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Here are some fun photos from a day spent at Boeing’s Everett campus, learning about and touring the 787 Dreamliner and wandering around the 787 factory floor in preparation for Monday’s long-awaited delivery celebration for the first Dreamliner delivery to ANA.

A bit mystifying... No smoking, yet the FAA requires an ashtray.

787 Dreamliner cockpit

More 787s in the pipeline at Boeing factory in Everett

Saving money? Note masking tape fix to turn 777 to 787.

Categories: Airlines, Airplanes, aviation, Boeing, Boeing 787 Dreamliner
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Each Sunday here at StuckatTheAirport.com is Souvenir Sunday – a day to look at some of the fun things you can find when you’re stuck at the airport.

This week, I want to share a ‘souvenir’ that you might soon find inside the airplane. At the Airline Passenger Experience Conference (APEX), held recently in Seattle, I spotted this business class coat hanger.

If you’re lucky enough to fly in the business or first class cabin, a flight attendant will offer to hang up your coat.

To make sure your coat is returned to you at the end of the flight, the flight attendant will likely also ask for your boarding pass so it can be attached to the hangar.

This new business class hangar by the folks at Asian Pioneer has two wheels built in – so if you’re in seat 4B, the flight attendant merely dials up that combination when hanging up your coat.

If you’ve got an electronic boarding pass – as more and more people do – you have nothing to hand over. So this seems like a low-tech but spot-on solution.

Categories: Air Travel, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs
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Each week on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin blog I get to answer a reader’s question. This week’s topic: snow globes on airplanes.

During a recent trip to Disneyland, Camille Kohler’s 5-year-old daughter searched for the one souvenir she would buy and bring home with her to Anchorage, Alaska. After three days of consideration, she decided on a small snow globe from the popular It’s a Small World ride.

For the flight home, Kohler put the snow globe in her carry-on bag. But the water-filled souvenir never made it past the security checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport.

“To their credit, the TSA agents were trying to keep the confiscation on the down-low so my daughter wouldn’t see they were taking the snow globe,” said Kohler. “They even looked for a way to empty it. But at that point in the day, I didn’t even want to bring it to my girl’s attention, causing a potential melt-down at the security gates.”

Now Kohler wants to know: “Does the TSA have a rule specifically prohibiting snow globes?”

The answer is yes.

“Snow globes of any size are not permitted in carry-on baggage because there is no way for our officers to accurately determine the volume of liquid,” said Transportation Security Administration spokesperson Greg Soule.

If you do want to travel with a souvenir snow globe that, like Kohler’s daughter, you have carefully picked out, the TSA recommends that you put it in your checked luggage or ship it home. Another option is to shop for a souvenir snow globe at a post-security shop in the airport.

Wondering if your vacation souvenir will make it through the security checkpoint? The TSA has a tool on its website to help travelers like Kohler figure out what will and won’t fly. Overhead Bin plugged in “snow globes” and was sent to a “Check only” page that discusses liquids but does not specifically mention snow globes. A holiday-related section of the TSA website, however, does specifically state that snow globes are not permitted in carry-on bags.

And don’t worry too much about that lost It’s a Small World souvenir. Like all Disney movies, this tale has a storybook ending: “I’m happy to report that I was able to find a replacement snow globe on the Disney web site,” said Kohler.

Categories: Security, TSA
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ABC’s Pan Am TV show kicks debuts on Sunday, September 25th, and everyone seems to be trying to get in on the action.

Among them is Brookstone, which has rolled out more than 50 Pan Am-branded travel accessories from luggage and gym bags to watches and t-shirts. My favorites: this teeny-tiny Pan Am Explorer Bag that’s just 4.5″ x 6.5″ x 3.5, but which costs a whopping $43.

And this cute $23 coin purse.

More here and more, I’m sure, to come.

Categories: Air Travel, Airlines, Shopping
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It’s not unusual anymore for highly regarded local restaurants or well-known chefs to open eateries in airports.

Boston’s Logan International Airport does this with a twist: at the Dine Boston restaurant, located pre-security in Terminal E, the Dine Boston Visiting Chef Program showcases dishes created by a rotating team of New England chefs. The featured dishes change every three months.

Next up in the “moonlighting chef” series is Richard Garcia, the executive chef at 606 Congress, the restaurant at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel, where the menu features modern farm cuisine with regional influences using a lot of ingredients from farms in Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire.

For the Dine Boston program, Chef Garcia chose a New England Artisan Cheese Plate and main courses of braised Hampshire pork shanks with butter beans, orange gremolata and fennel or Atlantic Hook Line Caught Haddock with white bean & chorizo stew, yogurt cheese and dill. The featured dessert is warm organic chocolate ganache cake with candied beets and vanilla bean ice cream.

Sound tasty? As an added bonus, passengers who choose to eat at Dine Boston before going through security can request a special pass that allows them to use the security-line ‘shortcut’ usually reserved for frequent fliers.

Categories: Air Travel, Food, Restaurants
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