JetBlue Celebrates 7th Anniversary With Giveaways

by Willy Volk on

Last year, JetBlue Airways created quite a stir when it announced plans to remove a row of seats from each of its Airbus A320s, giving passengers several more inches of leg room to stretch into.

This week, JetBlue will celebrate its 7th anniversary with daily prize giveaways in its “Seven Year Stretch” instant-win game. Each day, the airline will give away prizes that help people to “stretch out” or relax. For example, prizes include La-Z-Boy recliners, spa certificates, and roundtrip airfare. Unfortunately, I don’t think JetBlue can manage to get you a day off work.

Entering the contest is easy. First, ff you’re not a member of TrueBlue, JetBlue’s customer loyalty program, you need to sign up, which is free and takes about 1 minute. Once you’re a member, you just visit the website, complete the simple entry form, and click the “Enter Me For A Chance To Win” button. If you receive a winning prize message, you’re an instant winner. If you don’t receive a winning message (like me!), then rest easy: there’s always tomorrow. And happily, the prizes keep getting better all week long.

Russia’s First Budget Airline

by Neil Woodburn on

The budget airline trend which has swept through Europe in the last few years has finally reached Russia.

On Monday, January 29, SkyExpress launched Russia’s budget airline category with an $18 flight from Moscow’s Vnukovo airport to the city of Sochi on the Black Sea.

Affordable transportation has always been a goal of Russia, the largest country in the world. Without it, the country would grind to a halt. “When the trains stop,” Lenin once said, “that’s it.”

Unfortunately, “affordable transportation” usually means 3-4 days on a train. Personally, I love the trains. But the last few times I’ve been to Russia I simply didn’t have the luxury of such time and purchased airline tickets instead. Russian domestic flights are still somewhat affordable for tourists (the Sochi flight is normally $105 on Aeroflot) but not so much for the average Russian.

A budget plane option will be a godsend to Russians tired of traveling long distances on trains. Let’s just hope that “budget” doesn’t’ mean cutting too many corners. Russia already has one of the worst airliner safety records in the developed world.

Print Your Southwest Airlines Boarding Pass Without a Printer

by Justin Glow on

People seem to either love or hate Southwest Airline’s boarding policy. If you’re not familiar with it, it goes a little something like this: You purchase your plane tickets like you normally would, but you’re not issued a boarding pass. Starting 24 hours before your plane takes off, you’re free to go online and print out your boarding pass, or wait until you’re at the airport. Trick is, the plane is divided into three groups: A, B and C. If your boarding pass has an A on it, you get to board first. If it has a C, well, you get the picture. The quicker you print out your boarding pass, the better your chances are of getting that coveted A boarding pass. Typically you can find me sitting in front of the computer, counting down the seconds until the 24-hour window opens up so I can print out my A.

I ran across a little trick, however. Last time I was in Las Vegas, the hotel I was staying at (don’t ask!) didn’t have a business center, and since I typically don’t carry around a bubble jet when I travel, I couldn’t print out the boarding pass. The great thing about Southwest’s system is you don’t have to have a printer. You can just log in to their website, get your boarding pass, and when it gets to the screen where you would print, you’re done. Then, when you’re at the airport, find a Southwest Airlines kiosk and insert the credit card you used to purchase the tickets. An option will pop-up on-screen asking if you’d like to reprint your boarding pass, as the system knows you’ve already printed them once. They do this in case you accidentally lose your boarding pass, I guess, or if your printer runs out of ink half way through the printing process. It’s a handy trick to know if you’re stuck somewhere without access to a printer, yet still want that A boarding pass.

In-flight iPod Seat Connections: Watch Your Movies On The Plane

by Jonathon Morgan on

Looks like United, Delta and Continental “hope to install iPod seat connections in their plans by mid-2007.” But so what, right? Isn’t that why you have an iPod — because you don’t need to plug it in to use it?

But according to Apple, this means that travelers can “power and charge their iPods during flight and allow the video content on their iPods to be viewed on the seat back displays.”

Finally! An alternative to in-flight movies for overseas trips. I’ve been on maybe two flights in my life where the movie selection wasn’t awful, and even when there is something decent, they’ve inevitably edited it so thoroughly for “offensive content” that it’s barely worth watching.

Beyond the domestic carriers, it looks like Air France, Emirates and KLM will also be installing the iPod connections.

I think I’ll wait to plan my next European trip until after these get installed — just so I can try it out!

Flight Plans of Corporate Jets Leaving the Super Bowl

by Neil Woodburn on

I find this rather fascinating. The above graphic was snapped by Flight Explorer Pro at 10:00 a.m. Monday morning, the day after the Super Bowl in Miami Florida.

It tracks the number of corporate jets leaving the Miami area and heading off to wherever they came from. You can see the definite patterns toward the hometowns of the two teams which played; the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts. And then there is the slew heading off to the East Coast to drop off the movers and shakers on Madison Avenue and Wall Street.

Must be nice to travel by corporate jet to the Big Game. It sort of makes me wonder who is getting paid more; the players on the field or the fans in the stands?

(Thanks for the tip, Marilyn)