AmenityBoy.com

Hands Off My Cheap Flights - Consumer Choice Center HANDS OFF MY CHEAP FLIGHTS In February, the Dutch government began circulating a position paper suggesting the EU should introduce a Union-wide air passenger departure tax on flights departing from the European Union. The paper promoted by the Netherland’s Secretary of State for Finance Menno Snel...

Dear Transport for London,

Consumers prefer choice.

http://pizzainmotion.boardingarea.com/2015/09/01/join-the-mile-high-club-tinder-for-frequent-travelers/

Join The Mile High Club! Tinder For Frequent Travelers - Pizza In Motion Lounger is a new app that connects people to meet in airport lounges prior to takeoff. It even promises a chance at membership in the mile high club.

Great news!

http://internationalflyguy.com/2015/07/17/high-flying-luxury-airberlin-to-offer-designer-amenity-kit/

High Flying Luxury: airberlin to Offer Designer Amenity Kit WUNDERKIND comes aboard airberlin The luxury fashion label WUNDERKIND, founded by Wolfgang Joop, has joined airberlin on all long-haul flights. In collaboration with WUNDERKIND, airberlin has devel...

A guest post by KiloTangoOne

British First JFK-LHR-CDG

http://amenityboy.com/2015/07/guest-post-british-airways-first-class-experience-jfk-lhr-cdg/

Guest Post: British Airways First Class Experience | JFK-LHR-CDG | Amenity Boy I took my time at the airport, arriving in the morning for an evening flight out of JFK to try the breakfast, lunch, and dinner service. Once onboard, I settled into my seat and gave a box of Godiva chocolates to the Cabin Services Director (CSD) after takeoff. The flight attendants noticed that I w…

Spotted in Nairobi- not sure what to say about that but the private sector lounges looked way nicer ;)

Turkish Airlines keeping it classy with fresh orange juice and micro bus for business class passengers.

Understanding Lufthansa III – The Return of the Kit

"Lufthansa definitely managed to bounce up after a semester of terrible amenity kits. I do appreciate their effort to show that they don’t want to stay in amenity nirvana but still think that they have to go a long way to swim with the big fish in the amenity aquarium."

http://amenityboy.com/2015/02/understanding-lufthansa-iii-the-return-of-the-kit/

Understanding Lufthansa III – The Return of the Kit | Amenity Boy This is the third part of the 2014 Lufthansa amenity kit saga. When flying LH from LOS to FRA I didn’t only run into a former high school class mate flying for Lufthansa these days (and even serving my sector in premium class) but also saw some hope for Lufthansa’s amenity kit strategy.

Understanding Lufthansa II – Ordinary as hell

"Surprise: The content is the same as what can be found in The Tube just without the plastic wrapping. Yawn…"

http://amenityboy.com/2015/02/understanding-lufthansa-ii-ordinary-as-hell/

Understanding Lufthansa I – The Tube

"This is the first part of a longer series discussing the evolution (or better zick-zack) of Lufthansa’s business class amenity kit strategy. Given that I flew very regularly Lufthansa and actually love the brand itself very much I feel that I have a big emotional problem with Lufthansa’s amenity kits of the past twelve months."

http://amenityboy.com/2015/02/understanding-lufthansa-i-the-tube/

Exotic Encounters – The Flight of the Condor

"This is definitely not the best kit I have ever seen but the case itself is awesome. Condor usually flies tourists to their vacations (mostly to beeches) so one can use this waterproof beach bag right after landing for storing your belongings when bathing in the sun. So overall I like this kit very much as it surprised me and one can actually used it after touchdown."

http://amenityboy.com/2015/02/exotic-encounters-the-flight-of-the-condor/

Je Suis Air Berlin

"Even the eye mask had the color of the case itself. This is coherent and thus I like it. As one could imagine the L’Occitane kit came with eponymous toiletries."

http://amenityboy.com/2015/02/je-suis-air-berlin/

Ich bin ein TUMI

"My overall impression of this kit is pretty good. One can see that Air Berlin is new to the premium cabin market and thus could build its amenity kit from the scratch."

http://amenityboy.com/2015/02/ich-bin-ein-tumi/

The Hub of the Environmentalists?

"And it comes with this little card saying ‘This card was make with recycled paper and printed with soy ink’. I just really wonder why they printed this card at all, if they want to be environmentally sustainable. How about just providing passengers with stuff they actually want instead of handing out useless but ecological cards… (sigh)"

http://amenityboy.com/2015/02/the-hub-of-the-environmentalists/

Stars and Stripes – Another Positive Surprise from ‘Merica

"Their amenity kit comes in a textile case that already looked very similar to American’s case. I really liked their red-and-blue branded socks and eye mask. This is cool: Airline and country-color branded goodies in the amenity kit (imagine Bavarian socks on a flight from Munich)."

http://amenityboy.com/2015/02/stars-and-stripes-another-positive-surprise-from-merica/

TAM – The Average Mean

'Besides being served Caipirinhas, and binge-watching movies, I really liked assessing their amenity kit. The TAM kit doesn’t really provide anything new but I like the case itself and TAM definitely beats most of Lufthansa’s attempts of providing passengers with amenity kits in business class.'

http://amenityboy.com/2015/02/tam-the-average-mean/

MH Amenity Kit –

'Malaysia Airlines had a really bad 2014 and I sympathize with them as most likely both tragedies were not caused by MH but one buy who-knows-what and the other by some Vodka-drinking guys that just got a big package of fireworks from FedEx-Moscow…

One part of their really weird social media campaign in the past couple of months was the hashtag – Well despite these really failed attempts to win passenger confidence we decided to fly MH for parts of our Asia-Oceania trip.'

http://amenityboy.com/2015/02/mh-amenity-kit-keeptrying/

The Italian Sheikh – And why Corporate Design matters to me

"The pajamas are a great example that it can look great but their amenity kits are just a mixture of blatant nouveau riche brands. This might be something appreciated by certain premium cabin customers but is rather boring for an aviation aficionado like me who prefers to get something with the individual touch and branding of the carrier itself.

My advice for Qatar: You really don’t need to hide behind some licensed Italian brand. May the Oryx be with you!"

http://amenityboy.com/2015/02/the-italian-sheikh-and-why-corporate-design-matters-to-me/

My first Ki…t – Or how United got one thing right

"In 2011 I boarded a United plane from BRU to IAD on a Monday morning after a really exhausting but fun conference in Leuven and the purser (who was also on duty on my flight to BRU the week before) recognized me and immediately saw that I must have had zero sleep that weekend and my body was crying for rest. She came to me and gave me one of United’s BusinessFirst amenity kits and basically said ‘I hope there’s something in it that will help you, boy’."

http://amenityboy.com/2015/02/my-first-kit-or-how-united-got-one-thing-right/

"Just as a reminder, a bottle of Krug goes for $170 in retail and I don’t think that Qatar gets too much of a discount on this price.

I am totally aware that this overflow of lounge madness would not be sustainable for any ordinary private-sector company (given the low airfares of Qatar and the entire industry at the moment) and that Qatar Airways can only afford to do this as it gets directly (and probably also indirectly) subsidized by the Qatari government."

http://amenityboy.com/2015/02/when-arab-state-capitalism-buys-you-unlimited-champagne/

When assessing inflight amenities I am trying to be as objective as possible (in the upcoming weeks I will even have to say something positive about United…) but I am sure some readers will tear their hair while reading my posts. Nevertheless I want to at least provide you with some sort of methodology we might be able to agree on while discussing wether Gulf States or the Continent have the best inflight amenities:

http://amenityboy.com/2015/02/my-top-5-assessment-criteria-for-amenities/

My Top 5 Assessment Criteria for Amenities | Amenity Boy Value is subjective and so are the opinions on which airlines offer the best product, which offer the best catering, the best amenity kits, inflight entertainment and so on.

AmenityBoy's first post is live!

http://amenityboy.com/2015/02/holiday-treats-from-lufthansa/

Holiday Treats from Lufthansa | Amenity Boy In December I flew from MUC to EWR and was really delighted to see a heavily upgraded Lufthansa Business Class Amenity Kit. After several huge disappointments with Lufthansa’s Business Class Amenity Kit in the past 12 months (I will write about these soon), I had already lost all hope and thought th…