United Airlines

Natalie Angier in The New York Times:

When a visa snafu marooned honeymooners Bethany Thomas and Dmitri Zagidulin in Frankfurt en route to St. Petersburg last week, their journey had all the makings of a disaster: a tepid response from their travel agency, Expedia, a closed consulate and luggage that had gone on to Russia without them.

Major airlines are scrounging for every dollar now that fewer people are flying amid the economic downturn, yet the carriers have been slow to install in-flight wireless Internet access across their fleets that could generate millions in fees.

Cost, technology and passengers' willingness to pay for the service are issues some of the carriers are dealing with. Others say it simply takes time to install the necessary equipment to allow fliers to surf the Internet and send e-mail from their laptops and PDAs from the comfort of their seats.

Delta Air Lines Inc. no longer is outsourcing reservation calls to India after years of complaints from customers who preferred to speak to someone in the United States.

Chief Executive Richard Anderson told employees in a recorded message late Thursday night that the world's biggest airline operator is in the process of bringing all customer calls back in-house in the U.S.

After being laid off for the third time, Joyce Mueller decided shed had enough.

As a United Airlines customer service and sales rep for 21 years, Mueller, of Schaumburg, survived 9/11 and the company's bankruptcy. But when her job was outsourced to the Philippines, she vowed that was the end of being bounced around by an up-and-down industry.

"I can't keep going back and getting laid off again," she said. "Its too hard to go forward with your life."

Last year, the government posed a question for scientists: Could a computer program show how bombs might rip through jets?

Today, that question is answered. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque have created the first computer model that simulates a bomb blowing up a passenger plane. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is hoping that it will be an improvement from the traditional method of testing airplanes by blowing up actual bombs in retired jets.

Yesterday I was leading a panel of “social media mavens” (as we were all described in the conference program) at OMMA Social in NYC to talk about social media campaigns that worked, those that didn’t and our tips and tricks for having more success with social media.

As rising fuel prices slash airline profits and a recent charge for checked baggage irks fliers, United Airlines is beefing up its appeal to business travelers through Apple's iPod.

United's international flights are offering an entertainment system with a 30-pin connector to plug in an iPod and listen to music or watch videos on a 15.4-inch screen. Plugging in also charges the device.