by Lufthansa Flyer | Apr 17, 2012 | Uncategorized |
LufthansaFlyer has reached a licensing agreement with MilesQuest to host the First Annual AIRPORT WORLD CUP.
The World Cup will launch shortly after the completion of the AIRLINE WORLD CUP and will be conducted in an identical format. The top 64 busiest airports in the world (based on passenger traffic) will battle it out for the title of AIRPORT WORLD CUP CHAMPION. The airports will be seeded in order of their passenger traffic ranking. There are some surprise airports that made the cut!
I’m currently working on the bracket and will post it shortly so you can preview the competition. There are some outstanding match-ups already lined up in the First Round!
by Lufthansa Flyer | Apr 16, 2012 | Uncategorized |
Being reported by Bloomberg, flight 73 which was enroute from Istanbul to New York’s JFK this afternoon made a precautionary emergency landing in Dublin after a phone was discovered plugged into a charger in one of the lavatories. The crew thought better of it than to continue the trip with the suspicious device.
After inspecting the plane, it was given the all clear to continue it’s journey to New York.
Its been a busy day as far as emergency landings are concerned. Earlier today A Virgin Atlantic flight from Gatwick to Orlando had to return after 2 hours into her flight after smoke was reported in the cockpit. The Virgin emergency prompted an entire evacuation of the plane using emergency chutes on the runway. For images of that event, visit the Daily Mail Article here.
After all is said and done, I guess it’s a tie score between Boeing and Airbus for today’s emergency landing scoreboard.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Apr 15, 2012 | Uncategorized |
A bit off topic today, but I’ve had several readers email me about coordinating travel to Europe to take advantage of “European Delivery” of a vehicle. In short, what “European Delivery” means is you arrange with your local Audi, BMW, Mercedes, etc. dealer to have them build a car for you that you can take possession of in Europe. You then fly to Europe and tour around the continent a bit, drop it off at an export center and the car is then shipped to your local dealer a few weeks later and ultimately delivered to you.
Doing it this way saves you some money on the car that you can then parlay into the trip. Most European car companies have specific programs set up where they will arrange all the details for you, including things like air travel, trip planning in Europe as well as taking care of all the necessary paperwork such as registration and insurance while you are driving throughout Europe in your new car.
Mercedes Benz will be adding quite the exclamation point this summer for anyone who is ordering an AMG version of one of their vehicles. AMG is their high performance division that takes regular coupes and sedans, and modifies the engine, transmission, suspension, etc. to high performance / race ready standards. Trust me from personal experience when I say there is a difference!!
AMG prides itself on the fact that each engine is hand built by one technician from start to finish in their surgically clean facility in Affalterbach, Germany. These engines usually account for approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of the vehicle’s purchase price. But trust me, it is worth it! Mercedes has such high regard for this program, that each technician who builds an engine puts his personal nameplate on the engine, just as an author would sign his name to a book. Mercedes also holds these technicians accountable if their engines do not perform to expectations or have ongoing trouble. Technicians have lost their jobs when too many times their engines cause a car to come to a dealer for unscheduled service. But I digress…..
Mercede’s AMG division will now allow buyers of these ultra-high performance automobiles to come to Affalterbach and assist a technician in building the very engine that will be installed in their vehicle. Now don’t expect that you will be allowed to install the camshafts, pistons and valves yourself like some kind of backyard gearhead. You may only be allowed to only hand over a wrench or wipe the sweat off the brow of your engine’s builder, but nevertheless this is an experience that is worth having if you are thinking about buying this type of vehicle.
You can do this in tandem with the European Delivery program, but your car may still be several days away from being ready. However, you can order your car for regular delivery and just take a trip to Europe to observe the engine build and come home and wait for your “baby” to arrive. Initially, Mercedes AMG will have this available for the 8-cylinder engine models this summer. The 12 cylinder engines will be added later to this program.
