Air France has an interesting feature: In some markets, you can reserve a low fare for up to two weeks, without buying the ticket, for €10. (Thanks to Raphaël Mazoyer via Twitter for pointing this out to me.)

Here’s the English text, copied from the Dutch site:

Need time to think
When reserving online, you can choose the Time to Think option*. Starting at €10 per passenger, this new option lets you hold your reservation and fare for up to 14 days**.
To purchase your ticket, simply visit the “Manage your reservations” section.
If you decide not to confirm the reservation, it will be cancelled automatically when your Time to Think period expires.

* This option is offered on our flights within metropolitan France and from France to Europe and North Africa.
** The period allowed varies according to your reservation date, destination and travel fare conditions. Option non-refundable and in addition to your ticket price.

Hopelessly addicted to the romance of French? Authenticity fetishist? Well, here you go, in the original tongue:

Besoin de temps pour réfléchir ?
Lorsque vous faites votre réservation en ligne, vous pouvez opter pour un Délai de réflexion*. A partir de 10 € par passager, cette nouvelle option vous permet de garantir votre réservation et votre tarif jusqu’à 14 jours**. Pour payer votre billet, il vous suffit ensuite de vous rendre dans la rubrique “Gérer vos réservations”. Si vous ne souhaitez pas confirmer votre achat, votre réservation est automatiquement annulée à la fin du Délai de réflexion.

* Cette option est proposée en cabine Voyageur sur nos vols en France métropolitaine, de/vers l´Europe, Israël et l´Afrique du Nord.
** La durée du Délai de réflexion varie selon la date de votre réservation, la destination et les conditions tarifaires. Option non remboursable et en sus du prix du billet.

Given the geographic restrictions in the fine print, the US site doesn’t include this text (in either language) on the booking page. But there remains a hold option:

When I do a test booking of an itinerary between Charlotte and Paris (via Detroit and/or Atlanta), I’m given an option of holding the itinerary for over 24 hours — until 10 pm the next night — at no cost. It’s not 14 days of hold time, but it’s not 10 euros, either.

The policy isn’t new. I missed the 14-day 10-euro hold fee when it was first announced in late November 2009. (Dan Webb caught it.) And while I recognize this is yet another fee, I don’t really mind this one.

Holding the seats — and the fare — for two weeks is worth 10 euros. If you find a great fare, you can book and hold a fare for minimal investment, while making your other plans. (The overnight hold, as available in the US, is a nice feature, too, but it wouldn’t be worth 10 euros to me.)

So, what would a 14-day hold be worth to you?

A neat video of European air traffic, based on data from FlightRadar24.com, showing the progression of flights from the height of the volcano-driven travel ban to the reinstatement of flights.

You’ll notice some gaps, especially over France. That doesn’t mean that there’s no radar over French airspace. Rather, the website’s data are gathered by individual aviation enthusiasts who hook receivers up to their computers, to capture and track planes with ADS-B transponders. It’s an enthusiast community, sorta like HAM radio operators. (I’ll defer to the site’s “About” link for an explanation, since I claim no expertise in transponders.)

But regardless of the technology driving the site, it’s a neat video. You’ll notice a few test flights, some flying a loop. Then a few more. And then, the deluge.

Watch:

A recent article on Chow.com identifies a trend in American aviation catering: The surprisingly high demand for ginger ale on America’s planes.

Why ginger ale, and not Coke, 7UP, or Bloody Mary mix? The most popular theory among flight attendants is that it relieves nausea. “If [passengers] have motion sickness, it settles their stomach,” says Elizabeth Rogers, a flight attendant for Mesaba Airlines.

The lack of caffeine may be a further motivating factor, both for people worried about becoming dehydrated during the flight and for those who don’t consume caffeine for health or religious reasons. “Mormons don’t drink caffeine, so they have a tendency to drink ginger ale,” says Gail Phillips, a flight attendant for United Airlines. Then there’s the novelty factor: “They hear someone else order it, and then everyone else wants it too,” says Penny Sandahl, a flight attendant for Mesaba.

And the trend is apparently real. This post from 2007 quotes a study showing that 10% of inflight beverages on American Airlines were ginger ale, vs. 3% of soft drink sales in the overall market. That’s pretty impressive.

I am guilty of feeding into this. If I’m sitting in domestic coach, I am much more likely to order a ginger ale than any other soft drink. And I’m not entirely sure why.

Some of the theories are plausible, but I’m not sure they work for me. Is it the stomach calming effect of ginger? I’m usually pretty mellow in-flight, but perhaps I’ve got some latent anxiety. It’s an unlikely explanation.

Is it the relative novelty of ginger ale? I don’t see ginger ale on a regular basis on menus, or in my cafeteria at work. So perhaps it’s just the “hey, I haven’t thought about ginger ale in a while” effect?

Or was it once based on those reasons, and has now become conditioned behavior? After this many flights, perhaps I have just come to associate air travel with ginger ale.

I still find it amusing that this is being identified as a trend. The trend goes further, at least for me: I rarely drink ginger ale outside of flights in domestic coach. (Flying up front domestically? It’s probably a gin and tonic. International? Depends on the airline, but I tend toward the wine list.)

So, when you’re strapped in, and the plane has risen above 10,000 feet, and the beverage cart comes out, what’s your drink? Ginger ale?… Hit the comments.

Upgraded: Hotel Honeybees
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Charlotte has a new amenity: Rooftop honeybees. The hotel restaurant will use approximately 70 lbs. of honey produced by the hive.

Upgraded: The Widespread Status Quo of Not Charging for Carry-On Bags
Five airlines have pledged not to start charging for carry-on bags: American, Delta, JetBlue Airways, United Airlines, and US Airways. Yay, status quo!

Downgraded: Recline on Spirit
Upgraded: Marketing spin!
Spirit Airlines, which never skips an opportunity to be passenger-unfriendly, is downgrading its seats, preventing you from reclining. The best part, calling them “pre-reclined.” Nice work, Spirit marketing team!

Upgraded and Downgraded: Fees on Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines is increasing the checked-bag fee for the first bag, by $5. But then they’re reducing the fee for the second bag, also by $5. The third bag’s fee drops by $30. And the fourth bag drops by $50. The new baggage fees apply to travel starting June 16 for tickets bought beginning May 1. At the same time, Alaska no longer lets you hold a reservation for 24 hours. Alas.

Upgraded, eventually: Ryanair Reimbursement
If you were stranded by the volcano and Ryanair was your airline of choice, you were likely cursing their name. They weren’t much in the way of reimbursing costs for stranded passengers: They covered the equivalent of the base cost of the ticket, which, given Ryanair’s revenue model, isn’t much. But it may have been illegal: “The European Union, which enforces consumer laws that hold airlines responsible for stranded passengers’ ‘reasonable costs,’ warned Ryanair it could face fines ranging from euro5,000 to euro150,000 ($6,750 to $202,500) per complaint.” Subsequently (and nearly a week late), Ryanair has agreed to cover the lodging and meal expenses of stranded passengers, as the EU law requires. But the company is challenging the law — and the airlines’ responsibility in situations like the recent volcano — with an appeal to the European Commission and the European Parliament.

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It’s been a rough day. A rough week, and it’s only halfway over. (And while I may whine and moan, if you’ve had the misfortune of trying to have Europe on your itinerary, it’s been even rougher.)

So here, cheer up. Have a clip of Stephen Colbert, on the subject of airline fees.

It’s always nice to see hoteliers trying something new, to draw attention to their property. And it’s a nice goal to get people moving, exercising, and being conscious about their energy use.

But I’m amused that a Danish hotel is seemingly taking its inspiration from the Professor on Gilligan’s Island to entice guests to get a freebie in the hotel’s restaurant:

The Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers, 15 minutes from the center of the Danish capital and five minutes from Scandinavia’s main airport, is installing two exercise bicycles hooked up to generators.

Guests will be invited to jump on and start pedaling — and if they produce enough electricity they will be given a free meal.
[...]
The value of the meal — any one of the main courses on the hotel restaurant or lobby bar’s menu — is about 240 Danish crowns ($44), she told Reuters.

The electric bikes will be up and running from April 19 and the plan is to test the idea for a year with a view to expanding it to more Crowne Plaza hotels, part of the InterContinental Hotels Group.

Very cute. But if they’re really looking to get off the grid, maybe they should hook up the generators at the gym, and not just on two bikes in the lobby…