Straphangers in the Sky

Will "vertical seating" at Ryanair, the pioneering low-fare airline's latest wild idea, fly?

Ryanair, a brash super-discount airline based in Ireland, is always coming up with innovative and even outrageous ideas about packing as many bodies as possible into airplanes or deriving revenue from something other than the air fare itself. Ryanair recently conducted a two-week poll of passengers about "vertical seating."

Reportedly already available on some Asian airlines, passengers would lean back in their "seats" and would be buckled up, unlike straphangers on buses or subways. Ryanair wondered whether its passengers would be willing to fly that way if it meant free or super-super-cheap tickets.

The Ireland-based airline released the results of 88,000 passengers who participated in the poll:

Q. If it meant your flight was free, would you stand on a one-hour flight?

A. Yes 66 percent; No 34 percent

Q. If it meant your flight was half that of a seated passenger, would you stand on a one-hour flight?

A. Yes 42 percent; No 58 percent

Q. Do you think passengers should have a choice of sitting or standing as they do on buses, trains and underground transport?

A. Yes 60 percent; No 40 percent

Other than the oxymoronic nature of "vertical seating" itself, I have a few questions. How do you place a carryon under the seat in front of you if there is no seat in front of you? And how can the equate the choice between standing, or rather sitting vertically, on a plane with the ground transportation their poll mentioned. People who choose to stand while commuting generally have no choice. They do so because all the seats are taken -- and there is no fare differential between those who sit and those who stand.

Austrian "Prison House" on Horror Highway

Voyeuristic visitors flock to see where the latest twisted family tragedy took place

Some people travel to look at places where bad things happened -- some large-scale and public, and others once private: Pearl Harbor and the watery grave of the battleship 'Arizona,' the site of the World Trade Center in New York that became known as Ground Zero, concentration camps in Germany and Poland, New Orleans' still-devastated lower Ninth Ward, the Federal Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, the Texas School Book Depository and Dealey Plaza in Dallas where JFK was assassinated, plus assorted decommissioned prisons, jails and dungeons all over the globe all come to mind, as do the creepiest, bloodiest displays in wax museums. The latest tourist stop on the horror highway showing man's inhumanity is the house (left) in Amstetten, Austria, where Josef Fritzl imprisoned his daughter in a cellar and kept her as an incestuous sex slave for nearly a quarter of a century.

"Two weeks ago the small town of Amstetten, with a population of 23,000,
was a tranquil place where little of note ever happened," the Telegraph reported.

"But the town, formerly known only for its apple wine production, has been
suddenly put into the spotlight after it was revealed that one of its respected
citizens, the retired engineer and property developer Josef Fritzl, 73, had
imprisoned his own daughter Elisabeth, in 1984 and kept her as a sex slave,
producing seven children with her.

"Two weeks after the story broke, residents are now complaining about the
"ghoulish tourism" that is developing around the Fritzl family house in 40
Ybbstrasse. People are travelling from neighbouring countries such as Germany
and Hungary to visit the street and have their picture taken in front of the
house. According to reports, the three-storey house facing one of Amstetten’s
main roads has also been put on the route of a sightseeing bus tour which now
routinely stops in front of it.

"'It is bad enough that journalists and TV crews have beleaguered our town,
but now there is this ghoulish tourism with people coming to Amstetten just to
see the house in Ybbstrasse. It is appalling, we just want to be left in
peace,'" said one Amstetten resident.

"The house is guarded by police around the clock as over 40 forensic
experts are investigating its interior. One of the officers on duty outside the
house said: 'People are coming especially to have their picture taken in front
of the house. It has become a sort of pilgrimage site.'"

The idealistic side of me would like to think that people come to pay their respect and to memorialize victims of horror and tragedy, but the realist in me knows that, sadly, much of it is prurient interest at best and titillation at worst.

Addition & Subtraction in Tourism Promotion

Israel Tourist Authority "claims" extra land that it has; Michigan "forgets" one-third of its state

The back page of New Mexico magazine is called "One of Our 50 is Missing," filled with anecdotes and examples about people (some of them officials of some level of government) who think New Mexico is somehow part of Old Mexico rather than the United Sates. The license plate even includes USA to clarify in which country a vehicle is registered. That makesNew Mexico accurate and proactive in identifying itself.

Not so the state of Michigan and the State of Israel whose mistaken maps promoting tourism to their area had to be pulled or corrected.

The Associated Press reported on a kerfuffel caused after Michigan released a map without the Upper Peninsula, separated by two Great Lakes from the more populous lower section. AP noted that the "U.P., which is about the size of Denmark and bigger than nine U.S. states, only has 3% of the state's population" was missing from a map released by Michigan itself. The correct map is shown to the upper right.

Some "Yoopers," as U.P. residents call themselves, felt slighted last year when a state-sponsored tourism commercial only showed the more populous peninsula to the south. The TV ad was later fixed." U.P. residents, who refer to themselves as Yoopers, have legislaion on their side requiring their forested, rural portion of the state to be included on all oficial maps.

The AP report continued, "Last year, some high school students from Escanaba wrote to a textbook publisher after a map in a history book appeared to exclude the U.P. from the borders of the United States. The map colored the U.P. white — like the void surrounding the country — while the rest of Michigan was shaded light blue. The map identified states by their postal codes; the U.P. was designated "IL," for Illinois — which had no label. Other maps have shown the U.P. as part of Wisconsin or Canada.

Meanwhile, across he Atlantic, a poster promoting visitation to Israel was withdrawn by a UK truth-in-advertising watchdog called the Advertising Standards Authority after 442 people complained that a map on the poster (lower right) shows the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights as part of Israel. According to a report in The Guardian, the Tourism Ministry responded that the map was "a general schematic tourism and travel map, rather than a political map."

Airline Gains and Losses for Denver

Southwest to add more Denver Flights; Lufthansa to cut back

Good news for travelers to, from and through Denver International Airport is that Southwest Airlines is again adding more flights. Southwest Airlines is adding five new nonstop flights to Sacramento, Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood, New Orleans and Phoenix beginning August 4. From just 13 daily flights a bit over two years ago, the low-fare airline currently operates 61 daily flights and will be shortly adding those above.

Elsewhere in the Rockies, Frontier Airlines' new routes connect Denver with Colorado Springs, Aspen, Durango and Grand Junction, CO; and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Missoula, Montana; Fargo, North Dakota; and Bozeman, Montana. Some routes are already being served; the last will be Bozeman's Gallatin Field on May 22. Republic Air and Lynx Aviation, a Frontier subsidiary, are flying these regional routes.

Meanwhile, Lufthansa has announced what it currently is calling seasonal suspension of its Denver-Munich non-stop late in October. It is planning to resume service in March. I am not sure how many Coloradans or other Westerners would be traveling to Germany in winter 2009-09, but given the strong euro and anemic dollar, I imagine that many European skiers will be traveling to Rocky Mountain powder -- and for them, the loss of this service is unfortunate.

DIA, the State of Colorado and the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation provided a $2 million "incentive package" for Lufthansa to inaugurate Munich-Denver service, which started only last year. I don't know what contractual strings we might have attached to the German airline's presence here, but I guess it wasn't enough. Meanwhile, demand for service between Germany and Asia is accelerating, which trumped our incentive payments.

Fido and Fifi in Flight

Pet Airways transports canine and feline "pawsengers" to five cities


Pet Airways, a startup airline that takes dogs and cats out of the cargo hold and considers them "passengers" has inaugurated service to Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (formerly Jefferson County Airport) to serve metro Denver pets and the folks who pay their bills. Other airports include Republic Airport on Long Island (Farmingdale, New York); Baltimore/Washington International Airport; Chicago's Midway Airport; and Hawthorne Municipal Airport near Los Angeles.

In this recessionary time, it seemed extravagant to fly an animal for $149 to $299 one way, but people seem to be willing to pay it. That seemed like a lot of money to me (having only flown a pet once, in 1988, for $35) until I checked Pet Airways fare comparison chart. It turns out that in addition to charging for checked bags, food, seat choice and anything else they can toss into the revenue stream, other airlines are charging a pretty penny to transport pets. United, of course, is the high-fee champion, charging $175 to transport a small animal under the seat and a whopping $250 as baggage. With today's fare wars, humans might be flying for less than their pets.

Pets are dropped off at the Pet Lounge to await boarding time. I presume they do not have to go through a metal detector, empty their pockets or remove their shoes. In the air, they fly "in safety and comfort" on Beech 1900 aircraft. Normally configured as 19-seaters, they can accommodate 50 pet carriers affixed to an interior wall. A pet attendant monitors the "pawsengers" and passes out inflight snacks, presumably for no additional charge. Like in the old days of aviation, Pet Airways puddle jumps eastbound and westbound, with potty breaks at each stop. And pet owners can check online to find out where their pets are.

Pet Airways hopes to have up to 24 cities in the U.S. and Canada on their route system within two years. Heaven help them if they encounter major weather delays or, worse, an accident. Meanwhile, it's either an idea whose time has come or one whose trajectory will echo the Clear security shortcut that recently tanked spectacularly.

Innovative Service for Internet Addicts Like Me

Service offers combination of connectivity and mobility for travelers

Shortly before I left for Britain, I learned about RoVair, a service that offers wireless mobile broadband (WMB) access. I have no idea just what aircards, datacards and evdo cards are, but as one who now drags her laptop around the globe, I do know what a hassle and/or expense it can be to find WiFi or Ethernet connections while traveling. I have struggled with Internet access at sea, because many cruise ships seem to have Internet centers with painfully slowly service via satellite at dial-up speed. I have paid through the nose in fancy hotels, where you would think that WiFi would be as much an included amenity as it is in many mid-range properties. My laptop and I have camped in hotel lobbies where that was the only place with WiFi service. I have driven for miles and paid usurious per-hour WiFi fees and otherwise sacrificed time and comfort to check E-mails or do some timely blog posting.

Therefore, RoVair's explanation that it is available anywhere there is a cellular signal seemed like a traveler's dream innovation ("hundreds of thousands if not millions of hotspots," the company says). As I understand it, you get a datacard and then use a "day pass" that is activated all the time -- or maybe the datacard and the day pass are the same thing. There are all sorts of other bells and whistles (including a price break for multiple cards and the ability to "light up" other devices elsewhere, which I probably don't need but might be useful for people traveling on company business).

Currently, you order your day pass for a certain number of days with a three-day minimum and return it to the company in provided packaging when the time is up -- sort of like NetFlix. "Soon," RovAir says, "day passes will be available from handy kiosks at airports, hotels, train terminals, shopping malls and other convenient locations."

In any case, card rental starts at $5.95 a day with a multi-day purchase, which made RoVair sound really, really, REALLY good. I was ready to sign up. Unfortunately for me this time, the service is currently available only in the US and perhaps Canada, but not in Europe or Asia.

To read about our trip, see my postings between April 26 and May 7. If RoVair had been in Britain, I could have dealt more easily or inexpensively with these specific situations:

• Lack of Internet access on trains, which was a bit frustrating, because there was an outlet and a table a each seat, which would have made good use of travel time
• The Famous Wild Boar Hotel in the Lake District has no Internet service. We didn't have a car, so took a taxi (£6 each way) to Bowness, where I found a cafe with Internet access at £3 for 30 minutes. We took advantage of being there to wander around Bowness and stay for dinner, but we did have to lug the laptop around.
• In Carlisle, one of the two hotels we stayed at had WiFi only in the lobby at a cost of £5 per hour. The second hotel had no Internet service at all.
• In Edinburgh, we lucked out at a B&B that had free WiFi in the rooms -- the only one of the five places we stayed with such an amenity.
• At the Sheraton Skyline near Heathrow Airport, Internet service was available in the rooms for £5 per hour or £15 for 24 hours. Gulp!

Therefore, I cheer: Go RoVair! I look forward to trying it in the US next time I am on the road, but more significantly, I hope the service is available in Europe next time I go overseas -- which, come to think of it, might be a long time coming given the state of the dollar.

And for anyone who has not yet navigated the rocky shoals of traveling with a laptop but wants to, the Independent Traveler website recently published a primer of what's out there, what you can expect and what you should take with you.

QE2 Bound for South African Port?

Dubai's economic downtown causes the legendary ship to seek another permanent harbor

In "The Flying Dutchman," a ghost ship drops anchor in a port somewhere in Norway. It is revealed that the captain, the namesake "Flying Dutchman," once swore to the devil that he would sail around the Cape of Good Hope if it took him forever. Once every seven years, he was permitted to leave his ship in search of a woman to redeem him from his deathless wandering. If he failed, he would sail the oceans, when the fantasy opera was set, until Judgment Day.

I thought about "The Flying Dutchman" when I read "QE2 Might Sail Again Before Becoming a Hotel" in USA Today. Just last October, when it became known that the former flagship of the Cunard fleet was sold to a Dubai developer, the All About Cunard blog explained, "Cunard admits the QE2 could have carried on for several more years, but Cunard president Carol Marlow argues the offer from Dubai of £50 million was simply too good to turn down and in pure economic terms it was probably the right thing to do. It seems that prudence over passion has prevailed. Dubai has promised to look after the liner, the fastest in the world, and moor her on [artificial islands called] The Palm."

In November, the ship reached what was to be her "final home" in Dubai (above right), where she was to be converted into a luxury hotel. As recently as March, the owner, a Dubai developer, reaffirmed its "commitment" to turning the QE2 into a luxury hotel in the face of rumors that that she might be sold.

Now, USA Today reports, "The cash-strapped owner of QE2 ocean liner - thought to be permanently resting in Dubai - is considering moving the ship to South Africa or elsewhere...Owner Nakheel, a subsidiary of Dubai World, applied for permission to anchor the QE2 in Cape Town, South Africa, a Daily Mail story says. The company's also believed to be in talks with a local hotel management firm, Johannesburg's Business Day says."

Is the QE2 fated to be shuttled from port to port with the promise of a new life as a luxury hotel, or will it finally happen? I just hope the grande dame of the oceans will not end up dismantled for scrap.