Here’s a nomination for airline amenity of the week:
On Saturday, December 12, in honor of what would have been Frank Sinatra’s 100th birthday, Delta Air Lines will be pouring complimentary tastes of Jack Daniel’s – the crooner’s favorite whiskey – on all flights departing JFK to LAX.
And not just any Jack Daniel’s. Passengers in all cabins will be able to sample Jack Daniel’s Sinatra Century, a special-edition 100-proof whiskey sold in a special collector’s box for about $500 (at duty free stores and elsewhere) that includes a 1 liter bottle, a small hardbound book about Sinatra and his music and a replica Sinatra tie clip you can plug into your computer that plays a concert recording of Frank at The Sands Hotel and Casino in 1966.
Don’t know how I missed this in real time, but in June (2009), Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) rolled out the black and white carpet to welcome the world’s first Jack Daniel’s-themed airport store. Located in Terminal D, near Gate 6, the duty free/retail shop is stocked with shirts, hats and other JD logo-emblazoned items and, as I see from their video, lots of bottles of whiskey.
New Business Center at MIA
At Miami International Airport’s South Terminal, passengers who need to take care of business can now stop at the post-security business center between Concourses H and J. The International Currency Exchange (ICE) Business Center has a conference room and five computers with Internet and print capability, and offers fax, photocopy, currency exchange, and cell-phone rental services.
Messy Passengers make messy planes
It’s irritating – and gross – to get on an airplane and have to clean off the seat and the tray table (and sometimes the seat back pocket) before you sit down. Maybe you should blame the messy passengers who sat there before you instead of the airline cleaning crew. As Patrick Smith describes in his Ask the Pilot column on Salon.com this week, some passengers are really pigs!
Kids traveling alone – beware!
And this is sad. A few weeks back, there were reports of two separate incidents in which Continental Airlines put children flying as unaccompanied minors on the wrong flights.
All worked out well for those kids. And as I described in a recent Well Mannered Traveler column on MSNBC.com (Tiny travelers; big responsibilities) there are some things you can do to make sure your kids are safe when flying alone as well. In addition to making sure your child is mature enough to travel alone and is equipped with the right tools (information, confidence, cash, food, cell phone, etc.) the column points out that, even though an airline will take a fee for transporting your child, it’s important not to confuse the airline with a babysitter. As one flight attendant says, “…we don’t watch unaccompanied minors 100% of the time. If a child is shy and isn’t comfortable speaking up for themselves,” then they probably shouldn’t be traveling alone.
That last point is especially important because, as Traveling Mama Jennifer Miner reminded me when she sent me the link to this article from SFWeekly.com, there are some really sick people out there. The article is a really frightening read. But if you’ve got kids that fly alone, it’s probably important that you read it and then have a talk with your kids.
And if don’t have kids that fly alone but you see a kid on a plane that looks as if he or she is in trouble: do something!
