When you're gearing up to hit the web and book a trip, or at least search for airfares and daydream, what travel booking site is your go-to bookmark? We've been known to use Priceline for rental cars, Kayak and CheapOair for airfare, and a myriad of sites for hotel rooms. Sure, we could stick with one and use it for everything, but each site seems to have its own specialty and they often differ in terms of cancellation policies, booking fees and the like.

So to help sort out the major differences in booking sites, we got our mitts on Lauren Volcheff, Director of Marketing over at LastMinuteTravel.com. To listen to the two major factors that LMT has going on versus other sites, check out the video above (pardon the hot jazz background--a hotel lobby isn't always the best meeting room). Still, we also gossiped a bit about travel trends.

Our chat with LastMinuteTravel.com, after the jump.]]> JetSetCD 2009-11-09T11:46:15-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/10/25/192611/34

Why is Andrew Zimmern's favorite flight the one to Tokyo? This is just one of the many questions we asked the chef, author and Travel Channel show host when we caught up with him at the Travel Channel and Chase Sapphire card party at the Top of the Rock in New York. The answer to that of course, is because the flight to Tokyo is a string of uninterrupted hours of calm. But what we're more interested in right now is one of the hottest topics in aviation today, and that's the issue of In-Flight WiFi. ]]> JetSetCD 2009-10-27T09:14:17-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/10/25/19258/899

There are some big travel issues a-brewing out there, and we're keen to find out what some big travel personalities think about them. So we caught up with Anthony Bourdain, chef and author and host of The Travel Channel's popular food travel show No Reservations to get the straight dope on how, or how not, In-Flight WiFi has affected his travel routine. ]]> JetSetCD 2009-10-26T10:19:17-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/9/20/22329/4537

A Jaunted Exclusive

We've been following the secretive saga behind the Air Asia X plane gone native—meaning it slipped into some Oakland Raiders livery—ever since May when it's tail was spotted getting the new paintjob. We speculated that perhaps this meant one of two things: either the Oakland Raiders football team was chartering an AirAsia plane for their season, or Air Asia was readying for some trans-Pacific routes to the United States.

After the plane flew to Oakland for a grand unveiling last week, we had to get to the bottom of the deal. Is Air Asia coming to the United States or what? So we dialed up the Air Asia CEO and mogul Tony Fernandes for a quick rundown of the low-cost carrier's North American plans.

And here's what he said... ]]> JetSetCD 2009-09-21T09:23:56-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/8/11/94938/1897

This morning, Virgin America not only announced that their 10th destination would be Fort Lauderdale from SFO and LAX beginning in November, but they hinted at other cities soon to possibly pop up on their route maps.

Curious to get the straight dope, we gave VA CEO David Cush a call to talk fun in the sun, international routes, and of course Chicago. Read on to hear Cush's take on the future of Virgin America.

On the addition of Fort Lauderdale:
Cush understands that "everyone is excited for new routes," but this one especially so since it's their tenth and only the beginning of a period of southern expansion.

On how they are deciding on future destinations:
"If you look at Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 corporate bases, those are pretty good places to start. You've got Atlanta, Dallas with their telecom, the semiconductors and computer companies in Austin and even on to Newark and Philadelphia." We also made sure not to forget about good old Raleigh-Durham, which Cush assures is an option as most corporate cities are fair game for them right now. ]]> JetSetCD 2009-08-11T09:49:38-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/4/30/113527/639

Yesterday, we attend yet another Virgin America new route launch party. Keep going VA! This time Sir Richard Branson and Co. have begun offering five-times-daily flights flights out of The Real Orange County (John Wayne Airport) to San Francisco.

The inaugural event began yesterday after take off in San Francisco with Branson twittering in-flight using the fleet-wide WiFi at 35,000 feet. Upon landing in the OC, Branson was greeted by the cast of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Orange County” and Red Bull athletes. And for those guests lucky enough to be on the inaugural flight? They received Bare Escentuals makeovers and Sunset Tan spray.

The party continued over to the Pacific Edge Hotel in Laguna Beach but before all that, we managed to chase Sir Richard Branson down for an interview, in his car.

Related Stories:
· Virgin America Coverage [Jaunted]
· Jen Leo Twitters With Sir Richard [LA Times]
· Video Montage of the Event @ SFO [B.A.T.]]]> shiralazar 2009-04-30T11:55:04-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/1/14/223023/181

So by now, everyone should know that world-class traveler and so-so dancer Matt Harding was just kidding when he told attendees at the EG Conference that "Where the Hell is Matt?" dancing videos were a hoax. When we first reported on the "revealing" speech he made at the conference, Jaunted's weekend editor tried to match Matt deadpan for deadpan, but like Matt's original "hoax," Victor's seemed to work a little too well.

You see we grew up with Milli Vanilli, Sid Finch and Adult Swim, so reading about Matt's hoax speech without watching the embedded video--but not sticking with it until the end--the concept of Matt being a hoax didn't seem so far-fetched to many readers.

Wanting to get the straight scoop, we contacted Matt Harding when the story broke and asked him if he would do an interview with us. We figured hearing from the man himself on Jaunted would clear everything up once and for all. However, Matt was slow in getting back to us, which just helped perpetuate his hoax. Memes move at the speed of light, and hoaxes hardly ever turn out as planned because so many people feel duped in the end.

However, Matt did graciously answer our all of our questions, even the silly ones, albeit 10 days after our first request. (He's apparently working on a book.)

The bottom line is Matt's dancing is real, and it is spectacular.]]> juliana 2009-01-15T10:46:34-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/