Australia is up to their travel contest tricks again, but this time their sights are set on the lucrative business travel market. Please welcome the "Million Dollar Memo" competition, which will see the staff of one company, from anywhere in the world, transported to Queensland for a company retreat worth one million dollars (AUD).

This contest is the latest in what's becoming a long line of dream job competitions. First there was the hugely successful Best Job in the World; then there was the Best Experience in the World, and eventually the knock-off contests followed, like "Honeymoon Testers" and "Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent." Nothing beats Tourism Queensland however, the original inventors of giving away a "job" that instead sounds like a life in paradise, amplified across social media. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-03-21T09:31:45-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/1/19/131635/688

Instead of boarding your flight wondering what kind of annoyance your anonymous seatmate will be, you can actually attempt to the take the matter into your own hands by pairing up with likeminded travelers on your plane. How? Well, you could always creepily nudge the pretty girl in the waiting area and ask her what her seat number is, or you could trust the internet through the new social networking site Planely.

"Social flying revolution" is what they're calling it, and while it hasn't exactly reached the critical mass needed to earn the "revolution" part, Planely is gaining in active users. Here's what happens: you go on Planely.com, register some basic info about yourself, then add your upcoming fights. Planely will then let you know if another other Planely users will be on your flight or at your start and end airports, in case you're up for some flirting, general conversation, convention gossip or just trading stock tips at 35,000 feet. You can even specify what you'd want to do, which for us is typically "sleep, work ahead on our laptop and read," so maybe we wouldn't be your ideal seatmate if you're feeling chatty.]]> JetSetCD 2011-01-19T13:16:35-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/1/3/14722/24697

Frequent Flyer from Gabriel Leigh on Vimeo.

We just watched an absolutely lovely 20-minute mini-documentary on the lives and drive of elite flyers, aka those who chase frequent flyer miles and sit up front in the name of elite status on airlines. This riveting film—called simply "Frequent Flyer"—finished and released almost exactly one year ago by Gabriel Leigh, a younger member of the FlyerTalk fold, is a perfect introduction to the basic idea of loyalty programs and why they so enthrall certain travelers.

We thought it'd be a great way to start off the New Year, to really think about yourself and your goals when you travel, as these men have obviously found their passion. Even Pico Iyer makes an appearance, with this apt observation: "I could see frequent flyer miles could become an addiction, especially because the whole process of travel makes you a bit deranged and makes you not yourself." ]]> JetSetCD 2011-01-03T17:11:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/11/28/212438/20

You know how everyone always wants to know how to make a living just traveling around the world, but not like a budget traveler...as a business person with an expense account and frequent flyer status? Yea...forget it because Fred Finn has had it all figured out from decades ago, and his jetsetting profession allowed him to experience the best of it, like 3 Concorde trips in one day.

Finn earned the Guinness Book of World Records title "World's Most Traveled Man" when he achieved 7 million miles flown in 1983, but the Daily Mail reports that he holds that title more strongly now, after notching up his total to a ridiculous 15 million miles. Their article on him is a really beautiful story of a man so in love with air travel and the world that he made international business travel his lifestyle. The statistics alone are enough to make airline CEOs stutter: ]]> JetSetCD 2010-11-29T13:20:46-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/11/17/174625/82

While we were passing through Heathrow a few weeks back, we popped into British Airways’ Galleries Club Lounge for another installment in our series on Airport Lounges, complete with a photo gallery and a breakdown of the different sections of this ginormous complex.

And yes, there is a big horse-lamp thing that greets flyers, and that's just what's on the outside of the lounge... ]]> EricRosen 2010-11-18T11:49:10-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/10/19/194751/42

You know we love us some Air New Zealand flight service between Los Angeles and London, especially now that we have the new SkyCouch to look forward to starting in April. But we found another reason to love it when we got the chance to hang out in the airline’s Koru Lounge at LAX before our flight a few weeks ago. So come along with us as we share a video walk-through and gallery of photos we took while enjoying the lounge and its many features (and snacks!).
]]> EricRosen 2010-10-20T09:30:06-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/10/6/142224/466

I bought the $499 AYCJ-5 pass back in August with the explicit goal of becoming the most boring AYCJ'er the skies have ever seen. Huh? Well, the pass was purchased for my business travel. With the idea of condensing two months of travel into two weeks, I had big plans to first save money and second, create more time.

The saving money part was easy to document. I knew that in the months of September I needed to travel from RDU to Boston, to New York twice, and to Las Vegas. A quick web airfare search back in August showed me that buying either many one-way trips or one big multi-destination trip was going to cost me somewhere between $900 - $1200 depending on a variety of factors (airline, times of flights, day of flights, etc).

Since JetBlue's pass was going to save me approximately $600, the decision to buy it was a no-brainer. Furthermore, buying the pass would allow me more flexibility in scheduling my travel, and the ability to come back home for a couple days in between my two main trips. Even when I added in the cost of renting a car at one of my destinations, the AYCJ-5 was saving me over $500. ]]> markj 2010-10-06T16:32:02-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/