Tag: 2009 Travel Awards View All Tags
Tags: The Jauntys / 2009 Travel Awards / → All Tags
Jetting Off Into 2010
Well, 2009 is over and good riddance; we're anxious to see what 2010 holds for travel and our passport. Before the ball drops on 2010 however, don't forget to look back on the year that was. We're cutting out early today to shovel the snow outside and get our party pants on, but we're be back bright and early on Monday.
Enjoy the full collection of our 2009 travel awards below, and be sure to check out the awards from our sister site HotelChatter as well. Happy New Year!
· Best Domestic Airline
· Most Improved Airline
· Worst Domestic Airline
· Biggest Travel Media Story
· Best Jaunted Field Trip
· Destination of the Year
· Best Jaunted Map Mashup
· Best Travel Movie
· Celebrity Traveler of the Year
· Most Ridiculous Airline Idea
· Most Missed Industry Casualty
· Worst Travel Experience
· Best Travel Newcomer
· Best Airport Photo Shoot
· Worst Travel Failure
· Biggest Villain
Tags: The Jauntys / 2009 Travel Awards / TSA / → All Tags
2009's Biggest Villain Is...
You know, if we were naming the winners of these 2009 awards a few weeks ago, Ryanair's crazy CEO Michael O'Leary would have easily won this category for "Biggest Villian"; hello, the man wants airplane passengers to pay to pee and to have a standing-room-only section on planes with just handrails. But then last weekend's attempted terrorist event struck, bringing with it days of TSA failure after TSA embarrassment.
Therefore, the Transportation Safety Administration is 2009's Biggest Villain. We had only just forgiven them for stupidly releasing the unedited version of their entire security proceedings on their own site when they go and subpoena two travel journalists over source information for the security directives the writers had posted following the Christmas Day terrorist attempt and the TSA's knee-jerk new batch of rules.
It gets worse, after the jump...
Tags: The Jauntys / 2009 Travel Awards / JetAmerica / → All Tags
2009's Worst Travel Failure Is...
First we were doubtful, then we were excited, and then were worried, and then were saying "I told you so." The meteoric rise of hype for Toledo-based LCC airline JetAmerica and its plunge when the airline couldn't get off the ground defined 2009 for us. It was evocative of the recession, a reminder of the few glory days of Skybus, and a huge personal letdown since the airline would have provided us with $9 flights back home for the holidays.
But like any pipe dream, this one flushed itself out when JetAmerica couldn't secure the landing slots needed at the airports. But then, we never saw an airplane ready to fly...so maybe it was more than just problems with airports, considering how the airline cancelled flights only eleven days before the scheduled inaugural and then completely folded a few days later. Where are we, Europe?!
Deep in our heart of hearts, we did want JetAmerica to succeed, we really did. But common sense prevailed as always, and we had major doubts from the beginning. Way to prove us right, JetAmerica, we only wish it had been on something more positive.
Related Stories:
· All 2009 Travel Award stories [Jaunted]
· Jaunty winners for 2008 [Jaunted]
Tags: The Jauntys / 2009 Travel Awards / → All Tags
2009's Best Airport Photoshoot Is...
Although we were really tempted to pick the photo where Lily Allen is cuddled up on the bag X-ray machine at Belgrade airport for our top airport photo shoot, we're a little uncomfortable with how it was staged to be funny for her Twitter followers. So instead we turn to a completely candid shot of Twilight star Kristen Stewart transiting through LAX, with passport and heinous bag out in full view of the paparazzi.
We called her out for being so casual with her personal travel documents with so many people fussing about around her; that passport only has to slip a few centimeters more and it's the newest lot on eBay. And with Twilight's Eclipse film shooting over the border most of the year, this is girl who cannot afford to be losing her passport.
Related Stories:
· All 2009 Travel Award stories [Jaunted]
· Jaunty winners for 2008 [Jaunted]
[Photo: WENN/EntertainmentWise]
Tags: The Jauntys / 2009 Travel Awards / → All Tags
2009's Best Travel Newcomer Is...
2009 wasn't a huge year at all for travel launches, but luckily one of the new ventures that did get off the ground (literally) this year was Pet AIrways, like private jet service just for your pooch. When they launched in mid-summer with cross-country and Florida routes, the flight were fully booked by families and pet owners who didn't want to put their pet in a cargo hold or kennel while they went on vacation.
We've actually considered using the service ourselves—well, for our four-legged friend—since their average airfare of $149 beats upscale kennel rates when you're spending more than a few days out of town. Expect Pet Airways to expand in 2010, and the fluff stories on it by news channels to continue.
Related Stories:
· All 2009 Travel Award stories [Jaunted]
· Jaunty winners for 2008 [Jaunted]
[Photo: NY Daily News]
Tags: The Jauntys / 2009 Travel Awards / → All Tags
2009's Worst Travel Experience Is...
When Continental Connection Flight 3407 crashed in upstate NY last February, the disaster took the lives of all 49 passengers and ended the US's two-year record of no civilian aviation fatalities. A month earlier however, an emergency landing off Manhattan ended much less tragically, though to be honest we still can't believe that US Airways Flight 1549 ended the way it did.
A commercial jetliner had its engines knocked out, landed in the freezing waters of the Hudson River, evacuated the cabin, and the total number of people killed was zero? From the outside, the heroics are enough to make you tear up. For the passengers though, it royally sucked. The flight, plus some subsequent nonsense from US Air, easily qualifies the entire episode as 2009's Worst Travel Experience.
The story of the flight is now pretty famous, but just for the record: US Airways Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia bound for Charlotte on January 15, 2009 with 150 passengers and 5 crew. Within minutes the plane was hit by a flock of Canada Geese, which immediately knocked out both of the Airbus A320's engines.
The drama continues...
Tags: The Jauntys / 2009 Travel Awards / → All Tags
2009's Most Missed Industry Casualty Is...
For once, the award for most missed industry casualty doesn't go to an airline that hit bankruptcy and became a mess of depressed and angry former crew and teary airports (ahhem Skybus); nope, it's going to something that became the victim of the decline of the print industry: National Geographic Adventure Magazine.
As the active travel sibling magazine of National Geographic, Adventure was on the case with mountain climbers, vulcanologists and the ever-deathdefying. It was not only a fixture in many waiting rooms, but we even had a subscription at a point. Luckily, National Geographic Traveler magazine will stay in business (for now) and Adventure will hold onto its website.
Related Stories:
· All 2009 Travel Award stories [Jaunted]
· Jaunty winners for 2008 [Jaunted]
Tags: The Jauntys / 2009 Travel Awards / → All Tags
2009's Most Ridiculous Airline Idea Is...
2009 was the year that we opened up an entire Bad Ideas category, a kind of formal spinoff of our Ryanair coverage. Of course the vast majority of this years Most Ridiculous Airline Ideas, from pee fees to airplane handrails, still came from the antipathy-generating Irish LCC. And yet none of Ryanair's cost-cutting innovations incensed you or us the way that Design Q's face-to-face airplane seat layout did.
The new interior configuration, a "high density seating" scheme designed to cram ever more passengers into ever smaller spaces, calls for "a row of seats facing inward on each side of the plane and two rows running back-to-back down the middle of the aircraft." Over a dozen Jaunted commenters worked several days to describe just how awkward, unsafe, awkward, physically uncomfortable, and really awkward it would be to stare at a stranger for hours upon hours at a time. Comment titles ranged from "OH NO!" to "Bad idea" to "NO GOOD" to "Awesome!" (that last one, not so serious). Above and beyond the plan's grade-school seating chart ethos, legitimate safety concerns were raised about feet blocking aisles and bodies getting jostled side-to-side.
Tags: The Jauntys / 2009 Travel Awards / Super World Travelers / → All Tags
2009's Celebrity Traveler Of The Year Is...
We haven't dubbed Brangelina the Super World Travelers for nothin'. Brad and Angie's policy has always been to keep the family together, no matter where in the world their high-powered careers or philanthropic efforts take them. This has allowed for their family unit to stay intact and the rest of us not-so-super-world-travelers to live vicariously.
Brad and Ange started the year on a low note, at home in L.A. for the Golden Globes, but, they didn't stay homebodies for long. By mid-January they were dining in Berlin and by the end of the month off it was off to Tokyo, where Knox and Viv had their first airport photo shoot.
Tags: The Jauntys / 2009 Travel Awards / Travel News / Movie Set Travel / Movies / Movie Travel / → All Tags
2009's Best Travel Movie Is...
You may remember us saying that 2008 was a "marquee year for travel movies." Thanks to George Clooney, an animated curmudgeon, and Mike Tyson, 2009 easily tops it. Many of the films released over the past 12 months didn't just allude to travel or leave us dreaming about about far away lands—their plots centered around hopping a plane, train, or automobile and seeing the world.
Up in the Air, with its critical accolades and dashing lead, would be the obvious choice for Best of the Year, but it didn't feature as much awe-inspiring scenery as it did shots of airport terminals, when we were lucky. If anything, it kind of discouraged people from travel and was generally pretty depressing. The most scenic shots happened during the opening credits, so it gets shoved aside. Julie & Julia was also a top contender, balancing scenes of unglamorous cohabitation in New York with Paris' romantic landscape, not to mention shots of rich French dishes like sole meuniere. Then there was The Hangover, which our sister site VegasChatter comprehensively covered, and also because it was downright hilarious, taking the oft-repeated saying, "What happens in Vegas..." to ridiculous new heights. You thought that your all-night party session on the Strip was epic? Try stealing Mike Tyson's tiger and get back to us.
Find out which film takes home our top prize after the jump.
Tags: The Jauntys / 2009 Travel Awards / → All Tags
2009's Best Jaunted Map Mashup Is...
If we've discovered one thing this year, it's that everyone can make a connection and have an opinion over America fast food. Our most popular map mash-up for 2009 was the "Most Shocking McDonalds Locations" guide, and we continue to get reader submissions of photos and descriptions of crazy Mickey Ds they've spotted in the weirdest corners of the world. This is one series that must go on, and so plan on discovering more McDs with us in 2010. 
But back to this year, we found one in Israel's Negev Desert, a 3-story McDonalds across from Egypt's Luxor Temple, at the museum of Communism, and a whole host more.
Other stellar map mash-ups of 2009, after the jump.
Tags: The Jauntys / 2009 Travel Awards / → All Tags
2009's Destination of the Year Is...
We took stock of the biggest hotspots of the decade and we came up with a number of great places. But there was one spot that stood out for having its travel moment in '09; the Destination of the Year is the Dominican Republic.
Guys may love the location for being the setting for 2009's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. But the DR won us over with its hopping cultural center of Santo Dominigo, affordable all-inclusive beachfront resorts, polo opportunities and of course, delicious plantains. Hey, if it's good enough for Jay-Z's 40th birthday party, you know it's a place to go.
Related Stories:
· All 2009 Travel Award stories [Jaunted]
· Jaunty winners for 2008 [Jaunted]
