Flight Blog
News and Tips about Air Travel, Business / Industry, Flying, Airplanes, and other fun

Okay, so the FAA just made it clear: they don’t want billboards in space. Like, low-level space, billboards hovering in the earth’s atmosphere, where millions of people will see it every 24 hours or so. Sure that makes sense, as cynical as it is.

But, once they have the power to enforce this notion, how are they going to do it? With missiles? Monkeys?

I also believe there would be a huge “acceptance curve” with any company that dared deploy billboards into the stratosphere. What human being would actually buy a product advertised so obnoxiously? (Let’s hope we never hear the answer to that question)

» Read the article

A German guy, Dirk Paessler, took this photo of the waterplane airport of the tiny town of Denali along Denali Highway, in central Alaska. This is his site (not photo related at all).

The FDA just “cracked down” on major airline food supplier Gate Gourmet’s Honolulu operations (read the article). In an inspection this year they found:

1. Live cockroaches
2. Dirty utensils
3. An oozing, pink slime (was it alive? they don’t say)
4. Trash cans near food

That reminded me of a tip one of my flight attendant friends gave me: don’t go into airplane bathrooms in bare feet. Or in only socks. Wear shoes. The floors of airplane bathrooms never get cleaned, and they’re home to more forms of life than your local zoo.

Sure, writing about stuff you like is cool. The lucky people get to do that for a living. Tom Parsons, an internet travel entrepreneur, is one of them. He runs a web site about cheap flights. He also gets a few less-than-choice quotes in a recent Southwest Airlines press release (http://www.travel.fresh-coffee.com/flights/286/southwest-airlines-subscriber-fares-ding.htm ).

Quote:

“[Southwest Airlines Product] is an air traveler’s blue light special in the sky,” Parsons said. “Only Southwest Airlines would dare to offer fares this low.”

How much did they pay him for that quote? And after this dedication of allegiance to Southwest, why would I trust him as a source of information about cheap flights on non-Southwest carriers? I know it’s a free world, and a free market. But quotes on behalf of corporations rather than customers compromise the integrity of all the services you offer.

Shilling for the man is a one-way a ticket to the no-credibility parade.

I just got a link to Daily Travel Deal.com, a site that posts various travel deals and advice each day (of course). Darcy, a travel agent, launched the site May 11. Good idea for her! Strike up business and inform people at the same time. A travel agent not afraid that the internet is going to dismantle her industry. I wonder if it’s the same Darcy as the one who wrote here … (update: yes, it is.)

It’s a cool idea. Fundable allows groups of people (who may or may not know each other) to pool their money for certain goals — like property, or charity, or …

» Visit the web site

USA Today and the New York times wrote stories on May 10 that look at airline frequent flier programs. USA Today did what you would expect (their headline was “Airlines keep VIP clubs to keep fliers,” well, duh.) They wrote a rote story on the current state of the frequent flier business.

The NY Times went way beyond that….

A Flight Club member asked about the best place to find cheap flights in Europe (they suggested www.ebookers.com) … I know of two good places to look, but I don’t know if they are the best (I don’t fly around Europe much, yet)…

Here are some flight and travel sites that are useful and informative, but now worth writing entire entries about. Enjoy!

From hotelmarketing.com

While fully 35 percent of heterosexual respondents said they don’t book travel online, fewer than one in five (18%) GLB respondents said they did not.