lufthansa

Alaska Airlines flies planes fueled by cooking oil

The Alaska Air Group is joining the commercial aviation biofuel movement.

The airline launched two flights yesterday running on a blend consisting of 20 percent biofuel and 80 percent petroleum-based fuel. The sustainable biofuel used for the blend was made from cooking oil.

One flight was via a Boeing 737-800 plane from Seattle to Washington, D.C., and the other a Bombardier Q400 plane headed from Seattle to Portland, Ore. Both planes were flown as part of a program to fly more than 75 flights on a cooking oil-based biofuel blend within the coming weeks on Alaska Air's Alaskan … Read more

The 404 903: Where the good Lord continues to bless the Internet (podcast)

The Internet caught fire an hour before we recorded today, so our apologies if we're still reeling from the "news" for the first few minutes of the podcast. No clue what we're talking about? Enjoy the show.

In serious tech news, Google is putting more companies out of business with its new Flight Search service that went live yesterday. The tracker takes advantage of Google's other Web products, integrating with Google Calendar, Maps, and Mail to show you special deals and notify you about upcoming flights.

In a related story, Virgin America just partnered with Lufthansa Systems' new BoardConnect platform to roll out the next evolution of its Red in-flight entertainment. Air travel is getting even swankier thanks to Virgin America, and next year all of their planes (Virgin calls them Nerdbirds) will have HD television monitors on every seat back and faster Wi-Fi for connected devices.

Finally, we'll take you on the hunt for the rarest video game ever created: the gold Nintendo World Championships cartridge awarded to the winners of Nintendo Power Magazine's 1990 competition. Of the original 26, only 13 units have been found, and they're valued at around $20,000 by video game collectors. I think it's safe to assume that the other 13 games were sacrificed to the trash gods by the players' mothers.

We want to hear about the valuable junk from your childhood that your parents have carelessly thrown away. Give us a call at 1-866-404-CNET (2638) and tell us about it!

The 404 Digest for Episode 903

Google flight-search service takes off. Virgin America debuts Nerdbird airplane for 2012. The quest for the golden Nintendo game. Your daily 404 bathroom break: Chinese shoe trick.

Episode 903 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

SFO to welcome first scheduled A380 flight

Update (Tuesday, 1:12 p.m. PDT): Lufthansa's A380 has landed at San Francisco International Airport, making the airline the first to offer regular service of the world's-largest passenger plane to SFO. But Air France is said to be ready to begin its own A380 service here on June 8.

Though I mostly write about cell phones at CNET, you may have noticed that I'm rather passionate--some would say obsessed--over commercial aviation. I was lucky enough to attend the first flights of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 747-8, so I jumped at the chance to witness … Read more

Lufthansa to Gray Powell: Drinks are on us

If Gray Powell, the Apple engineer who lost his iPhone prototype at a German beer hall in Silicon Valley, is thinking about drowning his sorrows somewhere, Lufthansa wants to help him indulge.

In a message put up on Twitter, Lufthansa's marketing director for the Americas, Nicola Lange, invited Powell to fly for free to Munich.

"At Lufthansa we also noted with great interest your passion for German beer and culture. We thought you could use a break soon--and therefore would like to offer you complimentary business class transportation to Munich, where you can literally pick up where you … Read more