Teresa Immel, a Frontier Airlines flight attendant, practices strikes against a rubber mannequin during a crew member self-defense course provided by the Federal Air Marshals in Denver November 16, 2007.REUTERS/Rick Wilking (UNITED STATES)
A roundup of the latest travel news from around the world.
Martial arts in mid-flight
Watch out, drunk and disorderly air passengers. Hong Kong Airlines has started training new cabin staff in wing chun, a form of kung fu. The airline made the move to deal with disruptive-passenger incidents, which occur three times a week on average. " Wing chun can be used in small, confined spaces so it's suited for an airplane," an instructor says. Another Hong Kong carrier, Cathay Pacific, already includes self-defence in its routine cabin-crew training.
Service for the maid
A California senator has introduced a bill that would require hotels to use fitted bottom sheets and provide maids with long-handled mops. The intention is to protect hotel housekeepers who, according to the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, have injury rates 68 per cent higher than the average service-industry worker. Fitted sheets would free maids from lifting mattresses weighing up to 90 kilograms. Mops would do away with scrubbing on hands and knees.
Travel insurance in aisle 4
Now you can purchase travel medical insurance along with your groceries, provided you are under 60 at the start of your trip and don't live in Quebec or New Brunswick. Loblaw stores in eight provinces are selling PC Financial Travel Insurance To Go in a card format at gift-card kiosks and PC Financial pavilions. The cost to cover a single person or a couple with up to four children for four, eight or 15 days ranges from $15 to just under $100.
Source: South China Morning Post, Ventura County Star, PC Financial
Special to The Globe and Mail