The occasion: a celebration and a last goodbye to the old terminal in anticipation of the opening of a brand new terminal Wednesday morning, November 6.
The old terminal, with its low ceilings, worn seating areas and multiple ticketing lobbies for different airlines, was closing down as the parade marched by.
The last flights of the night were boarding and the Lucky Dogs stands were wrapping up business.
During the day on Tuesday, workers hurried to put finishing touches on restaurants and concessions.
There were speeches and a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
And, of course, cake.
The new Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport terminal is a beauty.
There are 3 concourses, a central security checkpoint, stages for live music, a Delta Sky Club with views of the airfield activities and oodles of restaurants and shops that represent the charm of the city.
Here are some snaps from a pre-opening tour.
Entrance to the Delta Sky Club
Stuck at the Airport will be on hand for the first flight out of the new terminal at 5:00 AM on Nov 6, so stay tuned for more snaps and stories.
And if you happen to be at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) today, you’re in for a real treat.
For Halloween, the LAX Pets Unstressing Passengers (PUPs) Program will hold its 5th Annual Howling Halloween Parade with the pups (and some handlers) dressed in costumes.
The Halloween parade is scheduled to start today (Oct 31) at 11 a.m. inside Tom Bradley International Terminal and then continue into Terminals 4 and 5.
Other airports are going all out to celebrate Halloween as well.
Lilou the Pig visited San Francisco International Airport (SFO) in her Halloween costume.
— San Francisco International Airport (SFO) ✈️ (@flySFO) October 30, 2019
And check out these images of “Red Skeleton” making his way around Witchita Airport (ICT) in the days leading up to Halloween.
Bone-jour! Meet our friend Red Skeleton. He's excited to explore and meet new people at ICT. Follow along to see where Red is each day until Halloween. 💀 pic.twitter.com/HATVfm8rgM
Red is flying Sky Priority! Over his many years, he has racked up enough points to be in the Million Miler status. Way to go Red! @Deltapic.twitter.com/CGSknZOOlC
Note the small string of lights wrapping one of the Bigfoot items. It’s a charming signal that the holidays are coming right up. And a gentle reminder that there are lots of reasons to do all your holiday shopping at airports.
We agree. Stay tuned for more gift-worthy items we’re finding in airport shops this year.
The pre-security event gives travelers and locals a chance to sample dishes from more than 30 airport eateries.
Participants range from One Flew South, Cat Cora’s Kitchen, Atlanta Chophouse and Brewery, Atlanta Braves All-Star Grill and Paschal’s to Piece of Cake and Krispy Kreme.
Tasting tickets are $15 for a
book of 10 and you’ll need to hand over 1 ticket per taste.
You can purchase tickets on-site and 100% of the proceeds will benefit the Atlanta Community Food Bank, a local nonprofit that distributes millions of pounds of food to community kitchens, shelters, senior centers, food pantries and more throughout the year.
The event runs from 11 a.m. to 4
p.m. and includes music and a cooking competition with two airports chefs
competing for the title of Taste’s Top Chef 2019,
Well-known airlines such as Pan Am, TWA, US
Airways and Virgin America are long gone. And in just the past two years more
than two dozen other airlines went from soaring to shuttered.
So, it is noteworthy that KLM Royal Dutch Airlines turned 100 on October 7.
The Dutch flag carrier is not only one of the world’s oldest airlines, it is also the oldest airline still flying under its original name.
It’s also the only airline where the
guest of honor at its annual birthday party is the newest version of the three-inch
tall porcelain house gifted to business class passengers flying on the
carrier’s intercontinental routes.
The history of the houses
Back in 1952, KLM began giving its first-class
passengers a gift of a miniature Delft Blue pottery house portraying a
historically or architecturally significant Dutch building.
Because there were rules and limits regarding
the value of gifts to passengers, the airline filled the houses with gin so
that they were technically not gifts but free cocktails that just happened to
be served in souvenir containers.
New editions of the souvenir houses were created on and off for many years until 1994 – KLM’s 75th Anniversary – when the airline commissioned a bonus catch-up batch of miniature houses so that the number of souvenir houses in the series lined up with airline’s age.
Now one of the airline industry’s most
sought-after complimentary inflight amenity, a new miniature Delft Blue porcelain
houses filled with Bols Genever, a popular Dutch gin, is unveiled at the
carrier’s birthday party each October 7. The new house is cycled into the
assortment of miniature houses business class passengers can choose from on
each flight.
A handy app helps passengers and collectors track the KLM houses they
have, or still need. Swapping is popular and there’s a robust secondhand market
in Amsterdam shops and online, with prices ranging from about $15 for the
common houses to upwards of $550 for some of the rarer editions.
Over the years, KLM’s miniature houses have depicted everything from the home of Dutch exotic dancer and spy Mata Hari to the Anne Frank House and the Rembrandt House.
In 2014, KLM’s miniature house portrayed
the Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam.
Hotel New York in Rotterdam
Rotterdam’s Hotel New York, in the
former headquarters of the Holland America line, was the featured house in
2016. And the home in Haarlem where Dutch aviation pioneer and aircraft
manufacturer Anthony Fokker once lived was honored with a miniature gin-filled
house in 2017.
KLM Delft miniature house #98 depicted the home of Dutch aviation pioneer Anthony Fokker in Haarlem
KLM’s 100th anniversary house
KLM’s much-anticipated 100th
Delftware miniature building was revealed at the carrier’s 100th
birthday party, held in a hangar at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on October 7.
The event was attended by more the 3500
people, some of whom had flown in just to be among the first to get their hands
on the newest miniature house.
Courtesy KLM
The 100th
house is a replica of Huis
ten Bosch Palace in The Hague, the current home
of the Netherland’s King Willem-Alexander and his family.
The palace was built in the mid-17th century
for Prince Frederik Hendrik of Orange and his wife Amalia van Solms and was
chosen to be KLM’s 100th miniature house to honor the strong ties between
the Dutch Royal Family and KLM since the airline’s early days.
The future of the KLM houses
While KLM’s Delftware miniatures
are highly collectible and closely tied to the carrier’s branding, KLM is also
committed to making aviation more sustainable.
To that end, the carrier uses electric baggage towing tractors, purchases carbon offsets, operates many flights using a biofuel mix and works to reduce waste and weight on flights.
But ditching the miniature
porcelain houses to lighten loads has not been considered.
“There are things you should do and things which you shouldn’t do. Period,” said KLM’s President and CEO Pieter Elbers, “For sustainability, we are investing in lightweight containers, trolleys, cargo nets, bottles, glasses and many other things to reduce weight on our planes,” said Elbers, “But those houses, we won’t touch.”
One of the best parts of traveling is encountering the foods, traditions and quirky characteristics of another country.
Like, say, Canada.
You may think you know what Canada and Canadians are like.
But here’s a low-key, apology-infused airline promo from Air Canada that is educational, funny and charmingly Canadian, all at the same time.
To put together the promo, Air Canada teamed up with Canadian-American actress Sandra Oh, familiar to many from her roles in Killing Eve and Grey’s Anatomy.
What’s World Smile Day? It’s a day that honors Harvey Ball, a commercial artist from Worcester, Massachusetts who invented the smiley face in 1963.
(Although others claim to be the original Smiley Face inventor as well).
Celebrations are supposed to take the form of smiling at other people (of course) and doing kind acts for others throughout the day.
For its kind act of kindness, JKF T4 will be inviting passengers to take smiling photos and then share those images on Instagram and Twitter.
The preferred Hashtag: #T4SMILE.
T4 will then take those photos and make photo stickers of the images. Those stickers will then be put together to form a giant wall mural near the terminal help desk in front of the DFS store.
To encourage people to smile, T4 staff will also be handing out buttons and T4-branded toothbrushes and toothpaste.
Pillows for the people
Another thing that might make you smile is getting a great pillow on a plane.
Air New Zealand is doing its part in that arena by rolling out a new pillow that uses technology originally developed for astronauts.
According to the airline, the pillow is coated with Outlast, a substance first developed for use in space gloves to protect against extreme temperature fluctuations and to keep hands cool.
The coating absorbs heat as the skin gets hot. And, as the skin cools, the heat is released.
The new hypoallergenic pillow is now available to Business Premier passengers traveling on the airline’s Chicago route to Auckland, the longest route in the Air New Zealand network.
Boat service has been offered for quite a while. But in a new program, passengers who take water transportation to Boston Logan International Airport will now get complimentary priority access at the airport security line.
Under the plan, passengers who take the MBTA ferry or water taxi service to the Logan Airport Boat Dock (Fare: $15) will get a “Ticket to Skip” pass when they get off the boats and board the free Logan Airport shuttle to the terminals.
The orange ticket can then be presented to security checkpoint staff in exchange for preferred lane access.
In good weather, taking the water taxi from Boston waterfront is a great adventure and can be quite convenient.
The small boats leave from Long Wharf, which is right by the New England Aquarium, the North End, Faneuil Hall and other popular Boston landmarks you might be visiting on your way out of town anyway.
So the ride to the airport can be part of your vacation.
Kansas City is well-known for its tangy barbecue, its jazz and blues history and its more than 200 fountains, some of which date back to the days when horses were said to outnumber people in the city.
“The American Humane Society began putting water troughs at every corner to keep the horses hydrated and, over time, the fountains became more ornate and more popular,” said Derek Klaus of Visit KC. “Now the City of Fountains Foundation maintains a database of more than 215 local fountains.”
Today, the City of Fountains is cosmopolitan, yet authentic. While $10 billion worth of investment has been poured into the region, this city of more than 2 million people still treasures its easy-going Midwestern vibe.
“Kansas City is at the heart of American creativity — a home for arts, culture and innovation,” said Tim Cowden, CEO of the Kansas City Area Development Council.
As the home to major companies such as Garmin, Sprint, H&R Block, Cerner, Hallmark Cards and Russell Stover Chocolates, plenty of business travelers find themselves swinging through the city for work.
“Visiting business travelers are always impressed by our thriving downtown, which includes a streetcar, galleries and dining options ranging from world-class BBQ at Jack Stack to cocktails at the Monarch Bar and whiskey tasting at the J. Rieger Distillery,” Cowden said.
If you’re in town for a business trip with just a few hours to spare, we’ve gathered some tips to help you make the most of your off-duty hours.
Downtown Kansas C
If a downtown meeting wraps up early, head over to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, which is a
short walk or Uber ride from the Plaza (officially, Country Club Plaza), a
15-block shopping, dining and entertainment district dotted with fountains.
Admission is free to the museum’s permanent
collection and many of its temporary exhibitions, so it’s easy to stop in for a
short tour of some of the museum’s vast holdings. For a quick bite, the museum
has a restaurant and coffee shop and is open on Thursdays and Fridays until 9
p.m. There’s even a happy hour on Thursday evenings starting at 5 p.m.
Back on the Plaza you
can take care of that age-old question: “What did you bring me?”
The Made in KC Marketplace on the Plaza carries work by more than 200
area artists, designers and makers and has both a cafe and a bar.
And since you’re in Kansas City, you might want
to tuck into some world-class Kansas City barbecue, known for the thick, rich
tomato sauce lathered on during and after the cooking process.
“We slow-smoke our barbecue for
several hours—sometimes up to 18—for that ‘low and slow’ Kansas City
technique,” said Derek Klaus of Visit KC
One of five branches of Fiorella’s Jack Stack
Barbecue is on the Plaza as well. And if that’s
not enough barbecue for you, the KC BBQ Experience app
leads you to 100 more BBQ spots around town to explore between meetings.
If you haven’t changed out of your business
attire and fancy an after-meeting cocktail in an opulent setting, stop into The
Monarch Cocktail Bar & Lounge, in the West Plaza district where the drinks
take their inspiration from the flight paths of the Monarch butterfly.
For example, many cocktails celebrating the Monarch’s
journey from Canada through the U.S. Midwest and into Mexico pair whiskeys and
rums with citrus and fresh fruits.
Jazz and baseball history – plus a great
selfie spot
Kansas City’s downtown 18th and
Vine historic district is home to both the American Jazz Museum and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum,
and they are conveniently co-located in the same building.
The American Jazz Museum has listening stations and displays
memorabilia and personal items that tell the stories of jazz legends. Don’t
miss a rare treasure: Charlie Parker’s Grafton saxophone.
The museum’s Blue Room Jazz Club hosts live
music four times a week, with several early shows that shouldn’t interfere with
those morning meetings.
The Negro Leagues
Baseball Museum features photographs, historical artifacts and interactive
computer stations that document the story of the players and the teams from
after the Civil War through to the 1960s. A mock baseball diamond with 10
life-size sculptures of the league’s greats is a popular centerpiece exhibit.
Two blocks away is the Paseo YMCA, the
founding site of the Negro Baseball Leagues in 1920. The building is on the
National Register of Historic Places and outside there’s now a small baseball
diamond where you can run the bases and take a photo in front of a large mural
portraying Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Buck O’Neil and other Negro Leagues
players who also played in the major leagues.
Wonders from down under
If you’ve finished your meetings and have a
late afternoon or early evening flight, try one of these bonus attractions
located not far from downtown.
The KC Streetcar is free to ride and will take
you from downtown to the historic River Market area, and its year-round weekend
farmers’ market.
The River Market is also home to the Arabia Steamboat Museum, which houses the world’s largest collection of pre-Civil War artifacts.
The fully loaded Steamboat Arabia sank on the Missouri River in September 1856. The steamer lay beneath the water for decades. But with erosion, the river chaged course and a century later, the Arabia and its 60 tons of still-intact cargo was dug up from beneath a Kansas cornfield in 1988. The recovered treasure is on display. It includes everything from dishware and fine jewelry to guns, toys and still edible food.
For history with a twist, Uber over to the J.
Rieger & Co. in the East Bottoms neighborhood, which celebrates the
resurrection of a local distillery with roots dating back to 1887.
In addition to daily distillery tours (samples
included), the site houses The Monogram Lounge (cocktails, coffee and small
plates) and the swank Hey! Hey! Club.
Bonus: Anyone is welcome to take a ride on the
40-foot indoor slide.
A few bonus items:
I ran out of room in the CNBC story for two other Kansas City treasures.
The toy side is home to one of the country’s largest collection of antique toys.
The miniatures side of the museum is filled with the world’s largest collection of fine scale miniatures. They may look like toy-sized, but they are highly crafted works of art that are not for children at all.
It’s getting a much-needed new terminal and has promised it will be ready to welcome everyone who will visit the city when it hosts the 2023 NFL Draft.
In the meantime, the coolest amenities you’ll find at KCI are the SouveNEAR vending machines filled with gifts, souvenirs and unusual items made by Kansas City artists. So there’s no excuse to go arrive home empty-handed.
Smithsonian magazine’s Museum Day is coming up on September 21 and we’re celebrating because on that day 1500 museums will be joining in to offer free admission to anyone who downloads a ticket.
Many science centers, aquariums, zoos and gardens will be offering free admission on Museum Day as well.
The free nationwide event presents a great opportunity to stop in and revisit a favorite exhibit at a local cultural institution or visit a museum in a town you’re visiting without worrying about all the admission fees.
Where can you go?
This year, Museum Day is celebrating the Smithsonian Year of Music, with many participating museums offering special music-themed programming.
The Lightner Museum in Saint Augustine, FL, will host a museum-themed scavenger hunt in its galleries. The music will also demonstrate the electric self-playing violin, the Gem Roller Organ and many other early mechanical musical instruments in its collection;
The
Armenian Museum of America in Watertown, MA will have live Armenian music in
the galleries;
In
Missoula, the Montana Natural History City will offer demonstrations and
experiments to show and explain how different animals hear;
In
North Carolina, a high school
Rock Orchestra will play a selection of train related songs at the Wilmington
Railroad Museum;
And in Mumford, NY, the Genesee Country Village and Museum, the state’s largest living history museum will be celebrating early shape-note music with a shape-note sing open to all.
Many all-music-all-the-time museums are participating as well.
Museum Day visitors to MoPOP in Seattle, WA will have full access to galleries and to exhibits dedicated to Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and more.
Music-fans will also get full access to the music history offered at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles; to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, VA; and in Memphis, TN, to the Blues Hall of Fame, the Memphis Rock ‘N Soul Museum and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.
And in Kansas City, MO, the American Jazz Museum
will host a jazz storytelling session that explores the sounds and styles of
jazz and present a screening of “Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane
Documentary.”
TThe full list of museums participating in Museum Day, September 21, can be found here. And Museum Day tickets can be downloaded here.
Only one ticket will be issued per email address, but each ticket is good for admission for two people.
(A slightly differen version of my story about Smithsonian magazine’s Museum Day first appeared on CNBC)
