This weekend we read about Southwest emergency landing in Arizona after a fuselage rupture and decompression. the rising costs of using credit cards overseas, the coming demise of outdoor cafe heaters in France and TSA under fire from lawsuits, federal and state government entities.
Fuselage rupture forces Southwest plane into emergency landing
A Southwest flight from Phoenix to Sacramento suffered a fuselage rupture last night that ripped a section of the roof off of the plane. Above the carry-on baggage bins, the tear in the outer wall of the aircraft was visible. Many flight attendants and passengers passed out because of decompression. The flight eventually arrived in Sacramento only four hours behind schedule on a replacement plane.
The plane, which was carrying 118 people, landed at a military base in Yuma without any injuries reported, according to the airline. Reese said a flight attendant fell and injured his nose, and said some people “were passing out because they weren’t getting the oxygen.”
The National Transportation Safety Board said an “in-flight fuselage rupture” led to the sudden descent and drop in cabin pressure aboard the Boeing 737.
Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Los Angeles, said the pilot “made a rapid, controlled descent from 36,000 feet to 11,000 feet altitude after the incident occurred.”
Only 10 days ago ConsumerTraveler.com covered how to survive a rapid decompression.
Credit card foreign transaction fees mostly up
When planning travel overseas, check on the foreign transaction fees charged by your credit cards. A simple check might save you 3 percent or more on your costs. Virtually every credit card charges foreign transaction fees, sometimes on transactions that you complete right at home here in the U.S.A.
If you’ve used your credit card overseas before, you’re probably aware that the convenience generally comes at a cost, as card issuers tack on a foreign transaction fee (once called a currency conversion fee). The amount of this charge varies from card issuer to card issuer, as do the guidelines for determining when this fee will be added on. According to a July 2010 study by Pew Trusts, more than 90% of bank cards and almost 60% of credit union cards tack on a foreign transaction fee.
Visa and MasterCard, which handle the transactions between the merchant and the bank that issued your card, each charge a 1% foreign transaction fee. However, most card issuers that use the Visa and MasterCard payment system add their own fees on top of that. If you have a Bank of America MasterCard, for example, you’ll pay the 1% MasterCard charges plus an additional 2% levied by Bank of America, for a total of 3%.
Outdoor heaters to be removed from Paris cafés
A new law will require that Paris cafés remove their awnings and the heaters for “environmental” reasons. Here is the “freetranslation.com” version of the first paragraphs. It looks like they doing this to punish smokers. They they suggest that the cafés hand out blankets to be more environmentally friendly. The world has gone mad. I’m thinking of taking up smoking!
The terraces of bars and restaurants of Paris no longer will be able to utilize its famous stoves of gas, that have formed part of the Parisian landscape since many years ago and even they proliferated since in 2008 the law was approved antitabaco. The City Hall has just prohibited its use, owed its environmental impact.
More than 8,600 establishments of the French capital should adapt now its terraces, for what have a time limit of two years, as explained today to Efe a spokesman of the town council that approved this Monday the new regulation.
The restaurateurs will also have to withdraw the protective canvases that conserve the energy of the heaters, for which their eligible unique, exterior tables for the smokers, they will remain without protection of the cold, the rain or the snow.
Groping for an alternative to intrusive TSA screenings
Pressure is mounting on TSA to reconsider the “enhanced screenings and pat-downs.” State legislatures have chimed in with complaints of “overzealous” screeners, Congressional committees are questioning the tactics and Jesse Venture has sued TSA for constantly subjecting him to a pat-down although the agency knows he is no threat.
A House Oversight subcommittee last week began to put the pressure on TSA officials who initially balked at the invitation to testify. Before the tardy bureaucrats arrived, Rep. John L. Mica, Florida Republican, blasted the agency for the indiscriminate use of pornographic whole-body image scanners, saying, “A seventh-grader could come up with a better plan for deploying and utilizing this equipment.”
Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura wants to take the fight directly to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. The easily recognizable Mr. Ventura flies several times a week and is subjected to automatic “enhanced screening” because he has a titanium hip implant that sets off the metal detector every time he walks through. “TSA and DHS have no factual basis to support any reasonable suspicion that Governor Ventura poses any threat to airline safety, nor does he in fact pose any such threat,” his lawsuit charges. Mr. Ventura is not seeking money, only a restraining order forcing Ms. Napolitano and her agency to abide by the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Photo: ©Leocha
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
