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New Planes and New Seats Making Southwest Feel So Fresh, So Clean for 2012

We were just talking about Southwest Airlines and their plans to “evolve” their planes with new seats, and now it looks like the carrier is already prepared to go all-in. Southwest is starting to get those fresh birds, and they’re shifting around the schedule here and there to make room for the increased seats and different configurations.

They’re pretty excited about that this evolve-o-lution, but we kind of wonder how our knees will feel about all these changes.

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Onboard the Singapore Airlines A380: All About Business Class

The Jaunted Singapore A380 Series:

First, let us begin by saying that although we flew this baby in biz, we would absolutely go for it in economy as well. Or in Suites Class? You know the answer to that question. Still, Singapore Airlines is known for their business class product—there's the leather seats so wide two people can comfortably sit and chat, the Givenchy china and linens, the flight attendants who greet you by name even when you're away from 25D, and (of course) the fact that they blow other airlines' First Class out of the water. We're just stating facts here.

And actually, it's this better-than-first-class-business-class on Singapore which makes the JFK-FRA-SIN route so famous among frequent flyers. Sure, there are other airline options for flying from New York to Frankfurt, but if you can expense it or redeem miles, business on SQ is typically top choice among those who know about these things.

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Which Airlines Will Be Getting Which Upgrades in 2012

It seems that a good number of airlines have decided to use this brand-spanking new year to freshen up their cabins and revamp service offerings. With a few recent announcements from various global carriers such as Cathay Pacific, Brussels Airlines and Virgin Australia, 2012 will be the year to make air travel look snappy and smell fresh...again. Here's who's doing what:

· AirBerlin:
As the second largest German air carrier and a member of Oneworld, Air Berlin will be upgrading the entire long-haul fleet of Airbus 330s. New business class seats that recline to just about flat and thinner, more user friendly economy seats will be aboard their planes. The new interiors will be ready for the summer travel season.

· British Airways:
With all our hoopla from recent BA flights, it seems that the airline is not only upgrading service. Starting at the front of the plane a few years ago, overhauls have finally made it to World Traveler Plus and World Traveler. That's premium economy and economy for the uninitiated.

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Less Legroom and Recline Arriving with Southwest Airlines' New EVOLVE Interior

They’re moving full speed ahead with their acquisition of AirTran, but Southwest Airlines still has plenty of time to dedicate to other changes and improvements. Their latest announcement has everything to do with seats, as they’re planning to tear out some interiors in favor of new and shiny upgrades.

The bottom line is they’re adding more seats which weigh less, boosting revenue by packing passengers and spending less airplane gas to get them to their final destination. However, Southwest says that the new seats are an upgrade for passengers as well, even though there’s technically going to be a little less room for your legs, knees, and feet.

The pitch on the new seats is dropping by an inch or so and there’s also less recline. The new seats will lean back about one inch less than they do now, but Southwest insists that you won’t even notice because of the new seat layout—we’ll have to see this for ourselves.

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New Seats for Everybody! Cathay Pacific Announces Premium Economy and More

The current Economy Class seatbacks are fixed, with remote controlled entertainment

OMG. Fun news! We knew is was coming, but not the scope: Cathay Pacific has announced that not only will they be introducing a Premium Economy class on long-haul flights in early 2012, but that Economy will be revamped as well.

As veterans of the 18-hour direct flights from New York-Hong Kong, we can tell you that this is a huge deal. Already Cathay is known as one of the leaders as far as passenger service and in-flight amenities and it was only one year ago that they showed off their new business class seats.

Sadly there aren't any renderings of the new Premium Economy or Economy seats yet, but there are specifics. Let's break it down:

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EasyJet Will Assign You That Seat, Thank You Very Much

On one hand, EasyJet shows all the signs of being an ultra-budget LCC. The airline isn't as obnoxious about their exorbitant fees and/or lack of services as Spirit Airlines or Ryanair, but they did pointedly ring up Prince Harry on a bunch of fees the last time he flew with them. They even charged him extra for checking through his green army bag, which was issued to him while he was serving in Afghanistan, among other places. Thoroughly charming.

On the other hand, the British airline has made a number of moves implying that they want to be something more than a "frugal LCC" also-ran. They've led the way on genuinely innovative features like offering in-flight trip insurance, and they were the first UK commercial airline to coat their planes with nano-paint so they could fly more efficiently.

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Is Delta Economy Comfort Worth It? Depends on the Plane

It’s just recently that Delta announced the rollout of its Economy Comfort seats to its internal flights, and if you were wondering what it’d bring to the skies, we can tell you – because we flew Economy Comfort from London to Atlanta a little while back.

The verdict? Well, from our experience, it totally depends on the plane you get.

Our LGW-ATL flight was perfection. Smooth, friendly check in, delightful gate staff (one of them found a tiny stylus we’d dropped from our antiquated phone at the gate and brought it to us at our seat, telling us to stop stressing), nice FAs and a formidable Economy Comfort section.

Legroom was ample. Aaample. It felt like way more than the four extra inches we had been led to believe by Delta (we are 6’1 and take legroom very seriously). We asked a FA whether Economy Comfort was like this across the network she said it depended on the plane – some planes had more legroom, others less.

Food was really pretty decent, the IFE was on demand and seats were also very comfortable. Spirits were free, although we didn't imbibe. It was, without a doubt, the best longhaul flight we’ve ever taken in economy. It was our first transatlantic flight with Delta, and we fell in instant love. All that for $80 extra. Awesome.

Until our journey back (see the gallery below).

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Delta Hopes You'll Pay to Stretch Out with Domestic 'Economy Comfort' Seating

Last summer Delta introduced a new option to help you stretch out on those long-haul international flights, and now it looks like they’re bringing the option to domestic flights as well. Clearly they must like the extra revenue that the seats bring in, so they’re expanding their Economy Comfort options to pretty much all their planes. If it’s not the money they’re interested in it must be the fact that the competition already does something similar—cough—United Airlines and Economy Plus.

In total Delta will be updating like 800 of their planes, which includes pretty much all of their mainline planes as well as all of their regional jets configured with a two-class seating plan. If you snag one of these new seats you’ll be enjoying priority boarding, but more importantly it’ll give you a few more inches of legroom and a little more than 34” inches of seat pitch.

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AirTran Adopting Southwest's Weigh More, Pay More Guidelines

Southwest's infamous "customers of size" policy—where if you need a seat and a half you have to purchase two seats—was the cause of one of the airline world's most notorious social media disasters. So naturally Southwest is having its recently purchased airline AirTran adopt the exact same set of guidelines, because that's one of the ways they keep down costs. Another way was described a few months ago in an Associated Press article headlined "US airlines make money again by flying less," which doesn't really have anything to do with this post but is obnoxious enough to be worth mentioning.

In any case, AirTran will implement the new policy starting March 1 of 2012. Following Southwest's lead, if a customer can't lower their armrest they have to purchase two seats. If two seats aren't available on a particular flight, other arrangements will presumably be made, almost certainly combining the usual "you need to get off this plane" humiliation and the "we'll get you on a later flight with more seats" reassurance. As with Southwest, a passenger on a below-capacity flight can request a refund for the second seat's cost.

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A History of Air New Zealand's Crazy Celebrity Videos, Now Including the 'Playboy' Twins

They call it "Cuddle Class," but we affectionately think of it as "Economy Kama Sutra." That's right, we're talking about the infamous Air New Zealand Skycouch.

It's an unconventional seating idea—selling three economy seats with extra room as a kind of convertible bed for two passengers—and AirNZ has been going about marketing it in unconventional ways. But then, when have they ever been conventional? They have a pitch-black plane and body-painted crew for goshsakes!

Lately, however, Air New Zealand has taken the celebrity route to pitch the seats, involving such unlikely names as Richard Simmons, David Hasselhoff, Snoop Dogg and now...the scandalous Playboy twin ex-girlfriends of Hugh Hefner. Watch above as they flirt with AirNZ's latest mascots.

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Four Videos from the Boeing 787 First Delivery in Everett, WA

As you probably well know by now, we spent several days this week up at Boeing HQ in Everett, WA, peeking around the 787 Dreamliner factory and the actual thing out on the tarmac. We've showed you everything from the slick exterior and interior to the "airplane supermarket," and of course the ginormous factory line.

We captured more than photos, however; there's video too, including the Dreamliner's First Delivery Flight as she takes off for her home with ANA in Tokyo. Here's a few quick videos from our days at the Boeing 787 First Delivery event:

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Inside the Boeing 787 Dreamliner Factory Line

It is the domain of the chosen: The Boeing 787 Dreamliner factory floor in Everett, WA. The many, many workers underneath this roof are among the brightest and most dedicated, their desks spotless and the building quiet on a Sunday. As one of the small number of people who are invited to visit all the way down to the factory floor, we were honored to get right up close to tomorrow's crop of Dreamliner, still either being put together from pieces at one end, to being shined up on the other.

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