time, Cathay Pacific was in the process of contacting passengers who were affected by the breach to offer assistance.

Upon arriving at Queen Beatrix International Airport (AUA) in Oranjestad, Aruba, in March 2018, I was impressed with how well the process worked. Not so with our departure. We were advised to arrive three hours before our flight time, and we did. We just didn't expect the process to actually take 2½ hours or to be so exhausting.

There was one place before the line made it into the terminal, itself, where there was a handful of chairs, but beyond that there was no place to sit.

Pakyong Airport (PYG), the first airport in Sikkim, an eastern Himalayan state in India that borders Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet (China), began operation on Oct. 8. The single-runway airport is located on a mountainside at an elevation of 4,500 feet.

At press time, SpiceJet (Gurgaon, India; www.spicejet.com) offered flights to Pakyong from Kolkata and Guwahati, India. Drukair Royal Bhutan Airlines (Paro, Bhutan; www.drukair.com.bt) is scheduled to begin service from Paro, Bhutan, in January 2019.

I am a volunteer advocate for author Chris Elliott's travel help forums, a service of the nonprofit organization Elliott Advocacy (www.elliott.org/category/the-troubleshooter), and I have learned more in the last three years than I ever could have imagined.

I have never worked for an airline or hotel and have no connections to any of them whatsoever, but I travel often and have come to understand pretty much how things are today, especially with flying. I find the whole process fascinating and consider it a game, a game I want to win on every trip!

I have a Merrill Lynch BankAmericard (Bank of America) credit card* on which I earn points. The card's brochure promises you can get a ticket for a round-trip flight costing up to $500 in exchange for a minimum of 25,000 points.

After taking the "Cities of Light" cruise-tour from Prague to Paris with Viking River Cruises, on Oct. 16, 2017, I flew from Paris to Montreal, continuing home to Los Angeles. Viking had arranged my flights, routing me on Air Canada (888/247-2262, www.aircanada.com), which I had not flown before.

On the flight out of Paris, I found the plane comfortable (I had an aisle seat two rows behind business class), and the meal, with wine, was adequate.