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

Seriously though, the Washington Post got a piece on the famous Continental Complaint yesterday (registration required). Nothing too new (for the details and to see the actual complaint, check out this post on Flight Blog) — but they did dig up good information on the “bathroom seats” on various airlines. Here’s what they wrote:

Continental is obviously not the only airline that has seats adjacent to the lavatory. American Airlines’ 757-200 has three rows of seats near the lavatories. Row 26 is so situated on Northwest’s Airbus A320s. Same for Delta’s Boeing 737-800s.

Other aircraft are configured differently to avoid such placements. For example, one of US Airways’ most popular planes, the 737-300, has two galleys between the last row of seats and the lavs. United Airline’s 737-500 has two galleys and two exits between its last row of seats and lavatory.

For more information, check out SeatGuru.com.

Hey, been away for a while … here’s a roundup of some recent off-kilter airline news, enjoy.

• British teen launches cheap-flight airline from bedroom (thanks, Jon)
• Drunken airline pilots sentenced to prison (thanks, Christopher)
• 10 unforgettable in-flight fights
• USA Today analyzes wait times at major U.S. airports

The numbers are in and they’re not too bad. In the first month of tracking pet injuries and deaths, ten incidents were reported. Continental lead the fray with two pet deaths (that pet rat and the dog with a heart problem) — but the 20,000 injuries and deaths per year that the animal-rights group claimed is totally high. Two million animals fly each year, so 10 incidents out of about 166,000 pets flying last month, well, that’s penny-change.

Too bad for Continental, though. It doesn’t take much to win the top-pet-killer crown.

» Read the article: Report documents few incidents of pets that died on airline flights

(from Poynter)

KITV News in Honolulu says airport security screeners are seizing so many butane lighters that collecting the confiscated lighters has become a storage and safety problem. Screeners seize 30 to 40 pounds of the lighters each day and have collected 1,700 pounds of butane lighters since April 14. The airport has confiscated so many lighters that the Transportation Department now wants the lighters moved offsite from the airport because they are a safety hazard.

» Read the news article

• Update: Continental Airlines kills the most pets (but they don’t kill that many) (one was a pet rat) (the other was a dog with a heart problem)

The AP tells us that airlines will start counting pet casualties next week. This will be interesting because it’s a new way to measure airlines (see title). However, with more numbers also comes more rules. This tally could introduce a world of hurt to pet owners — airlines will be more cautious with the pets they allow on board, and some may be more reluctant to let pets on in the first place.

The numbers now are vague. Two million animals fly in the U.S. each year. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals estimates 1 percent of those are killed or injured each year. The airlines say that’s way-high.

Guess we’ll find out soon.

» Read the article, Airlines to Begin Tallying Pet Casualties

I love cake. So when a news article about airports and cake crosses my eyes I take notice. A protester successfully launched a carrot cake at some muckety-muck at Heathrow — where the cake hit they don’t share (why not?), but it did hit. Read the article here.

On a completely unrelated note, here’s an awesome story about a slovenia model they were going to do a “dumb bimbo” TV show about … until it turned out she was smarter than everyone else.

I promise more useful content coming soon — between training for work, a vaction in NYC, and a computer that is having problems it is hard to post.

-Joe

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

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.

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….

If you’re AirlineMeals.net then I’ve got an answer for you. AirlineMeals is an online community about nothing but airline food (members post photos, write reviews, and discuss changes in the field). The NY Times wrote an enjoyable piece about them, which ran in Sunday’s paper. I subscripe to their travel newsletter, and I found out and read about the story on Saturday.