Jaunted

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A Flashback to the 1980s on British Airways Breaks World Records

Chalk one up for British Airways. Actually, chalk a few up for the airline since they have broken several world records and entered the Guinness Book of World Records for a (not so) little concert they hosted in the air. Lucky winners of the exclusive flight became part of the record books, all th while raising money for a great charity.

It's called "The Gig In The Sky" and it took place this last Sunday as part of BA's fund-raising for the 25th anniversary for Red Nose Day. Since the charity started in the 1980s, the music should be from the 80s, right? Kim Wilde, Spandau Ballet's Tony Handley, Bananarama and Go West performed for the passengers of a chartered Boeing 767 for 22 minutes, at an altitude of 43,000 feet, breaking James Blunt's previous "highest concert" record of 42,080 feet.

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New Airplanes / A380 / British Airways / Airbus / LAX / LHR / Travel News / Britain Travel / → All Tags

Score a Seat on the First British Airways A380 Flights Later This Year

Six years! That's how long the Airbus A380 has been flying the skies with paying passengers on both decks. That's also how long British Airways has jealously watched other airlines fly their superjumbos around, anxious for the day they could play with their own.

That day is now within reach, as British Airways prepares to take delivery of the big plane later this year. Travelers may already book flights on the first British Airways A380, as it flies from London to Los Angeles from October 15, 2013 and London to Hong Kong from November 15, 2013. Tickets went on sale this morning, and you know British Airways is already rolling out special rates.

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Cross the Atlantic for the 200th Anniversary of 'Pride & Prejudice'

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Cunard World Club is offering Austen-themed tours on select Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic Crossings.

The tours include a visit to the Winchester Cathedral with a focus on the Life & Times of Jane Austen, a trip to the Jane Austen Museum and Chawton House Library, and a day trip to Stonehenge and the Salisbury Cathedral, one of the filming locations in 1995's Sense & Sensibility.

Tours start at $850 and take place in July, August, October, and November. To see the full schedule, visit cunard.com.

[Photo: cinemagogue.com]

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An Abandoned, Rusting Ship is Reborn Under Street Art

Put an abandoned site together with street art and it's like travel photography gold. Mark the derelict ship Duke of Lancaster on your must-visit map as it's the newest place to add graffiti to its rusting hulk. We can smell the Instagram "likes" already.

Located in the Dee estuary near Mostyn, on the north coast of Wales, the Duke of Lancaster has sat unused and seemingly unloved since 1979. It was only recently that former street artist Maurice Blunt spotted the ship while traveling on a train, and formed the idea to turn her into a canvas for street art.

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Ready, Steady, Almost Go for Virgin Atlantic's 'Little Red'

Usually when we talk about Virgin Atlantic we’re chatting about their awesome international long-haul service, but this time we're taking a break from it. Don’t worry—they’re still heading to plenty of overseas destinations—but they’re now also doing the domestic thing. We heard that this was in the works a while ago, and they even had a little contest to name their newest planes. Well, it looks like planes and names have been somewhat finalized, and it’ll be "Little Red" doing the flying over in Europe and the United Kingdom.

The new carrier-within-a-carrier will be known as Virgin Atlantic Little Red, and they’ll be doing most of their flying to spots in and around the UK. The new routes are heading to and from London-Heathrow Terminal 1. From there you’ll be able to fly to spots like Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Manchester.

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There is Totally a 'Downton Abbey' Package Tour

Are you already facing some serious Downton Abbey withdrawal? Well, if you are, we've found the perfect antedate! Zicasso has created a customizable Downton Abbey vacation that will bring you deep into the world of the Crawleys.

Highlights of the trip include a private guided tour of Highclere Castle, the real Downton Abbey, as well as the filming locations for Downton Village, St. Mary's Church, and Downton Place, a chance to experience the real "upstairs downstairs" workings of a historic mansion at Shugborough Hall, a visit to Blenheim Palace, the childhood home of Winston Churchill, afternoon tea at London's Goring Hotel, and an optional two-night excursion to Scotland's Inveraray Castle.

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Boy Band One Direction Boogies with British Airways Babes in New Video

Cue the screaming tweens. The (currently) most popular boy-band have called on the crews of British Airways and Heathrow's Terminal 5 to star in their new charity video.

The video, a cover of Blondie's hit, One Way Or Another was shot to raise money for British Charity, Comic Relief. Aside from dancing around various foreign locales including New York, London, Tokyo and Africa, the boys got to cut a rug with some well-heeled BA cabin crew. The idea is apparently to prove that not only do these guys care, they know how to have a good time, right?

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The First and Only Place with One Million Foursquare Check-ins is...

No surprise here: the world's busiest/worst airport is now also the world's busiest Foursquare location. That's right—according to the Foursquare Blog, trusty, dusty Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International just became the first venue in the entire world to reach the milestone of 1,000,000 check-ins.

One million. Dang. it seems like only yesterday ATL was inching up on 500,000 checkin-ins; oh wait, that was in November 2011 when we measured the most popular airports on Foursquare, when LAX was in the lead. These days, LAX is still doing well and should break the million mark before spring is over (they're at 918,000 now), but it's clearly no Atlanta.

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Play Pilot and Win Free Flights, British Airways Tells London Commuters

With the weather the UK’s been having over the past few weeks (flooding-snow-flooding), we’re pretty sure the whole nation is dreaming of a holiday. Pretty good timing, then, for British Airways to start a week-long flight giveaway to stressed out commuters.

All this week, you’ll find a BA stand at London Victoria Station. It’s not the normal handing-out-flyers stand, though; no, this is a flight simulator that awards free flights to the best “pilots” in the station.

It’s not a state of the art simulator, of course. This is more the kind you’d see in an arcade game. Every day this week, it’ll be loaded with a different airport approach, and your job is to land the plane. That alone is fun enough. But here’s the best bit: every 15 minutes, the person with the highest score in those 15 minutes will win a pair of flights to the airport in question. Yes – they’re giving away 60 flights a day. This is inspired.

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Etihad / LHR / Airlines / Airline News / Airports / Economy Class Travel / → All Tags

Etihad Will Give Economy Flyers a First Class Ride to the Airport, for a Price

There are plenty of airlines out there offering up a free ride to the airport for their first—and sometimes business—class flyers, but that’s not usually the case for those stuck in the back of the airplane. For those people—like us—that usually means taking a taxi, hopping aboard the train, or just parking in the long-term lot. Well it sounds like Etihad Airways is looking to change that, as they’ve begun offering up transportation to the airport for some economy class passengers.

The carrier is now providing their chauffeur service to passengers seated in Coral Economy, as long as the passengers are doing their thing to or from London-Heathrow Airport. It may be limited to one airport as of now, but that’s a heck of a lot better than what a lot of other carriers are offering.

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Making Sense and Sentences of Airport Codes

We love us a good advertising campaign, and that’s especially the case when it’s clever, creative, and involves plenty of travel tidbits. The latest print pieces from Expedia and their arm over in the UK utilize baggage tags from airports all over the globe to illustrate where you need to go and when you need to leave.

The marketing gurus over at Ogilvy cooked up the new advertisements, as they pieced together three letter airport codes to create a little bit of a story. This isn’t the first time that these IATA airport codes have been used to sell stuff, but we’ve got to say that this has got to be one of the more clever applications.

Creative Review has the backstory on how things were thought up. In total there were around nine ads that finally made the cut, but the firm promises that there were many more created that will never see the light of day—including some that might be less than appropriate for print.

[Photo: Expedia.co.uk/Ogilvy]

How To Get Tickets To / Music Festivals / Music Travel / → All Tags

Mark Your iCal for V Festival's 2013 Dates

Here's the good news, the V Festival has announced this year's fest will return to Hylands Park and Weston Park on August 17th and 18th. Now for the bad news, early bird ticket sales have closed and tickets don't go on sale again until March 1.

But, in the meantime, you can sign up for pre-sale registration, beginning February 4, and find out the fest's full line-up on February 25. Plus, this gives you plenty of time to decide which ticket package will work best for you before they go on sale.

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