First Space Hotel Set to Open in 2012 – Asylum.com
I was asked about travel to space. Fun topic, but I don’t see it anytime soon.

Milwaukee sparks air wars – BusinessRockford.com
A thorough piece on what the low cost carrier expansion into Milwaukee might mean for Rockford. I weighed in (and, as you imagine, I don’t see much hope for the place).

Does Delta Make Atlantic Southeast’s Performance Suffer? We’re About to Find Out – BNET
ASA’s on time and bag handling performances are pretty bad, but is it Delta’s fault? Possibly, and now we’ll find out.

Electronics top splurge gifts for travelers – ABC News/AP
The AP asked what kinds of gifts I would find interesting this holiday season. I’m looking at netbooks these days.

ExpressJet To Fill the 50-Seat Aircraft Void at United – BNET
Looks like United has decided how to replace those Mesa 50 seaters it’s getting rid of. ExpressJet is the winner, but this is a little more complicated than it sounds.

get that dress to your wedding in one piece – antibride.com
I don’t know much about wedding dresses, but I do know how you should get it to your wedding. Don’t check it. There are better ways.

Boingo Bets Passengers Will Engage with Sponsors for Free Wifi in Airports – BNET
Boingo is bringing the sponsor model to airports – watch an ad or do something they want and you’ll get free wifi.

United Listens to Customers, Changes Upgrade Policy – BNET
United is bringing back the regional upgrade due to popular demand. It goes to show that they do listen, sometimes.

Premium Air Traffic Takes and Unexpected Turn for the Worse – BNET
I really thought that September year-over-year comparisons would be much better. I was wrong.

It’s certainly interesting to watch the Japanese market these days. JAL is turning in record losses and is effectively sitting on a cliff waiting to jump. Meanwhile, ANA has decided to pour a bunch of money into seriously improving its product. This is some pretty impressive looking stuff. Take a look at the new first class suite.

Pretty awesome-looking, huh? But let’s start with coach since that’s where most of us will end up anyway. Coach seats will have 34 inch pitch, so pretty nice legroom, along with headrests AND footrests. Footrests in coach?! Hooray! They will also have 10.6 inch monitors with full audio/video on demand, iPod connectors, USB ports, and power outlets.

In addition, they’ve decided to lay the cabin out in a 2-4-3 configuration. I personally love this configuration because it gives options to people regardless of the size of the party. And nobody gets stuck in the middle of a section of 5. Granted, it required three different types of seat sets (set of 2, set of 3, and set of 4), so it makes things a little more difficult logistically, but from a customer perspective, I don’t think it can be beat.

ANA is also rolling out a premium economy class with a 2-4-2 configuration with 42 inch pitch. The big selling point here is that there are dividers between seats that can move if you so choose, and the epic armrest struggle is unnecessary since there is a double-wide available. Take a look:

Now let’s get to the fancy stuff. Business Class seats will go fully flat in a 1-2-1 configuration so everybody has an aisle. The seats are set up in a staggered way, so you’ll have your seat with your feet going under a table in the seat in front of you. Take a look at this release for an overview of what I’m talking about. The screen here is 17 inches and the service is upgraded. They’re even taking a page from the Virgin America playbook by allowing customers to order their meals on the touchscreen whenever they feel like eating.

Now let’s get back to that first class suite that they’re calling the First Square. This is also in a 1-2-1 configuration but it afford complete privacy from the outside world, just like on Emirates, Singapore, and the like. The screen is 23 inches (anyone else remember when having a 19 inch tv at home was a big deal?) and it has all the amenities you could imagine.

As if that’s not enough, in Tokyo, they’re introducing Suite Check-in for the fancy pants fliers. You go to a private suite where they check you in, take your bags, and put you through security. They’re also creating Suite Lounges so you can have your own private workspace while you wait. Just unreal stuff.

In the air, the changes will begin rolling out on the 777-300ER aircraft beginning on February 20. This will start on the Tokyo-JFK route every other day and it will go on to the Tokyo-London and Tokyo-Frankfurt routes by the end of 2010. In 2011, it will go on the other US and Europe routes.

Tell me you don’t want to try it. That’s what I thought.

I suppose it’s inevitable. Any time two airlines move closer together, the speculation that it means they’ll merge picks up. Right now, the noise surrounding a United-Continental merger is deafening thanks to the announcement that elite members will now get upgrades on each airline. That doesn’t necessarily mean a merger is going to happen.

Let’s start with the actual news here. United fliers will be given access to “premium” seating (better seats) in coach as well as upgrades on Continental. Continental fliers will get access to Economy Plus and upgrades on United. This begins “mid-2010.”

As usual, Continental has done a far better job communicating this change to its customers than United. Sure, they put out a joint press release, but other than that, United has been much less active in getting the news out. Continental, on the other hand, had a full FAQ on its website regarding the upgrades immediately and it posted details on FlyerTalk for Continental Elites. (There is now a page on United.com as well, and I eventually heard back from United’s PR team.)

In short, United and Continental elites are now basically treated the same regardless of which airline they’re on. This is good news for top tier elites, but for the entry level guys, this is just a further devaluation. I think entry level elite status can basically be considered a way to avoid fees and that’s about it now.

When people are flying on United, this is how upgrades will clear:

1. United Global Services
2. United 1K
3. United Premier Executive
4. Continental Platinum Elite
5. Continental Gold Elite
6. United Premier
7. Continental Silver Elite

When people are flying on Continental, this is how upgrades will clear:

1. Continental Platinum Elite
2. United Global Services
3. United 1K
4. Continental Gold Elite
5. United Premier Executive
6. Continental Silver Elite
7. United Premier

So as you can see, the United Premier and Continental Silver elites will be very unhappy about this. The Continental Gold Elites may be pretty unhappy as well since they’ll be bumped on their own airline by top tier United fliers. But remember, where the United top tier fliers are, the Continental top tier fliers likely are not. It’s not like American and United are doing this and having people battle it out in Chicago for upgrades.

I guess we can now see why United started allowing domestic upgrades for free. They wanted to align with Continental to implement this program.

Does this mean that the airlines are going to merge? Beats me. I’m sure United management would love to get that payday, but I don’t know that they are willing to completely walk away as they’d need to do. In my eyes, if this is going to be a successful merger, United needs to become a Houston-based airline.

But I look at moves like this differently than most. When airlines align their offerings closer and closer, it makes the actual benefits of a merger less than before. Sure, it would take some complexity and cost out of the system, but for the customer benefit, a merger isn’t necessary.

That doesn’t mean we won’t see a merger, of course, but it doesn’t mean it’s a done deal either.

Has there been a stranger courtship than that between British Airways and Iberia? The airlines, which have been talking for years, have finally agreed to merge, sort of. I mean, it’ll get there eventually.

I believe talks began in 1784 when King George III, still sad about losing that whole American Revolutionary War thing, decided to go take over Spain instead. (Note: please do not try to double check this in your history books). Though Englaspaña didn’t pan out thanks to bad blood over that whole Armada tiff a couple hundred years earlier, they agreed that were airplanes to ever be invented, they would talk about merging the two entities.

Now, a few hundred years later, the dream has become a reality. Well, almost a reality. If you happen to love BA or Iberia, don’t fret. Not much is likely to change for travelers. Think of it as being similar to the Air France/KLM merger or even Lufthansa’s takeover of, uh, most of Europe. There will now be a holding company called TopCo (wtf) that will be held by the current BA and Iberia shareholders. BA gets 55% and Iberia gets 45%. The brands will remain separate.

Is anyone else surprised how much Iberia is getting in this deal? I mean, I always thought of BA as part of the big three with Lufthansa and Air France, but this just makes them seem tiny. Well, whatever. It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t hold shares in either company, but even if I did, it’s not a done deal just yet.

There isn’t actually a fully defined agreement yet. That should be done by March . . . 2048. Ok, not really. March 2010 it is. Then they expect the Boards to vote by the end of 2010, and that’s when it will be done . . . assuming the European Union doesn’t have any issues. In other words, let’s talk about this in a year when something might actually be happening.

I had someone ask me whether I thought this meant that the British Airways/American Airlines antitrust immunity proposal would be hurt since Iberia and British Airways were consolidating. I don’t think so at all. Though we talk about BA/AA, Iberia is actually already a part of that deal. So this doesn’t change a thing.

So what do we take away from this? Nothing yet. Just keep waiting and we’ll see if it actually goes through. Until then, keep flying as if nothing happened.

Winglets on airplanes are nothing new. We’ve seen them big and small on all kinds of airplanes. The most visible ones these days are the huge ones that you see on 737s, but what the heck is a sharklet? Well, that’s the Airbus-designed winglet for the A320, and here is an exclusive photo of it from Airbus.

Or maybe not. A sharklet is actually just a winglet with a cool name, and Airbus is going to put them on A320s, if the buyer so chooses. “But wait,” you say, “doesn’t the A320 already have winglets?” Well, sort of, but not really. Those little guys in the top photo above that go above and below the wing are technically wingtip fences. Yeah, I know. Whatever. But these new ones will look more like the big ones you see on a 737 that are blended into the wing and point up. Here’s an actual mock from Airbus of what they’ll look like.

The upshot here is that winglets are good. They reduce the wake given off by the wings and that means that the airplane is more fuel efficient – by 3.5% in fact. Hooray, environment saved, right?

Yeah, that’s a nice thing but there’s another big benefit here. Better fuel efficiency with the same sized fuel tanks means that each plane can go further on a tank of gas. In this case, it is estimated that an A320 can go another 110 miles on the same amount of gas.

That may not sound like a lot, but have you ever been on an A320 heading west and had to make an unexpected stop in Vegas? Salt Lake? JetBlue fliers know what I’m talking about. During the winter, the winds kick up and that means flights east are shorter with the wind at their back. But flights west have to go right into that wind and it can slow things down significantly to the point where they don’t have enough fuel to make it the whole way. So an extra 110 miles can really help on those long sectors.

There is one problem here. The winglets, or sharklets as they’re calling them, are only for new-build A320s. I guess there’s enough wing work required that so far they don’t have a program for retrofitting existing airplanes, but they say one is in the works. Hmm, that sucks. I’m sure some airlines want it now.

But it’s good for airlines like Air New Zealand which conveniently just announced an order for Airbus narrowbodies to replace their Boeing fleet. They’ll be getting sharklets first.

So one day, you’ll be spared that painful fuel stop on a domestic flight, and you’ll have to remember to thank those big, hulking sharklets bouncing at the end of the wing.