Jaunted

Tags: Airline News / Airlines / LCCs / Canada / WestJet / Hawaii / → All Tags

WestJet Figures Out Way To Monetize Empty Seats

For one reason or another, Canadian low cost carrier WestJet flies planes to Hawaii at less than full capacity. Being an airline, and an LCC at that, they've naturally come up with a way to use that reality to charge passengers. Customers who prefer to have an empty seat next to them - and who doesn't - will now be able to pay to lock in that privilege:

WestJet’s simple solution is to leave the middle seat empty in the first eight to ten rows of its Boeing 737-700s flying between Calgary and Hawaii. The company says there will be a small price increase for passengers wanting the extra elbow room... The empty seats are actually necessary to make the flight to Hawaii... The company’s 737-700s have been flying the shorter non-stop route between Vancouver and Hawaii for several years now. But the airplane... can’t make the longer flight from Calgary to Hawaii with a full passenger load because of range limitations based on the fuel it can carry.

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Tags: Canada Travel / Canada / Travelzoo / HotelChatter / → All Tags

Summer May Be Over, But Off-Season Deals Are Just Beginning

Let's collectively take a moment to mourn the end of summer, a season rich with getaways and celebrations like last weekend's definitive season-ender, Labor Day. While the masses file back to reality, we're not convinced that summer's close has to put a violent halt to our travel plans. If anything, the end of summer marks the beginning of off-season deals, which we gladly welcome to pocket some extra cash.

Keeping tabs on Travelzoo's Twitter feed is a smart way to stay wise to travel discounts which pop up from time to time, whether you're planning an overseas trip or are firmly in staycation mode. We found a couple that are worth noting, including a host of ticket discounts for everything from Mets games to two-for-one tickets to see Hairspray, if you happen to be in London.

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Tags: Bike Sharing / Montreal / Canada / Bicycling / Bixi / → All Tags

Bike Sharing Just Got Greener With Montreal's New Bixi

Following the huge success of Paris' Velib bike sharing program, we've been wondering how long it would take for North American to get in on the action. Leave it to Frenchy Montreal to show everyone up by being the first on the continent to put the pedal to the metal.

Launched last week, the Bixi program (a combo of "bike" and "taxi") puts aluminum Montreal-made bicycles on the streets, available for rental with annual memberships of $75, a daily rate of $5, or per-hour pricing following a free first half-hour. By June 7, the city is aiming to place 3,000 of the bikes at 300 hubs around the city, and your rented Bixi may be picked up at and returned to any of them.

And these babies weren't named one of Time's top 50 top inventions of 2008 for no reason; the bike docks are equipped with wireless RFID technology which can immediately signal if one is defective, and the pay station itself is touch-screen with energy support from solar panels. According to the Vancouver Sun, this model of bike sharing in Montreal is what's being studied for the future in other bike-desperate cities like New York and London. Bring it on!

Related Stories:
· Bixi System [Official Site]
· Part bicycle -- part taxi, meet the Bixi [Vancouver Sun]
· Bike Sharing Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: AddictiveDJDesigns]

Tags: Airlines / Porter Airlines / WestJet / Canada / → All Tags

Adventures of Link: New Route Round-Up...

...in which we gently remind you (and ourselves) what airlines are taking you where these days.

Some of the most interesting new services popping up are between the U.S. East Coast and Canada. Interesting because they involve airlines that could be quite unfamiliar to travelers. WestJet is already established in the States, but mostly in the West and Florida. Porter Airlines, on the other hand, is just now adding its first U.S. destination.

Both WestJet and Porter are about to invade Newark--WestJet to/from Calgary, and Porter to/from Toronto-YTZ (City Centre Airport). Porter is especially welcome for the extra competition between NYC and Toronto--those fares have a history of getting pretty crazy.

So what can you Americans expect from Porter Airlines? For one, sexy snack boxes (see above), sexy service, and a free, sexy-ass lounge at the Toronto airport. The reviews for Porter on Airline Quality are glowing. We love it already!

Related Stories:
· Eos to fly from Newark Liberty [NJ.com]
· More destinations for Oneworld members [Dallas Morning News]
· Canada's Porter Airlines to launch Toronto-Newark service [AP]
· WestJet unveils Big Apple flight plan [Calgary Herald]
· Air Canada offers New York weekender pass to Calgary [Calgary Herald]
· Japan's ANA to launch budget Asia airline [Reuters]

Tags: Olympic Travel / Canada / Vancouver / → All Tags

Good Morning, Vancouver: Olympics Building Spree Commences

The city of Vancouver isn't just a great place to see celebrities or fly to Hong Kong any more. While the next Winter Olympics are two years away, Vancouver and nearby Whistler are already experiencing a construction boom, according to the New York Times, including an all-new light-rail line and several luxury hotels that will be ready to accommodate travelers in 2009.

Traveling to Olympic host cities before their big games is a great way to get a deal on a new, or newly renovated, hotel. The celebrities are just a bonus.

[Photo of Olympic mascots Miga, Quatchi and Sumi: stevenbuy_toy2005]

Tags: Museums / Calgary / Alberta / Canada / → All Tags

And On The Eighth Day, God Created A Creationism Museum To Back Him Up

Come one, come all, to see exactly when dinosaurs roamed the earth! A creationist group outside of Calgary has built a creationist museum displaying the Genesis-based view of history, plus some scrolls proving that England's King Henry VI is a direct descendant of Adam and Eve. With Biblical calculations giving the Earth's age at some 6,000 years old, the Big Valley Creation Science Museum is like a planetary facelift. It even has a front lawn full of fossils, to test our faith!

Lest we err in attributing this sort of judgment to be a Canadian trait, it's worth pointing out that the U.S. just opened its own creation museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. Moreover, where Canadian creationists used placards, we hired the guy who made the Hulk roller coaster to make dioramas of children playing with dinosaurs -- for an estimated $27 million. And that's the difference between Canada and America.

[Photo: BVCSM.com]

Related Stories:
· Museums Travel [Jaunted]
· Museums Founder Insists Creation Backed By Science [Associated Press]

Tags: Knut / Zoos / Tourism Boards / Canada / Animals / Adventure Travel / → All Tags

Canada Tourism Exploits Final Days of Knut's Cuteness

As world famous German polar bear cub Knut inches towards adulthood and becomes drastically less cute, what may be a final surge in cross-promotional activities rages on. The latest entity to snag a piece of Knut madness is the Canadian Tourism Commission, which recently sent the little guy a special Canada-branded ball to play with.

As the Brand Canada Blog points out, it's a small hint that Canada (and not Germany--who knew?) is a natural home of polar bears. You can even swim with them at the Polar Bear Habitat in Cochrane, Ontario, a good 450 miles north of Toronto.

Related Stories:
· Knut the Polar Bear Cub Becomes Pitch-Man for Canadian Tourism Commission [Brand Canada]
· Giant Pillow Fight in Toronto [Brand Canada]

Tags: Britain / Canada / Contests / Sports / → All Tags

Get Rich With Rock, Paper, Scissors

Plenty of people travel far and wide to catch their favorite championships: think of the hoard of tourists who descended on Germany this year for the World Cup, or the masses who hit Finland for the Air Guitar World Championships last year. You'll be kicking yourself now to hear that you've just missed out on the event of the year in Toronto: the Rock Paper Scissors World Championships.

Someone who's not kicking himself is the new world champ, London man Bob Cooper, who beat 500 of the world's best using his sunglasses strategy ("the eyes give away a lot") and a couple of hours training per day. Bob gets defensive if you suggest that rock, paper, scissors might not really be a sport:

"People think our sport is just about luck, but there is a lot of cunning and training involved in preparing for the championship," he said.

Whatever your opinion, the fact is that he came home over $6000 richer and he's heading off to Buckingham Palace to celebrate. And perhaps to have a quick game of rock, paper, scissors with the Queen or her corgis.

[Photo: everyskyline]

Related Stories:
· Brit Masters Rock, Paper, Scissors [Gulf News]
· Air Guitar World Champion Named [Jaunted]

Tags: Active Travel / Mont Tremblant / Quebec / Canada / Skiing / → All Tags

Active Travel: Skiing in French

Ski (and snowboard!) season is just around the corner and we can't wait to get out and suss down some powder chutes. What's that? You never got around to learning how to carve your way into the hearts of fellow snow bunnies? Sacre bleu! There's only one remedy: get thee to Quebec and Mont Tremblant, a medium-sized mountain a mere hour and a half from Montreal.

Class Time:
Because Tremblant has slopes down two sides of the same peak, you don't run the risk of getting the bunny hill blues, sliding down the same hill all day. Instructors at the Snow School will get you on up on your feet in only a couple hours, or you can spring for the Ski Week--a week-long program with three and a half hours of class a day. It's not as lazy as a week on the beach, but start on a Sunday and it will have you carving up the blue runs by Saturday.

Play Time:
After turning your muscles to jelly on the slopes, you'll want to hit the outdoor hot tub at your hotel, Ermitage du Lac. It's got a swanky boutique feel and they'll ferry your skis or board up to the ski school for you in the morning. With that taken care of, you can hit Tremblant's pedestrian village and get rowdy at Le P'tit Caribou: Ski Canada magazine ranked it best bar in eastern half of the nation.

[Photo: condormx]

Tags: Quebec / Canada / Cheese / Food / → All Tags

Canada is So Cheesey!

If you should find yourself taking a drive between the Eastern Provinces' Lac Brome area in Canada and Quebec City, and are in the mood for some cheese gluttony (and who isn't?), stop in at the Fromagerie Lemaire.

We found this place over the summer after some serious wine-tasting in Lac Brome. When we first heard of it, we expected an adorably quaint little place--maybe a cafe where you could order an extensive cheese plate that you could nibble from as you sat at marble-topped wrought-iron tables.

However, Fromagerie Lemaire looks more like a big hot dog stand, decked out in yellow and red, with the plastic booths of a fast-food restaurant.

No matter. We made our own cheese plate, purchasing an ungodly amount of brie, some cheese curds and a big baguette. Then we sat outside with our paper plates and plastic forks on the picnic benches in the decidedly un-quaint parking lot.

But who cares about ambiance when your face is full of fresh cheese and bread? Bonus: the curds were a treat for the mouth AND ears, as they inexplicably made loud squeaking noises against our teeth as we chewed them.

You'd be silly to stop at Fromagerie Lemaire in hopes of a charming French Canadian dining experience. But you'd be sillier not to stop at all.

Related Stories:
· Quebec Coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Montreal / Canada / Live Music / Advertising / → All Tags

The More We Kissed, The Frencher It Got

In case you haven't noticed recently, Jaunted kinda likes Montreal. Not long ago, the city's tourism board launched an ad campaign touting a new, sexy Montreal. Its slogan? "The more we kissed, the Frencher it got." Well, that was one of a few saucy phrases featured on their advertisements. So, we've found ourselves wondering, how is Monty feeling  these days? Any sexier?

Assuming he's the artsy type...yes, he's feeling très sexy! That's because Pop Montreal starts tomorrow and rolls on until Saturday, and that means music, drinks and all the related sexiness imaginable for days on end. Montreal's getting plenty of attention from the likes of psych-star Roky Erickson and his fans. Tons of lesser-known bands will be making the rounds at Montreal's best small venues as well. If you're not sure where to start when it comes to the lineup, the excellently named Midnight Poutine ran a podcast series featuring music from its favorite participating acts.

Related Stories:
· Tag: Pop Montreal 2006 [Midnight Poutine]
· We're cheap and easy [Hour]

Tags: Movie Set Travel / Canada / Toronto / Celeb Travel / → All Tags

Movie Set Travel: Silent Hill

If we see another horrifying trailer for today's movie set travel pick, Silent Hill, we're going to lose it. That girl with no mouth freaks us out. It is also, we've noticed, a popular poster to publicly deface in the NYC subway system; they might as well have put a speech bubble in her mouth.

Silent Hill is about a mother's hunt in a haunted, deserted town for her missing daughter. She's forced to make a deal with a demon, in the form of said mouthless little girl, to find her. The film was shot largely in Ontario, Canada, which is not only home to demons, but Natalie Portman, our Chasing Natalie map, and a ton of places for Natalie to drink coffee. Here are a few recommendations of our own, for Natalie and everyone else, should Silent Hill give you the heebie jeebies:

Where To Stay:
SoHo Metropolitan Hotel, Toronto
Don't want to spend the night alone, scaredy cat? Check into the "SoHo Met" and ogle the crowds of beautiful people . (If there are that many beautiful people, it probably increases the chances of spending the night alone, but never mind that) Snuggle up in the Frette linens and enjoy the panoramic views from floor-to-ceiling windows. Take a reassuring dip in the lap pool and dry off while you stand on the heated floors. All that poshness will keep the boogeyman away for sure.

Where To Eat:
BoBa, Yorkville
Housed in a turn of the century house in a historic neighborhood, intimate Boba offers tons of fresh fish plates, as well as regional faves like grilled Ontario ostrich with herb gnocchi in a peppercorn glaze. It'll set you back some cash, but there's safety in eating well for sure.

Where To Freak Yourself Out Even More:
Haunted Ontario
Pick a local house and take a tour; this company highlights all the freakfests in the area and outlines their histories, individual ghost stories, and spooky trivia. Or, you can map out the locations and visit them yourself. Just don't go making a deals with any demonic, mouthless children. And if you see Natalie around, send your report to tipsATjauntedDOTcom.