In her letter “Comparing Business Class, Qatar vs Delta” (March ’16, pg. 24), a subscriber described her unsatisfactory experience on a Delta Air Lines’ business-class flight from New York to Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2014.
All passengers departing from Dubai International Airport, including transfers, will be charged an airport facility fee of AED35 (near $9.50) starting on June 30. The fee will be included when buying a ticket for a flight to or connecting through the airport. Passengers arriving and departing aboard the same flight are exempt. Revenue raised will go toward airport expansion projects.
Dear Globetrotter:
Welcome to the 484th issue of your monthly foreign travel magazine.
A flydubai passenger plane crashed on landing at Rostov-on-Don Airport (ROV) in southwestern Russia on March 19, killing all 62 passengers and crew. The flight came down about 800 feet short of the runway.
Early reports indicate the crash may have been due to pilot error. It was revealed after the crash that the pilot had resigned due to fatigue and, at the time of the accident, was fulfilling his 3-month obligation for the UAE-based airline. High winds and low visibility are also being investigated as possible causes of the crash.
In the letter “Allow Time to Transit Paris’ CDG” (April ’16, pg. 15), a subscriber expressed surprise that, with only one hour between flights, he missed his connecting flight out of Charles de Gaulle Airport. He mentioned learning from friends, later, the impossibility of traversing CDG in less than two hours.
As every frequent flyer knows, trips can be hard to book using your miles because the few seats on each flight that can be purchased with miles sell out quickly. Savvy frequent flyers book on the first date that the flight they want becomes available, which, in general practice, is 330 days before the flight.
Suicide bombers targeted Belgium’s Brussels Airport (BRU) and the Brussels metro on March 22, killing at least 32 people, including four Americans, and injuring over 300 more. The Islamist militant group Daesh (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Three men entered the airport with bombs in their baggage. Two of the bombs were detonated, killing the bombers, while the third bomb was abandoned, with the police detonating it later.
I swear by Airfarewatchdog (www.airfarewatchdog.com). It has brought up many a fare that I would not otherwise have known about.
Just as importantly, when it alerts me to a fare for a flight on a day I can’t travel, it often leads me in the right direction and, by digging around in places where otherwise I would not have gone digging, I can find a deal.
What should I do with my $219 American Airlines voucher? That was the question.
I didn’t want to have to add on too much more in cash, but I was definitely in the mood for some interesting international travel. Hmmm.
Wudangshan Airport (WDS), in the city of Shiyan in Hubei Province in central China, began commercial service on Feb. 5. Three airlines — China Express Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Loong Air — currently operate out of WDS, with service to five destinations: Kunming, Tianjin, Wuhan, Hangzhou and Xi’an. The airport is designed to accommodate 900,000 passengers a year.
About 20 kilometers from the airport, the nearby Mount Wudang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is famous for its Taoist temples.