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Travel Contests / Nerd Travel / VegasChatter / CES / Virgin America / Las Vegas Travel / → All Tags

Stalk VegasChatter at CES in Las Vegas Today to Win Virgin America Tickets

Raise your hand if you're in Las Vegas right now for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) (or the Adult Entertainment Expo (AVN/AEE) too, we guess). Or rather—don't raise your hand, but lace up your running shoes since VegasChatter is giving away 2 free round-trip tickets on Virgin America to whoever finds them at CES, TODAY.

Here's the deal: follow @VegasChatter on Twitter to find our writer's whereabouts. If you see him (he'll be wearing the VegasChatter logo somewhere and will update his location frequently), snap a pic and post it to VegasChatter's Facebook page. Hey, it's CES, so you're probably down for some social media mixing, right?

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Airlines / Delta / Jetblue / Alaska Airlines / American Airlines / United Airlines / Virgin America / Nerd Travel / Airline Routes / → All Tags

From the 'Nerd Bird' to the 'Barbie Bird': The Best Airline Route Nicknames

Spring is definitely here, so we thought we’d do a little "bird" watching. Sure nature is great and all, but we wanted to focus more on some of the bigger options in the sky. Check out some of the "bird" airline routes we found while doing a little research, and let us know if you have any more!

· Barbie Bird
If you’re looking for the ladies, this is the route where you’ll find them. This route usually connects Los Angeles to San Francisco and its outlying areas. There are often models, actresses, and wannabes commuting back and forth for that dream opportunity or just to serve as a booth babe at a trade show—whatever pays the bills that week. United and American Airlines are the two main carriers from LAX to SFO, and they both have several flights throughout the day. Virgin America does the trip as well, and since they are little trendier, they might be the new pick for this trip.

Headshots are a must on this flight, and it’s important to be dressed in something a little more formal than sweatpants and a hoodie. There’s always the chance that some hotshot could be looking for the next big thing. Just don’t get too excited, because that next great opportunity is probably just another flight on the Barbie Bird to another trade show.

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American Airlines / Airline News / Nerd Travel / Austin Travel / → All Tags

Austin Nerds May No Longer Know The Way To San Jose

Since 1992 American Airlines has been shuttling smarty pants Silicon Valley workers between San Jose and Austin. However, due to the overall decline in travel the so-called “Nerd Bird” route is coming to an end. American plans to shut down the two daily non-stop flights effective August 25.

For those that use this route and love American Airlines, you’ll still be able to get between the two cities. Moving forward, you’ll just be forced to spend a little bit of extra time connecting somewhere like Dallas-Ft. Worth.

If you enjoy a little rental car fun, you can always fly into Oakland or San Francisco and drive yourself up to Silicon Valley. We’re thinking that the displaced nerds will start filling up the Austin to San Francisco flights on JetBlue; after all, they’ve got the SciFi channel.

Related Stories:
·American Ending "Nerd Bird" Nonstops To Silicon Valley [Austin American-Statesman]
·American Airlines Will Soon Only Accept Cold, Hard Credit Cards [Jaunted]
·Airline News coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: caribb]

Humor / Nerd Travel / → All Tags

From the Travel Hippie to the Super Technical Gear Guy: What Kind of Traveler Are You?

We all think we're unique and special, and maybe we are, when we're among our own people. But once we're out of our element, it's awfully easy to fall into a stereotype. Travel blogger David Garrett Byars was recently reflecting on the different people he's met while backpacking the world, and came up with a humorous list of the five types of travelers you're likely to encounter (or be) when you hit the road. Take The Expert, for example. He's the guy who "sipped hot green tea from the cupped hands of the Dalai Lama" and "has no friends because no one can really relate to him on his level because of the deep and meaningful experiences he has had." Yeah, I've met that guy. I might add that he'll always find a way to insult whatever guidebook you're using, because it's just so commercialized and shallow compared with the ancient papyrus scrolls he consults for wisdom. Then there's the Travel Hippie, who will recoil in horror if you order animal flesh at a restaurant, but secretly "doesn’t even like Phish and can only name two Grateful Dead songs." My favorite: Super Technical Gear Guy (pictured), whose clothing "conveys the sense that he just traversed the Sahara Desert strapped to the top of a Land Rover." So what kind of traveler are you? Possibly a little bit of each. There's a piece of Super Technical Gear Guy in all of us.

[Photo: David Garrett Byars]

Related Stories:
· Variety is the Spice of Life [davidgarrettbyars.com]
· Humor Coverage [Jaunted]

Embedded Travel Guides / Japan Travel / Shopping / Nerd Travel / Osaka Travel Guide / Osaka-Embed-Map / → All Tags

Jaunted Embedded Travel Guides: Osaka Can't Stop Shopping

Embedded Travel Guides: We are searching the world for folks who can take you on a field trip of their "backyard." When we find these folks, we then stealthy embed them into their local travel scene and ask them to be our eyes and ears out in the field.

We are expecting the same sort of grainy video, choppy sentences and snapshot photos that you are use to seeing from other sorts of embeds. At the end of the day we should be left with a backyard travel guidebook like no other.

Our man in Osaka is AJ McGuire, and, wow, does he have stories to tell.

I hate to traffic in stereotypes but it doesn't take much hanging around to figure out that the Japanese are pretty gung-ho Born to Shop. Name an object, and you can get the Louis Vuitton version somewhere in Osaka, customized, off the rack or knock off. Just like you can't go ten feet in this town without someone offering you some kind of prepared squid, there is literally nowhere without shopping.

Now I'm the kind of guy who wears the same dumb pair of jeans every day of the year so all this means very little to me. However, all trips involve the inevitable phase of collecting souvenirs to placate those you ditched back home for your trip. For them, I've picked out the three best ways to dump your tourist dollars into the Japanese economy.

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