Ok, so maybe I was wrong in condemning all surveys. I think it may just be the surveys that take themselves too seriously. When I saw this “AXE’s Best and Worst Airports to Make a Connection” survey, I actually liked it. I mean, it’s clearly just a marketing ploy and you’re not supposed to take it too seriously, but it does its job well.

Let’s just start with the big winner in this survey . . . Philadelphia International Airport. I’m pretty sure Philly has never topped the list of any positive survey, so that instantly grabbed my attention. What is this list?!?

Apparently the goal is to help “identify the airports that give you the best chance for meeting that special someone this holiday travel season.” So what’s so great about Philly?

Thanks to some of the nation’s longest and most frequent flight delays (32 percent of all flights, averaging 60 minutes), getting stuck in “The Airport of Brotherly Love” gives you a chance to hang your hat in one of 16 bars and seven lounges or grab a cheese steak at one of 57 restaurants. If you’ve got an extra-long layover, impress the object of your desire with smooth moves at the airport’s magic shop.

Oooooooh, I get it. Philly’s suckiness in on-time percentage means more time for love. And they have so many bars and restaurants that there are plenty of places to make it happen. O’Hare and Atlanta? Crappy delays for sure, but the amenities aren’t there. Try flying through O’Hare’s Third World Terminal 2 and you’ll agree.

What’s the worst? Oakland. I’m sure Oakland (the city) has been the worst on many lists, but the airport doesn’t generally fit the bill. But in this case, the lack of massive delays and amenities makes it a bad place for getting the job done. Obviously, this survey doesn’t take itself seriously, and that’s why it’s a good one.

Apparently my admission that I was having trouble coming up with things to write yesterday was a blessing. Today, the only thing causing me trouble was choosing which topic to write about. A phone call yesterday evening with JetBlue spokesperson Alison Eshelman about their new upcoming wi-fi service made my choice much easier. Bloggers don’t always have easy access to PR teams at airlines, but JetBlue has always made it easy.

Anyway, it was leaked yesterday that JetBlue would begin testing free wi-fi onboard a single plane beginning with flight 641 from JFK to SFO this Tuesday. Apparently, they weren’t going to announce it until Tuesday, but word got out (see Engadget for tech details) and now they’re willing to talk. Does that mean you’ll be able to read your daily Cranky at 36,000 feet? Well, maybe. If you subscribe with your Yahoo Mail account. Let’s get into some more of the details.

Thanks to LiveTV (which JetBlue owns), Yahoo, and RIM (maker of BlackBerries), JetBlue has been able to put together a test program for onboard wi-fi. If you bring your laptop and you have wi-fi, you can use this service for free, BUT you can only access Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger. Oh. That’s not so cool. If you have a BlackBerry with wi-fi (8820 or Curve 8320), you can use the email and BlackBerry Messenger functions so you’re not just limited to Yahoo. But, they say you won’t be able to surf the web or open attachments regardless of the device you use.

That deflates a lot of the excitement, huh? But I think I understand why it has to be that way. I mean, this can’t be cheap if you have to do it alone, but both Yahoo and RIM stepped up to make it happen. And that’s probably why JetBlue can offer it for free to customers. Would I rather drop some cash for robust internet access on a long haul flight? Absolutely. But is this better than anything you can get on any other airline right now? Well, yeah.

The good news is that I’m told by Ms Eshelman that while there is an exclusive agreement with Yahoo and RIM right now, it only lasts for a few months. They plan on soliciting feedback from customers to figure out which additional features would be of most interest in the future. So how can you try this out? Buy a ticket on flight 641 next Tuesday. Otherwise, it’s luck of the draw, and your chances are pretty slim of actually getting onboard.

As I mentioned above, the test is on only one airplane right now. The plane, N651JB, was delivered in January of this year as “I’m Having a Blue Moment,” but it will now be reborn as “BetaBlue.” Apparently, this aircraft will be the testbed for all their future tech testing onboard. In other words, you want to be on this plane.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to find out if you’re on this plane until you show up at the airport. I know they can’t tell you very far in advance how a plane will be routed, but it would be nice if you could find out before you leave your home for the airport. They don’t have plans to do that, so you’ll just have to enjoy the surprise. They did tell me that they will try to keep the plane on long haul routes so that customers can get the most benefit. Oh, and the coverage is roughly similar to what you get with LiveTV. It uses 114 cellular towers across the country, so only when the plane is overwater or in foreign airspace is it unlikely to work.

As for future installation on the rest of the fleet, there are no solid plans. If this goes well, they’ll look at expanding it. But there aren’t any guarantees at this point.

So will we be able to start surfing the web with full functionality onboard anytime soon? No way. They just don’t have the bandwidth to allow people to even open attachments let alone stream video. They’re just focusing on email and IM, but they’re going to be experimenting with anything else they can make work at the request of customers.

Practically, this isn’t a big deal for me, because I don’t know how long my Yahoo Mail would keep me entertained. That being said, it’s an important step. This is the first time we’ve seen wi-fi on an airplane, and that should be cause for celebration. So, nice step, JetBlue. I look forward to seeing more robust options evolve over time.

I’m not sure why, but I’ve had a lot of trouble coming up with post topics this week. Maybe it’s a slow week, or maybe work has just been too busy. Either way, today I’m just going to fall back on my old standby . . . Alitalia.

Today, Alitalia received word that of the three expected bidders, only two will make the bid: Air France/KLM and Air One.

Now they have to choose from those two bidders, and it’s not the greatest choice. On the one hand, they have Air One. It’s a small Italian airline that may not be up to the task of integrating the larger, very debt-heavy airline. But, the government could make the most money from them, and yes, the airline would remain Italian.

On the other side, we have Air France/KLM. This is not a stupid airline, so you know they’ve low-balled the bid. I’m reminded of the guys at Texas Pacific Group saying how they’re always interested, it’s just a matter of price. That means of course that the worst of companies may find that TPG is only interested if the price is $1. I’m guessing Air France/KLM is thinking of something along those lines, though not nearly as extreme. The government makes less money, but they may have a better chance of getting an airline that works eventually.

That leaves Lufthansa as the odd man out. They just decided it was a bad idea. Duh. I’m sure they’ll sleep easier tonight.

Now the Alitalia Board will meet to decide which offer they like best. When they choose in the next week or so, they’ll enter into exclusive negotiations with the hope that they’ll get this done by the end of the year.

Last week, Hawaiian Airlines came out with an aircraft order that really surprised me. True, the airline has never hesitated to change its long haul fleet going from the Lockheed L1011 to the Douglas DC-10 and most recently the 767 in just the last 15 years. So I suppose it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’ve now decided to go over to Airbus, but for some reason it is.

The announcement says they’ll go for A330s in 2012 and then A350s when they come available in 2017. Right now, they have 18 767s and this order is only firm for 12 airplanes (6 of each) but with options for an additional twelve. So I think it’s safe to assume that these will come in and replace the 767 fleet completely if all goes well.

So why are they doing it? Well, if you’re interested, listen to this 16 minute podcast from the IAGblog that has Addison Schonland interviewing Hawaiian President and CEO Mark Dunkerley. He basically says that the 767s either hit “retirement age” or come off lease between 2009 and 2014, so they need new planes.

Why not get new 767s? Well, they don’t really make them anymore. Instead Boeing is focusing on the 787. So why not get 787s? Well, they aren’t available until 2017. Neither are the A350s, right? Well, yeah but Airbus could offer the A330 in the interim. Why not pick up other 767s in the interim? This is where it becomes a guessing game.

Dunkerley says the market is tight and there just aren’t that many planes out there right now. At some point when the 787 comes out, the 767s will come available rapidly but Hawaiian didn’t want to take that chance that it would happen in time for their needs to be met. Interesting stuff. It sounded like they wanted the 787 but they just couldn’t make it work. So they went Airbus.

What does this mean for customers? Well, it means they’ll have more middle seats in each row since the A350 is 3-3-3 or 2-5-2 and the A330 is 2-4-2 instead of the 767′s 2-3-2. But the order also means that Hawaiian is betting on an expansion so there will be more places to go. As they said in the podcast, they’ll be looking to go from Hawai’i to the East Coast and to Asia. That being said, the West Coast will remain their main market.

Hopefully they aren’t being too aggressive here. I mean, they’ll have a lot of seats to fill with these new planes. The A350 will have 322 passengers compared to 305 on the A330 and no more than 264 on the 767s. That is a lot more seats than they have today, and I think they’ll have a tough time filling them all.

I know this is probably more interesting to the airline dorks than anyone else, but the podcast gives you a good opportunity hear their thought process. Interesting stuff – maybe I should try podcasting if I can find anyone who want to talk to me.

I tried not to do it. Really. I wasn’t going to write about Spirit’s MILF sale, especially since every other travel blogger has already done it. But after reading the latest round of posts on the subject this morning, I just had to do it.

Why is everyone freaking out about this?!?

The sale ended last night, so this is old news, but the strange controversy lives on. Brief background: Spirit Airlines (based in Ft Lauderdale) launched a sale called the MILF sale. That was said to stand for “Many Islands Low Fares” but in pop culture it means “Mother I’d Like to F***.”

Spirit claimed they didn’t know what it meant, but please, that can’t be true. Spirit is the king of these types of promotions, and I’ve written about it many times. My personal favorite was the Mullet sale with the line “Business in the Front, Party in the Back.” Cheesy? Hell yeah, but I’ll bet it’s effective.

Think about it. How many people know Spirit? Probably not that many in the grand scheme of things. How many people like cheap fares? Um, everyone. If you have extremely cheap fares, you aren’t going to be able to spend a lot of marketing, so, how do you get people to know that you have those fares? Get the media to tell everyone for you. How do you do that? Do something outrageous that will grab their attention.

This time, they’ve succeeded. I’ve seen this sale picked up not just by bloggers but by the national media over the last couple of days. Everyone is talking about it, and most people are “outraged” at such a thing. Let me say something to those outraged people. First of all, you people need to find a hobby. Second of all, you’ve fallen right into the airline’s trap. The more you talk about it, the more likely they are to do it again. Way to go.

Remember, this is Spirit. This isn’t an airline trying to be anything other than cheap transportation. Is it offensive? I really don’t see how it is, but if everyone else thinks it is, that’s better for them. So, if you really are outraged by this, then stop complaining. You’re just helping them.

I, on the other hand, think that this is a really smart move. Everyone is talking about it, and that’s going to lead people to their website to take a look. If even a fraction of those resulted in bookings, it was a successful promotion.