(From the latimes.com) All airline mileage reward programs are not created equal. In fact, finding the right one is more crucial than ever. With airlines eliminating routes because of declining demand and packing each plane as close to capacity as possible, it’s getting increasingly difficult to redeem your reward-program points for a seat on a plane. (more…)

(From the latimes.com) Federal safety regulators are investigating the near-collision of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 and a small private plane that was practicing landings Monday at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday that the incident occurred about 11 a.m. as Southwest Flight 649 from Oakland, carrying 119 passengers and five crew members, was landing on Runway 8. (more…)

(From the L.A. Times) Commercial space travel moved a little closer to reality Monday when Virgin Galactic’s mother ship and rocket plane took to the skies for its first “captive carry” test flight at the Mojave Air and Space Port. (more…)

As I mentioned before Jakarta is a city of ramshackle houses and huts that have gleaming towers popping up here and there. It is a city that has extreme contrasts between the haves and have not’s according to a friend. I could not agree more with his assessment. (more…)

This trip has certainly been one of contrasts. In my past postcard from Singapore, I said that “Hanoi, Vietnam is a struggling emerging market and Singapore to me is the jewel of the orient.” Well Jakarta falls someplace in between but definitely closer to Hanoi and in some respects worse of than Hanoi. (more…)

The city of Singapore is absolutely stunning! Having spent a few days in Hanoi, Singapore is a complete contrast. Hanoi, Vietnam is a struggling emerging market and Singapore to me is the jewel of the orient. It is a powerful financial center and a model of urban planning, architecture and a nothing short of a showcase city. (more…)

I left Hanoi on Tuesday afternoon bound for the next leg of my adventure in Singapore. Vietnam was a tremendous experience, an amazing eye opener to a fascinating country. I have no doubt that 10 or 15 years from Vietnam will be a powerhouse in the world economy. It is already exploding economically with an incredible amount of infrastructure and education investment. (more…)

I arrived in Hanoi late Saturday night and went straight to the hotel to crash. After flying 12 hours to Inchon, South Korea and changing planes for the 4 ½ hour flight to Hanoi, Vietnam I was ready to get some serious sleep.

 My hotel is absolutely beautiful and is literally on West Lake in central Hanoi; meaning that it is a series of building on pylons connected by foot bridges. As I was sitting at the desk in my room looking out the window a fisherman in a rowboat was gliding out from under my room! (more…)

“Charlie didn’t get much USO. He was dug in too deep or moving too fast. His idea of great R&R was cold rice and a little rat meat. He had only two ways home: death, or victory.” ~Captain Willard- Apocalypse Now (1979)     Having been a child of the sixties one of my earliest media memories was the coverage of the Vietnam War on television. I can remember from the very late sixties, ’68 or ’69, watching the news footage coming out of places like Da Nang, Saigon and the Mekong Delta. It was a world away but I was seeing it on TV during the nightly news in the den of the family home in New York. (more…)

(From the AP) Los Angeles officials have broken ground on a $1.5 billion construction project at Los Angeles International Airport. The ceremony on Monday begins of one of the largest public works project in the city’s history. The expansion of the Tom Bradley international terminal will include construction of nine gates, two concourses with larger passenger lounges, and expanded customs and immigration facilities. (more…)

(From the N.Y. Times) When weather forecasters predicted severe winter storms across the country in the last few weeks, airlines sent their customers a steady stream of e-mail and text messages, giving them a chance to change their itineraries ahead of the bad weather. (more…)

(From the AP) Federal Aviation Administration officials say an error by an air traffic controller allowed a commuter plane to get too close to a Boeing 767 on approach to Los Angeles International Airport last week. (more…)

(From the L.A. Times) Speeding may be dangerous for drivers, but it could soon be a boon for California’s fiscal health. Tucked deep into the budget that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled Friday is a plan to give cities and counties the green light to install speed sensors on red-light cameras to catch — and ticket — speeding cars. (more…)

(From the FT.com) The multi-faceted US intelligence community was on the defensive on Wednesday after receiving a stern rebuke from President Barack Obama for its collective failure to forestall the abortive attack on Northwest Airlines flight 253. (more…)

(From the FT.com) US intelligence agencies had enough information about the attempted Christmas Day terror attack to have stopped it, President Barack Obama said in a stern rebuke to his intelligence and security chiefs on Tuesday, describing how officials “failed to connect the dots”. (more…)

(From the L.A. Times) Some international travelers faced increased scrutiny Monday from airport security officials before boarding flights bound for Los Angeles and other destinations in the United States. (more…)

(From KNBC-TV) There has been a lot of talk about using body scanners at airports since the terror scare on a Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Now the union for airport police at LAX wants the federal government to use full-body scanners on every single airline passenger. Los Angeles International Airport is one of 19 airports nationwide that have the scanning devices, but they are used only on selected passengers. (more…)

(From the N.Y. Times) The best way to prepare for the new security measures at the airport? Pretty much as you did for the old rules, experts say. That means becoming familiar with the Transportation Security Administration rules on what is allowed in carry-on and checked bags. A detailed list of the rules for items like liquids, holiday foods and gifts — don’t wrap them — is available at www.tsa.gov. (more…)