Environment

Donate to CA wildfires relief, get bonus United Airlines miles

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Get bonus United Airlines miles for donating cash to fight California wildfires

United Airlines has launched a fundraising campaign to support the people and organizations responding to the wildfires in California.

If you contribute at least $50 you’ll not only help raise funds for the campaign; you’ll get some bonus airline miles.

Here’s the deal:

United is offering MileagePlus members bonus award miles for making cash contributions of $50 or more to the three disaster relief charities listed below. The airline has set aside 5 million miles for the offer and will match contributions made to the campaign up to a total of $50,000.

Donate $50 to $99 and earn 250 bonus miles
Donate $100 to $249 and earn 500 bonus miles
Donate $250 or more and earn $1000 bonus miles

The charities that will benefit from your donation to this campaign are:

American Red Cross

Americares

Airlink

North Coast Opportunities (for the Mendocino Complex Fire)

Shasta Regional Community Foundation (for the Carr Fire).

All these organizations are doing incredible work. Here’s some information from Airlink about just soe of what they’ve been doing to help with the effort:

“The Northern California wildfires are now the largest in the state’s history and United Airlines is launching a fundraising campaign to help Californians affected by the historic blaze.

Airlink is currently responding to the fires in partnership with Operation BBQ Relief. We’ve supported flights for volunteers serving 20,000+ warm meals to displaced residents and first responders.

As the fires burn through the region, Airlink continues to work with its nonprofit partners, ready to send responders or relief cargo when and where they are needed.”

The deadline for making your contribution and getting these bonus miles is August 30, 2018

Here’s the link to donate to the United Airlines fundraising campaign in support of California Wildfires relief efforts.

I’m donating. Are you?

Delta Air Lines is upcycling its old uniforms. Need a tote?

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Need a new tote or messenger bag?

Soon you’ll be able to buy one made out of old Delta Air Lines uniforms.

64,000 Delta employees got new uniforms on May 29 and instead of sending all the old clothing to landfills the airline donated more than 350,000 pounds of clothing to Looptworks to be upcycled and repurposed.

 

New Zac Posen uniforms for Delta Air Lines

Delta and Looptworks plan to make backpacks, passport covers, messenger and tote bags and other accessories out of those old uniforms and begin selling them in the fall.

Will you buy one?

So long, Sydney: take-aways from IATA’s meeting of world’s airline execs

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The Vivid Sydney festival – which lights up iconic buildings and structures around the city – was a great backdrop for this week’s meeting of the world’s airline executives at the World Air Transport Summit (WATS) and the annual general meeting of IATA – the International Air Transport Association.

All sorts of briefings, reports, discussions, debates and newsy announcements take place at this event each year and will generate stories that will spool out over the course of the next few weeks.

In the meantime, here are just some of the highlights from the past few days:

Courtesy IATA

In his annual report, Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO, said that airlines are expected to achieve a collective net profit of $33.8 billion. That’s an average profit per passenger of $7.76 for the airlines, he explained, “A thin 4.1% net margin” in 2018.

Read his full report that also touched on safety, security, environmental issues and other topics here.

 

 

A bundle of 20-minute on-stage interviews were offered, on topics ranging from alternative fuels, gender equality in aviation, airport privatization and the benefits and risks of travel and tourism. Follow the links for more details from those sessions and videos of the interviews.

 

CNN’s gregarious Richard Quest was on stage with a panel of airline CEOs, including Calin Rovinsecu of Air Canada, Tim Clark of Emirates Airlines, Rupert Hogg of Cathay Pacific Airways, Pieter Elbers of KLM and Christoper Luxon of Air New Zealand.

 

Among the notable moments was when the all-male panel was asked to address gender equality (or the lack of it) at the top echelons of aviation:

Other sessions addressed everything from some creative ways getting passengers to and from airports more efficiently to the role airlines play in human trafficking.

For media attendees, the meeting wrapped up with a final debriefing session with IATA CEO and Director General Alexandre de Juniac, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker, who will serve as chairman of the IATA Board of Governors for the next year, and Alan Joyce, CEO of the Qantas Group, which hosted the IATA AGM in Sydney.

The Qatar Airways CEO is well-known for his bravado and controversial comments, but at an event in which other CEOs expressed a committment to increasing the role of women in the upper ranks of their companies, Akbar Al Baker’s comment that of course his airline had to be run by a man, “Because it is a very challenging position” was met with disbelief.

His comment may have been a ‘joke,’ – and he did go on to mention that Qatar has women serving as pilots, as senior vice presidents and in other top-level positions – but the comment did not sit well with the group assembled (I literally jumped out of my seat!) and just underscores the fact that this sector of industry has some real homework to do.

The last (plastic) straw for Alaska Airlines

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Courtesy Alaska Airlines 

Earth Day  – which this year highlighted Lonely Whale’s “For a Strawless Ocean” campaign to get people and companies to stop using plastic straws – has come and gone. But the earth still needs our help.

So it’s good to know that Alaska Airlines has jumped on the No Straws bandwagon. Starting July 16 the carrier will stop serving single-use, non-recyclable, plastic stir straws and citrus picks with drinks and will replace them with sustainable alternatives in its airport lounges and on all domestic and international commercial flights.

What’s wrong with plastic straws?  They non-recyclalbe and if they end up on the oceans, they can kill  birds and other marine life.

In 2017, Alaska Airlines handed out 22 million plastic stir straws and citrus picks. This summer, they’ll instead start using Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified white birch stir sticks and a bamboo alternative for the citrus pick. People with special needs will be able to request non-plastic, marine-friendly straws.

Alaska Airlines has a good history of being eco-conscious.

Since it started tracking its recycling efforts in 2010, the airline says it has reduced passenger waste going to landfills by 54 percent.

The Seattle-based carrier has also replaced bottled beer with aluminum cans -which are lighter and easier to recycle and introducted a policy to refill plastic cups rather than offering a new cup for every round of beverage service.

“Building on our grassroots, employee-led recycling program, we’re thrilled to take the next step to protecting our land and oceans by removing single-use non-recyclable plastic straws from our planes,” said Jacqueline Drumheller, sustainability manager for Alaska Airlines, in a statement.

Let’s see if other airines join the no-straw party.

Airline amenity of the week: free sunscreen on Hawaiian Airlines

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Here’s a nomination for airline amenity of the week:

Hawaiian Airlines has partnered with reef-safe sun care company Raw Elements USA, to offer complimentary packets of sunscreen to passengers on all flights from North America to Hawaii throughout the month of April.

Discounted full-size bottles of the eco-friendly sunscreen will also be sold on flights to Hawaii through June.

Complimentary sunscreen is a nice gesture, but it’s also an educational one.

Preserving Hawaii’s natural resources is important and the ingredients in many traditional sunscreen products can harm Hawaii’s coral reefs.  To explain how, the airline has also debuted a new educational in-flight video, Reefs at Risk.

“Hawaii is a very special place, and we believe it is our kuleana, or responsibility, to care for our home,” Avi Mannis, senior vice president of marketing at Hawaiian Airlines said in a statement,

In addition to offering Hawaiian Airlines passengers complimentary sunscreen samples, Raw Elements USA is also hosting a social media sweepstakes for US residents.

The prize: two roundtrip tickets (140,000 HawaiianMiles) to Hawaii courtesy of Hawaiian Airlines, a five-night stay at The Surfjack Hotel and Swim Club (an Aqua-Aston Hospitality Hotel), the choice of three complimentary island activities, and a year’s supply of Raw Elements reef-safe sunscreen.

Entries in the Protect the Reef sweepstakes are being accepted through 4/30/18. Good luck and see you on the beach!