The first improvement we may benefit from is the appointment of an Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections. This group would advise officials on customer service improvements and monitor changes.

Also there will be mandatory timeframes for follow-up on customer complaints combined with new regulation for how the complaints are handled. A study currently underway will increase the possibility of the airlines reimbursing travelers for delayed or lost baggage.

Another item on the bill would offer discounts to military passengers and their families. If you travel with a carseat or child safety seat, the airline will be required to post the maximum dimensions prior to a flight on their website. It will also be decided shortly, if travelers with smaller musical instruments can avoid checking them and take them aboard as a carry-on.

Cell phone users will be happy to know that the new bill requires the airline to begin a study that reveals whether usage actually has an impact on airline communication and decides if cell phone use will be permitted during flights. Of course the new bill reasserts that no smoking is allowed on any flights.

Customers who do have complaints can file them with the new DOT hotline, a dedicated line right to the department from the airline.

All and all it sounds like the new bill orders that many things be studied and investigated rather than calling for immediate change. The good news is that it does cover some legitimate territory. Hopefully the friendly skies are about to become a lot more friendly.

Fortunately for Alec Baldwin and the rest of us, Google and Virgin America airlines have partnered to provide free Chromebooks for passengers to use during their flights. And yes, that means you get free in-flight Wi-Fi as well. Louis Gray, the Google+ Product Marketing Manager, posted about the deal yesterday from his account:

The response was pretty positive in the comments section of his post, but then again, who’s going to complain about getting to use netbooks and Wi-Fi during a flight for free? Don’t get too excited about the free Chromebook because you do have to give it back once your flight lands. Google might be cool, but they’re not Uncle-Scrooge-at-the-end-of-A-Christmas-Carol cool. Still, this is a pretty fantastic deal although it does have its limitations. For now, the only Chrome Zones, as they’re calling the locations from which you can borrow a Chromebook, are located in Chicago (ORD), San Francisco, Boston, New York (JFK), and Dallas-Fort Worth. Additionally, the offer is only valid through January 15 so get going somewhere soon if you wanna take advantage of the free Internet and Chromebook. One lingering question that will remain after the 15th of January is: now that its been demonstrated that using Wi-Fi on an airplane doesn’t cause Jerry Bruckheimer-levels of catastrophe, will airlines be more likely to let people use their electronic devices during flights? Since almost all airlines are trying to make flying as uncomfortable as possible, my Spidey Sense is telling me no.

The maps will show viewers (almost) exactly where they’re at as they fly as usual, but it now features terrain view and new data showing elevation, mountains, etc. "In other words, it more closely matches what you’d actually see if you had cloud-penetrating eyesight and looked out the window from 35,000 feet," writes Google Product Marketing Manager Jesse Friedman.

"One of my favorite truisms is, ‘no matter where you go, there you are,’" says Friedman. "Call me sappy, but it’s a nice way to remember that every place on Earth has meaning, history and identity. But let’s face it: when you’re on an airplane, traveling over unknown lands at triple-digit speeds, it’s hard to get a sense of where you really are."

In addition to the new Google Maps data, Virgin America has also announced that it will be ordering 60 new planes, tripling its size. This means the airline will be traveling to new destinations.

Last winter, Google and Virgin America teamed up to offer passengers free wi-fi during the holidays.

If they’re not breaking guitars, their pilots are missing airports, or they’re berating people that are trying to help them.

Well, we have one more reputation disaster to add to the list, courtesy of American Airlines.

You may recall the open letter web designer Dusting Curtis wrote to the airline. In it, Curtis suggested that AA was losing millions because of its poorly designed web site. He even went as far as suggesting a new design for the site.

Shortly after, one of AA’s designers took it upon himself to reply and explain the complexities of AA web site design decisions. His reply was open, honest…radically transparent.

American Airlines has allegedly fired him for it!

This may have happened back in May, but it’s only just come to light that the AA designer was apparently fired an hour after he wrote his reply.

AA searched their exchange database for the text I posted, found the guy, and fired Mr. X on the spot. From what I have learned, they also threatened him with legal action if he spoke to me again. Apparently he broke his non-disclosure agreement by discussing the design process at AA.

OK, so maybe he shouldn’t have broken his NDA with the airline. But, maybe AA shouldn’t have been so near-sighted and pedantic about its employee policies. Surely the airline is aware that it’s industry hardly has the best reputation for caring about its customers. Heck, even Jet Blue–the poster child of airline awesomeness–has screwed-up royally in the past.

In some ways, you can’t blame American Airlines. It is completely ignorant of how customers want to interact with the airline. We don’t want to hand flight attendants slips of paper that say “well done”–something AA encourages me to do as a frequent flier–we want to engage with the airline. We want it to do better, and we have ideas. Ideas about clean blankets, baggage fees, and yes, web site design. How does AA marry its apparent openness on Twitter, with this crackdown on a real employee that wants to help?

Yes, you should have guidelines in place, but those guidelines should be designed to encourage thoughtful customer interaction, not prevent it! If we hear that you’re firing employees because of their transparency, how are we supposed to take your official social networking efforts seriously? What, do we now assume that everything that is shared on Twitter or Facebook is nothing more than sterile, PR sanctioned, sound bites?

The airline industry may well be the very last to “get” the concept of Radically Transparent. When they do finally have that “aha!” moment, we’ll know that we’ve finally entered the age of open, honest, dialogs.

Andy Beal – AA Platinum Card Holder; Million Mile Flier.

(via)

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The test will run for 60 days. They will gauge demand and see how the service works before determining if and how much they’ll charge.

Southwest has already contracted with Yahoo as a partner. Yahoo will provide a home page for the airline that will include information about the flight and destination.

For long flights this will practically guarantee that I fly Southwest. My only question is, what about plugs or battery supply? As far as I know there’s no place to recharge.

Southwest has been getting a lot of milage out of the announcement on Twitter.

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The airline has announced that it is "marking the beginning of the next wireless revolution."  A bit overstated perhaps. They’re offering in-flight Internet access at $12.95 a flight.

Anyhow, this offering comes in light of a new deal American has made with Aircell for its mobile broadband service Gogo. The service is available immediately on cross-country flights in the U.S. over three hours for the above fee. American notes in a statement that cell phone and VoIP use is not included, but think of all the Twittering you can do!

The service should also inspire a great deal more productivity on business trips – a welcome alternative to listening to the guy beside you snore and working out emergency survival scenarios in your head when you don’t want to watch the latest Martin Lawrence comedy that is being offered on board.

On second thought, maybe "revolution" isn’t such an overstatement after all.  I expect that more airlines and service providers will be reaching similar deals in the near future, so stay tuned.

Omaha based Sojern Inc. is selling the ads and passengers flying to Las Vegas on Delta Air Lines will be the first to see the new ads starting today. Along with the ads on the online boarding passes they will also feature weather forecasts, restaurant information and event promotions for the destination.

The airlines hope the ad campaign with Sojern will help generate revenue for the struggling industry as it faces record fuel prices. Other airlines that will be participating include American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways.

The other airlines will introduce the ads on domestic online boarding passes later this year. The airlines own a minority stake in Sojern and will share the revenue from the ads. They did not say how much they expect to make.

The initial advertisers include shoemaker Crocs, Cirque du Soleil and Omaha Steaks International.

Delta will initially introduce the ads only on flights to Las Vegas and will add all other domestic destinations by the end of the week. The ads will be launched for international destinations later in the year.

"With millions of our passengers checking in online at delta.com each year, the boarding pass becomes an increasingly valuable tool for sharing relevant, timely offers and destination-specific content with our customers before they travel," said Marc Ferguson, general manager of Global Partnerships for Delta.
 

When asked if they would take a less convenient ore more expensive flight in order to have Wi-Fi service, 56 percent of business travelers said it was not a necessity, while 36 percent say they would try to book a flight with Wi-Fi available, but would be content if it were not. Only eight percent said the wireless service is very important, and would take less convenient or more expensive flights to have access.

Cell phone usage on commercial airlines faces obstacles and safety concern from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC). If never approved, it would not bother most travelers on planes, as 57 percent of business travelers oppose cell phone usage in-flight.

"Technological advances have made business travelers today more productive than ever before," said Dean Sivley, senior vice president, COO and general manager, Orbitz for Business.

"While there are those who use flight time to catch up on work, and Wi-Fi will enhance that ability, there are also many who view it as valuable downtime. If ever endorsed, many travelers feel it would be hard to rest with the person next to them talking on a cell phone."

Eighty-four percent of business travelers said they try to be as quiet as possible when on call, and are annoyed by those who don’t do the same. Only four percent admit they will do whatever they need to while working and traveling, no matter how it affects others.

Fifty-nine percent of business travelers said they would use Wi-Fi for both business and entertainment, while 21 percent said they would use it strictly for business. Twenty percent said they would use Wi-Fi only for entertainment.
 

If Southwest decides to offer Internet in-flight on a regular basis, they will join other airlines who now offer the service. This includes: JetBlue, American Airlines, Virgin Airlines, and Alaska Airlines. All except Alaska Airlines and Southwest use an air-to-ground cellular network.

JetBlue started offering the service just last month. They do restrict the sites or programs people can access while in the air. Most concerns are about passengers using VoIP or passengers accessing porn sites. Perhaps some restrictions also have to do with limited bandwidth.

The longer the flight, the more willing people seem to be to pay for Internet access. A recent survey by Forrester Research found that 26 percent of leisure travelers would pay $10 for Internet access on a two-to-four-hour flight. The percentage jumps to 45 percent if the flight is longer than four hours. Initial reports I’ve seen cite slow or spotty connections rather than issues offending customers. What I wonder about is if people are packing extra batteries or how hard it is to plug in your laptop (which is my number one complaint at conferences, and in my car – not enough plugs).

A search of the Delta airline blog and other searches weren’t conclusive. I don’t think Delta offers in-flight Internet access. They do let you check-in with your mobile device and scan the “bar code” that you save to your PDA or Smart phone at the kiosk to get your boarding pass.

If you’ve used the Internet in the air recently, what has been your experience? Have you been annoyed, or offended by other passengers using the service? How much did you pay? Has the connection been good or patchy? What airline did you fly?

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Previous protocols involved shuffling users off to Expedia or Travelocity.  Now, everything takes place right on Google.com.  "For the latest information on a flight’s status, simply search for an airline and flight number, and the first result will tell you whether your flight is on time or delayed as well as the estimated departure and arrival times," writes Nick Weininger on the Official Google Blog.

Google’s likely to be no less accurate than the airlines themselves, and any difference in reliability ("all lines are busy at this time") is actually apt to tip in the Mountain View-based company’s favor. 

The feature is one of those seemingly considerate things that have earned Google so much goodwill in the past.  Following the disclosure of certain facts about GOOG-411, there may be a little less happiness floating around, but it’s hard to see the harm in letting Google know that you’re flying to Vermont.

Whatever the case, here’s wishing safe travels to all our readers.