Downgraded: Bali’s public health strategy
While a vigorous attempt to contain the spread of the H1N1 flu virus is understandable and sensible, Bali is taking the notion to a new level:

Upon landing at Bali’s airport planes will be taken to a remote aircraft parking area where the plane and its passengers will be sprayed with disinfectant. Passengers will then be disembarked and subjected to thermal scanners.

However, the Jakarta Globe is reporting that Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport is now requiring all arriving international air passengers to undergo a blood test. Nyoman Murtiyasa, the head of the airport’s health office, quoted in the Jakarta Globe said that all passengers arriving from overseas would be required to take a blood test at the airport.

Thermal scanners? Sure. Blood tests for everyone? Extreme. They make United States passport control seem downright lovable.

Downgraded: Airline uniforms
The airport administrators at Nepal’s Kathmandu Airport are taking an unusual step in an effort to reduce bribery: They are banning pockets in airline personnel uniforms. In a few months, expect reports of secret back-room sewing operations and black market tailoring.

Upgraded: Onboard duty-free, online check-in
Remember when airlines gave you extra miles for online check-in? It’s not coming back, alas. But Virgin Atlantic will give you a coupon for £6 off onboard duty free shopping when spending £30 or more. Whoo?

Downgraded: Jamaican sand wars
500 truckloads of white sand were stolen from a Jamaican resort development site in July 2008. Now, it’s going to trial, and other resort owners are among the accused. (hat tip to Veronica Stoddart)

Upgraded: Overview of disparate carry-on luggage rules
Steven Frischling at Flying with Fish has compiled a great list of 65 airlines’ carry-on baggage restrictions. Be sure to check the rules before your next flight.

Upgraded: Cruises with a theme
Downgraded: Pirates; Conscience
Finally, a cruise concept for the bloodthirsty: A Russian company is sponsoring pirate-hunting cruises. $5000 gets you on board, and you can rent AK-47s and buy ammo. The money quote: “They are worse than the pirates. At least the pirates have the decency to take hostages; these people are just paying to commit murder.”

Upgraded: Eclipse travel
THIS is a concept trip I could do: Special flights to view the upcoming solar eclipse. (Thanks, Kim!)

United Airlines is innovating again… with new ways to pass costs onto others. This time, the issue is credit cards.

Tom Botts explains:

United [on Wednesday] informed a currently unknown number of travel agents that they would no longer be able to use the industry reconciliation system, ARC, to process tickets which were paid for with a credit card.

United is asking these travel agents to process credit card transactions themselves and then report the sale as a cash transaction. Until now, when a travel agency (or OTA) has sold a published ticket on United (or any other carrier) the credit card is actually processed by the airline. As such, the airline is responsible for paying the 2-3% (in rough numbers) that Amex, Visa, Mastercard and Discover charge for using their cards. In the new world proposed by United, agents will process the credit cards themselves (presumably along with an additional consumer fee) and then remit the full amount of the ticket back to United. This would obviously save a considerable amount of money for United if widely adopted.

“If widely adopted.” Which, in the airline industry, means that this practice is about to become universal.

This could mean the reversal of the online travel agencies’ “no fee for airline bookings” policies that took hold with the majors in the last few months.

And reinstating the fee would be justified, frankly, if this goes beyond United. If the agenc is the one charging the cost of the ticket, then the agency is the one who bears the financial risks (primarily from chargebacks), and the agency is the one who would need to seek the refund of their money from the airline.

This also messes with the economics of ticket sales from the airline’s perspective, and not necessarily in an obvious way. Previously, airlines wanted to bring all sales to their own websites. Now, there’s actually a financial incentive for United to have the agencies book the ticket. A $200 ticket purchased on united.com yields about $195 for the airline, after credit card fees are backed out. The same ticket sold by an agency would now yield $200 for the airline.

The bottom line: This is going to tick a lot of people off. Agencies are already upset. Customers will be soon.

Very cute ad by Air New Zealand, mocking the fees, surcharges, and inconveniences that give discount airlines a bad name. It comes on the heels of their “Nothing to Hide” ad campaign and inflight safety video that feature NZ staff wearing nothing but body paint.

Nicely played!

(Correction: the ad is from January 2009. Don’t let its age detract from your enjoyment.)

(via @laurably)

A Cambridge, Massachusetts independent designer has come up with some interesting alternative designs for inflight economy seating. The key concept: making use of the empty space that’s currently headroom.

Emil Jacob’s website offers a range of patent-pending design options, from double-decker business class to tiered economy class designs. The Boston Globe recently profiled Jacob and his designs.

“I was looking up at all the height, and I thought it was absurd that people are suffering down here,” Jacob said. “Just a couple of steps away there is a lot of space and comfort.”
[...]
He eventually came up with the “step seat principle.” It involves elevating alternate rows of seats, from one to five steps above the cabin floor, to give passengers more room to lean back in economy class and enough space in business class to lie down, either by sliding their legs under the seat in front of them or stretching out in pods stacked on top of each other – no sweater on the floor required.

Maybe some images would help… Here are some sketches of the concept:

For a premium economy seat, this is pretty good. Hey, you get a bed! And it’s a little more defined than the Lufthansa bunk bed proto-design.

Another of Jacob’s designs is a bit simpler, but makes use of vertical separation to expand legroom while keeping density high. The trick: Inserting a seven-inch platform in alternating rows. Very clever:

Yes, these concepts aren’t perfect. I can imagine the steps causing problems for some passengers, either during boarding, or in an emergency. And some of the designs could lead to a seat shell coming quite close to your face. But I like the way Jacob is thinking.

Airlines, take notice.

Related:
- Three people, six arms, four armrests: Can they coexist?
- Looking backward: Airlines considering alternating forward and rear-facing seats
- Lufthansa considering bunk-bed style sleeper seating in economy class

(images via Boston Globe and Jacob Innovations)

Downgraded: Irony
Every time you try to make a cynical or snide remark about the state of the airline industry, griping about how unpleasant it’s become, Ryanair meets or beats that cynicism. The airline now wants to ban checked luggage entirely. Seriously. They claim — and I say “claim” because I’ll believe it when I see it — that they’ll be implementing this by 2010, the same deadline for offering inflight gambling and pay toilets. Are they that desperate for attention that they need to keep floating these increasingly annoying ideas?

Upgraded: Republic Airlines
Downgraded, eventually: Midwest Signature Service
Republic, best known for providing regional jet services to a range of carriers, has bought Midwest and Frontier Airlines. In the case of Midwest, they’re getting rid of the Boeing 717s and replacing them with Embraer 190s. That’s a narrower tube. Translation: Expect cuts or elimination of Signature Service seats at the front of the plane.

Upgraded: Holding TSA accountable
Remember the traveler who was harassed by the TSA for carrying $4700 in cash? He refused to answer questions until the TSA agents explicitly told him he was required to respond, and caught it all on tape. Now he’s suing the TSA, with help from the ACLU.

Upgraded: Continental miles
Well, not upgraded much, but here’s a quick way to earn 100 miles for “learning about” Continental-branded credit cards.

Downgraded: Boeing
Not only is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner delayed again, but some significant redesigning is necessary in order to get it airworthy. That’s bad news for the company’s management (or shareholders), or the airlines that have to wait even longer to receive their orders. As a passenger, I’d rather have a safe plane start flying late than an unsafe plane on time. Nonetheless, some are accusing Boeing of a coverup.

Downgraded: SkyEurope
SkyEurope, the Bratislava-based discount airline perhaps most famous for paying you to fly them, has declared bankruptcy. They’re still flying while they restructure.

Upgraded: Flight tracking
Visually cool, though not completely practical: Lufthansa has commissioned a neat representation of their flight traffic. Watch a fancy demo below. Be warned, the sound has some crazy-high-pitched sounds, which detract from the experience.

(Update: The designers deleted the video. No idea why. I’ll leave the embed up in case they bring it back. In the interim, have a still/screenshot instead.)

(via Dvice)

I think I’ve found a new favorite website for travel-related time-killing, filled with both comedy and horror. (It’s not a new site, it’s just new to me.) The Aviation Herald provides short descriptions of airline “incidents” that warranted some sort of diversion, maintenance, or the calling of the authorities.

But some of these are (unintentionally?) hilarious, despite their clinical reporting style.

Perhaps my favorite so far:

An Air India Boeing 747-400, registration VT-ESO performing flight AI-191 from Mumbai (India) to Frankfurt/Main (Germany) with 229 passengers, was enroute about one hour into the flight, when the cargo fire alert triggered. The crew activated the cargo fire suppression system, declared emergency and returned to Mumbai, where the airplane landed safely 1:45 hours after departure. Attending fire services found no trace of fire or heat. [...] Engineers found no fault with the fire detection system as well and started to suspect, that bags of finest curry powder within the cargo bay, part of a passenger’s checked luggage, could have been responsible for the fire alert. Further tests showed, that particles had escaped the bags and indeed triggered the sensors.

We’ve all heard about bird strikes, which, perhaps most famously, are suspected of bringing down the US Airways Airbus that landed in the Hudson River. But how about bumble bees?

Or pirate radio interfering with inflight communications?

How about model rockets crossing flight paths?

Laser beams blinding pilots?

And dozens of bomb hoaxes and attempted (but failed) hijackings. (Even a real bomb, which was defused, on board an Iranian airliner.)

It’s both frightening and amusing. Granted, most flights go off without a hitch, but with thousands of flights daily, somewhere around the world there’s got to be something odd. Those with a fear of flying may not appreciate the humor as much as I do, so be warned…

Yes, there’s a bit of sadness in there, too, as they analyze the serious events wherein people got hurt or died, too. But there’s so much more in there. Hours of fascination, sometimes even entertainment.

(Thanks to Kim for pointing this out!)

(images: 1, 2, 3)

Clear, the company that built a business around a shorter line for access to TSA security lines, has gone under. If you’ve paid for a Clear membership, your card will be worthless before the night is out.

The Clear website has a sad announcement:

Clear Lanes Are No Longer Available.

At 11:00 p.m. PST on June 22, 2009, Clear will cease operations. Clear’s parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations.

As longtime readers may recall, I never found the concept of Clear compelling. Travelers who flew enough to benefit the most from a shorter line at security would likely be elite members of their frequent flyer program, which, in turn, would grant them access to shorter lines at major airports. Smaller airports have fewer lines to begin with, making Clear unnecessary for anyone at those sites.

It was a concept without a core customer base. The fact that they recently doubled their annual fee wasn’t much help either. And apparently their credit line has run out. R.I.P., Clear.

Related:
- Do airlines’ most frequent flyers deserve shorter security lines?
- Your shoes remain a threat to security
- Would you pay a fee to reserve a time to pass through airport security?

The airline industry, represented by the International Air Transport Association, has set a target of carbon-neutral growth by 2020. More directly, this means:

The commitment to carbon-neutral growth completes a set of three sequential goals for air transport: (1) a 1.5% average annual improvement in fuel efficiency from 2009 to 2020; (2) carbon-neutral growth from 2020 and (3) a 50% absolute reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.

So how do the airlines and aircraft manufacturers think they can meet this goal? Biofuels.

The Wall Street Journal recently picked up on a Boeing report that fuels derived from vegetation or algae not only have a positive impact on carbon-footprint measures, but they actually perform quite well as a fuel in their own right. The various fuel options met or exceeded the standards for petroleum-based jet fuel.

Actual airline tests of blended jet fuel, composed of both traditional and newfangled sources, have been successful, so we know the stuff can propel a heap of metal through the air.

The problem remains at the level of production:

To quench the global aviation industry’s thirst with jatropha and camelina, [the plants from which the fuel is developed], says Boeing’s director of sustainable biofuels strategy Darrin Morgan, would require planting an area the size of Germany. But with some crop science and improved yields on these plants, the idea of using biofuels in airplanes “actually starts to add up,” he says.
(emphasis added)

Granted, it doesn’t need to be a contiguous land mass the size of Germany, but that’s a lot of land, nonetheless.

Reducing the airline industry’s carbon footprint can’t be entirely on the shoulders of biofuels (or Bio-Derived Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene, or Bio-SPK, if you want to get jargony). Rather, a comprehensive transportation strategy designed to reduce fuel burn at all levels (including replacement of gas-guzzling short-hops flights with greater use of regional rail) needs to come first. Some of the conversation in the comments on the recent “pretend you’re running an airline” post brought in the notion of an integrated transportation company, rather than an airline itself.

Perhaps airlines need to start getting into the agricultural business, and planting acres of jatropha and camelina.

(image)

If you’re looking for a one-way rental out of Florida in the coming days, Thrifty is renting mid-size cars for $1 a day. The company must have an overhang of inventory, and is looking to reposition some vehicles out of the Sunshine state.

Pick-up is only from airport locations in Ft Lauderdale (FLL), Ft Myers (RSW), Miami (MIA), Orlando (MCO), Tampa (TPA), West Palm Beach (PBI), or Jacksonville (JAX).

Dropoff MUST be at Chicago Midway (MDW), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Cincinatti (CVG), Columbus (CMH), Dayton (DAY), Kansas City (MCI), Louisville (SDF), Philadelphia (PHL), or Jacksonville (JAX).

Wait, Jacksonville appears on both lists!? That’s what the rules say.

Yes, they’ll slap you with dozens of fees, such as airport concession fees, etc., but it could still be a deal if you combine a one-way rental with a one-way return flight. Or maybe you just want that one-way rental. Perhaps you’re a snowbird who’s late to leave Florida for the now-warm embrace of a northern summer.

(via WDBO; image)

Peter Sagal, the host of NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” offers this tweet from the airport:

Another day, another Red Carpet Club, another shocking number of bananas stuffed into my bag.

Next time, perhaps some Tupperware for the celery sticks?

Personally, I’ve always taken a shine to the mini-Toblerones…

The booty at domestic lounges is pretty sparse. How about you? What’s the best thing you’ve grabbed on your way out of a lounge?

Update: And the comeback by United:

Put the bananas down and step away from the Red Carpet Club. We have been on to you for weeks. Does NPR not feed you?

(image)