We were just talking about Southwest Airlines and their plans to “evolve” their planes with new seats, and now it looks like the carrier is already prepared to go all-in. Southwest is starting to get those fresh birds, and they’re shifting around the schedule here and there to make room for the increased seats and different configurations.
They’re pretty excited about that this evolve-o-lution, but we kind of wonder how our knees will feel about all these changes. ]]>
Free airline snacks are far and few between but there are some so good, we don’t want to wait for another flight to taste them again. Luckily, we’ve done some sleuthing and found our favorites in grocery stores and specialty shops around the country. Found your favorite in-flight goodie on the road? Let us know!
· Constant Craving: Biscoff Cookies
Delta Airlines has raised the hackles of many a customer, but you’ll find few willing to complain about the sweet, crunchy, cinnamony goodness of the Biscoff cookie. We were thrilled to find them in our cookie aisle, but even better? The new Biscoff spread made up of 50% of Biscoff cookies. There’s even a new crunchy version with chunks of cookies in it (swoon!). We’ve tossed aside our peanut butter and Nutella with scorn and slathered this goodness on everything from toast to English muffins. Yeah, it’s a problem.
Where to Get ‘Em: The cookies have been spotted in Walgreens, Ralphs, and even Walmart, but the spread can be found in the peanut butter section in stores like Shop Rite, Kroger, Hannaford, Wegmans, and even on Amazon.com.]]>
They’re moving full speed ahead with their acquisition of AirTran, but Southwest Airlines still has plenty of time to dedicate to other changes and improvements. Their latest announcement has everything to do with seats, as they’re planning to tear out some interiors in favor of new and shiny upgrades.
The bottom line is they’re adding more seats which weigh less, boosting revenue by packing passengers and spending less airplane gas to get them to their final destination. However, Southwest says that the new seats are an upgrade for passengers as well, even though there’s technically going to be a little less room for your legs, knees, and feet.
The pitch on the new seats is dropping by an inch or so and there’s also less recline. The new seats will lean back about one inch less than they do now, but Southwest insists that you won’t even notice because of the new seat layout—we’ll have to see this for ourselves. ]]>
”Why are you flying to Albuquerque?” were the words on most people’s lips last week when we told them we were cutting short a trip to Vegas to hit New Mexico.
Why Albuquerque? Well, to start with, for the flight—one of the most spectacular ones we’ve ever been on.
From Las Vegas to Albuquerque we were looking south, and got a prime view of the snow-covered high desert, mountains and miniscule trees poking out of the snow. All very beautiful, except we heard the pilot announce that “on the left, you’ll see the Grand Canyon.”
So on the way back, we swapped sides to face north, and were greeted by snow-covered mountains, snow-covered plains…and then, yeah, the Grand Canyon. We flew pretty much all the way along the Grand Canyon—from 40,000 feet we picked out the famous South Rim, less famous North Rim and, we think, possibly the West Rim, too (though we didn’t see the Skywalk). ]]>
You know what they say about the best days to book airfares, right? That the magical weekdays are Tuesdays and Wednesdays for deals...but those are also the best days to fly on cheap rates, too. Now that the winter holidays are over, airlines have rolled out massive fare sales for travel that, in some cases, goes all the way through the end of spring.
There's 6 sales we think are worthy today. 5 are from the US, and one is from the UK. GET ON IT:
· AirTran sale
(Book by Thursday, January 6 for travel on Tuesdays & Wednesdays through May 15, 2011)
Sample fares (not including taxes & fees):
New York-LGA to Orlando $86 each way
Chicago-Midway to Atlanta $89 each way
Los Angeles-LAX to Fort Lauderdale: $129 each way
Baltimore-BWI to Key West: $126 each way]]>
And just like that, social photo sharing app Instagram is super hot. Sure it's only just celebrated its one-year anniversary as an iPhone app, but recent contests and exposure given to it by brands and influential figures in social media have pushed it over the edge. Heck, we jumped in head first! And we're freaking loving it. (Follow us by searching "jaunted" & "hotelchatter" in the app).
It's not just people posting images of their kids eating birthday cake or close-ups of kitty paws, either; Instagram seems to be spreading most rapidly among those interested in design, architecture, analogue photography, nature and—of course—the rest of the world. This is where travel images enter the game, and the airlines are paying attention.
We ran a fine-toothed comb through Instagram to find the airlines you need to follow now, and who else to watch: ]]>
If you're passing through concourse A or B at Baltimore/Washington International Airport this week, you may find yourself in front of a camera crew.
TLC is expected to begin filming a new untitled TV show about the inner workings of BWI's largest carrier, Southwest, today. The new series will follow BWI's expansion and the day-to-day drama that happens behind the scenes at Southwest.
"It's a good opportunity to showcase BWI and the region," said Jonathan Dean, airport spokesman. "With BWI as one of Southwest's largest markets, it makes sense to shoot it here," he added.]]>