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Tags: Jaunted Interviews / In-Flight WiFi / Andrew Zimmern / Travel Channel / Parties / → All Tags

What Andrew Zimmern Thinks About In-Flight WiFi

Why is Andrew Zimmern's favorite flight the one to Tokyo? This is just one of the many questions we asked the chef, author and Travel Channel show host when we caught up with him at the Travel Channel and Chase Sapphire card party at the Top of the Rock in New York. The answer to that of course, is because the flight to Tokyo is a string of uninterrupted hours of calm. But what we're more interested in right now is one of the hottest topics in aviation today, and that's the issue of In-Flight WiFi.

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What Anthony Bourdain Thinks About In-Flight WiFi

There are some big travel issues a-brewing out there, and we're keen to find out what some big travel personalities think about them. So we caught up with Anthony Bourdain, chef and author and host of The Travel Channel's popular food travel show No Reservations to get the straight dope on how, or how not, In-Flight WiFi has affected his travel routine.

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Tags: Jaunted Interviews / Tony Fernandes / Kuala Lumpur Travel / Malaysia Travel / Air Asia X / OAK / Air Asia / LCCs / Airline News / → All Tags

Talking With Air Asia's CEO Tony Fernandes About US Plans

A Jaunted Exclusive

We've been following the secretive saga behind the Air Asia X plane gone native—meaning it slipped into some Oakland Raiders livery—ever since May when it's tail was spotted getting the new paintjob. We speculated that perhaps this meant one of two things: either the Oakland Raiders football team was chartering an AirAsia plane for their season, or Air Asia was readying for some trans-Pacific routes to the United States.

After the plane flew to Oakland for a grand unveiling last week, we had to get to the bottom of the deal. Is Air Asia coming to the United States or what? So we dialed up the Air Asia CEO and mogul Tony Fernandes for a quick rundown of the low-cost carrier's North American plans.

And here's what he said...

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Jaunted Interview: Chatting With Virgin America CEO David Cush

This morning, Virgin America not only announced that their 10th destination would be Fort Lauderdale from SFO and LAX beginning in November, but they hinted at other cities soon to possibly pop up on their route maps.

Curious to get the straight dope, we gave VA CEO David Cush a call to talk fun in the sun, international routes, and of course Chicago. Read on to hear Cush's take on the future of Virgin America.

On the addition of Fort Lauderdale:
Cush understands that "everyone is excited for new routes," but this one especially so since it's their tenth and only the beginning of a period of southern expansion.

On how they are deciding on future destinations:
"If you look at Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 corporate bases, those are pretty good places to start. You've got Atlanta, Dallas with their telecom, the semiconductors and computer companies in Austin and even on to Newark and Philadelphia." We also made sure not to forget about good old Raleigh-Durham, which Cush assures is an option as most corporate cities are fair game for them right now.

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Tags: New Routes / Jaunted Interviews / Richard Branson / Virgin America / Shira Lazar / New Airline Routes / → All Tags

Richard Branson Kisses Jaunted

Yesterday, we attend yet another Virgin America new route launch party. Keep going VA! This time Sir Richard Branson and Co. have begun offering five-times-daily flights flights out of The Real Orange County (John Wayne Airport) to San Francisco.

The inaugural event began yesterday after take off in San Francisco with Branson twittering in-flight using the fleet-wide WiFi at 35,000 feet. Upon landing in the OC, Branson was greeted by the cast of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Orange County” and Red Bull athletes. And for those guests lucky enough to be on the inaugural flight? They received Bare Escentuals makeovers and Sunset Tan spray.

The party continued over to the Pacific Edge Hotel in Laguna Beach but before all that, we managed to chase Sir Richard Branson down for an interview, in his car.

Related Stories:
· Virgin America Coverage [Jaunted]
· Jen Leo Twitters With Sir Richard [LA Times]
· Video Montage of the Event @ SFO [B.A.T.]

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Matt Harding Tells Jaunted All About His Real Dancing Videos

So by now, everyone should know that world-class traveler and so-so dancer Matt Harding was just kidding when he told attendees at the EG Conference that "Where the Hell is Matt?" dancing videos were a hoax. When we first reported on the "revealing" speech he made at the conference, Jaunted's weekend editor tried to match Matt deadpan for deadpan, but like Matt's original "hoax," Victor's seemed to work a little too well.

You see we grew up with Milli Vanilli, Sid Finch and Adult Swim, so reading about Matt's hoax speech without watching the embedded video--but not sticking with it until the end--the concept of Matt being a hoax didn't seem so far-fetched to many readers.

Wanting to get the straight scoop, we contacted Matt Harding when the story broke and asked him if he would do an interview with us. We figured hearing from the man himself on Jaunted would clear everything up once and for all. However, Matt was slow in getting back to us, which just helped perpetuate his hoax. Memes move at the speed of light, and hoaxes hardly ever turn out as planned because so many people feel duped in the end.

However, Matt did graciously answer our all of our questions, even the silly ones, albeit 10 days after our first request. (He's apparently working on a book.)

The bottom line is Matt's dancing is real, and it is spectacular.

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Jaunted Interviews: Chatting with Matt Gross

We've been following Matt Gross on his Grand Tour across Europe this summer, barely keeping our jealousy contained as he partied in Rome and volunteered at an organic farm in southern France.

But we were eager to ask him if travel through the unaffordable continent is really that great. And how the hell was he getting by on just €100 ($155) a day?

To find out, we called him up on Skype and recorded our video chat. Check it after the jump.

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Tags: Virgin America / LCCs / Low Cost Carriers / New Routes / ORD / David Cush / Jaunted Interviews / → All Tags

Jaunted Interview: Chatting with David Cush

A Jaunted Exclusive

Virgin America will ask the FAA for a share of the Chicago market this week, and if all goes well, VA will be flying to O'Hare by November.

After Virgin confirmed the expansion plans, we were excited to talk with CEO David Cush, posing here with Cisco Adler, about the future of the airline, how the FAA allocates landing rights and what it's like to compete with a former employer.

Jaunted: We've been hearing rumors about Chicago for months. Why make the move into that new market now?

DC: You're not an airline until you fly to Chicago. We want to fly four flights a day from LAX and SFO to ORD because this is third largest travel market in the US and we think Chicagoans are going to love our product.

Currently, Chicago/O'Hare has virtually no low-fare competition to the West Coast and none from SFO or LAX. We think we can compete with the big guys and inject a little healthy competition into a market that desperately needs it.

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Jaunted Interview: Chatting with Stephanie Oswald

If you didn't know by now, girlfriend getaways are the hottest thing going in the travel world. The trend has already spawned a magazine and a website and now, clearly, it's time for the TV show.

Host Stephanie Oswald's All-Girl Getaways debuts tonight on the Fine Living Network, so we wanted to ask her: Is it just gonna be spas and pampering? And is this whole trend contrived? Her answers, and the bonus story of the last crazy meal she ate on camera, are after the jump.

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Jaunted Interviews: Phoodie Editor Joey Sweeney

When we made our geeky trip down to Philadelphia last month, we didn't have any trouble finding a couple spots to eat. But that's because we kept our focus on places with private karaoke rooms: It's not like we had tons to pick from.

But Joey Sweeney has way more than just niche spots on his radar. The editor of Philebrity recently started up Phoodie, a blog that obsesses over his city's dining scene. It's one part news site, one part gossip rag and one part media filter.

Post click, Joey fills us in on what's gracing Philly's tables these days.

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Tags: John Weikle / LCCs / Low Cost Carriers / Project New Horizons / CRW / New Airlines / JetAmerica / Matt Ballard / Jaunted Interviews / → All Tags

Jaunted Interviews: Matt Ballard Fills Us in on Project New Horizons

A Jaunted Exclusive

We're obsessed with the idea of JetAmerica, the new ultra low cost carrier that could start flying in Charleston, West Virginia. But we don't really know that much about it. So instead of just speculating, we decided to actually ask someone who knows what he's talking about.

We got in touch with Matt Ballard, the President and CEO of the Charleston Area Alliance, a non-profit development group that chipped in some seed money to get Project New Horizons off the ground. Matt was bound by a confidentiality agreement and SEC regulations, but he did manage to illuminate some things for us.

One biggie: You won't see this airline till 2009 at the earliest.

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Jaunted Interview: Talking with Brian Tan

Earlier this week we had a chance to chat with Brian Tan, the founder of a new travel website, Zicasso. We know, right? Another travel site. But after talking with Brian, we were surprised to find out that his service is a little bit different than what's out there.

Unlike an aggregator (think Kayak) or a fluffy info dump (think Fodors), Zicasso is a marketplace that matches travel buyers with travel sellers. Brian calls it a mix of Lending Tree, eBay and online travel planning tools, a description we'd definitely agree with. Basically you put out a bid for the kind of trip you want and tour companies have to come back to you with a good itinerary at a good price--or risk losing a sale to another operator.

Think of it as an interactive version of that list of deals in the back of Budget Travel magazine.

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