Finnair is seeking four “independent advisors” to travel to various destinations in Europe, Asia and the US to investigate the elements that determine quality in travel.

Have you ever thought that the airlines should ask you how to make customers happy? Finnair agrees and is taking this interestingly transparent approach to get to the heart of what determines whether a travel experience is high quality.

by Elizabeth Smith

As some of you may know, I am an experienced traveler who holds elite status on a legacy carrier. Last Thursday, June 3, I took my first flight on Southwest Airlines and I wanted to share my experience.

WN 220 RDU-MDW-AUS 6:55 pm-10:55 pm with a 30-minute stop in MDW
Actual: 8:30 pm -12:05 am due to weather/ground stops in the BWI/IAD/DCA area

Pre-boarding experience: The Southwest attitude and service was completely different than what I often [...]

by Elizabeth Smith

Welcome to the first installment of my summer series about my recommended travel websites and tools.  Today I’d like to introduce you to FlyerTalk. Dubbed “the world’s most popular frequent flyer community,” frequent and leisure travelers can find an endless wealth of information within the forums regarding all things travel.  As states the front page,

FlyerTalk is an interactive community that provides up-to-date information on travel-related loyalty reward programs. It’s the hub that brings everyone together [...]

According to today’s press release, Alaska Airlines is the latest domestic carrier to add Gogo Inflight Internet to its inflight services.  Gogo was launched on six of its 737-800 aircraft today.  Alaska joins Air Canada, American, AirTran, Delta, United, US Airways, and Virgin America in offering the service.

Alaska Airlines anticipates adding the service to their 737-800s and -900s by the end of summer, and their 737-400s and -700s by the end of 2010.

Gogo Inflight has plans to add [...]

Comfort or Cash? Why not both!

Have you ever shied away from low-fare airlines; unable to do without your legacy upgrade, legroom, and hot meal? If you must cut the fare, you can keep the comfort if you know who and how to choose and trade off some if the things you really can do without.

Here are a couple of options to bring “Jetiquette” to your next non-network carrier flight-

Air Tran- Business Class

Director Kevin Smith was in the news, the latest in a string of  passengers Southwest Airlines judged as too big for one of their seats.  To help sort out the controversy and look at effective solutions we will be joined by Bill Fabrey from the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination, Inc. Bill helped found the Council in 1991, along with seven others, and has served as a director since that time.  Bill has been an [...]

It’s almost like a fairytale. I give you an exerpt from my storybook collection:

“Once upon a time, there was a beautiful, fair maiden named JetBlue. She was admired for her  revolutionary on-board entertainment and her perky employees who lived the JetBlue brand 24/7. Her beauty was powerful as she moved into the golden markets of the older, more established airlines , romancing their most loyal passengers from their arms…leaving nothing more than memories [...]

On this episode of Jetiquette, we discuss the issue of large passengers and whether the situation could be handled better or at least with a little more compassion. Plus, have you used inflight WiFi on any of your airline flights? Have you wondered whether it could be come an airborne nuisance? Gailen and Margery discuss what limits are in place to keep the inflight surfing experience a pleasant one for everyone.

We’ll also revisit [...]

PODCAST: The airline industry provides more drama than Y&R and Bold and the Beautiful (TV soap operas) combined! Did you hear about the United Airlines passenger with a first class ticket that was denied boarding because of his track suit attire? The Sky Steward discusses this and much more on this edition of Jetiquette with his co-host and resident frequent flier, “Margery” (No last name you know, like Cher or Madonna)

There is no hiding from The Sky Steward! He’s [...]

Dear Sky Steward,

I am surprised that I am writing you from my hotel room and not a jail because I am so angry about my flight today. I boarded my flight and stowed my bag in the overhead compartment and then, to be considerate to other customers, placed my personal item under the seat in front of me. In the last few minutes of boarding, another customer shifted my bag around in the [...]