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Salt Lake City's Airport Will Tear It All Down and Basically Start Over Again

Each week seems to bring more and more airport news, and this week is no exception as it looks like Salt Lake City International Airport is prepping for a major overhaul. We might be exaggerating just a little bit, but the plans and blueprints make it seems like they’re tearing down much of the place and starting from scratch. Airport officials better hope that their primary tenant—Delta—sticks around, as they wouldn’t want to spend all the cash for nothing.

The new additions and upgrades are going to cost around $1.8 billion, give or take a couple bucks, and if all sticks to schedule the cranes will be hanging out with the planes beginning in 2013. Airport officials as well as the city’s mayor have secured some funding from the airlines that call the airport home, so there’s quite a bit of momentum towards building the new place. However, it’s going to be a lot of work to get there, as the finished single terminal project won’t be complete until around 2018.

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In-Flight Meals / Airplane Food / Delta / JetBlue / Southwest / Aeromexico / Midwest Airlines / Frontier / Dessert Travel / Food Travel / Lists / Airlines / → All Tags

Five Favorite Airline In-Flight Snacks and Where to Buy Them

Free airline snacks are far and few between but there are some so good, we don’t want to wait for another flight to taste them again. Luckily, we’ve done some sleuthing and found our favorites in grocery stores and specialty shops around the country. Found your favorite in-flight goodie on the road? Let us know!

· Constant Craving: Biscoff Cookies
Delta Airlines has raised the hackles of many a customer, but you’ll find few willing to complain about the sweet, crunchy, cinnamony goodness of the Biscoff cookie. We were thrilled to find them in our cookie aisle, but even better? The new Biscoff spread made up of 50% of Biscoff cookies. There’s even a new crunchy version with chunks of cookies in it (swoon!). We’ve tossed aside our peanut butter and Nutella with scorn and slathered this goodness on everything from toast to English muffins. Yeah, it’s a problem.

Where to Get ‘Em: The cookies have been spotted in Walgreens, Ralphs, and even Walmart, but the spread can be found in the peanut butter section in stores like Shop Rite, Kroger, Hannaford, Wegmans, and even on Amazon.com.

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Airline Fees / Airlines / Airline News / Delta / US Airways / United / American Airlines / Europe Travel / → All Tags

That Flight to Europe May Just Cost a Few Bucks More

If your vacation piggy bank is almost filled to the top, you may need to tape a few bucks to the outside as travel to Europe just got a little more expensive. With the new year comes a new fee, as the European Union wants airlines to pay a little bit extra to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Obviously this is going to be passed along to passengers, and that’s exactly what’s already started to happen.

Last week Delta was the first airline in the nifty fifty to add another $3 to one-way fares to Europe, and now it looks like all the other major carriers have joined the party as well. United and US Airways were quick to ask travelers to chip in a few more dollahs dollahs, and then last but not least, American did the same exact thing.

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New Routes / Airline News / Airlines / SAS / Delta / Frontier / US Airways / American Airlines / → All Tags

New Year, New Routes from SAS, Frontier, Delta 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.

· SAS:
It’s still cold outside, but it’s already time to start planning about hopping in and around Europe this summer. SAS—thanks to an awesome post on Instagram—revealed some of their plans for the warmer weather. They’ll be heading from Oslo to Faro, Portugal, and that’s just one of many. There are also new options to spots like Nice, Barcelona, and Palma de Mallorca from some of their favorite airports like Stavanger Airport in Sola and Bergen Airport—both in Norway. So remember that the summer of 2012 is right around the corner and start saving those pennies (and euros).

· Frontier:
The animal-tailed airline is on the move again, and it looks like there’s going to be a few more new routes. Frontier Airlines is starting up nonstop service between Kansas City and Orlando this week, and the plan is to keep the route as a seasonal thing through April. In addition there will also be new flights from Grand Rapids, Michigan and Madison, Wisconsin to and from Washington, DC—Reagan-National to be specific. The airline is running a New Year’s Sale through January 12, so if you’ve been looking to score some decent fares for these new routes—or others—be sure to check out what they’re offering.

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The Jauntys / Jaunted Awards 2011 / Travel Awards 2011 / Airlines / Airline News / Delta / → All Tags

The Best Domestic Airline of 2011 Is...

It's that time of the year again, the time when the year just plain ends. Alas, we can't just let 2011 go that easily, especially since travelers spent it both up in the air and up in arms over a crazy range of topics, encompassing everything from nudie scans to tarmac delays. Needless to say, we're ready for 2012, but first we're taking a brief look back at the best of 2011 with the Jaunted Travel Awards,—or as we fondly refer to them—The Jauntys.

Of all our Jaunted Awards we've handed out, this one—Domestic Airline of the Year 2011—is the most surprising. If the US airline industry was a game of Super Mario Bros, this carrier would have been the one to continuously score gold coins with every jump. We're talking about Delta, believe it or not.

Aside from rolling out new route after new route like a BOSS, Delta spent 2011 beefing up their mobile tech, customer service and onboard product. Specifically we loved them for their introduction of Economy Comfort to more than just long-haul flights, their bravery to expand DeltaAssist and online flight check-in to Facebook, their completion of fleet-wide WiFi and introduction of it to regional jets, and the fact that they brought Ben & Jerry's ice cream onboard in 2011.

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Delta / LGA / New Routes / Airlines / Airline News / New York City Travel / → All Tags

Delta Will Go All In with Their Huge Expansion at New York's LaGuardia Airport

Last week we just scratched the surface about what Delta has planned for New York’s LaGuardia Airport, but this week all the juicy details have been released for new cities and new flights. Overall it looks like Delta is really building up LGA as sort of a new domestic hub, as they’ve got flights heading out of the Big Apple to here, there, and everywhere.

Some of the flights were part of a trade off with US Airways, so a few routes are staying the same—they’re just getting new planes, pilots, and flight attendants to fly back and forth. In total there’s like 100 new daily flights to 30 different cities, and it’s all happening from LGA.

Meanwhile, Delta is hard at work on the other side of Queens at JFK, building new stuff and updating terminals, but with all these new flights and new cities we hope that the bulldozers and hardhats take a hop on the Van Wyck Expressway when they’re done.

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This Week's New Routes Arrive and Depart from Aer Lingus, Delta, United 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.

· Aer Lingus:
Christmas hasn’t even happened yet, but the suits at Aer Lingus are already busy planning where to send their planes once the warmer weather comes around again. They’re upping the frequency on several existing spots which they already serve, but they’re also planning to connect Dublin with Verona and Stockholm. The flights to Sweden will run four times per week, and they’re sending the planes over to Italy just twice a week. Both options sounds like a great way to extend your European vacation—or just to take a weekend getaway in the middle of your trip across the pond.

· United Airlines:
The country’s shot at the World Cup is still a few years away, but if you want to head over to Qatar to start warming up there’s an option thanks to United Airlines. The carrier is planning to start up service between Washington-Dulles and Doha, Qatar beginning on May 1 of 2012.

The flight does make a little bit of a pit stop—for airplane gas and iPad charging—in Dubai on its way to Qatar, so just make sure you don’t get off at the first stop. They’ll be flying back and forth one of their Boeing 777s, so you can expect seats in first, business, and economy. According to United this makes the airline the best in the Middle East, as they’ll be flying to more spots than any other US carrier.

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Airline Lounges / Shopping Travel / Delta / Continental / United / American Airlines / US Airways / Airlines / → All Tags

Gift These: Annual Memberships to Your Favorite Frequent Flyer's Airline Lounge

What's shaking at the Delta SkyClub...

Frequent flyers in your family don’t want one of those inflatable neck pillows, and they especially don’t want anything from the SkyMall catalog—well, probably. However, what they do want is access to an airline lounge, so they can think of you each and every time they escape the madness of the terminal in favor of a comfortable chair and an adult beverage. Sure, there's a significant annual admission to what lies beyond the automatic doors, so maybe you should just get it for yourself instead of asking Santa.

Here's a quck rundown of the pricing and features of the four major US carriers' lounges, just in case you're feeling extra generous:

· American Airlines Admirals Club Lounge
If you’re a big fan of American Airlines and their shiny planes, there’s no better lounge to access. Membership gets you free beverages—both boozy and not—as well as some snacks, WiFi, and access to computers and printers. There’s 40 clubs across the airline’s network with the majority in the nifty fifty. Getting in will set you back a cool $500 for the year, but if you just want to test things out before committing it’s $50 per visit. That way you can check out their additional food offerings, as select clubs have a little bit of a restaurant thing going on.

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New Routes / Airlines / Airline News / Delta / United / JetBlue / Etihad / → All Tags

Etihad, JetBlue and United Bring It with This Week's New Routes

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.

· Etihad Airways:
There’s been a few flights trickling back into Libya now that things have—uh, stabilized—a bit, and now it’s time for the National Airline of the United Arab Emirates to do their thing as well. Etihad Airways is planning to fly some planes between Tripoli and Abu Dhabi beginning on January 17. Initially the flights will arrive via a stop in Alexandria, Egypt, but the flights will supposedly become a nonstop option once the airport in Tripoli can handle a little more traffic. Flights are scheduled to do their thing three times a week, so if you still need a collectable Tripoli shot glass for your collection, you know what to do.

· VietJetAir:
If you haven’t heard of VietJetAir—that’s okay—we just learned about them too! They’re the region’s newest low cost carrier, and they’re planning to do their thing starting on December 25—that’s Christmas in case you didn’t know. According to our pals over at AirlineRoute.net, the new airline will offer a couple daily flights between Ho Chi Minh – Hanoi, and if all goes well they’ll up it to thrice per day starting in January. After that, the plan is to link Ho Chi Minh with Da Nang beginning in February—happy holiday hopping in Vietnam!

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Bad Ideas / Airline News / Delta / Crimes / Sex Travel / → All Tags

First Class Flyer Views Child Porn Mid-Flight, Promptly Gets Arrested

It's been quite the season for in-flight porn news. It was only a few months ago when Qantas started airing their instructional video "The Female Orgasm Explained," a mix of shoddy porn and musings about the mysteries of feminine sexuality. Then Ryanair did what Ryanair does, with the airline's aggressively anti-customer CEO Michael O'Leary announcing that his LCC might soon rent porn-filled iPads to passengers. Apparently Ryanair executives take statements like "there's literally no way a Ryanair flight could be more uncomfortable" as challenges.

Now there's this story. University of Utah engineering professor and father of two Grant Smith was taking a flight from Salt Lake City to Boston and—there's no gentle way of putting this—allegedly started looking at child porn on his laptop while seated in First Class. According to reports, a fellow first-class passenger saw Smith, then filmed Smith, then informed the flight crew regarding Smith, then emailed his relatives about Smith (yay, in-flight WiFi), then arranged to have Smith arrested on the ground. Admirably completionist.

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Travel Apps / Delta / Travel News / iPhone / Android / iPhone Travel Apps / Travel Tech / Checked Baggage / → All Tags

Delta Brings Live Baggage Tracking to Your Phone Just in Time for Turkey Day

If Aunt Edna’s Bean Salad isn’t really exciting you this holiday season then there’s a new option from Delta that may be somewhat entertaining—and useful. We knew that Delta allows one and all to follow their checked baggage throughout its journey, but now they’re bringing the feature to their mobile apps.

With the latest version of the Delta app, you’ll now be able to see where your bag is—and where your bag has been—through its journey from check-in to drop off on the baggage carrousel. It’s just like tracking a package from those guys with the brown trucks, so expect status updates every time your bag is scanned and transferred from one spot to another.

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New Routes / Airlines / Airline News / Delta / Hawaiian Airlines / Qatar Airways / United / AirTran / → All Tags

Hawaiian, AirTran and Delta Lead This Week's New Route News

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.

· Hawaiian Airlines:
Alright we might have mentioned this earlier in the week, but the star of the show this week has to be the announcement from Hawaiian Airlines. The carrier filled with Aloha is headed all the way to New York-JFK from Honolulu beginning next summer. Like we said, the flight is going to be pretty darn long—like 10 hours—but hopefully the new Airbus A330s will make it all a little better.

· United:
It’s time to cross the pond thanks to United, as there are plans for a new link between the US and the UK beginning next May. The airline is starting up a nonstop option between Washington-Dulles and Manchester, and this will supplement Continental’s option between Newark and Manchester. The new flight—just like the one from Newark—will utilize some Boeing 757s, so that means there’s only one aisle where you can stretch your legs. The flights will operate everyday of the week all year long, and we’re sure that this new option will make some tourists and business people pretty happy.

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