Jaunted

Hertz / Cars / Rental Cars / Travel Deals / Travel Promotions / → All Tags

Hertz Will Match Any Rental Car Rate All This Month

Hertz doesn’t want to play second fiddle to any other rental car company, so this month they're offering up the Hertz Ultimate Experience Challenge. They’re hoping that you’ll ditch your preferred rental car company once you see the true awesomeness that is Hertz. Even though OJ loves Hertz, we’ve had some Toyota Corolla duds, but we’ll still give them a second chance.

In order to prove that they are the best rental car company in town they’ll gladly match any competitor’s rate. No big deal, right? Well, the cool part is that you don’t need to do anything in advance. Just bring your existing rental reservation right to the Hertz counter and they will match whatever rate you were able to score with Avis, National, Budget, or pretty much any other company.

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Cartoon Travel / WestJet / Airlines / Airline News / Disney / Disneyland / Walt Disney World / Theme Parks / Travel Promotions / → All Tags

Mickey Mouse Flies WestJet This Month

If you’re looking to head down to visit Mickey and friends this month, you might want to think about hitching a ride with WestJet.

The airline that goes everywhere and anywhere within Canada is also pretty good about getting people to Orlando and Southern California, and they are planning something pretty special for those heading to Walt Disney World and Disneyland.

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Gowalla / Foursquare / Technology / Social Media / Hotels / Travel Promotions / → All Tags

Gowalla Tries Its Hand at Travel Partnerships

If Pennsylvania is hoping to use Fourquare to tell you about all the good stuff that the state has to offer, the InterContinental Hotels Group has a more direct approach. The international hotel chain, by room count the world's absolute largest, is partnering with location-based social network GoWalla to offer rewards to customers who check in this summer. The Hit It Big promotion promises rewards such as retail gift cards and double air miles to guests who stay multiple nights at participating IHG hotels between now and Aug. 31, 2010, including up to $500 in gift cards. (HotelChatter however was not impressed.)

In certain ways all location-based networks have to do with travel, since users go places and check in. But recently Gowalla has been emphasizing not just travel but entire trips and tours. They recently revamped their website and expanded their Trips section, offering users the ability to create de facto guidebooks. They've partnered with National Geographic and the Washington Post to create actual guidebooks - technically branded tours - where National Geographic created 15 walking tours and the Washington Post posted a guide to DC. Taken with this IHG announcement, it seems like Gowalla is ready to move beyond being just a location based game.

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Gnome Travel / Travelocity / Travel Promotions / DC / Boston / Philadelphia / → All Tags

Tell the Travelocity Gnome Where to Roam Next

Travelocity’s cuddly/creepy garden gnome mascot is ready to hit the road again, and the travel website is asking fans to vote on where he should head next.

After hitting up Vegas (thanks to some voting from the crew over at Vegas Chatter!), the gnome jaunted down the west coast, hitting up Sedona and Arizona, but now he’s swinging back east. Thus, Travelocity has delved into the eternal Northeast travel battle: which city (after New York of course) is most worth a visit? Visitors to the gnome’s website are asked whether he should visit Boston, Philadelphia, or DC.

And so far, DC’s rumored Obama-era coolness is nowhere to be seen, as the district (14%) is lagging far behind Boston (46%) and Philly (40%). Cast your vote over at the gnome's website, and follow his travels—where else?—on twitter.

Related Stories:
· Pick the Roaming Gnome’s Next Adventure [Travelocity]
· Travelocity Hides Rising Prices With Fancy Words [Jaunted]
· Tell Travelocity's Roaming Gnome To Come To Vegas, Baby, Vegas [Vegas Chatter]

[Photo: Travelocity]

Travel Promotions / Shopping Travel / Italy Travel / → All Tags

Talk About 'Free Gift With Purchase': Buy A Ring, Get A Trip To Italy

When you do a little upscale shopping, it's not unusual to receive perks like discounts or free totes, but to get an entire Italian vacation with purchase? That's crazy—or rather, that's what's necessary in this economy to sell flashy jewelry.

This is exactly the plan of ritzy Italian jewelry company Damiani, who, having just released their "Gomitolo" collection of rings, are rewarding buyers with round-trip airfare and a week’s hotel in any Italian city. LA Magazine points out that despite the super glam look of the rings above, it's not such a bad deal since the pieces begin at $7,700. Such a trip to Italy, depending on your level of hotel and which airline booked, could easily cost the same or more.

You'd also think that if someone is buying one these rings, that they'd be used to 5-star accommodations, so Damiani better pony up the good stuff when it comes to this gift with purchase. There's one thing they've neglected to address however, and that's if there's a limit. Let's hope so, for the sake of people's bank accounts.

Related Stories:
· Free Gift With Purchase [LAMag]
· Shopping Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: FashionandRunway]

British Airways / Airline News / Travel Promotions / London / → All Tags

Hop a Free London Cab with British Airways, But It'll Cost Ya

Not content with having four separate classes of service aboard their planes, the focus on hierarchy continues at British Airways with their new complimentary London taxi service from Terminal 5.

From May 18 on through August 15, passengers on BA who arrive in London on a First Class or Club World Business Class ticket are eligible for totally free transfers in a classic black cab within 100 miles of the airport. Perhaps you can make sense of this offer, because we are unable to fathom why, when a First or Business Class passenger can easily furnish their own luxury transportation without batting an eye, BA would want to put them into a taxi.

Perhaps this would work better for those who have sprung for full-fare, or Y-class, economy tickets, since they might not be upgraded and may have to endure a transatlantic flight squashed in with other who paid half their fare and want to spend all seven hours bragging about that fact. A free taxi would help ease the annoyance and give them a taste of what it would be like to travel in Club World. But whatever—we're not about to tell British Airways what to do; we just hope they feel proud of all those empty cabs.

Related Stories:
· Enjoy a Complimentary Taxi Service [British Airways]
· British Airways Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: a_trotskyites]

Memorial Day Travel / Travel Promotions / Barbados / Caribbean Travel / Island Travel / → All Tags

Barbados Will Be Sunny and Warm, Or Your Money Back

Are you whacking your desk repeatedly with a pen because of anxiety over Memorial Day travel plans? Good; it's nice to know we're not the only ones. To relieve the stress of finding a great spring getaway for a long weekend, which will also have amazing weather during your visit, Barbados has introduced a "Perfect Weather Guarantee."

Say you book the $549 airfare + hotel + breakfast deal on CheapCaribbean.com, only to arrive to Barbados during an unexpected rainstorm. If that rain accumulates to over a quarter of an inch, and the temperature falls below 78 degrees, you'll be entitled to a $100 per bad weather day rebate.

It's free to enroll on the Perfect Weather Guarantee website, just be sure to do so before June 7 for travel between May 28th and December 18th, 2009. This might not include Memorial Day Weekend, but booking through CheapCaribbean comes with the very same deal valid now, just that they call it "SPF100 Protection." It'll be nice to let someone else worry about the weather for once.

Related Stories:
· Barbados Perfect Weather [Official Site]
· Barbados Issues 'Perfect Weather' Guarantee [Luxist]
· Flysteady Mon: Jetblue Adding Routes to Barbados, Jamaica [Jaunted]
· Baggage Fees Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Paranoid Black Jack]

Travel Promotions / Travel + Leisure / Cathay Pacific / Travel Magazines / → All Tags

Cathay Pacific Believes in Print Media

Do you still enjoy the feel of a glossy mag when it comes to feeding your travel daydreams? One of our favorite airlines, Cathay Pacific, obviously agrees because they've set up a partnership with Travel + Leisure. The tempting deal, to throw in a free one-year subscription to T+L for every traveler who books a flight online through Cathay Pacific's US website, is like getting a gift with purchase.

Now we're definitely fans of Cathay, and sure don't mind T&L either, but we're not 100% sure that a free mag would be a deciding factor for making an airline booking these days. The fine print states that the deal gives you 12 issues of T+L valued at $12 each, so that's $144.

In the meantime we're thinking, hey—there's a financial crisis going on here, wouldn't we like to pocket at least a hundred bucks of that instead, and just get our travel tips and info online?

Anyhow, if you find yourself having to book a ticket anyways, then be sure to book before June 20 for the subscription deal. Unfortunately it's only available for those in the United States or Canada, not to mention that the flight you book must depart from this hemisphere too.

Related Stories:
· Travel + Leisure Coverage [Jaunted]
· Cathay Pacific Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: superciliousness]

Travel Promotions / Alcohol / Vodka Travel / → All Tags

Vodka and Vietnam Go on VaKAItion

KAI Vodka is the world’s only premium vodka made from rice, so it’s fitting that the company is hosting several package trips to Vietnam, where they have been making vodka for over 600 years. Take that, Russia!

The KAI Exotic Vietnam Adventure (KEVA for short) is a custom-packaged deal that plans out eight to 14 days in Vietnam, stopping in at major cities and scenic spots.

The 8-day package starts at $2,649 per person, and includes roundtrip airfare from Los Angeles or San Francisco on Cathay Pacific Airways, hotel accommodations, tours of Hanoi and Saigon, as well as a cruise of Halong Bay--you know, that huge bay with all the jungle-like monolithic rocks, unspoiled beaches, and vine-covered cliffs. Think Catherine Deneuve in Indochine.

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