The giveaway I am running for the Lufthansa Magazine Special Issue on the 747-8i is ending tonight at Midnight, EST. To enter, go to the original post (here) and leave a comment with the route you have flown on the 747-8i or would like to see the plane fly.
(DO NOT leave a comment on this post.)
I will be declaring a winner tomorrow.
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Very interesting article on the Economist on possible innovations in the airline industry. I would personally like to see the pre-boarding using ‘people containers’. Here are a few selections from the article:

Coating common surfaces with silver to prevent the spread of colds and flu
People are pre-loaded into detached air-conditioned cabins that would then be rolled onto the plane (+1)
Localized temperature controls (+1)
Radio-frequency-ID-enabled travel documents
Seat allocation could also be based on the amount of hand luggage a passenger is carrying (+1)

What innovations would you like to see in airplanes, airports and …

Like everyone else on web, April Fool’s day has become a way to get some free attention by making outrageous claims (YouTube is shutting down!) and seeing who falls for it (yes, people do). Here are a few I found this morning:

Virgin Atlantic Launches worlds First Glass Bottom Aircraft!
WestJet Airlines eases restrictions on Animals on board (Including Bears!)

South Africa’s Airlines offers skywriting service (using Boeing Planes!)
Brussels Airlines and RyanAir announce merger (in French).

If you have seen another Airline related Aprils Fools jokes, do share by leaving a comment below. And …

Editor’s note – I wrote these posts when I flew to India a few weeks ago. Forgot all about posting them during my trip. Here they are – in the original order and form as I wrote them. Let’s pretend I am still on the trip… . Beats being at work anyways…

I am writing this from 36,000 feet in the air, somewhere above Boston. More importantly, I am on the aBoeing 747-8i! Or as Lufthansa tags it – a 74H.
I am on the upper deck, in Business class! And …

On Thursday Nov.15th, the Diane Rehm show, a radio program on NPR, produced by Washington’s own WAMU had a very interesting discussion. The topic in question was the impact of the strict new regulations being adopted by airlines after the Colgan Air flight 3407 crash. While the changes were needed – that fatal air crash was the result of pilot error – some experts are arguing that the requirements are too strict and will result in a pilot shortage in the near future. You can find a transcript on the …

Kingfisher airlines of India got in the news in many ways over the years:

It was an upstart airline owned by a liquor baron, who tried to be India’s Richard Branson
It bought low-cost carrier Deccan Air to jump the line to get a license to fly internationally
It declared plans to be the first Indian carrier to buy the A380
It declared plans to fly from Bangalore to San Francisco
It became the 1st airline from India to join an Alliance (OneWorld). This is on hold for now.

Lately, they have been in the headlines …

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I had a long stopover in Zurich a few weeks ago. It is a nice airport. The Swiss Business lounge was a great experience and helped the 6+ hours go bye fairly fast. The best part was the view from the lounge. Here are a few pictures I took walking to the lounge and from the lounge. The ;lounge is actually in another terminal. I …

If you visit India and have lots of luggage – as much as you were allowed on your international flight into India, the domestic airlines will take you to the cleaners for any domestic connections. In the good old days, major Indian airlines like Jet Airways, Air India and Kingfisher (ok, Kingfisher is not ‘major’ any more), allowed you the international allowance on the domestic legs as long as you could show an international itinerary within 24 hours of the flight. That is not true anymore. Almost all the airlines …

Skytrak announced its annual rankings for 2012. They rank all the airlines in the world by polling 18m airline cutovers around the world. And for the year 2012 (drumroll please) the top 10 airlines are:

Qatar Airways (Qatar) – No Alliance
Asiana Airlines (South Korea) – Star Alliance
Singapore Airlines (Singapore) – Star Alliance
Cathay Pacific (Hing Kong, China) – OneWorld
ANA (Japan) – Star Alliance
Etihad Airways (Bahrain) – No Alliance
Turkish Airlines (Turkey) – Star Alliance
Emirates (Dubai) – No Alliance
Thai Airways (Thailand) – Star Alliance
Malaysia Airlines (Malaysia) – OneWorld (Starting late-2012)

I am particularly impressed by …

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Any flight can certainly feel like the longest flight of your life. If you have a kid sitting behind you kicking your seat, a crying baby sitting next to you, dramatic turbulence, angry passengers, an irritating seatmate, or runway delays, you might feel like you’ll never get off the plane. But even though some flights feel like the longest possible flight, others actually are. Read on to …