Hello Travelers!

Delta Airlines has recently released a series of short videos which are supposed to raise consciousness of how not to be on an airplane. Complete with a cute name, Planeguage- I think that Plane Sense, Planetiquette or even Jetiquette would have been more effective names- Delta has produced 6 videos that show the typical scenarios encountered on a plane; however the skits never really make a point.

From a branding perspective these videos are silly because every time Delta’s Sky Magazine is shown it is being read by the person who is exhibiting the annoying behavior; the marketing team really thought that one out.

In the video Middleman, which is the one that has gotten the most comments on the Delta blog, a poor guy is shoved between two armrest hogs. After seemingly conquering his rivals for the rests he quickly loses them when ordering his drink. The consensus on the blog is that the middleman always gets the rests, but Delta does not drive this point home.

So is this true, does the middleman always get the armrests?

While we are on the subject of things not to do on an airplane, I would like to hear from you about ridiculous things that have happened to you while flying (on an airplane that is).

In my experience, besides being besieged by numerous crying and fidgety children, I once got seated next to a couple who were practically joining the mile-high-club in my adjacent seat. I thought that their affection would have abated after a few minutes or an hour, but they kept up the kissing, nuzzling, cuddling and whatever they were doing under their blanket the whole way from JFK to Geneva.

In another story of “don’t be that guy,” The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that a German tourist on his way home from his holiday in Egypt downed a bottle of vodka rather then give it up before boarding. He almost died, but he got to keep his vodka, for a while anyway.

Kudos to Delta for trying to bring a little attention to this issue. Nevertheless, I am sure that no amount of awareness will make babies stop crying or kids stop fidgeting. However, with this said, this issue of etiquette is going to be even more important when cell phone use on airplanes becomes possible.

Thoughts?

Happy Travels,

Chris