American Airlines yesterday released an internal memo in which they comment on a April 20 incident that involved an AA flight that took off from Dallas, promptly lost a "large panel" on the underside of the plane during its initial ascent, and proceeded all the way to Paris, despite both the captain and crew confirming that they knew something was amiss.

Just what was wrong the crew didn't seem to know until touching down in Paris. And it doesn't seem that passengers were aware that anything was unusual. Several crew members managed to snap photos of the missing panel after landing, and circulated the shots in e-mails. The photos were attached to the internal member that CNN managed to obtain.

The company issued the statement after receiving upset e-mails from passengers, who stumbled upon pictures of the missing panel on the Internet.

All AA is saying is that it is investigating the matter.

What strange things have been found on planes?

Click the image to read the bizarre story...

Happy Cinco De Mayo! In honor of this fifth day of May, we're teaming up with Southwest Airlines to give away a free pair of roundtrip tickets to anywhere they fly.

That's right, whether you want to fly from Albany to Albuquerque for your Aunt Jennie's Apple Pie or Washington DC to West Palm Beach, for cousin Willy's famous four-day Thanksgiving bar crawl, you can cash these tickets in on us.

Tickets are good to redeem up to one year from the contest end with no blackout dates for you and a special friend. Just leave a comment below telling us where you'd like to go should you win the tickets and we'll randomly draw one winner by this Friday. Make sure you give a shout out to our friends at Southwest for providing the tickets for the giveaway as well.

Happy travels from Gadling and Southwest Airlines!

• To enter, simply leave a comment below telling us where you'd like to go should you win the tickets (See a map of where they fly here).
  
• The comment must be left before Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 5PM Eastern Time.
• You may enter only once.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• One Grand Prize Winner will receive a free pair of roundtrip tickets to anywhere Southwest Airlines flies
  
• Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• Tickets are valued at $400.00 per ticket.
• Tickets are fully transferrable, are valid for one year, and are good for travel to any of the 64 cities Southwest serves.
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

There are some advantages to flying a reserve schedule every now and then. I prefer the variety and the thought that just maybe I'll get called out to cover a New York trip to Zurich or Brussels. It's rare, but it has happened before.

For April, I didn't fly anywhere I hadn't flown before, and they managed to use me on almost every one of my available days. Having just arrived home from the Miami and San Francisco trip, crew scheduling already needed me for another early morning departure. This time they had me fly down to Miami and deadhead home on the same day.

It was hardly worthy of a full Cockpit Chronicles. I rode home in the coach cabin and slept most of the way. Fortunately, we're required to have at least one day off every 7 days, and crew scheduling decided I could use one.

This meant that I'd have a small stretch of three days in a row before my month would be over. There's always the chance that a three-day trip could pop up if someone called in sick, but I was pretty sure I'd have the last few days off.

My wife gets nervous when I tell her that there's little chance they could use me. Don't worry, I'll be home to take you and the kids to the airport for your trip to Germany, I'm sure! I figured I'd flown too many hours to be legal for another three-day trip. I should have listened to my wife. She knew I'd get the call.

Don't jump with joy just yet. It won't exactly be first class.

However, Delta's new "Cozy Suite" seats do promise to make economy class seating less of a hellish, crippling nightmare, today.com reports. The major feature of the design is a staggered layout that increases privacy while simultaneously creating a space for weary travelers to rest their heads. It also allows passengers to enjoy 31-inches of leg room (2-inches better than the competition) and the ability to recline without disturbing the person behind them.

Here is the bad part. Delta is planning on installing the Cozy Suite in its Boeing 777 and 767 economy class aircraft by 2010. The impending merger between Delta and Northwest could mean that travelers loyal to the latter company might reap the benefits of these new seats as well. Until then, you will just have to suck it up or spring for a higher class ticket.

[via today.com]

The Chicago Tribune is reporting a new row that's sprung up at United Airlines, where union workers are questioning a corporate plan that involves setting aside 8 million shares of United stock worth $130 million to fund a new incentive program aimed at company executives.

United's board is expected to vote on the matter at its regular meeting in June. The announcement of the plan comes at a time of record fare prices, passenger fees and soaring fuel costs that have airlines industrywide looking for ways to trim expenses.

For United workers, the deal hits closer to home. They're still upset over the airline doling out $150 million in stock benefits to company brass as the airline emerged out of bankruptcy in 2006.

The new incentive plan is to range from 3 to 5 years and is meant to both drive recruitment of high level executives and reward performance goals of those already in office.

Greg Davidowitch, leader of the airline's flight attendants union, told the Tribune: "This is just another money grab."

The ire of United's workers reflects a broader attitude within the industry toward corporate pay and benefits, since many carriers' employees took big salary hits following 9/11 as the industry spiraled into a steep downturn.

Others question the logic of announcing such a spending plan with the company in serious talks with U.S. Airways to merge operations, in a move seen to counter the recent merger of Delta and Northwest.

Here's what I do to deal with jet lag. I don't go to sleep much before I travel. I think I was a hamster in my past life. I'm the type who wants to get every last project done, every last dish washed, every last chore behind me before I head out the door. I ruminate. I become more compulsive than usual.

Sometimes, I stay up so late that going to bed may not make sense. That's what happened before the good-deed travel Mexico trip. It got to be 4:00 a.m. and I thought, I'm getting up in two hours anyway, so why bother? I slept on the plane on and off, and went to bed early the following night. When I travel across time zones, this staying up late makes me tired enough that the jet lag is not as noticeable. I'm thrown off already, what's a bit more?

When I was living in Singapore, one of my closest friend's parents visited from the U.S. They are the hearty, cross-country skiing type who stay on a scheduled routine. Their answer to jet lag was to go on a long hike through the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve almost as soon as they arrived at our apartment. Our complex edged the preserve which made hiking there pretty darned convenient. They went to bed when they normally do, and seemed not to suffer much. Getting out in the air and sunshine is one way diminish that groggy, disheveled feeling.

There was an article recently in the New York Times that explains how a combination of coffee and naps can help thwart jet lag. I suppose this is what I do, but less scientifically. I always order coffee and a club soda when I fly. Coffee for the boost, and soda water for the hydration. It feels fancier than regular water. Anything one can do to spruce up travel in my opinion.

The photo is of my 2nd cup of coffee on the Southwest flight. It's slightly out of focus, but then, so was I.

How much can an airline save on fuel costs just flying a little slower?

JetBlue reckons that by adding two minutes to each of its flights, it saves $13.6 million a year. Southwest is now extending most flights from 1 to 3 minutes, and says it will save more than $40 million. Northwest says it saved about $530 by flying 532 mph instead of 542 mph on one recent Paris-Minneapolis flight (that added eight minutes to the journey).

The Associated Press mentions these figures in a piece about how some carriers are choosing to go it a little slower in this era of insane fuel costs. With jet fuel prices up some 73 percent, to $3.54 a gallon, adding a few extra minutes to normal flight schedules is just one of the ways airlines are coping, along with levying higher fuel surcharges and, of course, increasing fare prices.

United is looking at special software to help pilots choose better routes and speeds and says the software could save the company $20 million a year.

Not all airlines say they have adopted a slowdown approach in order to save on fuel costs. American Airlines, for instance, says it wants to maintain the integrity of its schedules, whatever that means.

It doesn't seem that customers mind too much. Many are surprised to find out that their flight was a tad longer, and they usually agree that a few minutes is not really that big of a deal. Besides, these slight increases in flight times are built into the advertised schedule, along with taxi time and the like, so we probably wouldn't know it anyway.

As we've reported before, Delta will begin charging a fee for checking more than one piece of luggage starting on May 5.

But the twist at Delta is that the fee, $25 per additional piece of luggage, is being applied retroactively. Delta is waving the fee for passengers who booked their tickets between February 4 and April 4, but if you booked on Delta before then -- as many have -- be prepared to pony up some cash at the check-in counter.

Though it remained quiet on the fee a little more than a month ago, Delta is now finally announcing the fee on its Web site. Not surprisingly, however, it doesn't mention that it will be retroactively applied.

Traveler "Jason" is angry about this. He tells the Consumerist that he and his wife booked on Delta in January and are planning on checking two bags each. They now face paying an additional $100 for those extra bags on the round trip flight.

"If I would have known that when I booked, I may have thought twice about Delta," he tells the Web site.

Funny, I'd think whether I really needed four suitcases for a vacation. But hey, that's just me.

Last month, Iva told us about a Russian man who was too drunk to notice he'd been stabbed in the back with a knife.

Now, add this one to the list of bad things that happen to Russians when they booze: A Russian man on an Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Toronto didn't quite make it, dying before the plane touched down yesterday.

Passengers say he had been drinking heavily and had picked fights with several male passengers. Flight attendants reportedly broke up these scuffles by moving the man to the front of the plane, where he died.

Police are now looking into whether alcohol contributed to his death.

What strange things have been found on planes?

Click the image to read the bizarre story...

The Transportation Security Administration is now allowing airlines to store the birth dates of their passengers, a change meant to bring some relief to those who are routinely confused for being terrorists.

If you have a name that is always getting flagged because it matches one on a terrorist watchlist -- a common, sad but true occurrence these days -- the TSA says storing birth dates will allow airlines to more quickly verify that you are not the same person who is on the list.

The TSA itself keeps two lists: one a strict "no fly," and another in which passengers are tagged for special attention at airport check-in and security.

Right now, those unlucky enough to have names matching names on terrorist watchlists are barred from checking in for their flights online and must instead present themselves to an agent at the airport.

Anybody's name out there ever raise a flag at the airport?