Airlines look at flight data from the past few years to determine which flights at various times of the year flew with a large number of empty seats. They then section off seats from the same flight in the coming year for “Twares”, and tweet about the lower fare on these seats. The idea is good one: United seems to sell out all their Twares in a relatively short amount of time. But customers looking for a Tware have to pay close attention to the United Airlines Twitter account, as a Tware tweet is about as common as an authentic Chanel bag in Chinatown. {Gadling}

The United Airlines twitter account also uses the free PR to gently suggest that followers join the mileage program or to let them know of certain services provided by the carrier. The airline also offers free stuff, like fares or money,  in redemption for signing up or doing something else that benefits the company in some way. {Mashable}

While this set up seems beneficial to United and some of their more go-with-the-flow customers, we wonder if the infrastructure is now causing United to lose revenue. It’s no secret that airlines have been cutting the number of flights over the past year, leaving more people to scramble for fewer seats. So United will never know if those seats they blocked off in an effort to generate revenue might have actually sold at the regular fare.

Despite these rules having been in place for years, many people are feeling a “need” to be able to use cell phones during flight. Even with some airlines providing wi-fi access for a fee, customers still want the ability to text or talk while in the air. A flight attendant recently lamented that she had to remind 16 passengers on one flight to turn off their cell phones…and those were only the people who were blatantly using their cell phones.

The issue is so pertinent to travel that the Mythbusters tested to see whether cell phone usage could bring down an airplane. While they declared the myth busted, why test it in the first place? Cell phones have been known to interfere with flight instruments, and if too many were being used at once, no one is quite sure what would happen. This begs the question, why take the risk just to place a call to someone who can probably wait until you reach your destination? {Gadling} With smartphones gaining in popularity, it’s not impossible to imagine that some people who pull the phone out to play a game or listen to music also try to sneak in some talk time or texting.

Cell phone usage during a flight is currently banned in United States Airspace due to the fact that additional technology, a picocell, is required on board an aircraft to make usage safe. Picocells are communication systems that provide connectivity over a small space, negating the need for cell phones to reach beyond the aircraft for signals and interfere with flight instruments. Of course, installing any picocells requires money, and with all the complaints from U.S. customers about fares and baggage fees, don’t expect a communications overhaul on existing aircraft. {Runway Girl}

But the biggest concern in the flight attendants vs. cell phones battle is how many people ignore their flight attendant’s instructions. Yes, she may be telling you to turn off your lifeline to the rest of the world for a few hours but you can live without it. Let’s put it this way, if she told you to reach for the oxygen mask that just dropped down, you’d probably listen to her. {Gadling}

Not to mention, cell phone usage in flight is also annoying to other passengers. It’s bad enough to suffer through a subway ride with an oversharer, 3 or 4 hours with an annoying conversation added to a screaming baby would be enough to make us revisit the idea of trains or a road trip. We don’t all want to hear about your bad breakup or what your gynecologist said. So please, do everyone a favor, and let the flight attendants have this one.