It is official.  I declare that Air New Zealand is the most fun airline on this planet.  You ask why?  Check this video below and you will agree with me wholeheartedly.  Always known for pushing the envelope, Air New Zealand packaged an important safety message into a well-made hobbit themed video that is not only fun to watch but also compelling enough to get you to pay attention.  For this brand new Hobbit inspired Safety Video, Air NZ partnered with WETA Workshop and it features cameo appearances including Sir Peter Jackson. What’s better?  Visit http://www.airnzcode.com/hobbitmovie to Find and Unlock the Elvish Code for your chance to win one of six double passes to the World Premiere Screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in New Zealand on the 28th of November 2012

I’ve not had a chance to fly #airnzhobbit but one of these days I’ll definitely do so to experience the fun. Oh, why can’t the other airlines take a leaf (or two) from #airnz and do such creative infusion into their drab and stale “professional looking” safety briefings. “If you need little more inflation, blow into your mouth piece..” LOL.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBlRbrB_Gnc&hd=1′]

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(source: CBSnews)

Image Courtesy: CBSnews.com

(Source: FourSquare via Flickr)

This awesome infographic published on the Foursquare blog, gives you a snapshot of the “checkins” across U.S. transportation facilities during last year.  I can see a glimmer of hope for High-Speed Rail by looking at this graphic, at least in the Northeast corridor. I’m hoping the proliferation of mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc) and the widespread acceptance/use of Foursquare app on these smart devices during this year will result in a much more intense mapping when the next edition of this graphic is published.  Happy Thanksgiving! Be safe on the road, everyone! Oh, and don’t forget to check-in when you arrive at a Transportation facility.

Image Courtesy: FourSquare on Flickr - Click Image to Enlarge

(Source: ABC)

Why doesn’t these things NEVER happen in my flights? Hmmm..  I am happy for these folks who had a bit of entertainment to cheer up during their long flight and a story to tell when they land. After battling the hassles of baggage check-ins and security checks, these folks probably appreciated this nice musical treat..

Note:  Silly me can’t help but think aloud about these questions: what would the reaction be if these guys were a bunch of middle-eastern musicians wearing traditional robes – how would the airline staff react to such a spontaneous request to play music?  Thank god, KLM staff were not so uptight about letting some musicians to get off their seats and play their gear..

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

It Can Cost More to Fly to Hartford Than Barcelona. What Airlines Consider in Setting Prices.  I have always wondered about this issue.  And am glad that someone is trying to answer this.

Image Courtesy: WSJ.com

Airline ticket prices often seem like a brain-teaser with little logic. From Chicago, a flight to Miami is more than twice as far as a flight to Memphis, but the shorter Memphis flight costs 25% more on average. Fly to Washington, D.C., from Hartford, Conn., and the average fare is nearly three times as high as if you flew to nearby Baltimore from Hartford, according to government data for the first quarter of this year.

The fares travelers pay typically have little relation to how far you fly, even though airline costs are largely dependent on the length of a flight. Long trips often cost less than short trips. Flights of the same time and distance can have radically different prices.

The price you pay for a ticket is driven by a number of variables: competition, types of passengers, the route and operating costs. But the biggest factor, by far, is whether discount airlines fly in a market. Low-cost carriers often set the price in markets because competitors feel compelled to match that price or risk losing customers and flying empty seats. And when they aren’t there, big airlines behave radically differently when setting prices.

Click here to read the entire article.

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(Source:  Time)

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents 230 airlines worldwide, increased its loss estimate from the $4.7 billion it forecast in March, reflecting a “rapidly deteriorating revenue environment.”

Although there has been growing signs of a bottoming out of the recession, IATA said the industry was severely hit in the first quarter with 50 major airlines reporting losses of more than $3 billion. Weak consumer confidence, high business inventories and rising oil prices pose headwinds for future recovery, the association said during a two-day global aviation conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Revenues are expected to decline by $80 billion — an unprecedented 15% from a year ago — to $448 billion this year, and the weakness will persist into 2010, it said.

“There is no modern precedent for today’s economic meltdown. The ground has shifted. Our industry has been shaken. This is the most difficult situation that the industry has faced,” said IATA Chief Executive Giovanni Bisignani. The Geneva-based association also revised its estimated loss for last year to $10.4 billion from $8.5 billion previously.

It said passenger traffic for 2009 is expected to contract by 8% from a year ago to 2.06 billion travelers. Cargo demand will decline by 17% and some 100,000 jobs worldwide are at risk, it said.

The association expects the industry fuel bill to shrink by $59 billion, or 36%, to $106 billion this year, accounting for 23% of operating costs with an average oil price of $56 a barrel. But crude oil prices have rallied in recent weeks, breaching the $70 a barrel level on Friday on hopes of economic recovery.

IATA said carriers in all regions were expected to report losses, with Asia-Pacific to be the hardest hit amid a sharp slowdown in its three key markets — Japan, China and India. The region’s carriers are expected to post losses of $3.3 billion, worse than the previous forecast of $1.7 billion but better than the $3.9 billion losses last year.

North American carriers are expected to lose $1 billion, far better than its $5.1 billion losses in 2008, thanks to early capacity cuts and limited hedging by U.S. airlines.

(Source: CNN)

There was a time when airline travel was a special treat, the kind of occasion that inspired passengers to dress up.

Take, for instance, “Mr. Poopy Pants” — a grown man who allegedly soiled himself 10 minutes into a flight from Florida to Minnesota. And then he just sat there.

 “We’ve all had our flying hell experiences,” said Gregg Rottler, creator of FlightsFromHell.com.

The site provides a venue for people to share their tales of woe, said Rottler. “It’s therapeutic … so it benefits them and provides entertainment value for others.”

Rottler, a 54-year-old environmental health supervisor in Tampa, Florida, launched the site more than two years ago. Since then,FlightsFromHell.com has attracted submissions from passengers and flight attendants that have run the gamut, touching on categories that include “odors,” “attendant issues,” “weird people,” and “luggage and delays.”

Among the story headlines: “Titanic toddler creates tumult,” “Wifey punched by elderly ‘sleepwalker,’ ” and “Lip-locked tousle-haired 20-somethings.”

“There’s something about being scrunched up with strangers … The seats aren’t that big, and once someone starts going wacko, it just creates an extremely stressful environment that was already stressful enough,” Rottler said.

TripAdvisor, the world’s largest online travel community, recently released survey results from more than 1,500 U.S. respondents asked to discuss what about flying bugs them most.

Flyers griped about fellow passengers snoring, vomiting and having “excessive flatulence.”

Click here to read the entire article.

The school’s Mobile Experience Lab explores the future of life with the mobile handset

(Source: ContactlessNews via Bernie Wagenblast’  TCN)

Most trials of Near Field Communication (NFC) have involved payment applications at the neighborhood department store, restaurant or transit agency. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge took a different tact, however, attempting to illustrate the many other ways NFC could be used in everyday life.

The result was a video featuring several students and how they utilized NFC-compliant cell phones. Right now, it’s more a vision on how NFC can influence the lives of citizens, says Federico Casalegno, director of MIT’s Mobile Experience Lab and one of the movers behind this NFC project.

(obtained via Associated Press)

LONDON (AP) — Board a train in London, and in 2 1/2 hours you can be in Paris, City of Light — or in Manchester, city of gray skies and grit.

It frustrates many travelers that sometimes the trip to Paris is cheaper. Advance fares to the French capital on the high-speed Eurostar train start at 59 pounds ($85), 7 pounds ($9) cheaper than a standard off-peak return to the city in northwest England.

A major report released Thursday provided more fuel for passenger complaints, finding that train travel in Britain is expensive, frustrating and confusing.

The government-commissioned study found that British rail journeys are among the highest-priced in Europe, while passengers find the country’s Byzantine fare structures baffling.

The report by watchdog group Passenger Focus said the same train could contain passengers who had paid 150 pounds ($215) for a ticket and others who paid just 10 pounds ($15). It said the structure of long-distance train fares was “complicated and not logical.”

To read the entire article, click here.