Delta Air Lines had quite a few variations of the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar flying the skies in the 1980s, including this one and this one, and I’ve selected another version for this installment of Vintage Airline Seat Maps.

Appearing below is Delta’s L-1011-250 seat map from 1987. It seated a total of 269 passengers across three classes of service. First Class seated 12 passengers in “Sleeper” seats – the old school style – in a 2x2x2 configuration. Business Class on this stretched version of the L-1011 offered 54 seats, 14 more than the shorter -500 series Delta flew during the same period, in a 2x4x2 layout. Coach had 203 seats in the usual 2x5x2 configuration.

In First Class, you’d find me in 1F. The first few rows of Business Class would be ideal and in coach I’d definitely try to get a window in row 21.

Where would you sit?

Not too long ago, Delta Air Lines introduced a new amenity kit for Business Elite passengers and I’ve selected the new version for this installment of Amenity Kit Reviews. I also reviewed the previous red cylindrical offering. For a better description of each category and the 7-point scale for scoring, please refer to my introductory post.

Bag/Container: This beige canvas zipper bag is a major upgrade from their previous version. It’s very well manufactured, the zipper operates smoothly and I love the detachable “snap on” handle. Leather (or leather-like) trim surrounds opposing sides and a small patch with the Delta – and SkyTeam – logo is sewn into one edge. Reusability is high in my opinion as its size and flexibility are ideal for a travel case. For a hybrid Business-First bag, this one is pretty darn good. Score: 6

Skin Care: Delta again chose Greek company Korres as their partner to supply skin care products in the kit, as well as the lavatories. The full retail-sized lip balm is effective and has a subtle Shea butter flavor. I’ve been a fan of pomegranate scented skin care products since United introduced Murad-branded items in their premium cabin lavatories, but the moisturizing cream from Korres sort of lacks a similarly appealing scent. It does, however, apply smoothly and absorbs fairly quickly. An antiseptic wet wipe infused with Aloe Vera and a lemony-citrus scent is also included. Score: 4

Oral Care: A medium-bristled mini toothbrush is enclosed in plastic along with a small tube of Colgate toothpaste and a DenTek fresh mint floss pick. If you’ve been reading my amenity kit reviews, you know that I wish more airlines would include mint-flavored toothpaste, but I’m slowly getting over it. I’d be less picky about it if mints or mouthwash were included and whereas the previous Delta kit included mints, this one does not. Ah well, Delta still gets an adequate rating here. Score: 4

Comfort Items: It’s hard to really come up with an “exceptional” sock, but I have to give Delta some props for theirs. The bottoms have little foam gripper thingies that I think are pretty cool. The eyeshades are an upgrade from the last kit and feature a Velcro strap to adjust the tightness to your liking. Also upgraded are the earplugs, which are larger than the last ones and very soft. A shoehorn and Delta-branded shoe polisher are also included. Score: 5

Intangibles: The kit is well stocked and provides just a little extra bit of luxury you expect when flying internationally in a premium cabin. Delta’s branding is subtle, yet welcoming and airlines that add a full-size pen get an extra hat tip in my book. For a hybrid Business-First product, Delta did very well. Oh, and there’s a “romance card” included from Korres offering a 20% discount on their in-store and online products. Score: 6

Total score & comments:

The last kit scored 3.95 and while 4.75 might not seem like much of an upgrade, it really does rank exceptionally better. Some of the items I was critical of in the last review – the earplugs, toothpaste tube size and moisturizing cream – were all improved. The pen, too, is better, if you can believe it. Nicely done, Delta, and manufacturer Wessco.

Well Kansas City here we come again! Both United and Delta have a $79 base fare out in the San Diego to Kansas City market tonight – no love for American.

The fare is valid now through the end-of-schedule, but as you can imagine, there is basically no inventory available on this particular routing during the summer months. Think fall and winter.

With the now combined Continental and United, I’m a bit wary of booking this far in advance. I used to be able to easily suggest even wackier routings when being rebooked due to a schedule change, but I fear Shares and getting an ex-Continental agent. That said, I’m still booking one.

Routing: San Diego to San Francisco to Cleveland to Kansas City roundtrip

Travel period: Now through end-of-schedule

Dates I found available: 9/7; 9/10; 9/11; 9/17; 9/24 (didn’t go any further than September)

Number of nights stay: 0

Day of week restrictions: None

Fare basis: GA14CN, 14-day advance purchase

Fare: $208.80 all-in

Premier Qualifying Miles earned: 6,712 (assumes 500-mile minimums)

Cost-per-mile (CPM): 3.11

Example itinerary:

(Hat tip: MileageRunning.com)

In other airline, hotel and travel industry news last week…

• United Airlines shifted its Washington Dulles to Buenos Aires flight over to Newark on Friday. They didn’t totally Continental it up, though, as they’re using a legacy United 3-cabin 767 on the route. The airline is also ending service to Accra and Copenhagen later this year, according to Airline Route. Washington Dulles to Accra ends July 3 and Newark to Copenhagen terminates on September 26.
• US Airways has completed conversion of 14 of its 16 Airbus A330 aircraft with the new Envoy Class and is expected to get the remaining two birds completed by the end of summer. The seats are actually pretty darn nice looking and setup in a reverse herringbone 1 x 2 x 1 configuration. The airline was also awarded the “2012 MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) of the Year” award last week by Aviation Week and Overhaul & Maintenance magazine.
• Virgin America officially launched service to Philadelphia last Wednesday from Los Angeles and will begin San Francisco-Philly service tomorrow. Sir Richard Branson greeted the first arrival at PHL and hosted a “tailgate on the tarmac” party with a bunch of invited guests. Later that night, the official launch party was held at Hotel Palomar downtown and based on some Twitter reports, it sounded like a fantastic time.
• Allegiant Air began charging passengers with new reservations from last Wednesday for large carry-ons, joining Spirit Airlines in charging for the privilege to use the overhead bins. One bag is still free, but it must fit underneath the seat. You can get a discount on the $35 fee if you book the space in advance online.
• Southwest Airlines shifted some the flying it took over from AirTran in Atlanta back to the carrier, including flights to Los Angeles, Chicago Midway, Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas. A combination of IT issues and route optimization appear to be the reason. A Southwest spokesman said, “In some cases, until we get to a point a little bit further down the road, it makes sense to transfer some of that flying from Southwest to AirTran.”
• Starwood Hotels will open a dual-branded ski resort complex in China later this year. Both a 257-room Westin and 296-room Sheraton are opening in August next to the slopes of the Changbai Mountains.
• My “air traveling idiot of the week” award goes to a man who tried to smuggle a knife through security in a jar of mayonnaise. What? Yes, that’s correct. He was flying from New York’s Kennedy airport to Mexico City when the banned items were found and confiscated during routine screening. Amazingly, he was still allowed to catch his flight.

Finally, here are some other noteworthy items from last week:

• A TSA screener throws coffee on a pilot at JFK.
• A Delta Air Lines flight attendant was removed from a flight for irregular behavior.
• Alaska Airlines will begin testing a nextgen ATC system at SEA in June.
• Qantas’ stranded A380 in Singapore will return to service in May.

My dreams of Virgin Australia joining Star Alliance have been dashed. After Ansett Australia collapsed in March 2002, there have been extremely limited options to get around Australia if you’re loyal to Star and want to earn and burn miles. It appears new options will continue to remain very distant in the future.

Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti told The Australian that the airline presently has no intentions of joining a global alliance and if they did, Sky Team would be the better option. Delta loyalists will be happy, though, as Virgin Australia remains one of the easier – and more reasonable – airlines on which to redeem SkyPesos for award travel.

“If you were to go down that path… it’s wrong to assume Star is the obvious choice,” he told the reporter. “Delta is in Sky Team and Sky Team is a very formidable group, and I think Delta are terrific partners.”

He also noted the increasing trend of airline consolidation and even pointed out that cross-border mergers might one day negatively impact the alliances we know today.

When I tweeted a link earlier this evening, one of my followers responded, “Star can’t get *all* the good airlines.”

I will still dream, though.

(Hat Tip: Australian Business Traveller)

In other airline, hotel and travel industry news last week…

• Delta Air Lines introduced new ancillary options available at booking called Trip Extras. The initial offerings are priority boarding starting at $9 per segment, a mileage booster starting at $29 for 1,000 miles (terrible value!) and a 24-hour Wi-Fi pass for $12. Since Delta’s own blog mentions them as being the “first offerings” to be available at booking, Trip Extras will certainly be expanded further growing the ever popular unbundling and ancillary product trend.
• Virgin America announced it will begin service to Portland, Oregon on June 5, 2012 – its 18^th destination. The airline will fly two daily roundtrip flights PDX-LAX and one PDX-SFO. CEO David Cush is hoping their entry will bring fares down noting, “Although there are strong business and leisure travel ties between California and Portland, the West Coast-to-PDX market generally has higher fares than similar flights to Seattle and the reason is competition.”
• I posted some of the insights I gleaned from United Airlines’ presentation at the J.P. Morgan investors’ conference last week and Southwest Airlines also participated revealing they expect to realize a first quarter 2012 loss. Citing an average fuel cost of $3.50 per gallon, Senior VP-Finance and CFO Laura Wright said, “Based on the current revenue and fuel estimates, we currently do not anticipate a profit in the first quarter.” The first and fourth quarters are typically the most challenging for airlines and given Southwest has earned a full-year net profit for 39 consecutive years, I wouldn’t be too worried as an investor.
• Besides the already reported new flights by American and United out of Washington’s Reagan National Airport, Air Canada, Alaska, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, Sun Country and Virgin America have applied for a piece of the remaining four slots open to “beyond perimeter” flying out of DCA. Both JetBlue and Southwest are hoping to begin service to Austin, each claiming United has a high-priced monopoly on their existing service from nearby Dulles International Airport.
• Google’s Flight Search expanded its legs last week and now offers U.S.-based users the ability to search international fares and flights. I honestly haven’t been back to it since my initial underwhelming review of the ITA Software-powered search tool, and probably won’t return until I start hearing rave reviews. It might be a good tool for the general traveler with simple flight search needs, so perhaps my more advanced knowledge and ITA Matrix experience is jading my opinion.
• Hyatt Hotels plans to install new TV technology allowing guests in North American properties to stream movies from their own Netflix or HBO accounts, as well as connect their laptops to use other services. Guests will have to pay the $9.95 daily internet charge to use the service, which will include the ability to request items from housekeeping, order room service and get information on local restaurants and city tours.

In other airline, hotel and travel industry news last week…

• Reservations and gate agents at United Airlines voted to remain unionized last week, marking a big win for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). A total of 16,720 people voted – 8,305 in favor of representation, 5,865 against – and they represent United’s second largest workgroup behind the carrier’s 21,400 flight attendants. Continental Airlines agents were previously un-unionized. Separately, United reported a 3.4 percent increase in traffic for the month of February compared to last year and a 1.5 to 2.5 percent increase in PRASM, a smaller increase than the previous few months.
• American Airlines posted positive February operational results enjoying a 6 percent increase in traffic from the previous year, its largest increase in many years. Wholly owned affiliate American Eagle Airlines saw an 18.9 percent increase in traffic. A company spokesperson cited improving U.S. and Japanese economies and the inauguration of new service between LAX and Shanghai as contributing factors for the growth.
• Delta Air Lines passengers have been given free access to Amazon.com while flying on the carrier’s Wi-Fi enabled aircraft, in addition to the existing free access to Delta.com and news content from The Wall Street Journal and People magazine.
• Southwest Airlines will be moving its San Antonio customer service center to a former Kmart store location this year and add 322 new jobs in an agreement with the city. The carrier will receive up to $581,649 in incentives during the next 10 years so long as the new center employs a minimum of 800 workers.
• Virgin Atlantic opened their new Clubhouse at New York’s Kennedy Airport last week and Richard Branson was on-site for the opening party that hosted travel agents, journalists and other invited guests. The new location is airside past security and will allow Upper Class passengers to change into their “sleep suits” prior to heading to the gate, if so inclined.
• Lufthansa unveiled its new lie-flat Business Class seats that will be initially seen flying on the carrier’s Boeing 747-8 aircraft and eventually rolled out fleet-wide. The new seats are angled towards each other in a V-configuration and all face the direction of travel. An eight-week trial was conducted on the FRA-JFK-FRA route where 1,349 passengers and a test crew evaluated prototypes of the seat.
• The relationship between online travel agency Orbitz Worldwide and Hilton Hotels & Resorts took a turn for the worse as the hotel chain decided not to renew its long-term agreement with the agency. As a result, the OTA reduced the prominence of Hilton properties on its website and in some cases, outright removed them from search results. According to Hilton, the move was made “in the best interests of our guests and our more than 3,800 hotels around the world.”
• Starwood Hotels & Resorts plans to open 80 new hotels this year as well as 25 new properties in Europe over the next four years. The company already opened a new W Hotel in Paris and a Le Meridien hotel in Instanbul, Turkey this year and looks to focus on other fast-growing markets, including Russia, the Ukraine and additional sites in Turkey.
• Hyatt Hotels Corporation will open new properties in Zurich and Moscow, two of the most expensive cities worldwide for hotel rates. The Hyatt Regency Moscow is planned to open in 2015 and will feature 297 rooms and 56 luxury apartments. In Zurich, Hyatt has plans for both a Hyatt Regency and Hyatt Place near the airport to open in 2017, each with more than 250 rooms.

I previously posted an international configuration L-1011 TriStar flown by Delta Air Lines in the 1980s, and here now is one of their domestic versions from the same period for this installment of Vintage Airline Seat Maps.

Seating 32 passengers in First Class and 270 in coach, you’d find me in 3A or 3F up front and probably in a window seat in the low teens in coach. While no definitive bulkhead wall seems to exist between cabins, there must’ve been some type of partition limiting the recline of row six as noted by the shaded seats.

Where would you sit?

In other airline industry news last week…

• United Airlines will launch daily nonstop service from Chicago to Sarasota beginning November 4, 2012 using Boeing 737-800 aircraft. This marks the ninth city United is slated to serve in the Sunshine State and a company spokesperson was particularly keen on mentioning the route’s ability to open up United’s global network from Chicago for Sarasota-originating passengers. Separately, flight attendants represented by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) ratified a new labor contract. A total Continental-United combined contract has yet to be realized, but United is optimistic that joint negotiations will go well.
• American Airlines again hemorrhaged money this past January posting a net loss of $234 million. Fuel was the carrier’s largest expense at $704 million for the month, followed by labor costs of $601 million. In better news, American will re-launch service between Chicago and Dublin beginning April 4 with a daily two-class 767-300 nonstop, and add an additional daily nonstop from Miami to Kingston, Jamaica for the busy summer season.
• Full-time employees working for Delta Air Lines at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport are concerned over the carrier’s use of Ready Reserve temporary workers at the airport. After acquiring Northwest in 2008, Delta put a vote out and employees decided to oust union representation at MSP. As full-timers retire, other long-term staff are concerned the airline will simply increase the amount of Ready Reserve staff who earn significantly less than their airline-hired counterparts, thereby jeopardizing their jobs and pay.
• The recent FAA Reauthorization Bill passed into law opened up long-awaited slots for airlines to fly transcontinental flights out of Washington’s (Reagan) National Airport. United will begin a daily DCA-SFO nonstop, Delta a DCA-SLC trip and American DCA-LAX in the coming months. US Airways also has the right to add a flight, but has yet to name a destination. Additional slots are to be opened up to new entrant carriers who must file applications by March 12, 2012 for approval consideration.

Kansas City has been “on sale” for some time now out of LAX, but a $69 one-way base fare is also now available from SFO and SEA on both American and United. Delta has only filed a matching fare in the LAX-MCI market as of this posting. Travel must be completed by May 9, 2012.

Routing rules vary based on carrier with United offering the most generous mileage-maximizing opportunities. Still, though, there are many options with American and Delta at under 4.0cpm

Selfishly, as I’m primarily a United guy and LAX-based, here’s an example of a zero-nighter available on May 2 and May 7.

Routing: Los Angeles to San Francisco to Cleveland to Kansas City roundtrip

Travel period: Now through May 9, 2012

Dates I found available: 5/2 & 5/7

Number of nights stay: 0

Day of week restrictions: Mon/Tue/Wed/Thur/Sat

Fare basis: GAG7CS

Fare: $188.60 all-in

Elite Qualifying Miles earned: 6,712 (assumes 500-mile minimums)

Cost-per-mile (CPM): 2.81

Example itinerary:

In other airline industry news this week…

• United Airlines announced new daily nonstop service from Newark to Istanbul effective July 1, 2012. Initially the route will be flown with United’s current international 767-300ER aircraft with three classes of service, but beginning August 28, the airline will swap in a new configuration that features BusinessFirst, Economy Plus and standard economy. United is planning to convert the current domestic 767-300 fleet typically seen on the Hawaii routes into this new layout.
• Delta Air Lines completed the installation of Wi-Fi on all Delta Shuttle aircraft flying the New York-LaGuardia to Boston, Washington National and Chicago O’Hare flights. According to the carrier’s local Senior Vice President Gail Grimmett, “We are thrilled that Wi-Fi is now available to our Delta Shuttle customers as it’s a perfect complement to other Shuttle amenities including free morning coffee and newspapers.” The carrier expects to have internet service available on more than 800 aircraft by this summer.
• Sticking with Delta for the moment, they announced expanded codeshare agreements with both China Eastern and China Southern Airlines this week. The Civil Aviation Administration of China approved the link-up of codes and flight numbers and once implemented, codeshare service will be seen across 34 cities within the U.S. and China with China Eastern and 18 cities with China Southern.
• American Airlines issued another letter to its employees this week notifying them of the necessity to “re-gauge” their fleet in order to match supply with market demand, particularly from their hub in Chicago. Current contracts with the pilot’s union prevent the carrier from subbing larger regional jets into markets currently flown with larger mainline aircraft, causing an industry-losing position in unit revenue. The letter also states the airline will focus on premium international business traffic once it exits Chapter 11 protection, hoping to grow their share of the lucrative segment.
• US Airways filed a formal objection with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday claiming Philadelphia’s planned airport expansion would “harm its finances and business operations and force it to shift flights elsewhere.” The carrier controls 70% of the market flying to, through or from PHL, and as a result, the airline would take the brunt of the all but likely increases to airport rates and fees charged to fund the expansion. The city, meanwhile, claims the proposed new runway and terminal expansion are essential to sustain further growth.
• Survey results were released this week from Buyology and uSamp (who?) revealing the most desired brand in the United States. Sorry, Apple, top honors went to Southwest Airlines. Buyology CEO Gary Singer thinks Southwest did so well largely due to its no-fee ad campaign and because of what its service represents in the minds of passengers.
• Finally, and hopefully not an omen of things to come at United, Cathay Pacific continues to have issues a week after it converted from an in-house reservations system to GDS provider Amadeus. Passengers with award tickets are still unable to manage their bookings online and the carrier is working through additional “teething issues” (their words) with the system migration. With United’s upcoming switchover, let this be a reminder to passengers to be proactive and have as much detail about their itineraries as possible in print.