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“Je m’appelle Michel.” L’Avion, the all-business class, all-Boeing 757 airline on the Paris (Orly) to Newark route, has a cute feature for passengers who give the airline their e-mail address. You get a reminder message featuring photos and customer-service pronouncements from the captain and purser.

It’s a nice, personal touch, even if the statements are on the cheesy side. The true value added of the mugshots? Not much, really, since the service provided will be the same whether you’ve seen their face before or not, but I imagine it’s funny, and oddly endearing, to walk down the jetway and actually recognize a staff member’s face.

Let’s just hope that passengers don’t start making their booking decisions on staff photos.

Upgrade: Travel Better reader Marie gave her L’Avion experience two thumbs up recently, which is certainly encouraging. For a full account of the L’Avion experience, stay tuned: Friend of the blog (or ami du blog?) Dr. Vino was our classe affaires guinea pig on the startup carrier last night, and we anxiously await his complete review/guest-post in a few weeks…