Ah. This iPad as an IFE (in-flight entertainment) device.

Jetstar is inching closer, and today, abudget carrier Iceland Express (unsurprisingly, based out of Iceland), is planning to offer them on their London Gatwick to Newark Airport via Reykjavik.

Although if you want an iPad and you’re not on first, there could be fun as there will be 25 units assigned per flight. Which isn’t that many consider how many seats a 737-700 can hold.

Rentals will cost £9 a flight, with the iPad lasting 10 hours, the flight in total lasting 11. Which whichever way you cut it is a long time.

It’ll be interesting to see how the content is locked down, and what deals are signed for the IFE.

Still – an innovative use – by the traditional problem will remain how to mount the thing….

Miles are a flexible currency, and like any currency, the value of them tends to go down as well as down.

And in the case of Lufthansa Group flyers you’ll learn about miles depreciating, with Miles and More suffering a 20% devaluation from next year.

Affected Airlines: Adria, Air Dolomiti, Austrian, Croatia Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa (and affiliated airlines), LOT, LuxAir and Swiss.

Here are the hard numbers: read them and weep. (With thanks to rcs85551 at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles-more-lufthansa-austrian-swiss-other-partners/1154001-new-m-m-award-chart-01-01-2011-c-f-rumour-confirmed.html)

Europe – North America (Business Class / First Class):
Previously 90.000 / 140.000, Now 105.000 / 170.000

Europe – S America (Business Class / First Class):
Previously 120.000 / 180.000, Now 135.000 / 210.000

Europe – S. Africa (Business Class / First Class):
Previously 90.000 / 140.000, Now 105.000 / 170.000

Europe – SEA or Far East (Business Class / First Class):
Previously 120.000 / 180.000, Now 135.000 / 210.000

3-Region-Award (Business Class / First Class):
Previously 160.000 / 240.000, Now 185.000 / 290.000

Round-The-World-Award (Business Class / First Class):
Previously 280.000 / 400.000, Now 325.000 / 480.000

Other Changes inculde:

• two stopovers allowed per award
• one way awards are now 50% and no longer 75%
• same day award ‘penalty’ of 10k has been removed

There’s also a full breakdown of the image (again from the Flyertalk thread and http://www.vielfliegertreff.de/blogs/rcs/21-aenderungen-bei-miles-more-bessere-bedingungen-teurere-praemienfluege-insbesondere-first.html)

My advice: Whilst I’m not an avid collector of Lufthansa Miles, this is one hell of a devaluation, and should serve as a warning to BMI Diamond Club members who will eventually merge into Miles and More.

The simple advice I’m going to give is this:

• If you want to redeem at the old rates, spend now.
• Diamond Club members, unless you want a really bad devaluation, spend now.
• Those who are considering status for 2011-2012, unless you can take advantage of a 30 Sector to Silver on the cheap or are flying business anyway, I’d seriously reconsider your strategy.

And it serves as a reminder – the value of miles goes down, as well as down. 

Well I haven’t had the deep joy about writing about this for months as it’s been bubbling away. But Unite has decided to call for strike action against BA again.

This time, it’s over travel perks, and reinstatement of those perks for members who striked who had had them revoked.

Unite’s mouthpeace Tony Woodley quotes that the decision that BA took was “needless and vindictive”, whilst his Unite staff have been “victimised and harassed” by BA.

Balloting will commence in 7 days time with up to 11,000 voting. Should a majority vote for a strike (not the total membership – just the ones who vote), then new industrial action could take place in the New Year. Thankfully for those travelling over the Christmas/New Year period, it’s too soon to call a strike.

The balloting process will begin in seven days’ time. If a majority of the 11,000 members vote for industrial action, this could begin in the New Year.

Whilst this is one of the four issues outstanding, it’s the one that Tony Woodley and Unite are pushing at. The rest have not been disclosed, but it does get rather long in the tooth.

The big question remains – do the staff have it in for another long fight, or are they prepared to compromise?

Or will the Union mouthpiece continue to make noises whilst the world changes around them with their head stuck in the sand?

BMI is as we know a funny olde airline. It’ll run ERJ-145′s for the fun of it into it’s main hubs whilst sending off A320′s to do charter work.

As regular readers know we know their revenue management also has a weird effect helping putting those small planes on trunk routes.

Well BAA at Heathrow is sort of getting annoyed at the Domestic traffic, with them increasing the passenger service fee to the same price as the international fee (the fee you pay to travel through London Heathrow from from £13.43 to £20.25).

To the point where BMI has asked the Civil Aviation Authority to review the changes and filed a compliant.

BMI Chief Exec, Wolfgang Prock Schauer has gone on the offensive saying:

“It is clear that BAA is unfairly penalising domestic passengers at Heathrow and discriminating against airlines flying between Heathrow and Scotland and Northern Ireland.


BAA is favouring long-haul airlines and neglecting the needs of local, UK airlines serving the domestic and Northern Ireland markets.


BAA’s plans will cause huge inconvenience and higher costs for travellers and so we have written to the CAA to make it clear that we will be seeking legal remedies under the Airports Act 1986. Without doubt, these planned higher charges by BAA would damage the economic links between Heathrow and key regions across the UK.


bmi has written to the political decision makers in Scotland and in Northern Ireland to outline the damage that BAA’s higher charges would do to the economy. We are receiving enormous support from Scotland and Northern Ireland on a political level and from the business community.”

Alas, these charges aren’t good, least of all they’ll divert traffic away from UK domestic, turning it Heathrow into an “International hub only” , and most of all if you think BMI will food the bill for this, you’re dreaming – it’ll be the passenger.

Alas, BMI is on a loosing front as it cut backs it’s Domestic services and putting on smaller planes. There appears to be some change in the strategy recently with larger Airbus’s taking over from ERJ’s. But if BMI can’t fill an ERJ thanks to the Low-Cost Competition eating from below (in the form of EasyJet and Ryanair) and higher quality airlines (such as Aer Lingus from Ireland) eating from the top, what hope is there for BMI to fill an Airbus A319 – let alone anything larger?

Again, this is where runway 3 would had helped. Alas, that isn’t going to become a reality for at least the next 4 years,so BMI has to do something to get custom up. A few suggestions include:

• Running services that actually connect with long haul services
• Getting some of the codeshares back with other airlines
• Sorting out the pricing so it doesn’t look like someone in accounting has priced people off the plane
• Running a decent and logical frequency for some services

Of course, this is BMI. With all the advantages it has (Their lounges and the relative peace of Terminal 1), they have to learn and take advantage of what they have.

Or else the competition will eat them alive.

A sad loss in the world of entertainment, and one who allowed many a frequent flyer to laugh out loud in “Airplane”, Leslie Neilson has passed away yesterday at the age of 84.

A serious actor at first, he found his comic timing, and it delivered in Airplane! followed by Police Squad and the Naked Gun Series.

A very sad loss indeed – but his humour will live on in the films.

Unsurprisingly however, airlines didn’t take to having Airplane! on their In-Flight Entertainment. A shame…. because sometimes you do need a bit of fun in the air.

So don’t take the fish, make it a bad day to give up drinking, and head to http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/airplane.txt for a lunchtime chuckle.

It’s Sunday again, so it must be time for some airplane p0rn.

This week, it’s a Delta 757 lined up on the runway at Los Angeles, with a CRJ-200 sneaking into shot as it’ll be next to take off – whilst I’m lining up for landing in a United A320. 

More next week!

Well as you prepare to put your seat into the upright position, here’s something a bit more unusual this week, with Krasair (Krasnoyarsk Airlines)’s safety demonstration for an Ilyushin Il-96-300

More next week!

For those of you travelling from the regions, expect delays as snow has fallen and is starting to cause minor to major delays

Check your airline, and double check your airport – you can find a list of UK airports at GhettoIFE.com, and visit their depature/arrival boards.

Good luck!

Me? TSA (Transportation Security Administration) Bashing? Could be – dread the thought some of them are competent, but alas – I seem to get the ones who are 1) deaf or 2) don’t understand the meaning of “Manually Scan my Film”.

And I’m looking forward to the day I’m selected for a Millimetre Wave Scan – as we all know, these scan are X-Ray based, and X-Rays’s are a cumulative effect – not a gradual fade.  

So instead here are some bumper stickers from Flyertalk. Make of them and print them as you feel

And closer to the truth than the Transport Security Administration would care to admit….

Credit: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-safety-security/1150875-new-tsa-bumper-stickers.html

Some people like them, but I’m not a fan.

Austrian Airlines (as well as Lufthansa and BMI) show off their new Europe Seat.

And oh dear. How thin does this look?

And spin forward to 50 seconds or so, and you’ll see this

Image – Austrian Airlines, grabbed from Video.

Oh dear. Silm seats, zilch padding, and it does look… ermm. Yes well.

Can anyone say uncomfortable?

As you may have read elsewhere, Boeing has had a few more problems with their 787 fleet, and having to ground the entire test fleet due to an onboard fire aboard a plane during test

The findings are out – and it’s not good news with Boeing have to develop “minor design changes” and updates to power distribution panels and system software.

Tests have been carried out in the labs, and are moving towards fixes on the ground, whilst it revises the planes to re-deploy the 787 test fleet into action. This will require FAA approval before they can take to the air again.

So yes, the 787 programme is grounded, and delayed again. Boeing state that “a revised 787 programme schedule is expected to be finalized in the next few weeks”.

Which is going to annoy ANA as they are first to fly the aircraft. However, Qatar are now reported to be annoyed, and Qatar airlines’s CEO going so far to say

“I was really taken aback by the (787) programme. I never expected a programme could be delayed so much with a company like Boeing, which has pride in its quality. They have very clearly failed,”

Ouch.

Considering the popularity of this frame, those are very harsh words indeed. Harsh words that has 60 aircraft in the balance (both in firm and options)

Can Airbus avoid a messup with the A350 frame now? I think not alas. The 787 is having a very troubled birth alas……