Air Travel

Spotted at LAX: Happy Mom service

Passing through the International Terminal (TBIT) at Los Angeles International Airport last week I noticed signs at the Asiana Airlines check-in lines for something called Happy Mom Service.

Asiana Airlines Happy Mom Service

I got in line and found out that Happy Mom Service gives moms traveling with babies an expedited check-in line, complimentary breastfeeding covers and infant slings, and cabin baby seat installation and rental. The service also offers express boarding and express baggage delivery for moms with infants.

Asiana tested the service at Incheon International Airport and at airports in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Frankurt, Paris, and Sydney and last year expanded the service to all airports it serves.

Great idea!

Asiana Airlines Happy mom poster

Souvenir Sunday at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport

Suitcase kids

During an opening-day tour of the brand new International Terminal at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (officially: Tokyo International Airport) last week, I spent a good amount of time searching for souvenirs on the pre-security shopping street designed to evoke a very early style Japanese village.

Haneda Airport shopping street

And because Souvenir Sunday was coming up, I of course looked for inexpensive “of” the city or region items to share with you.

First up: Green Tea and wasabi-flavored Japanese Kit Kat bars, available by the single bar, the 12-bar box and in much larger mini-multi-pack versions.

Japanese Kit Kats - green tea

Other Kit Kat flavors being offered at the airport included strawberry cheese cake, blueberry chese cake, and Intense Roasted Soybean Flavor.

Blueberry chese cake Kit Kat

It turns out that’s just a small selection of the wild and wacky Kit Kat flavors available elsewhere in Japan – and around the world. Here’s a link to Fried Toast’s Flickr set of more than 100 types of Kit Kat ‘flavors.’)

I stocked up on Kit Kats and hit the Hello Kitty Store:

Hello Kitty with airplane

I contemplated buying these Super Hero-shaped water bottles, but realized I’d have to give them up at the security checkpoint.

Super Hero Water bottles

Instead I bought these cookies, which depict the airline of Sirotan, a white seal character popular in Japan –

Sirotan cookies

And, just because they looked fun and colorful, some paper souvenirs.

Haneda Airport souvenirs

After a morning poking around the shops in the International Terminal, I headed back to my hotel – which was conveniently located inside one of the airport’s two domestic terminals.  And there, at the Starbucks in the mall attached to Terminal 2, I found these special Starbucks mugs, made especially as an airport souvenir.

Special Japanese Edition Starbucks Travel mugs

Free Wi-Fi on Alaska Airlines… on one route in Alaska

Heading north to Alaska?

If you see Santa, send us an email from your flight.

While Aircell works on completing its Alaska-wide Gogo Inflight internet network for Alaska Airlines, passengers flying between Anchorage and Fairbanks will be able to use the service for free.

So far, Alaska Airlines has installed Wi-Fi equipment on more than 70 percent of its Boeing 737 aircraft and predicts it will have its entire fleet Wi-Fi ready by early 2011.

New favorite airline amenity: ANA aroma cards

I’m joining ANA – All Nippon Airways – in Tokyo for two days (yes, just two days!) for the opening of the new International Terminal at Haneda Airport.

Opening of International Terminal at Haneda Airport

Spotted in Domestic Terminal at Haneda October 20,2010

I’ll have lots to share shortly about the planetarium and other intriguing amenities at this new terminal, but in the meantime I wanted to share my favorite in-flight amenity from the ANA flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo.

The airline has two versions of these Sleep Support “aroma” cards, one called Relax, which emits a lavender aroma when you press “Push” and another called Refresh, which features “ANA Original Aroma.”

ANA aroma cards

ANA Sleep Support aroma cards

I requested extras so will award this to StuckatTheAirport.com readers who send along great Souvenir Sunday photos.

Feeling spacey?

NASA planets

If you’re a wee bit crafty, then NASA and Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade arts and crafts, want to hear from you.

The two groups are hosting a “Space Craft,”  contest seeking original handmade items or works of art inspired by NASA and NASA’s programs, such as the Space Shuttle Program, aeronautics, science and exploration of the universe.

astronaut

The deadline is November 2nd and entries can be two-dimensional original art (painting, drawing, prints, mixed media, photographic and computer generated prints) or three-dimensional, such as wearable art and soft sculptures.

The grand prize winner gets a $500 Etsy shopping spree and an trip, with a guest, to February’s shuttle launch at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  Three Best in Category winners will get $250 and gifts from Etsy and NASA.

I’m working on my entry, but here’s a link to some of the artwork already submitted.

And for inspiration, here’s one of my favorite space videos, Gumby on the Moon.

Souvenir Sunday at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport

Anchorage Airport muskox

The last time I flew out of the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport my plane-mates were a crew of rowdy guys heading home after a season of commercial fishing.

They’d started drinking long before the midnight flight departed and kept at it until shortly before we touched down in Seattle.

I’m sure a lot of those guys missed their connecting flights. And I doubt any of them took the time to explore the Anchorage airport (beyond the bar) before they left.

If they had, they’d have seen great Native Art, an exhibit about the Alaskan Flag and a wonderful collection of taxidermy wildlife that includes muskox, polar bears and this record-size Kodiak Brown Bear, killed in 1997.

Ancorage Airport World Record Kodiak Bear

Seattle-based writer Pam Mandel of Nerds Eye View recently spent some time in Alaska (you can see her report and her photos on her blog) and was kind enough to snap a few Souvenir Sunday photos at the airport on her way home.

Each Sunday here at Stuck at the Airport is Souvenir Sunday – the day we take a look at some of the inexpensive, offbeat and “of” the city souvenirs for sale at airports.  Pam spotted this postcard attached to some sourdough bread starter  (under $3) .

And packages of both moose and bear “droppings” for the Stuck at The Airport collection of airport “poop” candy:

Candy from Anchorage Airport: moose and bear droppings.

Thanks, Pam!

Read a book, get miles. Or win a trip to Disney World

Remember reading?

RIF (Reading Is Fundamental) and US Airways are working together on the third annual “Fly with US. Read with Kids” program and there are just a few weeks left to help them reach their goal of getting people to read to kids for 10 million minutes.

Getting involved is easy: find a book and a kid and read the book to the kid.

Then go to the program website before October 31st and log in the minutes you’ve spent reading.

Maisy flying for RIF

There are prizes: a grand prize drawing of a Walt Disney World Resort vacation package from US Airways Vacations, US Airways gift cards, and other giveaways.

US Airways will also reward you for donating money to RIF.

Contribute $50 or more and the airline will give you 5,000 Dividend Miles. Donate at leat $25 and you can get a special edition of Maisy Takes a Trip, by Lucy Cousins.

Whether you participate in the program or not, take a peek at the Read with Kids Challenge website, which has more than a dozen games.

Tidbits for travelers: contests, diaper cream and commercials

unique retreat room

Yesterday, I posted a version of my current USAToday.com column about some new airport amenities you might be seeing at an airport near you.  Things like short-stay sleep/work rooms, cigar lounges and machines that dispense sports apparel.

Here’s one more amenity to add to the list: a Nanny Caddy.

Nanny Caddy

These are vending machines filled with diapers, formula, pacifiers, bottles and other doodads parents might need when they’re on the road with a baby.  Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) has two of these machines  – Terminal B (Gate B5) and Terminal C (Gate C19) – and I bet we’ll see more of these popping up at other airports soon.

File under: you can’t win if you don’t play.

Fancy a trip to Australia? Then be sure to enter the Qantas 90th Anniversary Sweepstakes before October 20th.

First prize: 2 business class tickets from the US to Sydney, Australia. (Leaving by November 5, 2010), four nights in a swanky hotel and, get this, a flight around Sydney on John Travolta’s very own B707 airplane – with John Travolta as your pilot!

John Travolta - pilot

And, in keeping with my recent post about Air New Zealand’s zany, saucy commercials starring Rico, a sexy, silly, furry brown thing, here’s s sample from JetBlue’s latest campaign.