Recently in Travel Category

I am in an Alaska Airlines 737-800, 38,000 feet above sea level and traveling at over 500 miles per hour. And I am connected to the Internet at broadband speeds.

Gogo Inflight Internet, the brand under which Aircell markets its in-flight Internet services, made sign-up and sign-in a two-click process.

Within seconds, I was responding to my work e-mail, updating my Facebook status with a message from the sky, and reading disclaimers about VoIP.

Connection to Skype was tenuous at best. Messaging through Skype worked with noticeable delays, and a Skype call was nearly impossible. It is unclear why Gogo's ground-based cell towers are unable to handle Skype or VoIP. Row 44, Gogo's overshadowed competitor, on the other hand, has no problems with VoIP.

Row 44 offers VoIP options for certain mobile handsets. Row 44 has a fundamentally different infrastructure. Instead of ground-based cell towers, Row 44 relies on satellites. That allows Row 44 to cover most of our planet, whereas Gogo is limited to the continental United States and, according to Aircell, about 100 miles beyond.

In the end, being connected to the world while in flight has been thrilling. Gone are the days when use of electronic devices could land you in a holding cell. That does make me wonder whether mobile phone use was being curtailed for no good reason.

Like The Jetsons' aerocar, Terrafugia would make a great commuter car-plane that requires standard high-octane gas from your neighborhood gas station and a small space in your garage.

Based in Woburn, Mass., Terrafugia's taking pre-orders for US$10,000 with an estimated price tag of US$195,000.

I'm making room for my Terrafugia in my garage.

There is no real Orient Express today. Perhaps air travel will go the way luxury trains did.

Flying was an art and privilege when PanAm was around. There still are some airlines that carry on that tradition.Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, British Airways Club World are among the few.

Most airlines today are little more than cattle cages and sardine cans that transport commodities.

In-seat entertainment displays do make some long-haul flights tolerable though.

F.A.A. bulletin 98-28, which took effect on August 13, 1998, states:

"In addition, nothing can be stowed in the seat pockets except magazines and passenger information cards. It is not a good safety practice to stow meals, either brought onto the airplane by passengers or served by the air carrier, in seat back pockets."

And there is anecdotal evidence of Amazon's Kindle being banned from the seat pocket.

What if I stow my G1 phone deep into the abyss of the seat pocket, and no one knows it's there? What if the passenger next to me slipped a fancy metal pen into the seat pocket in front of him, and it flew out and hit my right eye during a severe turbulence? Well, so can a lot of loose items around the cabin.

The F.A.A. hasn't explained its motive behind this strange and arcane rule. The Times shows that a spokesman for the agency didn't initially know much, if at all, about the rule. The paper also notes that airline executives are guessing that check-in luggage limit might be forcing passengers to stuff more baggage into the seat pockets.

There may be another reason. The F.A.A. is acting in concert with the airlines to make the seats appear roomier than they actually are. A combination of obese passengers and bulging seat pockets would make the seats look tiny.