Jaunted

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Southwest, Continental, and Lufthansa Have a Few of This Week's New Routes

Sometimes it’s hard to stay on top of all the new route announcements that come our way, so we’ve complied a little bit of a rundown below. As long as you can afford the fares, this should definitely help add to your passport stamp collection.

· Southwest Airlines:
They haven’t even starting flying to and from the Garden State yet, but Southwest is already adding new nonstop routes to their new home at Newark-Liberty. Beginning next June, the airline is adding three daily flights to Baltimore-Washington and three trips to Denver as well as two flights to Houston and two flights to Phoenix. Not the most exciting locations, but these flights should allow for connections to pretty much anywhere within the Southwest route network. There’s no free beer to celebrate the new route announcement, but maybe they’ll have the first ever in-flight Taylor Ham sandwiches instead.

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Don't Get Too Excited for Continental's New 'FareLock' Airfare Tool

Have you heard the buzz about Continental's new FareLock feature yet? Well, we'll put it simply: it's a new way they've come up with to squeeze extra dollars out of paranoid travelers. We'll never use it, and assuming you're a person with common sense who knows even the slightest thing about searching for airfares, then you won't either.

The gist of FareLock is this: search for a Continental flight on Continental's website (not on Expedia, or any other booking engine) and if you see a flight with a good price or a flight with your preferred departure/arrival times, but you're not yet sure you want to buy it, then you can pay $5 to hold it for three days, or $9 to hold it for a week. Come back any time in there to cancel or purchase the ticket at the held price, but your FareLock fee isn't refunded or put towards the ticket price; it's just an extra.

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Continental's In-Flight Television Is Great...If It's Five Years Ago

On a recent flight to the left side of the country we had the chance to check out Continental’s in-flight DirecTV from the somewhat comfort of our seat. We had known that Continental was a little behind the times in their in-flight entertainment offerings—although not as bad as their new partner United—so we were eager to see if things were worth the wait.

We were prepared to pay the $6 to access the roughly 100 different channels up in the air, but even if you aren’t, they show a free preview on the ground to get you hooked on paying for in-flight TV. For those tentative to commit there are several on screen warnings telling you that your TV is going to disappear, so you might as well shell out the plastic cash.

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Inside the Continental Presidents Club at Los Angeles International Airport

It turns out that those snacks we gobbled up at the Continental VIP Lounge by Chase at the Shorts Hills Mall were far tastier than what we found inside the actual Continental Presidents Club at both LAX and EWR airports.

First off, let's talk about access to the Continental Presidents Club. If you buy a First Class ticket on Continental, you do not get automatic access to the lounge. That's only if you buy a First Class or BusinessFirst international ticket. Otherwise, as a lounge attendant told us, "there would be so many people in here because all of our planes have first class seats." Um, not quite the answer that you want to hear after you shelled out over a thousand dollars for a ticket.

Another way to get access here is by using your American Express Platinum card. Continental is the middle of terminating its relationship with Amex so while all other cardmembers no longer have access to the lounge, Platinum members will have access until the end of September 2011.

Even more ways to get access include being either a platinum or gold elite level OnePass member, a Presidential Club member (and pay a $475 annual fee) or just pay $50 for a one-day pass. This we strongly recommend not doing at LAX. See why below.

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Inside the Continental VIP Lounge at New Jersey's Short Hills Mall

That looks like a pilot at the desk but really it's just a security guard.

The other week we were scooping up some post-Thanksgiving deals at the Short Hills Mall in New Jersey when we noticed a brand-new Continental Lounge on the bottom level near the Bloomingdale's entrance.

We quickly deduced that this was a special VIP hangout for Continental Chase Card members and fortunately for us, our shopping partner is a Continental Chase Card member (we swear on The Situation's abs!) So in we went.

Officially billed as the Continental VIP Lounge by Chase, the Short Hills location is the only one they are offering. Here are some of the perks of the lounge:

· Free gift-wrapping
· Free snacks like chips, cookies, brownies, sodas, coffee, hot tea and bottled water
· Use of massage chairs
· Plenty of seating area with flat-screen TVs
· A mobile charging station where you can charge a variety of cellphones
· FREE WIFI

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Continental Airlines is Now a Convicted Concorde Murderer

The remembrance stone in Roissy, France

Just over ten years after the deadly day, a French court has found Continental Airlines guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the July 2000 crash of the Air France Concorde, which took the lives of 109 passengers and crew and another 4 on the ground. So just how did this come to be, that another airline is convicted of murdering the entire flight of another airline? It all goes back to a small piece of metal.

The tragedy of the Concorde AF Flight 4590 is well known, but here's a sentence to refresh your memory: a Continental Airlines DC-10 flew out of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. The plane wasn't properly maintained, and a 12" x 17" piece of titanium (that shouldn't have been on the plane anyways) fell of it onto the runway at CDG. The Concorde took off next, and the metal strip burst a tire, pieces of which then ruptured a fuel tank, which then did all sorts of damage and turned the Concorde into a flaming projectile that crashed into a motel outside the airport. The structural fragility of the areas damaged in this crash caused all Concordes to be grounded for the time being, and all Concordes ceased flying in 2003.

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This Week's New Routes Include Air Canada, AeroMexico, and a Double Dose of Continental

Sometimes it’s hard to stay on top of all the new route announcements that come our way, so we’ve complied a little bit of a rundown below. As long as you can afford the fares, this should definitely help add to your passport stamp collection.

· Continental:
If there’s one market that’s well served, it has to be flights from the New York area to London. However, Continental doesn’t think there are enough flights, and they’re adding one more option into the mix between Newark and Heathrow. Daily flight number five started on October 30 and offers a new evening option, so you can work all day in the city and then fly to the UK while trying to get a little bit of shut eye in the back of the plane—great.

· AeroMexico:
Even if you’re not ready to start thinking about a winter vacation, AeroMexico is, as they’re adjusting their schedule to prepare for the cold days ahead. The airline is bringing back service from Denver to Mexico City as well as from Ontario—the city in California not the province in Canada—to Guadalajara. Things should start up later this month for the California routes, and December will see the initiation of the Denver service. The airline is also adding more flight frequencies from places like New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago—so get ready to say adios to the winter and buenos dias to the beach.

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Five Awesome, Retro-Painted Airplanes

Hmm...why does that airplane look different from all the others? If you're lucky, sometime during your travels you'll be saying or thinking that very thing, because you've happened to spot a jet done up in retro livery. Every so often, an airline celebrates a special occasion like an anniversary by giving one of their planes a throwback paintjob, just like British Airways just did this month. Check out five such retro aircraft below.

British Airways' Boeing 757 (above), which celebrates BA's history of using 757s. The last British Airways 757 will be retired on October 30 after flying the skies since 1983. This baby has a seriously limited life. [Photo: BA/Key.aero]

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Tweet of the Week: In-Flight WiFi Goes to the Dogs

We love Tuesdays. Why, you ask? Because the day brings many travel tips and quips as "Travel Tuesday" on Twitter, and we're going to share our favorite with you. Got an avid travel twitterer we should follow? Let us know.

Yesterday was the last day that passengers flying on Continental Airlines received free in-flight meals. Let us all take a moment to be silent and look back on those better days. Thus, if you're booked on Continental from today going forward, you'll have all sorts of food choices sure, but you'll have to pay an average of $8 just for the salads.

There's at least one person out there whose Continental worries today don't revolve around food, but around Continental's cargo:

just got confirmation that my puppy arrives on Friday via Continental Airlines. I wonder if he gets in-flight wifi.

Well, while we don't have any definite answer to that, at least we do know now that his puppy will have to pony up some fast cash if he wants his dinner. Read more on the new Continental in-flight menus here.

Related Stories:
· @phatduckk [Twitter]
· Twitter Travel [Jaunted]

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The New United-Continental Paint Job Takes to the Sky

So not much has happened since last week when United and Continental officially tied the knot, but we’re sure the merger teams are putting in the overtime behind the scenes to pull things together as quickly as possible.

One group that has a huge assignment in front of them are the folks responsible for painting the newly combined fleet. Not only does every single plane need a little exterior refurbishment, but there’s still some old planes with the even older United livery still hanging out. They'll need an extra coat or two. At least the existing Continental fleet is pretty uniform at this point.

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Continental Airlines to Get New In-Flight Food Options Next Week

Despite having a lot of behind the scenes work to do involving their merger with United, it seems that Continental still has some time to work on some of their in-flight offerings. After announcing that free food in the back of the plane was going the way of the dinosaurs earlier this year, the airline has revealed their new economy dining options. Of course these will cost you a few bucks, but we’d gladly spend a couple dollars if it’s for something tasty.

As of October 12, the menu will be changing, at least for domestic flights. Don’t worry, they won’t pull a US Airways—drinks will still be free. Some of the new dining options include an Asian noodle salad and a grilled chicken spinach salad. For those that aren’t fans of roughage in their in-flight meal there will also be Angus cheeseburgers, but unfortunately we’re thinking that there won’t be any fries.

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Say Goodbye to Continental, Because Today Is Its Last Day (Kinda)

Fans of Continental Airlines better start stealing in-flight magazines, safety cards, and cocktail napkins, as today is the last day that the airline will be flying before its pending merger with United. There’s still a lot to be done before the two airlines become one in many ways, but October 1 is the day when Continental and United technically merge into one big happy family.

Things will remain business as usual for flights on each airline for now, but head honchos—like new CEO Jeff Smisek—will be filling banker boxes and heading to the United HQ in Chicago. That means a lot of available cubicles and corner offices in Houston could be on the market sometime soon.

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