#booking tap portugal

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Plan the Best Travel Vacation to Hamburg

Most tours to Germany include Hamburg, Munich, and perhaps the Black Forest or a trip along the Rhine. We’re sure that there are even more grounds to stop by, visit now and discover your own. when it comes to planning your German tourist destinations, however, this eclectic, industrial city needs to be added to everyone’s German bucket list

1. HafenCity

Encompassing the Speicherstadt, HafenCity is a brand new waterside area that turned into made professional in 2008.

Think smooth workplace blocks, rental complexes, and enjoyment amenities, all designed with actual panache and sensitivity for his or her waterfront location.

So a long way from the principal sight to peer is the Elbphilharmonie live performance hall, which merits its entry.

2. Port of Hamburg tour

Don't expect to see nature on these boat tours; instead, learn about what makes Germany's largest port tick.

The Port of Hamburg is a bustling sea superhighway with 9,000 ship calls per year

nearly 300 berths, and 27 miles of the wharf for seagoing vessels or Book Flight ticket on Tap air Portugal.

A barge tour, such as the Maritime Circle line, will bring you closer to the container ship action. Put another way, you could escape the confines of land with a floating techno party on the Love Boat. If speed is your thing, try RIB Piraten, the only speedboat operator permitted inside Hamburg book online flight on Book Tap Portugal.

On the final stretch of this tour, you'll reach top speeds on a rigid inflatable boat that skims the waves at 60 miles per hour.

3. St. Michael’s Church

St. Michael's Church is among the greatest things to do in Hamburg. The church was constructed in the Baroque style in the 1750s. It provides a stunning view over the city that is truly a feast for the eyes. In conclusion, you will undoubtedly have a nice day when visiting this church.

The best attractions in Hamburg

Strandperle

Just because you live in the city does not preclude you from visiting the beach. Strandperle is a fixture along Hamburg's sandy stretch of the Elbe river, which is popular with sunbathers and swimmers during the summer. Strandperle is a favorite hangout for locals and tourists alike, with a large deck of tables, chairs, and umbrellas, a bar, a kitchen, and the harbor in the background.

Open all day Friday through Sunday, you can stop in for a beer and a burger, catch up with cocktails and friends, or rent out the 'upper deck' for an intimate dinner party and fly with Tap air Portugal.

Jenischpark

Jenischpark has an English country feel to it, with its rolling green acres, woodland paths, and stately Jenisch House. The oldest landscaped park in Hamburg, it's a popular spot for summer picnics, but it's also a lovely place to visit all year, especially at dusk or dawn, when the sturdy oak trees become silhouettes against the setting sun.

Jenisch House, formerly the country residence of a wealthy Hamburg merchant, is now a museum specializing in Northern German art and culture, particularly of the nineteenth century, with a ground floor of original Empire and Biedermeier furnishings.

For those who prefer the twentieth century, the low-rise Ernst Barlach Museum down the slope is a tranquil modernist enclave showcasing the work of sculptor Ernst Barlach.

Schanzenviertel

Schanzenviertel, the traditional beating heart of Hamburg counter-culture and site of the much-publicized violent protests during the G20 summit, clings tenaciously to its alternative credentials. In reality, despite the smashed-up stores of summer 2017, the neighborhood is defined by third-wave coffee shops and vintage lamp stores rather than anarchic dissent hubs check tap airlines .

High-consuming hipsters and media professionals have long moved into the "Schanze," pricing out the anarchists and students who gave the district its interest and edge. Only the run-down Rote Flora, a former neighborhood theatre (now a long-contested squat and cultural space), remains a true center of activism and protest.

Nonetheless, Schanzenviertel remains a lively and charismatic district, with a thriving bar scene and several restaurants.

Fischmarkt

Depending on how late you slept the night before or whether you went to bed at all, a visit to the Sunday Fischmarkt is a legendary Hamburg experience. Since 1703, it's been doing brisk, fishy business, with raucous criers promising all the bargains and bawdy banter you could want.

Of course, there's plenty of fish—smoked, fresh, pickled—as well as flowers, fruit, vegetables, secondhand food, and even livestock. The adjacent Fischauktionshalle promises to keep the party going with beer and live rock bands for the tired Reeperbahn reveler and get your flight on Tap Portugal.

There are numerous cafés nearby for those seeking a more restorative breakfast. The Fischmarkt opens at 5 a.m. in the summer, 7 a.m. in the winter, and closes at 9:30 a.m. all year.

7 Hamburg Nightlife Experiences

1. Grosse Freiheit 36

The most well-known location for enjoying Hamburg's best nightlife is here. You will only hear about Grosse Freiheit 36 if you walk about asking people where they think is the best location to have a fantastic night in Hamburg. It is a live music venue that receives a number of visitors each night and is situated on the city's busiest boulevard, Reeperbahn. The Beatles also played here and check Flight to Hamburg!

2. Rote Flora

Various artistic inventories are housed in this theatre. So, if you're someone who wants to see some major and significant things happen late at night, this is the spot for you. Squatters have lived there for a very long time. Bring your crew of creatives here to enjoy the nightlife, meet new people, make art, and have a fun evening!

3. Herzblut

Make a good night's start! This is the ideal fusion of an opulent restaurant, bar, and club. Jordan Mozer's perfect interior design will astound you, but the outstanding dinner will quench your desire for foreign cuisine. You can head to the dance floor for some extra fun when you've finished the dishes and the specialty cocktail. The finest place to go for nightlife in Hamburg with a significant other or family is here.

4. Docks

Do you want to know why Metallica referred to this as the best freaking club in the entire world? Well, Docks used to be a very well-liked movie theatre. Later, it evolved into a club with seating for around 1500 music fans. The DJ here has seen live performances by David Bowie and more and plays all of your favorite music.

The fact that Docks is the center of the most well-known Reeperbahn festival is another major reason you must visit on TAP Flight Booking !

5 Alster Arcades

The Alster Arcades, Hamburg's premier shopping district, is situated along the city's numerous canals and bridges; the only distinction is that it has high-end and exquisite stores rather than streetwear. While strolling beneath the stars and taking in the smells of delicious food coming from across the street, you can peruse the chic jewelry or the cutting-edge fashion accessories available here. Small cafes on one side of the street and a few musicians nearby give the shopping experience here a hint of the Mediterranean.

6. Neuer Wall

Neuer Wall, a kilometer-long promenade, is the most opulent location to blow your savings.

This European luxury shopping boulevard has everything to captivate your eye and win your heart, from haute couture and the best jewels to personalized footwear and designer bags.

It's not unusual to see names like Armani, Jil Sander, Mulberry, Michael Kors, Prada, and Louis Vuitton here. If you're looking for mementos specifically, Neuer Wall's own Brahmfeld & Gutruf carries some of the most captivating jewelry designs. Oh, and don't forget to go across the street to Café Engelchen for your much-needed coffee fix in between and you can book flight on tap book flight.

7. Europa Passage

Do you prefer acquiring the finest jewelry from across the world or shoes? Regardless of which, the Europe Passage is one of Hamburg's best retail centers and a must-stop!

It provides guests with an all-inclusive entertainment center and has more than 100 stores under its roof.

[skybluetrips1505]

TAP Air Portugal Cancellation Policy Explained by Skyblue Trips

At Skyblue Trips, we strive to offer our customers comprehensive information about airline policies to enhance their travel experiences. The TAP Air Portugal Cancellation Policy is a prime example of a customer-centric approach, designed to offer flexibility and clarity.

The TAP Air Portugal Cancellation Policy provides passengers with a 24-hour window to cancel their bookings without any penalties, as long as the booking was made more than seven days prior to departure. This policy is advantageous for travelers needing to quickly adjust their plans. Beyond this initial period, the policy details various conditions and potential fees based on the type of fare and the timing of the cancellation.

By understanding the TAP Air Portugal Cancellation Policy through Skyblue Trips, you can make informed decisions about your travel plans, ensuring a seamless and worry-free journey.

[flytapportugal]

5 Best Destinations to visit in Brussels 

Brussels, Belgium's capital, is one of Europe's best cities. You'll find rich culture, fascinating historical sites, and some very nice people here. We want you to have the best possible experience in Brussels, so we've compiled a list of the top 5 things to do there.

Plan a trip to this amazing city of Brussels with Tap Portugal booking and spend your days here!

1 Magritte Museum

René Magritte was one of the most influential Belgian artists of all time. His surrealist style resulted in some unforgettable pieces. The Magritte Museum in Brussels is one of Belgium's most popular tourist destinations. You can see a variety of amazing works and learn about Magritte's legacy here. The Magritte Museum has a lot of amazing things to see thanks to Magritte's talent and the museum's curation. Many of the best pieces prove Magritte's ability to depict female figures. The Old masters and Wiertz Museums are also part of the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique.

2 Notre Dame Du Sablon

Notre Dame Du Sablon is a major tourist attraction in Brussels. It is a magnificent cathedral that dates back hundreds of years. When you learn more about its history, you'll realize it's one of the most incredible sites in Belgium. If you want to learn about Brussels' religious history, go to Notre Dame Du Sablon. It was in the 15th century and is like the Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula. 

The land of this beautiful city of Brussels with Tap Portugal Airlines and book your tickets easily.

3 Musical Instrument Museum

Music is like a universal language. We can communicate in large part because of musical instruments. The Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels houses thousands of stunning instruments. If you're a musician, it's one of the best places to go. You can have fun at the Musical Instrument Museum whether you're a musician or not. There are many unusual items here that may pique your interest. Come to the Musical Instrument Museum if you're looking for things to do with music lovers in Brussels. There's so much to be about here.

4 Le Botanique

Le Botanique is ideal for those who enjoy both nature and culture. This was once the botanical gardens of Brussels, but it is now more described as a greenhouse that hosts events. It remains one of the best places to visit, and they haven't forgotten their plant-based roots. Going to Le Botanique is without a doubt one of the best things to do in Brussels. The flora adds to the excitement of whatever event you're attending. This is especially true if you're going to a concert. When you visit this incredible Brussels venue, you might feel as if you've been to another world.

5 La Grand-Place

La Grand-Place is Brussels' most famous landmark. This square is home to the local Town Hall, as well as shops, restaurants, and educational facilities. La Grand-Place is in almost every Brussels travel guide. When you visit, you'll understand why it's so revered. La Grand-Place has a plethora of attractions and activities. Concerts and special events such as the Brussels Christmas tree installation are among the best things to do here. It's also a great place to socialize and enjoy the company of your peers. 

Enjoy every bit of everything in Brussels with Tap Portugal and book your tickets from your nearby Airport.

[millyh23]

Greece with a Side of Murphy’s Law

Alessia Russo x Reader

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Alessia had poured herself into planning this trip, hoping for a dream holiday in the sun-soaked beaches of Greece, where she and Y/N could finally unwind from their busy schedules. But things took a bad turn as soon as they stepped into the airport.

They were running late—very late.

“Less, come on! We’re going to miss our flight!” Y/N called over her shoulder, passport clutched in her hand as she power-walked to the security line. Alessia rushed behind, arms loaded with bags, almost tripping over her own feet.

“We’ll make it! I swear!” Alessia gasped, but as they neared the gate, dread washed over her.

The gate was closed.

They watched helplessly through the glass as their plane began to pull away from the terminal. Alessia dropped her bags and slumped onto a seat.

“No, no, no,” she muttered, eyes wide as if sheer disbelief might change the situation. “I booked this months ago.”

Y/N settled next to her, nudging her gently. “It’s okay, Less. This happens…right?”

After hours of rescheduling and waiting for a new flight, they finally boarded. Alessia fell asleep before the plane even left the ground, exhaustion from the morning’s disaster finally catching up to her. Y/N, on the other hand, couldn’t help but stare at the ceiling, wondering if this was a foreshadowing of the trip to come.

They arrived in Greece after a bumpy flight, the hot air blasting them as they stepped out of the airport and into the sun-drenched chaos of Athens. Alessia fished out her confirmation email and gave Y/N a confident nod.

“Alright, nothing but smooth sailing from here,” she declared.

“Sure, Captain,” Y/N teased, grabbing her hand. “Lead the way.”

They arrived at the hotel, bags in hand, ready to finally drop everything and relax. Alessia approached the check-in desk, confident and beaming.

“Hi, checking in under Russo,” she said, sliding over her ID with a winning smile. “Alessia Russo.”

The receptionist scanned the screen, frowning slightly. “Hmm… I see your reservation, Ms. Russo, but it looks like it’s not for this property. It’s for our branch in Lisbon.”

Alessia blinked, her face going pale. “Lisbon? Lisbon in…Portugal?”

The receptionist nodded, tapping at the keyboard. “Yes, unfortunately. It seems this booking is for our Portuguese location.”

Y/N covered her mouth, looking at Alessia with wide eyes. Alessia was at a complete loss, staring at the receptionist as if she’d just told her she’d booked a hotel on the moon.

“Well, can we…maybe book a room here?” Alessia asked, her voice almost pleading.

The receptionist checked. “We do have one room left, but it’s a standard double, not quite the ocean-view suite you booked in Portugal…”

“That’s fine! We’ll take it.” Alessia handed over her card, trying to save face. Y/N squeezed her hand, clearly trying not to laugh.

Once they finally made it to their room, Alessia tossed her bags onto the floor and collapsed onto the bed.

“Not exactly the suite I planned,” she muttered, cheeks red.

“It’s fine, Less. A bed’s a bed,” Y/N replied, flopping down beside her.

They decided to unpack a little to settle in, hoping things would start looking up. But as Y/N opened her suitcase, a frown crossed her face.

“Uh…Less?” she began slowly, pulling out a pair of trousers that were definitely not hers. “Why does my suitcase have someone else’s clothes?”

Alessia whipped around, staring at the suitcase in horror. “No. No way.”

As they dug through the bags, they discovered that neither of them had the right suitcase. Instead of swimsuits, sandals, and summer clothes, they had a random assortment of business suits, formal shoes, and a toiletry bag with initials that were definitely not theirs.

“We…grabbed the wrong suitcases.” Y/N held up a shirt with a defeated sigh.

“Oh my god.” Alessia sank to her knees. “How could this get any worse?”

She felt around for her phone, hoping to call the airport. But her phone was missing. She looked up at Y/N, whose face was turning pale.

“Where’s your phone?” Alessia asked, panic creeping into her voice.

Y/N’s hand shot to her empty pocket, and a horrifying realization dawned on her. “The taxi…”

Both of their phones were still sitting in the back seat of the taxi they’d taken from the airport.

“So…we have no clothes, no phones, and we’re in the wrong hotel,” Y/N summarized, trying to keep a straight face. She looked at Alessia, who was wide-eyed, and burst out laughing. “This is turning into the best holiday ever.”

Alessia buried her face in her hands, groaning, “I wanted to give you the perfect trip, and now we’re living in a sitcom.”

Y/N wrapped her arms around Alessia, pulling her close. “It’s perfect because I’m here with you,” she teased, pressing a soft kiss to Alessia’s temple. “Besides, we’ll laugh about this one day, right?”

Alessia couldn’t help but chuckle, finally leaning into Y/N’s embrace. “Only if we survive this.”

Alessia paced around the small hotel room, biting her lip as she surveyed the disaster around them: unfamiliar business attire spilling out of the wrong suitcases, the single hotel bed that wasn’t quite the dreamy suite she’d imagined, and their lack of phones.

“Okay, we need a plan,” Alessia muttered. “We can’t just sit here doing nothing.”

Y/N, sprawled across the bed with an exasperated look, held up the hotel room phone. “We could try calling someone?”

“Like who? Everyone’s away on their own little trips,” Alessia replied, but a small glint of hope flickered in her eyes.

“What about Katie?” Y/N suggested. “i think she said something about taking Cait to greece during the break, and I’m sure she’d love the excuse to make fun of us for this.”

With a smirk, Alessia took the phone and dialed the number she knew by heart. After a few rings, a familiar voice crackled on the other end.

“Hello?” came Katie’s slightly groggy voice.

“Katie, it’s Alessia,” she said, her voice a mix of desperation and relief.

“Less? Where the hell are you calling from?” Katie’s voice perked up, clearly curious.

“Long story short, we missed our flight, we’re in the wrong country, and we have someone else’s suitcases. Oh, and our phones are somewhere in a taxi. We need help,” Alessia admitted, holding back laughter at how ridiculous it sounded all put together.

The silence on the other end lasted for a second, and then came a loud burst of laughter.

“Oh my god, you two! Only you could turn a holiday into the plot of a rom-com!” Katie laughed. “Alright, I’m coming to get you. What hotel are you at?”

Alessia fumbled with the keycard and relayed the name of the place, barely managing to pronounce it through her nervous giggles. “We’re…at some budget hotel, Katie. It’s not what I had planned, trust me.”

“I bet it’s not. But hey, look on the bright side,” Katie teased, “at least you two are safe and sound, right? And now we can finally go on that double date you guys have been avoiding”

Katie promised to sort everything out,for the price of an all expenses paid boujie double dinner date, and after an hour of waiting and a few more laughs, Alessia and Y/N spotted her at the hotel entrance, an unmistakable smirk on her face as she spotted them.

“Alright, you two clowns, hop in,” she said, patting the hood of her rented car. “And let’s salvage whatever’s left of this holiday.”

As they piled into the car, Katie handed them each a phone she’d picked up from a nearby shop. “Prepaid. Just in case you two lose them again,” she said with a wink.

They made a quick detour to grab clothes and essentials from a local store, Katie playfully holding up outrageous outfits to make them laugh.

As they finally arrived at a beach resort she’d booked last-minute, Katie sighed, grinning at the relieved looks on their faces. “See? Nothing a bit of Irish luck can’t fix. Now go relax.”

Alessia and Y/N wrapped her in a grateful hug, unable to contain their laughter. Katie smirked, pretending to brush them off, but the warmth in her eyes gave her away.

“Go on, enjoy your holiday, you goofs,” she said with a chuckle.

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The End

[allthelovehes]

Enemies at Nine, Lovers by Five* | Part 2

Summary: Harry and Y/N suddenly need to fly out to Portugal for work and their boss only booked one (twin) room because the hotel was overbooked..

Pairing: Coworker!Harry x reader

Word count: 6.2K

Warnings: Unprotected sex, smut, slight dom if you squint, mentioned being a good girl maybe once, Y/N is a bitch but she likes it rough.

Support my work by joining my Patreon!

A/N: I'm still very new to this enemies to loves trope so if its not as good, please don't come for me. Also, let me just tell you once again.. Wrap it before you tap it :')

The next day when Y/N arrives at work, Harry is already seated behind his desk. She doesn't even look at him as she sets her belongings down and settles into her own chair. The silence between them is deafening, and the tension is palpable. It's obvious that they're both thinking about what happened last night, but neither of them is willing to bring it up. It's as if they have silently agreed to pretend that it never happened.

It's a tense morning, but they somehow manage to finish the presentation they had to prepare for the board meeting later that day. After lunch, Y/N is seated in the conference room, anxiously waiting for the meeting to start. Harry is sitting next to her, his posture dominant and confident. He is sitting in the exact chair he pushed aside just hours ago to make room for him to kneel down and eat her out. Y/N swallows hard and forces herself to focus on the matter at hand.

The rest of the board members enter the room, and the meeting begins. Y/N starts the presentation, her voice shaking slightly as she talks about their company's progress. Harry watches her, his eyes glued to her lips. He can't help but imagine her beautiful mouth wrapped around his cock. He shifts uncomfortably in his seat, willing himself to stay focused.

Harry gets up and walks over to the large screen, touching the small of Y/N's back in the process. It's the briefest of touches, but it sends a jolt of electricity through her body. She can feel her cheeks flushing, and she prays that no one will notice. Harry takes over the presentation, his voice steady and authoritative. She can't help but admire his confidence and command. She wonders if he feels the same way about her.

After the presentation is over, the board members file out of the room, their voices low and murmuring. Harry and Y/N are left alone once again. They gather their things and make their way to the door. Just before they exit the room, Harry turns to Y/N. He doesn't say anything, but the look in his eyes tells her everything she needs to know. He wants her. And he's not going to stop until he has her.

Y/N swallows hard, her heart racing. She knows she should walk away, but she can't. She wants him too, and he is literally blocking her only way out. Her breath quickens, and she feels her resolve crumbling.

“You did so good.” Is all he says, before he exits the room, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

Y/N has to admit to herself, his praise turns her on. She knows she should not allow this to happen, but she can't help herself. He's all she can think about. She makes her way back to her desk and finds Harry already returned to his own desk in front of hers.

“Do you want a cup of coffee?” She asks, trying to act normal. Although this isn't normal for her at all. Y/N isn't the type of colleague to retrieve coffee for her coworkers. She prefers to be the one receiving it, not the one bringing it.

“Sure.” Harry says, his tone is neutral, not betraying any of his emotions. Y/N nods and leaves. The moment between them doesn't go unnoticed by their colleagues, and she can hear them whispering amongst themselves.

Y/N returns with two cups of coffee and hands one to Harry. Their fingers brush, and she feels a shiver run through her body. She hopes he doesn't notice.

“Thank you.” He says, his voice barely above a whisper. “Y/N.”

The way he says her name sends shivers down her spine. She can't help but remember the way he moaned it last night, his voice thick with desire. She bites her lip and turns away, willing herself to calm down.

“You're welcome.” She replies, trying to keep her voice steady. She busies herself with her work, but she can't focus. All she can think about is Harry and what happened between them. The memory of his touch and the way he felt inside her are burned into her mind, and she knows she will never be able to forget it. ***

“Fucking hell.” Y/N curses as she opens an incoming e-mail from their boss.

“What is it?” Harry asks.

“Check your mail.”

Harry does and curses too. The client for which they are currently working was supposed to fly in for their final presentation. Now they have to fly out to the client instead.

“That means we're going on a trip.” Harry says.

“I hate travelling.” Y/N groans.

“Come on, it could be fun.” Harry replies.

“Fun? I can't stand travelling and flying. It's the worst.” Y/N replies.

“Then let me distract you.” Harry whispers.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, you know exactly what I mean Y/N.” Harry says.

Y/N feels her heartbeat speed up, her body instantly reacting to his words. She knows exactly what he means, and the thought of it excites her. But she can't. Not again.

“Don't.” She says, her voice barely audible.

Harry doesn't say anything, just stares at her. His eyes are full of promise, and she can't resist. She knows she shouldn't, but she wants him. And he wants her too.

The e-mail also said how they can drop by their boss' office if they have any questions, he's supposedly available until 5 PM. Y/N and Harry make their way there. Even though they don't have any questions they knock anyway.

“Come in.” Their boss' voice sounds muffled through the closed door. Harry opens the door and Y/N quickly slips through, he swiftly closes the door behind him after he takes a good look at her round ass.

“Hey guys, thanks for stopping by. Let me just finish this e-mail real quick and then we can talk.”

He's sitting at his desk typing away furiously on the keyboard. It gives Y/N and Harry time to sit down on the couch on the other side of the room. Y/N is aware of how close they are, their bodies are nearly touching. She can feel the heat radiating off of him and it's driving her insane.

After a few moments, their boss ends his typing and comes over to sit across from them, facing the couch. He claps his hands together and begins to explain more details about the trip.

“So, we're going to have to fly the two of you out to Faro, Portugal. Your meeting is at the Ocean Mar hotel, which is also where you'll be staying. Unfortunately, they didn't have a lot of room options available so we had to book you a twin room instead of individual rooms. I know it's not ideal but hopefully, you guys will still have a great trip. You can put all food and drinks on the room's tab and they will just add it to the bill at the end of your stay. Do you have any questions so far?”

“Twin room?” Y/N says, almost like a question. She glances over at Harry and tries not to blush at the image of sharing a room with him.

“Yes, that's right. Two queen beds. Now, with the potential hotel mix-up, there is a chance that there may be some other rooms available last minute, so they are keeping an eye out and will try their best to switch you if necessary. But they also had to be upfront about their current room inventory for booking purposes, so I didn't want you to get your hopes up too much.”

“No, that's okay. I understand. Thank you.” Y/N says quietly. The thought of sharing a room with Harry, even a room with two beds, is a lot to process. They might have fucked once, but they aren't really the best of friends.

“You're welcome. You'll be flying out on Friday, so make sure to pack accordingly. You'll have some time to do some sightseeing if you'd like, the hotel is in a pretty nice area, and it's very touristy. And the big meeting is on Monday. Therefore we booked a return flight on Tuesday morning.” Their boss continues.

“Sounds good, thanks so much.” Harry replies, always the professional.

“Of course. I know this all happened last minute but I think you'll have a great time! I'll look forward to hearing all about it when you guys get back.”

“Thanks again!” Y/N says, and she and Harry get up to leave. They walk out of the office and back to their desks to pack up their stuff.

“Looks like we're going on a little vacation Y/N.” Harry says, grinning at her.

“Looks like it.” She replies, returning his smile. She can't deny that she is secretly looking forward to it. ***

Before they know it, it's Friday afternoon and they're heading towards the airport. Their boss arranged a taxi to pick them up and drive them there. Y/N is a wreck because she hates flying. She takes a deep breath as the plane gets ready to take off, gripping her seat and trying to relax.

Harry offers her his hand, which she gratefully accepts. They share a look as the plane takes off, and Y/N feels like maybe this flight won't be so bad after all. As the plane climbs higher into the sky, the tension between them builds. They are holding hands, staring at each other, both of them clearly thinking the same thing.

As the plane is in the air, the captain's voice comes on over the loudspeaker to welcome them.

“If I could have your attention, please. Welcome aboard EasyJet flight 239 to Faro, Portugal. My name is David, and I'll be your captain for today. The weather looks perfect for the trip ahead, and we're anticipating a smooth ride. Please enjoy your flight and thank you for flying EasyJet.” The voice cuts out as the plane stabilizes.

“See? That wasn't so bad.” Harry says. Y/N smiles, but she's not entirely convinced yet.

Harry orders himself a bottle of wine and offers to share it with Y/N. She reluctantly accepts, seeing as they are in fact, on vacation, and she could use a little bit of help to relax. The flight is about three hours long and goes fairly quickly. The wine helps, and they end up making a decent dent in the bottle.

Y/N is feeling relaxed and a bit tipsy by the time the flight ends. The cab pulls up and it's a short drive to their hotel. They check in and go up to their room to drop their bags. As Y/N opens the door and looks around, she finds that her stomach does a little flip. Sure enough, the room contains two beds, but they are quite close together. She swallows and tries to tamp down the feelings of excitement and anticipation growing in the pit of her stomach.

Harry doesn't say anything, but she can feel him watching her. They put their things down, quickly freshen up and head down to the restaurant for some dinner. After dinner, they decide to walk around the city and see some of the sights. It is relatively late at night but the sun is still setting and the sky is beautiful, and the temperature is warm and not too hot.

Y/N can't help but notice how close she and Harry are walking to each other as they make their way along the narrow streets, the sidewalks only big enough for two people to walk shoulder to shoulder. She tries to ignore the feeling and tells herself it's just because they need to stay close to make room for the other passersby. But the feeling lingers, a flutter of excitement.

It almost feels like they are two completely different people now that they are in a foreign country, with a warm summery breeze blowing through the air, the sound of music and laughter in the distance. Everything seems romantic and fresh, the air itself feels charged with possibilities and tension. It's as if they both subconsciously feel this and it makes it easier for them to navigate their strange new dynamic.

After their little stroll around town, they return to their hotel and head up to their room. They both take turns to use the bathroom and get ready for bed, not sharing a word with each other as the reality of sleeping just inches away from each other starts to set in. Before going to sleep they both sit down on their own bed, on their own respective sides.

Harry and Y/N finally lie down on their own beds in silence, both tired from the day's excitement. As Y/N pulls the blankets up and tries to get comfortable, she can't help but toss and turn, unable to find the perfect position. She sighs loudly and shifts again, her mind racing.

“You okay?” Harry asks, his voice low and deep.

“Yes. No.” She replies.

“What's wrong?”

“I'm fine, I just can't seem to fall asleep.”

“Me neither.” Harry replies. Y/N laughs softly. She can't believe that she and Harry are having this conversation, and can't believe that she's even admitting that she can't fall asleep. She turns around and finds Harry already staring at her, his eyes dark and full of intensity. Her breath hitches as the weight of the moment settles upon them.

“I think it's the plane.” She whispers, half-hoping that he'll leave the subject alone.

“You think?” Harry chuckles, he already knows she's full of shit. It's like he can feel the tension running from her body. “Y/N.”

A jolt goes through her body at the way her name sounds coming out of his mouth, the roughness and almost demanding tone. “W-what?”

“Come here.”

“Harry...”

“Come here.” Harry repeats, raising his voice slightly, letting his tone show how serious he is. And damn her but the dominant edge does something to her. She bites her lip and gets up to join him on his bed. He already has his duvet pushed to the side. When she finally slips underneath, he immediately gathers her up in his arms and buries his face in her neck. She doesn't fight it, instead, she wraps her arms around him and enjoys his warmth.

Luckily both of them had the decency to wear pajamas. Y/N is in a silk shortama set and Harry is wearing a plain white shirt and some sweat shorts. Being this close to him feels dangerous. He smells so good, and the weight of his muscular body pressed against hers is intoxicating.

“Thank you.” Y/N whispers after a few minutes of silence.

“For what?” Harry asks, his voice thick and laced with sleep. She shrugs.

“Just... for understanding. For not being mean to me.” She says.

“Mhm, see, you got that wrong there. I've never been the mean one.” He mumbles against her neck.

“Excuse me?” She replies, sounding as offended as a sleepy person can be.

“You're not a walk in the park, love.” He chuckles as he snuggles her closer to his chest.

“And you are?” She manages to get out, stifling a yawn.

“I guess not. But who cares? We're in Portugal, might as well have fun.”

“Fun.” She repeats softly.

“Yeah. For example, what's it called when you fuck your coworker and then you're sent off on a work trip and end up in the same hotel room?” He says, his lips now grazing the shell of her ear.

“A disaster?” She whispers.

“Or fun.” He hums before a big yawn escapes his mouth, shortly followed by her own.

Both of them stay quiet, with Harry holding her tightly and Y/N enjoying his embrace. Harry doesn't show it, but his heart is hammering in his chest. He knew that inviting her into his bed would make them repeat the past. Even as the distance between them closes, he tries to keep his cool. He fails. Miserably. He plants his soft lips on top of hers and kisses her.

Softly. Innocently.

“Goodnight, Y/N.” He says as he disconnects their lips. ***

The next morning Y/N and Harry wake up tangled in each other's limbs. And as if she doesn't remember what happened last night, Y/N freaks out. She throws a handful of curses around and rushes into the bathroom to freshen up.

“What the fuck are you doing in my bed?” She shouts at Harry through the door.

“Well, for starters it's my bed. You joined me in my bed.” He replies. She can basically hear him smirk. Fucker.

“Whatever.” She says. She opens the bathroom door and comes out with her toothbrush hanging from her mouth. “I'm mad at you.”

“Come back to bed, you're overreacting.”

“You jerk.”

“For the last time, it was your ass that came into my bed. Now, for the love of God, stop being such a bitch or do you need me to boss you around again?” His voice rings like a gentle threat. She smacks her lips together and avoids eye contact.

“No.”

“Jesus Christ, woman. I've been nothing but nice to you and you're...” He scoffs and it feels like she's back home. She can't help but grin. A small grin, but it's there. He notices and scowls at her. “Now you're laughing?”

“Harry, just...”

“Don't make me drag you back to bed so I can fuck a little sense into you because I promise you I will if that's what it takes.”

Y/N walks back into the bathroom to wash her toothbrush. “Get the fuck over yourself Styles.”

“Have it your way.” Harry growls from the bed. The tension in the air changes. He's fully aware of the fact that he basically threatened her but she loves it. Fuck, she even hopes he'll do what he said. Before she knows it, Harry's behind her, holding her in his strong grip, her back to his front.

“Ready to apologize?” He whispers, his lips brushing the shell of her ear. She closes her eyes and leans back against him, relaxing in his arms. She can feel the press of his hard cock against her lower back, and the knowledge that she turned him on sends a thrill through her body.

“I'd never.” She whispers, teasing him. She knows that Harry loves a good challenge. His hand comes around her throat, long fingers wrapping gently around her neck. She breathes a sigh and stretches her neck, looking at him from the corner of her eyes. Her body is completely surrendered to him, and a light shiver runs through her.

“I wasn't joking, Y/N.” He squeezes her neck slightly. “Do you need a reminder?”

“Of what?”

“Of how much of a good girl you can be. Or how submissive you actually are. How your pussy practically drips when someone touches you exactly the way you need.” His low voice rumbles through her.

“Fuck, Harry.” She gasps, arousal pooling between her thighs as his words send a jolt of desire through her. She can't help but arch her back, exposing her neck and pressing her ass against him even more.

His lips latch onto the exposed skin of her neck, sucking a mark into her flesh. He tightens his grip on her neck slightly, her breath coming in short gasps. Harry growls, mumbling darkly against her skin. She tries her best to stay standing, especially as her knees threaten to buckle under the touch of his hand. “Such a good girl. Undress yourself and go lie on the bed, now.”

She nods, his hand dropping from her throat as she moves toward the bed. Harry's eyes never leave her, watching as she strips down to her underwear. She settles on the bed, unsure of where to position herself. Without another word, Harry walks towards her, a dangerous glint in his eyes. She swallows hard as he grabs the neck of his shirt to pull it over his head.

“Let me make myself clear.” Harry's voice rasps. “You're going to be nice to me from now on. Especially here in Portugal. Do I make myself clear? I don't feel like wasting my time here when it could be so, so sweet.”

Y/N stares up at him, transfixed. Her lips part, her eyes wide as he slowly starts pulling down his sweat shorts. The realization of what is about to happen sinking in. Harry was on the rougher side with her the first time they fucked, but she didn't know he could be this dominant, this aggressive, and god did it turn her on.

Without another word, Harry stalks over to her and grabs her wrists, pinning them above her head. He presses his hips down against hers, his naked body flush against her almost-naked one. His lips claim hers in a rough kiss, and Y/N can't help but moan into his mouth. “You like that, don't you?”

Y/N nods, whispering a soft yes.

Harry trails his lips down her jaw, peppering open-mouthed kisses along her neck. He finds his spot below her ear and starts to suck a dark mark there. He doesn't care about the visibility of the marks as their meeting with the client isn't until Monday. Y/N's breath comes in sharp pants as she tries to stay still, her mind going fuzzy with desire. Harry lets her wrists go but the fear of punishment makes her not move them away from their position.

“Mmm.” He hums, obviously pleased with her obedience. Harry grazes his lips over the top of her chest, reaching around to unhook her bra and slide it off. Her body arches up into his, craving his touch. He continues his trail of kisses, leaving a wet path as his mouth finds one of her sensitive nipples.

He swirls his tongue around the hardening peak, kissing and biting gently. He shifts his hips slightly, sliding one of his legs between hers. He glances up at her, her eyes already closed in pleasure as he moves his hands to pinch at her other nipple.

Harry's hand trails down, fingers fiddling with the hem of her panties. Slowly he removes them, revealing her already wet cunt. Harry smiles and sits up to admire her exposed body. “Turn around.”

She immediately rolls over onto her stomach, burying her face in the pillow. Without warning, Harry spanks her, causing her to yelp and lift her head from the pillow. “Fuck.” She moans, the burn of his hand on her skin spreading a wave of pleasure straight through her.

He growls, unable to tear his eyes from her perfect ass. Y/N moves her hands to grip her fingers in the soft blankets beneath her, as Harry suddenly pushes his middle finger into her dripping centre. Her hips jerk against the bed involuntarily, seeking more contact.

“You're soaking, baby.”

“Fuck, Harry, please.” She whispers, beyond turned on. He starts a torturously slow rhythm, sliding his finger in and out of her warm cunt. She buries her face back into the pillow again and braces herself for a second spank that never comes.

“It's pathetic how wet you get from basically nothing. Just let me play with your nipples and you're gone.” He grabs her ass, his thick fingers digging into the soft flesh. “But you like that, don't you?” He finishes by giving a firm smack to her asscheek, causing a whimper to escape her lips.

“I want to hear you. Lift your face, love.” Harry whispers. She lifts her head, propping her chin on the edge of the pillow. Harry raises his body up on his knees, one hand still dipping his fingers in and out of her pussy while the other hand comes around to cover her mouth.

As Y/N tries to silence her whimpers, Harry easily slips another finger inside her slick entrance. She moans louder now, the vibrations reverberating through Harry's palm and urging him to go deeper, faster. He dips his head down to lightly bite her shoulder, earning him another deep moan as his rock-hard cock presses into her buttcheek.

“Let the neighbours know how much you enjoy getting fingered. Make sure they hear just how much you love my touch.”

“Fuck, Harry. You feel so fucking good. Oh!” She cries out as Harry increases his pace, moving his free hand down to her hip, gripping her roughly. He quickly removes his fingers from her sloppy pussy and Y/N whines at the loss.

“Did I ask you to complain?” He asks as he grabs her hips with both hands and juts her upward. Her ass now up in the air with her chest still pressed into the sheets. It feels submissive, her ass being up as if she is presenting her pussy to him. Not like he needs her to, he knows exactly where her pussy is.

“N-no.” She manages to answer.

“Good.” Harry grabs his cock, already leaking pre-cum and lines himself up. Without any warning, he thrusts into her, moving his hands from her hips to her waist, thrusting in and out at an ever-increasing speed. The lewd sound of skin slapping skin echoes in their hotel room and her eyes squeeze shut, as Harry does not hold back, pounding her into the mattress.

Y/N lets out a loud groan, burying her face in the pillows again to muffle her cries. But Harry's having none of it. He collects her hair and wraps it around his left hand, firmly yanking her head upwards, forcing her to keep her head up. A gasp escapes her lips, and her hands scratch at the blankets.

“Mmm, fuck!” She whines, her eyes tearing up from the feeling. Pleasure flows through her. She doesn't think he's ever fucked her this hard, and damn is she enjoying it. He's hitting deep spots inside her cunt she didn't even know existed, and the bruises he is sure to leave later are absolutely welcome.

Harry's thrusts continue, showing absolutely no signs of slowing. His cock pounds in and out of her, eliciting a high-pitched whine from her with each thrust. He pulls on her hair harder, angling her head so he can see her face as she's struggling to keep quiet. She keeps her eyes tightly shut, trying desperately to mask her groans of pleasure.

“Tell me how much you like taking my cock.” Harry says, his voice strained. “Tell me how badly you needed this. Tell me how much you love being my little slut.”

Y/N's body heats up at his words, her toes curling, and she silently curses him for making her talk. “I-I needed- ah- this so badly.”

“Shit, baby, yes. Say it again.”

“God, Harry, I need you- s-so fucking bad. Fuck.” She writhes beneath him, trying to escape the delicious torture. His pace is unforgiving, and his force hits her in just the right spots. His thrusts jerk her whole body, the loud smacking of their sweaty bodies colliding the only sound filling the room.

“Oh God!” She moans loudly, as Harry wraps one arm around her torso and pulls her up, his hand resting dangerously low on her throat.

“You need this, huh? This little cunt needs to be filled up?”

“Ah! Fuck, Harry.” She murmurs before a broken moan falls out of her. Her right hand holds onto his wrist tightly and her head falls back against his shoulder, her jaw slack in pleasure. She can feel her orgasm building within her, as this new position allows his dick to hit her G-spot repeatedly, shooting pure euphoria through her.

“Mhm, do you feel it? Right here?” He asks, one of his hands slipping down her body and pushing down on her lower stomach. She gasps, tears pooling in her eyes at the sensations he creates. Harry's hand slips further down her body, eventually reaching her most sensitive bundle of nerves and pushing gently against it.

“Ah!” A choked cry leaves her mouth and she freezes in his arms. She tries to catch her breath but all she feels is pleasure. Before she can stop herself, her head starts rolling against his shoulders, her mouth dropping open in a silent scream.

“That's it, baby. Come for me, wet my cock.” He groans in her ear as her hips start jerking, and her loud moans fill the room. “C'mon, scream for me.”

Y/N thrashes her head, eyes squeezing shut. A harsh cry leaves her as his rhythm continues, but her movements lose the rhythm, becoming uncoordinated. White light fills her vision, and an earth-shattering climax hits her, rolling over her and stealing her breath. Her orgasm floods her veins, every nerve ending lit up in ecstasy.

“Ooh fuck. Har... Shit!” Her hoarse voice bounces off the walls, the strength quickly leaving her body. Harry's arm stays tight around her, preventing her body from falling down onto the bed.

Harry removes his fingers from her clit, and Y/N relaxes into his embrace, humming happily as she catches her breath. Harry takes the opportunity to let her fall back down onto the mattress, his hands holding her hips steady as he slowly keeps thrusting into her.

Y/N cranes her neck around, her face flushed and expression smug. Harry tightens his grip, as he forcefully pushes his dick into her once more, her head falling forward at the feeling. Before he pulls out, slapping her ass once more before he roughly pushes her onto her back.

She is positioned with her shoulders on the edge of the comfortable bed, causing her head to hang slightly. She groans, her arms reach back to grab a hold of the blankets beneath her. Just as her grip tightens, Harry grabs her knees, pulling them apart and position her feet on either side of him, spreading her thighs apart.

He lines himself up with her wet entrance and pushes back into her, the new angle causing his dick to brush her sweet spot over and over again. She throws her head back, as her breasts bounce on her chest and she lets out a loud groan. Harry raises her leg up, her calf on his shoulder, foot resting on his collar bone.

“Holy shit.” He breathes, eyes firmly locked on her chest, and how erotic she looks. Her eyes meet his in surprise. She cries out in pleasure as Harry thrusts into her deeply. “You're so fucking perfect.”

She closes her eyes again, unable to handle the intensity in Harry's face as he whispers words of praise, calling her perfect, telling her how good her pussy feels around his dick. Harry grunts and the sound mixed with her pants, curses, and moans fills the room.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” She moans as his thrusts quicken, his brows furrowed and eyes closed tightly in concentration, and then moans spill from his lips.

“I-Oh my god-fuck baby, you feel so fucking good...”

“H-Harry.” She whines, voice uneven. She closes her eyes, feeling her inner walls flutter around Harry's thick cock. Harry readjusts his grip on her hips, pulling her closer. He moves one of his legs, widening his stance to give himself better leverage. To allow his thrusts to grow faster and stronger, Y/N's quiet noises change. They turn into loud moans and choked whimpers.

“T-too- Oh, too much.”

“You can handle this.” He croons, his voice strained and heavy. She nods, and Harry quickens his pace even more, angling his dick so he constantly rubs against that one spot. “God, your tits look so fucking good with how much they move. Drives me crazy.”

Her nipples are hard, grazing her skin and sending white-hot pleasure coursing through her. Harry reaches down and cups one of her breasts, her hand coming up to join him. She moans and writhes beneath him, throwing her head back when his thumb moves over her nipple, teasing it.

She whimpers, pussy clenching around his cock, suddenly overwhelmed by Harry's assault of pleasure. As soon as Y/N realizes what's happening, she brings her hand to her clit. She slips her hand between her thighs and starts circling her clit in a continuous pattern. She moans weakly, feeling herself clench down on Harry, letting him know how much his actions were working.

“Did you ask if you could do that?” Harry grits out, his hips pounding into her relentlessly. Y/N shakes her head but refuses to stop. Her fingers never break their movement.

“You're about to come again, aren't you? Holy shit- oh my fucking... Fuck, you little slut.” He whispers harshly, but he couldn't care less about her getting herself off at this point. She would if he'd stopped her, but it was undeniable that it turned him on, even more, knowing how eager she was to be stimulated while he took what was his.

“P-please, H.”

“Mhm.” His hips stutter slightly, as his focus wavers for a split second. “Do it.”

She whimpers, as she continues rubbing. Her hand moves in time with his movements as Harry gives himself completely over to lust. He slams his hips into hers, burying himself to the hilt on every thrust. He swears loudly, breath heavy and panting. He can hear her fingers on her clit rubbing incessantly, making it harder for him to hold back.

“Jesus Christ! It's... Fuck... Baby. Let go.”

A long, high-pitched moan falls from her lips as she throws her head back, cunt clenching around Harry's throbbing cock as she rides out her second orgasm of the day. Her right hand flies away from her clit as Harry sets a quick, punishing pace. She knows he is almost there, just needs a little more.

“Harry. C'mon. Come inside me.”

“Fuck, Y/N. You know I can't.” His mind is frantic, her words bring him one step closer to tipping over the edge. “That little mouth of yours will have to do it.”

It takes her a couple of seconds to realize what he means. She slides off the bed, a pleasurable shiver running through her, straight to her core as her feet touch the cold floor. It doesn't help her overheated body at all. She slowly gets down onto her knees. Her gaze meets his and the world stops for a second as their eyes meet, the tension running high between them.

Y/N is completely in his element now, not just doing what he wants but giving herself over fully. Harry reaches down, wiping a strand of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear before grasping the back of her head. He runs his thumb over her lips, caressing her skin before pushing her lips apart. She slowly licks her tongue over his thumb.

“Good girl.” He quickly pushes his length into her mouth, straight to the back of her throat. His eyes roll back as he struggles to control himself. Y/N gags, her eyes watering up. Harry reluctantly pulls back just far enough to let her breathe through her nose.

The taste of her essence combined with the salty taste of Harry's pre-cum fills her mouth. She eagerly hollows her cheeks as Harry pumps his hips against her, not allowing her much time to think or move. She rolls her eyes back into her head, and she loses herself to her pleasure as he chases his own climax.

“Oh fuck. I-shit...” His thrusts are growing slightly uneven and without warning, he thrusts all the way into her mouth and pushes down on the back of her head, forcing her to take his entire length. His warm cum spills into her, thick and sweet on her tongue. Y/N eagerly swallows him down, looking up at him with teary eyes.

Harry shudders at the feel of her throat against his sensitive tip. His breathing slows slightly. “Ah.” He winces, letting go of her head and sliding out of her warm mouth. Causing a string of saliva mixed with cum to connect the tip of his dick to her mouth.

She sits down on the hotel room floor on her knees, panting for breath and her head spinning as she attempts to collect herself. Harry slides his finger over her chin, collecting some of his semen which is still dripping down her chin and sliding it onto her lips. She eagerly licks her mouth clean and the sight makes his blood surge through his veins, his heart thudding away in his chest.

“Good girl.” He presses lightly against her lower lip, but his eyes remain trained on hers. Y/N's expression softens, and as Harry removes his finger from her mouth, she lets her head drop down as if she can't even stand looking at him anymore. But the slightest tinge of pink on her face betrays her.

“Looks like you actually enjoy doing what I say.”

Y/N chuckles as her mind begins to race again. Suddenly she doesn't mind one bit that she has to share this room with Harry for the next couple of days.

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[mangofresca]

zephyr | 18+

ii.

“We could leave, y’know.”

Romano startles, head turning over his shoulder as if he were searching for a spy, a conspirator. Sometimes, that’s not unlike how Portugal feels here, always a little too relegated to the outside for comfort, too close to the inside for tranquility or freedom.

He shakes the thought away, eyebrow raised in question at the only other person here who hasn’t exhausted him yet.

Romano’s eyes flick from his face to the windows, to the rain pelting the windowpanes, and he scoffs. “And do what? Get soaked?” His fingers tap the glass in his hand, and Portugal watches with muted disinterest as the wine rocks back and forth, back and forth, an ocean all its own, confined and confined and confined.

“Better than staying here.” Staying here and playing pretend with a government who can only just tell him and Spain apart, and Portugal doesn’t have the stomach anymore for the accent or the language or the face of it all.

Romano tsks, and, for some reason, this infuriates him, as if Romano is content to sit here and be lessened, nothing more than a jewel on a crown on a head who so blatantly picks favorites. Like they’re above it all, the two of them.

He turns, and he leaves, and he doesn’t care enough to see if anyone watches him go.

vi.

“That was–”

Portugal is already pushing up off the bed, flicking hair from his eyes. “Want a drink?”

“Obviously,” Romano snorts, but he sounds like he’s amused, and when Portugal turns around to look at him, all he can see is the way Romano’s lips curl around his teeth, how his cheeks look when he smiles.

ix.

Romano snores when he sleeps, raspy and rough, and when his hair falls in front of his eyes, his nose crinkles with the tickle of it, too deep in dreams to bother moving it away.

We shouldn’t be doing this, Portugal thinks, because things are messy, only getting worse, and he doesn’t understand how Romano doesn’t grow restless beneath a thumb that demands obedience, that is all too comfortable pressing down on the pulse of their throats, hard enough to feel it beating, not hard enough to choke.

“I wish this was easy,” he says instead, and his skin goes cold when he realizes he means it, green eyes already looking down at tanned legs tangled with his, errant curl brushing his collarbone.

He’s gotten used to that, too.

iv.

Portugal can see him on the docks again, hair just as windswept as that first time, waves falling over each other to brush against dark eyelashes, to curl into knots at his hairline.

Spain’s hand is heavy on his shoulder, smile tipping into something that more resembles a bridler than a brother. “You look like you’re thinking hard,” he says, and Portugal hears the warning in it like a bell tolling within his head. “Everything all right?”

“Fine,” Portugal replies. The weight on his shoulder feels suffocating.

vii.

“We should have sex here,” Portugal says, out of the blue and apropos of nothing, voice hushed into a conspiratorial whisper when he leans himself into Romano’s ear.

Romano coughs, splutters, eyes narrowing when Portugal only grins at him.

“Not now, obviously,” he continues, because his brother is here, and his—their, because God forbid any of it is really his—government, too, and he isn’t stupid enough to try anything here, now.

Romano wipes the coughed wine from his lips, arm crossed over his chest as he settles back into the wall behind him. “Please,” he says, and he already sounds scandalized and petulant, “as if I’d settle for anything less than a bed. You think I’d let you fuck me on a settee? Not a chance.”

“I think,” Portugal replies, smiling, “you’d let me fuck you anywhere I want you to.”

Romano scoffs again, furious and blustering, but his shoulder brushes Portugal’s arm, and he doesn’t move it away.

v.

Lively doesn’t adequately describe it when it finally happens.

Romano has him pinned up against the library wall, holding Portugal’s wrists against hand-bound books and shelves which haven’t been dusted in God only knows how long, but all Portugal can think is how difficult it is, when kissing Romano, to push him away, to have him be the one pressed between linen and literature.

He manages, only just, and the heady, groaned gasp of surprise he receives pleasantly makes it worth his while.

x.

Portugal can see him on the docks again, hair wind-knotted and wild, exactly like it was that first time, exactly like the second, like every other time, every other time.

He can’t discern the expression on Romano’s face, too far away for detail, sunlight blinding on wave-crested waters, but he can see him turn around, see him walk away, back to that house and that voice and that hand and that crown.

He almost regrets leaving without a goodbye, but he knows, is certain in the knowledge, that expectation for their kind is the heartbeat of disillusionment, and he doesn’t have it in himself to be disappointed by someone so supine as to find comfort here.

Nothing ever gets resolved with avoidance and shame, but their arrangement never really did have room for much else, anyway.

iii.

He has a dream, then, that lingers worse than a bad hangover or a bloody wound. Maybe it’s years after their last conversation, or maybe it’s days, or maybe it’s hours; he can’t be bothered to keep track, not that their kind usually does when it comes to time.

(Hard. He wakes up hard, and that’s not how his dreams usually go—or, not the ones with Romano, at least.)

Romano was over him, or under him, maybe—not that it matters, because it doesn’t matter, not really. What matters is that Romano was close, breathing against his neck, sighing his name, and it’s—

It was slow, the way they moved. Tender, close.

Odd.

viii.

He’s gotten used to it—the way Romano’s voice hitches, goes taut, tight as his white-knuckled grip on pearl-hued sheets. He’s gotten used to it.

He’s gotten used to it.

i.

They meet officially, formally—and notably without supervision—on the docks of Almería, both windswept and water-worn, and it makes Portugal wonder how long Romano had been standing there for him to look like that, like he himself had blown in with the breeze of the ocean, side-swept bangs tangling into soft knots at his temples.

He is sure he himself is no better, likely worse—a ribbon can only do so much with the whipping winds that dance themselves through his sails—but he doesn’t bother brushing his hair from his face before approaching, grin ticking at the corners of his lips.

Romano blinks at him, hazel eyes owlish before settling into something calmer, almost bored. “Oh,” he says, “it’s you.”

Portugal smiles and tips his head. “Hello,” he replies. Always best to start with hello.

[goshen-applecrumbledore]

Happy WW! Question for this lovely Americana week: If you HAD to take the boys outside of America either on a quick job or to live for awhile, where would you make them go and why? I hate that we had that quick phone call with Bobby where Sam and Dean went abroad (Scotland, I think?) and we saw NONE of it! As much as I love my red-blooded American boys, I think we've been deprived of a great plot point!

hello!! what a great question thank you!!

the short answer: I'm Canadian and would love to see some Canada action, but the only canada-related plots in TV are hamfisted and cringe, so I can't imagine what spn would actually do with that that would be good

the long answer is a snippet from a fic I'll never publish that I KNOW I've posted on tumblr before but I can't figure out where, so I'm posting it again:

"You hung over?" Dean asked. Sam shrugged.

"Nah. Took some Advil."

"Good, good." Dean let a smile spread slowly over his face. "You, uh, really had a few."

"No more than you."

"You went on your little rant again."

Sam went still and looked over. Dean's smile was cranked up to a thousand watts.

"Which rant?" Sam asked carefully.

“You know which rant. Every time I get more than four drinks in you, you find a way to bring up moving to another country and telling people that we have the same last name because we’re married.”

Sam rolled his eyes, but Dean saw his back get tight. He was embarrassed.

“Excuse me for finding creative solutions to the ongoing problem of dating my brother.”

"Have you considered not dating your brother?"

"Shut up, Dean."

Dean put his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands and made faces at him.

"This time it was Portugal. You said we could live in a seaside shack in Portugal. You were worried they weren't progressive enough, though. Then I said, if we want progressive, we're stuck with either California or Canada or maybe Oregon on a good day, and you said that wasn't far enough away, except maybe Canada."

"Would you please—"

"You know a surprising amount of Canadian lore, turns out. Have you been doing research? House hunting? I'm not moving to Canada, we'd never get guns again."

"Canada's too close," Sam grumbled. "Go away."

"Canada's big. And rural. Bet we can find a place backwards enough for our, uh, alternative lifestyle. But—"

"Alright, that's—"

"—I'd be willing to bet that any fucked-up commune that's down with the incest part would be extremely not down with the gay part—"

"Dean."

"—So maybe we'd just better keep being weird, violent hermits in Kansas for now."

"Are you done?" Sam asked, sounding physically pained. 

"Are those pancakes done?"

"If it'll shut you up, they are."

"Deal."

Sam took the plate of warmed pancakes out of the oven and all but threw it down in front of Dean, leaving him to get his own utensils and syrup.

Sam had been very excited about Portugal. Dean thought it was grossly sweet, but he wasn't about to miss an opportunity to rib Sam by doing something as stupid as agreeing with him out loud. He knew it would never happen, but thinking about it made his heart turn over; two matching silver rings tapping on the railing of a balcony, sun-bleached stucco and curtains fluttering in the hot wind. Drinking vinegary pilsners and driving along a winding coastline, two old American guys with omnipresent sunburns and no past. Sam with his hair in a ponytail, reading a book under a beach umbrella.

Dean blinked and shook his head as if clearing sun spots from his vision. Maybe Sam thought about that life while he was drunk, but Dean thought about it sober. He really, really tried not to dwell on that delta. It made everything less funny.

[runwayrunway]

No. 7 - A jetBlue FaMintly ReBluenion - The Quest for the Bluest Plane

And now, for something completely different.

We're done with jetBlue. I said that and I meant it. But we're not done with this train of thought. This post might not be what you expect. This is a very long post (and I do mean very long), a journey through the history of the US low-cost airline, the cognitive dissonance of the everyman millionaire, the thinly-veiled cynicism of the start-up airline, human kindness squeezed through cracks of a soulless machine which can never stop churning, and above all one man's quest to make the bluest planes he can, and my quest to tell you all if they look bad or not.

Let's begin here: have you ever wondered how new airlines are started? Well, when a wealthy individual or group of individuals love making money very much, they get together and incorporate a publicly traded company, lease a few airplanes, buy some airport slots...

I'll get to the point. Readers, there's somebody I'd like you to meet.

"Never speak to me or my daughter ever again." image: Rick Maiman

This is David G. Neeleman. He's jetBlue's dad. And jetBlue...has siblings.

David Neeleman is a Brazilian-American-Cypriot businessman I would best describe as a serial airline founder. Normally the description 'serial entrepreneur', to me at least, implies flakiness and perpetual failure to get anything properly off the ground, but that's not the case for Neeleman. He's very successful. He's probably some sort of pioneer. I've seen him compared to Howard Hughes. There's really only one stain on his record, one failure to speak of, and it's been over ten years. He has a net worth of 400 million dollars.

image: bloomberg

He's an...interesting person. Very interesting. He was born in Brazil and raised in Utah by a wealthy Mormon family. There are many very funny images of him available through Google. He has ten children, an ADHD diagnosis, no university degree, a whole lot of money, and a weird, weird, weird personal philosophy.

This interview is hard to sum up, but there's clearly a lot going on here. This is a guy who wants so desperately to be down to earth and kind and generous, who thinks he is down to earth and kind and generous, but who just can't take the extra step to realize the implications of the truly obscene wealth involved in venture capital and the inherent contradiction of that with his own ostensible charity and drive towards a fair and comfortable experience for passengers. In a way he seems like he's just too wealthy to really understand what being wealthy means. (It's also an older interview, and I imagine any scrap of genuine convictions he held through cognitive dissonance are now long-gone, given the CoViD thing.) He's also clearly got a chip on his shoulder about being fired from jetBlue. To be fair, having seen what they've done with their livery...I get it.

What else...he's also been CEO of airline booking program Open Skies, was involved with bizjet charter airline Superior Air Charter (then known as JetSuite), is founder and chairman of security company Vizgul for some reason, and is a minority owner of TAP Air Portugal. His nephew Zach Wilson is quarterback for the New York Jets. Oh, and he funded a study to underestimate the prevalence of CoViD. Classy, David. Real classy.

This isn't about David Neeleman. Not really. Not yet, at least. At some point it becomes about him, about his journey, but even then it isn't. When you have 400 million dollars you cease to become a meaningful subject as a person and become a meaningful subject as a distilled effigy of the things which the money came from. I dislike the Tony-Starkification of real people and I refuse to approach him in a way that supports that view of him. His life only matters to me in the context of the airlines he makes, and in what the way he changed over time represents. There's at least one biography out there for anyone particularly interested in the lives of Mormon multimillionaires who take issue with making people die less because they want the line to go up more. He is worth 400 million dollars, which is roughly a million dollars times what I make in one paycheck, delivered every two weeks. He's a creature in a suit who owns an absurd amount of wristwatches, each of which could pay for some sort of surgery for someone out there. There's a bunch of those in the world and this one happens to have made something which eclipses him, and that something is what's been occupying me since Wednesday.

If you're a book-reader - and I recommend being one - I think you're probably better off reading Barbara S. Peterson's "Blue Streak: Inside jetBlue, the Upstart That Rocked an Industry", which talks specifically about jetBlue and the way it pioneered what we now consider normal for aviation in the US. Reading it brought back memories for me of seeing adverts for jetBlue's planes on television, guaranteed to have a TV screen on every seat, and having my little mind which was still scarred by hours upon hours of complete boredom flying all the way from Tokyo to the American Northeast completely blown. Air travel really is unrecognizable from what it was when I was a child, although 20 years feels a lot shorter than it really is when you've lived it. There was no one factor that changed aviation so much in my lifetime, but there were a lot that contributed. ETOPS, 9/11, the recession, geopolitics, gas prices, the internet, legacy airline mega-mergers, privatization...and the jetBlue way of doing things.

It's easy to forget from our current vantage point but low-cost air travel wasn't always like this. Southwest did a lot to pioneer the modern low-cost model but jetBlue is probably the second-biggest player in the airline industry's shift to a culture which tries less to be glamorous and tries more to be fun and approachable (they by no means invented the Fun Airline, but PSA had been gone for 20 years at that point and the market had a gaping hole). They were a huge player in the rise of in-flight entertainment as standard even on low-cost flights. They helped keep aviation going after 9/11, when it was one of the few airlines to actually make money. And jetBlue's story isn't Neeleman's story, even though he founded it. I literally just listed four other major involvements of his, and he hasn't been involved in the business side of jetBlue since 2008. His story involves the founding of four - count em! - other airlines. Let's take a look through them and see if we can spot any patterns.

Morris Air (1992-1994)

sources and further reading: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]

Never heard of Morris Air? Can't blame you. jetBlue's oldest sibling existed for two years in the 90s. Two years. That's pretty miserable. ValuJet was around for twice that. That said, you're actually probably more familiar with them under a different name: Southwest.

No, Morris Air did not become Southwest. Southwest existed at the time, and it was in fact Southwest which gave birth to Morris Air.

Morris Air was named for its founder, June Morris, who operated one of Utah's largest travel agencies. In 1984 she partnered with a then 25-year-old David Neeleman to launch Morris Air Service. The two had realized something that was about to shake the airline industry: plane tickets were really expensive, and you could charge even less than major budget carriers like Southwest by just buying all the seats on a charter flight and selling them on to customers at an attractively low price. If you did this, even regular working-class people trying to book a trip to Hawai'i or Disneyland could actually afford a plane ticket. This worked successfully, enough that Morris sold off her travel agency, until they incurred a large fine from the DoT for pushing too far and fraudulently passing themselves off as a scheduled airline (which mattered because commercial charters are operated under Part 135 regulations while scheduled services are governed by the much more restrictive Part 121). In response, girlboss queen June Morris and her investie David Neeleman went and started up Morris Air as an actual, genuine, fully certified part 121 carrier, making June Morris the only female jet airline CEO in the US. They operated a fleet of 21 737-300s around the west coast on both scheduled and charter flights, pioneering such cost-cutting measures as e-tickets (wrongly attributed to Southwest, they were actually first used by Morris). This fleet included N75356/N764MA/N697SW, the airframe involved in the TACA 110 incident, which was successfully landed on a levee after losing power in both engines.

image: Richard Silagi

Now, I don't know about you, but these planes don't scream 'vacation' to me. In fact, they don't scream anything. They barely whisper. They breathe lightly on my ear. There are a couple planes in their fleet with weird features, like multicolor painted noses or cheatlines, but these seem to be one-offs and I wouldn't even be surprised if they were just leftovers from previous paintjobs (the one with the cheatline does look suspiciously like the one used on Sierra Pacific planes, one of the operators Morris chartered from). So they don't count. What counts is this.

Maybe if Morris Air didn't want to be instantly forgotten they shouldn't have made their planes completely generic. I'm not sure they cared, though. They wanted to make money and they made money.

A D- for Morris Air.

In 1992, less than two years after gaining its air operator's certificate, Morris Air merged with Southwest and the brand was retired. Despite having posed a legitimate threat to the titan that was Southwest at the peak of its relevance, it's since largely been forgotten. June Morris and David Neeleman both worked in Southwest's upper management for some time, but it was only five months before Neeleman left Southwest for other ventures. Soon, something more familiar would spring up, fed by the dying rays of Morris Air's gargantuan profits.

WestJet (est. 1994, began operation 1996)

Not exactly a deep cut, is it? WestJet is actually the second largest carrier in Canada and the ninth-largest in North America. They carry over 25 million passengers a year. I've never been one of them, but David Neeleman probably has, because he was one of the group of absurdly wealthy individuals who founded this incredibly successful airline in 1994.

WestJet operates a primary fleet of over 100 Boeing 737s of various models and seven Boeing 787s; in the past they also operated the 757 and 767. They operate both scheduled passenger and charter flights, as well as having a cargo division, a fully-owned regional subsidiary, and a Delta Connection/United Express-style brand name under which Pacific Coastal Airlines operates.

These all use more or less the same livery, which has only slightly changed since the beginning of operations in 1996. Pictured above is the original livery. I like the colors, I like the angularity on the tail, but I despise the style of livery with just the isolated tail colored in. This said, they introduced a new, updated livery in 2018.

I am a very predictable person. Given a livery mostly seen on 737MAXes and Dreamliners, I will always pick the Dreamliner to use as a visual example. This is not a slight to the MAX. They are nice looking planes, but the Dreamliner's planform is just on another level. Look at that wing sweep. Immaculate.

I like this color scheme a lot. I just happen to really like sea-green-adjacent colors, this is not the first time I've mentioned this. The font is nice, big, legible. I like the all-caps, I like the descender on the J. I think removing the logo mark on the wordmark and making it solid color was fine as a choice, makes the whole plane feel more balanced between the turquoise and the dark blue. The 'l'esprit du Canada' feels utterly pointless and is blocked by the wing and too small to be clearly read anyway. Tail design not limited to the tail, but mostly white fuselage regardless. Boring, but there's nothing here I can really call...bad? It's what they don't do that feels like the issue here, not what they do. Like, some sort of design on the nose and directly above or below, maybe? I didn't even realize there's any paint on the engines until I was editing my first draft and from most angles you just can't see it. Come on.

Grade: D+

Before I move on, there is something I have to mention. And that is WestJet's sub-brands. WestJet Encore is a fully-owned subsidiary which operates a respectable fleet of Bombardier Dash 8 Q400s, and WestJet Link is a brand name under which Pacific Coastal Airlines operates a couple Saab 340s. And that is...fine, normal, even, but...

Is this a joke to you?!

Change your name to WestProp. Now.

...

Hey. Wait a minute.

David! The large blue plane is coming! It has no engine power because it ran out of fuel and is about to hit you on the racetrack during family day! Oh no, he has airpods in! He can't hear us! image: Cean W Orrett

This guy. David Neeleman. Yeah, him. We were talking about him. I mean, it's been a minute since he came up because as far as I can tell after founding WestJet he did nothing of note related to it again, but...what's he been doing? Wait...wait a minute. This is becoming a habit, David. All your airlines are...well...they share a certain trait, in a very specific area.

David knows what I'm talking about. After all, his next move, in 1998, was to found NewAir, which would shortly become jetBlue.

I have not stopped to count how many words I have written about jetBlue this week. It is a lot. I already delivered a verdict. We are moving on.

Because David didn't stop here. Why would he? It's 2008 and he just got fired from his own company because a winter storm went Southwest-holiday-scheduling levels of horrendous for the airline he raised from infancy. He's got time to kill and money to burn and he wants the line to go up, damn it! Well, maybe he can be in the right place at the right time again. Make a second jetBlue, win back what he's lost. After all, he's got something else up his sleeve - dual citizenship.

Just your regular average Mormon, lurking in forests with a model plane. Nothing sinister about that. image: conde nast traveler

I did mention earlier he was born in Brazil, right? That's always been part of his life. When he was in charge, jetBlue was actually the launch customer for the Embraer E190, an incredibly popular mid-sized regional jet made by Brazilian manufacturer Embraer.

Is it just me, or do the men in this picture somehow look like cardboard cutouts holding a real airplane? There is something very strange about this image. I would go so far as to call it unsettling. image: The Gainesville Sun

So, figuring he'd bled the US dry, I suppose, he moseyed on down to his birthplace with his millions of dollars and presumably a couple little blank model planes waiting to be painted and shown off at a press conference. If you've seen a pattern emerging, prepare to see it continue.

Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras (est. 2008)

Mmm. Helvetica Neue Heavy. Not impressed.

Okay, sure. Technically there was a 'naming contest' and this name 'was the most popular'. But I think at this point I would believe that David Neeleman botted his own vote years before I would believe that Blue Airlines of Brazil just happened to be the winning name.

Okay, all else aside, I would really love to gently hold a plane like this. There's a certain caressing nature to the way he's holding this plane's snout which I crave to someday replicate with a similarly sized model aircraft. image: Paulo Whitaker

Much like jetBlue, Azul began operating Embraer 190 and Embraer 195 aircraft before expanding its fleet to include Airbus models, a handful of ATR 72 tubroprops, and two Boeing 747s for cargo. They started with just five aircraft but grew rapidly, absorbing a bunch of other airlines and securing large investments from the likes of United and Hainan Airlines. Today they operate a fleet of over 150 planes to 161 destinations and are the third largest airline in Brazil. They have a set of crossover liveries with freaking Disney. (I might review those sometime.) They also have a crossover livery with John Deere for some reason. You know, the tractor company. In 2020 TripAdvisor named them the world's best airline.

In addition to the name of the company, they also name their airplanes. I do not speak Portuguese, but thankfully a close friend, @ametri-e, does. I asked him if the names were silly puns like jetBlue's are, and I got this response:

some of these are puns but not particularly funny, some of them just have the word blue in them, and one was funny

So there you have it!

Unlike Morris, which no longer exists; WestJet, which he seems to have minimally contributed to past its founding; and jetBlue, which tossed him unceremoniously on the tarmac with his bags, he remains the chairman of Azul at time of writing.

I find myself briefly wondering if this is all an attempt to recapture his lost glory. Is jetBlue, larger even than the impressive heights Azul has reached, the one that got away? Is he now forced to go forward modeling his work in the image of that which he was robbed of, that which he can never go back to?

I don't know and I don't care. I care about if the livery looks good or not.

Well, I wasn't just going to leave the John Deere plane out. It's a bit underwhelming, though, isn't it?.

So Azul is pretty different from jetBlue at first glance. Mainly, it uses a much darker blue and has a logo to go with the wordmark - a cute little pixel Brazil that looks a bit like a heart to me because of the specific way it's drawn. Everything is scaled nicely so it looks pleasing on the turboprop and I think the dark underside and the way it curves around the ventral fairing actually looks really good with the ATR's airframe, which has a very pronounced ventral fairing relative to similarly-sized props. But, okay, let's look at a jet.

This...is not terrible. I really like the highlights on the trailing edges of the winglets and the end of the rudder, and bordering the deep blue belly. Not crazy about the Helvetica Neue still. Why doesn't the 'u' being cyan carry over to the actual livery? Also, Detached Tail Syndrome. In fact, although it has features beyond this which make a further discussion worth having, the basic layout is what I call the 'Deltalike' because that's the airline I associate with it despite them certainly not being the first to use it - detached tail, painted engines, painted underside that's large enough to see from the sides. It avoids a lot of pitfalls of the other popular archetype, that of the very tail-heavy (which WestJet fell into), but has its own loathesome features. All said, though, I do think Azul is one of the better takes on the Deltalike.

In the first picture the highlights look green, but in reality they're one line of green and one of yellow, for the Brazilian flag. I think they look really nice with this particular blue color, but I am exhausted of this man naming his airlines blue and then having the planes be majority white. They have such a nice shade of blue here, couldn't they make that the primary color of the body?

That aside, the way that the line curves up towards the middle of the plane combined with the tailing-edge highlights creates a sort of aerodynamic feeling. You even see them in other colors sometimes, like the pink ones on the E190s and blue ones on the E195.

It also comes in pink! Were this not a one-off I would ask them to change their name to Rosa Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras, but it is a promotion.

It seems like reconnecting with his origin has given David Neeleman the creative push he needed to beat jetBlue in at least one way - livery. All said, Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras clocks in at a final grade of...

C+

Aww, not quite a B for Brazil. Better luck next time! Though I'll admit I considered putting it there for a bit. This is a very high C+. Still, no cigar. Next time try putting less white on the plane. If you're all about blue, why are all your planes still so white? Come on, David. You are spreading blue paint on every airline you've ever touched but never letting it get past the tailfin. Who are you kidding? You know you're holding yourself back. There's a desire deep in you. You know it's there. I know you want to. It's just a matter of when. You are going to give in to your most animal urges. This isn't enough for you.

You need a bluer plane.

You can feel the thirst for a plane blue enough that you might as well own a piece of the sky straining against the bonds you've tried so hard to impose on it all these years. When will you finally unleash it?

Breeze Airways (commenced operations 2021)

image: inc. usa

Here we are, David. Time has almost caught up to us. It's just you, me narrating, and a very, very blue plane indeed. We have finally reached jetBlue's youngest baby sibling.

"Together, we created Breeze as a new airline merging technology with kindness," David Neeleman said. ​"If you can just be nice, the people will be nice to you in return and your job will be more fun.”

This is an interesting pitch. When Cape Air, with its fleet of tiny airplanes and its founder who started the airline with himself as pilot just to fly one route that he found himself needing to travel regularly, makes their motto Make Our Customers Happy And Have A Good Time Doing It (Mocha Hagodti), it feels...well, it feels like the person who said that didn't understand yet what a company was. Cape Air is its own story with its own contradictions and the vicious cognitive dissonance of capital on stark display but you can sense the desire in its inception to provide a service before running a company. It is the opposite of cynical - it is naïve. It is hopeful and human and starry-eyed.

When a man on his fifth airline makes a pitch like that it's like trying to cloud-watch looking at the ceiling.

That's not the only pitch for Breeze. I mean, even if you've started four successful airlines already and it seems like everything you touch goes on to revolutionize some part of the industry I think that would be a hard sell to investors in 2021. There's a bit more going on here. I'm going to start with the bit that's boring and makes me roll my eyes.

Ever since JetBlue, Neeleman has, like the kid peering into the circus tent, longed to get back into the U.S. airline industry. 

Bill Saporito writes for Inc. USA. I let out one tepid physical laugh. Yeah, David. You've got something great going in Brazil right now, but you want more. You want jetBlue and you can't have it. So instead...you give us an app.

The Breeze app is designed to eliminate chokepoints between passengers and planes. That means fewer people on the ground and lower cost.

Is this revolutionary? Is this destined to end in a Southwest-tier scheduling catastrophe? I'm not sure. I think David Neeleman's history suggests he could make this work, and I think the history of apps being used for things that didn't have apps before suggests that this could horribly blow up in his face. It seems to have gone fine so far, as I haven't heard anything else about it. To be fair, I wasn't exactly invested in the idea, so I haven't been looking. There's always time for some situation to happen nobody had foreseen and it all to go belly-up. Saying you never cancel flights works fine until a blizzard hits and then you have to start all over again, but he didn't build jetBlue by being afraid to take risks.

More interesting is the service they offer. Breeze has a bit of an identity crisis. Breeze wants to be an ultra low cost carrier with a first class cabin. That sounds contradictory because it is. The ULCC model as used by airlines like Ryanair and Spirit fundamentally relies on charging a low fare upfront with the expectation that customers will not receive a crumb extra without paying for it. Everything from seat reservations to snacks to anything else you can think of, you can pay extra for or you can do without. Breeze also follows other trends common with ULCCs, like a lack of seatback screens (the very thing jetBlue pioneered!) and flying point-to-point to smaller airports located outside of major metropolitan areas rather than routing through hubs. Yet Breeze insists it wants to have a first class cabin!

It does have a first class cabin, apparently. The classes are called Nice, Nicer, and Nicest. I wish airlines wouldn't do this. Air travel is the floorboards of stand-up comedy. Everyone already hates flying except weirdoes like me who spend enough time looking at pictures of airplanes to write reviews of their paint jobs, and even I get pretty tired of it if I go too long sitting there without the plane doing some sort of plane thing. You can be honest. You can call the classes Bearable, Unpleasant, and Painful. We all understand. It's okay. I would rather buy a ticket for Miserable But Cheap class than Nice. It probably won't actually be that bad, since Breeze doesn't do long-haul, which makes the presence of first-class even more bizarre. If you want first-class short-haul and have that sort of money just charter a private jet! And David Neeleman has been involved with at least two private jet charter companies too, so...what is he doing?

In 2011, almost exactly 10 years before Breeze began operation, Neeleman was interviewed for Business Jet Traveler. I linked the interview above. It's a powerful display of the cognitive dissonance of a man who considers himself a regular everyday Mormon dad, who donates his salary to his employees, who insists on calling his employees crewmembers, even as the line goes up, and up, and up. I've heard anecdotes about him sitting in the backs of his own planes at jetBlue, observing what he could change to make the experience better for the cabin crew and passengers, noticing a lot of those things could even save money, and I have no reason to disbelieve them.

As the head of a company he is by necessity exploiting those under him, as a businessman he is providing a service not from altruism but because he knows that people need it enough they'll give him money, and the more comfortable the experience for both the less likely he'll lose their labor and their money. Conscious or not, altruism is a means to an end, but it is still startling surrounded by airlines which don't even go that far. 'Nice' as a name for economy class is a pretty good summary of the man David Neeleman was, and the one he still tries to present himself as. But there's a specific question, and a specific answer, which I feel the need to place here.

The airlines have been cutting back on frills and first class, which is driving more people to business aviation. Do they need to find ways to treat their high-end customers better? Well, JetBlue doesn't have first class. We treated everyone the same. Maybe it's funny I'm in the JetSuite market because it's so weird to me that on a plane with 150 seats, you give 12 people a great ride and you stick it to 138-squish them all back there because of 12 people. There's something about that that just feels wrong.

Does it still feel wrong, David? Did something change about you between the first million and the 400th? When did this transformation happen? Was it the Ship of Theseus effect? Or...was this what you inevitably were working towards all along? Was it a fool's errand to pretend that there is a difference between what you do and what you are? Aviation is not immune to the society which it is built to serve - it is shaped by it. It feels wrong for 12 people to have a nice ride while 138 are squished in the back, but if you think about the life that 5 million Americans live and the life the other 326 million have to live, all squished back there so the lucky few can have a nice ride, doesn't it feel a little less wrong? After all, you've got the reclining bed. You can just pull the curtain closed. You've probably known what you were all along.

The airlines are a tough business. Why start another after JetBlue? Well, I've done this three times. It's what I know. I've always made money at it, always been successful. I figured out a formula that works and Brazil really needed it. And I had this idealistic view of trying to make a difference. I've got 3,000 people in Brazil that work for us and love their jobs and we flew four million people this year and a lot of those people had never flown before.

Air travel is life-changing. It's not just for those of us who stand outside airports and take a picture of every airplane we see. It is a faster, safer, easier way of getting people and things from one place to another. There are people who live in the remotest places in the world, who deal with mountains and oceans and even just being so far away from anywhere else. They can travel now, and they can do more than that. They can visit their family. They can get places even if they're somewhere railroads don't run to. Cargo planes bring these remote communities necessities. They take their children to university and its sick to lifesaving treatment. It's a lifeline and a fundamental part of infrastructure. Once we invented it we stopped being able to go back.

It isn't an inherently cynical thing to start an airline - not more cynical than starting any other company, anyway. At least, it shouldn't be. But I think it's an inherently cynical thing to start five. To have your position at Azul, which is both massively successful and your own brainchild, which you think is doing good...and to say to yourself "I need more. I need America. I need what I was robbed of when I lost jetBlue."

Very few people have ever started one airline successfully. David Neeleman started four and sat at the helm of Brazil's third-largest airline and decided it wasn't enough for him. He's always made low-cost airlines. To a not-insignificant degree he made the low-cost airline what it is today. But he needs a first-class cabin.

The Inc. piece on Breeze continues to discuss the airline's planned operations. In 2011 Neeleman's employees were crewmembers.

Breeze is also introducing a program in which it will hire college interns from Utah Valley University and mold them into customer-service machines. In exchange for salary, free tuition, and housing, the students will undergo training and then work 15 or so days a month while taking their college courses online. "The big thing is we are going to provide a great service with kind people on a beautiful airplane with a fun atmosphere," says DePastino.

In 2021 they are customer-service machines. They will spend not just their days but their nights in Breeze's living spaces at one of the most vulnerable times in a person's life, learning how to be cogs in a machine right when they're transitioning from being students to entering the turbulent world of trying to find a job. And all of us want a job that makes us feel like we're still us, doing something that makes the world better and that helps us touch the tip of Maslow's pyramid. Almost none of us get it. Most of us slog through something utterly pointless that is entirely separate from our own self-identity to just keep our heads above water. Breeze turns this into a machine and it starts its cogs young.

Would I take this deal if it was offered to me? I'm a university student with barely enough money to keep myself afloat in a very expensive city while paying for university and for medicine and for anything else that may suddenly come up. I love aviation. I have customer service experience. I work in customer service right now and will probably continue to for a long time. I would hypothetically be an ideal candidate for this sort of program. Would I take this offer knowing that nobody, myself included, says to themself as a child that they want to be an airline customer service representative when they grow up? College is supposed to be the place you lay the groundwork for trying to start a career. Nobody wants their career to be 'customer service representative'. Nobody wants their obituary to say 'beloved son, husband, middle management at an airline's call center'. Sure, lots of people end up there, and plenty of them are happy and fulfilled and they have nothing to be ashamed of, but nobody's 18, going into college, and thinks that's what they want to live and breathe for years. They want to intern in the accounting departments, to shadow engineers, to see the sleek jets and peer in on the lifestyles of the people who built this. They want to be David Neeleman. But that's not an option for most of us.

So what would I do? Live this concession to the inevitability of automation which overtakes much more than the flight deck? I might, because at least it's a guarantee of shelter and stability that I don't have trying to stumble my way through an utterly shambolic job market caught between the price of school and the need to earn that money and the costs inherent to autoimmune disease and the number of hours there are in a week. I want to write, or even just to do something that involves words, because even a data entry job might let me pretend I'm still the person I thought I would grow up to be, and even that seems off the table. But it's one thing to know your dreams are never going to be realistic and another to say it out loud and yet another to commit to it in a place that even refers to you outright as a machine as if they don't understand the weight of that word when you provide someone's lodging and pay and everything else they rely on. This is a few steps short of being a company town populated exclusively by the young and vulnerable who think they're going to be entrepreneurs one day.

"When I started JetBlue, it was a customer service company that just happened to fly airplanes," Neeleman says. "Breeze is a technology company that just happens to fly airplanes."

He was talking about the app when he said this, but I think it comes through in a broader sense. jetBlue was a customer service company. Humans interfaced with humans. The idea was in nature lively, giving names to inanimate flying machines. It was a corporation, it made money, it did not actually care about people and it could not because it was not itself human, but it did not wear this fact proudly. It was a regrettable necessity of running an airline, and the CEO donated his salary to the employees. jetBlue under Neeleman and beyond clung to the human element, and to kindness and to making low-cost flight fun and comfortable even though there was nobody on the plane with a first-class ticket. You might be part of a fundamentally unethical system known for cutting corners and lying and sweetheart deals and never suffering consequences when something as simple as a jackscrew nobody lubricated kills 88 people, but you're going to at least try to dampen that impact. It might kill you just as dead but it can hurt less, maybe so much you never realize jetBlue occupies the same slice of the world as Pan Am and as ValuJet.

Breeze Airways lodges young individuals and molds them into machines. It is an ultra-low-cost carrier with a first class cabin. It presents a scenario where people are optimally herded by an app, served by employees who go home at night to the same place they work, and all of it can be reduced down to numbers so easily. It takes the human and it makes it technology. It makes it profit. The human element is gone. It doesn't matter how much it hurts you because if you aren't a person there's nothing to kill. It says the quiet parts out loud and makes you get on the phone and tell your family you're happy here with a gun to your head. It is a machine built of anonymized mannequins who, irrelevant to their role in it, happen to be alive, and it calmly tells you that this is a good thing, and that is a threat. The lowest category of experience you can have is 'nice'. Breeze Airways does not name their planes.

When I was a child I thought airlines were people and airplanes. I've flown many times in my life. There aren't many other ways to get from Japan to the East Coast these days. The world is huge but we can see it all so easily, assuming taking us there can make someone money. I remember being eight and having the pilot standing by the door to greet passengers, having him hand me a little pair of plastic pilot wings I still have now. I remember the stormy night I flew alone for the first time and the stewardess who let me sit next to her for a little bit and answered all my questions about the noises the plane was making. I remember the first time I flew on a propeller plane and the pilot who explained to me what all the gauges meant, and who insisted there was nothing to be afraid of and pointed out all the landmarks we flew past, who clearly knew this route by heart.

That's not what aviation always is. That's not what it usually is. People don't usually start airlines because they wish they could fly everyone around in their little single-engine plane on a commuter route from Boston to Provincetown, from Hyannis to Nantucket, provide that service to the people who don't have a plane and a license of their own, but they just can't do it all themselves. People who start airlines aren't usually intrepid pilots searching for new heights to push themselves to or flight instructors looking to fly people around in a single rented DC-3. They're businessmen. They want money. Juan Trippe was a businessman. Howard Hughes was a businessman.

The corporation is where passion goes to die if it existed to begin with. They build machines to suck the life out of pilots, exhaust them, put them in planes that are falling apart and let them take the blame when they fail to do things they failed to teach them. These people aren't your friends and they don't care about aviation, and if they do it's in the way an American child plays soldiers at the same time a school in Syria is being bombed. They're usually not even pilots. They're people with a lot of money who want even more money. jetBlue isn't unique in that sense and neither is Breeze. One just says it a lot louder.

Sometimes an airline is a technology company that happens to fly airplanes. That's true. Every single positive experience you have is with people, not airlines. I've never once spoken to jetBlue, just a matrix of pilots and flight attendants and customer service representatives who make up its many limbs. Maybe it should come as a relief, a sort of coming clean, that Breeze is tearing back the curtain and reminding you that the time a stewardess calmed you down during turbulence isn't really any different from the time a drugstore cashier let you off even though you were a few cents short of your total and said they'd take care of it. It's not CVS doing that. It's always people.

So many businessmen say they're here to do good, to make the world a better place, to reconcile kindness with venture capital. Any of them could build a tower that reaches all the way to the edge of the solar system and let us all know how many beautiful things there are that we can reach if they can find a profitable way to get us out there, and yet it's still the people who see your transit card is out of money and scan you in using theirs that make me remember that we are capable of kindness despite our surroundings. It is up to all of us whether we wish to be kind or not and it's not something anyone else can build for us.

Companies can't build a kinder, softer, funner, more human place. They can make money. They can provide a service. A service you need, at a cost you can afford, predicated on the fundamental question: whether they think you can make them money. Desperation, need, giving people a non-choice, that's how you make money and kill criticism. That isn't kindness. That's finding a gap in the market. Always has been.

I read that at JetBlue, you also didn't have your own parking spot and you donated your entire salary to a crewmember crisis fund, saying, "It seemed hoggish of me to have all this stuff when others didn't because every time I would get something someone else would have less." Yet then I read about your $14 million mansion in Connecticut. It's my wife's mansion. I never would have built that, ever. I think she's repentant. It was a project for her and it kind of got out of hand. But we all felt funny moving in. That's why we want to sell it.

I'd wondered how you reconciled the mansion with your philosophy. I don't.

image: Bill Bernstein

Okay, Marx or Megatron or whoever you think you are, that's enough of that depressing schlock. You are a tumblr.com airline livery review blog. We're here to answer if the plane looks good or not.

It's not like Neeleman's only goals are money and vapid personal satisfaction. We've been with him from the start. It was just an unacknowledged bit of the tail. He probably didn't notice it at first, but we did, with the gift of hindsight. It germinated. It took root. It grew. It became identity. It became his white whale. Are the planes blue, though?

Well, everyone, meet N206BZ. She's an Airbus A220-300. She's just a year and a half old and was delivered brand-new to Breeze Airways. She doesn't have a name, just a registration, but that's sure one blue plane if I've ever seen one!

The color scheme is visually pleasing. It's all over but it keeps visual interest with the darker tail and rear fuselage, the darker engines, the big white check-mark that serves as an instantly recognizable emblem for the airline. The repetition of it on the winglets is a nice touch.

I hate the wordmark, honestly. The text feels like it's located too low, the lightest blue blends in with the main fuselage until it borders on illegible. As far as I can tell, the typeface is custom. I hate it. It's ugly. The text is bad and it weighs down the rest of the plane.

A lot of how a livery looks depends on the lighting. So let's look at another example. I'd like to introduce you to N140BZ. She's an Embraer E195-200 and she's coming up on 15 but she hasn't slowed down any. She flew for Air Europa for a long time, but from 2016 on she was in limbo, all sorts of holding groups leasing her to each other but nobody putting her into service. Now she's with Breeze. They'll retire their E190s somewhat soon, but for the moment they like to have them. It allows them to operate shorter routes and free up time for charters on other days, just to maximize productivity. She doesn't have a name either. I'd say she still looks pretty blue. A lot of the concept art has a very metallic and reflective feel which I'm glad isn't as present in the actual planes, because it looked a bit sci-fi movie and not in a campy way. It was very blue chalk marker.

I like these colors just as much in this sort of washed-out environment as I do in direct sunlight gleaming at full intensity. Maybe more, even, since the text of the wordmark is so much more legible now and you can even see that the checkmark itself is blue. There's almost nothing on this plane that isn't blue. The only thing not blue about this airplane is that she doesn't have a name to revel in it.

The Breeze livery gets a B-.

It is a competently executed version of the thing it wants to be. There's visual interest. There are choices made. It's more than a logo slapped on a tail and sent off to sit on the tarmac with hundreds of other primarily white airplanes. I like it, I think this is the best Neeleman livery. It's also the bluest.

I find myself thinking the checkmark is an apt logo. Azul wore the shape of Brazil - a country full of people. Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras S/A is a company. It cannot have a soul. But its founder says it does. He wants to make something better for people. Breeze Airways is a checkmark. It satisfies a need. It is 'nice' but there is no pretense that it is people.

The pilots will be kind all the same, and the stewardesses. People will agree to swap seats so families aren't separated. People will compliment strangers' outfits and help the person in line in front of them who's fifty cents short for a bottle of water. We will hold the door for elderly men with canes and exhausted women with strollers. We will take every little chance we can to be kind. We do this because we are people, and not because of where we work, and it's definitely not the people with 400 million dollars to put down on a shiny new airline making that happen. Everything is scheduled through an app, minimizing contact with humans even as the ones we do talk to are 'molded into customer-service machines' over the course of years. N140BZ wears her blue colors well, and not having a name doesn't make her any uglier. So what is it that's changed?

David Neeleman can't make jetBlue a second time. But he doesn't know that. To a man with so much, maybe it makes sense how he could fail to realize that. When you're high enough in the air a thriving uptown and an area of condemned slums look more or less the same, just little blocks of color all the way down there. He doesn't even realize he's given up the ghost. This is only a tragedy if your definition of a happy ending was us believing someone is better than they are instead of being left no room to continue failing to recognize what money is and what money does. The corporation wears two masks - the mask that it wears when it is a corporation wearing a mask, and the mask it wears when it is so close to human that you mistake it for your friend. The businessman wears these masks too. To be sad they've taken them off is to invest more in the virtue of these men than they ever do in the life or death of the 138 people squeezed in the back.

There it is. Two decades, five attempts, the bluest plane. If you've kept reading all the way to the end let me know in the replies what your favorite Neeleman-proximate livery is. I'll see you all tomorrow for our regularly scheduled Runway Runway livery review, and I hope you all have a wonderful night.

[girlieinterns]

Hi! My name is Alyssa (she/her) and I’m from Sebastian, Florida. I’m super excited to be a Public Relations intern at Girlie Action! I earned a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations from the University of Florida, and I’m currently pursuing a master’s degree in Mass Communication at the same university. 

What do you hope to gain from this experience?

With this experience, I'm looking forward to diving into the creative sector of PR! I’m grateful for this opportunity to explore the music industry and find new artists and songs to enjoy. I hope to learn how to turn my interest in music into a career. Also, I’m hoping to gain more insight into the fabulous world of PR and publicity. At Girlie Action, I’m excited to apply the lessons I’ve learned in school to the real world and gain hands-on experience at an agency. I’m confident that my experience with the people and work here will be inspiring.

What is the best concert you've been to? 

The best concert I’ve ever been to has to be Taylor Swift when I was roughly 11 years old. At this time in her career, her sound was more country pop. This was one of the first concerts I ever attended, and it was an eye-opening experience. As I processed the initial shock of “Wow, Taylor Swift is a real person and I’m in the same building as her,” I embraced the magic of live music. Taylor Swift put on a remarkable show with elaborate sets, beautiful costumes and top-notch crowd engagement. The atmosphere of the concert was captivating, especially for a tiny Taylor Swift fan, and I was in awe at the sense of community. I’ve carried this love for live music ever since then. My next concert will be Olivia Rodrigo on her GUTS world tour!

What else do you love besides music?

In a similar way to music, my other hobbies aim to transport people to different worlds and tell spectacular stories. For instance, I’m an avid reader. I recently finished the 10 Percy Jackson books because I’ve always been a Greek mythology nerd. Also, I love to watch movies and TV shows because they take me on countless adventures. I love to travel as well. Being able to explore new places and immerse myself in different cultures is a gift. I traveled to Portugal and studied abroad in Spain in 2022. Both trips were incredible. The next country I want to visit is Greece! 

What is my dream job?

My dream job is something I'm still trying to figure out. I’d love to work in entertainment PR, whether it’s in music, film or books. I love the concept of tapping into the purpose of a story and creating an authentic brand around it. I would love to have an international component in my career, in which I can travel, get to know an array of audiences and work in various cultures. One reason I'm a fan of PR is because it is such a broad field. I’m ecstatic to work in different areas and discover what sparks my interest and fuels my passion for PR.

[bcenvs3000f24]

Unit 07: Nature Interpretation through Music

Music and nature have a unique connection, as each finds expression in the other. In nature, we can hear melodies everywhere. Birds sing in varied pitches, winds whistle through leaves, rivers flow in rhythmic pulses, and waves crash in a steady, soothing beat. These natural sounds reflect musical elements like tone, rhythm, and repetition. Animals also use sound to communicate in ways that resemble music. Bird songs, whale calls, and wolf howls are often patterned and convey meaning beyond noise, forming what can be considered music with purpose and emotion. Music-like sounds across species suggest that musicality is embedded in nature's design, connecting us with all living things (Gray, 2001).

Nature's influence on our human music is profound. Landscapes, seasons, and wildlife inspire many songs, symphonies, and compositions. Music also plays a significant role in interpretation, helping people connect with the natural world more deeply. Interpreters use music to convey environmental messages and evoke emotions that inspire action (Beck et al., 2018). Whether it's a folk tune played at a historic exhibit or an "earth tune" teaching children about soil and the food chain, music can create a unique and memorable interpretive experience that brings ecological concepts to life (Beck et al., 2018). Music rooted in natural sounds often evokes profound feelings of tranquillity, joy, or awe, offering a channel through which people can connect emotionally with nature, even if they are physically distant from it. By listening to or creating music inspired by nature, we tap into an ancient relationship, where music serves as a medium for environmental appreciation and conservation.

Music is more than sound, it is a gateway to memory and place. Growing up, I remember my dad playing "Águas de Março" by Tom Jobim on road trips across Portugal. He would hit play as we left Lindoso, and it stayed on repeat, weaving into each twist of the road and shift of the landscape. As a kid it felt like the song narrated our journey through Portugal's mountains, valleys, and coastlines. The drive started in the rugged mountains around Lindoso, where the song's gentle rhythm matched the winding roads and lush, green views. Jobim's refrain, "É pau, é pedra," (it's bread, it's rock) captured the wildness of the mountains, each turn revealing new layers of forest and rock. As we neared the coast, the lyrics about "o fim do caminho" (the end of the road) felt fitting, leading us into golden fields and finally to the Atlantic, where waves crashed to the soft beat of the guitar. Like the setting sun, Jobim's voice was warm and grounding, merging the music with our journey.

Whenever I hear "Águas de Março," I'm instantly transported back to that drive. I can almost see the mountains, feel the coastal breeze, and hear my dad humming along, completely absorbed in the music and scenery. That song has become a map of Portugal for me. This song allows me to reconnect with my memories of the landscapes, showing how deeply nature and music are connected.

References:

Beck, L., Cable, T. T., & Knudson, D. M. (2018). Interpreting Cultural and Natural Heritage. https://sagamore.vitalsource.com/reader/books/9781571678669/pageid/0

Elis Regina - Topic. (2018, October 11). Águas De Março. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnB1G63XvCQ

Gray, P. M. (2001). BIOLOGY AND MUSIC: Enhanced: The Music of Nature and the Nature of Music. Science, 291(5501), 52–54. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.10.1126/science.1056960

[newsloverindia]

United Airlines Expands International Network with 8 New Nonstop Destinations in 2025

United Airlines is launching its largest-ever international expansion, adding eight new nonstop flights from the U.S. in its 2025 schedule. This expansion includes unique destinations like Nuuk, Greenland; Palermo, Italy; Bilbao, Spain; Madeira and Faro, Portugal; and more, making United the only U.S. airline to serve several of these locations. United’s total weekly transatlantic flights will now surpass 760, reflecting the airline’s commitment to meeting growing demand for global travel.

Notably, United will be introducing nonstop service to Dakar, Senegal, marking its first direct connection to this destination from Washington D.C. Additionally, United will be the only U.S. airline to offer a seasonal route to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from Tokyo Narita, a move aligned with rising tourism to the country.

This international expansion follows United’s recent trend of offering flights to more exotic, off-the-beaten-path destinations, rather than just the well-trodden European tourist spots like London and Paris. These routes will benefit leisure travelers and further solidify United’s position as a global leader in aviation.

TWAI and United Airlines: Elevating Travel with NDC Solutions

As a certified partner of United Airlines, TWAI is proud to offer New Distribution Capability (NDC) API solutions to travel agents and agencies. TWAI's NDC API enhances the booking experience by providing seamless access to United Airlines' flights, fares, and additional services in real-time. This means that agents can offer travelers more choices, personalized services, and competitive prices directly from United Airlines' system, boosting efficiency and revenue.

For travel management companies and agents, TWAI's NDC API enables full integration with United's expansive network, including their newly announced destinations, giving agents access to exclusive offers and the ability to book fares that are more competitive and tailored to travelers’ specific needs. With TWAI, agents can manage group fares, consolidator fares, and corporate travel with ease while taking advantage of United's new routes for their clients.

Exclusive Group and Consolidator Fares with Travel Agent Mall

Travel Agent Mall offers agents the opportunity to access group fares and consolidator fares for United Airlines. Consolidator fares are discounted tickets sold in bulk to travel agents, often at prices significantly lower than standard fares. These fares offer substantial savings for customers, especially those traveling on long-haul international routes or in large groups. For instance, agents booking United’s newly launched flights to unique destinations such as Bilbao or Nuuk can secure attractive consolidator fares, giving their clients more value for their money.

By leveraging consolidator fares through Travel Agent Mall, agents can not only provide their customers with lower rates but also enhance their earning potential with higher commissions on bookings. United Airlines’ new routes, combined with these discounted fares, position agents to tap into new markets and offer competitive deals to both leisure and business travelers.

Benefits for Agents and Agencies

With the launch of these new destinations and the availability of NDC API through TWAI, travel agents and agencies have access to a range of enhanced features. These include:

Real-Time Inventory: Access to live fares, availability, and booking options directly from United Airlines.

Customization and Flexibility: Tailor offerings to specific customer preferences with personalized fares and services.

Increased Revenue Opportunities: Agents can offer better deals and higher commissions by booking consolidator fares.

Global Reach: Take advantage of United’s expanded international routes, opening doors to new markets and travel opportunities for clients.

As United Airlines continues to grow its international presence, TWAI is dedicated to supporting travel agents in navigating this exciting new era in global aviation. With innovative products for airlines like the Airline Holiday Platform, Payment Orchestration Gateway, Agent Booking Platform, and the Airline Booking Engine & Products for agency like NDC API , TWAI ensures that travel agencies & Airlines have the tools they need to succeed.

For agents interested in learning more about United Airlines’ new NDC API or consolidator fares, we’re just one message away. Email us at info@twai.com for more details.

#TWAI #AirlineTechnology #UnitedAirlines #NDCAPI #TravelAgentMall #ConsolidatorFares #GlobalExpansion

Image Source: United Airline Facebook Page

[umichenginabroad]

Week 7: Sustainability in Madrid - Pt. 2

Hello and welcome back! As promised, I have compiled a list some of my favorite ways to travel and live sustainably. These are some of the things that I did when I was in Madrid and traveling around to reduce my impact.

Bringing my water bottle with me – This might seem most obvious, as most people at Michigan already bring their own bottles to class, but it’s important – most of the waste of a plastic bottle occurs upstream before you even buy it! Madrid has some of the BEST tap water in the world, and you can find drinking fountains everywhere around the city that consistently have good water. Even the bathroom tap water is good!

Reusing jars – I unfortunately did forget my reusable “ziploc” bags for snacks and things, so I started collecting jars. Yogurt containers are great for storing any leftovers, and any glass jar makes for a great coffee mug!

Using your own coffee cup – I was unsure if they would allow it, but my favorite coffee shop let me use my own jar for coffee. This is a great way to stay circular and limit your waste impact! Most of the time coffee is a social outing, so you use the glassware there. But for those caffeine pick me ups between class I would always have a jar on me. Fun fact, most paper coffee cups aren’t even recyclable because they have a plastic liner on the inside :(

Walk – The beauty of living in a big city, especially Madrid, is that everything is walkable. Madrid is considered a 15 minute city, meaning everything you could need is only a 15 minute walk or bike ride away. I even opted to walk to class because it was more efficient than taking the metro. 

Compost – Don’t forget to compost your food scraps! Madrid has a really good waste system, so it’s really easy to compost and recycle everything.

Fruit stands – I love that it is super easy to find fresh produce (and mostly locally grown) produce on every corner. Instead of buying fruit at a Día or Carrefour (the most commonly found supermarkets), opt to support the local economy and get any produce from your favorite fruit stand. Just make sure to politely let them know that you want to skip the plastic bag!

Tote Bags – this is an essential item, and it’s easy to pack! This is multifunctional and is great for groceries, school, a picnic, or just a day bag in general. Heads up, they charge you for plastic bags in Spain, so this is a great alternative.

Picnic lunch – I happened to have a little break between my classes, so I would bring my lunch (in one of my reused containers of course) and find a nearby park to decompress and refuel.

Clothes – Fast fashion is everywhere in Spain, and I beg of you to resist the temptation, (trust me) don’t buy from companies like Zara or Bershka if you can avoid it! If you forgot something, or are in the shopping mood, check out the vintage stores in Malasana, or find a Humana (there are so many of these) instead. 

Traveling – If you plan on traveling for a weekend, opt to take a train if possible. Prices will be cheaper if not the same as a flight, and oftentimes trains are a much more efficient even if the journey is a little longer. Plus, you don’t have to worry about luggage fees etc. Madrid has two stations, and I recommend using Omio or Trainline for booking trips. If I haven’t convinced you already, traveling by train also reduces your carbon footprint substantially!

Packing up and Leaving – instead of throwing away things like non-perishable foods, clothing, or household goods, find a local charity or ask the school if you can donate things for future students!

Picture 1 - Staying hydrated and enjoying the view of the Clerigos tower in Porto, Portugal. Picture 2 - I loved bringing my tote bag with me everywhere. I could carry my water, a fan, and my wallet. An added bonus: it's easy to keep close to you, so the risk of being pickpocketed is significantly lower. Lucky to say I haven't had any issues with this!

These are just a few tips on how to reduce your impact abroad, or even things you can do back in Ann Arbor! Remember that sustainability is going to look different for everyone. We don’t need everyone doing zero waste perfectly, but a lot of people working to make small changes to their current habits. I hope you learned something new and try these recommendations out! Good luck, you’ve got this :)

[flightsgoogle]

Affordable Travel Options from New York City or Boston to Southampton, England

Affordable Travel Options from New York City or Boston to Southampton, England

Looking for affordable ways to travel from New York City or Boston to Southampton, England? We’ve got you covered with various options and tools to help you find the best deals!

Flights

Direct Flights to London:

The most common and often most affordable route is flying to London (Heathrow or Gatwick) and then taking a train or bus to Southampton.

Airlines: Look for deals with budget airlines like Norwegian Air, JetBlue (in partnership with international carriers), British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and American Airlines.

Connecting Flights:

Flights with layovers can sometimes be cheaper. Consider airlines like Icelandair or TAP Air Portugal, which offer competitive rates with layovers in Reykjavik or Lisbon.

Trains and Buses from London to Southampton

Train:

Trains from London Waterloo to Southampton Central take about 1.5 hours and run frequently.

Bus:

National Express and Megabus offer affordable bus services from various points in London to Southampton, though the journey may take longer (around 2-3 hours).

Ferries and Cruise Ships

For a unique travel experience, consider transatlantic cruises from New York to Southampton. Keep an eye out for last-minute deals or repositioning cruises, which can sometimes be more affordable.

Finding Deals

Flight Aggregators and Comparison Sites:

Use websites like CheapFlights365 to compare prices across multiple airlines and booking sites. Set up fare alerts to monitor price drops.

Travel Apps:

For Android users, the Cheap Flights, Hotels and Car Rent app provides a convenient way to find the best deals.

For iOS users, the Cheap Flights Pro app is available to help you book affordable flights and more.

Travel Agencies:

Check with travel agencies for package deals that might include flights and accommodation. They often have exclusive offers or bulk booking discounts.

Airline Websites:

Sign up for newsletters from airlines to get notified of sales and special offers. Flash sales can offer significant discounts.

Credit Card Rewards and Points:

Use travel rewards credit cards to book your flights. Points and miles can significantly reduce travel costs.

Practical Tips

Flexible Dates: Being flexible with your travel dates can help you find the best prices.

Book in Advance: Generally, booking flights a few months in advance can secure better prices.

Off-Peak Travel: Traveling during off-peak times (midweek, shoulder seasons) can also help you save money.

By using these tools and tips, you can find affordable travel options from New York City or Boston to Southampton, England. Happy travels!

[brookston]

Holidays 9.24

Holidays

aHus Awareness Day

Armed Forces Day (Peru)

Arts & Aging Day (Canada)

Banned Website Awareness Day

Bluebird of Happiness Day

Brooklyn Dodgers Memorial Day

Chestnut Day (French Republic)

Constitution Day (Cambodia)

Dating Day

Do Impressions of Famous People Around the Office Day

Dominion Day (New Zealand)

Festival of the Latest Novelties

Fête de la Citoyenneté (New Caledonia Day; New Caledonia)

Fidelity Day

Gallbladder Good Health Day

Heritage Day (South Africa)

Innergize Day [Day after Equinox]

International Doodle Dog Day

International Grab Hand Day

Jim Henson Day

Kiss Day

Lady of Mercedes Day (Dominican Republic)

La Mercè (Barcelona, Spain)

Lash Stylists’ Day

Libra zodiac sign begins

Mahidol Day (Thailand)

Moose Day

National Bluebird of Happiness Day

National Braai Day (South Africa)

National Collagen Day

National Day of Arts in Car Homes (UK)

National Familial Hypercholesterolemia Day

National Firefighter Suicide Awareness Day

National Monument Day

National Professional Baseball Day

National Punctuation Day

National Service Scheme Day (India)

National Youth Day (Turks and Caicos Islands)

New Caledonia Day

Republic Day (Trinidad and Tobago)

Santa Cruz Day (Bolivia)

Thrue Bab (Blessed Rainy Day; Bhutan)

Transatlantic Telephone Day

World Bollywood Day

World Cancer Research Day

World Day Against Software Patents

World Day of Thyroid Cancer

World Gorilla Day

World Wasp Day

Worldwide Day of Play (Nickelodeon)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Cherries Jubilee Day

National Horchata Day

National Mofongo Day

World Chutney Day

4th & Last Sunday in September

Banned Book Week begins [Sunday of Last Week]

Clypping the Church Ceremony (Painswick, Gloucestershire, England) [Last Sunday]

Daughter’s Day [4th Sunday]

Gold Star Mother's Day [Last Sunday]

International Daughter’s Day [4th Sunday]

International Day of the Deaf [Last Sunday]

National Get Outside Day [Last Sunday]

National Good Neighbor Day [4th Sunday] (Original Date)

National Hereditary Breast & Ovarian Cancer Day [Last Sunday]

National Police Memorial Day (UK) [4th Sunday]

Police & Peace Officers’ National Memorial Day (Canada) [Last Sunday]

Priesthood Sunday [Last Sunday]

Russian Tiger Day [Last Sunday]

Social Justice Sunday (Australia) [Last Sunday]

Tap-Up Day (Guilford, UK) [Sunday before Oct. 2]

World Day of Migrants & Refugees [Last Sunday]

World Day of Retinitis Pigmentosa [Last Sunday]

World Deaf Day [Last Sunday]

World Heart Day [Last Sunday]

World Rivers Day [4th Sunday]

Independence Days

Guinea-Bissau (from Portugal, 1973)

Feast Days

Almarcon (Positivist; Saint)

Anathalon (in Brescia; Christian; Saint)

Antonio Gonzalez (Christian; Saint)

Chuniald (a.k.a. Conald; Christian; Saint)

Cocktail Day (Pastafarian)

Elizabeth Blackadder (Artology)

Émilie Gamelin (Canada; Christian; Blessed)

Feast of Maiso (pre-existent Mother Goddess; Brazil)

Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham (UK)

Festival of Nafulectu Dilxiln (Black Big Spider; San Carlos Apache, Arizona)

Gerard of Csanád (Christian; Saint)

Germer (a.k.a. Geremar; Christian; Saint)

Jim Henson Day (Muppetism)

Martyrdom of Imam Hassan Asgari (Iran)

Our Lady of Mercedes Day (Dominican Republic)

Our Lady of Mercy and its related observance (Christian)

Our Lady of Ransom (Mercedarians)

Our Lady of Walsingham (Church of England)

Pacificus of San Severino (Christian; Saint)

Prince Mahidol Day and Education for Humanity (Thailand)

Rowlf the Dog (Muppetism)

Rupert of Salzburg (Christian; Saint) [Austria]

Rusticus (a.k.a. Rotiri), Bishop of Auvergne (Christian; Saint)

Schwenkfelder Thanksgiving (Pennsylvania Dutch; Silesian Reformation)

Teddy Ruxpin Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

William Dobell (Artology)

Yemaya’s Day (Pagan)

Yom Kippur begins (Day of Atonement) [10 Tishrei]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]

Premieres

An Adventure in Color (Disney Animated TV Special; 1961)

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV Series; 2013)

The Big Bang Theory (TV Series; 2007)

Black-ish (TV Series; 2014)

Blood Sugar Sex Magik, by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Album; 1991)

Boris Goes For Broke or A Friend in Need is a Fiend Indeed (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 216; 1963)

Boy Meets World (TV Series; 1993)

Brand New Day, by Sting (Album; 1999)

Caress of Steel, by Rush (Album; 1975)

Chuck (TV Series; 2007)

Come Sail Away, by Styx (Song; 1977)

Constantine (TV Series; 2014)

Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters (WB Cartoon Compilation Film; 1988)

Dazed and Confused (Film; 1993)

Dear Evan Hansen (Film; 2021)

Dharma & Greg (TV Series; 1997)

The Dixie Fryer (WB MM Cartoon; 1960)

A Feud There Was (WB MM Cartoon; 1938)

First Daughter (Film; 2004)

Fur of Flying (WB LT Cartoon; 2010)

Growing Pains (TV Series; 1985)

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (Animated Film; 2014)

Jailhouse Rock, by Elvis Presley (Song; 1957)

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (Animated Film; 2010)

The Long Run, by The Eagles (Album; 1979)

Mathmagicland (Disney Animated TV Special; 1961)

Mister Rock and Roll (Film; 1957)

Mumford (Film; 1999)

The Munsters (TV Series; 1964)

The Name of the Rose (Film; 1986)

Nevermind, by Nirvana (Album; 1991)

1999, by Prince (Album; 1982)

The Odd Couple (TV Show; 1970)

Peyton Place, by Grace Metalious (Novel; 1956)

Porky in Wackyland (WB LT Cartoon; 1938)

The Razors Edge, by AC/DC (Album; 1990)

Scooby-Doo! Mecha Mutt Menace (WB Animated Film; 2013)

60 Minutes (TV Series; 1968)

Shaun of the Dead (Film; 2004)

Six O’Clock Low or Bullwinkle Gets the Point (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 215; 1963)

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, recorded by The Platters (Song; 1958)

Star Trek: Discovery (TV Series; 2017)

Teen Titans Go! Vs. Teen Titans (WB Animated Film; 2019)

Tears of a Clown, by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (Song; 1970)

That Thing You Do, by The Wonders (Song; 1996)

Thinking Out Loud, by Ed Sheeran (Song; 2014)

Three Days of the Condor (Film; 1975)

Zippo Flame App (iPhone App; 2008)

Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls (Novel; 1961)

Today’s Name Days

Gerhard, Hermann, Rupert, Virgil (Austria)

Anatolij, Antun, Rupert (Croatia)

Jaromír (Czech Republic)

Tecla (Denmark)

Alvar, Alver, Alvo (Estonia)

Alvar, Auno (Finland)

Thècle (France)

Gerhard, Rupert, Virgil (Germany)

Kopros, Mirsini, Mirto, Persefoni, Persis, Thekla (Greece)

Gellért, Mercédesz (Hungary)

Pacifico, Terenzio (Italy)

Agris, Agrita, Knuts (Latvia)

Gedvinas, Gedvinė, Gerardas (Lithuania)

Jan, Jens (Norway)

Gerard, Gerarda, Gerhard, Maria, Teodor, Tomir, Uniegost (Poland)

Ľubor, Ľuboš (Slovakia)

Gerardo, Mercedes (Spain)

Gerhard, Gert (Sweden)

Rostyslava, Thekla, Thecla, Volodyslav (Ukraine)

Eartha, Ertha, Herta, Hertha, Mercedes, Mercy, Scot, Scott, Scottie, Scotty (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 267 of 2024; 98 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 7 of week 38 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Muin (Vine) [Day 20 of 28]

Chinese: Month 8 (Xin-You), Day 10 (Yi-You)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 9 Tishri 5784

Islamic: 9 Rabi I 1445

J Cal: 27 Aki; Sixday [27 of 30]

Julian: 9 September 2023

Moon: 71%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 15 Shakespeare (10th Month) [Almarcon]

Runic Half Month: Ken (Illumination) [Day 13 of 15]

Season: Autumn (Day 2 of 89)

Zodiac: Libra (Day 2 of 30)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 9.24

Holidays

aHus Awareness Day

Armed Forces Day (Peru)

Arts & Aging Day (Canada)

Banned Website Awareness Day

Bluebird of Happiness Day

Brooklyn Dodgers Memorial Day

Chestnut Day (French Republic)

Constitution Day (Cambodia)

Dating Day

Do Impressions of Famous People Around the Office Day

Dominion Day (New Zealand)

Festival of the Latest Novelties

Fête de la Citoyenneté (New Caledonia Day; New Caledonia)

Fidelity Day

Gallbladder Good Health Day

Heritage Day (South Africa)

Innergize Day [Day after Equinox]

International Doodle Dog Day

International Grab Hand Day

Jim Henson Day

Kiss Day

Lady of Mercedes Day (Dominican Republic)

La Mercè (Barcelona, Spain)

Lash Stylists’ Day

Libra zodiac sign begins

Mahidol Day (Thailand)

Moose Day

National Bluebird of Happiness Day

National Braai Day (South Africa)

National Collagen Day

National Day of Arts in Car Homes (UK)

National Familial Hypercholesterolemia Day

National Firefighter Suicide Awareness Day

National Monument Day

National Professional Baseball Day

National Punctuation Day

National Service Scheme Day (India)

National Youth Day (Turks and Caicos Islands)

New Caledonia Day

Republic Day (Trinidad and Tobago)

Santa Cruz Day (Bolivia)

Thrue Bab (Blessed Rainy Day; Bhutan)

Transatlantic Telephone Day

World Bollywood Day

World Cancer Research Day

World Day Against Software Patents

World Day of Thyroid Cancer

World Gorilla Day

World Wasp Day

Worldwide Day of Play (Nickelodeon)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Cherries Jubilee Day

National Horchata Day

National Mofongo Day

World Chutney Day

4th & Last Sunday in September

Banned Book Week begins [Sunday of Last Week]

Clypping the Church Ceremony (Painswick, Gloucestershire, England) [Last Sunday]

Daughter’s Day [4th Sunday]

Gold Star Mother's Day [Last Sunday]

International Daughter’s Day [4th Sunday]

International Day of the Deaf [Last Sunday]

National Get Outside Day [Last Sunday]

National Good Neighbor Day [4th Sunday] (Original Date)

National Hereditary Breast & Ovarian Cancer Day [Last Sunday]

National Police Memorial Day (UK) [4th Sunday]

Police & Peace Officers’ National Memorial Day (Canada) [Last Sunday]

Priesthood Sunday [Last Sunday]

Russian Tiger Day [Last Sunday]

Social Justice Sunday (Australia) [Last Sunday]

Tap-Up Day (Guilford, UK) [Sunday before Oct. 2]

World Day of Migrants & Refugees [Last Sunday]

World Day of Retinitis Pigmentosa [Last Sunday]

World Deaf Day [Last Sunday]

World Heart Day [Last Sunday]

World Rivers Day [4th Sunday]

Independence Days

Guinea-Bissau (from Portugal, 1973)

Feast Days

Almarcon (Positivist; Saint)

Anathalon (in Brescia; Christian; Saint)

Antonio Gonzalez (Christian; Saint)

Chuniald (a.k.a. Conald; Christian; Saint)

Cocktail Day (Pastafarian)

Elizabeth Blackadder (Artology)

Émilie Gamelin (Canada; Christian; Blessed)

Feast of Maiso (pre-existent Mother Goddess; Brazil)

Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham (UK)

Festival of Nafulectu Dilxiln (Black Big Spider; San Carlos Apache, Arizona)

Gerard of Csanád (Christian; Saint)

Germer (a.k.a. Geremar; Christian; Saint)

Jim Henson Day (Muppetism)

Martyrdom of Imam Hassan Asgari (Iran)

Our Lady of Mercedes Day (Dominican Republic)

Our Lady of Mercy and its related observance (Christian)

Our Lady of Ransom (Mercedarians)

Our Lady of Walsingham (Church of England)

Pacificus of San Severino (Christian; Saint)

Prince Mahidol Day and Education for Humanity (Thailand)

Rowlf the Dog (Muppetism)

Rupert of Salzburg (Christian; Saint) [Austria]

Rusticus (a.k.a. Rotiri), Bishop of Auvergne (Christian; Saint)

Schwenkfelder Thanksgiving (Pennsylvania Dutch; Silesian Reformation)

Teddy Ruxpin Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

William Dobell (Artology)

Yemaya’s Day (Pagan)

Yom Kippur begins (Day of Atonement) [10 Tishrei]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]

Premieres

An Adventure in Color (Disney Animated TV Special; 1961)

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV Series; 2013)

The Big Bang Theory (TV Series; 2007)

Black-ish (TV Series; 2014)

Blood Sugar Sex Magik, by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Album; 1991)

Boris Goes For Broke or A Friend in Need is a Fiend Indeed (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 216; 1963)

Boy Meets World (TV Series; 1993)

Brand New Day, by Sting (Album; 1999)

Caress of Steel, by Rush (Album; 1975)

Chuck (TV Series; 2007)

Come Sail Away, by Styx (Song; 1977)

Constantine (TV Series; 2014)

Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters (WB Cartoon Compilation Film; 1988)

Dazed and Confused (Film; 1993)

Dear Evan Hansen (Film; 2021)

Dharma & Greg (TV Series; 1997)

The Dixie Fryer (WB MM Cartoon; 1960)

A Feud There Was (WB MM Cartoon; 1938)

First Daughter (Film; 2004)

Fur of Flying (WB LT Cartoon; 2010)

Growing Pains (TV Series; 1985)

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (Animated Film; 2014)

Jailhouse Rock, by Elvis Presley (Song; 1957)

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (Animated Film; 2010)

The Long Run, by The Eagles (Album; 1979)

Mathmagicland (Disney Animated TV Special; 1961)

Mister Rock and Roll (Film; 1957)

Mumford (Film; 1999)

The Munsters (TV Series; 1964)

The Name of the Rose (Film; 1986)

Nevermind, by Nirvana (Album; 1991)

1999, by Prince (Album; 1982)

The Odd Couple (TV Show; 1970)

Peyton Place, by Grace Metalious (Novel; 1956)

Porky in Wackyland (WB LT Cartoon; 1938)

The Razors Edge, by AC/DC (Album; 1990)

Scooby-Doo! Mecha Mutt Menace (WB Animated Film; 2013)

60 Minutes (TV Series; 1968)

Shaun of the Dead (Film; 2004)

Six O’Clock Low or Bullwinkle Gets the Point (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 215; 1963)

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, recorded by The Platters (Song; 1958)

Star Trek: Discovery (TV Series; 2017)

Teen Titans Go! Vs. Teen Titans (WB Animated Film; 2019)

Tears of a Clown, by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (Song; 1970)

That Thing You Do, by The Wonders (Song; 1996)

Thinking Out Loud, by Ed Sheeran (Song; 2014)

Three Days of the Condor (Film; 1975)

Zippo Flame App (iPhone App; 2008)

Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls (Novel; 1961)

Today’s Name Days

Gerhard, Hermann, Rupert, Virgil (Austria)

Anatolij, Antun, Rupert (Croatia)

Jaromír (Czech Republic)

Tecla (Denmark)

Alvar, Alver, Alvo (Estonia)

Alvar, Auno (Finland)

Thècle (France)

Gerhard, Rupert, Virgil (Germany)

Kopros, Mirsini, Mirto, Persefoni, Persis, Thekla (Greece)

Gellért, Mercédesz (Hungary)

Pacifico, Terenzio (Italy)

Agris, Agrita, Knuts (Latvia)

Gedvinas, Gedvinė, Gerardas (Lithuania)

Jan, Jens (Norway)

Gerard, Gerarda, Gerhard, Maria, Teodor, Tomir, Uniegost (Poland)

Ľubor, Ľuboš (Slovakia)

Gerardo, Mercedes (Spain)

Gerhard, Gert (Sweden)

Rostyslava, Thekla, Thecla, Volodyslav (Ukraine)

Eartha, Ertha, Herta, Hertha, Mercedes, Mercy, Scot, Scott, Scottie, Scotty (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 267 of 2024; 98 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 7 of week 38 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Muin (Vine) [Day 20 of 28]

Chinese: Month 8 (Xin-You), Day 10 (Yi-You)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 9 Tishri 5784

Islamic: 9 Rabi I 1445

J Cal: 27 Aki; Sixday [27 of 30]

Julian: 9 September 2023

Moon: 71%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 15 Shakespeare (10th Month) [Almarcon]

Runic Half Month: Ken (Illumination) [Day 13 of 15]

Season: Autumn (Day 2 of 89)

Zodiac: Libra (Day 2 of 30)