XM Radio on AirTran: little things can be all the difference in travel

It doesn’t make much sense to me why so many airlines today are cutting the little things like pillows and snacks out of most domestic flights. My consultant buddy who travels from Detroit to San Francisco every week tells me NWA offers him no meal on a five hour flight. That is about the same distance as New York to London - with no grub.

This makes AirTran’s new installment of XM Satellite Radio on their planes that much more of a nice surprise.

These little things can do wonders to any weary traveler. Jumping on AirTran in Atlanta for the last leg of my journey home from South Africa, where the movie screen on our Delta 747 didn’t work for the entire 17-hour duration - my exhaustion and pissy mood was alleviated almost instantly when I discovered complimentary XM satellite radio on my arm rest. I know many of you think I’m kind of a hot shot who flies business class almost exclusively, generally with a leggy blonde female escort at my side, but this was in coach with the rest of you.

So instead sitting bored in my seat or even worse reading, I was getting my chair dance on with XM’s “The Move” progressive house channel, which was featuring a “Best of 2006″ set from one of my favorite DJ’s Carl Cox. All you golfers surely know him.

This seems like a genius partnership for both XM and AirTran. Not only will AirTran’s passengers have more free entertainment than staring at the flight attendant as she walks down the aisle and wonder whether she’ll cough up an extra bag of peanuts. But for many of us, it is an opportunity to get a free trial of XM’s product. I’m not saying I’m going to run out and buy XM right away, but now I know about 500% more about it than I did before I flew. Everybody wins.

I know, a little music on a flight doesn’t sound like much. But when the movie screen on your Delta flight doesn’t work EITHER way on your 17-hour flight to South Africa, NWA’s customer service is so horrid and bounces you around to so many people and puts you on hold so many times you’d think their commission is based on how long they can keep you on the phone and you’ve heard every song on your MP3 player 50 times, little things like XM make all the difference in the world.