We're not as-a-rule opposed to seeing travel advertising mascots getting killed. Last December, when Air New Zealand murdered off their spokespuppet Rico, we even declared ourselves to be fairly pleased. The borderline rapey rat-like character had become insanely grating even (especially?) for a felt puppet. So when the airline announced a viral Whodunit game where players tried to figure out Rico's murderer, we figured that was as good an excuse as any to be rid of him.

But today we weep. For today, Priceline kills off the Priceline Negotiator. The travel industry icon, played by William Shatner, has been the face of the travel bidding and booking company for 14 years. To give you an idea of how big a business and culture story this is, it's being run everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to Perez Hilton. They sound sad too. Not as sad as we are, of course, but it's there if you read between the lines. For his part Shatner describes himself as being "in grief mode."]]> Omri 2012-01-23T14:00:54-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/9/12/10183/5244

Pardon us for uttering two very dirty words: vacation rentals. Ew, right? Renting someone else's house is like, for old people and big families and stuff, not for cool people. Or so that's what we thought up until this week, because lovely little Jetsetter.com has gone and launched Jetsetter Homes, with villas and condos and beach bungalows (oh my!) to add to the variety of hotels regular Jetsetter already offers.

Yes, they'll be on limited sale. Yes, you can score a first booking credit of $500 if you book for at least five nights before the end of October. It's standard Jetsetter stuff, just taken to another level.

It maybe seems like there's nothing Jetsetter can't do, what with their grabbing the first discounted rooms at the Armani Hotel Dubai, offering the occasional private jet deal and even planning your trip for you if you're into that sort of thing. They still haven't quite gotten their grip around First Class seats on regular airlines, but that's something we're willing to wait for. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-09-12T13:04:34-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/7/7/61051/22504

Okay you guys. Enough of this opening multiple tabs and windows to search all your travel options. Travel booking sites are finally getting hip to integrating many modes of transportation into one search, and the latest to up the ante is TripAdvisor.com. In addition to providing flight prices and information, they'll now set you up with rail tickets:

TripAdvisor has partnered with one of the leading mobility and logistic companies in the world, Deutsche Bahn, as well as other top European rail providers including Rail Europe Inc., to give travelers access to train choices across continental Europe as they plan the perfect trip. It becomes the first travel website to integrate multiple rail providers in-line with flight options across a global network.

When travelers conduct a flight search on TripAdvisor, the site will now display rail itineraries alongside flight choices for routes where it's relevant, and in some cases priced even cheaper than air travel. The site has partnered with leading European rail providers, including Deutsche Bahn and Rail Europe, for the beta launch to give travelers access to train choices across continental Europe.

[Photo: Tripadvisor]]]> JetSetCD 2011-07-07T14:55:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/1/20/13550/3312

What's up with the chipmunk wearing aviator goggles? Oh, he's just the mascot of new-ish flight search site Hipmunk.com. We've been kind of obsessed with it the last few weeks, and for good reason. Hipmunk is a very cleanly designed site, like if Kayak and Google Search had a baby, and made it display plane ticket options in very appealing ways. Overall, we're loving Hipmunk for two very distinct advances it has over many other booking sites:

1. Flight options display in colorful bar charts: Enter the basic information for whatever flight you want—dates, destinations, class and preferred airline. Now comes our favorite part: the way the search results show up. The default is not to show you tickets by price level or flight length or number of connections, but by general "Agony." They describe it as a "combination of price, duration and number of stops," so it pretty much gives the best summary of what's available. A bright chart is displayed, from which you can easily see the differences between the flights. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-01-20T08:31:11-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/2/43917/1747

You'd think the recession would have catapulted price comparison engine Kayak.com into universal traveler awareness. The company's internal figures, though, tell a different story. Less than 1/3 of the more than 100 million Americans who use travel booking sites know about Kayak. Even less are able to differentiate Kayak from similar-on-first-look but significantly different competitors like Expedia. In a move that's bound to raise eyebrows in the travel industry and among travel advertisers, the company is shifting their resources into a massive offline ad campaign.

The new ad blitz was launched over the weekend and is set to blanket primetime cable through 2010. CNN, ESPN, and MSNBC have all been selected as venues, presumably on numbers promising that most coveted of travel industry demographics: 25-44 year olds with disposable income. Forbes.com has a full writeup on the campaign, including a description of one of the "witty 30 second spots":]]> Omri 2009-11-02T13:54:20-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/8/3/5252/30973

Memo to booking and airline companies: despite how it sometimes might appear, we're on your side. Really we are. We want you to only do smart things. When you do not smart things you incur costs without producing revenue, creating shortfalls that you pass on to us. That means we travel less, which causes us to get just a wee bit claustrophobic, and without getting into too many details - everybody loses.

Shifting gears, the last few years have seen something of a trend among the 30 year old former frat boys who inhabit the classrooms of our nation's fine MBA programs. Specifically, if a project has a Facebook application or somehow involves Twitter, it's gold. Conversely, projects without Web 2.0 tie-ins are preemptively deemed failures. Proposals don't have to make sense. They just has to have lots of phrases like "viral advertising" and "user generated content."

Fast forward a few years and these supple minds are now consultants, randomly going from business to business telling middle managers to invest in Facebook apps. To which we can only respond the same way fashion blogs react when starlets show up to awards shows wearing formal shorts. Oh honey, no:]]> Omri 2009-08-05T09:04:30-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/6/25/13011/9357

Microsoft's new Bing search engine hasn't even been available to the public for a month yet and already it's under fire for potentially copying the site's design from good old Kayak. We have to admit that we thought it looked a little too familiar, and the people at Wired recently tore it apart and aired claims on both sides:

There’s no question Bing feels like Kayak. When Microsoft showed us the search engine under embargo, this reporter’s first comment upon seeing the travel page demo’d was 'This looks like Kayak.'

Kayak noticed too. 'We have contacted them through official channels about concerns about the similarities between Bing and Kayak,' Kayak’s CMO told Wired.com 'From the look and feel of their travel product, they seem to agree with our approach to the market.'

That’s careful language for 'Microsoft copied our stuff wholesale.'

]]> JetSetCD 2009-06-25T14:52:17-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/