1. Stacy Small (@EliteTravelGal) – not only is Stacy one of the best luxury travel agents on the planet, her Pinterest travel-related board photos make me want to grab my passport and take the next flight to a high-end resort.
2. Johnny Jet (@JohnnyJet) – Johnny’s website is my go-to site for all kinds of travel information. And his Dream Trips board makes me want to pack myself in his luggage.
3. Kate Trgovac (@mynameiskate) – Kate is one of my online friends, a digital/social media marketer and my go-to person when it comes to travel and laptop bags. I interviewed her for Aviation Week’s Towers & Tarmacs blog on security-friendly laptop bags, and she has a cool board — Funky Laptop Bags (which includes her own bag designs).
4. Meena Thiruvengadam (@msmeenameena) – I met Meena when we were both taking a multimedia course at the Poynter Institute back in 2010. We found we were fellow travel lovers, but Meena takes it to another level. Her boards include Favorite Places and I Will Go Here.
5. Paula Berg (@paulaberg) – Paula is the digital media lead at Denver-based Linhart PR, but her real claim to fame is making her former employer, Southwest Airlines, a powerhouse in social media. I’m following her as she develops her boards for Southwest and Social Media.
6. Josh Hallett (@hyku) – Josh is my social media sensei (he leads the social media practice at Voce Communications), an extensive traveler and a true aviation geek (check out his Flickr photos from Sun N Fun 2011). And also check out his Travel board.
7. Mira Lowe (@MiraLowe) – Mira is the former editor of Jet magazine and currently teaches at Northwestern University and Loyola University Chicago.  She’s someone I’ve admired and respected for years, and we’re both active in the National Association of Black Journalists. I find myself regularly repinning from Mira’s boards, including Big Apple, Windy City and Passport.
8. Christopher Elliott (@elliottdotorg) – I follow Chris on Twitter and am a regular reader of his website. I saw that he was following me on Pinterest, so I followed back. OK, so he doesn’t have any boards yet, but I know his will be good when he starts pinning.
9. Joy Finnegan (@AvMainMag) – Joy has had an interesting career. She’s currently editor-in-chief Aerospace & Security Media and was editor of Rotor & Wing magazine. She was a pilot at Legend Airlines and has worked at Gulfstream Aerospace, Cessna and Galaxy Aerospace. Check out her boards Favorite Places & Spaces and Travels With Joy.
10. Emma Carew Grovum (@emmacarew) – Because there is more to life than aviation/travel, I chose Emma as my last — but not least — pick for this post.  We all have to eat, and if you want some great ideas, Emma’s boards are the place to be. She’s Digital Editor for The Cooking Club (@CookingMag) and I’m proud to be one of Emma’s journalism mentors.

I love using Pinterest to show off many things, but my favorites are my aviation and travel boards.  The first board I created was one with pictures of my beloved Boeing 747, which has 101 followers.  My next board was Cool Aircraft Liveries, which has photos of some of the best aircraft paint jobs of the present and past, with 97 followers. I work across the street from Frederick Municipal Airport, so I created Seen At Frederick Airport (FDK).

I am a BIG fan of art deco airline/travel posters, and have them hanging in my home and office. My Art Deco Travel Posters has 92 followers.  I created a board made up entirely of the graphics I use for my Strange But True Aviation News column. And then I have boards entitled Lord, I Was Born A Ramblin’ (wo)Man and Places I REALLY Want To See, with 94 followers each.

Tomorrow’s post will be on 10 folks you should be following on Pinterest.  Not on Pinterest yet? Drop me an email at AuntBenet AT Gmail DOT com and I’ll get you an invite.  Enjoy!

1. As American Airlines parent AMR Corp. continues its stay in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, its labor unions, which have a seat at the creditors table, are doing what they can to keep as many jobs as possible, despite the airline’s recent announcement of 13,000 job cuts.  As an alternative to those cuts, two of the carrier’s largest unions — the Transport Workers Union and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants — has said the company should consider offering lump sum buy-outs, reports Aviation Week.  TWU is proposing $75,000, with health insurance and other benefits retained for 9,000 employees facing the chopping blog. APFA is asking for a year’s salary and current health, travel and pension rights for members with more than 15 years’ seniority.
2. Anyone who’s a regular reader of this blog or who follows me on Twitter (@AvQueenBenet) knows that I think allowing cell phones during flight is another circle of hell. Do you hear the chatter that starts as soon as a plane lands? Can you imagine hearing that on a DC-San Francisco flight? One provision under the newly passed FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 is that Congress is requiring the FAA to study the impact of cell phones for voice communications on aircraft where such service is currently permitted by foreign governments, reports Mary Kirby (@APEXMary) in her APEX Editor’s Blog. Here’s hoping that the study will continue to uphold the inflight ban on cell phones.
3. Back when I was in college in the 1980s, I was always trying to find the cheapest way to fly from D.C. home to San Francisco. My savior was PeoplExpress, also fondly known as People’s Distress. They had $99 fares, you paid to check bags and for food/drinks onboard. You even paid your air fare onboard. It wasn’t a luxury ride, but it got you from point A to point B at a pretty reasonable price.  The airline shut down in February 1987 and it was folded into Continental Airlines. Fast forward 25 years later, and it may be coming back. Some of the folks from the original airline are proposing to bring back the low-cost carrier and headquarter it at Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport in Virginia, reports the Washington Post.  The carrier plans to initially serve destinations in Florida, New England, the Great Lakes, and Mid-Atlantic regions, then expand to other cities, such as Pittsburgh, Providence, West Palm Beach and Newark, where airline consolidation over the past few years has led to a reduction of non-stop air service.
4. Like most frequent travelers, I’ve been watching with interest as the Transportation Security Administration continues to expand its PreCheck trusted traveler program. I covered the airport security beat for four years, which gave me a front-row seat to the private sector operated registered traveler program.  You can read my post on the APEX Editor’s Blog about how we got from a private RT program to an effort overseen and blessed by TSA.
5. It’s Black History Month, and I’ve always had a particular fondness for those who were pioneers in the aviation/airline industry.  My brother from another mother — Greg Gross from the I’m Black and I Travel blog — shared the amazing story of Norma Merrick Sklarek, who died this year at the age of 85. Ms. Sklarek’s claim to fame was that she was the first black woman in America to be licensed as an architect. But her place in aviation history was secured as the leader of the team that designed Terminal 1 at LAX, which received the millions of visitors for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.  She also designed the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. Not bad for a woman who began her career designing bathrooms for the New York City building department.

I was a busy bee last week, with an APEX Editor’s Blog post about JetBlue’s food choices at its flagship Terminal 5 at JFK Airport, two stories in Aviation International News’ Singapore Air Show publication (on Enterprise Florida and Canada’s Manitoba Department of Entrepreneurship, Training and Trade) and a stint as guest host on episode 185 of the Airplane Geeks podcast. And last — but certainly not least — I got to be a judge, along with Henry Harteveldt and Brett “Cranky Flier” Snyder in a 12th anniversary cake contest to celebrate JetBlue’s 12th anniversary, as retold on the carrier’s Blue Tales blog.

He just snapped.  A TAM Airlines jet  from Montevideo, Uruguay to Sao Paulo had to make an emergency landing in Porto Alegre, Brazil, after a man wearing the carrier’s ID badge stormed the cockpit and began assaulting the crew, reports the Herald-Sun.  Passengers were able to subdue the man and he was arrested.

Maybe he should add first class seats on his airline.  Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly was spotted sitting in first class on a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Dallas/Fort Worth, reports the Dallas Morning News.  He is unable to fly his own airline direct between the two cities.

Drinking and flying — just say no!  A Frontier Airlines pilot who was allegedly drunk was stopped right before he was set to fly an aircraft from Omaha to Milwaukee, reports the Washington Post. The flight was delayed for two hours while the airline found another pilot.

It really IS the mile high club! For a mere $425, you can easily become a member of the mile high club, thanks to a deal from Cincinnati-based charter operator Flamingo Air, reports the New York Daily News.

She was REALLY desperate to get off that plane.  A mother of a screaming toddler on a flight in Vietnam asked for help to get away from the child — so her seatmate opened the emergency exit, which triggered the escape slide, reports MSNBC.

Trouble for Canadian transgenders. The country’s airlines are feeling the backlash from a new Transport Canada rule change that travelers whose gender identity on their identification doesn’t match their person will not be allowed to board a Canadian airline, reports the Global Post.  A motion to repeal the rule was defeated.

Some people really, really know how to fly!  Photos of the Airbus A319Cj flown by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych show that its amenities include an office, a conference room, a kitchen, compartments for delegates, luggage and a rest area, reports Pravda.  It also features gold-plating on the lamps and the bathroom, with a pink marble sink.

1. The vast bareness of Greenland. I was flying a 30-seat Saab 340 turboprop from Linkoping, Sweden (where the plane was built) to Minneapolis to deliver it to then-Northwest Airlink carrier Mesaba Airlines.  You just can’t fly direct on a turboprop, so we made several stops, including one in Greenland. It was cold and so stark and barren, it was almost beautiful in a bizarre sort of way.
2. The colored roofs of Iceland. On that same trip, we spent the night in Reykjavik. As we were landing, I got to sit in the cockpit, which gave me a stellar view of this island nation’s ubiquitous colored roofs.
3. New Year’s Eve, Times Square, New York City.  I hate crowds.  But in 2004, my sister the police detective, who lives in California, came out to the East Coast with a friend to celebrate New Year’s Eve at Times Square. We spent the day wandering the Times Square area. Everywhere we went, she chatted with cops, who were out in full force.  So as the celebration drew closer, the area went on lockdown. But we got a prime watching spot because the cops recognized my sister and gave us better and better viewing spots. Sweet!!
4. The food halls of Singapore. During my second trip to Singapore to cover the biannual air show, me and some of my journalist friends found ourselves frequenting these great eat places.  One of my favorites was outdoors, and if you’re adventurous, just order a Tiger Beer and let your server choose what to eat. I sampled whole fried duck (which included the head and feet), chili crabs, fish ball soup and shark’s fin.
5. Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France.  I’ve been an on-again, off-again Catholic for quite a while. During one of my on phases, I happened to be in Paris for the Paris Air Show. Some friends said we should go to mass, and off we went. One of the best things is no matter what the language, you know exactly what’s going on.
6. Honolulu International Airport. I was on my way to Indonesia for the launch of a new turboprop, and we had a 3-hour layover here.  It was pre-9/11, so I actually ventured outside to see the gardens.  The flowers were colorful and beautiful, and I can still smell them to this day.
7. Embraer aircraft plant, Gavião Peixoto, Brazil.  I was on one of my many visits to this Brazilian manufacturer, which is headquartered in São José dos Campos.  We flew a small jet to this city, located in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, which is home to, among other things, the assembly lines for the Embraer 190 and 195 jets and final assembly for Phenom business jets. I noticed was how incredibly green and lush the region was, home to sugar cane fields and orange groves.
8. The Corn Palace, Mitchell, S. Dakota. Back in 1992, completely burned out from a very stressful job, I quit and decided to take a road trip across America with my friend Mark, who was moving to Seattle to do his medical residency. Since neither of us was in a rush, we took the scenic route, which included a trip to this facility, which features ever-changing murals made out of corn on the outside walls and colorful onion domes.  The moon landing — in corn. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — in corn. The Iwo Jima flag raising — in corn. You get the picture.
9. Bandung, Indonesia. This city, about 110 miles southeast of Jakarta, is the third-largest city in the country and was home to aircraft manufacturer Industri Pesawat Terbang Nurtanio (IPTN, now Indonesian Aerospace). I was there for the roll-out of the IPTN N-250, which never took to the skies. But the highlight for me was to see an amazing display of Dutch colonial architecture, defined by the tropical Art Deco style. Amazing buildings I saw included the Institut Teknologi Bandung, the Hotel Savoy Homann and Villa Isola.
10. Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona.  This was Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home, near the McDowell Mountains. It serves as the home for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and offers tours and programming year-round. When I lived in Phoenix, I actually bought a membership and took visitors on tours of this estate. I was never bored, because each guide at the facility always managed to tell me something about Wright that others missed.

Speaking of missed, why do you travel?  What are some of the more interesting or off-the-beaten-path places you’ve seen in your travels?

A sculpture at the entrance to the British Airways' First/Business Class lounges at London Heathrow. Photo by Benet J. WIlson

Back in November 2008, I flew to London to take an insider’s tour of British Airways’ flagship Terminal 5. I didn’t get to take pictures, but I remember almost everything. Part of the tour was a visit (and use of) the Arrivals lounge and the first and business class departure lounges.  I took full advantage of the  Arrivals lounge, taking a shower, getting my clothes pressed and shoes shined and having a lovely breakfast in the Concorde dining room.

And it was even better on the departures side.  You can read my story on airport lounges (including my time in T5) in the February 2012 issue of Airline Passenger Experience magazine here (it’s free, but you must register to see it).  Suffice it to say that I still have dreams about my time in those lounges at London Heathrow.

When I last went to the Bahamas in 2004, there were photos and renderings of the new terminal at Nassau’s Lynden Pindling International Airport, but the actual experience wasn’t much to write home about.  Fast forward to now, and check out this article from our good friends at the Jaunted blog on the Graycliff Divan Airport Lounge in the departures area of the airport.  You have to enter through a gift shop, but past that there’s an indoor and outdoor lounge with food, drinks and a smoking area.

Food/beverage concessionaire SSP consistently has some of my favorite airport concepts.  And I’m really digging their latest one — enhancing the wine experience at London City Airport. The fun begins with weekly wine tastings every Wednesday, hosted by sommelier Ben Mulvaney and supported by Bars Manager Anthony Stanley. Passengers will be able to sample some of the world’s finest wines, learn of their origin and recommended food pairings, and receive complementary tasting notes.  And travelers can now taste the world’s best wines without having to shell out for a full bottle thanks to a new Enomatic machine at the airport’s newest restaurant, City Bar & Grill.

I’ll end my offering my picks for the top five airline lounges I’d kill to visit.  Enjoy!

1. Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, London Heathrow. I had the chance to visit this lounge back in the late 1990s, and it was fabulous then. But since then, the 12,000 square foot facility has been completely redone.
2. Emirates First and Business Class Lounges, Dubai International Airport. I had no clue until I interviewed Nate Vallier on his experiences in these lounges in the February 2012 issue of Airline Passenger Experience magazine here (it’s free, but you must register to see it).
3. Singapore Airlines Lounge, Changi Airport. Who wouldn’t want to sit in the world’s best airline’s world’s best lounge, located in the world’s best airport?
4. Lufthansa First Class Terminal, Frankfurt Airport.  I flew on the German flag carrier in May 2001 on my way to Munich to do a story on the now-defunct Fairchild Dornier. The lounge was wonderful, but this is another carrier that has stepped up its airline lounge game since I was last there.
5. ANA Lounge, Narita Airport.  This place is a foodie’s delight, with a sake bar, a monthly featured donburi (rice bowl) and a noodle bar. Plus the lounge features personal rooms.

So what did I miss? What are some of your favorite airline lounges?

1. Since I can’t be in Singapore, I’ll be following the action from Aviation International News’ (you may see a story or 2 from me) special microsite just for the show.  I’ll probably also look at FlightGlobal’s microsite  (love that design) and my former employer, Aviation Week.
2. Before and after American Airlines officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, rumors were flying over whether the carrier would merge and if they did, who will it be with? And now, American’s unsecured creditors say they want to see the airline talk with Phoenix-based US Airways about a potential merger, reports Reuters.  of course, these creditors want to have some hope of recovering money after the carrier emerges from bankruptcy.  But American’s management seems to be firm about not merging. It will be interesting to see what happens.
3. In 1997, I flew down to Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, where the Embraer ERJ-145 was built, to take delivery of an aircraft for Continental Express.  On the way home, we spent a day and a half in Martinique.  At the airport as we waited for our ride to the hotel, we saw passengers boarding a CorseAir Boeing 747 to France. Our customs agent asked us to guess how many seats the plane had. No one guessed more than 400. But it was 24 in business class and 558 in coach — all the way back to France. So I didn’t raise an eyebrow when I read that Philippines budget airline Cebu Pacific will cram 400 seats onto its Airbus A330s, which normally seat 300, reports the APEX Editor’s blog.
4. Back in 2009, I flew AirTran Airways to and from Orlando to attend the National Business Aviation Association convention.  On my flight home, I decided to expense the $12.95 for Gogo Inflight Wi-Fi. I used it to post the last of my show news stories and catch up on email. But would I have paid for it myself? Probably not, and that’s the dilemma outlined in a story in ComputerWorld, entitled “Wi-Fi in flight has yet to soar.”  The article notes that only 7% of passengers pay for the service because they don’t want to shell out the money and many times, they don’t know a plane is Wi-Fi equipped.
5. Regular readers know that Southwest Airlines is my carrier of choice, because it gets me from Point A to Point B safely, quickly and at a good price.  That good price includes being able to check two bags for free.  But those who can’t or won’t fly Southwest Air have come up with clever little ideas to avoid paying bag fees on other airlines. Some of the ideas outlined in the New York Times included: vacuum-seal bags in a carry-on; Scottevest clothing that holds everything from clothing to an iPad; and signing up for an airline-branded credit card that allows for one free bag to be checked.

I forgot to link to my Feb. 1 post in the APEX Editor’s blog on miniature airport hotels at London Heathrow and Hartsfield-Jackson airports. And look out for the latest episode of the Airplane Geeks, where I’ll be a guest host.

Forget Girls Gone Wild – it’s now time for Air Marshals Gone Wild! An ABC News investigation has found that managers overseeing the Federal Air Marshal Service (whose agents protect commercial flights) ridiculed blacks, Latinos and gays, used taxpayers money to visit their families and vacation spots, and “acted like a “bunch of school kid punks.”  TSA Administrator John Pistole told the network that people were fired after its own investigation into the allegations.

American Airlines picked the WRONG person to charge a seat fee!  Consumer advocate Ralph Nader — who forced the creation of the bumped passenger rules — found himself in another fight with an airline.  He discovered that in order to get an aisle seat on his American Airlines flight to DFW Airport, it would cost him $2680 since he didn’t have elite status on the carrier, reports the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

No woman, no flight. Jennifer Winning was denied board her United Express flight from Rock Springs, Wyo., to Denver after a Transportation Security Administration screener admitted they had sent all the female screeners home for the day, reports FOX31-TV.  TSA admitted it had no female screeners, but said that Winning, who said she arrived 35 minutes before the flight, had missed the final boarding call.

The iPad would have been much cheaper. A pilot for Virgin Australia is suing the carrier for A$1 million after claiming to suffer a back injury carrying a flight bag filled with 40 pounds of charts and manuals, reports AvWeb. The injury, claims David Kloster, would not have happened had the airline just shelled out for an iPad, which can hold the same materials.

When Twitter can be criminal. Remember the guy who sent the frustrated tweet after his girlfriend’s flight was delayed due to snow at the U.K.’s Robin Hood Airport and was arrested for a bomb hoax?  Paul Chambers was fined $630 plus costs (now more than $5,000) but he’s now appealing the case, heard in a London court last week, reports ARS Technica. The case is expected to set a social media precedent.

And the Oscars go to…. Passengers on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Los Angeles got the surprise of their lives when film academy president Tom Sherak, who was transporting the awards for the ceremony Feb. 26, allowed them to hold and take pictures with two of the iconic statues, reports USA Today’s Today In The Sky blog.

Hat tip to our friends at the Dallas Morning News’ Airline Biz blog  for passing along this YouTube video of American Airlines employee singing a bankruptcy song: ‘You Screwed Up Our Lives,’ sung to the tune of ‘You Light Up My Life.’  Enjoy!