Here are some of the posts from around the web the last few days that I thought would be of interest to you all! Hope you are having a great weekend – wherever you are spending it!
Make sure you read the first guest post ever on Running with Miles and also enter Dustin’s giveaway for Amazon gift cards! See the bottom of this post or that post for giveaway details.
United Airlines Updates iOS App For Indoor Airport Directions
I love when technology helps us with everyday facets of life and, apparently, so does United. They updated their mobile phone app this week (for iOS only so far) to help travelers navigate inside of airports. That’s right, they have integrated the ability to locate and guide you within the terminals. That way, the next time you are in that huge airport and you are lost, you can simply pull up the United app and it will help guide you along! Check your App Store on iOS to update/download this newest update
iOS 9 And Mac OS X El Capitan To Bring Flight Data Detector
Chalk up another one for Apple’s operating platforms. News came out this week that they will be integrating flight data detecting capability into their latest iOS update, iOS 9, due out this fall. This capability will take text concerning flights and give you the option to preview the flight info. It will bring up a map and status info for the flight referenced. Even though there are already some great flight tracking apps available, to have this kind of tracking natively built-in is great. Imagine, someone sends you their flight number and airline and you are able to, with a tap, bring up that flight’s info with a nice layout! – Source: 9to5Mac
Emirates Bringing In The Longest Flight In The World
If you are sitting in economy, the words “longest flight in the world” bring a shudder and a dread, followed by looking up which one it is to make sure you never take it! However, flying such a flight in first class, while still a long flight, is more of a treat – especially for aviation geeks. On a flight in Cathay Pacific’s first class cabin one time, we were delayed for a little over an hour before finally taking off on the already-long 15 hour flight. I actually enjoyed it!
Well, Emirates is about to take the crown for the longest flight in the world when they launch their Dubai – Panama flight in February of 2016. It will beat out the current record holder, Qantas (on their Sydney – Dallas flight) by a mere 10 miles – 8,558 miles of flying for this new route by Emirates! While most of us will not be flying non-stop from Dubai – Panama, should you ever find yourself needing to do it, try to save those extra miles to do it in at least business class! 🙂 – Source: One Mile At A Time
Club Carlson Visa Cardholders Receiving Free Night Certificate
Check your mail! Some cardholders getting a free night!
Written about first by Milepoint member Kalboz, apparently US Bank is sending out letters to notify many holders of the Club Carlson Visa card that they will be receiving a free night in their Club Carlson account. Not only is it a free night, but it is supposed to be good at any Club Carlson in the world!
Club Carlson did a lot of damage to their cardmember base this year when they dropped the last night free on award benefit. This little gift was never mentioned before but maybe it was intended to reward people who had weathered the June 1 change and try to convince them to continue holding the card. Bad luck for me – just cancelled my wife’s card this past week. 🙁 – Source: Milepoint
London To New York In 1 Hour?!
Airbus filed a patent recently for an aircraft that could make the journey from London to New York in just an hour! Flying so fast over such a journey would make the now defunct Concorde look slow in comparison! Of course, such an aircraft would make use of a variety of engine types and technology to make this work so it will take a while for such a plane to come into existence – if it ever does. I remember reading stories years ago about New York to Tokyo in just a couple of hours.
Of course, should it happen, I would never want to redeem for a premium cabin flight again between New York and London. We could fly Ryanair-style easily for just an hour! 🙂 But, since it would only carry 20 passengers in an airline configuration, I doubt there would be a choice to “choose” a particular cabin. – Source: Business Insider
Nick Symmonds, 800-meter National Champion, Dropped From World Championships Roster Over Uniform Dispute
This was an interesting story to follow over Twitter this week. Nick Symmonds, a great track champ and favorite for the US team, had refused to sign a form that the USATF said it needed before the athletes (who had already been invited) would be able to make the final roster and compete in China for the World Championships.
Thanks to the form concerning the uniform not being clearly articulated, it made it sound that the clothing worn throughout the trip would have to be the Nike gear that is provided to the USATF participants (thanks to a long-term, lucrative contract between Nike and the USATF). As Symmonds is connected with Brooks Running, he did not feel it was fair to his sponsor to not get their name on his clothes during times that were not involving competition during the World Championships. As a result of his refusal to sign the letter out of principle, he was dropped from the final roster.
The USATF has come under a lot of heat this week as a result of this stance, which they are now working to clarify. Many elite athletes who used to be in the Nike program have spoken out in defense of Nick. To read more about it, check out this Runner’s World post and make sure you check out Nick’s Twitter feed.
Waller’s Wallet Giveaway
This week, I had my first guest post here on the blog. It was nice to see and a great read! It was written by Dustin who write’s Waller’s Wallet. He is having a giveaway to celebrate the post here being his 50th post written. Here are the details about the giveaway:
I realized this is my 50th blog post and celebrate, I’ll be giving away 2 $10 gift cards to Amazon. One will be through Twitter, the other will be through Facebook.follow my blog then follow me on twitter or like my facebook page and leave me a comment telling your favorite trip and what made it special. I’ll select 2 winners on 8/17 and reach out to get you your Amazon gift card.
