Southwest Airlines and Omni Hotels & Resorts are teaming up to offer a special "Solarbration" sweepstakes ahead of the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.The sweepstakes—which can be entered now through March 11—will reward two lucky winners with a prize package that includes air travel on a flight predicted to be in the direct path of the eclipse.The flight options include Southwest Flight 1252, which departs Dallas (Love Field) at 12:40 p.m. CT for Pittsburgh, and Southwest Flight 1721, which departs Austin at 12:55 p.m. CT for Indianapolis.Omni will do its part by putting the winners up in custom-designed guest rooms inspired by the celestial event. The special accommodations will be located at Omni Hotels in the departure cities of Dallas and Austin and the arrival cities of Pittsburgh and Indianapolis.In addition to roundtrip flights and accommodations for two nights, winners will receive exclusive solar eclipse viewing glasses and fun inflight experiences aboard their eclipse flights.
Finnair has started asking passengers to volunteer to be weighed at the gate, and it's giving them a free baggage tag if they agree
09.02.2024 - 10:01 / insider.com
Another airline has started asking its passengers to volunteer to step on the scales before boarding.
Finnair is now collecting the weights of its passengers on a volunteer basis as part of its "aircraft balance calculations." The airline is asking for people to be weighed along with their hand luggage at the departure gate, so the airline can update its average weights, as required by the civil aviation authority.
"We use the weighing data for the average calculations required for the safe operation of flights, and the collected data is not linked in any way to the customer's personal data," Satu Munnukka, the head of ground processes at Finnair, said in a statement on February 5. Passengers' names or booking numbers are not recorded along with their weight.
As of Wednesday, 600 passengers have volunteered to be weighed, The Guardian reported, citing a Finnair spokesperson. People who agreed to be weighed were compensated with a complimentary baggage tag.
Participants are not being asked for their name or booking number. "Only the customer service agent working at the measuring point can see the total weight, so you can participate in the study with peace of mind," Munnukka said.
The data will be collected in February, April, and May for a variety of flights departing from Finnair's hub in Helsinki, the airline said.
Finnair uses its own passenger weight measurements, and authorities require that the data is updated every five years. The last round of data was collected between 2017 and 2018, according to the statement.
The European Aviation Safety Authority also collects its own data on passenger weight for aircraft mass and balance calculations. Its latest study, in 2022, showed that average passenger weight did not significantly increase or decrease since the last study in 2009.
Air New Zealand, Korean Air, Hawaiian Airlines have made similar requests of passengers in the past year, to better understand average weights for safety. Uzbekistan Airlines began weighing passengers for the same reason in 2015.
Finnair did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
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