U.S. exports miserable regional jet experience to China
This won’t bring balance to the trade deficit, but American regional jet powerhouse Mesa Airlines is starting an airline in China. (Mesa must be feeling confident, after starting up the all-Canadair “go!” inter-island airline in Hawaii.) Like its American operations as a contractor to the major airlines, the Chinese subsidiary will feed larger airlines with traffic from smaller cities, using 50-seat regional jets. Maybe they’ll have better on-time arrivals and baggage handling than they do in the U.S. Mesa’s performance (not to mention in-flight non-comfort) stinks, so the bar isn’t set very high.

Early start: British Airways’ summer business class fare sale
It’s only January, and British Airways is already discounting summer airfares between the U.S. and Europe… in business class. The roundtrip fare is okay, not great (starting at around $2500 roundtrip, including taxes). Travel between July 1 and September 2, 2007. See here.

Free taxi rides in New York City
But don’t get your hopes up. There are a grand total of five free cabs in New York. They’re easily identifiable, though: They’re decorated in (fake) cowhide to promote a bull-riding event. Good luck wrangling one.

New life for Connexion inflight internet?
Connexion by Boeing, the short-lived but generally well-liked global inflight internet service, might get a second lease on life. Lufthansa leads a consortium of airlines and tech companies trying to bring the service back up. Here’s hoping they get it going!

Hammertime! Blunt instruments defend your personal information
New U.S. passports will include RFID chips that contain your personal information, in addition to the printed/scannable inside page. The problem: The RFID chip can potentially be read by identity thieves using a scanner. So what’s the best way to disable the RFID without otherwise mangling your passport? A hammer.

Spell-check is your friend
If you’re traveling across two oceans to visit your girlfriend in Sydney, Australia, be sure you spell “Sydney” correctly. You don’t want to end up on a flight to Sidney, Montana.

“He had a bad night last night.” His morning won’t be any better.
Passenger gets drunk and unruly, and slaps a fellow passenger. Turns out the recipient of the slap is a federal air marshal. Jackpot!

Trip insurance, eBay style
If you got dumped right before a trip — a trip you planned as a romantic setting during which you would propose to your love — but you had already prepaid the travel, what would you do? If you’re Adam Croot, you go on the trip, but you auction off your ex’s share of the trip on eBay, in hopes of finding a new traveling companion.

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Until the lights are turned off, you can use the service for FREE through the end of the year.

You need to sign up for the service in order to use it. See here.

As reported earlier, Panasonic is considering reviving the service in 2007, but it won’t be immediate or seamless. Milk the free internet while you can, though.

(via inflighthq)

Downgraded: Gay travelers …also on American Airlines
Accusations of homophobia on board AA flight 45 from Paris to New York are percolating through the internet after the New Yorker’s article on a gay couple whose cuddles and smooches were met with flight attendant intervention. An attendant with “Texas hair, like from the nineteen-sixties,” demanded that the couple cease and desist. Ruckus ensued.
(Thanks, Stephen and John!)

Upgraded: Business class seats on bmi
Britain’s Star Alliance member, bmi, which operates a Manchester, UK hub for its international flights, is going fully lie-flat with its business-class seats.

Upgraded: Hotel bathrooms
Beds are better, furnishings nicer, and now, nicer hotel bathrooms, too. And missing? Tubs!

Upgraded: Passport photos
Downgraded: British security
A British man used his two-year old daughter’s passport to travel to the Netherlands. I guess he’s a young-looking fella.

Upgraded, maybe: Connexion inflight internet
Intercontinental internet junkies can hold out some hope: Panasonic is trying to step in and take over as provider of airplane broadband, after Boeing announced the forthcoming shutdown of its Connexion service. But it won’t just transition seamlessly, and will run on a different network, so don’t celebrate yet. As long as it works. Wonk out on the details here, if that’s your fancy.

Downgraded: Wine bars in Portland Airport
I love wine bars in airports, like the Vino Volo at Washington-Dulles. But if you’re going to have one, put it AFTER security… Portland, Oregon’s airport wine bar has been put on the deathwatch.

(image of hot nuts: ejpm99)

JetBlue rewards one flyer a free t-shirt (in exchange for his civil liberties)
It’s not just British passengers who are afraid that brown-skinned passengers are all terrorists. Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi architect and blogger living in the United States, was treated to absolutely moronic security treatment at JFK airport a few weeks ago. Wearing a shirt with Arabic and English lettering, his shirt apparently bothered people enough to warrant an intervention by JetBlue and unnamed security officers. They insisted he change his shirt. After much wrangling, and after JetBlue bought him a NYC souvenir t-shirt, he succumbed and got onboard. Ughh. See here for an interview and here for a photo of him in the shirt, as well as his firsthand account of the events at JFK.

TSA rewards passenger’s fear of his mother with a cavity search
Advice: It’s better to be embarrassed and admit you’ve got a penis pump in your suitcase, even in front of your mom, than to say it’s a bomb.

Delta rewards well-dressed flyers
Dress spiffy on Delta, and you might get a prize. Really.

Europe rewards all flyers…with a fingerprinting
Coming soon to all European airports: all travelers will be required to submit to iris-scans or fingerprinting.

Banks reward loyal clients by refusing them access to cash overseas
Calling your bank before leaving the country, notifying them you’ll be traveling abroad, is always a good idea, so they don’t place a lock on your accounts. But apparently, that may not be enough. Some banks are blocking all ATM transactions in certain countries. See here for the story, and check with your bank.

Sherman’s Travel rewards U.S. postal service by going offline
The travel-deals website is going old-media, with a new magazine targeting readers interested in “luxury value.” Sounds a bit like this blog’s motto, no?

Reward thieves by using public wi-fi
Not much of a surprise, but public wi-fi, including that offered by hotels, is not very secure. Use a VPN or other security service whenever possible.

Second-mover advantage? ASiQ possibly rewarded by Connexion’s demise
Inflight internet over the oceans may soon be shut down, but ASI Entertainment claims to be stepping in with their inflight internet product. If it works, it would only be a quarter of the speed of Boeing’s soon-defunct Connexion. But if papa needs an internet fix…

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A sad day for internet junkies who travel longhaul: Boeing is officially discontinuing its Connexion service, which allowed users to surf the web at 35,000 feet, over land or sea. As announced previously, the service hasn’t caught on quickly enough and is unprofitable.

While no precise date has been given for the official shutdown date, the company is negotiating with customers for an “orderly phase-out.”

A number of airlines have installed the service on their planes, and they’re bound to be upset at this. Not to mention those few but dedicated fans of inflight surfing who were willing to pay $9.95 per hour or $26.95 per flight for access.

Perhaps the current airline customers will chip in and take it off Boeing’s hands, but that seems unlikely.

Alternative systems like AirCell and LiveTV are readying to enter the North American market, but they have no coverage over oceans.

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The weak link in the inflight wi-fi chain has always been in-seat power, and I’m wondering if this is what has slowed adoption, both by the airlines, and by consumers on the flights that actually DO feature the service. To make Connexion really attractive, airlines would have to wire the cabin with power sockets, so you don’t drag multiple batteries with you just to work on the plane. And even then: If you’re on a long flight, you’d better pray that your seat has a working socket, and that you have the necessary adapter to get your juice.

As an aside: When you select seats, be sure to check SeatGuru for both the location of power outlets and the type of cord you need. Even a carrier like American Airlines, which has had in-seat power for some time, doesn’t have power at every row. (The black dot on the seatmap means a socket.)

As reported earlier this month, AirCell and LiveTV are planning to roll out inflight internet within North America soon. But this won’t cover trans-oceanic flights. Hopefully someone else will take over the network and maintain the service.

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Now, however, two companies are poised to offer inflight wi-fi in the U.S. market. AirCell and LiveTV (a division of JetBlue) won sections of broadcast spectrum in Federal Communications Commission auction last week. AirCell promises to deliver air-to-ground access by early 2007, with a consumer cost expected to be about $10 per flight. Canada, Mexico, and Caribbean countries are lining up for similar services. No word yet on individual airlines signing up with either firm.

The appeal of inflight internet is huge, since the internet serves both the business traveler and the leisure traveler. (Though not everyone has a laptop…) The possibility exists as well to allow for phone calls in flight through one of these services. However, some airlines, like Frontier, are planning to introduce inflight wi-fi, but to block voice over IP services like Skype.

Maybe I’ll be posting at 600 mph sooner than I thought.

Miles for Dry Cleaning
Standing inflight would keep your attire looking sharp. But if you’re crumpled and sweaty, earn some miles. Delta introduces SkyMiles Drycleaning. I’m not kidding. (Well, technically they call it SkyMiles Clothing Care, but still.)

Delta, and clothing, again
New uniforms for frontline staff. And why not: This is the airline that had Kate Spade-designed uniforms for their Song subsidiary. But is bankruptcy the best time to be shelling out the moolah for new threads?

Airport advertising
Taking a cue from the film “Minority Report,” Accenture has installed a giant touchscreen billboard at Chicago O’Hare’s terminal 3. Pretty cool, but when it comes to ads at O’Hare, I’ll always look back fondly on the billboards that read “Get Veal Satisfaction.”

Onboard wireless
Nine companies are bidding for a segment of the radio spectrum which could be used for inflight wireless — phone, internet, whatever. The two latest entrants: JetBlue, and the original holder of the spectrum, Verizon AirFone. It sounds like there will be some competition for Boeing’s Connexion and Inmarsat’s less well-known SwiftBroadband.

Collect them all!
Conde Nast Traveler’s Top 130 new hotels. A new hotel every three days. (The cheaper rooms on the list — sub-$200 — are listed here.)

94% of respondents who had used the service reported that they would use it again.

Phones have been on board for years, most commonly the Verizon Airfones that are installed in the backs of seats. The cost of making a call has been a deterrent, even when subscribers to a company cellphone plan get a discount.

I certainly sympathize with Hunter’s fear that we’ll soon be hearing more annoying chatter in the cabin. The poll associated with his article, while unscientific, shows that most people agree that cellphones are unwelcome inside aluminum tubes that hurtle through the air at over 500 mph.

But even if normal land-based cellphones are not approved (which I bet WILL happen), wi-fi in flight IS increasingly a reality. Several international carriers have installed Connexion by Boeing on their planes, which allows passengers to purchase high-speed wireless internet access for the duration of their flight. The planes are equipped with a wireless hub and a satellite connection.

Already today, a passenger flying, say, Asiana Airlines from Seoul to Seattle could buy a day pass for “Asiana Airnet,” then plug in a headset, fire up Skype or Net2Phone or any other VoIP service, and start making calls. Perfectly legally.

The next logical step is wi-fi enabled phones on board. In fact, they’re already being tested.

Granted, these are both currently more cumbersome than just dialing your existing cellphone, but the technology is here. Cellphones may be prohibited, but VoIP in the sky is coming.