Flights

Let’s say you request a vegetarian meal.  Or you request a kosher meal.  Or a diabetic meal. Either way, the airline gave you an option to request a meal ahead of time, and when you got on the airplane, it wasn’t avaliable. What should happen next? In India, a man …

I’ve written before that I can’t imagine how confusing taking a flight is for children.  I would have no idea how to explain TSA to them, and I can’t imagine how confusing the sounds and experiences of a flight are.   When my cousin was little, she grabbed her ears …

The Wired staff wanted to know what happens to your bag after it gets checked. So they threw a camera onto the bag to find out. From their introduction to the series they wrote: YOU PROBABLY THINK aviation is getting worse. Planes are more crowded, extra fees more nefarious, the …

One thing I like about travel is how norms seem to regulate behavior.  I mean this as a passenger, but I just listened to an air traffic control exchange (based in Dublin) where the other pilots jumped to ATC’s rescue when a pilot misbehaved. The air traffic controller continually tried …

Sometimes the DC to Philadelphia flight feels like it’s the shortest flight in the world.  By the time you make it to cruising altitude, the descent starts.  But that’s not the world’s shortest commercial flight–by far. The real shortest flight is Westray to Papa Westray in Scotland’s Orkney Islands, a journey which …

When a great fare comes up on an airline I don’t normally fly, the first question I ask myself is, “Can I still earn miles on this?” Usually, the answer depends on the alliance and the fare class, but sometimes there are squishier rules as well. Take Alaska Airlines for instance. …

The movie Carol is being shown on Delta’s IFE.  The storyline involves an affair between two women, and it’s pretty groundbreaking. There’s been a lot of controversy over Delta’s version of the movie.  The kissing scenes (along with some more explicit scenes) were cut out of the movie for Delta’s …

Talk about awesome plane spotting.  Passengers on an Alaska Airlines flight from Anchorage to Seattle looked out the window and saw the US Navy Blue Angels refueling in midair. From King 5 (a Washington NBC affiliate): Some passengers and crew on an Alaska Airlines flight had a front row seat as the …

When I’ve been booking flights, I’ve also tried to calculate how many miles I would earn for my flights at the same time.  This could influence where I chose to connect through, or whether I wanted to take a slightly higher fare (for more miles).  But I’ve had to manually …

I’ve spent a lot of time in flight and have developed my own set of habits.  But I have several items I always keep in my travel bag–just in case. Here’s my list of items that are with me on every flight. 1. A pashmina It’s really versatile. I can use it …