The elusive hunt for legroom on planes – CNN Out of the Office
This week, I take a look at legroom on airplanes and why seat pitch is a crappy measure.

In the Trenches: Planning for Turnover – Intuit Small Business Blog
I’m sadly losing one of my concierges in a couple weeks, and this time I’m far better prepared.

Mrs Cranky recently received a survey from American and this was one of the questions:

So, do you care? The higher pocket supposedly gives more legroom, but it usually won’t hold as much. What do you think?

Just before Christmas, Air New Zealand took delivery of its very first 777-300ER. These airplanes are meant to replace the 747-400s that do the long haul flying for the airline, and Air NZ has really done a fantastic job making the experience much better than the airline’s already high quality experience out there today. While the airplane may look like any other 777 on the outside, what Air New Zealand has done on the inside makes it one of the best products I’ve seen. And this isn’t just from pictures. I was able to take a tour of the airplane when it stopped in LA on its delivery flight.

When I went down to New Zealand for the interior unveiling last January, it looked like a very ambitious effort. I liked what I saw, but it was just a prototype in a nondescript space in Auckland. Seeing it all on the airplane in full force really hammers home how great this is. And it’s not just the seats. It’s really the entire experience. That’s something that only rarely gets enough attention. Below, I have six videos that take a tour through several parts of the onboard experience. Take a look and then come back for more discussion.

Having been on the airplane, I have to say that it’s different, and even better, in person. The airline really has set a standard for travel, actually making its seats white and “ink” (um, black) with mood-lighting to make it feel more like a private jet experience. Being onboard, you really get that sensation more than on any other commercial airline I’ve been on. (And no, I haven’t been on the Singapore A340-500 with 100 biz class seats.)

The seats are innovative in all three cabins and they all appear to be contenders for best-in-class. But I’ve already talked about those when I visited Auckland last year. What really grabbed me was the soft product and the way that it caters to the customer in ways that I don’t think we often see from airlines. It also adds some of that Kiwi humor into the mix to prevent people from taking themselves too seriously.

For example, the lavs have wallpaper on the side with different designs. One has a bookshelf with a bunch of books (including the “Kiwis Have Big Noses” tome which is apparently highly respected in academic circles). Another has a chandelier one one side with what looks like the reflection on the adjacent wall. The reflection, however, has knives, spoons, and yes, forks in it. My favorite might be the lav which actually has a window inside. Across from the window, you see this:

I also like that the amenity kits in business class have eyeshades with different designs on them. Some have old-time aviator goggles, others have bird eyes. The idea being that seeing some of the high-powered Kiwi businesspeople walking around in their pajamas wearing these things will help to lighten the mood a little. I agree, and it’s very New Zealand-appropriate.

Another thing that Air New Zealand has figured out is that if you make kids happy, their parents will be happy. And since Air New Zealand carries a ton of family leisure travelers, that’s really important. If the airline knows a kid is traveling, the headrest will be given the kids’ cover to make it special. Also, when the kid arrives at the seat, there will be a snackbox waiting. Kids don’t always wait for mealtime, so this will be a welcome way to start the flight. The kids will also get a bag with a bunch of goodies and there’s an extensive kid section on the inflight entertainment. That’s just smart.

Possibly one of the more interesting moves is the use of common space. Virgin Atlantic certainly has done this well with the bar for premium passengers, and Air New Zealand will do the same thing with a twist. In the front galley, they will be able to hold wine tastings with its Kiwi wines for business class customers. It’s a good move because it fits with the Kiwi wine culture, just as Virgin Atlantic’s cool bar fits with its image.

In the back galley, the crew expects to have story time for kids. They can read to the kids or they have a 23 inch LCD screen that can have movies shown. Getting the kids together and relieving the parents from duty for a little while is going to pay dividends.

In the end, Air New Zealand has really created a special atmosphere on the airplane and that’s something very few airlines have been able to do. The airplane starts flying some days between LA and Auckland on January 16. By April, flights 1 and 2, the ones that go between Auckland, LA, and London will have the new product.

How many of you saw Cathay Pacific’s announcement that it’s putting new seats in business class? It seemed relatively quiet on this side of the world, but it is big news. Possibly the biggest news is that Cathay is following the lead of . . . US Airways!?! That’s right, it’s the reverse herringbone. What do you think?

While there are a lot of things that are bound to change in the United/Continental merger, one of the most welcome changes will be a shift in how quickly things get done at the combined airline. See, United is shockingly slow at finishing what it starts while Continental gets things done relatively quickly. It all goes back to Gordon Bethune.

When Gordon Bethune took over at Continental in the mid-1990s, he found an airline in complete disarray. The onboard product was miserable and inconsistent, employees were unhappy, and I believe that each airplane had a different paint job.* (*Ever-so-slight exaggeration) So one of the things Gordon did was ensure that the airline was presenting itself in a uniform fashion. Even though the airline had almost no money left, he started painting the airplanes. And in a short period, the entire fleet was done. This may not seem important, but it does mean a lot to employees and helps act as the foundation for a single brand image.

United isn’t quite in the same position as Continental was back then, but the fleet looks like that of a bankrupt airline. While all Continental airplanes are painted in the airline’s livery (except for those that have received new United titles), United only has about half its fleet in the current pre-merger colors. The other half is still in the old battleship gray (aka Malevolent Skies) colors. You know when that livery went away? It was nearly 7 years ago, on February 18, 2004. And half the fleet still wears those outdated colors.

The result is something like this (via Flickr user Ack Ook):

There are a ton of dirty, faded airplanes out there. This may not be a safety issue but that doesn’t mean passengers won’t interpret it as a safety issue. It also confuses the already unclear brand. But really, this should be the least of United’s problems. The inside is probably a bigger issue.

On the domestic fleet, United has theoretically been installing new, slimline leather seats on its airplanes but so far just shy of one third of the airplanes have received the makeover. And internationally, United has been putting new flat bed Business Class seats onboard along with a refreshed First Class. This is a particularly interesting project to compare since Continental has been doing the same thing.

In July 2008, Continental announced it would start installing flat beds in business class. The first one went into service in November 2009, as planned, and Continental has just announced that all of the 777s are finished. The 757s are about two-thirds of the way there and the 767s haven’t started yet, also as planned. So in about a year, Continental has outfitted just shy of 50 airplanes and has lived up to most expectations.

Contrast that with United. That airline announced its new business class seat in July 2007, one year earlier than Continental. It said at the time that the entire international fleet would be done by the end of 2009. The first airplane didn’t get done until April 2008, and the 767s were finished about one year after that, a similar path as Continental has taken. But here we are one year after the original deadline and there are still forty 777s flying around with the old seats. The 777s weren’t even started until early 2010, after they were all supposed to be done.

Don’t even get me started on inflight entertainment. Every traveler on the Continental international fleet has a personal screen with nearly all of them having audio/video on demand. (The 767s that don’t will be updated.) United will have audio/video on demand in the premium cabins when the upgrade work is done, but the back is all of the place. In coach, the 777s will have audio/video on demand, the 767s will have personal screens with looping movies, and the 747s will still have the overhead video screens that are exceedingly rare these days.

I imagine that under Continental’s leadership, this process to bring toward a consistent product will speed up dramatically. That will go a long way in the airline’s effort to present a single brand, because right now, United presents a whole lot of different ones.