Jaunted

Tags: Japan Airlines / JAL / American Airlines / Delta / Airlines / Airline News / Japan / Japan Travel / → All Tags

More JAL Rumors, and This Time They're In American's Favor

Remember when we told you about those rumors trickling out of Japanese media outlets, to the effect that JAL was dumping American/oneworld and embracing Delta/SkyTeam? Remember how we told you that the story made sense because, the shadiness of the sourcing aside, switching probably makes the most financial sense for the bankrupt Japanese airline? Turns out we may have called that putt a little too early:

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Tags: Jaunted Interviews / In-Flight Meals / Food Travel / Singapore Airlines / New York City / Airline News / New York Restaurants / → All Tags

From Famous Kitchens to the Skies: How Singapore Airlines Develops Their Menus

Porcini-crusted sea scallop with black trumpet mushrooms, yellowfoot chanterelles, leek, roman cauliflower and a frothy white wine reduction topper: that is what you are eating 39,000 feet up on a Singapore Airlines flight. And that's just the appetizer.

On Friday, we had the opportunity to stand back and observe as Chef Alfred Portale of New York City's Gotham Bar & Grill reviewed his newest menu for Singapore Airlines with the airline's chefs. This is their bi-annual tasting session, when the chefs trade ideas on in-flight presentation and preparation of some thirty meals that Portale has devised for the airline's US flights.

Curious to see exactly what the process is for creating an in-flight menu, especially one for the precise and exacting tastes of the passengers who fly in First and Business Class on Singapore, we took plenty notes and pictures as Portale and the Singapore chefs taste-tested an appetizer, an entree and two desserts from the upcoming summer menu. See the goodies after the jump!

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Tags: Boeing 787 Dreamliner / 787 / Boeing / Airline News / Airplane News / Airplanes / → All Tags

Boeing Reveals a Sneak Peek Inside of Their New 787 Dreamliner

We’ve been more than a little excited over the Boeing 787, and we haven’t been afraid to show our love for the newest bird in the sky. However, we have grown a little tired just drooling over its composite body and sleek styling. That’s why we’re glad that Boeing has finally cracked the doors open to the plane to show off its interior goodies.

The current interior installed on the third test plane features fancy lighting, larger overhead bins, and boring seats with blue head rests. Don’t get disappointed if you don’t like what things look like right now, because once the planes get in the hands of the airlines, the interior will be altered and hopefully get cooler—hopefully. The latest in seating technology will probably find its way aboard this next generation airplane and, as long as it’s not face-to-face, it should be an improvement over current offerings.

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Tags: easyJet / Airlines / Airline News / LCCs / Airline Marketing / Religious Travel / → All Tags

easyJet Is Thinking About Giving The Pope A Lift To The UK

The Pope is heading to the United Kingdom for the first time since the 1980s, and one airline is particularly excited. Hoping to save the government some cash, easyJet is offering its services to shuttle Pope Benedict XVI from Rome to the UK. We think this is a good idea. After all, everyone is looking to save a little dough nowadays—especially since a traditional papal visit might cost as much as £20 million.

The low cost carrier is offering to fly the Pope for free, so he won’t even have to go online to try to score some of the lowest fares available. According to easyJet, if he does choose to take up the fly-for-free offer, he’ll be enjoying a generous luggage allowance, online check-in, and friendly staff throughout his journey. They’re so confident in their services that they feel that that once he has tried easyJet, his holiness will never look back.

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Tags: Delays / Weather / Snow Travel / Winter Travel / New York City / Airline News / → All Tags

Prepare for This Weekend's Snowstorm with Your Airline's Information

The picture above is what New York looked like less than two months ago after a snowstorm dumped just around 8 inches on the city. We took that photo ourselves, and we'll probably have another just like it later this weekend, as the east cost prepares for another snowstorm, with up to 8 inches expected in NYC. But it'll be much, much worse for Washington DC, which is expecting 18-26 inches of snow.

As usual, airlines are covering their bums in preparation for the storm by preemptively canceling flights and issuing waivers to travelers. For instance, United is offering waivers for those traveling to, from, and even through Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia through Sunday.

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Tags: TSA / Travel News / Airline News / Airlines / Airports / → All Tags

What Does the DOT's New Airline Consumer Site Do, Anyway?

We've spent the last week confused about the Department of Transportation's new airline-oriented consumer protection effort. The official title of the revamped site is "Aviation Consumer Protection and Enforcement," but we're not exactly sure what we're supposed to be doing with it. At first we thought it was a way to suggest TSA improvements. That's what some random pro-TSA travel site said it was for. But that doesn't seem to be right, since there's very little about TSA on the site. Then we thought that maybe they were taking complaints about politicians who are trying to ruin our tourism industry, perhaps from regional travel boards or something. But that doesn't seem to be it either. Their About Us section is certainly no help:

The Office of the Assistant General Counsel for Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings, including its Aviation Consumer Protection Division, monitors compliance with and investigates violations of the Department of Transportation’s (Department) aviation economic, consumer protection, and civil rights requirements. The Office also provides legal review and support on aviation economic licensing matters.

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Tags: Northwest Airlines / Airlines / Airline News / Delta / → All Tags

We Bid A Fond Farewell To Northwest Airlines

We knew this day was coming for a long time, but it’s finally time to say goodbye to Northwest Airlines. They’ve been slowly moving their stuff into Delta’s house, but now the move is pretty much done. They’ve even submitted their change of address card; as of this week if you try to hit up their website, you’ll be redirected over to Delta faster than you can say Detroit Metro Airport.

Most of the technical airline stuff has even been changed over. Flight numbers have all been rolled into Delta’s system, and all trips will be booked through the Atlanta-based airline’s reservations systems. Delta said they’ve got some extra employees ready to help out with the likely confusion and mess that all these growing pains are likely to cause. Hopefully the former Northwest pilots will know where they are going with the new Delta flight numbers—they did have a little bit of an issue late last year.

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Tags: Advertising / Travel Advertising / JAL / Airline News / Airlines / ANA / → All Tags

JAL's Marketing Is Not At Fault for the Airline's Bankruptcy

Another day, another article by Financial Times columnist Tyler Brule pounding the table about the overarching, total, world-shattering importance of marketing. This time he's got his sights set on troubled Japan Airlines.

The airline, he suggests, has gone from being one of the world's best-regarded companies to one of the worst in a span of weeks. Instead of drawing the obvious conclusion—that branding is fickle and fundamentals like not being effing bankrupt are critical—he instead insists that the opposite is true and that JAL needs to become a "marketing-driven carrier."

While we're not shocked that a marketing guy would insist that companies should hire more marketers, we do kind of find the tone of the article grating. Also the content of the article, which advises JAL to do what they're already doing. Also the conclusion of the article, which includes eyeroll-inducing marketing speak like "turn JAL into an adjective for excellence."

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Tags: Cashless Cabins / American Airlines / Airlines / Airline News / Onboard Services / → All Tags

American Airlines is Going Cashless on Domestic and Foreign Flights

That in-flight snack box on American Airlines is pretty tempting, but if you want it to be yours you better have a credit card. American Airlines has joined the cashless cabin club as of February 1, and they’ll only be accepting plastic money for in-flight purchases. It’s credit cards only on all domestic and international flights—so no getting rid of your foreign currency on the way home.

Flight attendants will be eager to swipe any major credit cards for purchases, because now they don’t have to deal with finding change for your $20. For foreign travelers, all purchases will be converted into US currency, so we guess the currency exchange rate will be left up to the credit card gods—let’s just hope they’re having a good day.

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Tags: In-Flight WiFi / WiFi / Airline News / Airlines / Southwest Airlines / Southwest / Row 44 / → All Tags

Southwest Wants Their 544 Planes Plugged Into In-Flight WiFi ASAP

For everyone who relies on the cheap fares and consistent service of Southwest Airlines, we've got some great news for you today. According to SWA's official blog "Nuts About Southwest," they have concluded their year-long testing phase, which only had four aircraft (of their 544) flying around with WiFi.

They've just signed the contract with in-flight internet provider Row 44 to begin equipping their entire fleet with the gizmos necessary to get us passengers connected at 35,000 feet. Installations will begin in the second quarter of this year, beginning at the pace of 15 aircraft per month and hopefully quickly ramping up the pace to 25 per month.

After the jump...yea, but how much will it cost to use?

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Tags: In-Flight Cell Phones / Oman Air / Cell Phones / In-flight WiFi / Airlines / Airline News / In-flight Entertainment / → All Tags

Phone Home from Oman Air, As They Allow In-Flight Cell Phones and Texting

Oman Air first impressed us with their unnecessarily nice bathrooms, but now they are moving forward to ruin the entire flight experience—maybe. They are launching full mobile capabilities for first class, business, and economy customers. That means cell phones for all up in the skies. You’ll be welcome to text, tweet, and call all of your friends from your seat. Things should be up and running by the middle of February, which is just in time to apologize to your sweetie for not being home on Valentine’s Day.

In-flight WiFi is also coming to the airline’s entire fleet of Airbus A330s, but cell phones ringing throughout the cabin has us worried. We’ve heard some awful ring tones and text message alerts, and are really hoping that passengers leave things on silent. The airline does promise that the crews will control the services, and that the mobile magic can be limited during quiet times like overnight flights.

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Tags: Airline Bankruptcy / Japan Airlines / JAL / Airlines / Airline News / Airline Industry / Japan Travel / Delta / Oneworld / → All Tags

Breaking: Japan Press Rumors Say JAL Deal Done with Delta, Dumping American

Having finally filed for bankruptcy Tuesday after what seemed like forever, Japan Airlines is free to look toward long-term restructuring rather than short-term "please god let us operate another week" revenue generation. The next big question was how the Japanese flagship airline would decide in the high-stakes poker game between American and Delta, both of whom have been heavily courting JAL—American to keep them in oneworld and Delta to get them to switch to SkyTeam. Now there are reports precolating out of Japanese media, and we haven't seen them on any of the wires yet, so you're warned, that JAL has just closed the deal with Delta.

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