I’m not sure how KLM feels about this, but a coffin in the shape of a plane, painted in the Dutch airline’s colors, is (was?) apparently on display in the Smithsonian.

What kind of person would want this to be their final resting place? An aviation buff? A person with a penchant for irony, making a statement about airline safety? Richard Branson’s Dutch equivalent?

UPDATE: In comments, Mike points out that this is a coffin from Ghana. (More links to similar coffins in the comment section below.) In fact, if you look at the top left of the image, you’ll see the word Ghana on the wall of the museum display.

Bonus: Here’s a video from a German news report (transcript / auto-translation), showing how they make these. In German, obviously, but you can get the gist.

(image)

It’s not Halloween, it’s ‘Take Your Columnist To Work Day’!
The New York Times’ Joe Sharkey, apparently tired of writing about business travel for his business travel column, pays a visit to someone’s place of business instead. But it’s no ordinary cubiclefest, but the wacky offices of Vegas.com. Joe’s money quote that makes the whole article worthwhile, though, is this: “Once, for a newspaper story in Philadelphia, I went to the animal shelter to bail out a stripper’s boa constrictor that was part of her act (the job of the snake, who adored her, was to untie her bikini top on stage).” Baby, that’s journalism.

It’s not Earth Day, either
Environmentalists in the UK aren’t cutting KLM any slack. The airline is introducing coffee grown on “sustainable” plantations, but the announcement was greeted with scoffs. Since airlines pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, a few acres of shade-grown coffee apparently don’t matter. Okay… but the airlines aren’t going to stop burning jet fuel overnight, and they have a choice TODAY regarding shade-grown vs. clear-cut-the-rainforests coffee. Give KLM a little credit.

Tehran is lovely this time of year
Iran is looking to attract tourists, and what better way to get them than to offer cash incentives? Iranian travel agents get a $20 bounty for every Western tourist they attract. Maybe they should start a rewards program for the visitors, though…

Air New Zealand goes ’round the world
Last week, Air New Zealand started flying from Hong Kong to London, making it the only airline to fly around the globe. (United gave up its Washington-London-Delhi-Hong Kong-Los Angeles-Washington circle in 2001, the previous holdout of single-airline RTW travel.) You can fly the loop for £801 (US$1521) including taxes for flights starting in London with stops along the way in Hong Kong, Auckland, and Los Angeles — cheap for a trip around the earth.

The life and times of (lost) luggage
Jane Engle follows the path of checked luggage. It’s a long but interesting tale, with some of the bags ending up at the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama. Her suggestions at the end for making your bags identifiable are good ones, classics of travel advice. One variation on her suggestions, which I keep meaning to employ in practice, but somehow keep neglecting, is to print out your itinerary and put it inside the checked bag. That way, if the tracking tag falls off, it’s presumably easier to reunite you with your luggage.

Better food on Continental
Continental Airlines announced revisions to its menus, featuring recipes concocted by the airline’s “Congress of Chefs.” Call me a skeptic, but a stable of celebrity chefs doesn’t necessarily make the food taste any better at 39,000 feet. It still tends to taste like airline food… But change is good, and I’m all for trying out new recipes, so good on ‘em!

While oil is still comparably higher than it was two or three years ago, it has pulled back nearly 20% from its recent highs. Airline fuel surcharges haven’t all fallen to earth by the same measure.

Two notable exceptions are Air France-KLM and El Al. KLM reduced their surcharge by 5 euros each way, while El Al cut theirs by $14 each way. Other airlines have been resistant, and others have even raised their surcharges in the past two weeks, despite the drop in fuel prices.

The entire practice is a sham. If the cost of doing business has increased as a result of fuel expenses, then the change should be reflected in the base fare. Call it a fare hike – which is what it is.

But the airlines like to be able to quote “base fares.” They have been able to game the system by quoting prices with “taxes and fees” extra. And now we see that airlines are illegally colluding to use fuel surcharges to keep prices higher: Two British Airways executives resigned over an investigation into the company’s surcharge practices.

To see anyone actually reducing the surcharge is refreshing and welcome, so hats off to Air France-KLM and El Al. But we can do better. Let’s aim for greater price transparency. Let’s get rid of fuel surcharges.

(image: DrunkatNYU)

Wi-fly
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has started auctioning the licenses for the eventual rights to inflight internet and voice-over-IP (VOIP) service. Too late to join the bidding, but watch the breathtaking action here.

Let ‘em fly!
Most brilliant invention ever: The charcoal seat pad. Great for home, office, and travel! Take it on your next flight and flatulate with impunity! (via RoadGladiator)

Birds fly high with JetBlue
If a bird is flying inside a plane traveling 550mph, how fast is that bird traveling? Ask JetBlue. Two lovebirds (the birds, not amorous couples) got loose on board a flight to San Juan last week.

Babies fly high(er) on KLM
Bassinets on the bulkhead? No surprise there, but look at the altitude of this bassinet! I can only imagine the surprise of travelers exiting that lavatory to be greeted by the cherubic grin of an unbuckled infant. (via Jaunted)

Pigs fly at Southwest
The apocalypse must be near. As part of an upgrade to its reservations system, Southwest Airlines is considering allowing advance seat assignments. I’ll begin taking bets on WILMA or Reverse Pyramid boarding once it’s official.

Front page stories about standing room seats won’t fly again
Remember the standing-room-only seat story? The New York Times offered a lengthy explanation of how they screwed up in printing it on page one when the project was in fact abandoned. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that this idea was, at least at one point, real. Abandoned, yes, but it was on the table. Okay, hopefully that’s the end of that subject…

A quarter million dollars for a suitcase?

The Dutch airline KLM has appealed a $238,000 fine imposed by a Philippines court for losing a passenger’s bag, a spokesman for the company said Friday. The court awarded the damages last month to a man who lost his suitcase eight years ago en route from Manila to Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he was giving a lecture at a World Health Organization conference. The passenger, identified as Jose Tiongco, claimed his reputation had suffered when he stood before his audience in jeans, T-shirt and sneakers.

Wow. Note to self: Don’t mess with Jose Tiongco.

That must be an expensive, sharp-looking suit that he was going to wear to the conference.

Nonetheless, I wonder if the whole affair could have been avoided early on. Most airlines have a policy to share the cost of necessary interim expenses if your luggage is delayed. So, for example, if you need to buy a suit at your destination, they might pick up half the cost. (They assume that you will use that suit again someday, after the trip is over, so they don’t pay 100%.) Policies vary slightly, though (see, for example, American and United). Notably, KLM doesn’t mention replacements for lost items on their site.

If your luggage is ever delayed, ask immediately at the airport for authorization to buy replacements for essential items (the agents will want you to itemize them).

Once luggage is officially lost, the airlines’ liability depends on where you’re flying. You may only get US$20 per kilogram of checked luggage on international itineraries, for example. Domestic U.S. itineraries are often, ironically, more generously reimbursed.

Beyond the airlines’ liability, consider the coverage that your credit card might provide. Visa Signature cards (pdf), for example, offer supplemental Lost Luggage Reimbursement of up to $3000 over and above the airlines’ payment. A nice cushion.

Though not as nice as Jose Tiongco’s. That is, if he gets to keep it…