Jaunted

Tags: Flight Reviews / V Australia / First-Person Flight Reviews / → All Tags

How is V Australia Doing So Far?

Is it just us, or is our review of the V Australia the most comprehensive? It’s probably just us, so that’s why we went out exploring to see what other people are thinking about the newest airline down under.

It seems to be a success so far, no major complaints, and best of all—it’s causing other airlines to finally lower prices. Maybe we’ll get to go back to Australia in 2009 after all.

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Tags: In-flight WiFi / Alaska Airlines / Flight Reviews / Row 44 / → All Tags

WiFi Is Working on Alaska Airlines But How Much Would You Pay?

While we have no idea what the heck is up with Air Canada's WiFi, we do know that Alaska Airline's internet service is real and it is mostly spectacular. Harriet Baskas, who writes Stuck at the Airport tipped us off to her in-flight WiFi experience yesterday as she rode Alaska Airlines from Seattle to Orange County and back.

The first day online (courtesy of Row 44) wasn't worthy of any Branson-style celebrations and in fact, the only way passengers knew that the service was on the plane was by noticing the big WiFi decal plane by the door or if they read the card in the seatback pocket. However, those who used it seemed to like it very much:

Once folks did discover the service - which is complimentary during the test period - they used it, talked about it to their seatmates and across the aisles and, of course, sent e-mail messages: “Guess where I’m writing from.”

The service was a bit sluggish on the return trip, which got folks talking even more, but generally once travelers got connected, they seemed delighted to have this new amenity as an in-flight option.

Stuck at the Airport then wrote that the airline is asking travelers to fill out a survey with an important question being: "How much would you pay for this service?" Ah, a loaded question indeed.

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Tags: Spirit Airlines / Flight Reviews / Low Cost Carriers / LCCs / → All Tags

New Routes and New Complaints on Spirit Airlines

Low cost carrier and marketing maven, Spirit Airlines, recently announced new flights from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Santiago, Dominican Republic. They’ll fly this route starting in June and will go back and forth four times a week. Although we love us some new routes and airfare options, we’re wondering if taking a trip on Spirit is worth it.

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Tags: Flight Reviews / V Australia / Airline Reviews / Jaunted in Sydney / → All Tags

The Eagerly Anticipated VAustralia Inaugural Flight Review

Sir Richard Branson was on VA1 from SYD to LAX, but while Sir Richard was partying it up at The Chateau Marmont, Jaunted was riding VA2 from LAX to SYD to see what a Bransonless Virgin Australia experience was like.

LAX - SYD is the definition of the long haul route. For years Qantas and United have dominated this route, but VAustralia has jumped into the fray and is attempting to redefine the way we fly to Australia. How did they do? The full flight review is after the jump.

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Tags: First-Person Flight Reviews / Flight Reviews / Azul / Azul Area / David Neeleman / New Routes / → All Tags

Azul Charges $30 More for the 'Azul Area'; LiveTV Still in the Works

If you’re an airline geek like us, you've been eagerly anticipating some good first-person flight reviews of Azul, the newest Brazilian LCC. Now thanks to the help of Google’s translate feature and the travel website Snow Adventure, we’ve pieced together their initial impression and review of Azul.

...in the first five rows the pitch is 34 inches (86 cm). To fly in that area, called Azul Area, you pay $30 more on the ticket. Blue's fleet is fully equipped and prepared to offer live TV. The LiveTV technology is still being established, and when the company starts to operate it will be 5 channels of content recorded with varied programming... Starting in the second half of 2009 it will then offer 36 channels of live programming. It is very comfortable to have a monitor in front of you, instead of having to watch the roof to try to see and hear something.

The site also has some great pictures of Azul, and we learned that flights from Brazil on Azul are 25 percent off if you use the code AZUL25. The discount is good on flights through April 30, just book by February 20.

Things must be going pretty well for Azul, as the airline is already looking to expand. They’re looking to double their current destinations by mid-April, and add five new planes by the beginning of June. David Neeleman is hoping fuel prices stay low, and is already bragging that passenger loads could hit 65,000 passengers this month. Pretty good numbers considering that the airline only carried 45,000 people during their first month.

Have your own trip report to share? Send it our way.

Related Stories:
·Blue Makes Its Inaugural Flight [Snow Adventure]
·Brazil's Azul Airlines To Expand This Year [International Herald Tribune]
·Azul coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Flight Reviews / Allegiant Air / Low Cost Carriers / Airlines / New Routes / → All Tags

Allegiant Air Makes Mo Money, Has No Problems?

In times like these, it’s hard enough to make a profit with any business. However, to do so in the airline industry, when everyone else is posting losses, is a pretty neat trick. That’s just what Allegiant Air did last month when they posted an $18.2 million Q4 profit.

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Tags: Jaunted in Chile / Airline Reviews / Flight Reviews / Shira Lazar / Embedded Travel Guides / → All Tags

Getting The LAN Bump To Biz Class

West Coast web media princess, and the latest Jaunted Embed, Shira Lazar is making her way through Chile on a top secret travel mission. She will be posting daily for the next week, in hopes of creating a glorious on-the-fly travel guide using as much point oh social webbing as she can. Enjoy.

So my Chile trip began late due to LA traffic (not because of my personal tardiness of course).

Typically you are supposed to arrive to the airport at least 2 hours before an international flight. I arrived a bit less an hour and a half before my LAX--Lima(LIM)--Santiago(SCL) .

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Tags: Flight Reviews / American Airlines / In-flight WiFi / Gogo / Aircell / David Pogue / → All Tags

Tech Columnist Loves In-flight WiFi, Hates Paying For It

Show tunes aficionado and technology columnist David Pogue has finally gone where we've been for more than six months: Writing emails and reading RSS feeds thanks to in-flight WiFi. Welcome to 2009, D!

Maybe we're a bit too harsh: American Airlines has only outfitted a handful of planes with Gogo wireless, making it tricky to actually end up on a flight with internet. (Pogue found it on a trip from NYC to San Francisco.) What did he think?

Great. I mean, there’s not much to it: It’s WiFi on a plane. The speed was good, like a medium-fast cable modem. I did email, web, even watched a video or two (with headphones). I didn’t try doing Skype or iChat; I saw Gogo as an opportunity to be productive, not obnoxious.

Interestingly, Pogue thinks the $13 fee to use WiFi for six straight hours of flight is way too steep. We disagree: That's less than the cost of a checked bag, less than you'd pay at a hotel and just a couple bucks more than the "premium sandwich & chip combo" available for purchase on transcons. And if you're willing to spend $55 on a cab to JFK, what's another tenner to, you know, actually enjoy yourself on a plane?

Related Stories:
· The Final Frontier: WiFi on Airplanes [NYT]
· Aircell WiFi Gets Another Glowing Review [Jaunted]
· Gogo WiFi On American Is "Totally Worth It" [Jaunted]
· American Airlines Announces WiFi on Some Flights [Jaunted]

Tags: Flight Reviews / In-Flight WiFi / In-Flight Entertainment / Aircell / Gogo / American Airlines / → All Tags

Aircell WiFi Gets Another Glowing Review

Virgin America launches its first WiFi flight today, and God-willing we'll be on-board to get all the juicy details. So it's especially timely that we've come across yet another review of Aircell's in-flight wireless service Gogo. What's it like to be online for the entirety of a six-hour transcon? Ben from the B-Side Blog has just posted another of his famous flight live blogs:

2:45 pm
I've just flown by Chicago. I tried to take a pic, but the lighting was such that there's really not enough contrast to see it. You can just barely make out the outline of Lake Michigan. In other news, LADY, STOP KICKING MY CHAIR!

3:15 pm
Here's a strange twist. Doug from "The Hills" just added me as a friend on MySpace. I'm suspicious of this as I feel like if he ever met me, he'd want to punch me in the face, but who knows what his motives are. I approved his friendship and will let you all know what happens...

3:32 pm
Meanwhile, poor Leslie the flight attendant is positively intent on getting me a drink. ... What can I say? I'M JUST NOT VERY THIRSTY TODAY! ... If it's any consolation, you are probably the VERY BEST FLIGHT ATTENDANT I HAVE EVER HAD. And I've flown on Lufthansa!

In-flight WiFi: Allowing up-to-the-second passenger critiques since 2008!

Related Stories:
· Flight Live Blog: Ugh Edition [B-Side Blog]
· Liveblogging an American WiFi Flight [Jaunted]
· Gogo WiFi on American Is "Totally Worth It" [Jaunted]

Tags: Flight Reviews / In-Flight WiFi / In-Flight Entertainment / Aircell / Gogo / American Airlines / → All Tags

Gogo WiFi On American Is "Totally Worth It"

HotelChatter's assistant editor Jenna hopped an American Airlines flight the other day--and found herself on a Gogo WiFi-equipped 767. How was it?

I used Gogo on AA Flight 15 from JFK to SFO on Wednesday morning. You can't access the wireless on the ground, but once we were at cruising altitude, the signal was strong, fast and consistent.

I had some issues with the connection at first: Turns out, having more than one tab open in Firefox kinda screws with the system when you're purchasing the service. I put in payment info and hit purchase three times and kept getting an activation error message, so I went onto the customer service chat where a lovely staffer (or computerized staffer) told me to either restart Firefox or try my purchase in another browser. Voila, one quick purchasing attempt with Safari and $12.95 later, I was in.

The connection was impressive; I think I was only disconnected once during the flight. And I was even streaming some videos off of Hulu for a bit. It stalled three or four times when I was doing that, but I'd say everything was about the speed of Starbucks' AT&T WiFi.

Verdict: For the six-ish hour flight, it's totally worth the $12.95.

Related Stories:
· Virgin America Launching WiFi on November 22 [Jaunted]
· Delta Gearing Up Its WiFi Fleet [Jaunted]
· Liveblogging an American WiFi Flight [Jaunted]

Tags: Flight Reviews / Hawaiian Airlines / → All Tags

Despite Poor Earnings, Hawaiian Orders More Planes

Last week, Hawaiian Airlines announced that they’d be acquiring some new Airbus A330-200 jets for delivery in 2011 to speed up their transition to an Airbus fleet in advance of the A350s that will be delivered in 2017. We can only hope that they’ll still go through with upgrading their existing Boeing planes with those sexy winglets.

Just after announcing that they were opening the checkbook for these new planes, the airline's third quarter earnings were down about 70 percent--but at least they reported a profit. In light of all this news, we wanted to take a look and see if Hawaiian is still the ideal carrier for crossing the Pacific.

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Tags: Flight Reviews / Virgin Atlantic / Richard Branson / → All Tags

Despite Facebook Scandal, Virgin Atlantic Continues To Deliver

With all the recent flap regarding Virgin Atlantic, we took a look around the web to see what exactly passengers think of the airline now that it's fired 13 people for griping about customers on Facebook. Despite the news, people still seem to think that it’s one of the ideal carriers when it comes to crossing the pond.

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