New Airbus Seat Patent, 3-D Printing Airline Cabin Parts, UberMoto & More

Here is a roundup of travel and running news that I found to be of interest for today.

From Airbus Patent Application | USPTO (click for complete patent)

• Airbus Seats “Could Revolutionize The Way Airlines Sell Tickets” – Airbus has filed for a patent for a “reconfigurable passenger bench seat” that would allow an aircraft bench to be changed in its sizing based on the people sitting there. This would allow airlines to sell tickets based on things like space required and fuel consumption and would involve the repositioning of the seat belts and armrests. I could think of a few problems with this including the amount of time spent to reconfigure a cabin as well as trying to accommodate families/travelers who want to sit together. Finally, what happens if you lose weight/gain weight before your flight departs? Could happen if you buy your ticket now intending to fly 10-11 months from now! Airbus is likely patenting this in response to the arguments for seat measurements as a way to make sure they are in position in case something like this is ever feasible. Probably never would be.
• Southwest Could Fly To Cuba In 2016 – Airlines have until March 2 to put their applications in for flying to Cuba and Southwest’s CEO said it is something that they think could happen and such routes could happen this year.
• Even NBA Players Deal With Hotel Bed Bugs – If you are a hotel owner without a bed bug complaint in 3 years, you do not want the newest complaint to come from someone high profile – like a NBA player. Yet that is what happened at the Skirvin Hilton in Oklahoma City with Cavs player Kyrie Irving. Wonder what any type of compensation looked like? 🙂
• Airline Printing 3-D Cabin Parts – 3-D printing can be found everywhere and now Air New Zealand is bringing it to their airplane cabins. To cut costs, they have been printing cocktail trays for their business class seats and plan on installing them in the coming weeks, pending approval.
• Park Hyatt Could Sell For Over $150 Million – I first wrote about the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek being up for sale a couple of weeks ago and at the time, couldn’t find a likely price. Now, different places are putting a number of over $150 million on this Park Hyatt located in Colorado. Have some loose millions sitting around? If so, make sure you invite me! 🙂
• Pittsburgh Marathon Offers Prizes For Tracking – The Pittsburgh Marathon is seeking more data on runners and their training so are offering the chance to win prizes in exchange for those runners who will be running the Pittsburgh Marathon to wear a footpod during training. If you are running this race, check it out!
• Identical Twins Suffer Heatstroke In The Same Marathon – You will sometimes hear news about people suffering from some illness (or worse) in a marathon (and sometimes shorter races). This one is definitely something different in that identical twins running at different speeds both suffered heatstrokes during the London Marathon. They were 2 of 14 who suffered from heatstrokes that day.
• Uber Launching UberMoto, A Motorcycle Sharing Service – While not exactly new in Asia, Uber is working to break into emerging markets with their own motorcycle sharing service. It is being pilot-tested first in Bangkok and can be booked using the Uber app.