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Virgin Atlantic's Big News: Sexy New Clubhouse, Sexy New Seats, Sexy New S & P Shakers

When some sweet airline news comes down the pipeline, we get a little shiver of a thrill. The latest carrier to give us those goosebumps of expectation is Virgin Atlantic, as they've got a slew of updates hitting the sky later this year:

· New Upper Class seats, coming Spring 2012.

100 million GBP. That's how much Virgin Atlantic is laying out to get you all laid out in "enhanced" Upper Class seats and enjoying all their spring 2012 upgrades. While we don't yet know specifics like seat width, gadgets or even the design, we do know that the seats will debut on the airline's London-New York route in just a few months. Following this, VS planes will get the Upper Class refresh throughout the world, over a period of three years. Stay tuned, since details can't be kept secret much longer.

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In-Flight Meals / JetBlue / Airlines / Airlines News / Food Travel / → All Tags

JetBlue Updates Their Snack Boxes, But Thankfully Not Prices

Everybody loves snacks—especially since those 2012 resolutions have long faded away—so now's the perfect time to discuss some new in-flight offerings. JetBlue enjoys passing out plenty of free bits and bites, but they also have some more substantial options for sale in the aisles as well. There's new stuff on the horizon, as they just announced that they’re updating and upgrading some of their offerings as part of their Eat Up! Program.

It sounds like the new and improved options hit the skies over the last week or so, and in total there’s four unique boxes. Beef Up, Shape Up, and Cheer Up all remain priced at $5.99, and there’s even a "Mix It Up" option for the kiddos—but they promise that it’s good for everyone. The beef option is more of a protein snack box with stuff like salami, cheese, crackers, and bagel chips. The healthy option will get you stuff like hummus, fruit, nuts, and some pita chips. They’re pitching the Cheer Up option as the perfect side dish to a glass of in-flight wine—and it is—as it’s filled with cheese, fruit, and crackers.

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In-Flight Meals / Airplane Food / Delta / JetBlue / Southwest / Aeromexico / Midwest Airlines / Frontier / Dessert Travel / Food Travel / Lists / Airlines / → All Tags

Five Favorite Airline In-Flight Snacks and Where to Buy Them

Free airline snacks are far and few between but there are some so good, we don’t want to wait for another flight to taste them again. Luckily, we’ve done some sleuthing and found our favorites in grocery stores and specialty shops around the country. Found your favorite in-flight goodie on the road? Let us know!

· Constant Craving: Biscoff Cookies
Delta Airlines has raised the hackles of many a customer, but you’ll find few willing to complain about the sweet, crunchy, cinnamony goodness of the Biscoff cookie. We were thrilled to find them in our cookie aisle, but even better? The new Biscoff spread made up of 50% of Biscoff cookies. There’s even a new crunchy version with chunks of cookies in it (swoon!). We’ve tossed aside our peanut butter and Nutella with scorn and slathered this goodness on everything from toast to English muffins. Yeah, it’s a problem.

Where to Get ‘Em: The cookies have been spotted in Walgreens, Ralphs, and even Walmart, but the spread can be found in the peanut butter section in stores like Shop Rite, Kroger, Hannaford, Wegmans, and even on Amazon.com.

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Airline News / Virgin Australia / Australia Travel / Business Class Travel / Qantas / Seats / In-Flight Meals / Virgin / → All Tags

Virgin Australia: Now with Sexy, Sexy Business Class

Last time we checked in with the happenings of Aussie aviation, Virgin Australia was opening up new lounges all over their network, repainting planes and re-branding airports. It seems, however, that they may have saved that best for last. This week was the official launch of Virgin's business class cabin across their entire fleet of Boeing 737s and Airbus 330s.

Rewind to April 2011, when Virgin Australia was still Virgin Blue, and very busy refreshing itself to become a new airline capable of going head-to-head with rival, Qantas. Since the collapse of Ansett in 2001, Qantas has been the sole player in the domestic business class market. Fast forward to now, where Virgin Australia is sparkly and shiny, and has eliminated their low-cost model to become a premium airline contender.

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In-Flight Dining / Etihad Airways / UAE / First Class Travel / Middle East Travel / Airplane Food / In-Flight Meals / Food Travel / → All Tags

First Class Food from a Five-Star, Onboard Chef? It's Coming to Etihad.

This is some next level stuff. First Class in-flight meals on Etihad—the Abu Dhabi-based airline—are now being prepared by a qualified chef. No, really; one person is dedicated to cooking, preparing and plating the meals served in the front of the plane. Yes, you read correctly: cook!

Etihad announced the hiring of 110 restaurant-caliber chefs to fly back and forth from Abu Dhabi to a handful of cities while preparing the menu for the Diamond Class cabin. The chefs will also be responsible for contributing to the evolution of the menu and meal choices both in-flight and on the ground in the each of the airline's lounges. Each chef will need at least 6 years experience in a 5-star restaurant to be welcomed aboard, and there are even some Michelin-starred restaurants that have lost their chef to the airline.

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In-Flight Meals / Flight Reviews / Virgin Atlantic / LGW / LAS / Food Travel / Virgin / Airplane Food / → All Tags

Shocker! Virgin Atlantic's Economy Food is Actually Pretty Decent

You may remember we told you a little while back about a rather underwhelming experience in Virgin Atlantic's economy class from London to Vegas. Luckily, we're pleased to report the food was much, much better.

First, a bit of background. This member of Jaunted is not a fan of airline food—even in business class. We were also seriously unimpressed with the meals consumed in premium economy a couple of years back, with the exception of a recent excellent Full English Breakfast. Alas, we still didn't have much hope for economy.

But what do you know...for economy, it was actually very decent.

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In-Flight Meals / Food Travel / Airline Food / Healthy Travel / Lists / Air Canada / Virgin America / → All Tags

A Doc Ranks Airlines with the Healthiest In-Flight Snacks of 2011

A snack in First Class on Virgin America

Over the next few days, millions of air travelers are going to sit down to eat something they likely wouldn't otherwise. It's called an in-flight meal and, as with the airlines themselves, the quality varies. Some will be stuck with "nuts or pretzels?" while others live in luxury with "chicken or beef?" What will you choose this holiday travel season? Allow a doctor to help out...

Dr. Charles Platkin, PhD, MPH is an assistant professor at the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College in NYC and he's just published his "2011 Airline Food Survey" at DietDetective.com. Reviewing in-flight menus and nutritional information for offerings on Air Canada, American, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, United, US Airways and Virgin America, Dr. Platkin rated each airline out of four stars based on the protein, variety and calories of their onboard offerings. The findings are kinda shocking...

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Airline Food / In-Flight Meals / KLM / Amsterdam Travel / Economy Class / → All Tags

A La Carte in KLM Economy Now Means Dutch Cheese, Japanese Soba and Veggie Falafel

Indonesian rice dish

Ordering off-menu while jet setting is not only limited to first and business class passengers, you know. Just as we last told you about American Airlines upgrading their menus, KLM is now offering specialty meals on intercontinental flights from Amsterdam. Last week, the Flying Dutchman announced the expanded dining offering in the back of the plane with a little pre-ordering and few extra euros.

The expanded menu is in addition to the gluten-free, kosher, and other special dietary meals that KLM usually stocks, but these will explore ethnic themes, like traditional Dutch fare, Japanese delights, Italian comfort food, Indonesian rice dishes and an upgraded veggie option. At 12-15 euros each, the meals will still give you spending money for bringing home souvenirs.

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Wine Travel / Air New Zealand / New Zealand Travel / Drinking Travel / In-Flight Meals / Airplane Food / → All Tags

The Who, What, Where, and Why of the Air New Zealand Wine Awards

Harvest may be over in most parts of the Northern Hemisphere, but south of the equator they’re headed into spring, and in New Zealand, that means it’s time for the Air New Zealand Wine Awards, the biggest, most prestigious wine competition on the country. And yes, it’s sponsored by an airline.

6.5 MILLION GLASSES OF WINE

We’ve already explained just what makes Air New Zealand’s wine program so unique—including the fact that the airline takes its role as an ambassador of all things New Zealand very seriously, leading its top brass back in 2004-2005 to make the decision to serve only New Zealand wines (except Champagne and Port) on its planes, and that it serves over 6.5 million glasses of NZ wine a year, making it the largest single server of New Zealand wines in the world.

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In-Flight Meals / Food Travel / Airline Food / Volaris / Jetstar / AirAsia / Brunch / Lists / Airlines / → All Tags

Three Airlines That'll Fulfill Your Krispy Kreme Donut Kravings

It's Wednesday—the middle of the week—and we're traveling. We need something to get through the rest of the week and you know what would do the trick? A sugar rush brought on by some Krispy Kreme donuts. It'd be even better if they were in-flight Krispy Kreme donuts.

Good news for us and everyone! Krispy Kremes aren't just limited to standalone stores and the occasional airport kiosk; some airlines actually do serve up the glazed masterpieces direct to your traytable. For this they get major brownie donut points!

Three airlines serving Krispy Kreme in the skies:

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Airplane Food / In-Flight Meals / In-Flight Cocktails / Booze Travel / Drinking Travel / Airline News / Economy / Virgin Atlantic / Virgin / → All Tags

Virgin Atlantic's Complimentary Welcome Cocktails Finally Hit Economy

For a year and a half, we've featured an In-Flight Cocktail of the Month and managed to get mighty tipsy in the process. Over the course the last 18+ months, one airline has had the most stand-out cocktails worthy of the feature and that is Virgin Atlantic with their Virgin Redhead, "New" New York Sour and Indian Summer.

Free drinks on flights? Awesome, right? Well, not so awesome if you're flying economy because the free cocktails were limited to meal service. A change in the economy menu, announced this week, now brings a complimentary welcome cocktail to those in the back of the plane.

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In-Flight Meals / Food Travel / American Airlines / Airline Food / → All Tags

Even Economy Has the Option to Order Off American Airlines' Fancy New Menu

The halibut with truffle corn salsa

The silver birds of American Airlines recently launched some new in-flight dining options, now featuring the culinary delights of Chef Marcus Samuelsson, winner of Top Chef Masters, and Celebrity Chef Richard Sandoval. The good news is...the upgraded food isn't just for First Class flyers.

We've already discussed the options from Samuelsson, so now let's talk Sandoval. Chef Sandoval's dishes are offered in premium cabins on AA flights between Europe, Latin America and Asia. Most of the offerings have a Latin and international influence, with the aim of freshening up the current dining options. Menu options that got us drooling are the halibut with truffle corn salsa and a lemongrass-marinated chicken breast.

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