“Many airlines are awakening and seeing that people want healthy food choices,” says Platkin, an assistant professor at CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College in New York who has assessed airline food’s nutritional value in five annual surveys as editor of DietDetective.com.

In his latest this year, he ranks United Airlines No. 1 for healthy food, followed by JetBlue Airways and American Airlines.

For this year’s survey, Platkin contacted eight U.S. airlines, analyzed their menus for coach passengers on domestic flights and gave each airline a health score on a one- to five-star scale — with one star representing the lowest score and five stars the highest. The score was based on variety of food served, number of healthy offerings, number of fruit and vegetable offerings, an airline’s cooperation in providing nutritional information and nutritional improvement of food offerings since last year’s survey.

He also thinks highly of United’s Lite snack box, which has only 430 calories and includes lemon-pepper tuna, pita chips, unsweetened apple sauce and a chocolate pretzel.

For flights longer than three hours, a turkey sandwich with sundried-tomato aioli and potato chips contains 600 calories and is a wise nutritional choice, Platkin says.

The nutritional expert awarded JetBlue 3¼ stars.

US Airways received the lowest score — 1¾ stars. The airline offers “poor overall food choices” and not much variety, Platkin says. US Airways’ breakfast box — which includes cinnamon French toast, fruit salad, smoked turkey breast and other items — is very high in calories (705) and “offers little in terms of nutrition,” he says.

US Airways Vice President James Olson says the airline offers “a mix of tasty and healthy choices,” including fruit, cheese and yogurt.

Platkin says it’s important for airlines to provide nutritional information, because it shows how much they care about their passengers and public health. And some airlines are better than others at making it available.

Healthy airline food may seem like a contradiction, but it is possible to eat nutritiously at 35,000 feet, says self-described diet detective Charles Stuart Platkin. ” (via usatoday.com ) by Gary Stoller

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Luna is suing American Airlines for $15 million, saying that her delicious airline chicken dinner contained a lizard, which she bit into, and then became sick and dizzy. The airline denies that—American’s lawyer told the New York Post “there may have been some feathers, or what looked like feathers… but there was no lizard.”

So what happens when you find yourself locked in a legal battle with an airline for putting a lizard in your dinner? (After eight years, the trial is finally underway in Manhattan federal court.)

For one thing, you get to sit through a deposition with the airline’s lawyer—a very small portion of which we’ve included below—in which you are absolutely grilled over issues such as:

• The exact size of the bit-size chicken pieces in your chicken dinner, and what, if any, flavorings were included on those chicken pieces.
• The exact size of the green beans in your chicken dinner.
• The reasons behind your allergy to pepper.” (via  gawker.com) by Hamilton Nolan

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Drain a glass of water before your flight takes off. Dry air in an airplane cabin generally aggravates cold symptoms. Fight this problem by drinking a lot of non-caffeinated and non-alcoholic beverages while on board, too. Yes, staying hydrated on a flight can be inconvenient. But when you’re congested, changes in cabin pressure can spark intense pain in your sinuses, and the resulting discomfort can last for days afterward. You won’t regret the hassle of drinking up.

-Don’t overeat. Sorry to break the bad news, but there’s no scientific support to grandma’s saying, “Feed a cold and starve a fever.”

-Don’t assume your local pharmacy knows what Tylenol is. Pack an emergency stash of medicine for your trip. If you have to seek help at a local pharmacy, try to do some Internet research about the names of medicines in advance. Tip: In Europe, the generic pain reliever acetaminophen goes by the name of paracetamol.” (via  current.newsweek.com) by Sean O’Neill

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by ROB GOLDSTONE -nytimes.com

“AS soon as I board an aircraft, the first thing I do is make a beeline for the flight attendant and begin a routine that has changed little in 20 years:

Discreetly, I point toward my stomach, offer a half-smile and wait for a nod. Once I’m in my seat, I prepare for the “handoff.” Without making eye contact, the flight attendant approaches, and, like a player in a secret drug deal, quickly slips a small package into my palm: a seat belt extender.

At 285 pounds and 5 feet 7 inches, I may not be the tallest, but I am almost always one of the biggest passengers on a plane. That’s “one of”: as anyone with even the most tangential relationship with news headlines over the last several years knows, Americans are getting fatter and fatter. And as the well-proportioned gird themselves for the hassles of holiday travel, plus-size travelers like me prepare for a plus-sized ordeal.

It starts with finding a place to sit on the plane. The airline industry has responded to its ever-widening clientele with new rules: a handful of carriers, including United and Southwest, now insist that passengers who cannot fit comfortably into an economy seat (with the armrests down) buy a second seat (something I’ve done for years whenever possible); and three domestic carriers have instituted a policy that bans overweight people from sitting in exit rows. (Our bulk, they reason, could hinder an evacuation in an emergency.)

Yet for large travelers like me, the issues persist long after we have figured out whether to buy one seat or two. Going through airport security, for example, I could set off the metal detector not because I’m smuggling a box cutter or pistol, but because my girth comes too close to the sides of the machine, prompting it to beep. (After years of trial and error, I have a technique to eliminate this embarrassing possibility: I extend my arms forward, lower them with my palms out and twist my torso slightly to one side.)

But for truly novel challenges one must leave America, where being fat, in many ways, has become the new normal.

Having visited more than 50 countries in the last 20 years, I have become extremely adept at remaining calm and unfazed throughout situations that unfold because of my weight. Still, there have been occasions when I’ve been caught off guard.” (via  nytimes.com) by ROB GOLDSTONE

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to the the rest of – “The Tricks and Trials of Traveling While Fat “and check out the comments which are over 250 already

Dear AA,

You and I have had a close relationship for nearly 20 years, and it has been mostly wonderful.

In the beginning, as we were getting to know each other, I was OK with being herded to the back of coach as I worked hard to gain favor with you. I was committed to loyalty.

The day that I reached 25,000 frequent flier miles was a big deal for me. Wow. A free trip. But I wanted more. I wanted 50,000 miles for two free round-triptickets. So I persevered. I flew and flew and flew. And finally, I made it. And you came through, just as promised. My husband and I loved that vacation in New England with free airfare and all.

I was hooked. I made sure that all of my trips were booked on AA. You loved that, didn’t you!

Through the years, we have logged nearly 1.5 million miles together. And I thank you for my lifetime elite status. But things have changed. I haven’t seen an upgrade to first class in what seems like years. I notice you are booking the flights to full; there is not an open seat anywhere.

I don’t mourn so much for myself, because despite all the downgrading you’ve done, I retain my lifetime elite status. But I have to warn you that my eyes have been wandering.

In a few weeks, I’ll be flying to Massachusetts. On Delta.” (via  dailybulletin.com) by Mary Hunt of debtproofliving.com

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read all of  - Frequent flier breaks up with favorite airline

“We miss the peanuts too.” -US Airways pilot, South Carolina

What You Don’t Want to Know

“I’m constantly under pressure to carry less fuel than I’m comfortable with. Airlines are always looking at the bottom line, and you burn fuel carrying fuel. Sometimes if you carry just enough fuel and you hit thunderstorms or delays, then suddenly you’re running out of gas and you have to go to an alternate airport.” -Captain at a major airline

“Sometimes the airline won’t give us lunch breaks or even time to eat. We have to delay flights just so we can get food.” -First officer on a regional carrier

“The Department of Transportation has put such an emphasis on on-time performance that we pretty much aren’t allowed to delay a flight anymore, even if there are 20 people on a connecting flight that’s coming in just a little late.” -Commercial pilot, Charlotte, North Carolina

“The truth is, we’re exhausted. Our work rules allow us to be on duty 16 hours without a break. That’s many more hours than a truck driver. And unlike a truck driver, who can pull over at the next rest stop, we can’t pull over at the next cloud.” -Captain at a major airline

What We Want You to Know

“The two worst airports for us: Reagan National in Washington, D.C., and John Wayne in Orange County, California. You’re flying by the seat of your pants trying to get in and out of those airports. John Wayne is especially bad because the rich folks who live near the airport don’t like jet noise, so they have this noise abatement procedure where you basically have to turn the plane into a ballistic missile as soon as you’re airborne.” -Pilot, South Carolina

“Cabin air is not as dirty as people think. A portion of the air is recirculated because that helps to reduce humidity. But it’s run through hospital-quality HEPA filters, and it’s actually cleaner than the air found in most public buildings.” -Patrick Smith, commercial pilot and author, askthepilot.com

” (via  rd.com) by Michelle Crouch

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Today, AirTran, which also flies nonstop from Detroit to Orlando, released their flights for our travel dates. Delta, as I expected, modified their fares. The Delta flights initially cost more, but once you factored in the baggage fees ($20/bag each way on AirTran), the prices were almost identical. Which means Delta, which is where all my frequent flyer miles are, had the edge.

But there’s a problem. We’re all flying down together, but we’re not all flying back together. DW and I are coming home after a week, but son and family are staying a few extra days. So I called Delta to find out how to handle this.

The reservation agent told me there was nothing she could do. It had to be booked as two separate reservations, and the free bag perk only applies to the party that includes the cardholder. So only two out of six of us get to check our bags for free. Suddenly, the pricing is no longer competitive.

I booked our flights with AirTran. Not only was it cheaper, the flight times were better. (Our flight down leaves Detroit at 12:10, while the cheapest Delta flight doesn’t take off until 5:43.) Funny thing is, I still paid for the tickets with the Delta AmEx. I got it under a sign-up offer where I get 20K FF miles for my first purchase, and another 10K if I spend over $1000 in the first three months. So buying AirTran tickets is getting me 30K SkyMiles. Sheesh. ” (via tugbbs.com) by markbernstein

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Driving Every Loyal Traveller Away – the new Delta ( by Carolinian )

The design, named the “SkyRider” allows just 23 inches of legroom, which is about seven inches less than the average seat’s space of 30 inches.

The makers say the seat would allow budget airlines, such as Ryanair, to cram more passengers into their tight cabins

Shaped similar to a horse saddle, passengers sit at an angle, with their weight taken on by their legs. It allows seats to be overlapped.

The seats would also offer storage space including a shelf for carry-on bags and hooks to hang a jacket or a handbag. The makers say the seat would allow budget airlines, such as Ryanair, to cram more passengers into their tight cabins.

The seat, designed by Italian design firm Aviointeriors Group, based in Latina, in the country’s south-west, is to be unveiled this week at the Aircraft Interiors Expo Americas conference in Long Beach, California.

But while the designers claim it does not affect passenger comfort, they say it would only be suitable for flights of up to three hours.  ” (via telegraph.co.uk/) by Andrew Hough

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it’s important to know how to protect yourself in the event of a flight delay. First, you need a backup plan.

For more on what rights you have as a flier, check out Passenger Rights, and get up-to-date information on new federal laws protecting passengers in Airline Passengers Get New Bill of Rights.

Tips to Help You Help Yourself  (click link below ) ” (via  independenttraveler.com) by Traveler’s Ed

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The storms and strikes that cause such scenarios are nothing new, but this year many passengers have been surprised by how little airlines are doing for customers when a flight is canceled. In the scramble to be rebooked, travelers are generally given two options: a refund for the unused portion of their ticket, or a seat on the airline’s next available flight, which, now that there are fewer flights and many of those flights are full, could be days later.

Five or 10 years ago, airlines paid for hotels and meals more readily, but these days cash-strapped carriers largely try to avoid picking up such charges, even when the cancellation is the airline’s fault. Bill Mosley, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, said that the federal government does not regulate what airlines must do for passengers on canceled flights, though carriers are legally obligated to fulfill any promises made in their contract of carriage, the lengthy document that governs ticket purchases.

Here are some answers to questions that arise when a domestic flight is canceled.

When is a cancellation the airline’s fault?

Hardly ever. Most carriers give themselves plenty of leeway to avoid taking responsibility for cancellations or delays. Among the events that are considered beyond the airline’s control are: bad weather, acts of God, terrorist activities, war, strikes, “any shortage of labor, fuel or facilities” and “any event not reasonably foreseen, anticipated or predicted” by the airline.

Basically, the only time an airline might take responsibility for a delay or cancellation is when there’s a problem with the aircraft, although Southwest even includes “mechanical difficulties” in its list of not-our-fault situations.

Another problem is that it is the airlines — not an independent agency — that determine the cause of a delay or cancellation; a common complaint is that carriers blame everything on bad weather. Of the 50,000 domestic flights canceled in the first four months of this year — which accounts for 2.5 percent of scheduled flights, according to government statistics — two-thirds were identified as weather-related (those numbers do not include many regional flights).

Adam Martin was given the weather excuse in June when his American Airlines flight from Chicago to Washington required a mechanical fix. The flight was later delayed by thunderstorms and ultimately canceled, but Mr. Martin said he had to pay for a hotel and cab fare because the cancellation was coded as weather-related. “Had the plane been running properly, we would’ve gotten out just fine,” he said.

Andrea Huguely, a spokeswoman for American, said that the ultimate reason for a cancellation prevails — in this case, bad weather.

When does an airline have to pay for a hotel room?

If Mr. Martin’s cancellation had been deemed American’s fault, the airline’s contract of carriage reads, “We will provide reasonable overnight accommodations, subject to availability.” But airlines are often vague in defining when a cancellation is their fault, leaving plenty of wiggle room to avoid paying for a hotel.

Continental’s contract says that the airline will pay for one night’s lodging (or at least a “lodging allowance”) if a delay exceeds four hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. — except “when such interruption is due to circumstances outside Continental’s control.” According to Andrew Ferraro, a Continental spokesman, “required maintenance” is one situation that might cause the airline to cover lodging costs, although he and other airline representatives declined to outline when carriers would foot the bill, or to say how often that happens.

Southwest’s contract also states that it will find a hotel room near the airport “at no additional cost to you” if you’re stranded overnight and it’s Southwest’s fault, although Paul Flaningan, a spokesman, said that such a determination is based on each situation.

Bottom line: Don’t expect your hotel costs to be covered; legally, the airlines have created lots of loopholes to avoid picking up the bill. But don’t hesitate to ask, because most airlines make these decisions on a case-by-case basis. ” (via nytimes.com ) by SUSAN STELLIN

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