Delaying lockdown easing will have ‘critical impact’ on business BBC News Read more…
Delaying lockdown easing will have ‘critical impact’ on business BBC News Read more…
By Radu-Sorin Marinas BUCHAREST, June 14 (Reuters) – Central European currencies slipped on Monday, with the forint leading regional losses against the euro and the Czech crown retreating from last week’s 15 month-highs, mirroring the euro’s moves against a firming U.S. dollar. By 0850 GMT, the Hungarian forint eased 0.6% to 350.2 against the euro, […]
Waterford _ “Why not us?” That’s what three cousins asked themselves as they considered opening the town’s newest summertime attraction, Shoreline Scooter Rentals. After opening Memorial Day weekend, they now hope to bring to town a new summertime hobby: riding motor scooters. “We put this together with the intention of providing something that has never been done in this area,” said Nathan Hurt, the business’ head […]
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – A new National Park Service (NPS) report shows that 14.1 million visitors to the Blue Ridge Parkway in 2020 spent $1.1 billion in communities near the park. That spending supported 15.5 thousand jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $1.3 billion. “The Blue […]
The Latest: Biden arrives in Belgium ahead of NATO summit Associated Press Read more…
For all of June, the monthly promotional “burger fight” at Stone Hut Bar & Grill, on Plaza Way, is aimed at battling Parkinson’s disease. The business designates two special burgers every month and gives patrons a chance to win a $50 gift card for choosing their favorite. This month, Stone Hut has teamed up with […]
Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall weighs in on enhanced unemployment benefits, economic recovery, infrastructure spending and reconciliation. The U.S. economy took a major hit the past year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but certain states handled the crisis differently and are contributing more to the nation’s GDP than others. Which state economies are in the best […]
The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to businesses, especially the small businesses that are the backbone of local communities. Almost every industry struggled, and many businesses went under entirely. As the pandemic wanes and the economy stabilizes, Fulshear-Katy Chamber of Commerce President Don McCoy addressed the current state of business in the area and contemplated […]
I found myself in an unenviable situation when aircraft maintenance issues left me stranded in Bogotá, Colombia’s El Dorado International Airport for more than 10 hours. Here’s what happened.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I was supposed to fly from Bogotá to New York via Miami on American Airlines. It was a simple one-stop itinerary that hundreds of travelers take every day.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
American had appeared to be the best choice because of the number of flights it had between Bogotá and the US. Plus, I had the added bonus of flying on its newest aircraft including the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner…
An American Airlines Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.
Carlos Yudica/Shutterstock.com
And the Boeing 777-300ER.
American Airlines Boeing 777 at New York JFK airport before boarding passengers.
William Perugini/shutterstock
But the decision to book on American would come back to haunt me.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
The airport experience proceeded as normal. I cleared Colombian passport control and with the stamp of a passport, officially left the country.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I was still in Colombia in a physical sense but not quite in a legal sense. If I wanted to leave the airport, I’d have to officially re-enter Colombia and speak with an immigration official, I was told.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
None of that should have mattered because my flight to Miami boarded as normal and in four hours I’d be back in the US. That was how it should’ve gone.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
But while sitting on the plane, I noticed that our departure time had come and gone without us leaving the gate.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
A few minutes later, the dreaded message from the captain came that there was a maintenance issue to be sorted out. A tire part was needed and the sole Bogotá airport mechanic didn’t have it.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
Maybe Avianca would lend American the part, but that would still take hours, and it didn’t take long to get to the point where I wouldn’t be able to make my connection in Miami.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
American would have to give me a hotel in Miami and rebook me on the next flight from Miami to New York, which wasn’t until 2 p.m. the next day.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
The pilots soon made the decision to deplane us and I knew right then and there that I wouldn’t be flying on that plane or to Miami at all. Back into the airport terminal we went.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I saw the writing on the wall and Twitter messaged American Airlines to search for alternate options as I knew the Bogotá airport agents would have their hands full with passengers in the same situation as myself.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider via Twitter
After we deplaned, I did the only logical thing and headed back to the American Express lounge where there was free WiFi, power outlets, and an endless supply of snacks and drinks. This became my home for the rest of the day.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
It’s not a true lounge, so to speak, but it did the trick. I had access because I’m an American Express Platinum cardholder.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
American was quickly able to confirm me on the non-stop flight from Bogota to New York and even gave me an extra legroom seat as it was the only thing available.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
The only problem was that the flight was eight hours away and the inbound flight was also delayed. American, however, had failed to update the departure time to reflect that.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
It came as no surprise when American delayed the flight until 3:15 a.m. But I had no recourse as there were supposedly no other flights available.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
At first, being stranded in a foreign airport was intriguing. I could walk around the desolate yet extremely modern airport and listen to good music while I waited out the delay.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I explored the hidden crevasses of the airport and was disappointed to see the Copa Airlines did not name its airport lounge the “Copacabana.”
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I even found the island of misfit airline signage.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
Then I remembered I booked this trip with my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card which comes with built-in trip delay insurance. I called Chase and verified that I had $500 to spend on expenses because the delay exceeded six hours; although, I couldn’t use it to book a new flight home.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
American even gave out meal vouchers in the amount of 43,000 Colombian pesos, which is around $12. I used that first before spending any of Chase’s cash.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I wandered to the food court to see what was open and was shocked to find that Flavortown had an embassy in Bogota airport in the form of Guy’s Burger Joint. The Guy Fieri-founded franchise was serving up burgers and I needed to have one.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
The menu was quite expensive for Colombia. I ordered a cheeseburger with fries and it cost 47,000 Colombian pesos.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
American had only given 43,000 Colombian pesos but I luckily had cash to pay for the difference. It was well worth it, I thought at the time, because the burger was delicious.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
Just as I was enjoying myself, however, the dreaded “your flight has been canceled” message came through and I was forced to once again fight to get rebooked. I was told the only option was to leave the next day at 10:40 a.m. followed by a seven-hour and 30-minute layover in Miami.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I didn’t even know if Colombia would let me back in to get to a hotel. I didn’t have a recent negative COVID-19 PCR test to enter Colombia and had to consider the expiration date on my COVID-19 rapid test, which is required to enter the US even though I’ve already had COVID-19 and am vaccinated.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
There was another hiccup in that I needed to be in New York in two days for a scheduled flight to Phoenix. So I offered the agents a comprise in that they could send me straight to Phoenix.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
It wasn’t ideal for me but an American Airlines phone agent booked me on a flight the next day from Bogotá to Phoenix via Dallas. That was the first step, establishing Phoenix as the new destination.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I knew I was going to have to fight my way out of Colombia that night. Get me to the US, I thought, and I’ll figure out the rest there. So I headed back to the gate.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
Once that was achieved, I went to the gate and demanded a seat on the next flight to Dallas. I pleaded with agents that were firm in their stance that the flight was oversold, but I didn’t accept that as an answer.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
In the end, I was given seat 13H in premium economy. I wasn’t looking for an upgrade and honestly would’ve taken a middle seat in the last row just to get stateside.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I got dealt the only lucky card of the day and I took it. In my eyes, this was the last flight out of Bogotá and I was on it.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I settled into my premium economy seat and shut my eyes to recoup some of the sanity I had lost while in the terminal. Don’t mind my appearance as it had been, as they say, a day.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I woke up as we entered Mexican airspace and Colombia was a distant memory. It felt like a bad dream that was finally over.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
Persistence had won in the end and I had left South America behind.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I landed in Dallas and had four hours to kill before my flight to Phoenix so I decided to try for a hotel room at the Grand Hyatt hotel connected to the airport. American had delayed me more than 12 hours and this was the least they could do.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
After clearing customs, the next step was to find a customer service agent but none were to be found at the tender hour of 5 a.m.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
An agent finally arrived at the customer service desk and I made my request. “I’d like a room at the Grand Hyatt and I’d like American to pay for it,” I said.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
And to my surprise, I was given a free hotel room and a $12 meal voucher.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
The only problem was that the hotel room they gave me was 5 miles from the airport, and getting there required waiting for a shuttle.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I hopped in the shuttle at 6:30 a.m. and got to the hotel 15 minutes later, just enough time for a quick shower and change of clothes before heading back to the airport.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
Luckily, I had packed for a warm climate and had brought my work laptop. It was enough to get me through the next week in Phoenix but I’d be without some equipment and clothes that I needed.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I got back to the airport feeling completely and utterly drained. The combination of no sleep with unhealthy food and some lounge drinks was really taking its toll, and I just needed to get to Phoenix.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I normally enjoy the onboard experience, especially when flying in a swanky seat, but I closed my eyes in Dallas and didn’t open them again until we were halfway to Phoenix.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
I closed them again and opened them as we were on approach to land. The nightmare was coming to its final end as I landed in the Valley of the Sun.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
When I landed in Phoenix, a day ahead of schedule, I went straight to the American Airlines customer service counter and tried to request a ride to my familial home that’s around 45 minutes from the airport. Again, it was the least American could do since I wasn’t supposed to be in Phoenix on that day and needed to shell out for a taxi.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
American refused to oblige and I was soon on my way in a $90 Uber that I would not have had to pay for if I’d arrived in Phoenix the next day, as planned. My nightmare, however, was over and though I was a little worse for wear, I learned some valuable lessons.
Flying home from Bogota, Colombia on American Airlines.
Thomas Pallini/Insider
Monday.com celebrates its IPO at the Nasdaq, June 10, 2021.Source: NasdaqIn April, Insight Partners’ Jeff Horing hopped on a flight to Israel for a breakfast with tech CEOs. It was also an opportunity to pay a visit to his firm’s first international office, which had opened less than two years before.Now, CEOs from two of those companies are visiting him in New York. They’re actually coming to ring the bell on the Nasdaq, as Israel’s high-growth companies line up to hit the public markets.Last week, collaboration software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendor Monday.com held its IPO and closed on Friday with a market cap of $8.2 billion. This week, fellow Israeli software company WalkMe, whose technology is designed to simplify enterprise software and applications, is scheduled to go public with a valuation of up to $2.6 billionInsight is the biggest investor in both. The firm owns a 43% stake in Monday.com and controls 32% of WalkMe. Its combined ownership in the two companies is currently worth about $3.9 billion.”For a long time, Israel has been the start-up hub, a hive of activity,” Horing wrote in an email, in response to written questions. “But these start-ups are scaling successfully at a more rapid pace.”Money is flooding into Israeli tech. The country’s start-ups raised $5.37 billion in the first quarter, more than double the amount a year earlier and 89% above the fourth quarter, which was a record period, according to a report from IVC and law firm Meitar.Game developer Playtika, based in Herzliya, went public in January and has a market cap of $10.6 billion, making it the fourth most-valuable publicly traded tech company in Israel, according to FactSet. Monday.com ranks fifth and WalkMe is poised to crack the top 10.For Insight, the launch of an Israeli operation in late 2019 marked the firm’s first office opening outside the U.S. since its founding in 1995. But Insight had been investing in and around Tel Aviv for over two decades.Horing said the firm did its first deal in Israel in 2000. He highlighted Enigma, a developer of software to manufacturers, and Shunra, a network virtualization company that was acquired by Hewlett-Packard, as two early investments.”I’ve always loved visiting Israel and have many memories at tiny market restaurants eating incredible food, arguing for hours over different technologies and SaaS strategies,” Horing said. “My team and I spent countless hours flying back and forth to Israel, often spending weeks at a time getting to know entrepreneurs and working alongside our portfolio companies.”Prior to Monday.com, Insight’s marquee investment had been in website creation software company Wix, which went public in 2013. Insight co-led a $40 million round in 2011 and had a 12% stake at the time of the IPO.Wix’s stock price has since multiplied 17-fold, giving the company a $15 billion market cap, second only to Check Point Software among Israeli tech companies.”Wix was a foundational investment for Insight in Israel,” Horing said. Wix co-founder Avishai Abrahami is also on Monday.com’s board. Along with Abrahami and Nir Zohar, Wix’s operating chief, “we’ve co-invested in many Israeli deals over the years,” Horing said.Acquiring an Israeli firm’s portfolioThe most glaring detail on Monday.com’s cap table is the size of Insight’s stake.Typically when a venture-backed company goes public with a multibillion-dollar valuation, the top firm would hold no more than 30% of the outstanding shares, often much less.Insight took a unique approach to get to 43%. In February 2019, seven months before opening its Tel Aviv office, Insight purchased the majority of a fund portfolio held by an Israeli firm called Genesis Partners, whose partners were leaving for other ventures.Within that fund, which closed in 2009, Genesis had invested in Monday.com’s seed and Series A financing rounds. Insight first came in as part of the $25 million Series B in 2017.After acquiring the contents of the Genesis fund, Insight was able to merge the two firms’ holdings, building a stake that’s now worth $3.1 billion. Genesis was also an early investor in two other Insight-backed companies: online music learning company JoyTunes and business intelligence company Sisense.Monday.com co-founder and co-CEO Roy Mann told CNBC that Insight was tapping into a big change happening in Israeli tech.”They had a very strong conviction in Israel and the Israeli ecosystem,” Mann said in an interview after the IPO. “The whole industry matured to a level where entrepreneurs want to build big companies and want to hold them for a long time. Insight was early on to recognize that and really go and back a lot of amazing Israeli companies.”Horing joined co-founders Mann and Eran Zinman in ringing the Nasdaq’s opening bell on Thursday. The company also had 250 employees come in from cities across the U.S.Horing will have the opportunity to do it again this week for the WalkMe IPO. In 2017, Insight led a $75 million investment in WalkMe. By following on over the course of two more financing rounds, Insight built up a 32% stake that’s worth $750 million at the top end of WalkMe’s IPO range.Horing said Insight now has 80 “operating experts” in Israel working with portfolio companies and has expanded in Tel Aviv to take over the space formerly occupied by JFrog, which went public on the Nasdaq last year.As for what Horing finds most exciting coming out of Israel these days, he said there’s no shortage of opportunities to put money to work.”Israel is firing on all cylinders,” he said. “Of course cyber is a strong sector but it is much broader to a wide group of SaaS, infrastructure, fintech, gaming, and ad tech.”WATCH: JFrog CEO on the company’s public debut and outlook
