Things To Do In SW Florida

By Sally French | NerdWallet

Airlines devote a lot of energy and strategy to how passengers board an aircraft. Passengers are separated into different groups — like preboarding, priority boarding, family boarding, zones 1-7, A 1-60 and so on — and embark accordingly. Some airlines have up to 10 different boarding groups.

You’d think airlines would make the exit process more structured, too, but in reality, neither experts nor passengers can agree on the right way to do it.

Imagine this: Upon arrival, passengers in the middle of the plane are slow to stand up to signal a start to disembarking. In response, a plucky flyer from a row farther back whizzes up to the front to take their turn in the queue of exiters, thereby “cutting” the line.

Is this bad or selfish behavior? Etiquette experts think so.

“It’s common courtesy to allow others to go ahead of you,” etiquette expert Jo Hayes explained in an email. “Be patient, and allow them time to get into the aisle and grab their bag from overhead.” read more

Poonkulali Thangavelu | Bankrate.com (TNS)

By 2027, worldwide e-commerce sales are expected to reach $7.96 billion — an increase of about 61% over e-commerce sales since 2021, according to a 2024 report from eMarketer. As this trend of internet and phone shopping keeps growing, so-called “card-not-present” (CNP) shopping activity (which are transactions where you don’t physically swipe your credit card) continues to grow with it.

Although consumers are becoming more comfortable with these types of transactions, there are still various concerns to consider. For instance, whenever you make a credit card purchase online, certain types of data are stored. But is it safe to give your credit card number over the phone? While it may make it more difficult for a company to store your information, how is that information actually handled?

Phone sales are risky for merchants

Phone and internet sales present more risk for merchants than sales where a card can be physically swiped. In fact, eMarketer expected CNP transactions to account for 73% of all credit card fraud losses (totaling $9.49 billion) in 2023. That’s why merchants pay more in swipe fees to accept card-not-present transactions. read more

NASA officials gave an update Friday on the status of Boeing’s Starliner docked at the International Space Station and when astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams would get the OK to come home.

“I want to make it very clear that Butch and Suni are not stranded in space,” said NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich on a media call. “I want to make it real clear that we’re not in a rush to come home.”

Wilmore and Williams arrived to the space station on June 6, a day after launching atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. They were supposed to spend about a week on board the International Space Station on the Crew Flight Test mission for the spacecraft, which was making its first flight with humans onboard.

Issues with helium leaks and thrusters on the spacecraft’s attached propulsion module, though, showed up on the trip up to the ISS,. Those issues have continued to push back any planned a return date as NASA and Boeing pore over data and potential dangers before the flight home. read more