CW network to launch series on Virgin America flight attendants

by Grant Martin on

Have you ever wondered what Gadling’s resident flight attendant Heather Poole does in her spare time? It’s the stuff that legends are made out of — or maybe TV shows. That’s what the CW is banking on as they prepare to launch their new series called ‘Fly Girls’ this spring, in which they follow a hand full of Virgin America flight attendants around the country, working on planes, dating rockstars, hitting up parties and enjoying the life of young jetsetters.

As a recent article in the LA Times puts it, think Gossip Girl meets The Hills — in the airline industry. The perfect recipe for drama, right?

As to Virgin America‘s role in the overall series, they’re trying to stay hands off. That same article quotes Porter Gale, the VP of marketing as keen on letting the production crew do its thing without any egregious VX branding or advertorial throughout the series. Good call.

Having personally met two of the crew around which this series is based I’m interested to see how their personalities filter through CW. In real life they’re fantastic, friendly people and my hope is that the camera doesn’t change this.

Either way, ‘Fly Girls” premiers in March, at which point you can see Louise (left) and Mandy (right) in action. Keep an eye out for them in the skies in the meantime.

Designing the ideal boarding pass

by Grant Martin on

Underwhelmed by your boarding pass? You’re not the only one. That clustermess of bar codes, letters and numbers has enough discombobulating components to make your head spin, usually in the critical four seconds when you’re putting your belt back on after security and NEED to know where your gate is.

Tyler Thompson over at Squarespace realized this, and in a brief bout of creative design genius proffered a few alternatives to the everyday, sad boarding pass of today’s airlines.

You can check them all out at passfail.squarespace.com, where commenters have taken on the initiative to post a wide spectrum of redesigned passes on their own.

How hard would this be to implement in real life? As Virgin America has shown it’s not too difficult to inject a little bit of punch into your card stock, but Thompson’s designs may be a reach. Color isn’t easy or cost effective to print (for the negative details) and legacy airlines have a hard time making “drastic decisions” like changing their boarding passes.

Still, it’s an effective way to pointing out the lazy, boring design in the current state-of-the-art and the designs are magnificent. Perhaps when Gadling Air takes off we’ll borrow a few.

Up next in airplane design: Donut planes?

by Grant Martin on

Should the airline industry begin designing donut shaped airplanes? It’s a suggestion posed by the folks over at Lonely Planet, who after running an informal survey discovered that over 60% of respondents preferred sitting in the aisle over the window on an airplane.

Problem is, few seats on an aircraft are actually adjacent to a window. And that’s where the crafty design comes in.

In jest, LP put together a few different concepts to engineer more window-room into an aircraft. Their most adventurous? The donut shaped airplane, where a hole in the middle of the body allows passengers on the inside of the cabin to look down (and across) out into the blue sky.

Another option proposed was the glass bottomed aircraft, so that all passengers can see directly below them at all times. Yikes.

Admittedly LPs sampling for their study is probably a bit skewed — anyone reading their guides or site is probably already more adventurous than three quarters of the world (and thus might have a higher probability to stare out the window) but the survey is an interesting study in “what if.” For now, passengers will have to settle with watching the nose and belly cam of their aircraft on the right In Flight Entertainment.

You can check out the designs crafted by LP over at their travel blog.

Air Canada ordered to offer a no-nuts option for allergic flyers

by Katie Hammel on

The Canadian Transportation Authority has ruled that Air Canada needs to create a “nut-free” zone on all of its flights, to accommodate those passengers who are severely allergic to nuts. The order came after two passengers complained that the airline had failed to properly accommodate their allergies, which the CTA ruled should be treated as a disability.

According to Toronto’s National Post, the airline has “30 days to come up with a plan to create a ‘buffer zone'” to separate those who have nut allergies from the rest of the passengers, who may receive a snack with nuts in it.

I feel for people who have severe nut allergies, really I do. The constant worry that something you eat may contain nuts, the fear that someone may eat a nut near you and cause you to have a bad reaction, the pain of not being able to enjoy all the delicious nuts out there in the world. I mean, have you ever had a macadamia nut? Those things are pure heaven.

Should passengers be denied the right to eat something delicious because there is a chance that another person on the plane might be allergic to it? It’s tempting to say no, but really, when you think about it, is offering a peanut-based snack so important that it is worth risking someone’s life? Some allergies really are that severe and there are plenty of other snack options out there that don’t involve nuts. I actually have to side with one of the complaining passengers on this one – it just makes more sense to get ride of nut-based snacks altogether.

[via USA Today]

Bring headphones – Airplane tip

by Gadling Staff on

Headphones are an absolute “must-have” when traveling on an airplane, for several reasons —

  1. On longer flights, it’s common to show a movie, and you probably want to hear it well.
  2. On other flights, the plane may have on-board games or on-demand music.
  3. Of course, you may bring your own pre-recorded music to help get away.
  4. The largest benefit, though, is simply to help cancel out “airplane noise.”

Airplanes can be very loud — for example, engines, crying babies, or a snoring aisle-mate can all make a flight more stressful. Headphones are an important accessory to help you relax, tune out the sounds, and pass the time.

An a pinch, you can always put headphones on to avoid a chatty seatmate (you don’t even need to turn on music to silence your talkative neighbor).

[Ed’s note: See all Gadling’s posts about headphones here.]