Results tagged “Airplanes” from Intelligent Travel Blog

Katie Beddingfield recently popped back home to Washington, DC, for a quick break in her month-long All-You-Can-Jet (AYCJ) adventure on JetBlue. The half-time score:

Number of flights: 9
Cities visited: 5
Window seats scored (with empty middle seat, no less): 7
Airport floors slept on: 1 (JFK. Not as bad as you think)
Items lost: 1 (driver's license--returned 24 hours later. Crisis averted)
Desired flights sold out: 0

Yep. Priceless. I've been having such a blast since I set off September 8, for Oakland, that I actually haven't made much time to jot extensive musings. Suffice it to say, the AYCJ pass has not yet let me down. All of my JetBlue flights have been perfectly uneventful, on-time--and most importantly, bookable. My fear with such a bold offer was that the airline would collect its $599 from eager passengers and then make the pass all but impossible to fully use. Not so for me. I booked my recent western swing several days before departure (the pass requires 3-day advance booking), but then pushed to the limit booking my upcoming southern swing to Bogota, Colombia and Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. With those legs pretty full, the JetBlue reservation agent apologized for being unable to assign a seat in advance, but assured me that I would indeed have a seat. "JetBlue does not oversell its flights," Rose said, "You'll be fine." (I can only hope we see another AYCJ pass offer once JetBlue's recently approved codeshare agreement with Lufthansa is cemented.)

My father and I are heading out to Alaska's Aleutian Islands next week while I work on a story for the magazine; it's one of the more remote places in the country, and also happens to be where my grandfather was stationed during WWII. We wanted to take Grandpa with us, only there was one problem. He's dead.

Grandpa lived a long, full life and died three years ago now, but his ashes are still in an urn in my uncle's house. "Why not scatter some of them in Alaska while you're there?" my aunt suggested, and, while it seems like a fitting place to do so, I had one major concern. Would TSA let ashes through security, or would I have to FedEx Grandpa to Alaska? This was not a prospect I savored. Luckily, TSA responded quickly to my question.

Lauren Gaches in their press office got right back and said yes, Grandpa can come on the plane, as long as he's well-behaved. Which means the ashes must be in a container (preferably wood or plastic) that can go through the X-ray scanner. The screeners on hand are respectful of the deceased, she said, and don't need to open the containers, but it depends on your airline as to whether they allow ashes to carried on board in a checked bag or carry-on. So it's best to touch base with them beforehand about their preference. She also directed me to their website, where you can find TSA's policies for transporting the deceased. I just called my airline, and they confirmed TSA's guidlines, noting that their requirement specify that a death or cremation certificate is needed to verify the container's contents.

So that's one big huge check on my checklist taken care of, and a tremendous relief at the same time. Thanks to TSA and Delta for their help. 

Photo: √oхέƒx™ via the Intelligent Travel Flickr pool

File this under odd ways to entertain yourself during a flight: Heather Poole, a flight attendant and the Galley Gossip blogger over at Gadling, recently discovered that the latest mile high club to grace the skies is completely "G" rated. What's their common bond? Taking photos of themselves in airplane bathrooms. Poole noticed the trend while searching photos on Flickr, and quickly dubbed the self-portrait artists "Laviators" (MSNBC quickly followed up with a story of their own on the trend). Here, you'll find a music video of her findings put together by a fan.

 

What's your take? Odd and gross or quirky fun?

[Gadling, MSNBC]