Easier charter booking

Travelers looking for seats on private air-charter jets can ease their search with a new Internet booking tool starting in December. Skydini.com will offer a searchable database of screened, FAA-certified charter jets and will handle the confirmation, payment, and paperwork - tasks currently done by company schedulers and dispatchers, brokers, travel agents, and concierge services.

More than 7,000 charter flights depart in the United States each day, the travel site said, but flights fly empty 40 percent of the time because there aren't any customers on the return leg.

The website was launched last week on a limited basis so charter operators can add to the inventory of available aircraft. Skydini is scheduled to launch for consumers to book travel on Dec. 1.

Eco-conscious travelers can sleep easier at Jurys Boston Hotel. The hotel is now making up for 100 percent of the electricity it uses by buying certified renewable energy credits from Constellation NewEnergy, in effect replacing the carbon emissions produced during the hotel's combustion of fossil fuels with clean, renewable resources. A Jurys spokeswoman said the only other Boston hotel that's doing this is the Lenox Hotel.

If you're the type who becomes queasy at the sight of blood, or if you just want to hear a reassuring voice walk you through dressing a wound, the Talking First Aid Kit might be worth lugging around on your next outdoor adventure.

The 8-pound medical suitcase, by Intelligent First Aid, is filled with nine injury packs that each contain an audio and visual instruction card along with the corresponding first-aid materials. The CPR pack, for example, comes with six gauze sponges, a pair of latex-free disposable gloves, a mouth-to-mouth barrier, and a how-to card that speaks the instructions with a press of the green button. The kit also includes packs to deal with bleeding, shock, broken bones, burns, bites and stings, injured eyes, head and spine injuries, and basic problems requiring Band-Aids or ice packs.

The kit is available at intelligentfirstaid.com for about $163.

NICOLE C. WONG