Paris Hilton tweets from her on-board bed in her private jet

by Melanie Nayer on

It’s good to be rich. For most of us, we’re lucky if we get upgraded from economy class to business class. For Paris Hilton, economy class and business class are like riding in the back of a Plymouth Pacer.

The multi-millionaire hotel heiress gave us a peak into her world at 35,000-feet when she Tweeted a picture of herself reclining on a bed on her private jet as she flew to Paris, France. She was on her way to the namesake city from London when she reminded followers via twitter how much she loves London. And who wouldn’t love London if you leave and arrive in this kind of style?

London’s Daily Mail grabbed a hold of some of the party princess’s pics of herself on the jet – one of her on a double bed and another of her posing on a leather sofa.

Who knew planes could be this roomy?

Virgin America hooks up with Joie De Vivre Hotels

by Melanie Nayer on

It’s not quite the hotel announcement we were hoping for, but this news is pretty cool, too.

Virgin America will partner Joie de Vivre Hotels to allow Virgin America’s Elevate members to earn points when they join the boutique hotelier’s Joy of Life Club loyalty program.

To celebrate the new partnership, Joie de Vivre is allowing members to “double dip” and earn both Elevate and Joy of Life Club member points now through the end of 2010 when they stay at a participating hotel. For every eligible $1 spent on the hotel room rate during a 2010 stay, Elevate members will earn one Elevate point as well as Joy of Life Club points. In 2011, members will be asked to choose which program they want to accrue points.

But there’s more…

To celebrate the partnership, Virgin America and Joie de Vivre are hosting a digital promotion to award one stylish traveler a roundtrip flight for two to either San Francisco or Los Angeles from anywhere Virgin America flies and a two-night hotel stay at a Joie de Vivre hotel in California. To enter, tweet your idea of the “perfect match” using the #JoieDeVX hashtag to @VirginAmerica and the airline will select their favorite answer to win.

For full contest details click here.

Airlines rejoice at return of business travelers

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Business travelers are giving the airline industry a reason to be hopeful … which is strange. Usually, those guys are such a drag. Trust me; I was one of them for a while. Business travelers aren’t much fun at parties or anywhere else. Nonetheless, their presence on planes means more cash in the till for the airline industry, following two years of economic mayhem (and years of management that is what it is).

At a recent meeting of the International Air Transport Association, 700 industry leaders seem to have decided that the biz is headed in the right direction, though they remain cautious. Translation:

Cautious optimism means most airlines expect to make money this year after a couple of years of staggering losses, precipitated by the oil price run-up in 2008 and the global recession in 2009. A profitable airline industry could also be good news for business travelers as airlines restore the capacity they removed from the network during the last two disastrous years, putting many more seats on sale and offering a wider array of flight options on many routes.

According to IATA, the industry lost $80 billion in the last two years, four times the amount it dropped following the terror attacks of 9/11. Yet, the corner appears to have been turned. Originally, IATA predicted a $5.6 billion loss for the airline industry in 2010, but it has since changed the forecast to a $2.5 billion aggregate profit. This really only amounts to a margin of 0.5 percent (on revenues of $545 billion), which is basically irrelevant in light of the last two years’ losses, but at least it provides a glimmer of hope.
The suits are the reason for this mild form of airline economic bliss:

The rapid turnaround has been led by business travel. During the combined oil/economic crisis, business travel took the greatest hit with passengers traveling in international first and business class down by as much as 25% in May 2009 from the previous year. In contrast, the number of passengers traveling in international economy class was only 10% lower at its bottom point in March 2009 vs. the previous year.

Now that business travelers are back on planes, many problems are creeping toward resolution. Asia and Middle East are leading the recovery, but Europe is expected to lag, with an aggregate loss of $2.8 billion despite a forecasted passenger traffic increase of 2.9 percent.

You may not be crazy about all those cell phone-toting pricks lingering at the gate … but the airlines sure are.

Terrible seat assignment kills airline passenger

by Tom Johansmeyer on

When Nas Air flight XY 720 from Beirut landed in Riyadh, airport workers found just how severe having the worst seat on the flight can be. The passenger wasn’t alive any more, of course … oh, and he was found on the landing gear. The corpse, ostensibly cold, has been shipped off to forensic medical experts for tests, according to local authorities.

So, how did he get there? According to AFP:

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said passengers on the plane reported seeing a man in a baseball cap with a backpack make a dash for plane as it prepared to taxi. He stumbled once and then continued towards the plane.

The passengers and flight attendants let the pilot know about this, but he reportedly didn’t do anything about it. Nas Air is staying tight-lipped on the affair.

[photo by dynamosquito via Flickr]

The world’s longest and shortest flights

by Andrew Evans on

Because you’re just apoplectic to find out how you can maximize your time on an airplane, right? We covered this a while back, but things keep changing: planes keep getting bigger, stronger, and faster, routes change based on demand and somehow, we keep increasing our tolerance for being locked up and pressurized like pringles in a can. Fortunately, the world’s many airline nerds have already done the technical legwork–we just had to fact check:

  • At present, the world’s longest non-stop commercial flight is Singapore Airlines SQ21 from Newark Liberty (EWR) to Singapore Changi International (SIN) clocking in at a whopping 18 hours 50 minutes! Thankfully, the huge all-business-class Airbus A340-500 and world-famous in-flight service makes the halfway-around-the-world jaunt from New Jersey quite bearable. (In that same time, you could drive from Newark to Kansas City.)
  • The world’s shortest regularly-scheduled, non-stop commercial flight is on Scotland’s Loganair, from the island of Westray (WRY) to Papa Westray (PSV) in the Orkney Islands, clocking in at a meager 2 minutes (so I’m guessing there’s no beverage service).There are plenty of other super short commercial flights all over the world, mostly inter-island and commuter connections. The Caribbean’s LIAT flight between the islands of St. Kitt’s (SKB) and Nevis (NEV) is scheduled at 15 minutes long but rarely takes more than 5 minutes from take-off to landing.

(Photo Flickr: William James Tychonievich)