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Tags: Thanksgiving Travel / Travelocity / Airport Updates / Twitter / → All Tags

Travelocity Is Live-Tweeting From Airports This Week

For just about all of us, spending 12 hours at the airport during the Thanksgiving rush sounds like punishment for some heinous karmic crime. But for the soldiers at Travelocity, it's just a public service. The Travelocity Thanksgiving Task Force has fanned out across the country to some of America's busiest airports to provide live updates on crowds and delays -- not that there will be any of those this year, right??

Travelocity has 12 airports picked out and one Twitter hashtag (#TravelocityTTF) if you want to give tips to the people stationed on the ground. Naturally, since most people don't travel on Tuesday most of the accounts are pretty calm right now -- in fact, they're having a Thanksgiving joke contest with a gnome in the offing.

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Tags: Travel Websites / Expedia / Orbitz / Travelocity / Fees / Car Rentals / Airlines / Airline News / Travel News / → All Tags

Expedia Shocks Travel Industry And Customers, Actually Lowers Fees

Expedia just announced they're waiving their $20 fee for the 7% of Americans who book their itineraries over the phone, establishing themselves in a niche and sticking a finger in the eyes of competitors. Airline centers mostly charge $5-$35 for telephone bookings—Southwest is the only exception—while Orbitz and Travelocity charge $25 per ticket. Priceline doesn't even offer that option.

This won't be much use to us, since our calls to booking agents are limited to rants about the impossibility of reserving rewards travel these days. But Expedia had already eliminated flight booking fees online, and it's nice to see anyone cutting any fee for any reason, no matter how marginal or symbolic the gesture:

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Tags: Travel Advertising / Kayak / Travelocity / Travel Booking Sites / Travel Ads / Travel Websites / → All Tags

Kayak Launches Massive Old-Fashioned Ad Blitz

You'd think the recession would have catapulted price comparison engine Kayak.com into universal traveler awareness. The company's internal figures, though, tell a different story. Less than 1/3 of the more than 100 million Americans who use travel booking sites know about Kayak. Even less are able to differentiate Kayak from similar-on-first-look but significantly different competitors like Expedia. In a move that's bound to raise eyebrows in the travel industry and among travel advertisers, the company is shifting their resources into a massive offline ad campaign.

The new ad blitz was launched over the weekend and is set to blanket primetime cable through 2010. CNN, ESPN, and MSNBC have all been selected as venues, presumably on numbers promising that most coveted of travel industry demographics: 25-44 year olds with disposable income. Forbes.com has a full writeup on the campaign, including a description of one of the "witty 30 second spots":

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Tags: 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]

Tags: Business Travel / Mixed Messages / Travelocity / Disney / Recession Travel / → All Tags

Clear as Mud: Business Travel is Totally Cool, Except for When it Isn't

After laying low for a while, the business travel industry is pushing back against critics who claim that first-class seats and lavish retreats aren't appropriate in the current economic environment. Insurance company AIG came under fire last October for sending executives on a week-long retreat at a luxury resort and spa shortly after receiving relief funds, while auto executives were ridiculed for flying their private jets to Washington for the bailout hearings. With so many people in dire economic straits, it seems tacky for companies to flaunt their wealth these days, but is it fair to single out business travel as an unjustifiable expense? Or is it a cost of doing business that helps the economy as well?

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Tags: Rental Cars / Travelocity / Travel Gadgets / → All Tags

Fear No More Change-less Rental Car Drivers

We were in California last summer looking for cheap gas at Costco somewhere in Orange County, when we quickly took the wrong exit and became stuck at a change only toll both with absolutely no change. Thankfully, someone took us up on our dollar bill for a quarter trade, otherwise we’d still be stuck there.

No need to worry any longer, as problems like this are soon about to fade into memory thanks to Travelocity. The travel search people are beginning to offer a fancy new option for car renters that want to take advantage of electronic toll plazas.

It’s a pretty slick idea and you’ll be able to add the feature when you book your car through Travelocity. You book your rental beauty, get a special in-car toll payment device in the mail, have a good vacation, and then mail back the toll payment thing. You’ll pay $1.99 each day for the TravelPass, and all the tolls will be billed to your credit card once you’ve mailed the sucker back to them.

Currently, the TravelPass will work with E-ZPass and I-PASS in the Northeast and Midwest. However, the Highway Toll Administration--this is their bread and butter--reports that could change, so we’d expect to see it at a toll plaza near you soon.

Related Stories:
·Travelocity To Mail Toll Tags To Car Renters [Travel Weekly]
·Five Humiliating Rental Cars To Ruin Your Vacation [Jaunted]

[Photo: pylbug]

Tags: Thanksgiving / Travelocity / Travel Media / → All Tags

Travelocity Hides Rising Prices With Fancy Words

Guess who's coming to dinner: Maybe not your relatives! A Travelocity survey released Thursday trumpets the fact that Thanksgiving weekend fares are going down, but really--who are they kidding?

With holiday weekend travel expected to drop in the face of the R-Word, the airlines would do well to lower fares before the big day gets here. But the big news, according to Travelocity? Fares are "only" up 9 percent over last year--though with a checked bag fee, it's more like 15 percent. (And that's without paper ticketing fees, phone reservation fees, change fees... or drinks if you're unlucky enough to be flying US Air.)

So do we strap ourselves in and buy Thanksgiving tickets early on November 22, in the classic low-fare hour? What, and get stuck in middle seats all the way to Fargo? No thanks. Don't count on the major carriers to lower fares by much more; besides, with some 3,000 flights cut, there's no guarantee those seats will be there.

Whether you're already booked or planning to staycate, Jaunted promises to improve on your holiday without confusing "down" for "up." But for now we ask: What are your plans for Thanksgiving this year?

Related Stories:
· Save On Airline Tickets, Shop On Saturday Morning [Consumerist]
· Thanksgiving coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: osheas]