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New Routes from British Airways, United, and Air Berlin Get You Where You Want to Be

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.

· British Airways:
It seems like South America is getting more and more attention each year, and now British Airways is getting in on the potential for some business and tourism action. The airline is starting service from London-Heathrow to Buenos Aires beginning March 27 of next year. It seems like they’re still working out the specifics, as we’re not totally sure if this will be a few times a week flight or a daily flight. However, what matters is that there’s easy access from the UK to Argentina.

· US Airways:
We’re sometimes hard on US Airways, but we still get excited when an airline is eager to expand their overseas options. US Airways is launching not one, but two, nonstop international routes from their base in Charlotte beginning next May. There will be daily summer service to Madrid and Dublin. The Dublin flights will run through the end of September, but the Madrid flights will last a little bit longer and won’t end until October 29. If you miss out on the seasonal options there’s always flights from Philadelphia.

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Lost Luggage / US Airways / Gucci / Baggage / Luggage / Fashion Travel / → All Tags

US Airways Loses Luggage Filled with $50,000-Worth of Gucci Heirlooms

Have you had your bag lost by the airlines one too many times? Join the club! It's a club that now includes Giorgio Gucci, heir to the luxury brand Gucci and recent victim of shoddy baggage handling. Gucci flew into Philadelphia from Madrid and continued down to Washington DC a few days ago, in order to appear before Congress during their discussions of counterfeit goods. His baggage didn't follow him. US Airways lost it, but you see this isn't any regular old baggage, it's $50,000-worth of historical Gucci items.

The luggage contents, including Gucci bags handmade by his grandparents, custom suits for his Congressional appearance and hundreds of family photos, were to be used in the filming of a documentary about Gucci's life. We're betting he was traveling with Gucci luggage as well, and perhaps some baggage handler thought the luxury case too delicious to let pass by. As a result of the missing baggage, Giorgio had to rush to buy a cheap suit for his big day at Congress.

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Airline Strikes / Airline Industry / British Airways / Virgin America / US Airways / Europe Travel / Europe / Airline News / → All Tags

'Season of Strikes' About to Hit American and European Airlines

Following up on the weekend strikes in London and Paris, the phrase that the Associated Press is going with this mornning is "season of strikes in Europe." Put bluntly: there's not enough money to go around, and workers aren't going to go to their jobs unless they get more of it. It's not just Greece, although of course it's Greece too. Spain and the Czech Republic are hosed as well, and when you add them to the UK, France, and Italy you start to run out of countries that aren't going broke.

Now this is normally where we'd tell you that bad times overseas equal good travel opportunities from here. The problem is that you actually have to be able to get to those places, and a wave of airline strikes is about to start making that dicey. Virgin Atlantic just narrowly averted a strike, but they're pretty much the only ones. British Airways workers apparently have decided to walk out again, because that's who they are and that's what they do. Meanwhile roughly the entire country of India is facing labor-driven transportation disruptions.

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New Routes and New Options for Fall from US Airways, Air Canada, and More

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.

· Air Canada:
Airlines seem to be pretty eager to land even closer to Tokyo, as this year has brought several new flights into the city’s Haneda Airport. Now Air Canada is getting access to the more convenient airport, as they’re beginning service from Vancouver to Tokyo-Haneda. It will be once a day starting at the end of January, and the flights will go with Boeing 767-300ER jets. A quick look at our guide to in-flight entertainment reveals that the odds for a little seatback television is pretty good, so you won’t get too bored on this long-haul trip.

· US Airways:
If you’re looking to escape the Big Apple with the goal of visiting the country’s most popular national park, US Airways is now here to help you out. They’re starting up twice daily nonstop service from Asheville, North Carolina to New York-LaGuardia Airport, so you can visit Biltmore and Great Smoky Mountains National Park without a connection. Sure it’s not the most exciting global destination, but the Blue Ridge Parkway in the fall is a great alternative to aimlessly driving your Zipcar around New England.

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In-Flight Entertainment / Airlines / Airline News / In-Flight Comfort / In-Flight WiFi / Gogo / Row 44 / Air Canada / AirTran Airways / Alaska Airlines / American Airlines / Continental / Delta / Frontier / Jetblue / Southwest Airlines / Spirit Airlines / United / US Airways / Virgin America / → All Tags

2010 US Airline In-Flight Entertainment Guide

Ten years ago, back when JetBlue launched, In-Flight Entertainment was forever changed. Gone were the days when airline passengers expected screens to drop from the fuselage and play one movie followed by a couple episodes of "Everybody Loves Raymond." Instead, the norm became $99 flights each way between SFO and JFK and on each airplane, leather seats with personal music ports and seat-back TVs showing live satellite television.

Flash forward 10 years and while no airline this side of Virgin America has really been able to come close to JetBlue's LiveTV experience, the IFE gap between Jetblue and the rest of the pack widens, thanks to advances with in-flight wifi. Airlines who've been quick to join the Gogo WiFi party are working to now make internet-connected planes just as accepted and expected by passengers as in-flight TV.

All of this means that, in 2010, the IFE game is changing once again and the race is on to see who can provide the best domestic IFE package. We have packaged up the right now of IFE into a handy guide for you to look at on the web, or take with you.

Click Here to see a printable chart of IFE onboard the airlines

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New Routes / Airlines / Airline News / Frontier / JetBlue / Air Canada / US Airways / Delta / → All Tags

New Route News: Delta, Jetblue, Air Canada and More

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.

· Delta:
New routes are going crazy on Delta as the month of June begins. Their new-from-the-merger hub in Detroit started non-stop service to Hong Kong and Seoul earlier this week. The flights run most days, but you might want to play around with the schedule to ensure you can grab a flight on the day you need to depart.

Delta is also expanding their presence across the Pacific with flights to Beijing and Osaka from Seattle. If you’re cravin’ Asian this summer, you can check out Delta’s information on all the new routes right here.

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Airlines / Airline Industry / Airline News / Summer Travel / American Airlines / Delta / Continental / United / US Airways / Airline Fees / → All Tags

Here Come the Airline Summer Peak Travel Surcharges

Domestic summer travel is beginning to look better and better. First we began learning about the unintended consequences of new tarmac regulations, where airlines intend to order planes back to their gates during thunderstorms to overcompensate for the government's three hour limit. That means more flights canceled more often, with the latest news being that Transportation officials are refusing to grant waivers at even the busiest airports. Now comes the announcement that not only will flights be less reliable, but they're also going to cost more.

FareCompare.com just wrapped up a broad study of summer airline prices. After crunching the numbers, they unpacked how the five legacy carriers—American, Delta, Continental, United and US Airways—are slapping $10 - $30 surcharges on most flights operating this summer. You can expect to see the so-called "peak travel day" fees every day starting June 10, with the only exception being July 4th. That $10 - $30 number, incidentally, is per one-way flight.

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Jaunted Interviews / The Points Guy / Frequent Flyer Programs / Credit Cards / US Airways / Continental / American Airlines / Airline Loyalty Programs / → All Tags

'The Points Guy' Shares His Secrets for Maximum Frequent Flyer Miles

A few weeks ago, we dished over at HotelChatter about our friend Brian Kelly, who successfully made a transition from lowly desk jockey to jetsetting superhero with the Ryan Bingham-esque moniker, The Points Guy. He dished on the best hotel reward points programs, told us which ones to avoid, and shared his favorite tricks for getting suite upgrades.

This week, we queried him on airline loyalty programs to discover his picks of the moment, where he sees the industry trending in general, and what you, the average traveler, can do to fly business class while everyone else is getting stuck in coach. Here’s what he had to say.

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First Class Travel / US Airways / First Class / In-Flight Comfort / Airlines / In-Flight Amenities / → All Tags

Sitting Up Front: The First Class Experience on US Airways

Depending on the type of plane that you board, you either walk right past them all, or you are forced to turn the other way and never even see them. We're talking about the first class or business class seats. The back of the plane is where why find ourselves nine times out of ten, but we can always dream about the promised land. That's why we wanted to share what we know about flying in the front of the plane, and what it takes to get there. Check out what we found:

· How Much Does It Cost?
Despite some of our personal experiences with US Airways, the airline does in fact have some quality service options if you’re willing to shell out the additional cash. Heading out from their hub in Philadelphia to London costs around $3,800. If you would rather stick around in the lower 48, then heading from Charlotte to San Francisco costs around $1,600—which isn’t really that bad compared the options on some other airlines; however, this is still US Airways after all.

More room to stretch your legs after the break...

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Airline Mergers / American Airlines / US Airways / Airline Industry / Airlines / Airline News / → All Tags

American and US Airways Not So Much in a Merger Mood Right Now

After an extensive roundup of expert opinion on the prospects for an airline merger between American Airlines and US Airways, we're ready to declare that either the two airlines will definitely merge lest "bankruptcy and even liquidation [become] not just possible but likely" or that a union "would come as a big surprise" because "officials at American seem disinterested." You can basically pick which one you want at random, since that's what top industry analysts seem to be doing.

On the "yes merger" side, you've got basic industry dynamics. Up through 2008, American was the country's largest airline. Then it was surpassed by Delta/Northwest. Now Delta/Northwest is about to be surpassed by United/Continental. American faces the prospect of running a distant third, which isn't a place you want to be in a cut-throat industry that's already hemorrhaging money. There's also this sense that this is how things are supposed to go, that the industry is supposed to shrink to three major carriers, and that American and US Air are the last of the legacy holdouts.

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Airline Mergers / Airlines / Airline Industry / Continental / United / US Airways / Airline News / → All Tags

United And Continental Determined to Merger, Become World's Largest Airline

Heh. It turns out that sometimes airline industry analysts get things exactly right. When we wrote up rumors of an airline merger between United and US Airways a few weeks ago, we dumped a bunch of articles on you with people insisting that the smarter merger would be between United and Continental. Compared to US Airways, Continental has fewer overlapping hubs with United, better access to South America, and a strong presence in New York—all huge pluses. A United-Continental merger would also give United a a title boost: "world's single largest airline."

We commented at the time that the objectively better deal isn't always the deal that gets struck, but in this case it looks like that's exactly where we're heading. Confirming previously reported rumors that United and Continental were looking past US Airways and at each other, the two airlines appear set to confirm a merger as soon as Monday:

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