Our weekly ‘Hot or Not’ series brings you some of the highs and lows in this week’s travel news headlines.
HOT, HOT, HOT!
1. Gate 7’s generous donation
Sometimes by chance, somethings are meant to be. Courage, commitment, devotion, people putting themselves out there, not giving up. Lets celebrate an amazing company.
This story?
It’s how two blokes faced off in a fight, became friends, one who decided against child slavery, one who tried to assist, the efforts were noticed by a person who decided their company would help.
2. Ann Sherry is recognised for what she truly is
She runs Australians largest cruise company, manages hundreds of staff, contributes to numerous charities, advocates for more port space and still finds the time to run a household.
There’s no doubt Carnival Australia’s CEO Ann Sherry is an incredible (and busy) woman, but she’s finally being recognised for what she truly is – Australia’s most influential woman.
Over the weekend, Sherry was named as the 2015 The Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence Awards overall winner.
3. Eden & Aria enter dry dock
They went in as Holland America’s Statendam & Ryndam and will emerge three weeks later as P&O two newest ships, Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden.
After months of planning, the two vessels entered dry dock in Singapore this week, more than one year after Carnival publicly announced they would cross over to the Australian cruise line.
Some 900 contractors from 43 different nationalities have been recruited to stitch, pluck and transform them into practically brand new vessels before officially joining the P&O fleet next month.
NOT, NOT, NOT!
1. Man dies after biting fellow pax
A man, believed to be around 24 years old, fell fatally ill during a recent Aer Lingus flight after biting another passenger.
According to reports from Flight EI485, the man was travelling from Lisbon in Portugal to Dublin in Ireland when he began sinking his teeth into his fellow flyer.
Staff restrained him from ‘extremely violent’ behaviour but then he became so unwell he fell into a state of unconsciousness, The Mirror reported.
The pilot informed controllers at the Irish Aviation Authority’s North Atlantic Communications Service centre at Ballygirreen that a passenger was ‘running amok’ and that one or two passengers had been injured. The plane then diverted and made an emergency landing in Cork.
A doctor on the plane attempted to treat the man mid-flight, but he was pronounced dead before touching down.
A postmortem study found the man was attempting to smuggle 40,000 pounds of cocaine in his stomach. However, the bags erupted causing him to action irrationally.
2. Order your food with an emoji
What has the world come to?
A hotel is taking society’s lack of communication to an all new level by introducing a new system where guests can order their meals using emojis.
The ‘Text it, Get it’ programme consists of six packages that can be ordered be sending over a string of images along with the room number and surname.
Among the packages is ‘The Hangover’, which features a drop of water, tablet and banana emoji. Or there’s ‘The Munchies’ package featuring a bar of chocolate, lollipop and cookie.
It’s a cool concept but also very lazy.
3. Woman deported after giving birth to baby mid-flight
A woman who was filmed giving birth to her child on a recent flight to the US has been deported back to Taiwan… without her child.
According to reports, the woman claimed to be 32 weeks pregnant when she hopped on the flight – the last date expectant mothers are permitted to fly under Taiwanese regulations. However, media outlets are now claiming she may have been 36 weeks when she went into labour mid-flight.
The plane made an emergency landing in Alaska after the baby was brought into the world. The child was awarded US citizenship and remains in state, while the mother was deported back to Taiwan and reportedly faced a $30,000 fine.