Air Travel

Airline passengers who need seat-belt extenders will not be allowed to sit in business class on the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets of Thai Airways (800/767-3598, www.thaiairways.com), the airline announced on March 21.

On its new jets, the airline has installed seat-belt airbags in business class. However, the airbags will not work with seat-belt extenders, limiting those seats to people with waistlines of less than 56 inches. The airbags also prevent passengers from flying with infants in their laps.

Seats in all other classes are unaffected.

I have flown Icelandair (800/223-5500, www.icelandair.us) several times over the years. In general, Iceland is a safe destination (not to mention close). These days, in tourist season, Keflavík International Airport is swamped with so many flight connections that gates, tarmac buses, rental car facilities and concourse foot traffic are chaotic. 

The title of this month’s column is oxymoronic. It would be more appropriate to call it “Trying to be less miserable in coach” (that is, in an airline’s economy-class seat).

If you’re like me, you’ve become inured to the increasingly class-based system of paying for passenger preferences. It’s like background noise: after a while, we don’t really notice it until something new jumps out or we jump back in after a long absence. We go after the cheapest fares and decide what additional services we’re willing to get nickel-and-dimed for. 

The Istanbul New Airport (IST) — an $11 billion project that will include the largest airport terminal in the world, capable of serving 150 million passengers annually (60 million more than Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) — is scheduled to open in October 2018. The airport will include improved internal and external security measures.

The airport is located 22 miles northwest of the city and, when complete, will take over international air traffic (and the IATA airport code) from Atatürk Airport.

My significant other, Abram Engelman, and I traveled to Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova, May 22-June 15, 2017, on a trip arranged by Original World. The itinerary was good, our guides were excellent, and most of the accommodations were very good as well.

Icelandair (www.icelandair.us) recently canceled its summer morning flights from Reykjavik, Iceland, to New York City and bumped people with bookings to the 5 p.m. flight, which arrives at JFK Airport at 7 p.m.