Last one to a newsstand to buy this week's issue of Bloomberg Businessweek is a rotten egg!

The cover you see above is not the only highlight of the current edition of the magazine; it precludes a full article exploring the finer details of the United/Continental merger. We especially love that the cover promises "a look at the complexity and the absurdity of making the world's largest airline." Face it—the "absurdity" is what will sell this issue, once you get past the risque airplane coitus front and center.

UPDATE: We just checked the Barnes & Noble newsstand to see that this issue, with the United merger cover and story, is from January 15 and already off the stands of course. BOOOO.

[Photo: BusinessWeek/Twitter/Flickr]]]> JetSetCD 2012-02-02T16:15:33-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/1/27/141516/045

Modern-day airlines are not shy about travel advertising built on the sex appeal of their flight attendants. Ryanair closed last year with a particularly blatant reminder, in the form of a lingerie calendar, that booking a ticket with the airline would get you a chance to interact with their hot employees. That wasn't particularly original, inasmuch as we've recently seen sex advertising and nude calendars involving flight attendants of Aeroflot and Mexicana and Spanish Air and Avianova. It was, however, somewhat effective at generating customer interest, since it turns out that sex sells. Who knew?

There are those people who criticize these ads, either on general sexism grounds or because the ads potentially promote the sexual harassment of flight attendants. Then there are other people who throw up their hands on the question, settling for the neutral argument that it's the job of advertisers to make effective ads and that's that. Finally there are the people who actively defend sex-tinged advertising, because what's wrong with sex? But on this we hope all sides can agree: this 1950s ad for Czech Airlines—which doesn't seem like an ad but really was—is pervy and creepy and pervy and creepy. ]]> Omri 2012-01-27T14:15:16-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/1/25/135234/793

There's nothing quite like the mixture of the old and new in Budapest. Art Nouveau and Communist architecture. Medieval cobbled streets, and fast-moving dual carriageway thoroughfares. Cutting-edge modern opera staged in a beautiful 19th century theater.

And a sex shop in a gloriously frothy old building. ]]> juliab 2012-01-25T16:00:03-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/1/13/135837/548

North Dakota is the least visited state in the country. Alaska, which is a frozen tundra roughly as far as Europe from the East Coast, gets more tourists than North Dakota. So it's not surprising that you don't see much on Jaunted about the Peace Garden State (actual nickname). The most prominent post we have about North Dakota appears to be this 2008 thing on ancient and dried out dinosaur bones. Very metaphorical.

Trying to fix the dearth of tourism is proving to be something of a problem for the Flickertail State (also actual nickname). North Dakota doesn't really have any tourist attractions, so the state's tourism board had to brainstorm something creative. Naturally, they turned to sex. Because when advertisers have something to sell and no real reason people should buy, they turn to sex.]]> Omri 2012-01-13T15:10:16-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/30/9137/8484

It's that time of the year again, the time when the year just plain ends. Alas, we can't just let 2011 go that easily, especially since travelers spent it both up in the air and up in arms over a crazy range of topics, encompassing everything from nudie scans to tarmac delays. Needless to say, we're ready for 2012, but first we're taking a brief look back at the best of 2011 with the Jaunted Travel Awards,—or as we fondly refer to them—The Jauntys.

Each and every year there are plenty of naughty flight attendants getting into trouble, and it usually involves wearing something a little bit different from the company-issued uniform, or not wearing something at all. This year, Canadian flight attendants stripped for their Turbulence Calendar of 2012—nice, eh—and of course getting frisky in the cockpit is sure to get you on Santa’s naughty list. However, when the final votes were tallied we just had to give out this year’s naughtiest flight attendants award to the high-flying ladies of Ryanair. ]]> Jaunted11 2011-12-30T09:03:32-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/29/144253/23

In 2008 we favorably covered the efforts of American Airlines flight attendants who were trying to block airplane wifi from showing porn. In 2009 we disgustedly called out in-flight porn reading on our "Top Ten Gross Things People Do On Airplanes" list. In 2010 we specifically chastised Democratic Representative John Conyers for flipping through a Playboy while sitting in couch.

Apparently none of that helped. 2011 was the year when in-flight porn viewing—enabled by technological innovation and monetized by some of the most obnoxious companies in the travel industry—broke into the mainstream. Ryanair used iPad porn as a publicity stunt and Qantas started screening an explicit guide to the female orgasm.

And so we're declaring airline-sponsored in-flight porn, which is frankly pervy beyond belief and seems to be catching on, to be the Most Ridiculous Travel Idea of 2011.]]> Jaunted11 2011-12-29T15:05:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/18/02831/248

We admit there have been times that we may have put noise cancelling headphones just to give the illusion of listening to music, warding off fellow passengers' incessant blabbing. There also have been times we've noticed someone that looks interesting—ahem attractive ahem—and wished we could swap seats to get a little closer.

The latter is how KLM prefers to fly, and they'll soon offer passengers the ability to pick their seatmate based on Facebook or Linkedin profiles. By next year, the airline will not only offer a window or aisle preference, but allow customers to view the profile of other passengers, then choose whether or not to sit next to them.

The first red flag we see is the obvious privacy of personal details. Passengers must opt-in to have their social media profile available for other travelers to see. Which means, not everyone will be taking part in this singles bar in the sky. Sigh of relief! It also begs the question; will the aircraft have a cabin area set aside for these passengers who are single and ready to mingle? ]]> jetflyboy 2011-12-19T12:45:01-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/