I’m on vacation through next week, but that doesn’t mean I’m leaving you hanging. I have new posts ready to go on the usual schedule, including today’s round-up which is pretty full. I will be slower at approving any flagged comments and responding to any emails. I’ll be back as usual on June 1.
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Should airlines offer bounties to hackers who find security flaws in avionics? – tnooz
I haven’t written about the airplane hacking story because it’s still not clear what’s happened. But I was asked to comment on the idea of paying a bounty to get friendly hackers to try to find holes in the system. It sounds great, but I’m not convinced it is.
Struggling start-up airline turns to crowdfunding for cash – USA Today
Struggling start-up airline promising no baggage fees, free WiFi and low fares aims to raise $5million through crowdfunding (and donors could bag a job as a pilot) – Daily Mail
I couldn’t help but laugh at watching USA Today and even the Daily Mail try to cover Avatar Airlines with a somewhat straight face. They quoted from my post on Avatar, as well as others.
Travel Websites Allege Delta Air Lines Is Shutting Them Out – The Wall Street Journal
I was asked about my thoughts on Delta shutting down access to its fares and products to many third parties. In general, it doesn’t bother me to see small online travel agents shut out, but when you start shutting out Expert Flyer, well, that’s Jackass-worthy. (Unfortunately, this article didn’t get into that part of the discussion.)
Race for Ratings – APEX Experience magazine
I like writing for APEX, but I LOVED when they asked me to go on a rant about how the media gets things wrong when it comes to airlines. As you can imagine, it was hard for me to keep it within my assigned word count.
In the Trenches: When a Long-Time Part of the Team Leaves – Small Business Center
One of our long-time concierges finished grad school and has moved on. We had to deal with that and it turned out I learned a fair bit in the process.
