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Just over a year ago, Airbus tested its evacuation of the Airbus A380. It went faster than expected, with “only” one broken leg and 32 “friction burns.”

Now the infrared-camera video of the test, from a German news program, is online, including images from the cabin.

Naturally, it’s a test environment, with no emergency landing immediately preceding the opening of doors, and no smoke filling the cabin, but it’s still kind of neat…

Thanks to reader Todd!

No allergy medication necessary?
Growing trend in hotel rooms: Hypoallergenic rooms. Sure, fine. Of course, it could be directly canceled out by all the scents that hotels are pumping into their public spaces. Can we maybe get some quietly-closing doors first, please? (Yes, I’m flogging that horse again.)

The key to in-room power
Some European and Asian hotels have the presumably eco-friendly but otherwise irritating habit of requiring a key card to be inserted into a power socket in order to release the flow of electricity. However, you don’t need to use your key card — any card will do. Leave your room and charge your laptop with impunity. (via Gridskipper)

Update: Some readers wrote in, asking for more details or photos. Click here to see an example of the card-locked power sockets at a Hong Kong hotel.

Breakin’ all the rules
The Airbus A380 may have been on its American tour this week, but the FAA has certified only 11 airports nationwide as capable of handling the mega-plane. The airports: Anchorage, Denver, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Louisville (cargo only), New York-JFK, Memphis (cargo only), Miami, Ontario (California — cargo only), Orlando, and San Francisco. This means the A380 wouldn’t have been allowed to land at half the airports in the U.S. that it visited this past week. (Note that Chicago O’Hare and Washington Dulles aren’t on that list…)

Transit woes:
The ever-peripatetic Tyler Brûlé gets stuck at Miami Airport and misses his connecting international flight because he’s undergoing a lengthy TSA questioning. Even passengers who aren’t planning to actually enter the United States, and are only transiting, are treated as if they’re entering the country. Frustrating, but largely a function of airport design. Once you’re in the airport, you can easily leave the secure area and enter the country, after all. But the fact that this is the reality of transiting the U.S. makes American ports of entry less and less desirable. Bad for business!

Far stupider: I went through customs and immigration at LAX once on a domestic flight. It’s true! I traveled from Honolulu to Los Angeles, connecting to Newark. Why the passport control? I was flying Air New Zealand HNL-LAX. Domestic flight, but international airline. Idiotic. Almost missed my connection. (Luggage didn’t make it.)

(image)

I’m back from vacation, tanned, rested, and ready. Thanks to Tyler Colman, a.k.a. Dr. Vino, for minding the store in my absence, and for guest-posting earlier today. (And, as an aside, congrats to him for his James Beard Award nomination!)

I returned to Chicago just in time to catch a glimpse of the behemoth Airbus A380 at O’Hare. Airbus and Lufthansa have been taking it on tour. Sadly, I arrived at 4:30pm and was unable to get the interior tour, but I snapped a few exterior photos. They’re not the greatest pictures, but what the heck.

The photo above was taken from my seat onboard a comparatively wimpy little Boeing 737, right after landing. We taxied right past the mega-jet after touching down. I have to admit, it’s really impressive when you see the plane in person. There was a 747 nearby, and it looked small.

And yes, being a dork, I took the train to the long-term parking lot and back to the terminal to try to get another glimpse.

More photos after the jump. Click “more” to see them.

(more…)

Upgraded: Your odds of seeing the Airbus A380 in New York
Want to see the Airbus A380 up close and personal? Lufthansa is bringing the über-jumbo jet to New York (as mentioned previously here), and you can enter their contest to tour the plane. It’s still a long shot, but unless you’re a VIP, this is your only way in. Better hurry: The drawing is March 13, and the plane arrives in NYC March 19.

Upgraded: The civil discourse of travel blogging
The Sydney Morning Herald’s travel blog has a lively comments section, wherein the journalists take guff from their readers, but dish it right back. Barbs such as the French word for “shower” get thrown back and forth in the comments to this post. I have a hard time imagining such an exchange on an American newspaper’s official blog. Viva Australia! (Thanks to reader — and frequent, polite commenter! — S.A. for the tip.)

Upgraded: Surreptitious beverage transportation for ladies
You may recall the Beer Belly, the under-your-clothes beverage bladder that upgrades six-pack abs to a full case. It’s essentially a CamelBak undergarment, most certainly a violation of the TSA’s 3-ounce cutoff for liquids and gels, and your fast-track ticket to a cavity search. But until recently, it the liquid smuggling business was a man’s world. Now, in a celebration of gender equality, there’s a similar product for women, with the beverage storage slightly higher on the torso: The Wine Rack. (via Thrillist; thanks Dr. Vino!)

Downgraded: Blackjack in Vegas
Your odds of coming out ahead when playing the tables in Las Vegas have dropped. Several casinos are reducing the payouts on blackjack from 3:2 to 6:5. You need to check the fine print on the signs at each table. If you want to play single-deck blackjack with 3:2 payouts, you’ll have to head to the El Cortez or Four Queens hotels, though both of these less-than-desirable properties only feature two such tables each. (via Tim Leffel)

Upgraded: Qantas first and business qlass
The Global Traveller points to Qantas’ PR for their soon-to-be-revamped first and business class products. Highlights: pajamas in business class, and the claim that their lounges will be the best in the world.

Downgraded: Daylight savings time
The Wall Street Journal warns that the impending shift to daylight savings time will put international connections out of whack for the coming weeks, as some countries will adjust their clocks but others won’t. But frankly, this has almost always been the case. Europe and the United States always had a week or two’s discrepancy on both the autumn and spring sides. Yes, there will certainly be some connections that are out of whack with the normal schedule for the next few weeks, so if you fly a given route regularly, your typical connections may not be possible for the next few weeks. But the airlines’ timetables should reflect the reality of the new times when you buy the ticket, so just double-check your itineraries. I’ll still take my daylight savings time, thanks.

Upgraded: The number 13
Hotels are no longer enumerating their buildings’ floors incorrectly for the sake of superstition. The 13th floor is making a comeback. The statistics are tinged with irony: “A recent USA TODAY/Gallup Poll suggests a large majority of Americans — 87% — would be comfortable with a 13th floor room assignment. But 13% say they’d be bothered by a 13th floor room assignment.”

(images: 1, 2, 3)

It’s bad enough that miles can expire. Now your money can, too.
Traveling to Germany? Beware the local currencies. There are sixteen of them, in addition to the euro. For example, the BBC reports that stores in Magdeburg, the capital of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, are now accepting a newly-invented local currency in addition to the euro. The new currency, the Urstromtaler, equals one euro, but is a purely regional currency. Even worse, it expires (sorta like frequent flyer miles…), and is potentially illegal. In fact, the mastermind behind the urstromtaler explicitly references Lufthansa’s mileage scheme as a similar “legal gray area.” But this local currency isn’t a loyalty program. It’s designed to promote consumer spending in the regional economy. (Thanks Dr. Vino!)

German WhaleJet to beach on American shores
The Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger airplane, will make its American debut on March 17. Lufthansa is flying the plane from Frankfurt to New York’s JFK, in part to test the plane on long-haul routes, and also to show the behemoth off to VIPs. The plane flies onward to Hong Kong as well.

I hope he wasn’t riding commando
Hans Jurgen Oskar von Naguschewski, a German (obviously) traveler, going through the security checkpoint at Manila airport, took off his pants, seemingly in protest. He was arrested, and could face jail time of six months to six years. Maybe he’s accustomed to flying Naked Air.

‘Tis the season for blog awards
The Travvies aren’t the only web awards going on right now. In the wide world of wine blogs, they’re picking their faves right now, too. Lots of good blogs to consider, but I personally cast my ballot for the aforementioned Dr. Vino, friend-of-the-blog. (Ok, admittedly, this last item isn’t about Germany or Germans, but sometimes these blogs might debate German wine…)

Upgrade your toys! A fully functional radio-controlled model of the Airbus A380, the largest passenger plane in the world.

Like the real deal, this model is really impressive, too: It’s huge — as big as a person. Sure beats the rubber-band-powered wooden planes I had as a kid…

Belgians terrorized by inflight warblings of Bonnie Tyler
Bonnie Tyler is apparently a threat to your inflight security. The singer, whose sound always seemed to me like a cross between Meat Loaf and Kim Carnes, busted out the 1980s classic “Total Eclipse of the Heart” a cappella onboard a flight from Paris to Mauritius. “‘I was asleep in First Class. The stewardess came and said the co-pilot was retiring. And they asked me would I sing to him. They were having a bit of a party,’ Tyler said.” (First problem: Why is a flight attendant waking up a sleeping passenger, for any reason!? And to sing a song? Jeez!)

Now some passengers (rumored to be oh-so-nefarious Belgians) are suing the airline, because they were “traumatized by the experience and had feared for their safety during the celebration.” Tyler was not charged in the incident. Singing a song is a threat to security?? Apparently these Belgians have never flown Southwest! Some of those flight attendant-led inflight songs are begging for a lawsuit… (via Gary Leff)

Can’t find good help anymore? Blame the airlines!
20,000 prospective housekeepers can’t get to Saudi Arabia, to clean their future employers’ increasingly messy homes, because airlines don’t have enough empty seats to transport the maids from their homes in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Phillippines.

Paging “Monk”: Inflight personal care devices for the obsessive-compulsive
I stumbled across this on Amazon.com and thought it must be a joke. It’s not. The Plane Clean Air Filter attaches to the air nozzles over your seat, and the company claims it “removes 99.5% of all allergens, bacteria and viruses from your air stream.” Which would be brilliant…except that 150 other people’s nozzles are blowing air without filters, and you’re all breathing the same air. You’re in an ecosystem, people, not hooked up to a ventilator. However, if you’re suffering from OCD or just want a snappy conversation starter, you can buy it here.

First passengers on the A380
The ultra-mega-jumbo jet Airbus A380 has been flying around Europe with a full load of passengers on board, and not just test pilots, to see how the overall customer experience actually looks in practice. However, they’re using Airbus employees, who aren’t necessarily unbiased participants.

tags: travel | Bonnie Tyler | airlines | OCD | A380

Chicago O’Hare reclaimed the title of the world’s busiest airport, measured in take-offs and landings, taking the top spot from Atlanta, which falls to number 2. Delta’s recent cuts in their domestic schedule account for a large part of Atlanta’s drop.

Delays and cancellations at these and other U.S. airports this summer have been better than expected. But don’t celebrate too soon, especially not in Los Angeles. LAX is rebuilding one of its four runways. The reconstruction of the runway is scheduled to take 8 months, with another 16 months to finish the taxiways.

One of the reasons for the rebuilding is to make LAX capable of handling the Airbus A380. If Florida Republican John Mica has his way, no federal tax dollars will be spent on the venture. The chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee has introduced a bill to prohibit the use of federal airport grants for purposes of A380 refitting. His reasoning: No US-based commercial passenger airline has bought the (gasp!) French-built plane, so why should the US pay for airport improvements to handle it.

Putting aside arguments for/against an infrastructural change that directly benefits foreign passenger airlines, Congressman Mica forgot two things in his rush to jingoism: 1) Freight carriers use airports, too. Box-haulers like UPS and FedEx have ordered the A380, and presumably will want to land them at American airports. 2) Boeing’s next-generation 747, the 747-8, will have similar runway requirement as the A380, due to the streched 747’s greater weight. Brilliant.

Attention Florida voters: It’s never too late to register to vote…

tags: travel | airports | LAX | ORD | protectionism | John Mica

Airbus, undaunted by the costly production delays on their double-decker A380 jet, revealed a model of what first class could look like on board.

The forward upper deck features three completely enclosed suites down each side, with a large aisle that is occupied by two sofas and tables (pictured …). Each suite contains a reclining chair and sofa – the latter doubling up as a bed.

The suites have a sliding doors and are large enough to accommodate several people. They are sized so that the could be installed in a three abreast configuration on the upper deck of an A380 or the main deck of other Airbus widebodies.

Of course, no real-world planes seem to ever end up like the mock-ups. Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner was shown with wide, spacious seats when the models were built. Lo and behold, most airlines are ordering them with narrower seats, with an extra seat jammed in.

The mega-ultra-first class looks swank — check out the photoset here, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

(image: Airbus)

In a nighttime drill, 873 volunteers scrambled out of a parked Airbus super-ultra-mega-jumbo A380 in 80 seconds, ten seconds faster than the target. One person broke a leg, and 32 others suffered “friction burns.” Ouch. This was called “a great success.” (It was certainly better than the 1991 test of a McDonnell-Douglas MD-11, during which an unfortunate volunteer broke her neck and was left paralyzed.)

Apparently, Airbus engineers were worried that passengers would balk at jumping onto the slides from the upper level of the aircraft. It’s a long drop. This didn’t turn out to be an issue in the laboratory setting of the test, but if the “friction burns” are any indication, then it might be nice to add a little something to slide surfaces to make the trip down a little easier…

(image: Airbus)
tags: travel | air travel | Airbus A380