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United Will Hit The Runway In 2011 With Cynthia Rowley-Designed Uniforms

November 6, 2009 at 5:44 PM | by JetSetCD | 0 Comments

It's amazing what you can learn on Twitter on a Friday afternoon, namely that United Airlines is all in a tizzy today over the announcement that a new look is coming for their flight attendants: uniforms by fashion designer Cynthia Rowley. Already, the Chicago Tribune is on the case, discovering that the redesign is the "first time in recent history that United has tapped a well-known designer for the job."

We're not so surprised however; Cynthia Rowley is a Chicago native, and United is not only based in Chicago, but calls the Willis (née Sears) Tower home. The new uniforms won't come until Rowley completes her trip to visit United employees in Chicago, LA, New York and London to ask them for their opinions. And although Rowley is known for her ready-to-wear designs for women, the United designs will cover all bases, literally: "The uniforms will be designed for flight attendants, pilots, customer service representatives and maintenance employees."

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Expedia Shocks Travel Industry And Customers, Actually Lowers Fees

November 6, 2009 at 5:24 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

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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Delta Gives Free In-Flight WiFi For The Holidays To Trick You Into Shopping eBay

November 6, 2009 at 4:45 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

If Google made a smart business decision by facilitating free holiday in-flight wifi on Virgin America—more Internet users means more revenue for Google—then the deal eBay just sealed with Delta is positively inspired. Starting Nov. 24 and lasting through a week, the auction site/retail outlet/digital store will be providing passengers with a free promotional code so they can get online via Gogo.

The only catch is that the first thing those passengers will see as they soar online through the crowded skies is the eBay frontpage. The better to do their holiday shopping, you see:

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AirTran Paints Its Planes To Celebrate The Birds Of The NFL

November 6, 2009 at 8:48 AM | by kjb | 0 Comments

Fans of the Baltimore Ravens and Atlanta Falcons now have an easy pick when it comes to choosing their favorite airline—it has to be AirTran. The airline that loves in-flight WiFi has just released a Boeing 717 dubbed Ravens One from the hangar, and the plane is ready to shuttle fans to away games around the country.

Just a couple weeks ago, the airline pulled the masking tape off another plane dedicated to the Atlanta Falcons. It’s fitting that AirTran has a thing for football teams named after birds. However, the airline is also planning to release a plane with an Indianapolis Colts livery in just a few weeks. From what we’ve seen of Peyton Manning’s acting skills in commercials, we have little doubt that he’ll be the featured pitchman for the Colts’ new plane.

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Ryanair Taunts British Airways: 'We're (About To Be) #1!'

November 5, 2009 at 4:15 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

It's no secret that Ryanair has translated their "Customers Suck" philosophy into one quarter of breakout profits after another.

It's also no secret that we kind of loathe them and everything they stand for (excepting low airfare), which makes this particular story, about how the low cost carrier is poised to pass British Airways as the largest airline in the UK, as predictable as it is aggravating. Try to contain your shock when we tell you that they're being obnoxiously smug about the whole thing:

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Jetblue's Revamped TrueBlue Program Begins Monday; Get To Know It Now

November 5, 2009 at 9:14 AM | by JetSetCD | 0 Comments

Whose ready for the "newer, truer TrueBlue" program from Jetblue? Well, ready or not, it's coming at the beginning of next week and the arrival of the new structure means no more free flights just by accumulating a few roundtrip coast-to-coasters; nope, now you've got to watch how much you spend versus how much you fly.

If you're keen to check your point balance or do some other fiddling with your TrueBlue account in the next few days, you better do it now. Accounts will be unavailable between Friday and Monday morning during the switchover. For those of you who simply can't wait for the new program to take affect, you can read up on the changes...

The details on the new TrueBlue program, after the jump.

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Air New Zealand Wants To Sell Us A Coach-Middle-Seat-Bed Thing

November 5, 2009 at 8:39 AM | by kjb | 0 Comments

We might be a little premature in declaring a new travel trend, but it appears that selling empty middle seats is the new checked baggage fee. WestJet recently shed a little light on plans to make passengers a little more comfy while cashing in at the same time. Now Air New Zealand, the airline that loves wacky stuff like in-flight dating and body paint, is looking to do the same thing.

As part of a total makeover of the airline—they’re looking to change up their livery and uniforms among other things—they want to sell empty middle seats to coach passengers. If the seat next to you is empty it will be yours as long as you are willing to part with $150. You’ll even be allowed to fully stretch out, as apparently the two seats will slide forward to make some sort of economy bed. They are still hush hush about all the details, and they want to wait until next year before revealing all the secrets about the new seating configurations.

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JetBlue Retaliates To Southwest's Latest Boston Escalation

November 4, 2009 at 10:29 AM | by Omri | 0 Comments

Now this is just getting silly. The dustup at Logan was already the most interesting battle in the airline industry, with Southwest turning the turf war into a bloodbath and pushing out major carriers like US Airways. JetBlue—which considers Boston home turf—isn't going to be shoved aside as easily. They're retaliating by increasing their Boston flights by a full 30 percent.

Southwest recently broadsided JetBlue and AirTran by adding two daily roundtrips, for a total of seven, between Boston and Baltimore. That bumped up the total number of BOS-BWI dailies to 20. Given that 20 is probably way more than necessary, an outside observer might guess that Southwest was just trying to spite their rivals.

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WestJet Launches Cuba And St. Maarten, Non-Stops Away From Canadian Winter

November 3, 2009 at 4:54 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

Starting from last Sunday, Toronto travelers in search of warmth have had two new options courtesy of Canadian low cost carrier WestJet. Last week the airline announced they were launching nonstops to Varadero, Cuba and St Maarten, and the first flights duly took off over the weekend.

The company issued separate press releases for the St Maarten and Cuba routes, each identical except for the obviously made up location-specific quotes from Hugh Dunleavy, WestJet Executive Vice-President of Strategy and Planning. That doesn't make WestJet's announcement any less exciting. It just kind of made us giggle.

Both new routes have flights three times per week, and both last only until April 29, 2010. Presumably that's the date they expect Toronto to thaw, with all the consequences for demand that would portend. They're promising more "sun destination" announcements in the coming days though, so maybe those will last past the winter months.

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Porter Airlines Is Looking To Expand...To Myrtle Beach?

November 3, 2009 at 9:40 AM | by kjb | 0 Comments

We kind of knew that Porter Airlines would be eyeing new routes, but we expected that they’d be looking somewhere in the northern part of the US or elsewhere in Canada. Well we were wrong and the airline is looking to head south in search of warmer weather and Waffle House. Their shortlist for new routes now includes Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, among other destinations in the US.

Apparently there hasn’t been an official decision or announcement, but according to the head honcho at Porter, Robert Deluce, his company is in “serious discussions” with some places in the US. Besides the tourist traps of Myrtle Beach, the little airline that could also has its eyes on Washington, DC and Philadelphia. It looks like they want to expand before Air Canada Jazz restarts service on their home turf.

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The Worst Way To Score An Upgrade: 'Jostle' A Flight Attendant

November 2, 2009 at 9:24 AM | by JetSetCD | 1 Comment

Everyone knows (or should know) that rule numero uno for boarding a flight is not to annoy or body check the flight attendants, because then you risk being kicked off the plane or just incurring their wrath throughout the flight. But apparently Dom Carter, news anchor for NY1 and recent subject of a domestic violence scandal, can't be bothered with clearing the aisle to make way for the flight attendants.

Dom was boarding a Delta flight from NY-LaGuardia to Kansas City on Saturday when he jostled a flight attendant, who then recognized him from the news, didn't appreciate the physical contact, and called the cops, saying "This man deliberately slammed into me, I want him off the plane!"

Who did what exactly we don't know, but we do know that Dom was kicked off the flight only to be apologized to by Delta staff and presented with an upgrade to first class, according to Gothamist. While Dom surely doesn't need his name in he news any more these past few weeks, the event seems to have turned out well for him. Still, we do not advocate bumping into flight crew in the hopes of scoring an upgrade similarly. Instead, we're still all about flattery.

Related Stories:
· Embattled NY1 Anchor Dom Carter Kicked Off Plane [Gothamist]
· Airline News [Jaunted]

[Photo: Jaunted]

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Want 20 Percent Off A Virgin America Flight? Jaunted Can Hook You Up

October 30, 2009 at 4:20 PM | by JetSetCD | 2 Comments

Update: All ten offers have now been redeeemed. Keep your eyes open for the ticket giveaway on Jaunted soon!

Alright, who wants to board that plane right now and just take off? Everybody? Yep—we thought so. Here at Jaunted, we're absolutely into fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants travel, and on this lovely Friday, we going to help you get where you wanna go.

Here's the deal: Virgin America sent out an offer to all of their "founding eleVAte members" (and you know we are) to have ten of their friends or contacts receive 20% off flights booked before November 6 for Main Cabin travel before February 10. And you're our friend, right? So click here now to score one of those ten 20% discounts while they last.

Now for the good stuff: when you guys use all ten discount offers from that link, we'll receive a code for a free roundtrip flight, which we'll then pass on to you via a Jaunted contest to come. So get booking so we can devise an exciting contest! Remember that Virgin America begins flying direct between LAX and SFO to Fort Lauderdale in November, so you could always use the discount to sweeten a trip to Florida. Book away!

Related Stories:
· Stay Golden [Virgin America]
· Virgin America coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Limaindia / Wiki Commons]