You would think that flight attendants would be happy about their employer spending more to take care of customers. After all, a happy customer is easier to work with and there is a certain sense of pride that comes from offering a product that makes the customer say, "Wow, this is pretty cool." But in the case of American Airlines' new turn-down service for first class passengers, the APFA flight attendant union has expressed outrage instead. Here's part of a note that went out to AA ...

"One minute we were sitting next to each other kissing, holding hands and the next minute he was choking," said 27 year-old Vanessa Preechakul of her now deceased boyfriend Robert Rippingale.

The two were on a Jetstar flight from Singapore to Auckland and as they were digging into their beef dinners, Robert began to shake. Vanessa thought he was just enjoying the movie, but as his volume increased and his lips turned purple, she knew something serious was going on.

But by ...

When you are evaluating the acquisition of new technology how do you determine whether it will be a good fit? Do you just buy it without testing it, as the U.S. did in the case of airport full body scanners, or do you operationally test it, garner feedback, and carefully perform a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether the technology is appropriate? Germany chose the latter course and after nearly a year of testing, has flatly rejected full body scanners, labeling them unreliable and ...

Changes are coming to the British Airways' Executive Club mileage program--and they do not sound good for North American travelers. At this point, we can only speculate, which I do not see much value in, but here is what we do know:

Earlier today a company representative from BA posted a link on Flyertalk to a page that discusses the upcoming changes, which include:

A renaming of Executive Club to Avios points

BA Miles have been the familiar currency of the Executive ...

I really do think many travelers suffer from the "grass is always greener on the other side" syndrome when comparing U.S. airlines to those carriers outside the U.S. Sure, the Southeast Asian carriers like Singapore and Cathay Pacific offer a superior product, but the assumption that non-U.S. carriers are inherently better than U.S. carriers is just plain wrong--and I speak from personal experience. Nevertheless, the soft product on U.S. legacy carriers in international first class does often ...

Fozz already nicely summarized the $550MN enhancements coming to United Airlines' onboard product, but here's a closer look from Scott O'Leary, Managing Director of Customer Solutions at United with my commentary below:

Improved long-haul comfort with more flat-bed seats. In September, we’ll begin installing all-new flat-bed seats in the premium cabins on 26 Boeing 767s – 12 Continental 767-400 aircraft and 14 United 767-300 aircraft (the ones currently in a domestic ...