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What do you get a cat who has everything? The world's cutest airline, of course! Hello Kitty (which scored over $1 billion in sales every year outside of Japan, to which the NeatoShop duly contributed) has added another way for you to spend your money: the Hello Kitty Jet.
Hiufu Wong of CNN Go has the story:
The carrier has recently launched three Hello Kitty-themed aircraft [Chinese language], on which everything from the fuselage to the flight attendants to the food is kitted out in the kawaii cat brand's images.
Passengers have been purring with delight, according to Anna Wong, an EVA Air public relations officer in Hong Kong. [...]
The new Taipei-based Hello Kitty jets -- called Apple Jet, Global Jet and Magic Jet -- will operate for at least a year on different routes originating from Taipei. [...]
Passengers can also purchase limited edition duty-free products, such as Hello Kitty-shaped pasta, from flight attendants wearing Hello Kitty aprons.
View more pics and details at CNN Go: Link - Thanks Tiffany!
Airlines
these days will hit you up for the darnedest things (Wanna use the toilet?
That'll
be £1, please) but this takes the cake:
Passengers aboard two chartered jetliners from India to Britain were hit up for about $200 each, in cash, to continue their trip this week in what one flier compared to a hostage situation.
The charter company, Austria-based Comtel Air, and the Spanish company that owns the planes pointed fingers at each other over the situation Thursday. But Lal Dadrah, a passenger on one of the flights who recorded the crew passing the hat, called the situation "a complete, utter sham."
Comtel Air passengers on a Tuesday flight to Birmingham, England, from the Indian city of Amritsar were hit up for 130 pounds -- about $200 each -- during a layover in Vienna. They were allowed off the aircraft to take the money from teller machines, a process that took about seven hours. There were varying accounts of what the money was to pay for, ranging from fuel to fees.
The airline industry will have to put together a new set of procedures to cover the event of a pilot getting stuck in the toilet. A Delta Airlines flight from Asheville, North Caroline to New York City was the scene of a security alert yesterday. While the pilot was in the lavatory, the door latch became stuck. Unable to alert a flight attendant, the pilot asked a passenger to go to the cockpit and use a secret code to alert the co-pilot. The co-pilot did not believe what he heard and called ground control.
“The captain has disappeared in the back and, uh, I have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit right now…,” the co-pilot reported.
“What I’m being told is he’s stuck in the lav,” the co-pilot continued. “Someone with a thick foreign accent is giving me a password to access the cockpit, and I’m not about to let him in.”
Not willing to take any chances themselves, air controllers on the ground ordered the plane, operated by regional carrier Chautauqua Airlines, to make an emergency landing.
Before the co-pilot was forced to make that emergency landing, however, the pilot was able to open the bathroom door, and calm his anxious colleagues.
The plane landed safely and no one was charged in the incident. Link -via The Daily What
A passenger on a Delta flight from Madison, Wisconsin to Atlanta, Georgia posted a video to CNN of a flying creature in the passenger section. The plane was diverted back to Madison, where the passengers were rebooked. A Delta spokesman said the plane was searched, but they never found the animal. The plane then was returned to service. Link -via Arbroath
It happens every once in a while, and over time we end up with a list like this. Air stewards have more power than ever to keep people from getting where they need to go. And some people just seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like the passenger who was tossed for taking a photograph.
Remember the glory days when air stewardesses were pretty much angelic creatures? Okay so it might have been swayed by the fact that we were young and more angelic ourselves then. But after a passenger decided to photograph the name tag of a particularly rude employee, she was confronted and told to delete the photo. Even after she obliged, she was still considered a security risk and thrown off.
Read the other stories at ShortList. Link
Frontier Airlines called in a report that sparked a response from the Milwaukee Fire Department’s Hazardous Materials Unit. A suspicious white powder was found on board a flight from Phoenix to Milwaukee -on a diaper changing table. You can see where this is going.
The white powdery substance was found on a diaper changing counter in one of the aircraft’s lavatories by a flight attendant making her final check before landing Friday afternoon, Frontier spokesman Peter Kowalchuk said.
The powder appeared to be in a dotted pattern, there was as diaper in a waste bin and there were two infants onboard the flight, Kowalchuk said.
Yes, it was determined to be, in fact, baby powder. Kowalchuk said the TSA was called “out of an abundance of caution.” Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Flickr user Enokson)
New York illustrator Christoph Niemann took a flight from New York to Berlin and documented the absurdities of airline travel in pictures in his blog at The New York Times. I honestly love the idea of a “delete neighbor” button. Link
Some of the best meals you can have are actually on airplanes – but not domestic flights. No siree! NBC Today’s travel expert Peter Greenberg shows us how international airplane passengers are still fed very well (yes, even in coach).
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
If
an airline loses your luggage, shouldn't it refund your baggage fee? That
seems reasonable enough, so when American Airlines refuses to refund $25
fee after losing Danielle Covarrubias' bag, she decided to sue:
The class action lawsuit, filed on behalf of Covarrubias of Pierce County, Wash., is the first since American Airlines started to charge a fee for handling and transporting luggage in June 2008, according to industry experts. The airline was the first major carrier to impose such fees.
"It just goes to show you how enraged people are by the lack of common-sense regulation in the airline industry," said George Hobica, an aviation expert and creator of airfarewatchdog.com. "It doesn't make any sense at all that somebody should charge for a service and then screw up and not give you your money back."
What do you think? Is a lawsuit justified or are the lawyers just squeezing money out of a beleaguered industry?
Ray Sanchez of ABC News has the story: Link
EVA Airways launched the Hello Kitty Jet in 2005, with the blessing of Sanrio. Take a look at the biggest Hello Kitty tribute yet, and see the amenities inside the Airbus A330 in this set of photographs.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
Photo: Kossy@FINEDAYS [Flickr]
Today, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, is traditionally the busiest travel day of the year in the United States. And if you’ve ever flown commercial airlines, then you’ve probably got a horror story or two.
So, let me ask you this question: what is the worst airline you’ve ever flown and why?
I’ve flown pretty much all major carriers (both domestic and international) and there’s only one airline I’ll never ever fly again but that’s another story. I want to hear yours.
Remember Dave Carroll of the group Sons of Maxwell who wrote the song United Breaks Guitars after seeing his guitar abused? He flew United Airline again on Sunday on his way to speak to a group of customer service executives. Then he spent an hour at the baggage claim because United lost his luggage!
In an interview, Mr. Carroll said that for more than an hour on Sunday, he was told he could not leave the international baggage claim area at Denver International Airport, where he had flown from Saskatchewan. He said he had been told to stay because his bag was delayed, not lost, and he had to be there to claim it when it came down the conveyor belt.
“I’m the only person pacing around this room,” Mr. Carroll said, recalling how he was caught between an order from United staff members to stay and collect his bag, and a federal customs official telling him he had to leave the baggage claim area. The bag never showed.
Carroll got his bag back on Wednesday. Link -via YesButNoButYes
In 1971, Juliane Koepcke was the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed 91 people over Peru. She fell two miles and landed in the rain forest. The 17-year-old Koepcke then walked for ten days through jungle terrain to find help.
As she travelled downstream, Koepcke discovered more wreckage from the plane — and found some of the crash victims.
“I found another row of seats with three dead women still strapped in. They had landed head-first and the impact must have been so hard that they were buried almost two feet into the ground.
“I was horrified — I didn’t want to touch them but I wanted to make sure that my mother wasn’t one of them. So I took a stick and knocked a shoe off one of the bodies. The toe nails had nail polish on them and I knew it could not have been my mother because she never used nail polish.”
Juliane continued through the rainforest, wading through jungle streams infested with crocodiles, piranhas and devil rays.
Koepcke is now a librarian in Munich. Read the whole story and see a video interview at CNN. Link -via reddit
