U.S. airlines resist China demand
Beijing ordered all air carriers worldwide to designate Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau as Chinese territories.
A demand by China that all air carriers worldwide refer to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau on online maps and drop-down menus as Chinese territories — not as independent regions — is being ignored by the U.S.’ biggest airlines. At least for now. The order from Beijing came in May, and dozens of foreign-based carriers have already fallen in line.
Last week, the Associated Press confirmed that 20 carriers, including Air Canada, British Airways and Lufthansa, were referring to Taiwan as a part of China on their global websites. China claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory, but the two have been ruled separately since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s.
In a statement, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said: “Foreign enterprises operating in China should respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, abide by China’s law and respect the national sentiment of the Chinese people.”
The White House, however, blasted the order, calling it “Orwellian nonsense.”
Among those carriers that continue to include the name “Taiwan” on their maps or list of destinations are American, Delta, United and Hawaiian Airlines.
American Airlines requested a 60-day extension — until July 25 — from the Chinese order. An American Airlines spokesman declined to discuss the matter except to say: “We are consulting with the U.S. government on the matter.”
In a statement, Delta said: “We are reviewing the Civil Aviation Administration of China’s request and will remain in close consultation with the U.S. government throughout this process.”
China has yet to say what punishment it may impose on airlines that defy its order. But a financial penalty or other punishment could create complications for China because the biggest U.S. airlines that fly to Taiwan and other Chinese destinations often do so through partnerships with China-based carriers such as Shanghai Airlines, China Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.
Model sues Hilton over biting bedbugs
Bedbugs are a relatively rare problem in the hotel industry, but they can be an embarrassment when a guest wakes up with bites and rashes from the creatures.
Now, imagine the embarrassment when that guest is a Brazilian fashion model who claims that her previously unblemished face and body turned into a mess of welts and bites after she stayed at a high-end hotel.
Sabrina Jales St. Pierre, who has appeared in advertisements for Avon, Neiman Marcus, the Limited and Tommy Hilfiger, among others, claims in a lawsuit filed in Riverside County Superior Court that the bedbug bites were the result of her 2016 stay at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Palm Desert.
An image provided by her attorneys shows her with large red welts on her shoulders, arm and back.
“This was especially traumatic for Sabrina because her body is her work so this severely affected her work and her career,” said her attorney Brian Virag, who specializes in bedbug lawsuits.
“She had to continue working during the hotel stay, but the bite marks all over her body made her feel embarrassed, ashamed and humiliated,” Virag added.
Jales’ lawsuit seeks monetary and punitive damages against the management of the hotel as well as the parent company, Hilton Worldwide.
In a statement, Hilton Worldwide said the company has not been contacted by Jales’ attorney and has not seen the lawsuit.
“We understand that the allegations relate to a 2016 stay at an independently owned and managed franchise property, so we will refer related questions to the property’s management,” the statement said.
A representative for Embassy Suites Management, which was also named in the suit, could not be reached for comment.
Virag, whose firm is dubbed My Bed Bug Lawyer, has previously sued a number of hotels, apartment owners and others over bedbug bites.
In December, he won a $3.5-million jury verdict against Park La Brea Apartments on behalf of 16 current and former residents over a bedbug infestation.
Two months earlier, Virag won a $546,000 jury verdict against the Heritage Inn in Rancho Cucamonga on behalf of an Arkansas
A new hotel brand, a cookie return
Smart hotel operators try to draw a wide variety of guests, including wellheeled executives and families with snack-loving kids.
The InterContinental Hotels Group, one of the world’s largest hotel companies, reached out to both types last week with announcements of a new upscale hotel brand and a giveaway of chocolate milk and cookies at its familyoriented hotel chain.
The company said it planned to create a brand called Voco and would open more than 200 of the luxury hotels “in attractive urban and leisure locations over the next 10 years.”
The first Voco hotel is expected to be an existing 388-room hotel near a popular surfers’ beach in Australia that will be overhauled and renamed.
The hotel brand’s three signature features will be an easy check-in process and a “locally influenced treat,” “cozy beds and bedding” and “vibrant and sociable bar and lounge spaces.”
Future Voco hotels will open first in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa and eventually in North and South America and China, the hotel company said.
InterContinental’s Holiday Inn chain plans a summer relaunch of its Chocolate Milk Happy Hour at 20 hotels across the country, including the Holiday Inn in Anaheim.
The events, which started last summer, will run through early August. Guests at the hotels — kids and adults — will get free Otis Spunkmeyer Cookies and lactose-free milk.