What with my appointment to see how the new make-your-own ice-cream machine works and the three hours I spent cooling my heels waiting for a friend’s flight to arrive, I ended up spending a lot of time at Boston Logan International Airport last week.
That was fine with me. The ice-cream was yummy. The Wi-Fi was free. And there were plenty of comfortable rocking chairs to sit in.
Most of the airport’s rocking chairs are plain white models, but a fair number of the chairs have been transformed into colorful works of art. Next week, there will be even more: the airport is having a reception to celebrate the addition of 19 new art-adorned rocking chairs to the fleet.
As part of its Liberty Weekend festivities, the Orlando International Airport (MCO) will present a free concert by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert will take place at 8 pm, on Saturday June 26, 2010 in the atrium of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, which doubles as the public lobby area for gates 60 to 129. All attendees will get three hours of complimentary airport parking.
Saturday June 26th and Sunday June 27th, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, unticketed visitors are invited into Silicon Valley’s Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) for a sneak peek at the new high-tech Terminal B. The new building includes seating areas with built-in power ports and public art that includes German multi-media artist’s Bjoern Schuelke’s Space Observer, an interactive, two-story tall robot-like structure with three legs and propeller-equipped arms.
Registered visitors will be able to walk through the terminal, see the art, buy a souvenir and enter drawings for prizes that will include airline tickets and travel packages.
If you plan on visiting the terminal, you’ll need to register in advance on the SJC website by Wednesday, June 23rd and pick the day and time you want to stop by.
The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics kick off in just a few weeks and Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is getting ready to welcome more than 230,000 athletes and Olympics-bound visitors. Actually, the airport has been sprucing up for quite a while. In addition to its swanky new Observation Gallery, the airport has had these giant Olympic rings on site since last spring.
The installation is almost 46 feet tall, weighs more than 9,000 pounds and has 20,385 individual LED lights. Here’s a video that shows the installation process and some of the colored-patterns that can light up the sky.
In other shiny news, the folks at Air New Zealand unveiled their “Skycouch” today. It’s a specially designed row of three seats that can transform into a flat space suitable for stretching out and sleeping. That is of course, if you’re not too tall, you don’t mind snuggling up with your seatmate, and you have purchased the entire row. (The airline says it will sell you third seat at a discount if you’ve purchased the other two).
(Photo courtesy Air New Zealand)
Twenty-two sets of Skycouch seats will be available on Air New Zealand’s new Boeing 777-300 ER planes, which will arrive in November.
And since this is the airline that sponsored a recent Matchmaking flight and created an adorable “nearly naked” commercial and safety video, I fully expect the airline to offer a program to find travelers the perfect snuggle-mate for these flights.
Otherwise- why bother?
Along with the Skycouch and other new amenities, the airline also introduced upgrades for the Premium Economy cabin, including the cool-looking “Spaceseats” you can see in the airline’s promo video.
So what do you think? “Groundbreaking” or just really darn cool?
The folks at 3M Privacy Filter did a little survey and discovered – no real surprise here – that a majority of Americans would rather go to the dentist than sit in a middle seat on a full flight.
To help dull the pain, the company asked business travel expert Chris McGinnis and etiquette expert Anna Post to put together a basic, yet handy and downloadable, Middle Seat Survival Guide. (As I wrote in a Well-Mannered Traveler column in 2007, Delta Airlines has tried its hand at this too.)
Want to avoid that middle seat altogether? Through August 31, 2009, 3M Privacy Filters is also inviting travelers to enter a contest to win two round-trip first class tickets within the United States. You can enter that contest here.
Have some of your own tips on how to avoid, or deal with, the dreaded middle seat? Share your ideas here.
After alarming travelers with the ‘joke’ about on-board pay-toilets (don’t be surprised…), Ryanair officials asked travelers to send in their own ideas for other discretionary fees that could be charged.
They did.
As of today (April 14th) close to 45,000 votes have been cast. And sadly, so far more than 20,000 people have voted in favor of charging excess fees for overweight passengers.
Other survey choices include charges for bringing your own food onboard, for using airplane toilet paper, and for smoking in a converted lavatory. Click here to take the Ryanair survey. The winning idea gets a cash prize. Voting closes Friday, April 17th.
