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Tags: Travel Magazines / Budget Travel / Arthur Frommer / Travel Media / → All Tags
What Is Going On At Budget Travel Magazine?
After the recent chopping of magazines like Gourmet, it's safe to say that print media is beyond shaking in their boots; they're already cleaning out desks. The latest magazine closure scare came at Budget Travel, formerly under Arthur Frommer's wing but now controlled by the Washington Post Co.
On Friday, rumors began that the magazine would announce its closure on Monday (today). NY Mag reached Editor-In-Chief Nina Willdorf for comments only to receive a cryptic "heading out town"-type response.
Instead of closing today, it was only reported that "it's business as usual," but execs did hold a meeting to discuss the future of the magazine. Although it looks like no one lost their jobs today, employees in ad sales were told to hold on the February issues. Will the scythe of death fall on Budget Travel in January 2010, or—even worse—around the holidays? Rest assured that we'll continue to follow this story.
Related Stories:
· Magazine Deathwatch: Budget Travel [Mediabistro]
· Budget Travel Shuttering? [NYMag]
· Travel Magazines [Jaunted]
[Photo: Kenn Wilson]
Tags: Rental Cars / Cars / Budget Travel / Cheap Travel / Bargains / → All Tags
While Every Other Travel Thing is Cheaper, Rental Cars are Still Super Expensive
Airfares and hotel room prices have fallen markedly in response to the global economic meltdown, but rental car rates are as high as ever, prompting the penny-pinchers over at Budget Travel to offer up a few tips on keeping the costs down on your next trip. In an AP item, the magazine's editor-in-chief said that car rental companies are unique in that they can trim their supply of cars very easily, maintaining a tight market for rentals. Thus, your best bet for a bargain is to book in advance, look for a discount code on a site like best-car-rental-tips.com, or use a bidding site like Priceline.
Tags: iPhone Travel Apps / Priceline / Budget Travel / iPhone / → All Tags
William Shatner's On Your iPhone; Just Touch Him For Hotel Deals
We'll come right out and admit it: we have used Priceline's Negotiator before and like what it did for us. Even the omnipotent appreciate discounts and the thrill of chasing a deal. Still, we're not sure how we feel about sitting down to make serious travel reservations on our iPhone. Sure it's the internet just like we get on our laptop, but it just doesn't feel as official. But like Priceline could give a crap how we feel, since they've just released their own iPhone travel app.
The app of course focuses on good old William Shatner, aka The Negotiator, and his special Priceline ability to let you list your own nightly hotel rate blindly for a hotel (after choosing star rating and neighborhood), and possibly be accepted for over 50% off published rates. Our two most recent experiences at the hands of Captain Kirk got us 5-star hotel rooms in both Berlin and Chicago for $80 a night, so maybe if we don't even use a computer to make the reservation we'll be even more cavalier? So long as the app is free, which it is, we'll be fiddling with it. Who can resist a free travel app anyways?
Related Stories:
· Priceline Launches iPhone App For Hotel Bidding [USAToday]
· iPhone: Priceline's new app is best for last-minute hotel bids [BudgetTravel]
· iPhone Travel Apps coverage [Jaunted]
Tags: Budget Airlines / Feel Air / Cheap Flights / Budget Travel / → All Tags
The Future of Airlines: Cheaper Tickets, Fewer Frills?
While low-budget airlines have long since come to dominate most popular short-haul routes, legacy carriers have managed to stay afloat thanks to long-distance flights, which magnify the importance of their enhanced services and amenities. According to The New York Times, however, that's starting to change as the economic downturn creates new opportunities for no-frills upstarts.
Tags: Airplane News / Airline News / Air Asia / Air Asia X / LCCs / Budget Travel / Travel With Children / → All Tags
Baby Born On Air Asia Plane Gets Free Flights For Life
In our next life, we'd like to return as a baby born aboard an Air Asia flight. Talk about lucky—a pregnant woman on a flight between Penang and Kuching on Borneo went into surprise labor while in the air, prompting the plane to try for an emergency landing in Kuala Lumpur, but the baby popped out before they could get on the ground.
After the successful delivery, the mother and child were transported to a KL hospital, where they were visited by the higher-ups at Air Asia, who presented them with the rights to free flights for life. Assuming that Air Asia will be around until the kid hits retirement in something like sixty years, he could really make a name for himself traveling around Asia—or beyond, since Air Asia now also flies to both London and is busily signing paperwork to come to both Paris and Los Angeles. Boy oh boy are we jealous of this little boy. The question now is...did he kinda join the mile high club just being born up there?
Related Stories:
· Lifetime free flights for baby born on plane [AFP]
· Talking With Air Asia's CEO Tony Fernandes About US Plans [Jaunted]
· Air Asia coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: jetalone]
Tags: Airfare Sales / Air Asia / LCCs / Budget Travel / Asia Travel / Travel Deals / → All Tags
Air Asia's Big Sale Makes Us Want To Book Some $17 Flights
One of our favorite low cost carriers, Air Asia, is not just cool because it keeps adding more routes—like Kuala Lumpur to Paris on the cheap and the Indian destinations like Thiruvananthapuram just to name a couple of last week's highlights—but it's also giving us ideas for our 2010 travel plans by holding a big airfare sale at the moment.
For bookings made between now and Sunday, you can get bargain tickets for travel between January 11 and April 30, 2010 for a bunch of Asian routes. The cheapest flights get as low as 19 Ringgit ($5.50) but they're mostly internal Malaysian flights; to get from Kuala Lumpur to further afield, there are deals like KL to pretty much anywhere in Indonesia or Thailand for 59 Ringgit ($17) and KL to Australian destinations for 199 Ringgit ($58). Get booking fast or we might snap up all the seats first.
Related Stories:
· Air Asia [Official Site]
· Let's Go Thiruvananthapuram! [Jaunted]
· Sarkozy Approves Air Asia X's Low-Cost Flights to Paris [Jaunted]
[Photo: Auswandern Malaysia]
Tags: Air Asia / Air Asia X / LCCs / Budget Travel / Nicolas Sarkozy / New Routes / → All Tags
Sarkozy Approves Air Asia X's Low-Cost Flights To Paris
Go get 'em low-cost carrier Air Asia X is taking another step towards world domination—well, their words were "global expansion"—with the big announcement that they have now received approval to start up cheap long-haul flights from Kuala Lumpur to Paris.
None other than French president Nicolas Sarkozy himself informed Malaysian Prime Minister Razak this week that Air Asia X would be allowed to land at the Orly Airport in Paris. Air Asia X hasn't yet made more details public; we're in the dark on how soon this service will start, and what it will cost, but they launched their Kuala Lumpur to London service earlier this year, and you can grab those flights for around $250 one way.
We figure it's only reasonable to guess that the Paris version won't be too different. These low-cost long-hauls are certainly giving us ideas for some amazing budget around-the-world trips—we might go start loading up our backpacks while Air Asia decides on Paris airfares.
Related Stories:
· Air Asia To Start Paris Flights [AFP]
· Air Asia X Wants to Long-Haul You From New York and California [Jaunted]
· Air Asia X Launches Low-Cost, Long-Haul Service [Jaunted]
[Photo: Deanster1983]
Tags: Travel Advertising / Amsterdam Travel / Hostels / Budget Travel / Travel Ads / → All Tags
'The Worst Hotel In The World' Has The Best Advertising Campaign
The UK's KK Outlet ad agency was tasked with selling a generously described no frills hostel in Amsterdam.
The hostel in question, as you undoubtedly figured out from the ads, is Amsterdam's Hans Brinker Budget Hotel. Lest you think they're joking about the lack of amenities, or that their self-deprecation is a passing thing, the establishment website hawks a book titled The Worst Hotel in the World: The Hans Brinker Budget Hotel Amsterdam. They're proud all of it, from the nonexistent bedding to the subpar customer service. It's like they're the Ryanair of hostels.
Via Advertising Is Good For You, Pure genius:
Tags: Travel Contests / Twitter / Budget Travel / Greyhound / Bus Travel / → All Tags
Wanna Ride Greyhound? Tell Them in 140 Characters or Less
Travel contest groupies get your witty Tweets ready! Budget Travel and Greyhound Buses have partnered up to give away free round-trip bus tickets via Twitter.
The promotion is part of Greyhound's celebration of its new routes out of New York City to Boston, Montreal, and Toronto along with its plans to replace older buses with new models that have free WiFi, three more inches of leg room, and power outlets for charging all of your travel gadgets.
To win the tix, you gotta join Twitter (duh) and follow @GreyhoundBus and/or @Budtravel. Then you need to post a tweet (in 140 characters or less, of course) talking about how excited you are to try out the new Greyhound buses. Don't forget to include @GreyhoundBus in your tweet along with the hashtags: #NewBus! @BudTravel and the link to BudTravel's post about the contest.
Greyhound will pick one winner each day but only for the next two days. The contest is open to anyone in the US and Canada (except Province of Quebec residents) and the round-trip tickets are good for any Greyhound route in the U.S. and/or Canada. However, you must be 18 years or older. So this is not your ticket to run away from your parents. But running away from the economy is totally acceptable.
Related Stories:
· Travel Contests [Jaunted]
· Greyhound gets fancy new buses and gives away tickets via Twitter [Budget Travel]
[Photo: Greyhound Bus]
Tags: Cheap Eats / Budget Travel / Restaurants / → All Tags
'Grazing' On The Cheap In London
So where to go for a good old meaty London lunch? Well, the brave could try St John, where they specialize in offal. Pheasant and trotter pie not for you? There’s always Smiths of Smithfield, which has four floors of eateries – getting more expensive as you go up the stairs – just opposite London’s meat market (Smithfields, if you hadn’t guessed.)
Or, if you’re really on a budget, and it’s before 4pm, you could go to Grazing, on Great Tower Street – handily on the tourist map because it’s directly halfway between the Tower of London and The Monument, which reopened this week.
Tags: Laid-Off Travel / Budget Travel / Big Three / → All Tags
Three Vacation Ideas For The Big Three
Are you one of the casualties of the hurtin' economy? We're here to help with Laid-Off Travel, a new series on where to go when you don't have somewhere to go from 9 to 5.
So it's been a few months since GM and Chrysler asked for a bailout. How are they doing now? Oh... they want more money. In GM's case, $12 billion more, and they're willing to cut 47,000 jobs to prove that they're trying really hard. Chrysler is "only" cutting 3,000 jobs, but that can't be comforting for Detroit residents who have already withstood several rounds of cuts. So use your severance wisely on one of these getaways:
Go North: The next warm day, drop in on neighbor-to-the-north Toronto. At the Park Hyatt Toronto you can choose how much to spoil yourself with $10 extras from now through Feb. 27
Go South: Fly'n'stay at the Mayan Riviera for under $500 per person -- spring break comes early this year!
Go Green: There isn't a direct flight from Detroit, but Airfare Watchdog's sales to Dublin right now are pretty fantastic -- try Chicago-Dublin for $368 r/t.
Related Stories:
· GM and Chrysler Line Up at the Pump [Digital Journal]
· Macy's Employees: Buy Something, Sorry We Didn't [Jaunted]
· Graffiti for Humanity in Toronto [Jaunted]
[Photo: Cliph]
Tags: Cheap Eats / Budget Travel / Restaurants / Pharaohs / → All Tags
Eat With The Pharoahs On A Budget in London
So you’ve only been in London a couple of days, but you’ve already blown your cash. Breaking into the overdraft isn’t a good idea at times like these. So before you break out the credit card at Nobu, here’s a tip: we suggest you hop on a 38 bus from the centre of town and head out to once edgy, now trendy (though not totally removed of edginess) Hackney, where you’ll find one of London’s weirdest, and better priced restaurants, LMNT.
It’s not so much the food that’s weird – that’s your standard confit of duck, pheasant en croute and roast pumpkin risotto – it’s the restaurant itself. Or rather, the decor – it’s like walking into the British Museum and clambering into the exhibits themselves for a spot of dinner. You might eat in a huge Greek-style urn or – our favourite – an Egyptian coffin, suspended from the wall. And you’ll definitely see one of the oddest bathrooms around – enjoy the pornographic murals as you pee, because the next time you see something like that, you’ll be picking it off the top shelf and paying for it.
Best of all are the prices. People would pay buckets for this if it was in central London, but because it’s in Hackney, starters are set at £4.45, mains at £9.95 and desserts at £3.95. Trust us, that’s good for London (unless you’re after a chain pizza).
Related Stories:
· LMNT [Official Site]
· London Travel [Jaunted]
[Photo: JessicaJBeck]
