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What's Up with the Oneworld Alliance in 2012

After a challenging year for some of the founding members of the Oneworld alliance, 2012 will surely be brighter. In 2011, the alliance saw American Airlines file for bankruptcy and Qantas' chief grounding the entire network to challenge labor disputes, plus Iberia closing out the year with rounds of employee strikes.

There were some shining stars, however, with the finalization of International Airline Group (the conglomerate that combines British Airways and Iberia), Cathay Pacific offering overhauled cabins and in-flight amenities, and Japan Airlines emerging from bankruptcy stronger and more stable.

As we get going with 2012, we can't help but notice the huge changes happening amongst these airline buddies. Oneworld is the world's smallest of the major airline alliances, yet consistently hits the high marks in passenger ratings. With the addition of 3 new carriers, Oneworld will gain a fighting chance to excel in years to come. Here's what's happening meanwhile:

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AirAsia / Malaysia Travel / Airline Industry / Caterham Jet / RedQ / New Airlines / Airline News / Airlines / → All Tags

AirAsia Boss Launching Another Malaysian Airline, for Some Reason

Demonstrating impressive complete disregard for the liklihood of a global financial meltdown, AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes is launching a premium Malaysian airline to run shuttles between Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jakarta and Singapore.

Dubbed Caterham Jet, the regional airline will cater to business executives rich enough to pay for ultra-premium flights but not so rich that they have access to private jets. We're presuming people like that exist, but it seems like kind of a specialized demographic. Even worse, it's the exact demographic that Qantas is already targeting with their new RedQ airline.

Global economic retraction plus niche customer base plus direct competition from Qantas equals...no way this works, right? We're quite sure they had focus groups and market studies and everything, but this just doesn't sound like the kind of thing that would work.

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Traveling With Children / Baby Travel / Malaysia Airlines / A380 / Travel Bans / Malaysia Travel / First Class Travel / → All Tags

Flying First Class on Malaysia Airlines Isn't for Cry Babies. Literally.

Forget strangers who nap on your shoulder, clip their toenails in the aisle or talk to you straight through the flight; the universal worst seatmate a flyer could (not) hope for is a crying baby in their ear. Don't get us wrong as we love babies, just not when we've paid good money to get to where we're going in one piece and in peace.

As you can imagine, the frustrations are magnified when noisy babies are brought into the higher priced Business and First Class cabins. Oftentimes travelers choose to pay the premium cost for the premium benefit of sitting in a quieter cabin, in more spacious seats, and maybe getting sleep to adjust to time zones or prepare for a stressful day. And then a baby cries and what's the point anymore?

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iPad / Apple / Technology / Travel Gadgets / Travel Tech / Malaysia Travel / Malaysia Airlines / → All Tags

Malaysia Airlines Boots Up First iPad Ticket Kiosks

A different sort of iPad kiosk being tested

Are you one of the almost 3 million people who have purchased Apple's new iPad? We already know that Australia's low-cost airline Jetstar is, since they'll be the first airline to bring the gadgets onboard as in-flight entertainment next month. But now Malaysia Airlines is also getting in on the game by becoming the first carrier to use iPads as kiosks for selling tickets.

If you're in Kuala Lumpur say, and you'd like to buy yourself a Malaysia Airlines ticket and you'd prefer to drop by their offices to do so, you'll now find the new "iPad MHkiosks" there, which ask you to select your itinerary and pay with a credit card. You'll then immediately receive confirmation via SMS and email. The kiosk eliminate any need to print tickets and you steer clear of having to pay an admin fee, such as you would pay using one of their agents.

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Amazing Race / Television Travel / TV Travel / Malaysia Travel / → All Tags

Amazing Race's Sixteenth Season Will Premiere On February 14

Here we go again—and we say that with a smile, since we're talking about the sixteenth season of Amazing Race, which premieres quite soon, on Sunday February 14th at 8pm EST.

It feels like only yesterday that we concluded our "Chasing Racers" map that followed Amazing Race 15's teams around the globe, as we've done every season, but then it still feels like yesterday that we watched the adrenaline-heavy finale to the very first season.

Who will be this season's backstabbing villains and who will be the cute couple whose mantra is "you can do this, baby! I love you!" We still have to wait and see, but already there's a spoiler on the web from when a traveler spotted the pairs on the road, filming.

SPOILER ALERT, after the jump

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Volunteer Travel / Television Travel / Malaysia Travel / → All Tags

Take A Killer Volunteer Vacation To Malaysia, 'Dexter'-Style

If you were following Dexter this season, you know that the Trinity Killer (John Lithgow) cemented his youngest victims into new construction for Four Walls, a fictional charity that built homes for the needy. In the end, Dexter took care of Trinity, but there are still plenty of people in the real world who need a home, and its Habitat for Humanity who is helping them.

Habitat for Humanity has several volunteer opportunities available in local communities and at build sites across the globe. One of them, the Global Village Program, lets volunteers experience another culture while making a difference in the lives of others.

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Air Asia / Asia Travel / Airlines / Airline News / Travel Advertising / Malaysia Travel / LCCs / → All Tags

Air Asia Is Very Good At Being Young, Hip, Relevant

From putting up a million free tickets to giving lifetime travel to babies born on their planes, Air Asia has developed a reputation for quirky and consistent customer service. Their 8th anniversary sale, which continues through Sunday, has also been getting some pretty good attention. Now the Malaysian LCC's reputation has been confirmed in the form of a Brand Of The Year award from Media Agency awards in Singapore. It turns out that branding matters!

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Free Stuff / Air Asia / Air Asia X / Asia Travel / Airfare Deals / Malaysia Travel / → All Tags

Air Asia Just Put A Million Free Tickets Up For Grabs

Remember when Ryanair threw a hissy fit about bad coverage and "retaliated" by giving away over a million free seats? This new deal from low-cost carrier AsiaAir has going is just like that, rounded down a few thousand seats. Except this the deal opens up a huge vacation window next summer. And it covers over 70 destinations in China, India, Taiwan, Indonesia and Thailand. And you don't have to fly on Ryanair. All things that we are very, very in favor of, but let's hear what they have to say:

AirAsia’s regional commercial head Kathleen Tan said when the economy was tough, people looked for traveling options that offered them better value for money. 'With no fuel surcharge and administration fee, this deal offers fantastic value to our guests'...she said to complement the free flights, AirAsia’s one-stop travel portal was also offering deals and packages including “free rooms” in more than 180 Asia-Pacific hotels online.

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Malaysia Travel / Air Asia X / Lonely Planet / → All Tags

Malaysia's Diversity Puts It Into Lonely Planet's Top 10 Destinations For 2010

The latest list for 2010 travel trends put out by the Lonely Planet people says something we've been saying for ages: Malaysia is hot.

With budget long-haul carrier Air Asia X turning Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur into a hub that's easy and cheap to get to from pretty much everywhere, we knew it wouldn't be long before people woke up to all the great experiences they can find in Malaysia itself.

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Food Travel / Malaysia Travel / Indonesia Travel / → All Tags

New Red Durians In Malaysia, But Same Old Smell

If you've ever smelled the supremely unpleasant odor of a durian fruit, you'll understand why we've never been brave enough to try one. This spiky, malodorous fruit comes from Malaysia and Indonesia, and while many people have assured us the flesh tastes heavenly, we've just never got past the smell.

But durians are ready for the eating in Malaysia right now, and there's even a new durian trend this season: the red flesh durian. Found growing wild in the jungles in the state of Sabah, they say that the flesh is drier than a regular durian, and the taste is a little sourer, but it's gaining popularity with tourists because of its bright red flesh.

The bonus is that at the moment, the red durian is still a lot cheaper than a regular durian. Only problem for us is that it wasn't the price or the color that was putting us off before. The bad smell, apparently, remains.

Related Stories:
· Unique Red Durian Making Heads Turn [The Star]
· Eight Minutes of Durian [Jaunted]
· Durian Cupcakes Are The New Pot Brownies [Jaunted]

[Photo: The Star]

Jaunted Interviews / Tony Fernandes / Kuala Lumpur Travel / Malaysia Travel / Air Asia X / OAK / Air Asia / LCCs / Airline News / → All Tags

Talking With Air Asia's CEO Tony Fernandes About US Plans

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...

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Malaysia's Former Prime Minister Learns to Blog

The last we heard about the Malaysian prime minister, it was 2002 and he was the target of a murder plot arranged by the evil fashion designer Mugatu and nearly carried out by the loveable egomaniac Zoolander.

Now, we hear that the real-life guy is no pawn. If our mom's Facebook account and our grandfather's online dating habits aren't disturbing enough, we find out that former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is the hottest blogger in Malaysia. The 83-year-old Mohamad served as prime minister for 22 years until 2003. Interestingly, he uses the forum to express outrage for the press controls he implemented.

Posts range from wishing Hindus a Happy Deepavali from he and his wife to missives about why the current weak government will lead to the country's collapse. Old people, they'll say anything.

Related Stories:
· Mohamad's Blog [Official Site]
· Ex-leader Uses Blog to Needle Malaysia Government [IHT]