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WestJet Hooks Up With Tablets That Hook to Your Seatback Traytable

Late last year we heard about a new in-flight entertainment idea that would put a little bit of fun right into your tray table. Well it looks like the suits and salespeople over at Skycast Solutions are pretty darn convincing, as they’ve already signed on WestJet to utilize their new product. Things look slightly different from the initial concept we first checked out, but the final product isn't too shabby.

"TrayVu Slim" is the name of the new device, and if all goes well, it’ll be clipped on before too long. It’s basically an Android tablet—a 8.9” Samsung Galaxy to be specific—that will be distributed by flight attendants, and you're invited to attach it right to your tray table. It’ll flip up and open towards the seat back, so you’ll still be free to play a game of gin rummy with your seatmate while resting your Diet Coke.

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In-Flight Magazines / iPad Travel Apps / Qantas / Airline News / iPad / In-Flight WiFi / Technology / A380 / → All Tags

The Australian Way Becomes an iPad App

It is always relaxing to thumb through an in-flight magazine, whether it is for destination guides or to test your mathematical prowess with a good game of sudoku. A huge bummer is when we open a previously loved periodical to find articles ripped out or kids "art" scribbled over exactly what we want to read. Qantas has come to the rescue and guaranteed an unread copy of their in-flight mag, The Australian Way. Kinda...

Our friends down under have launched an iPad app for the entire issue of their monthly glossy. Travelers that prefer to load all their reading material onto a touch screen can do so with the airline's free application. March 2012 marks the inaugural digital issue of the award winning magazine ready for download. From hotels and grooming to music and celeb interviews, readers of the magazine can get their in-flight fix even while not flying the red kangaroo.

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In-Flight WiFi / WiFi / In-Flight Entertainment / Gogo / Frontier / Video Game Travel / → All Tags

Pogo and Gogo Team Up for Free In-Flight Gaming

If you’re tired of the in-flight WiFi offerings in the skies above the nifty fifty—like that’s even possible—there’s some new stuff coming from Gogo that might keep you interested.

Gogo—purveyor of fine in-flight WiFi—has partnered up with the Pogo folks who are all about online games. This Pogo/Gogo partnership sounds pretty promising, as it might just give you some time to play a few free games while cruising at 35,000-feet.

First Class Solitaire, Monopoly, and Mahjong Safari will be free for all after just a few clicks. However, they’ll be quick to sell you even more access to games if you want to play something different or something a little more involved. That’s when you’ll need to hand over those credit card digits to pay for your internet access. Still, we can’t complain about the ability to hit up some more sites—and games—for free.

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American Airlines Shows Off Upcoming New Seats Via Instagram

Last week we told you about the slurry of airlines using this year to refresh their aircraft cabins and service. Not a few days later, American Airlines dropped some major news as well, and they supplemented it with Instagram shots of the goods.

AA will take delivery of their first Boeing 777-300ER late this year and, from photos posted on Instagram last week, the big birds will look pretty flash on the inside. Since the airline is the first US carrier to take delivery of the shiny, new aircraft type, the introduction will surely be huge.

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American Airlines Will Be Comping Your In-Flight Booze and WiFi, For Now

Those shiny metal airplanes from American Airlines aren’t having the best start to 2012; you know—because of that pesky bankruptcy and the surrounding financial issues. However, American Airlines is still moving full speed ahead as it looks to grab travelers from all over the globe. Their latest move probably costs some money—they’re giving stuff away—but in the end the bean counters must think it’s worth it.

American Airlines is pouring complimentary booze on all of their international flights, and the in-flight party starts on February 1. Passengers sitting in the main cabin—also known as coach—will get beer and wine free of charge on most flights between the United States and Asia, Europe, and parts of South America. Other airlines like Delta already offer a similar service, and of course back in the good ol’ days of air travel this was always the case.

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Travel Tips / In-Flight WiFi / CES / Gogo / Las Vegas Travel / Travel Tech / Technology / Free Stuff / → All Tags

A Travel Ninja Trick to Squeeze More Minutes from In-Flight WiFi

We've got bad news, good news and awesome news.

The bad news: The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is wrapping up and will end tomorrow, January 13. That means no more fun gadget announcements and breathless product release liveblogs on your favorite tech news sites.

The good news: Thanks to CES, Ford teamed up with in-flight WiFi provider Gogo to offer a free 30 minutes of WiFi on flights heading into or out of Vegas during the CES dates. Sure, that means the free internet access from 35,000-feet comes to a halt tomorrow, but wait...

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The Jauntys / Jaunted Awards 2011 / Travel Awards 2011 / In-Flight WiFi / WiFi / Travel Tech / → All Tags

The Coolest Travel Innovation of 2011 Is...

It's that time of the year again, the time when the year just plain ends. Alas, we can't just let 2011 go that easily, especially since travelers spent it both up in the air and up in arms over a crazy range of topics, encompassing everything from nudie scans to tarmac delays. Needless to say, we're ready for 2012, but first we're taking a brief look back at the best of 2011 with the Jaunted Travel Awards,—or as we fondly refer to them—The Jauntys.

Think back to 365-ish days ago. What was the hottest travel innovation then? Well, at the time we highlighted in-flight WiFi as the coolest thing, and not too much has changed for 2011. Or rather, everything has changed since now it's not just in-flight WiFi we're loving, but long-haul in-flight WiFi.

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In-Flight WiFi / Technology / Qantas / Virgin Australia / Australia Travel / → All Tags

Qantas and Virgin Australia Battle for Tech Supremacy

Lots of exciting techie news coming from Down Under! Australia seems to be the competitive hub for in-flight technology; this week Qantas dropped big news. They're doing WiFi on international flights. To America. On their Airbus A380! Yes, this is all correct, The flying kangaroo will be trialing their in-flight browsing service on flights between Australia and LA. Premium passengers flying on any one of the 6 A380s will be able to use their smart-phones, tablets or laptops to surf the web. Skype and Facetime are a no-no since the service will not have voice enabled 'pico-cells'.

Passengers in both first and business class will have to purchase the web browsing, but no prices have been announced. We have to say, however, that for a 15-hour flight we're more than happy to fork over our cards and while away the hours doing something other than playing Angry Birds. Let the WiFi wars begin!

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Happy Happy Joy Joy: More In-Flight WiFi for More Airlines

Two huge bits of in-flight entertainment news dropped this week. Let's sum 'em up:

· Emirates A380s join the In-Flight WiFi bandwagon

Guess the airline with the largest amount of orders for Airbus A380. It's Emirates. Guess the airline with the largest amount of the superjumbo already flying the skies. Again, it's Emirates. Guess the airline that's already got in-flight WiFi on most those babies. Duh, Emirates. Still, the news that passengers may pay up and log on during A380 Emirates flights came in 2010 with the projected log-in date June 2012. They've arrived at their goal a whole seven months early!

The service is OnAir, the same long-haul WiFi provider for Oman Air, TAM, Singapore and more. Pricing begins at $7.50 and is arranged in service bundles of MB. And yes, even First Class will have to pay.

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In-Flight WiFi / Holiday Travel / Christmas Travel / Santa Claus / WiFi / Gogo / Travel Tech / Videos / → All Tags

Santa's In-Sleigh WiFi is Faster Than Your In-Flight WiFi

These days, with so many WiFi-equipped planes criss-crossing the skies, we definitely think twice before booking flights not equipped with it. In-Flight WiFi is just so...integral to keeping our mobile lifestyle moving, but also it's becoming expected. We're happy to report that someone else joins in this thinking—none other than the jolly elf himself, Santa Claus.

Earlier this month, Gogo gave Santa the Christmas gift at the top of his list: an upgrade to the newest ATG-4 onboard internet, including the new media platform to allow Santa to watch movies and TV shows while on those long, transocean crossings on Christmas Eve.

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Flight Attendants / Airline News / Facebook / WiFi / Social Media / Southwest Airlines / In-Flight WiFi / Row 44 / → All Tags

A Warm and Fuzzy Story Featuring Cookie Cakes and Southwest Airlines

Hopefully you’re safely back in town after a weekend of holiday travels, and if you’re lucky you might have even been served a bag of peanuts by one of the best flight attendants around. Apparently she’s been hard at work—and extra friendly—aboard plenty of Southwest Airlines flights, and she’s so nice she even got the airline a customer for life.

On a recent flight, a passenger and his girlfriend were quite impressed with a flight attendant by the name of Holly. It just happened to be a WiFi-enabled flight, so the traveler logged on to Facebook to let Southwest know what a great flight it was. On a whim he suggested that someone meet them at the gate to give Holly a raise, a promotion, or even a burrito from Chipotle. He even agreed to sign a contract pledging to only fly with Southwest Airlines as long as Holly was in charge of passing out the peanuts and serving up smiles.

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So About That In-Flight WiFi Coming to Air China...It's Gogo.

We knew that Air China was testing out in-flight WiFi aboard some of its domestic flights, and it sounds like the initial tests must have gone pretty darn well. That’s because even more tests and trials are planned for additional flights through the first part of 2012.

Again, the in-flight WiFi is technically for accessing the airline’s entertainment system, so online holiday shopping high above China isn’t exactly an option just yet. However, we can’t imagine that it’ll remain that way for long, because it's actually our buddies over at Gogo providing the in-flight magic. Just like back at home in the nifty fifty, it’s Gogo that’s responsible for all the wires, transmitters, and other do-dads that makes the system hum along.

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