Jaunted

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New Planes and New Seats Making Southwest Feel So Fresh, So Clean for 2012

We were just talking about Southwest Airlines and their plans to “evolve” their planes with new seats, and now it looks like the carrier is already prepared to go all-in. Southwest is starting to get those fresh birds, and they’re shifting around the schedule here and there to make room for the increased seats and different configurations.

They’re pretty excited about that this evolve-o-lution, but we kind of wonder how our knees will feel about all these changes.

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Five Favorite Airline In-Flight Snacks and Where to Buy Them

Free airline snacks are far and few between but there are some so good, we don’t want to wait for another flight to taste them again. Luckily, we’ve done some sleuthing and found our favorites in grocery stores and specialty shops around the country. Found your favorite in-flight goodie on the road? Let us know!

· Constant Craving: Biscoff Cookies
Delta Airlines has raised the hackles of many a customer, but you’ll find few willing to complain about the sweet, crunchy, cinnamony goodness of the Biscoff cookie. We were thrilled to find them in our cookie aisle, but even better? The new Biscoff spread made up of 50% of Biscoff cookies. There’s even a new crunchy version with chunks of cookies in it (swoon!). We’ve tossed aside our peanut butter and Nutella with scorn and slathered this goodness on everything from toast to English muffins. Yeah, it’s a problem.

Where to Get ‘Em: The cookies have been spotted in Walgreens, Ralphs, and even Walmart, but the spread can be found in the peanut butter section in stores like Shop Rite, Kroger, Hannaford, Wegmans, and even on Amazon.com.

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Less Legroom and Recline Arriving with Southwest Airlines' New EVOLVE Interior

They’re moving full speed ahead with their acquisition of AirTran, but Southwest Airlines still has plenty of time to dedicate to other changes and improvements. Their latest announcement has everything to do with seats, as they’re planning to tear out some interiors in favor of new and shiny upgrades.

The bottom line is they’re adding more seats which weigh less, boosting revenue by packing passengers and spending less airplane gas to get them to their final destination. However, Southwest says that the new seats are an upgrade for passengers as well, even though there’s technically going to be a little less room for your legs, knees, and feet.

The pitch on the new seats is dropping by an inch or so and there’s also less recline. The new seats will lean back about one inch less than they do now, but Southwest insists that you won’t even notice because of the new seat layout—we’ll have to see this for ourselves.

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Is This the Most Spectacular Flight in the USA?

A snow-covered part of the Grand Canyon

”Why are you flying to Albuquerque?” were the words on most people’s lips last week when we told them we were cutting short a trip to Vegas to hit New Mexico.

Why Albuquerque? Well, to start with, for the flight—one of the most spectacular ones we’ve ever been on.

From Las Vegas to Albuquerque we were looking south, and got a prime view of the snow-covered high desert, mountains and miniscule trees poking out of the snow. All very beautiful, except we heard the pilot announce that “on the left, you’ll see the Grand Canyon.”

So on the way back, we swapped sides to face north, and were greeted by snow-covered mountains, snow-covered plains…and then, yeah, the Grand Canyon. We flew pretty much all the way along the Grand Canyon—from 40,000 feet we picked out the famous South Rim, less famous North Rim and, we think, possibly the West Rim, too (though we didn’t see the Skywalk).

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Six Airfare Sales That Started Today

You know what they say about the best days to book airfares, right? That the magical weekdays are Tuesdays and Wednesdays for deals...but those are also the best days to fly on cheap rates, too. Now that the winter holidays are over, airlines have rolled out massive fare sales for travel that, in some cases, goes all the way through the end of spring.

There's 6 sales we think are worthy today. 5 are from the US, and one is from the UK. GET ON IT:

· AirTran sale
(Book by Thursday, January 6 for travel on Tuesdays & Wednesdays through May 15, 2011)
Sample fares (not including taxes & fees):
New York-LGA to Orlando $86 each way
Chicago-Midway to Atlanta $89 each way
Los Angeles-LAX to Fort Lauderdale: $129 each way
Baltimore-BWI to Key West: $126 each way

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Airlines and Travel Brands to Follow Right Now on Instagram

And just like that, social photo sharing app Instagram is super hot. Sure it's only just celebrated its one-year anniversary as an iPhone app, but recent contests and exposure given to it by brands and influential figures in social media have pushed it over the edge. Heck, we jumped in head first! And we're freaking loving it. (Follow us by searching "jaunted" & "hotelchatter" in the app).

It's not just people posting images of their kids eating birthday cake or close-ups of kitty paws, either; Instagram seems to be spreading most rapidly among those interested in design, architecture, analogue photography, nature and—of course—the rest of the world. This is where travel images enter the game, and the airlines are paying attention.

We ran a fine-toothed comb through Instagram to find the airlines you need to follow now, and who else to watch:

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Southwest Airlines Gets a New Reality TV Show in 2012, Just Like Snooki

If you're passing through concourse A or B at Baltimore/Washington International Airport this week, you may find yourself in front of a camera crew.

TLC is expected to begin filming a new untitled TV show about the inner workings of BWI's largest carrier, Southwest, today. The new series will follow BWI's expansion and the day-to-day drama that happens behind the scenes at Southwest.

"It's a good opportunity to showcase BWI and the region," said Jonathan Dean, airport spokesman. "With BWI as one of Southwest's largest markets, it makes sense to shoot it here," he added.

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AirTran Adopting Southwest's Weigh More, Pay More Guidelines

Southwest's infamous "customers of size" policy—where if you need a seat and a half you have to purchase two seats—was the cause of one of the airline world's most notorious social media disasters. So naturally Southwest is having its recently purchased airline AirTran adopt the exact same set of guidelines, because that's one of the ways they keep down costs. Another way was described a few months ago in an Associated Press article headlined "US airlines make money again by flying less," which doesn't really have anything to do with this post but is obnoxious enough to be worth mentioning.

In any case, AirTran will implement the new policy starting March 1 of 2012. Following Southwest's lead, if a customer can't lower their armrest they have to purchase two seats. If two seats aren't available on a particular flight, other arrangements will presumably be made, almost certainly combining the usual "you need to get off this plane" humiliation and the "we'll get you on a later flight with more seats" reassurance. As with Southwest, a passenger on a below-capacity flight can request a refund for the second seat's cost.

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Southwest, Delta and Wizz Air Bring Just 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 started their very first flights to and from Atlanta yet, but it looks like Southwest Airlines is already planning even more flights out of one of the world’s busiest airports. The new flights are scheduled to Las Vegas and Phoenix, and if everything goes as planned the nonstop options will be effective as of March 10. Even though they’re busy merging, it sounds like AirTran will continue to offer its flights to Phoenix and Vegas as well. So if Delta isn’t your preferred carrier—or they’re charging too darn much—just take a look at fares from the Southwest family.

· Delta:
Toronto’s always a good place to visit, eh? That must be why Delta is adding some new flights between TO and Boston as of November. The new flights will run each day of the week a couple times per day, and you might actually be able to score some cheap seats. That’s because there’s plenty of competition on this route including several daily options from Air Canada, as well as a few options from Porter Airlines—although Porter flies to and from Toronto’s City Airport. We’ll see how it does, but another international option is always a good thing.

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Virgin Atlantic, JetBlue and United Airlines Announce New Routes to Warm Destinations

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.

· Virgin Atlantic:
Unfortunately we’ll be waiting a little bit for this new route to take flight, but we’re still pretty excited that Virgin Atlantic is looking to head into Mexico. The new option will link London with Cancun, and this will be the airline’s 33rd destination around the globe. Things are scheduled to start up on June 12 of 2012, and the new flights will run just two times per week. They’ll be using Boeing 747s to get the job done on this new route, and they’re planning on splitting things into three different cabins—start saving up your pence for a chance to ride in one of the upper class suites.

· Southwest Airlines:
They’re busy gobbling up AirTran, but that doesn’t mean that Southwest Airlines doesn’t have a little time to add some new options to its route network. The free checked baggage airline just added three nonstop options into and out of Denver from Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, and Newark-Liberty. None of these cities are new to the Southwest family, but the ability to connect a little closer to the West Coast should improve the trip for those looking to make the journey across the country. After all, one connection is always way better than two.

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Kardashian Man Scott Disick Tried to Bribe Southwest Gate Attendant with $20

Scott Disick, famous for being a guy who knocked up a chick who is the sister of someone who was once in a sex tape, can't quite seem to behave himself in airports. Last year the Keeping Up With The Kardashians reality TV celebrity—and we're using that term loosely—went ballistic and launched into a profanity-laced tirade at MIA after photographers approached him.

In retrospect, that tantrum might end up looking like circumspect decorum, compared with the stratospheric douchebaggery that Disick put on display at a Chicago airport last week.

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Airline Mergers / Southwest / Southwest Airlines / AirTran / Airline News / Travel News / LCCs / → All Tags

All is Well in the World of Airline Mergers; Southwest Moves Forward with Purchase of AirTran

If we learned anything from the Delta-Northwest merger and the United-Continental marriage, it’s that these kinds of things take quite some time. It already seems like years ago since Southwest sent out the surprising news that they’d be gobbling up AirTran to form the world’s biggest and baddest low cost carrier. Well since then it’s been business as usually for both airlines, but recently there was a little progress towards more free bags for the nation’s pack-happy passengers.

The purchase of AirTran—for a cool billion bucks—was completed last week, so now it’s full spread ahead toward one super airline. Unfortunately, full speed ahead still might be a few more years, as some in the industry brainiacs are thinking that AirTran might be doing its own thing well into 2013.

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