What Do You Think Of United Airlines’ New Uniforms?

by Libby Zay on

Starting today, passengers flying United Airlines will see the flight crew decked out in new threads. According to a press release, tens of thousands of worldwide employees – including flight attendants, customer service agents, technical operations and ramp workers – will begin wearing new, sophisticated uniforms with accents of blue, gold, silver and gray.

Although news outlets like Jaunted have questioned United’s choice to go against trend and not enlist a high-profile designer to create the uniforms, such as Banana Republic who recently outfitted Virgin America’s crew, United says the company relied on feedback from their employees to create the stylish yet functional clothing. Pilots will be the last to switch over to the new getup when they begin wearing new, midnight blue uniforms later this year. Once everyone has made the switch, the company’s attire will – for the first time ever – have a cohesive feel across all operations.

Subway Hack Guarantees You’ll Always Have A Handle

by Libby Zay on

In a move that would make video game legends Mario and Luigi proud, a woman used a toilet plunger suctioned to the roof of a subway car to help stabilize herself. It’s likely that the picture, which surfaced on Twitter, is just staged for video game lovers, but it’s kind of an ingenious way to keep standing when there’s no place to sit and no hand rail in sight.

That’s not to say everyone should start carrying plungers around – but if a less silly looking, easy-to-carry invention with a release valve was manufactured, it could be a blessing to short people everywhere.

But even if you think it’s a crappy idea, it looks like we’re not the only people who found the picture hilarious: it has already gotten more than 12,000 retweets and nearly 4,000 favorites on Twitter. Let’s just hope the plunger is clean, or else I feel sorry for everyone in that train car.

[via Gizmodo]

JetBlue Helps Man Pull Off Proposal At 10,000 Feet (VIDEO)

by Libby Zay on
JetBlue helped a man pull off a sky high proposal when the company let him take over the plane’s in-flight entertainment system to showcase a video montage of the couple’s five years together before he wedged himself between airline seats to get down on one knee.

“I’ve been with Taryn for five years and she’s the love of my life, so I had to do something that was super special,” Adam Leisle, 28, told GoodMorningAmerica.com. “I had heard of people proposing on flights, but it was always over the PA system, and they didn’t really have a plan to it.”

According to ABC News, it took months of back-and-forth organization between Leisle and JetBlue to try and figure out how to get the video to play on the company’s internal channel without being broadcast on every other flight in the air. But in the end, everything went off flawlessly, except, perhaps, for the fact that it’s a little hard to hear his proposal over the sound of the flight. But still, kudos to JetBlue for going above and beyond on this one – they even handed out cake pops to everyone on board the plane, and then greeted the newly engaged couple when they exited the plane with a congratulatory cake and a champagne toast.

Study Finds Slow Airport Security Has An Upside

by Reena Ganga on

Going through airport security is a lesson in patience for even the most Zen traveler, but the good news is that those frustratingly slow security screenings might actually be more effective. According to a new study, TSA screeners who take their time are more successful at identifying targets like weapons or restricted items.

The study pitted TSA agents against Ivy League college students to test how well each group conducted a visual search. The experiment was simple and tested natural search skills (searching for a particular shape on a computer screen) – so the TSA screeners had no advantage over the students. The results showed that the college students were faster at completing the tasks but the TSA agents were more accurate.Stephen Mitroff, the psychologist heading up the research, told NBC news that the TSA screeners were slower because they were more methodical, which is ultimately what led to better results. “Our interpretation is those who are most experienced have found their strategy and use it the same way over and over – whether you spiral through the bag or are zig-zagging left and right. If you’re always doing the strategy and always doing it consistently, you’re freeing up your cognitive resources – your other abilities to try to identify targets,” he said.

The research is part of a larger study being conducted by the Department of Homeland Security.

Jamaica’s Air Traffic Controllers Call In Sick

by Adam Hodge on

Jamaica‘s airports only experienced a small hiccup this weekend as the country’s air traffic controllers staged a sick-out in protest over low wages and mismanagement of the civil aviation authority. The posts were quickly filled by supervisors and managers and there were no reports of flight safety being compromised.

A Jamaican court has since granted an injunction to the Ministry of Labour, ordering the ATCs back to work, though there has been no response from the union representing the protesting workers.

Flights appeared to be operating more or less on schedule, though there were reports from the capital, Kingston, of delays on inbound and outbound flights. There were no delays at Sangster International in Montego Bay, Jamaica’s busiest airport.

The union had said that the sick-out will affect traffic in Jamaica’s airspace over the coming days. However, with the abandoned posts having been taken over fairly quickly by management, the impact of the protest appears to be less than hoped for.