[Note: This was written on Saturday night during the flight, but not posted until I had a chance on Sunday - the plane did not have wireless :) ]

This is really something. I'm on my way down to Orlando, Florida to meet up with Carl at DevConnections, and the only flight available was on a relatively new airline called "Song." It's completely unlike any other airline that I've ever encountered.

I'm on a good old fashioned 757, flying coach, and each passenger has his/her own personal LCD TV.

In coach. On a 757. This isn't an eight hour trans-Atlantic flight on a 747/777 where you'd expect to have everything at your disposal, even in coach, but rather a simple two-hour hop south.

The seats, rather than the traditional drab cloth are vinyl, and each one is a nice, solid color. Some are green, others are blue. I can also see purple and orange seats from where I'm sitting.

One side of the 1st class/coach divider is green while the other is blue. They aren't "regular" green and blue either, but "fun" green and blue.

I have 24 satellite channels coming into my TV, two movies, a music channel, a trivia channel, and even a very detailed "control freak" channel. It's great. I have all of our flight details at my immediate disposal, including airspeed, outside temp, current altitude, and several different positional maps from which to choose. It makes me feel good. I don't like flying, and I'm the type of jerk who thinks that, by monitoring this information, I can alert the pilot and crew when I encounter any suspicious stats. I'm like a low-ranking manager with an Excel spreadsheet that's over my head.

The food even looks good. I typically don't classify airline food with the terms we'd normally use to talk about food. That is, I don't think of airplane food as being "good" or "bad," but something closer to "other." The portions aren't ones that I'd describe as "large" or "small," but probably something more like "amusing" or "offensive."

You know what they have on the menu here, in coach, on this 757? Bread and cheese. Fruit plates. Apple martinis, vegetable spreads, and delightful sounding sandwiches.

Over the past couple of years, I've been wondering about where travel was going. I watch a lot of old movies/television, and I'm always impressed with the experience (I know, I know - it's all on TV, but let's pretend it was at least somewhat indicative of the time) that customers enjoyed while traveling. The dining car on a train was an actual dining car. It wasn't the third-rate McDonalds that they are today, selling pre-packaged food, oily soup, and way too many items that are basically deep-fried fat and sugar.

What I can say now is that this airline has come the closest to what modern travel should be. I imagine that, if this airplane were a train, there'd be a kick-ass dining car selling good, affordable food, that the car interiors would be painted nice colors instead of "Puke should blend in with this nicely," and the general "feel" of the experience would be positive instead of "We're going to wedge you on and shovel you off like pigs, so say 'oink-oink' you little piggies - c'mon - say you like it."

To say that I would recommend Song to people I know would be an understatement. After landing, getting onboard the aircraft of any other airline is going to seem extraordinarily painful in comparison. This is absolutely the way modern air travel should be conducted. It's fabulous.

For an idea of the "mood" onboard, I just heard this over the announcement system:

"The fasten your seatbelt party is now over."

The "fasten your seatbelt party." That's awesome. It's like they actually hired interesting/fun/whatever people to even write their announcements.

Another one that just came on (about 10 minutes have passed since I wrote the last line):

"Clouds can have potholes, too. Please fasten your seatbelt."

I love that. Instead of the totally artificial, "There are no living creatures working for this airline" message that I get when flying Northwest (an electronic voice that sounds frantic (what does it take to scare a computer?) that says, "FASTEN YOUR SAFETY-BELTS" - it has the same urgency as "DANGER - DANGER, WILL ROBINSON").

Turbulence typically makes me really nervous, but just having a friendly announcement about it made me feel better. This is such a !@# awesome airline. Usually, when the bumps start, I grab a napkin, jot down a brief will, and then soak the napkin in water in the hopes that it will survive the fiery explosion that will result from the plane getting jostled a bit. Not today, though.

Gotta go now. I'm going to order the bread and cheese plate and enjoy it while watching the E! Channel.

On a 757.

In coach.