Do you remember the first time you ever flew? What do you remember about it? How big the cabin was on the inside? How small those cars looked on the ground below? The pain in your ears from the air pressure, or perhaps the gum you had to chew to make it go away?

Alice Liu, American Airlines’ Managing Director of Onboard Products, remembers something completely different from her first flight as a 13-year-old, and remembers it so fondly that it helped fuel her desire to work in the airline industry. Despite the nerves and excitement of moving with her family to a new and unfamiliar world across the Pacific, and the experience of seeing the tops of those fluffy, white clouds for the first time, what did Alice remember most about her 18-hour-trek from Taipei to Dallas via LAX? The food, of course.

That’s right. Good old, economy class airplane food, which she enjoyed so much that she asked for a second helping. If I can read your thoughts right now, you must either think that someone so passionate about airline food (!!!) is either flat-out nuts, or a match made in heaven for the job she does for American. Based …

**This a follow up article to the LIVE coverage of the Lufthansa A380 inaugural flight to JFK, by Rachel Levy**

On Tuesday, Shashank called me and asked “What are you doing this weekend?†Knowing him, I knew that was probably trouble =p Apparently Lufthansa was going to be flying the Airbus A380 from Frankfurt to JFK for the first time on Monday, SimpliFlying was invited, and the press group was leaving on Saturday. While I love to travel, this was very last minute, but given the opportunity, I said yes, of course.

I didn’t realize, just how incredible this opportunity would be. From flying business class, to a tour of the maintenance hangar, a tour of every inch of the plane, to interviews of the pilots, head of maintenance, a visit to the cockpit dinner overlooking the runway, this was certainly the experience of a lifetime.

The A380 is not new to Lufthansa, nor is it new to Airbus, but Lufthansa is set to be the largest A380 operator in Europe. Airbus currently has 244 orders from airlines, Lufthansa being #3 with 15 planes, after Emirates and Singapore Airlines. Each A380 customer has the ability to customize …

**This was the LIVE coverage from the event. For post event trip report with videos and hundreds of photos, please click here**

Once again, we’ve been fortunate enough to be on the inaugural flight of an A380 to New York. Almost two and a half years ago, we brought to you the first Emirates A380 flight Live, and over the next couple of days, we will share the experience aboard the Business Class on Lufthansa’s first A380 flight to the US.

On Monday, February 28th Lufthansa’s A380 will make its inaugural flight from Frankfurt to JFK, landing around 2pm EST. Rachel Levy (@bostonmarketer), who’s been an integral part of the SimpliFlying team over the last year, will be sharing her experiences on Twitter and here. We have also created a Twitter list of all those on the inaugural flight, and you can follow them here.

// …

***This is an article written and published from scratch at 35,000 ft, in-flight on Virgin America flight 342 from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale. Made possible by Gogo Wifi. A first on SimpliFlying**

In a recent conversation with a South American airline executive, we were talking about the state of commercial airlines in the US. And the consensus we reached was that the travel experience  within the US is just bearable at best, often frustrating and most noteworthy innovations are actually taking place in other regions around the world.

Then I took my first Virgin America flight. And I stand corrected – innovation is indeed taking place in the US too. And in addition to just flying their own airlines regularly, I’d highly encourage every senior airline executive in the world to come give Virgin America a shot on their next trip to the US. And here’s why.
Red, White and Purple – ah..so..Virgin
Virgin America probably has the best in-flight product on a narrowbody aircraft (trust me…I’ve flown a lot of them). And the brand personality truly stands out!

The ambience: The number of innovations inside the cabin are astounding. The first thing that strikes you is the cabin ambience – purple …

When it comes to airline branding, it’s the little things that happen at the various touch points that make the brand stand out, ultimately driving customer loyalty.

I flew from Mumbai to Delhi yesterday on Indigo Airlines, a leading domestic budget carrier in India, known for its tongue-in-cheek branding.

I have a habit of being engrossed in a book or a newspaper during the take-off and landing sequence on every flight I take. On the flight yesterday, once the safety demonstration was done, the stewardess walked down the aisle checking our seat-belts. As she passed me, she realized I was reading and reached out to turn on the reading light for me.

Let me write that again. Without even me asking her for anything, or even making eye contact with her (remember, I was engrossed in reading), she turned on my reading light, gave me a smile and walked away.

It was an aha-moment for me. Having taken over 20 flights in the last couple of weeks (including flying First Class), this was the only thing that stood out. Thanks to such a simple gesture, which made me feel special, I can say with confidence that I’ll be inclined to fly Indigo …

The Bombardier CSeries aircraft has not just pushed the boundaries in passenger comfort, but also possesses some of the best technical capabilities among modern jets. I was lucky enough to be led through an in-depth personal tour at Bombardier HQ in Montreal, by Sam Cherry – a Director at Bombardier who knows the product inside-out. And for the first time one the web, SimpliFlying has videos of what would exclusively be shown to airlines when they’re making a purchase decision (on a really cool touchscreen too!)

If you’re an aviation geek, you’d especially enjoy watching this interview as it covers a variety of in-depth aeronautical topics including:

The use of  70% advanced composite materials for the exterior of the aircraft [15-20% weight reduction] (1:23)
How a global team is putting together different parts of the aircraft (2:10)
What makes the CSeries such an environmentally friendly aircraft [20% greener] (3:55)
Why the engine on the CSeries is game-changing (4:45)
How the 3D computational aerodynamics result in less fuel-burn (5:15)
What makes the CSeries 4X quieter than other comparable aircraft? (5:55)
REALLY cool simulation of the noise-reduction on the CSeries (6:45)…

Over the past couple of months, I’ve spent a lot of time in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and that resulted in an overdose of branding messages from regional airlines like Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia and Tiger Airways.

I was intrigued in particular by Malaysia Airlines’ “Malaysian Hospitality” campaign – which is a play on the MH code of the airline. Soon enough, I got to experience the “world’s best in-flight service” myself, on Business Class from Kuala Lumpur to Los Angeles (see photos at the bottom of this article). And here’s what I feel is the essence of Malaysian Hospitality – it’s the “human-ness” of flying. Let me explain what I mean.
Malaysian Hospitality – a story of genuine care
It may sound strange, but a lot of airlines that have good service often lack “humanity” in their service. Sometimes, it even becomes robotic – I’m sure you’ve seen robotic smiles plastered on flight attendants. Malaysia Airlines’ service, in contrast, was genuine and very human – one that makes you feel good as a person. Let me share a story.

I opted to have my meal soon after take-off, while the gentleman next to me chose to have it later. I first …

I was at the “HP Future is…” and was inspired to do an article on what the future of air travel would look like in a year. Instead of doing a “Top 10 article” I decided to do a video of what taking a flight in Dec 2010 would be like, with the advent of social media and new technologies, which airline brands can use. On this hypothetical flight, I managed to fly Business Class at a price cheaper than Economy class, on an airline that does low-cost Long haul! I ordered food on Twitter, streamed happenings from the flight Live back home via Wifi and “rented” a power point to plug in my Mac. I was even notified by SMS that my bags are lost and that got a free cab voucher from them for pick-up. All in all, a great improvement over the last one year Enjoy the video! For me, the future is… now. Airline executives need to embrace new technologies NOW in order to take control of …

As promised at the start of the year, SimpliFlying will be bringing you a new section with video trip reports – mostly shot at 35,000 feet. Because the best assessment of an airline brand can only be done during the Brand eXecution! Here’s the first of such reports. In this 3 min video trip report, I share my experience on-board one of Etihad Airways‘ brand new Airbus A320 planes. This was a flight from Athens, Greece to New Delhi, India, via Abu Dhabi. Three things stood out about Etihad: 1) They greet you by name and talk to you personally2) The planes smell of the desert!3) Their transit lounge for Business Class in Abu Dhabi offers free spa treatments! My rating for the flight is 4.5 out of 5. njoy the 3 min video trip report (Click here if you can’t watch the video) If you haven’t flown Etihad Airways before, I’d encourage you to give it a shot – they’re one of …

Why I had never flown Air India before…
I had never flown Air India till yesterday – intentionally. And I had my good reasons.

Last year, I booked my mom on a Singapore-Delhi Air India flight and the A310 was delayed by over 3 hrs, ensuring that she missed her onward connections. Moreover, a lot of friends who tried to save money had horror stories to tell. One of them once asked for water and the stewardess replied in Hindi, “This is not my lane. Ask the other woman”. That ensured that I never tried the Indian national carrier even though I had the opportunity to, multiple times. So I had really lowered my expectations.
Why I finally flew Air India – the new plane and the new partnership
This time I had the choice of flying from Toronto to Greece either on LOT Polish’s ageing B767 via Warsaw, or Air India to London and then Aegean to Athens. I went for the latter option, because I could fly the B777-300ER of Air India and then the brand new A321 of Aegean. Moreover, I could earn Singapore Airlines Krisflyer miles on Air India due to their recent partnership. May be if CrankyFlier had …