Call it the Broken Guitar Blues. And it's become something of an Internet hit.

Canadian musician Dave Carroll says he had his $3,500 Taylor guitar smashed by United Airlines workers during a spring 2008 trip from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Omaha, Neb.

After the carrier refused to pay $1,200 in repair costs, Carroll channeled his ire into a song, "United Breaks Guitars,'' which he performed with his Halifax-based band Sons of Maxwell, filmed, and put on YouTube. The video has reportedly been viewed nearly 400,000 times since being posted Monday.

The Chicago Tribune reported that United has since had a change of heart and is talking to Carroll about compensation. But Carroll told the LA Times travel blog that he's no longer interested in the money and harbors the company no ill feelings.

He does, however, plan to make good on a promise to write a trilogy of tunes about the incident, the second part of which is due out in August and focuses on his relationship with Ms. Irlweg, a customer service representative.

It is, he tells the Times, the first song he’s ever written with a tuba in it.

If you found yourself unable to access Southwest's site to score tickets yesterday there's a reason.
The discount carrier's big 48-hour fall sale, which featured the cheapest fares the airline has offered since 1996, drew so much traffic that it hobbled the company's website for about five hours yesterday.
The airline, which will begin service from Logan in the middle of next month, launched the sale Monday and it ended yesterday. Paul Flaningan, a company spokesman, told Bloomberg News that portions of the website went down about 9:30 a.m. and were restored by about 2:40 p.m.
Southwest offered mea culpas but decided that it would NOT extend the sale to make up for lost time due to the techical hiccup.
The sale, which was atypical in that fall discounts aren't usually offered till later in the summer, kicked off a mini-price war as most of the major carriers rushed to match fares on competitive routes.
The lesson here, if any, is that these days sales pop up quickly -- and disappear as quickly. So if you're in the market for travel the best deals often go to those who act quickly.

Photo by istockphoto.com

Southwest Airlines, which will launch service from Logan starting Aug. 16, announced
a big 48-hour sale, with one-way fares going for as low as $30, $60, or $90 based on length of travel.
The move bucks a recent industry trend, which saw the major airlines raising ticket prices over the past couple of weeks as the beleaguered carriers once again find themselves facing volatile fuel prices.
The terms of the Southwest sale go like this: For flights up to 400 miles, you could pay as little as $30; 400-750 miles $60; and more than 750 miles $90. These fares don't include taxes and fees, and you must purchase before July 9 for travel from Sept. 9 through Nov. 18. Also you can't travel on Fridays or Sundays.
The complaints with this kind of deal tend to focus on the fact that sale fares tend to be in rather short supply. But here in Greater Boston we have an advantage because Southwest doesn't begin flying till next month, so, for the most part, there's no shortage of seats available for the fall.
I plugged in a few September and October dates for flights to the Midwest and California and found a number of openings at sale prices.
This sale could also kick off a smallish price war on competing routes, according to one airline analyst who was quoted in a Reuters story.
"While airline ticket prices have stabilized recently from their free fall, airlines are by no means out of the woods as oil prices remain volatile and demand precarious," said Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com, in an e-mail this morning. "Later today we should see significant airfare matching activity (even for the modest 2-day purchase period on the Southwest sale) as legacy airlines will not want to be undercut."

Direct Air, which flies from Worcester Regional Airport to Sanford (Orlando) and Punta Gorda (Fort Myers) in Florida and to Myrtle Beach, S.C., is offering 50 percent off its lowest available fares from July 3 through midnight July 12. The sale is good on all available flights, into 2010.

The airline is presenting this as a deal to benefit last minute "Gotta get away" folks and "long term planners" who want to book winter flights at big savings. Travelers must use promo code "JULY4" to receive the offer. Visit the website or call 877-432-DIRECT (3473).

In addition to the discounted airfares, the oceanfront Myrtle Beach Sea Watch Resort is offering a "Stay 2 nights and 3rd night free offer, and USAVE car rental is offering a free day rental with 3 or more paid days.

Doug Lansky knows that half of the travel experience involves adventure and beauty, those transcendent moments when you see, hear, smell, taste something completely new, when you become, if even for the briefest of time, a little less like your old self and you know you will return home different for good.

Then there's the bad stuff.

To celebrate the lesser aspects of travel (or least to stop pretending that they don't exist), Lansky has created the Titanic Awards, an online site inviting tourists to share their horror stories.

Visitors to the site are asked to complete a survey of the worst in travel and he's already managed to garner hundreds of responses since launching in late May.

Some sample results thus far:

*With 1,200 respondents from 75 countries thus far to the question of which nation has the worst cuisine, Britain leads the pack with 25.1% of votes, followed by the United States (10.3%), China (3.5%), and Russia (3.2%).

*Makers of the worst beer? More than 1,600 from over 80 countries say the United States (23% -- with Budweiser leading the voting for worst brew), China (5.2%), Britain (4.1%), Australia (3.7%), and France (3.4%).

*Toilets? Over 1,200 from more than 75 lands say the big stinker is China (18.8%), followed by India (15.9%), France (4.5%), Italy (3.9%), and Mexico (3.3%).

*Lamest of the new wonders of the world, according to over 1,800 people from more than 80 countries: Christ, the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro (a whopping 53.6%), Chichen Itza (12.7%), Roman Colosseum (9.5%), and Taj Mahal (8.8%).

At some point, Lansky wants to compile all this results into a kind of anti-tour guide of what the prudent traveler can feel good avoiding. Check it out.

iStockphoto.com shot of Christ, the Redeemer

Forewarned is forearmed. Recent reports suggest that problems for the airline industry may be near bottoming out, and with the the seasonal uptick of air travel it looks like carriers are trying to may some hay. Bloomberg, citing numbers from Farecompare.com, is reporting that the major carriers may be trying to make another move to raise fares.

American Airlines and United Airlines raised most domestic fares by as much as $20 for a round trip, the second increase in as many weeks, as they try to take advantage of peak U.S. summer travel season demand.

AMR Corp.’s American boosted prices by $10 to $20 on most U.S. routes yesterday, and UAL Corp.’s United matched the move, ticket-research firm FareCompare.com said in an e-mail. Delta Air Lines Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. led carriers in a $20 round trip increase in the second week of June.

Two successful fare increases in a month would support an International Air Transport Association report today that the slump in global airline travel may have reached a “floor” following a 9.3 percent decline in passenger traffic last month. Airlines have slashed prices to win customers in the recession.

“We may have hit bottom, but we are a long way from recovery,” IATA Chief Executive Officer Giovanni Bisignani said in a statement. “This crisis is the worst we have ever seen.”

Though the 5 day festival honoring the patron saint of the fishermen, St. Peter, began on the 24th, there are still 4 days left to join in the celebration. The festival is put on by the spirited Italian-American community of Gloucester, Mass. The St. Peter's Fiesta has been featured on The Discovery Channel, PBS's United Tastes of America and New England's own, Yankee Magazine. The 2009 festival started June 24 and ends this Sunday, June 28.

In 1927 an Italian-American fishing captain, Savatore Favazza, ordered a life-sized statue of St. Peter to be enshrined in the heart of the Italian district. The fishermen and their families began to pray to their patron saint and it wasn't too long after, that the wives and mothers of the fishermen made plans for an annual religious procession on June 29 in honor of St. Peter. Slowly through the years, this annual procession grew to a day-long demonstration of faith to the protector of all fishermen, which then of course turned into the 5-day celebration Gloucester still holds today.

Beyond the procession, the prayers and the mass, lies a full schedule of music, sports, activities, feasts and drink. Perhaps the most anticipated events are the Seine Boat Races and the Greasy Pole. The schedule is here, so you can plan you trip.

Photo courtesy of St. Peter's Festival Committee

The driver of a construction vehicle that crossed a Logan International Airport runway as a jet took off last week has said he did not know the runway was open, federal transportation investigators said.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is looking into the June 18 runway incursion, said in a preliminary report that the runway, 15R, is occasionally closed due to airfield construction. When the runway is closed, signs indicate that it is closed, the NTSB said. No signs were posted that day. Airport officials also said that all personnel had been briefed that the runway was active.

But the vehicle’s driver, who was working for HNTB on an airport project, “indicated that he had not been briefed to that fact,’’ the NTSB said in a one-page report posted Friday on its website.

NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said the agency would, as part of its investigation, look into how people on the airfield are notified whether runways are closed.

“Part of our investigation is the extent and the circumstances of the communication,’’ he said.

He said a report by his agency, determining the probable cause of the incident and any factors that may have played into it, will be finished in six to 12 months.

The NTSB report also said there was a 500-foot separation between the airplane and the vehicle.

But officials said that with the Airbus A320 hurtling down the runway, only seconds separated the plane and the truck. An A320 jet can take off at speeds ranging from 170 to 250 miles per hour.

“It’s very serious,’’ said Phil Orlandella, a spokesman for the airport, which is run by the Massachusetts Port Authority. “That’s why [Massport officials] decided that safety’s first and we’re going to cease construction until we figure out what happened.’’

All airfield construction has been suspended since the incident, while officials review procedures.

A spokeswoman for HNTB, which has offices in Boston and Chelmsford, said the company had no comment.

The incident happened about 6:36 a.m. The construction crew, riding in a Ford Explorer on Taxiway M, crossed the runway as the plane, US Airways Flight 27, bound for Phoenix, was rolling toward takeoff. There were no injuries to the 84 passengers and five crew.

The NTSB is investigating the incident with assistance from Massport and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Posted by Martin Finucane, Globe staff

The Clear registered traveler program, which promised to speed fliers through airport security lines, was shuttered last night.
Clear, which began about four years ago, had enrolled more than 250,000 travelers who paid nearly $200 a year and operated at 18 airports, including Atlanta, Denver, San Francisco and Washington Dulles. At Logan, the program was offered only through Delta Airlines in Terminal A.
Users of the Clear system received high-tech ID cards to verify their fingerprints or iris images at designated security kiosks. Clear faced criticism because TSA decided that registered travelers had to go through the same security screening as everyone else.
A statement on the website of Verified Identity Pass, which runs the Clear program, said that the firm "had been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations."
The note also said that the firm would keep member information secure until it was able to delete it and that "at the present time, because of its financial condition, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. cannot issue refunds.''
Clear was started by Court TV founder Steven Brill, who told USA Today that he had left the company in March to start Journalism Online LLC, a venture to help publications collect revenue for online content.

Bloomberg News photo

A construction vehicle drove onto a runway at Logan International Airport this morning as a jet was taking off, an airport spokesman said.

US Airways Flight 27, an Airbus 320, was taking off for Phoenix at around 6:36 a.m. when a construction vehicle crossed Runway 15R.

"It was a serious thing, a matter of seconds," said spokesman Phil Orlandella.

He said the construction vehicle had been working on a taxiway that crosses the runway when the driver crossed over the runway.

The "runway incursion" is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and the driver has been pulled off the airfield, Orlandella said.

An FAA spokesman didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

Posted by Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

UPDATE:
Matthew Brelis, director of media relations at Massport, said in a statement that all airfield construction work has been suspended at the airfield, pending an investigation. He also said:

"Until we know the factors that contributed to this event -- whether it was the failure of an individual or there was a failure in the system -- and implemented measures to minimize further the potential for such events, construction on the airfield will be suspended. "Massport is actively investigating the incursion and reviewing its procedures with the Federal Aviation Administration. We expect this review to take several days. We have notified the National Transportation Safety Board of the incident. "The driver of the construction vehicle, a private contractor, appears to have violated airfield procedures. His actions are under investigation by the appropriate authorities and his airfield driving privileges have been revoked pending the completion of the investigation.''

The discount carrier has started twice daily nonstop flights to Los Angeles International and is offering one-way sale fares as low as $109. To get the special fares you must book before June 27 and travel between Sept. 8 and Nov. 11. JetBlue announced plans to launch the service in February after pulling back on LAX expansion in May of last year, citing the high cost of fuel and other start-up expenses. And starting tomorrow JetBlue will begin its previously announced nonstop service to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. To mark the occasion, Boston's favorite Santo Domingan, Red Sox star David Ortiz, will be at Logan to greet passengers boarding the first flight.

Toronto-based upstart Porter Airlines, which launched in 2006, plans to announce tomorrow that it will begin daily service between Boston and Toronto City Centre Airport, according to an aviation official with knowledge of the airline's plans. The airline is planning to launch three daily flights between Logan Airport and the Toronto airport that is located at the western end of the Toronto islands, the official said.

Porter Airlines could not immediately be reached for comment.

Porter Airlines serves Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax, Newark, and Chicago Midway airports, with seasonal flights to Mt. Tremblant, Quebec. The company has said that it plans to fly to at least 16 short-haul Canadian and US destinations.
(By Globe staff)

Pirates are not just for kids apparently. The New England Pirate Faire in Gloucester, Mass., this weekend, June 20-21, proves it. Buccaneers and Jack Sparrows will deluge Gloucester in this two-day festival of all things Pirate.

The New England Pirate Faire features a cast of over 100 actors and musicians, putting on a production to make you feel like you're an extra in the Pirates of the Caribbean. The Tortuga Marketplace will be set up for vendors to offer their pirate goods to visitors. All pirates need be on hand from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. each day. Admission for adults is $12; children pay $8. For details look online or call 781-346-102.

Photo credit Pastimes

I recently found myself at a Starbucks Café at Copley Place in Boston, waiting to meet my friend Charlotte for a coffee and chat after returning from three months in Havana, Cuba.

I bought my $4 coffee and scavenged for a table. College students with laptops crowded most of them, headphones in place to block out the rest of the world. A European couple stood up and I darted over to ask them if they were leaving.

Reuters photo of men fishing off the Malecon.

They looked bewildered, nodded, and left three empty coffee cups and trash from their lunch on the table. I put my coat down to save the table and took several trips to the garbage can. I learned long ago not to judge tourist faux pas in our country, as I can’t imagine how many I myself have committed while traveling.

I sat down to wait for Charlotte and immediately opened a magazine I had in brought in my bag. There was music blasting and one of the baristas was singing and dancing along. “Gals on the go,” as a friend of mine affectionately refers to American women, ran in and out ordering non-fat double shot lattes.

I was feeling equally as overwhelmed as the Europeans had looked, but trying to get back into my own gal-on-the-go mentality in order to feel normal in American society again.

I am an avid traveler and over the last four years have spent time in Spain, Ireland, South Africa and Cuba. In each country I traveled to I enjoyed long conversations with friends in cafés and spent copious amounts of time sipping coffee by myself and watching the city at work and play – something which seems self-indulgent when I am in America, but to me is a staple of learning about another culture.

Of the countries I have been to Cuba was the most sheltered from American culture, but oddly enough it was also the easiest to adjust to. I spent hours sitting on the Malecon, a sea wall that stretches the length of the city, watching old American cars drive by. The constant visual assault of advertising was gone. I had no cell phone constantly buzzing and beeping at me, demanding my attention and getting on my nerves.

FULL ENTRY

Here’s a Flag Day freebie for you.

The Boston Harbor Alliance is offering free ferry rides this Sunday to Spectacle and Georges Islands. Simply register online at Harbor Islands Express, and select your return and departure times. Then, plan to spend a relaxing day on one of the city’s oases.

Normally, the cruises run $14 for adults and $8 for children, each way, so families looking for a Sunday picnic spot this weekend are sure to be taking advantage in large numbers. Seeing as it is Flag Day, of course, the Alliance is encouraging riders to wear red, white, and blue to show their patriotic spirit.

I always cover this event, because it is so classic Vermont. Who else would adorn their beloved heifers with flower garlands and parade them through the streets? This Saturday, June 6th, is the annual Strolling of the Heifers Parade starting at 10 a.m. down Main Street, in Brattleboro, Vt. Featuring the world-famous heifer calves [A heifer is a young cow who has not yet had a calf of her own.] led by future farmers and followed by tractors, clowns, floats, bands and much more. Visitors can follow the parade to the budding Green Expo and Dairy Fest for a full day of fun, food, music, square dancing, and education. Look out for the book sale, arts and crafts sale and show, Farmer's Market and great Mooing contest for kids.

If one day is not enough, consider booking some lodging and head over for the weekend to take full advantage of events surrounding the Heifer Stroll. Friday night features the famous Great Vermont Grilled Cheese cook-off, a gallery walk appreciating local art, and a celebration of youth involved in agriculture. And Sunday wraps up the weekend with a Farmer's Feast dinner emphasizing local grown foods, and a farm tour. For more information, visit online for details, including browsing through the one and only Heifer Store.

Photo credit VT Chamber of Commerce

Southwest Airlines, which has largely refrained from engaging in the airline extra-fee feeding frenzy, has decided to add a levy for children flying alone, double charges for third checked bags, and allow pets in the cabin for $75 each way.
Southwest, which prides itself on its "no hidden fee'' policy, will add a $50 round-trip service charge for children ages 5 through 11 flying alone, according to a report by Bloomberg News. The levy will apply to fares bought after June 1 for flights starting June 17. Most of the major carriers, including Delta, American, and US Airways, charge $100 each way.
Southwest, which lets travelers check two bags for free, will raise the fee to $50 for a third checked bag and for luggage weighing 51 pounds to 70 pounds. The changes take effect June 17.
Among the major carriers only Southwest and JetBlue don’t charge for a first checked bag, and JetBlue charges for second and subsequent bags.

A new carrier announced plans this week to launch service out of six US cities in the next few months. The start-up said that it would offer discount fares, beginning at $9 a seat, and keep prices down by flying out of secondary cities, with most of the profit expected to come from fees for a variety of extras (think checked bags, pillows, etc,) and food and merchandise sales.
Sound familiar? It should. The man behind JetAmerica, John Weikle, was the founder of Skybus -- they of the $10 seats and abundant fees -- which went under in April of last year. Weikle left Skybus in 2007.
JetAmerica says its initial cities will be Newark, N.J., Toledo, Ohio, Lansing, Mich., South Bend, Ind., Melbourne, Fla., and Minneapolis.
Even though JetAmerica, which technically is running as a charter with planes from Miami Air International, has yet to make a single flight, it already seems to have expansion plans, which could involve New England. Weikel told his hometown paper, The Charleson Gazette, that he hopes to add Charleston and seven other "focus cities'' in the next 18 months. And JetAmerica officials told The Toledo Blade that in the next couple of years the carrier may head to Hartford, Conn., Baltimore, and Chicago's Midway Airport.
The Portsmouth Herald has reported Pease Development Authority officials are in talks to bring JetAmerica to Portsmouth International Airport, which hasn't had any regular passenger service since Skybus filed for bankruptcy.
The folks in New Hampshire aren't the only ones in the region eyeing up JetAmerica. Officials at Burlington International in Vermont say they haven't had any talks with the start-up but are keeping tabs on the the carrier's progress.
The airport is looking to make sales pitches to a dozen carriers next week in an attempt to lure more routes in the wake of a decision by AirTran to scale back service there, according to the Burlington Free Press.
It's no surprise that as the bigger airlines are trimming schedules that smaller and medium-size airports, which are losing flights, should be scrambling to bring in more business.
While the JetAmerica launch has drawn significant interest from airports, it has also turned the spotlight on the project's major investor. The Columbus Dispatch has reported that Steven Schoen, chairman of Sun America, "left [Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport] on the hook for more than $50,000 from a previous airline venture and alienated the major area casinos that help subsidize air service to Gulfport.''
Schoen was an investor in Casino Airlink and Southeast Airlines, both of which flew to Gulfport, Miss. JetAmerica spokesman Bryan Glazer told the Dispatch:

Schoen "became a victim of the abrupt financial difficulties incurred by Southeast." He said Schoen's situation "is not unlike the financial problems of many Americans who have lost their life savings and retirement funds in the stock market and independent investments."

For more adventures of the Son of Skybus, stay tuned.

Starting June 1, the federal government is tightening ID rules for US citizens re-entering the country from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda.
Till now, if you were coming back into the country from those places by land or sea you only needed to show proof of identity and US citizenship so a driver's license and birth certificate would do it. If you were flying in you basically needed a passport.
After June 1, all will need a passport, passport card, or other approved ID (here's where you can find a list).
Right now, the government says it takes about four to six weeks to process a full passport application or two to three weeks if you're willing to pay for expedited service. Applications for passport cards, which are cheaper but can only be used for land or sea travel to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean region, and Bermuda but not for international air travel (If you're interested, I wrote about the difference last year), take about four to six weeks.
If you still have a little time before your trip and are a Patriots fan, the team is sponsoring a special night on June 4 from 4-8 p.m. at which travelers can apply for a passport at Gillette Stadium’s Fidelity Investments Clubhouse. The event is free. The team is sponsoring the event to promote its Oct. 25 exhibition game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Wembley Stadium in London. If fact, everyone who shows up to apply for a passport will become eligible to win two free tickets to the game.

AP file photo

Lobster College sounds like a hungry Mainiac’s dream: all lobster, all the time. Ah, but it’s real, if only for one weekend, Sept. 17-20. In past years, Lobster College has attracted folks from as near as Maine, as far as Illinois, Michigan, Florida, and Australia. Along with retirees and other curious fans of the crustacean, there have been restaurant owners and students of marine science for whom this is a serious hands-on learning experience.
Instructors are University of Maine faculty and lobster fishermen and dealers who serve up generous lessons on lobster biology and ecology, stock management, branding and marketing, and related environmental issues. Students learn to bait traps and go out on a working lobster boat. They hear about lobster products and taste recipes at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Last year they ate at least ten lobster dishes in four days.
The program is run by the Lobster Institute, a coalition of University of Maine faculty and those working in the industry, focused on research and education outreach to protect, conserve and enhance a healthy lobster fishery as a resource, and lobstering as both an industry and a way of life. Lobster College is also a fundraiser for the institute. Sessions takes place in and around Boothbay Harbor, among the prettiest sections along Midcoast Maine’s rocky coast. Participants stay at Kenniston Hill Inn Bed & Breakfast in Boothbay. The charming shipbuilder’s mansion was built in 1786.
Enrollment is limited to 20; the deadline is August 31. Tuition is $575 per person, including all lobster meals, plus room rates which range from $450-$570 for the weekend. Details are at www.lobsterinstitute.org or call 207-581-2751 or 207-581-1443.

Posted by Janet Mendelsohn, Globe Correspondent

Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff

It's spring, and the fish are biting. The Upper Andro Anglers Alliance in co-operation with Trout Unlimited are hoping to hook families on fishing with a free Family Fishing Festival on Saturday, May 30.

The festival will be held at the Grand Summit Hotel Pond at Sunday River Ski Resort in Newry, Maine, from 9 am to 2 pm, rain or shine.

For those new to the sport, free casting workshops and fly-tying instruction will be available throughout the day. Instruction will include both spin casting and fly casting for older youth and parents.

No need to bring equipment, Maine’s Hooked on Fishing—Not on Drugs Program will supply complimentary rods and reels for festival use.

Get this: the Grand Summit Pond will be stocked with trout courtesy of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and participants can take home any catches.

There's even swag: Each young angler will receive a mini-tackle box complete with bobber, sinkers and hook courtesy of the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance. Kids can learn how to tie flies with materials provided by Trout Unlimited and fibers from Sunday River Alpacas. Families participating in the event will be eligible for door prizes from local outfitters and businesses.

Of course, food, too: an outdoor barbecue will feed tired anglers.

Can't make it to Bethel? The weekend of May 30-31 is a free fishing weekend throughout Maine. Resident and Non-resident freshwater fishing licenses are waived each day.

For those families wishing to stay overnight and fish or canoe the Androscoggin River on Sunday, special family packages are available for the weekend at local lodging establishments. Check with the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce.

Facing the prospect of increasing competition from Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways, Delta Air Lines will halt nonstop flights from Logan International Airport to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on Aug. 17. “We made a competitive decision to drop the service and maintain our focus on our seven US hubs,’’ said Kent Landers a Delta spokesman. In April, Southwest announced that it would begin service from Logan with five daily flights each to BWI and Chicago Midway Airport on Aug 18, and JetBlue said it would fly to Baltimore four times daily starting on Sept. 9, a move widely viewed as a reaction to Southwest’s entrance to the Boston market. Delta will continue to offer service to BWI through a connecting flight via New York’s Kennedy Airport. In another development, Delta announced that it was cutting last-minute, walkup fares on its shuttle service from Boston to New York's LaGuardia Airport by as much as 60 percent to $129, compared with the previous fare of $329. The change would bring the carrier in line with the fares offered by most of its rivals on the competitive route heavily used by businesspeople, according to Rick Seaney, chief executive of farecompare.com, which tracks airline fares.

Posted by Paul Makishima and Chris Reidy, Globe staff

JetBlue started the week off with two big announcements. First it launched an online "300,000 seat Summer Sale" with one-way airfares as low as $29 to $129 for destinations across the nation and the Caribbean. Much of the fine print will be familiar: You must book before Friday for travel between June 2 and Sept. 9 and all travel must take place on a Tuesday or Wednesday. And fares require up to a 10-day advance purchase.
The discount carrier also said that it was extending its refund program for travelers who get laid off after buying tickets. The program, which JetBlue says has been welcomed by customers, was originally supposed to run only through June.

It's clear that most folks who are planning summer travel are looking at more modest options.
Most, I'm guessing are planning trips of a few days to a week by car. Interestingly enough Bloomberg News is just reporting that The Air Transport Association is forecasting that US summer airline travel will fall 7 percent from last year.
Anyway, I just did a spot this morning on NECN offering tips on how to save on trips this summer. You can watch but if you want the shorter summary here it is:

FIRST, do some research on prospective destinations for the availability of cheap or free things to do. Check out AAA guides and family-travel websites to get a feel for the lay of the land: Are there attractions, parks, beaches, places to hike and bike at or near where you plan to be? Also take a look at websites of newspapers in the area along with those of state travel and tourism agencies for calendar listings of events that may be happening while you're in the area.

SECOND, if you’re planning to get away for just a couple of days and you’re looking to cut lodging costs, consider using one of the “opaque’’ travel sites, like Priceline or Hotwire, which let you bid on rooms. The downside is that these sites are “opaque,’’ not transparent. You don’t bid on a room at a specific hotel. Instead you make an offer on a room at a class of hotel -- 2-, 3-, or 4 stars -- in a specific city and you don’t know exactly where you’ll be staying until your bid is accepted. But by using these sites you can score savings of up to 40%-50%, particularly at higher-end properties this year.

THIRD, if you're looking for a more extended vacation, a like a week or more, consider renting a house. This often gets you a lot more space at the same or lower per-night cost of a hotel room and will save you all kinds of money in things like food. There are a number of websites like VRBO, which stands for Vacation Rentals By Owner, and craigslist with vacation home listings.

AND FINALLY, AND THIS IS A GREAT TIP: If you can be flexible about where you go and are willing to wait till the last minute, say, the week before your vacation you can get great deals on unrented vacation houses -- and I expect there to be a fair number of these available this year. In years past I have saved as much as 50% on rentals this way. When you spot last-minute openings, they’ll probably be discounted already but don’t be afraid to make an offer. By taking the last-minute route you may not be able to get a place in that town on the Cape that you usually go to, but it can also be an opportunity to explore another place or perhaps even another state.

Hope this helps. If you have other ideas, please share.

From May 21 to Sept. 27, 2009, Kimpton is offering a special PRIDE rate code to members of the LGBT community to receive a complimentary weekend night when they book two nights at the best available rate. Plus, Kimpton is including a $50 dining credit for use at participating restaurants adjacent to Kimpton hotels.
“Kimpton is proud to be supportive of the LGBT community,” said Alan Baer, senior vice president of human resources and co-chair of the Kimpton Gay & Lesbian Employee Network. “As a company we are very involved in the communities we live in and contribute to dozens of LGBT organizations.”
The Summer of Pride offer is available in 20 cities including: Alexandria, Arlington, Boston, Cambridge, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Portland, San Diego, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Seattle, Scottsdale, Vancouver, Vero Beach, and Washington, D.C.
Use the rate code PRIDE when booking. Some restrictions apply, based on availability. To book visit here or call 1-800-KIMPTON.

I wrote a story in this morning's Globe about the industry's expansion of Wi-Fi. There are a couple of reasons but one of the big ones is that "ancillaries'' (read fees for baggage, blankets, headsets, talking to humans etc.) are becoming a bigger and bigger piece of airline revenue.
Lest you think I joking witness this Bloomberg News piece in today's Business section:

American Airlines and US Airways Group Inc. led US carriers in collecting a record $1.1 billion in bag fees in 2008 as they began charging to check all luggage to defray fuel costs.
Industrywide collections more than doubled from 2007, when the fees were levied chiefly on fliers who had heavy baggage or checked more than two pieces, the US Transportation Department said yesterday. Last year's total was the most since the agency started keeping track in 1990.
The data gave the first glimpse of US carriers' extra revenue, because they didn't detail the baggage money in year-end earnings releases. With jet fuel retreating from 2008's peak, the cash is helping soften the blow from a plunge in travel during the recession.
"These small fees really add up," said Matthew Jacob, a Majestic Research LLC analyst.

And the latest government figures are showing that US airlines' on-time performance and baggage handling got better in March compared with the same period a year ago, but was worse than in February of this year. This from the AP:

Atlantic Southeast Airlines, a unit of SkyWest Inc., based out of St. George, Utah, and a feeder carrier for Delta Air Lines Inc., had the worst on-time performance in March, while Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time performance in the month.
Nineteen carriers recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 78.4 percent in March, better than the 71.6 percent rate of March 2008 but down from the 82.6 percent recorded in February of this year, according to the Department of Transportation.
The carriers reported that 7.29 percent of their flights in March were delayed by aviation system delays, compared with 6.58 percent in February; 6.49 percent by late-arriving aircraft, compared with 4.79 percent in February; and 4.84 percent by factors within the airline's control, such as maintenance or crew problems, compared with 4.17 percent in February.
In March, the carriers canceled 2.1 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, a lower rate than the 2.6 percent cancellation rate of March 2008 but higher than the 1.2 percent rate posted in February of this year.
The airlines overall had a mishandled baggage rate of 4.12 reports per 1,000 passengers in March, an improvement over March 2008's rate of 6.66 reports per 1,000 passengers but higher than the rate of 3.56 reports per 1,000 passengers posted in February of this year. The DOT said that in March it received 705 complaints about airline service from consumers, down 30.3 percent from the 1,011 complaints filed in March 2008 but 22.4 percent more than the total of 576 complaints received in February 2009.

If you're of the wonkish tribe and you'd like to see the actual report this piece is based on, you can find it here.

The wireless Internet battle in the sky is quickly escalating to a dogfight.
AirTran Airways said yesterday morning that it plans to offer in-flight, wireless, Internet access on all 136 of its aircraft by midsummer. Virgin America currently has the service on 24 of its 28 planes, and is on schedule have the rest ready to go by Memorial Day.
On Monday, Delta Air Lines, which became the world’s largest carrier after its merger last year with Northwest Airlines, announced that it has WiFi on 139 planes, or about half of its mainline domestic fleet, and will have the rest finished by September. The carrier also expects to complete outfitting all 200 jets in Northwest’s domestic fleet next year.
And American, which has already equipped all its transcontinental aircraft, says it will have a total of 165 planes WiFi-ready by the end of 2009, with a goal of having 318, or nearly half its fleet, finished over the next few years.
Facing tough competition, the nation's airlines are viewing WiFi, which they once saw as merely a desirable amenity, increasingly as a necessary feature.
“Going online at 35,000 feet isn't a ‘nice to have,’ ’’ said Henry H. Harteveldt, principal airline analyst for Forrester Research Inc. “In today's tough business climate, in-flight Wi-Fi is as essential as the beverage cart. Business people need to stay in touch with their clients and colleagues, as well as stay on top of the volatile business environment. Leisure travelers appreciate WiFi in-flight because they can stay in touch with family and friends, plan their journeys, and entertain themselves.’’
While many carriers are aggressively adopting WiFi, others are at the very least kicking the tires. Southwest Airlines, which carries more passengers than any other US airline, is testing the service on four planes and is looking at the prospects for expansion. JetBlue hopes to have 20 planes outfitted this year for a stripped-down service that would allow e-mail and instant-messaging.
For the most part, all the services work the same. Passengers pay a fee, generally about $8 to $13 depending on the length of the flight, and the service is supplied by a contractor, the largest being Aircell LLC of Itasca, Ill., under its Gogo Inflight Internet brand.
The airlines, which have been garnering increasing amounts of revenue from the assorted fees they’ve launched in the past couple years, expect the service will be not just popular but profitable.
“On a coast-to-coast weekday flight, airlines tell me that it's not uncommon to sometimes have two dozen or more passengers online simultaneously,’’ Harteveldt said. “That could turn into a nice revenue stream long-term for airlines as the product becomes more widely available and more passengers begin using it.’’
But analysts say that the service also eventually could yield significant savings as it may let airlines remove their in-flight entertainment systems, leaving passengers to access the many media options available online. Getting rid of the systems would reduce the weight of planes, making them more fuel efficient, and free the carriers from having to pay for licensing entertainment content.

Johnny Depp, pal of the late dearly departed Hunter S., currently is in Puerto Rico filming an adaptation of Thompson's semi-autobiographical (did he write any other kind) novel "The Rum Diary'' about a lost, alcohol-fueled journalist who moves from New York to work on a newspaper in Puerto Rico.
Depp, you'll recall, played Thompson in the film version of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'' (I film I couldn't get through, owing to camera work seeking to replicate the experience of being really high and my own tendency toward motion sickness), and he also delivered a eulogy for the writer at a private memorial service.
Anyway, intrigued by the prospect of the film, an editor of Media Bistro's Galley Cat book blog reread "The Rum Diary,'' written very early in Thompson's career, and put together this video tour retracing the gonzo journalist's life on the island nation.
It's fun, interesting, and unlike "Fear and Loathing'' requires no Dramamine to watch.

Good morning, travelers.
For the first time, American plans to let frequent fliers use their miles to book one-way flights for half the miles of a round-trip. The carrier will also let customers redeem miles for first-class seats one way and use fewer miles for a coach seat on the return, according to the Associated Press.

Officials at American, which developed the first frequent-flier program nearly three decades ago, plan to announce the changes Monday and put them into effect shortly.
They say American is the first major US airline to offer a one-way award ticket at half miles. It's hard to know how many people would use miles for a one-way trip -- parents driving a child to college and flying home might -- and American officials didn't offer any estimates.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, the highlight of this evening's awards ceremony. The winner of this year's Balchen/Post Award for Outstanding Achievement in Airport Snow and Ice Control in the Large Commercial Airport category is ... LOGAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT!!!!!!
Applause. Applause. Applause.
Accepting this year's award for Logan is Massport Director of Aviation Edward C. Freni: “We’re honored to have been selected again for this prestigious award that validates our commitment to the safe operation of Boston Logan. The value of the Balchen/Post is that it is an endorsement by not only the airlines but the pilots and ground crews who depend on us to keep the airport open and functional during all weather conditions.”

But seriously folks. The annual prize, named for aviation pioneers Wiley Post (the first man to fly solo around the world and the pilot on Will Rogers' ill-fated last flight) and Col. Bernt Balchen, recognizes the work of snow crews who labor to keep runways safe in winter.
To reach the winner's podium, Logan beat out Alaska’s Ted Stevens International Airport -- even without knowing a great deal about the competition this has got to be a big deal.
While I hear they get a little snow in Alaska, we were no doubt aided by the fact that Logan saw 70 inches of snow this winter.
And while we're at it it's probably worth mentioning that Massport’s Hanscom Field in Bedford scored an honorable mention its category.
Kudos and plow on, dudes.

Call her a samaritan with "a weird voyeuristic passion.''
London-based Luna Laboo (that is at least what she calls herself) has just launched a website called IsThisYourLuggage.com.
On her website, Ms. Laboo posts pictures of pieces of unclaimed luggage she has purchased at auction, along with the contents of said luggage.
Her mission is two-fold: First, to feed that embarrassingly, voyeuristic curiosity we all share; and second in the hopes of perhaps reuniting someone with their lost bag.
"I had the idea for the project after watching a news report on all the luggage going missing at Heathrow's Terminal 5 in London,'' she wrote me in an e-mail. "I began to wonder where all the lost luggage was going. I found the auction where the Heathrow luggage was being sold off and went along to buy a case. I thought I'd maybe buy one just to see what was in them, but there is something incredibly intriguing about other peoples things. Especially personal things like their dirty clothes. So I bought another, and another and so it went on. I took the photos as I thought this would be the best way to appreciate the contents as a whole.''
She says that at auction a suitcase tends to go for £20-£50 ($30-$75) and that you can't see what's inside till you buy it.
"It's a bit like opening a Christmas present. (Maybe I need help),'' she wrote.
In the month since her site has been up, Laboo hasn't had any success in finding owners for her wayward bags. But hope springs eternal. And in the meantime it is fun to look.

Photo by Luna Laboo of IsThisYourLuggage.com

Various analysts are suggesting that the airlines might be starting to see some improvement, and that may mean the start of a slow down in big airfare sales.
Bloomberg News reported this yesterday:

U.S. carriers reported their smallest traffic declines in eight months for April, indicating that travel demand may be starting to revive after reaching a bottom.
Combined passenger traffic on the six biggest U.S. carriers slid 5.1 percent from a year earlier, following 11 percent drops in February and March. Continental Airlines Inc. also said unit revenue was down 12 percent or less in April, after tumbling 20 percent in March, suggesting that fares and travel may be stabilizing.

Matthew Jacob, an analyst at New York-based Majestic Research LLC, told Bloomberg that "it’s funny to think you can get excited about traffic being down 5 percent, but that’s the case. We’re not seeing the declines get worse, and that’s a positive sign.”
And today, Bloomberg quote the CEO of United's parent company, UAL, as saying that he too thinks "passenger traffic may be stabilizing and he’s 'comfortable' with capacity reductions implemented in the face of the economic decline.''
Read things are starting to go their way.
Bottom line: If these numbers continue and demand firms up the prices of airfares will surely begin rising, particularly given all the schedule trimming that's been done.
Fares are pretty reasonable right now and nothing will happen immediately. But there appears to be some risk ahead. Be forewarned.

In a clash of the high-tech and modern with the ancient and primal, a coyote found its way today onto Logan International Airport, forcing brief closures of two runways. The animal died after being struck by a truck as workers tried to corral it.
The coyote was discovered by ground crews at about 10:15, prompting the closure of the runways. Crews in trucks attempted to divert the animal away from the runways and followed the animal to a different section of the airfield while they contacted animal control officers
"They were trying to keep it contained," said Massport spokesman Phil Orlandella. "But then it bolted and went in front of one of the trucks."
Orlandella said it's very rare for animals to run loose on the airfield, especially wild animals. "It happens maybe three or four times a year," he said. "Usually, it's someone's dog or something that gets loose."
No major flight delays were caused by the incident, Orlandella said.

By Stewart Bishop, Globe correspondent

Good morning, travelers. The swine flu outbreak may reach pandemic status but the fears seem to be abating. In this morning's Globe, this is what health reporter Stephen Smith reported:

Swine flu, in a matter of days, had hopscotched the globe, racing in the era of jet travel from Mexico, through the United States, Europe, and all the way to China. But the virus has resulted in only a single death outside the outbreak's epicenter. Instead, the strain known as H1N1 has spawned symptoms akin to the seasonal flu that strikes each winter. That was evident in new findings released last night by Governor Deval Patrick and his top health administrators at a State House press briefing. They reported that the state now has 34 confirmed cases of the disease, up from six at the end of last week. People across the state have been stricken, but only three fell so ill that they needed to be hospitalized, and all have recovered. "This is a cause for concern, but not for panic," Patrick said. "Flu always spreads." But, the governor quickly added, an ordinary flu season generates many more cases than the number of H1N1 illnesses reported so far. And so, less than two weeks after disease detectives first identified the new virus, officials from Boston to Atlanta to Geneva began to ever so subtly modify their message about swine flu: Yes, it's something that needs to be watched closely. But the worst - at least right now - might not happen.

In Mexico City, the AP is reporting that things are starting to return to normal:

Mexico declared a return to "normalcy" yesterday, preparing to reopen businesses and schools even as the swine flu virus sickened more than 1,200 people in 20 countries. World health officials said the global epidemic is still in its early stages, and that a pandemic could be declared in the days to come. But Mexico's president said it was waning at its epicenter, justifying tomorrow's end to a five-day nationwide shutdown he credits for reducing the spread of the new virus. Already, streets in the capital seemed more lively, with more vehicles, and fewer people wearing face masks. Some cafes even reopened ahead of time. President Felipe Calderón said universities and high schools will reopen on Thursday, and younger schoolchildren should report back to school on May 11.

But many countries, like Japan, plan to maintain vigilance, according to the AP:

As long as the threat of a flu pandemic persists, anyone who flies into Japan from North America while experiencing any flu-like symptoms or ailments will not be allowed to walk off an airplane and infect people. Last week, inspectors began boarding every flight from Mexico, Canada, and the United States. They take the temperature of about 6,000 passengers a day. Near Tokyo's Narita airport, 500 rooms have been secured by the Health Ministry to quarantine infected passengers.

In local, travel-related news, business reporter Casey Ross is reporting that the Massachusetts Port Authority has told developer Don Chiofaro that two towers he's planning near the New England Aquarium are too tall and would encroach on Logan's airspace:

Chiofaro has proposed a 40-story office tower and a 59-story residential tower linked by a 770-foot tall "skyframe" that would create a rectangular arch that itself would be taller than the two towers.
The authority said the project exceeds its height guidelines for the waterfront by at least 145 feet and could interfere with airplane maneuvers during emergencies. The property, located about two miles from Logan, and now the site of the Boston Harbor garage, is under the path of airplanes using Runway 27, Massport said.
The authority notified Chiofaro that its guidelines would limit the height of his development to 625 feet.
The Federal Aviation Administration has the final decision, but Massport's guidelines are used as reference point in the federal review.

With tour companies both here and abroad and cruise lines either halting flights and port calls or liberalizing cancellation policies, Bloomberg News is reporting that the airline industry is having a fire sale to Mexico.

Delta Air Lines Inc., American Airlines and other U.S. carriers are slashing Mexico fares to as little as $260 round trip as demand dries up because of the swine flu outbreak.
An American ticket to Mexico City from Dallas/Fort Worth sold for $260 yesterday from about $500 recently, said Tom Parsons, founder of travel website BestFares.com. Delta is charging $300 between Atlanta and Cancun, a reduction of at least $100 from a few weeks ago ...
“If you’re paying more than $300 right now to anywhere in Mexico, you’re nuts,” said Rick Seaney, chief executive officer of ticket research firm FareCompare.com. “This isn’t the busy season for them anyway. But who wants to go there right now when these governments are basically telling you not to?”

The question is: Why aren't the airlines canceling? On its face it seems odd, particularly given the ailing condition of the industry. Why would you want to fly empty planes into a place where many people are afraid to go?
In its report, Bloomberg reported that despite the lower fares the carriers weren't exactly inundated with callers looking to cash in:

Delta, American, UAL Corp.’s United Airlines, Continental Airlines Inc. and US Airways Group Inc. have all said that they’ve seen more passengers wanting to cancel or postpone trips to Mexico. They wouldn’t give details.

The AP is reporting that "airlines are flying some nearly empty planes from the United States to Mexico,'' and its report suggests a reason why more flights aren't being canceled:

Airlines sometimes have to fly planes with few passengers in order to position the aircraft for return flights, and that could be happening now. "The flights coming back north are full," said Continental spokesman Dave Messing.

Another Continental representative, Julie King, said that trimming schedules would not be out of the question. "We're constantly monitoring the situation and will be prepared to adjust our schedules as necessary while ensuring that we provide return service to customers in affected cities.''
This is significant coming from Continental, which is the US industry leader in flights to Mexico, with American and US Airways second and third, respectively. Today, for instance, Continental has 66 flights to Mexico, American has 42, and US Airways 24.
Analysts say that other carriers are likely looking at Continental to see what adjustments it is making.

Despite all the concern and all the reporting on the swine flu outbreak it's amazing that we still seem to know so little about it and how serious it really is -- or may be.
The latest is that federal officials are now reporting the first American death linked to the virus. This is from the AP:

*The CDC on Wednesday confirmed the first swine flu death outside of Mexico in the current outbreak, a 23-month-old child in Texas. The child died in Houston, Kathy Barton, a spokeswoman for the city's health department, told KTRK-TV. It wasn't immediately clear where the child was from. Houston spokesman Frank Michel told the Houston Chronicle the child came from Brownsville, in south Texas. Barton said the toddler came from Mexico. Calls by The Associated Press seeking comment from local health officials weren't immediately returned. The first U.S. swine flu death was confirmed earlier by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman Dave Daigle.

And more travel companies are reacting to the news:

Air travel tightened to Mexico, the country at the center of the swine flu outbreak, as Canada’s Transat A.T. Inc. joined Europe’s two largest tour operators in suspending flights. Argentina halted direct flights from Mexico City until May 4, and Cuba canceled all 5 daily Mexico flights yesterday for 48 hours, Mexico’s El Economista reported, citing a statement from Cuba’s health ministry. The tour companies’ moves may herald similar steps at airlines as business and leisure fliers adjust plans. While U.S. carriers such as Delta Air Lines Inc. hadn’t scrubbed flights as of late yesterday, some extended the grace period for passengers to change Mexico trips without penalties. (Bl;oomberg News)

And in the LA Times travel blog, Jen Leo is reporting that Carnival Cruise, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise lines have all decided to temporary suspend port calls in Mexico in light of the growing concern over the swine flu.

In this morning's Globe I saw a particularly useful Q&A for travelers and others by Bina Venkataraman:

Q. How do people catch the swine flu?

A. Public health officials believe the swine influenza A (H1N1) virus is spreading the way that the seasonal flu spreads every year -- when people infected with the flu cough or sneeze and others breathe in airborne droplets containing the virus. People may also be getting swine flu from touching surfaces such as doorknobs contaminated with the virus and then touching their face or mouth. Infected people can spread the flu before they have symptoms, as well as while they are sick.

Q. How can I protect myself and my family from swine flu?

A. Wash your hands frequently with soap and water. Also, you should get plenty of sleep, exercise, manage your stress, eat healthy food, and drink plenty of water. Avoid close interactions with people who are sick and try not to touch surfaces that could be contaminated with the virus. Avoid touching your nose, eyes, or mouth.

Q. Does hand sanitizer work if I can’t wash my hands?

A. Doctors advise using sanitizing wipes and alcohol-based gels when you do not have access to soap, water, and a sink. If you use a gel, rub your hands until it dries. It’s preferable to wash your hands.

If you want to read the rest of it, here is where it is.

Clearly, concerns over the outbreak of swine flu will affect the travel plans of Americans but Jenn Abelson and Rob Gavin have a story in this morning's Globe about how it will affect the state:

The bruised US economy, which had shown a few signs of life, took another beating yesterday with global concerns over the swine flu outbreak expected to hit travel and tourism the hardest.
The virus, which has sickened people across the United States and Europe and resulted in 149 deaths in Mexico, prompted the European Union's health commissioner to advise Europeans to avoid non-essential travel to Mexico and parts of the United States.
The warning yesterday could have a devastating effect on New England, where 95 percent of overseas travelers come from Europe.
Patrick Moscaritolo, chief executive of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, said just a 10 percent drop in travelers to New England would mean a loss of more than $60 million, but it is too early to predict the fallout. The bureau had already expected a 5 percent to 9 percent drop in travel to New England because of the sour economy.
Travel and tourism business is one of Massachusetts' key industries. It is the fifth-biggest in terms of employment with 300,000 workers, according to the US Department of Labor.
The flu outbreak, coming weeks before the busy summer travel season, is another setback for the struggling travel industry, which was expecting the volume of total overseas visits to the United States to fall 3.1 percent from last year, according to the US Travel Association, an industry trade group.
Several airlines are waiving fees for passengers who were scheduled to fly through certain cities in Mexico and want to change their tickets.

And here's a quick look at how the rest of the world is responding:

* The World Health Organization raised its alert level over the swine flu outbreak but stopped short of declaring a global emergency. The United States advised Americans against most travel to Mexico and ordered stepped up border checks in neighboring states. The European Union health commissioner advised Europeans to avoid nonessential travel both to Mexico and parts of the United States. The WHO raised the alert level to Phase 4, meaning there is sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus causing outbreaks in at least one country. Its alert system was revised after bird flu in Asia began to spread in 2004, and Monday was the first time it was raised above Phase 3. Putting an alert at Phases 4 or 5 signals that the virus is becoming increasingly adept at spreading among humans. That move could lead governments to set trade, travel and other restrictions aimed at limiting its spread. Phase 6 is for a full-blown pandemic, characterized by outbreaks in at least two regions of the world. It could take four to six months before the first batch of vaccines are available to fight the virus, WHO officials said. Russia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus amid global fears of a pandemic, an epidemic spread over a large area, either a region or worldwide. (AP)

*US hospitality companies shut a number of facilities in Mexico and relaxed cancellation policies, as they scrambled to respond to the flu outbreak. Starbucks Corp closed 10 stores in Mexico City and Six Flags Inc closed all its Mexico City theme park indoor facilities in the wake of the swine flu outbreak. Some US airlines and hotels began allowing passengers to change itineraries to Mexico. Brinker International, which operates restaurants including Chili's Grill & Bar, said several franchisees have responded to the Mexican government's recommendation that citizens avoid public places by voluntarily closing their restaurants or limiting hours of operations. Carnival Corp, the world's largest cruise ship operator, said in a statement that it will not be making any adjustments to its itineraries. Delta Air Lines saw no impact on its operations but said it was allowing customers to make a one-time change for free for travel plans to Mexico. UAL Corp's United and US Airways Group Inc also said they were allowing travelers to change itineraries for destinations served in Mexico. Starwood Hotels and Resorts said it was waiving penalties for customers canceling or changing reservations at its owned and managed properties in Mexico for arrivals between April 25 and May 6, 2009. (Reuters)

This morning it's all swine flu worries all the time:

*Multiple airlines are waiving change fees for passengers flying through Mexico because of an outbreak of swine flu but have not canceled flights. Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines says it will waive its usual penalty for changing reservations for anyone traveling to, from or through Mexico from Saturday through May 6. It applies to anyone who bought their ticket before Saturday. American spokesman Tim Smith wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press that the airline's medical department is "closely monitoring the situation." The airline has not canceled any flights because of swine flu, he said. Mexico's health minister said swine flu has killed up to 86 people and likely sickened up to 1,400 since April 13. (AP)

*The United States is preparing special cards for travelers on the symptoms of swine flu. The center is preparing "yellow cards" to hand out to travelers to provide information about the illness caused by a new flu virus, said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She also said that test so far show that H1N1 component of the seasonal flu vaccine developed for use in the United States this seaon does not protect against the new H1N1 swine flu strain. She said it could take several months to develop a vaccine for the new virus. (Reuters)

*The United States launched border screening for swine flu exposure Monday and a top federal health official said people should brace for more severe cases, "and possibly deaths." Richard Besser, acting head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, revealed that American authorities were undertaking "passive screening" at its borders and reiterated the Obama administration's call for people to remain calm. Besser said that U.S. officials at border checkpoints were "asking people about fever and illness, looking for people who are ill." Besser discussed the problem on morning news shows as President Barack Obama prepared to address it later Monday morning in remarks to a meeting of the nation's top scientists. The U.S. declared a national health emergency Sunday in the midst of uncertainty about whether a mounting sick count really meant ongoing infections -- or just that health officials had missed something simmering for weeks or months. But the declaration did allow Washington to ship roughly 12 million doses of flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile to states in case they eventually need them. (AP)

This morning the government for the first time is going to open the books on where and when airplanes have collided with birds over the past 19 years. This has, of course, become a big issue after a US Airways jet hit a flock of Canada geese in January, forcing it to ditch into the Hudson River.
All of which brings us to this interesting video put together by Rosemarie Lennon of Howcast.com. For those who prefer to read the instructions -- or perhaps print them out to stuff into your carry-on -- they are available here.

Thanks to This Just In for pointing us to this.

From Logan, one-way, online prices start at $29 (Buffalo, Charlotte, New York, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, and Richmond, Va.) and rise to $59 (Oakland and SF), $69 (Bermuda, Chicago), $69 (Bermuda, Chicago), $79 (Long Beach), $89 (Austin, Denver) and $99 (Las Vegas, San Diego, and Seattle).
There is fine print: You must buy before midnight. Travel must take place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and needs to be completed by June 10. And there are other restrictions and you can scan them all here.

Want to feel generous without spending a dime? Cast your vote once a day now through May 17 at Partners in Preservation for your fave among 25 historic sites in Greater Boston. The site receiving the most popular votes will get 100 percent of requested funding for its project (up to $100,000) from a total of $1 million American Express has committed to help restore historic places in the Boston area. The finalists were selected by American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation from among 160 places of historic, cultural and aesthetic significance in the region. By voting, you get to help create jobs, encourage tourism and revitalize important places in our communities.
During the five weeks that began April 14, you can also comment on why a place is among your favorites and add your photos. All 25 historic places will hold Open Houses on the weekend of May 2-3 with special hours and events.
The 25 project finalists are:
Crane Estate, Ipswich (in photo)
Boston Center for the Arts, Cyclorama
Eliot Congregational Church of Roxbury
Museum of African American History
New England Aquarium
Old North Church
Paul Revere House
St. Peter's Church
Villa Victoria Center for the Arts
Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture
Lowell's Boat Shop
Salem Old Town Hall
Schooner Adventure
Edgell Memorial Library
José Mateo Ballet Theatre
Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Norfolk County Agricultural High School Dairy Barn
Norfolk Grange Hall
Perkins School for the Blind
St. Joseph's High School, Coalition for a Better Acre
National Monument to the Forefathers
http://www.partnersinpreservation.com/boston/index.php?sec=exploc&locID=20\
Old Ship Meeting House
Paragon Carousel
United First Parish Church, “Church of the Presidents”
Boston is the fourth region to host the program that began in 2006 when the partnership committed $5.5 million over five years towards preserving historic places across the United States. To date, grants totaling $2.4 million have been received for projects in and around New Orleans, San Francisco and Chicago.

Posted by Janet Mendelsohn, Globe Correspondent

Photo of Crane Estate, Ipswich, courtesy of The Trustees of Reservation

To celebrate Earth Day, BoltBus is offering half-off tickets for travel on April 22. This means the most you will pay for a one-way ticket to New York from Boston will be $10.
“Each person who rides BoltBus takes a car off the road,” said David Hall, general manager of BoltBus, in a press release. “This Earth Day we’d like to thank our customers for choosing BoltBus and consequently taking a more environmentally friendly form of transportation.”
         Passengers can buy tickets in advance at BoltBus.com or from a driver before boarding. One-way fares start at $1, plus a booking fee, and the price rises the closer you get to your departure date.

Can’t budget a trip to China this year? The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem is the East Coast’s only venue for "Mahjong,'' an exhibit of 100 works of contemporary Chinese art from the renowned Sigg Collection. You only have four weeks (it closes May 17) before the show goes overseas to catch this knock-your-socks-off exhibit of paintings, drawings, photographs, video and installations. "Mahjong'' explores China's artistic transformation over the last 40 years. Liu Wei, Ai Weiwei, Yue Minjun, and Zhang Huan are among the artists whose work revisits traditional themes and takes a new look at Chinese culture and society in an era of rapid change.
On Saturday, May 2, PEM hosts a Festival of Contemporary Chinese Films. And while you’re at there, don’t miss the 200-year-old Yin Yu Tang house, the only example of Chinese domestic architecture on display in the United States. The merchant’s house from the late Qing dynasty was home to a family for eight generations in southern China. It was dismantled and reassembled at the PEM where you get a sense of what daily life was like within its walls.
PEM is open Tuesday to Sunday and Monday holidays from 10 to 5; closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Admission is $15 adults, $13 seniors, $11 students; and $5 additional to visit Yin Yu Tang house. Admission is free for members, youth 16 and under and Salem residents. For directions http://pem.org/visit/hours.php or call PEM at 978-745-9500.

Posted by Janet Mendelsohn, Globe correspondent

Photo of 25 figures, each 74 x 18 inches, by Yue Minjun from Sigg Collection courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum

Spirit Air launches a new direct service from Boston to Atlantic City May 1 for $39 one way, if you belong to the airline’s “$9 Club,” which runs you $39.95 a year (members get at least nine bucks off each way on any flight in the Spirit system, and also get access to the so-called “Super Low Fare Club” where fares often start in the single digits). Non-club members pay $48 each way. Neither price reflects taxes and fees, so figure on at least another $15.
So far the flights will be the one-a-day variety, each way: Flight 235 for AC leaves daily at 10:40 a.m. and arrives at 12:05 p.m. Returning, Flight 262 leaves AC at 5:20 p.m. and arrives in Boston at 6:45 p.m.
The Boston-to-AC air connection will help the casino and resort industry there tap the New England market, said Jeff Vasser, president of the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority. The area traditionally pulls heaviest from New York City and Philadelphia. Over the past year, the region has pumped $1.5 billion into renovations and expansions, including new world-class spas, getting major entertainment at Boardwalk Hall and beefing up the golf business.
To find out more about attractions in the AC area, check out atlanticcitynj.com.

Posted by Paul E. Kandarian, Globe correspondent

Delta says it's no longer outsourcing reservation calls to India.
Why? The move was made in response to years of complaints by American customers who say they sometimes have a tremendous amount of difficulty understanding the foreign telephone workers.
Richard Anderson, the airline's chief executive, told employees in a recorded message Thursday night that Delta had stopped forwarding calls to India in the first quarter and would be bringing the function back in-house in the United States.
"The customer acceptance of call centers in foreign countries is low and our customers were not shy about letting us have that feedback,'' he said.
Delta employed about 4,500 call-center workers in the United States after it ended its outsourcing operations in India, said Kent Landers, a Delta spokesman, in an e-mail.
While it has closed shop in India, the carrier will maintain its centers in Jamaica and South Africa, Landers said.
Delta's retrenchment comes about two months after United said it would pull 165 call-center jobs back to the United States to improve customer service.

Good morning, travelers. In this morning's Globe Erin Ailworth reports that Massport has approved a $30 million project to consolidate security checkpoints at Logan's Terminal C, a move that the authority says could help travelers get to other connections faster and cut the need for additional screening :

Last year, 3.9 million outbound travelers moved through Terminal C, which houses United Airlines, JetBlue, Midwest, and Cape Air. According to Edward C. Freni, Massport's aviation director, 30 percent of the passenger traffic at Logan moves through the terminal, and sometimes passengers wait up to 30 minutes in checkpoint lines.
Currently, passengers who change airlines for another flight must go through a security checkpoint again. After the project is complete, most transfer passengers arriving in Terminal C would be able to reach the gate area for another airline there without going through security.
Work on the consolidated check point is expected to begin this fall and would take about a year to complete. The new checkpoint will be located behind the JetBlue check-in counters and will have 14 lanes for travelers -- four more than currently available among the existing checkpoints found at each end of the terminal.

Here's a link to the rest of the story.

*Logan hopes to pilot an advanced radar system used by NASA and the U.S. Air Force to detect and track bird flocks to avoid collisions with aircraft - and possible tragedies, according to a report in the Boston Herald. The goal is to have DeTect Inc.’s Merlin Aircraft Birdstrike Avoidance Radar up and running by late spring or early summer. A flock of geese caused U.S. Airways Flight 1549 to lose power in both engines en route from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, N.C., in January, forcing pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger to make a heroic emergency landing on the Hudson River. The Merlin system helps air traffic controllers track birds and provides automatic warnings and alerts of bird-strike risks. It uses scanning radar to cover runways and airplane approach and departure routes from the ground up to 15,000 feet. It also covers a radius of 8 miles around an airport. A complete radar system for Logan would cost $1.5 million to $2 million, according to Gary Andrews, CEO of DeTect, which is based in Panama City, Fla.

United Airlines has refuted a story about its new policy on overweight passengers by a radio station in Chicago, where the airline in based.
The story, originally reported by WBBM, incorrectly claimed that the carrier had instituted a harsh policy in which if a passenger is too heavy to fit into a seat they must buy a second one, without exception.
That piece elicited a torrent of media response. Robin Urbanski, a United spokeswoman, said the carrier received about 100 calls from reporters in the first few hours. And, judging from the comments here on the blog, where we reported on the initial piece, it clearly hit a nerve with legions of passengers.
Urbanski said under the new policy, which basically puts United in line with industry standards, passengers who are too heavy to fit into a seat may have to buy a second ticket.
What constitutes too big? Passengers must be able to fasten a seat belt with an extension, put their armrests down, and not infringe on another guest’s seat.
If they cannot, airline personnel will try to make an accommodation, which is to say if there are vacant seats they will try to get two together and let the passenger take both without having to pay for the second seat.
If the plane is full, the passenger must get off and rebook. The airline will try to make an accommodation but may have to charge the passenger for a second seat -- at the same rate as their original fare instead of at exorbitant last-minute prices.
While this new policy reflects industry standards, it would appear from comments to the blog that there is no shortage of passengers who would like to see policies toughened up.

Virgin America has just launched an online "Go!'' fare sale, featuring one-way fares from Logan as low as $99 to San Francisco and $79 to Los Angeles for travel between April 14 and June 10 or Aug. 25 and Oct. 14.
With this move Virgin joins an already pitched battle between JetBlue and American for Boston customers looking to travel to the West Coast in the spring, and it demonstrates the value of having more competition in the market and particularly from discounters.
Both JetBlue and American were already offering seats at prices comparable to those being offered by Virgin to SFO, and American also matched fares for LAX (JetBlue doesn't begin flying to LA from Boston till June 17).
JetBlue's sale ended on April 8, but I noticed on their website there were still some $99 discount fares available in May for travel to San Francisco, and the carrier is still running a Buy 2, [roundtrip flights] Get 1 Free promotion for trips to select Western cities, including San Francisco, booked and taken through May 31.
American also appears to be offering the bargain $79 and $99 fares through the end of May and is offering triple AA miles for travel to SF and LA through May 31.
Typically, airlines operating in the Northeast tend to see an uptick in north-south travel in winter and early spring -- obviously, folks trying to get to warmer climes. So they tend to offer discounts and other inducements for transcontinental trips then -- and this is particularly true this year because of the decline in travel amid the slumping economy. And the pattern is reversed in summer.
I asked JetBlue spokesman Sebastian White about why there were still some $99 Boston-San Francisco seats available even though the sale was over. He told me that if a competitor, like Virgin, cuts fares in the market airlines will often make some attempt to match.
That this tendency is playing out at Logan is apparent. My pal Nicole Wong reported in February that since Virgin announced in December that it would break into the Boston market, round-trip airfares for nonstop flights to San Francisco on competing carriers had fallen 41 percent in the first couple months of the year, according to Rick Seaney, chief executive of airfare comparison website FareCompare.com.
All of this will clearly bode well for Boston travelers as JetBlue adds to its schedule from Logan, and Southwest prepares to enter the market in the fall.
"Virgin America's arrival at Logan has triggered a fare war with American and JetBlue resulting in travel to the West Coast being more affordable than it has been in years," said Edward C. Freni, Massport's director of aviation. "Because no single carrier dominates activity at Logan, competition is heightened to the benefit of the consumer. Let the fare wars begin!"

Long before TV celebrity chefs, home kitchens were the main stage. Since Colonial times, its where families and servants acted out dramas, told stories, tried new technology, experimented with ingredients, fed bellies and comforted souls. Declaring 2009 the Year of the Kitchen, Historic New England has planned house tours and special events at their properties in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Spanning centuries, they range from the Coffin House, c.1678, in Newbury to Gropius House, c.1938, the first architectural commission in America designed by German Bauhaus movement founder Walter Gropius, in Lincoln.
House tours are open on a regular schedule. Special programs include wine tastings, hearth cooking and an afternoon tea. Late April, stock up at an Herb Sale at Lyman House Greenhouses, Waltham. In June, learn about New England Victorian Cookery at Castle Tucker, Wiscasset, Maine. America’s Kitchens, a new exhibit with vignettes and interactive experiences, opens June 11 at the New Hampshire Historical Society museum in Concord, N.H., then travels in 2010 to Long Island and, in 2011, to Cape Cod. There’s also a new America’s Kitchens book.

Posted by Janet Mendelsohn, Globe correspondent

Trade card for Pure Refined Paraffine by the Standard Oil Company. Collection of Historic New England

A new age of bus travel is headed our way.
Old-school bus king Greyhound today is rolling out new BoltBus-type upgrades to its service, including free WiFi, additional legroom, and power outlets on its New York-Montreal and New York-Toronto routes, and the company plans to offer the same amenities on its Boston-New York routes before the end of the month.UPDATE: The company started rolling out the new WiFi-equipped buses on the N.Y.-Boston service Thursday April 9.
Greyhound, the parent company of Bolt, are switching to Prevost X3-45 buses for this service, the same vehicles they use for Bolt. The move is part of a larger plan to upgrade its entire fleet. Abby Wambaugh, a company spokeswoman, said she was not aware of any timetable yet for the overall conversion.

"When we started with BoltBus,'' said Wambaugh, "we considered it sort of an experimental thing so we could see how the equipment worked and how it was received by customers.''
BoltBus, along with its chief rival Megabus, a unit of Coach USA, launched here last year, offering an alternative to discounters Fung Wah and Lucky Star on the Boston-New York route. With prices beginning at $1 a seat, both Bolt and Mega sought to lure younger, hipper riders with their upscale amenities.
While some can snag bargain basement seats, most Bolt and Mega passengers will pay something closer to $15-$20 each way, which is about what Greyhound charges -- and sometimes a bit less with the discounts for, say, students, the elderly, or military personnel.
So is Greyhound thinking of getting rid of Bolt and just competing directly with Mega?
Wambaugh says no. She notes that while pricing is more or less competitive, Bolt is a different brand, with a different image, and going after a different clientele. Wambaugh also notes that there are some real differences: Bolt offers curbside, express service; Greyhound is a more traditional terminal-based, potentially multistop ride.
What is clear is that things are looking up for bus customers.

The folks at the Perrin Post have written about the Hot Dates, Cool Rates promotion for discounts on rooms in Nantucket for spring and summer.
For instance, at the luxurious Wauwinet, the summer rate for a standard room is $746 per night (including tax), but on some mid-May and June nights the rate falls to $247.
At the White Elephant, standard rooms fetch $675 per night in summer, but you can get a room for $192 per night for some late April and early May nights, in late April and parts of May and June the price will nudge up to $214; and some July and August dates will only set you back $439.
Rooms as the Cottages at the Boat Basin will usually set you back $538 per night in the summer, but for a number of April nights, you can score a studio cottage for $137 per night, and you can snag rooms at a savings of at least 29 percent on select dates in May-August.
The Jared Coffin House is normally $170 per night, but in April room can be had for as little as $109; on some May and June dates $115; $137 for select other days in June.
I just spoke to the folks at Nantucket Island Resorts, which is running the promotion and they say that, despite what you may see on the website, you can still snag one of these deals through the end of April -- and they are considering extending even farther. But if you're sure you want to go, why wait?

View from the porch at Wauwinet

President Obama may be a big college basketball fan — although the president’s tournament bracket is just as busted as most hoops fans — but it’s college hockey that will take center stage in the nation’s capital on April 9-11. The Frozen Four — college hockey’s answer to basketball’s Final Four — will be played in the Verizon Center in Washington, DC, and it will have a distinctly New England feel.
Boston University and the University of Vermont will square off in one semifinal on Thursday, April 9, and one of those Hockey East powers will play the winner of the other semifinal between Miami (Ohio) University and Bemidji State University on Saturday April 11. Boston University has partnered with Anthony Travel to provide packages with hotel accommodations, transportation, and airline reservations. Call 877-284-2254 or visit the Anthony Travel website for more information. Game tickets are not included in packages.
If you want to put together your own travel plans, non-stop airfares between Boston and either Dulles, Reagan Washington National, or Baltimore-Washington airports can be found for less than $200. Tickets to games are available on StubHub and other online ticket sites, and they are being distributed to students and season-ticket holders at the four participating schools. The only tickets being sold on Ticketmaster at the present time are for the Frozen Four Skills Challenge on Friday, April 10. Practices will be open to the public on Wednesday, April 8 and Friday, April 10. For more information on Frozen Four events, click here .

***********
Globe travel correspondent Christopher Klein writes his own blog, HubTrotter, and is the author of the forthcoming book, "The Die-Hard Sports Fan's Guide to Boston."

Josh Gibney/Associated Press photo

It's nearly baseball season so you don't really need another reason to hate New York, but I'll give you one just in case you need a warm-up:
Just for today. JetBlue is offering $14 one-way fares for travel between San Francisco and Long Beach or New York City. The big catch is that flights are available only through April 8, and availability is limited. (The folks at smartertravel.com suggest that this means there are as many as 800 seats between San Francisco and Long Beach, and as few as 60 between The Apple and SFO.)
Still, a phenomenal deal if you can snag a roundtrip for $28, excluding tax.

Getting up early to get to Logan Airport and then deciding where to park your car can be a double nuisance. That is why Marriott’s newly renovated Courtyard Boston Logan Airport has an Escape! Park Here Fly There package beginning at $89 a night and featuring overnight accommodations, free parking for 10 days (and $14 a day thereafter), and complimentary transportation to the airport.
Call 866-240-6316 and mention booking code PKF. The website is www.courtyardlogan.com.

Posted by Richard P. Carpenter, Globe correspondent

Earlier this week I wrote about JetBlue's sale on fares for travel through June 17. Now United has launched a similar sale also for flights through the 17th -- although United's includes international travel.
For domestic travel many of the terms will be familiar: purchase by April 5, 14-day advance, lowest fares on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. Here is the fine print.
The exciting thing is that my pal, Rick Seaney, who tracks airfares reports that the discounts have already been matched by AirTran, Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, Frontier, Northwest, Southwest, and US Airways.
So the battle for your late spring travel dollar is joined.

Good morning, travelers. Here's a look at travel-related material from The Globe and wires.

*He didn't get a can of soda, a pillow, or frequent flier miles on the flight, but that was the least of his travel hassles. A 21-year-old JetBlue employee flew from New York to Boston Saturday in a pressurized luggage compartment of an airliner, officials said.
"Even after talking to him, we were a little uncertain as to how it happened," said David Procopio, a Massachusetts State Police spokesman. "This may have been accidental." The man, whom police would not identify because he was not charged with a crime, was working with cargo at John F. Kennedy International Airport and found himself stuck in the plane when it took off. He phoned JetBlue officials from the air but had to wait to be unloaded with the luggage at Gate 28 of Logan Airport, police said. He emerged without injuries. JetBlue says it's investigating. (Globe staff)

*American Airlines says it'll expand Wi-Fi service to 300 more aircraft to help lure passengers with popular revenue-generating perks. American said it would install the service over the next two years on its domestic MD-80 and Boeing Co 737-800 aircraft, beginning with 150 MD-80 aircraft this year. The carrier began offering Internet service last year on certain routes. The airline's service, called Gogo, is provided by AirCell and costs $12.95 on transcontinental flights over 1,150 miles and $9.95 for shorter flights. (Reuters)

*Delta Air Lines will begin direct flights between Atlanta and the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on June 3. “The new four-times weekly flight will be the only direct service to the US from Kenya,” said Bobby Bryan, a Delta spokesman. In Africa, Delta also flies to Cairo, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lagos in Nigeria, and the Ghanaian capital, Accra, the company said. (Bloomberg News)

JetBlue has launched an online sale featuring one-way fares from $39-$119, not including taxes and fees. The big deal is that this one extends into the heart of June and continues the wave of late spring-summer discounts kicked off a couple weeks ago by Southwest amid declines in air travel due to the sagging economy.
What kinds of deals are we talking about? Here are some samples: You can get to New York City for $39; $49 will get you to Washington, D.C.; $59 will get you to Raleigh, Charlotte or Pittsburgh; $87 to Chicago; $99 to Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, New Orleans, Long Beach or Oakland; $109 to Denver; $119 to Vegas or San Diego; and $129 to Seattle.
To qualify you must book before Thursday April 7 and the terms require up to a 10-day advance purchase. In many cases, travel must take place April 29-June 17, and all trips must be completed by June 17. Your best shots for bargain fares are midweek, and blackout dates apply. Here is all the fine print.

Although Boston Restaurant Week began last Sunday, you haven’t even missed your appetizer.
That’s because the event, a favorite of residents and visitors alike, spans two weeks. Through Friday diners can savor three-course lunches for $20.09 or dinners for $33.09 at restaurants throughout Boston, Cambridge, the suburbs, and beyond.
On Cape Cod, the Chatham Bars Inn has a Restaurant Week Retreat package starting at $239 that includes overnight accommodations and a three-course dinner.
Visit www.bostonusa.com/restaurantweek for a list of participants. For the Cape package, visit www.chathambarsinn.com or call 800-527-4884 or 508-945-0096.

Posted by Richard P. Carpenter, Globe correspondent

Say it ain't so.
Virgin America is joining most of the other major US carriers in charging for a first checked bag. The exceptions are JetBlue, which gives you one, and Southwest, which spots you two.
Now, any traveler who books a flight with Virgin for on or after May 5 will be charged $15 for each checked bag ($15 for a first checked bag and $15 for the second through the tenth checked bag).
The airline previously charged $25 for a second checked bag and $50 for third and subsequent bags.
The rationale? It's because we have to/we can:
“We’re looking at all areas of our operation to help maintain competitive fares while continuing to offer the award-winning, value-added service for which we’re known,” Virgin America’s vice president of planning and sales Diana Walke said in a press release. “Because we fly to primary airports, we mainly compete with the large network carriers – all of whom already charge this fee. We’re following the trend in domestic travel both here and abroad, in order to keep fares low, while continuing to offer the highest quality product in the US market.”
Virgin also said it would lower its fee for changes or cancellations made online from $75 to $50.

If you've got money to travel this summer, things are looking good.
Southwest has just launched an online summer fare sale with one-way fares as low as $49 between cities across the nation for travel through Aug. 14 and the move nearly immediately rippled through the industry on competing routes.
The Southwest sale is good through April 6, and a 14-day advance purchase is required. Travel on Fridays and Sundays is excluded, and there are blackout dates. Here is the fine print.
The discount carrier, which will launch service at Logan in fall, offers daily nonstop service to eight cities on 27 flights out of Manchester, N.H., and to nine on 31 flights out of Providence. It also offers connecting service to dozens of other destinations from both cities.
Some sample one-way sale fares: From either Manchester or Providence to Baltimore or Philly $49, to Orlando or Fort Lauderdale $79, Chicago $89, and Vegas $99.
Bloomberg News has now reported that American, Continental, and US Airways say they matched the reductions.
This is, I think, just the beginning. The airlines are still facing tremendous softness in business and many are planning further cuts in schedules, but it doesn't appear as if many of those will fully be in place till fall so expect to see competitive fares for this summer.

Spring’s welcome arrival also signals the start of New England’s crafts show season. The timing couldn’t be a better boost to the local economy because money spent over the next two weekends puts dollars in the pockets of the professional regional and national artists who make a living selling their original work at such events. Plus buyers can add eye-catching additions to their wardrobes or home.
This weekend the Paradise City Fair of Fine and Functional Art takes over the Royal Plaza Trade Center in Marlborough, Mass., for three days. (March 20-22). Featuring 175 juried exhibitors working in wood, glass, furniture, jewelry, wearable fiber, decorative fiber, metal, painting, mixed media, and photography, there’s no excuse not to find something you’ll love. To encourage more spring vibes, the festival presents “The Gardeners of Paradise City,” an indoor exhibit of garden-related work.

FULL ENTRY

The Massachusetts Port Authority yesterday extended by six years a $4.50 fee on passengers to help pay for improvements to runways and terminals at Logan International Airport.
The passenger fee, which has been in place since 1993, will be extended into 2024 to pay for hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades at the airport. Massport already had approval to levy the fee through 2018, officials said.
Money raised from the fee will pay for rehabilitation of several runways, upgrades to terminals, and construction of an expanded safety area to protect airplanes landing on runway 33L, which must be extended to comply with federal regulations.

Posted by Casey Ross, Globe staff

For some, St. Patrick’s Day isn’t just an occasion to raise a pint of Guinness but a chance for sober reflection on the often-tortured history of the Irish, in particular the Great Famine of the late 1840s. Approximately one million Irish died from the terrible famine that swept the country, and the resulting massive emigration transformed the ethnic makeup of cities around the world, including Boston.
Boston has erected a famine memorial, composed of two statues and eight plaques, on the corner of School and Washington Streets. One statue depicts an Irish family, dressed in torn rags, in terrible suffering; the other depicts a hopeful Irish family as they arrive on America's shores. Plaques recount the story of the famine and describe how Bostonians responded to the crisis (both positively and negatively) and how descendants of Irish immigrants have made an indelible mark on the city.
Here are four other memorials that are worth visiting:
New York City. Located on the banks of the Hudson River at the end of Vesey Street (and a block west of the World Trade Center site), New York's memorial looks like a sloping hillside that has been cut out of the Irish countryside and transplanted to Manhattan. The memorial includes a recreated Irish cottage, stone walls, and native vegetation. The top of the memorial has views to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, where so many Irish first set foot in America.
Sydney. In addition to America, Australia was another common destination for famine refugees. Sydney’s understated memorial in the courtyard wall of the Hyde Park Barracks, which was used as an immigration depot, depicts a sterile dinner table with empty bowls and plates and names of girls orphaned by the famine inscribed in glass.
Murrisk, Ireland. So many Irish refugees perished during the voyage to America that the vessels became known as "coffin ships." The National Famine Memorial in County Mayo—located in the shadows of Croagh Patrick, on whose summit St. Patrick was said to have spent Lent in the year 441—reflects those horrific conditions with its eerie depiction of skeletons tied to the masts and prow of the hulk of ship.
Near Delphi, Ireland. About 20 miles south of Murrisk is a much simpler, but no less moving memorial: a solitary Celtic cross surrounded by the serenity and beauty of the blue waters of Doo Lough and a wall of green mountains. It’s hard to believe that the gorgeous landscape was such a place of horror in March 1849 when men, women, and children succumbed to starvation as they trekked through the snow to appeal for help.

***********
Globe travel correspondent Christopher Klein writes his own blog, HubTrotter, and is the author of the forthcoming book, "The Die-Hard Sports Fan's Guide to Boston."

Photo of Boston memorial by Christopher Klein for The Boston Globe

(File photo: A Delta jetliner glides past a Northwest jetliner. Don Ryan/AP)
Northwest Airlines, which is merging with Delta Air Lines, will move most of its Logan International Airport operations from one Logan terminal to another later this month, the Massachusetts Port Authority said.
Northwest Airlines will vacate Logan's Terminal E on the night of March 30 and, starting March 31, all departures and domestic arrivals for the airline will be at Terminal A, said Massport, which operates Logan.
"Northwest’s two daily flights from Amsterdam will continue to arrive at Terminal E, where Logan’s Customs and Border Protection and Immigration facilities are located," Massport added.
A Massport press release said: "All Northwest check-in positions will be consolidated with Delta’s, and customers with tickets for flights operated by Northwest should check in at Delta’s curbside, kiosk, or counter locations in Terminal A. The move is part of Delta Air Line’s merger with Northwest to create the world’s largest airline. The combined airline will be the largest at Logan with more than 20 percent of the market. The merger process is expected to be complete in 2010."
Posted by Chris Reidy, Globe staff

If Boston is your destination, you can explore the Irish Heritage Trail. The 3-mile, self-guided tour starts at the Rose Kennedy Greenway along the waterfront and meanders throughout downtown and into the Back Bay, ending up at Fenway Park, which was built by Irish immigrant Charles Logue in 1912.
The 20 sites along the way celebrate the Irish experience in Boston.
The map is free at the visitor information centers on Boston Common and the Prudential Center. You can order it by mail by visiting www.irishheritagetrail.com. And for information on just about everything Irish in the Bay State, go to www.irishmassachusetts.com.

Posted by Richard P. Carpenter, Globe correspondent

A YouTube star is born. Videos of Southwest flight attendant David Holmes have been making the rounds after passengers started posting cellphone snippets of Holmes's audience-participation hip-hop takes on standard preflight announcements.
The 40-year-old former personal trainer who has worked for Southwest since 2005 told CNN that he began performing his rap because "it was just a fun thing to do.''
But now that his schtick has gone viral he told the Wall Street Journal's Middle Seat blog that he feels obliged to "to start writing new material.''

For some, St. Patrick’s Day isn’t just an occasion to raise a pint of Guinness but a chance for sober reflection on the often-tortured history of the Irish, in particular the Great Famine of the late 1840s. Approximately one million Irish died from the terrible famine that swept the country, and the resulting massive emigration transformed the ethnic makeup of cities around the world, including Boston.
Boston has erected a famine memorial, composed of two statues and eight plaques, on the corner of School and Washington Streets. One statue depicts an Irish family, dressed in torn rags, in terrible suffering; the other depicts a hopeful Irish family as they arrive on America's shores. Plaques recount the story of the famine and describe how Bostonians responded to the crisis (both positively and negatively) and how descendants of Irish immigrants have made an indelible mark on the city.
Here are four other memorials that are worth visiting:
New York City. Located on the banks of the Hudson River at the end of Vesey Street (and a block west of the World Trade Center site), New York's memorial looks like a sloping hillside that has been cut out of the Irish countryside and transplanted to Manhattan. The memorial includes a recreated Irish cottage, stone walls, and native vegetation. The top of the memorial has views to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, where so many Irish first set foot in America.
Sydney. In addition to America, Australia was another common destination for famine refugees. Sydney’s understated memorial in the courtyard wall of the Hyde Park Barracks, which was used as an immigration depot, depicts a sterile dinner table with empty bowls and plates and names of girls orphaned by the famine inscribed in glass.
Murrisk, Ireland. So many Irish refugees perished during the voyage to America that the vessels became known as "coffin ships." The National Famine Memorial in County Mayo—located in the shadows of Croagh Patrick, on whose summit St. Patrick was said to have spent Lent in the year 441—reflects those horrific conditions with its eerie depiction of skeletons tied to the masts and prow of the hulk of ship.
Near Delphi, Ireland. About 20 miles south of Murrisk is a much simpler, but no less moving memorial: a solitary Celtic cross surrounded by the serenity and beauty of the blue waters of Doo Lough and a wall of green mountains. It’s hard to believe that the gorgeous landscape was such a place of horror in March 1849 when men, women, and children succumbed to starvation as they trekked through the snow to appeal for help.

***********
Globe travel correspondent Christopher Klein writes his own blog, HubTrotter, and is the author of the forthcoming book, "The Die-Hard Sports Fan's Guide to Boston."

Photo of Boston memorial by Christopher Klein for The Boston Globe

Spring might be just around the corner (7:44 a.m. EDT on March 20, for those who can’t wait), but there’s still time to get in some cross-country skiing.
The Carl Johnson Memorial 5K at Great Glen Trails on Saturday March 14 will let you glide and give a hand to a good cause at the same time. The $8 race fee benefits the ALS Association, which helps the search for a cure for the progressive neurodegenerative disease, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, that claimed Carl Johnson in 2006.
Johnson volunteered frequently as a timer for competitions at Great Glen, and the event celebrates his irrepressible sense of good fun. Besides vying for fastest times (men’s and women’s) in both classic and skate skiing, participants also guess their finishing times. The closest guess wins the ‘‘Mystery Time’’ prize. (The 2008 winner was off by only 11 seconds.)
Johnson was a great fan of flamboyant outfits, so the race includes a prize for loudest racing tights. ‘‘This doesn’t look like your usual field of racers,’’ says Mary Power, Great Glen event coordinator. With times that typically range from 20 minutes to more than an hour, participants need not be top athletes.
To get to the race head to Pinkham Notch, Route 16 at Mt. Washington Auto Road in Gorham, N.H. For info, call 603-466-2333 or go to www.greatglentrails.com. Registration begins at noon on March 14, with the racers sliding out of the blocks at 1:30.

Posted by David Lyon, Globe correspondent

The Society of American Travel Writers has polled its members for advice on how to save on the go.
Among the top suggestions: Travel in the off-season or on the edges of popular seasons; try bus or metro transportation during city stays; instead of eating every meal in restaurants, have a picnic; have your big meal at lunch, when prices are cheaper; make your first stop the visitors center and collect coupons, brochures, and free maps; stay in places that have free breakfast and a refrigerator to store snacks; visit less well-known destinations; try a home swap or home rental; in cities, stay at business hotels on weekends when there are often lower room rates and restaurant deals.
For details, go to www.satw.org.

Posted by Richard P. Carpenter, Globe correspondent

Many, but not all, new parents already know the basic rules-of-the-road (or skies).
For domestic travel, if you're flying with a child under two the child can sit on your lap for free. If you want to buy the child a seat be aware that you'll probably have to pay the regular adult rate; there won't be a child's rate -- except on Southwest, which does offer one with a reduced fare. (It's also worth noting that on many airlines if there are a number of vacant seats -- a rare occurrence these days -- flight attendants often will generously shuffle passengers around a little and get you a seat for your baby for free). While these rules generally hold, it's worth a check with your airline to make sure you've got it straight.
Internationally, things get much trickier. My pal Rick Seaney, CEO of farecompare.com, took a look at this and says that things are all over the map. He suggests that anyone planning such a trip absolutely needs to do a little homework. He cites these examples:

FULL ENTRY

JetBlue Airlines is offering a one-day sale (today only) with fares as low as $29 each way from Boston. Travel must be completed between March 10 and April 1, and fares are available only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Here’s a list of fares available to book under those parameters:

$29 to Buffalo, NY (BUF)
$29 to Charlotte, NC (CLT)
$29 to New York, NY (JFK)
$29 to Pittsburgh, PA (PIT)
$29 to Raleigh-Durham, NC (RDU)
$29 to Richmond, VA (RIC)
$29 to Washington, DC (IAD)
$59 to Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL)
$59 to Orlando, FL (MCO)
$59 to Nassau, Bahamas (NAS)
$59 to New Orleans, LA (MSY)
$59 to West Palm Beach, FL (PBI)
$69 to Cancun, Mexico (CUN)
$69 to Chicago, IL (ORD)
$69 to Long Beach, CA (LGB)
$69 to Oakland, CA (OAK)
$79 to Denver, CO (DEN)
$99 to Las Vegas, NV (LAS)
$99 to San Diego, CA (SAN)
$99 to Seattle, WA (SEA)

Each time a low-cost carrier announces it will launch service at Logan, airline analysts and airport officials herald the news as a forerunner of lower airfares thanks to increasing competition. But could the coming of discounters like Virgin America and Southwest actually scare away the competition?

In US Airways's case, sometimes the answer is yes. In a corporate newsletter issued to employees on Friday -- first reported in USA Today's Today In The Sky blog -- an employee wrote that the carrier "has a tendency to pull out of a market whenever Southwest decides to enter or expand," citing Las Vegas and Pittsburgh as examples. The employee asked about the rumor circulating among the workforce that the legacy carrier will ax most of its Boston flights by the end of the year in the face of fierce competition from Southwest, which said a week earlier that it's planning to start serving Logan by the fall.

The newsletter's answer, provided by US Airways director of scheduling Glenn Martin, was, "at this point, there are no plans to reduce the flight schedule" out of Boston. "It is sometimes true that when Southwest enters a market, the economics change and flights that were profitable for US [Airways] could become unprofitable. However, the opposite has also occurred, and there have been times when Southwest entered into markets that US [Airways] was serving and later pulled out completely, such as service to Hartford, Conn."

US Airways was Logan's third largest airline last year, carrying 15.3 percent of the passengers. Officials at the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, have predicted Southwest's arrival will be a catalyst for competitors to lower airfares, but have not discussed internally the possibility that competitors will cut flights, said spokesman Matthew Brelis. He referred questions to US Airways, which could not be reached immediately for comment.

Separately, US Airway's CEO Doug Parker said Tuesday at Reuter's closed-door Travel and Leisure Summit in New York that the carrier has little room to do any more downsizing because it is near the minimum capacity required by its pilots' contract, according to Reuters.

Posted by Nicole C. Wong, Globe staff

Who can afford new these days? But buying used can be difficult. And who, after all, wants to buy someone else's problems?
To the rescue rides venerable Consumer Reports with this year's listing of the most reliable used cars over the past 10 model years, based on a survey of subscribers' experiences. The survey covers nine categories but here are the winners in five:

Small Cars: Honda Civic, Toyota Echo, Scion xB, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Matrix, Pontiac
Vibe, Mazda 3, Mazda Protege, Subaru Impreza.

Family cars: Honda Accord, Toyota Prius, Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan, Toyota Camry
(except ’08 V6), Subaru Outback (6-cyl.), Nissan Altima.

Minivans: Toyota Sienna, Honda Odyssey.

Small SUVs: Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, Subaru Forester, Mitsubishi Outlander.

Midsized and large SUVs: Honda Pilot, Toyota Highlander, Lexus RX, Toyota Land
Cruiser, Toyota 4Runner, Infiniti FX35, Acura MDX, Infiniti QX4, Lexus GX, Hyundai
Santa Fe, Subaru Tribeca, Nissan Xterra (’05-’08), Toyota Sequoia.

Pictured here: 2008 Honda Civic

Mandarin Oriental, Boston has teamed with the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem for a package that highlights the new museum exhibition ‘‘Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection.’’ The package, available until May 15, includes a night’s accommodations, breakfast at the hotel’s Asana restaurant, two tickets to the exhibit, and limo service to and from the museum. Prices begin at $605.
Visit www.mandarinoriental.com/boston and click on Tempting Offers or call 617-535-8880 or 866-526-6567.

The airfare war targeting Boston's transcontinental travelers is heating up. American Airlines, the largest carrier at Logan based on passengers served, says that it will give frequent fliers three times as many miles when they fly nonstop between Boston and San Francisco, Los Angeles, or San Diego this spring. That means two round-trip flights will result in a third flight free. Three paid round-trip flights will earn enough miles for a free round-trip ticket between Boston and Europe.
No other routes in American's network qualify for triple miles. What ushered in this incentive for the Hub? The hip, discount carrier Virgin America, which last month started flying nonstop between Boston and both San Francisco and Los Angeles.
"We are competing very aggressively in this market with everyone else who flies out of Boston,'' said spokesman Ned Raynolds. "We intend to maintain and build our following here."
Logan is one of the most competitive airports in the country, where no carrier commands more than 20 percent of the market. American also competes with JetBlue and United on these transcontinental routes.
To earn triple miles, frequent fliers must book their tickets and travel between now and May 31 and register before flying at aa.com/bos3x.

By Nicole C. Wong, Globe staff

American is putting most of its international destinations on sale, but you must purchase by March 10. Travel that must begin no later than May 16 for Europe and other destinations by May 17 and travel must be completed by May 20. Best fares are available Monday-Thursday, except for Great Britain where it's Monday to Wednesday. There are other restrictions and you can read the fine print on the website.
What kinds of prices are we talking about? For London in mid-March, I found round-trips starting at $372 and Paris for $404, not including taxes or fees. Not bad. If you've got the scratch and an itch to hop the pond, check it out.

Increasing the pressure on industry leader Zipcar of Cambridge, Hertz Corp. will begin offering car-sharing services in Greater Boston by late spring as part of a major planned expansion.
‘‘We see car-sharing as being a $1 billion market with potential to grow,’’ said Paula Rivera, manager of public affairs for Hertz.
With this move, Hertz, which has 8,100 traditional rental locations in 147 countries, emerges as the main competitive threat to Zipcar in global car-sharing. Both companies envision networks that would allow members to access vehicles in a variety of cities around the country and the world.
Car-rental giant Hertz launched Connect by Hertz in December in New York City, its headquarters city of Park Ridge, N.J., and in London and Paris, and looks to enter 40 more US and foreign cities this year. Hertz will probably commence service in some other US cities when they begin in Boston, Rivera said, but is not expected to announce any new foreign openings yet.
Connect by Hertz operates very much like Zipcar. Customers pay a monthly membership fee, pick up cars at one of a number of locations in specific cities, then are charged on a per-hour basis.

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Delta Air Lines Inc. is re-establishing summer service from Boston to both Nashville and Charleston after a yearlong hiatus that was prompted by skyrocketing fuel prices. The Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, said that these mid-Atlantic cities -- Boston's second and third largest domestic destinations that lack service -- will have daily service using 50-seat regional jets through regional carrier Delta Connection between June 4 and Sept. 7.
"We are extremely pleased that Delta Connection has returned to Nashville and Charleston with daily service from Boston," Edward C. Freni, Massport’s Director of Aviation, said in a press release. "Delta Connection has a reputation as a high value air carrier whose presence at Logan will result in more choices and competitive fares for our customers."
Delta announced last March that it would terminate nonstop service a few months later between Boston and Las Vegas, New Orleans, Greensboro, N.C., Savannah, Ga., Louisville, Ky., and Charleston, S.C. as the airline industry scrambled to offset high fuel costs by cutting seat capacity. Delta said at the time that it canceled routes that weren't headed to a hub airport and were served by 50-seat regional jets, which were disproportionately impacted by the high cost of fuel. Today, jet fuel costs almost 60 percent less than it did a year ago, according to the International Air Transport Association.

By Nicole C. Wong, Globe staff

The Millennium Bostonian Hotel’s new Faneuil Hall Marketplace Shopping Package, valid through March, puts you in a room overlooking the Marketplace market and gives you breakfast for two (including tax and tip) and a Festival Savings Card for discounts at marketplace shops and restaurants.
Rates start at $209 a night. Advance purchase is required.
Visit www.millenniumhotels.com/boston or call 617-523-3600.

Posted by Richard P. Carpenter, Globe correspondent

Amid the numbing gray of the season, you become convinced that dinner out is what you need. But you want something different; haut is too fussy and fusion is just a culinary mutt putting on airs.
So why not go for a drive and dine in the 19th century.
This Saturday, Old Sturbridge Village will offer ’’Dinner in a Country Village,’’ an adults-only program that allows a group of up to 14 visitors to prepare and indulge in an 1830s New England-style feast. The village holds these dinners on Saturdays from November through March. It also throws offers similar events for families, called ‘‘Families Cook,’’ typically during school vacation weeks.
Guests arrive at Sturbridge around 5 p.m. after the living history museum has closed for the day. They are met by costumed interpreters who take them to the parsonage and help oversee preparations, but guests do all the chopping, stirring, and mixing, using period kitchen tools and methods.
Perhaps the prospect of Calvinist-influenced cuisine seems unpromising? One look at the multicourse menu should offer comfort: pounded cheese, mulled cider, winter vegetable soup, crookneck squash pudding, pear pie, dressed macaroni, stewed red cabbage, roast stuffed chicken, Scots collops (beef with apples), cranberry sauce, long rolls, raspberry charlotte, coffee, and sparkling cider.
For more information contact Old Sturbridge Village at 508-347-3362 or check out the website. Reservations are required, and the cost is $85 per person.

After taking considerable heat, US Airways has decided to resume free in-flight beverage service starting March 1.

Last year amid rising fuel costs, airlines piled on new fees for checked luggage, blankets, and other formerly complimentary amenities. US Airways, however, came under particularly tough criticism after it began charging $1 for coffee and tea and $2 for bottled water and soft drinks -- fees that its competitors opted not to match.

"With US Airways being the only large network carrier to charge for drinks, we are at a disadvantage,'' Parker wrote in a Sunday memo to employees obtained by The New York Times. "This difference in our service has become a focal point that detracts from all of the outstanding improvements.''

Mike Flores, president of the US Airways chapter of the Association of Flight Attendants, called the policy "a complete disaster" in an e-mail last week to union members, according to a story on thestreet.com.

"Passenger complaints have not died down [and] the quantity and provisioning of beverages is inconsistent," Flores wrote, noting that passengers sometimes become upset when flight attendants run out of drinks. "Simply put, the a la carte beverage program needs to go," he wrote. "No other airline has matched us and none will."

Ouch. The consumer has spoken.

NYLO Providence/Warwick hotel is featuring a Spa Getaway Package beginning at $239. Guests receive overnight accommodations, breakfast for two, and a $100 gift certificate for treatments such as a Turkish Scrub or Moor Mud Wrap at Blue Sky; Hot Stone Massage or Pregnancy Massage at Rinnovo; or manicures, pedicures, and hairstyling at Eden XO. Book at least 48 hours in advance.
Visit www.nylohotels.com/warwick and click on Specials or call 866-391- 6956.

Space, the final travel frontier -- and now 50 percent cheaper, sort of.
Upstarts RocketShip Tours and XCOR Aerospace say that the price of their flights, slated to begin as soon as 2010, will be $95,000, about half that of the ones being offered by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, which also hopes to launch as early as 2010.
"Our goal is to make space travel accessible and affordable to those who aspire to experience the ultimate adventure,’’ said Jules Klar, CEO and chairman of RocketShip in a statement.
It’s time to comparison shop. (Cue "Star Wars'' theme)

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My pal Nicole Wong broke the long-anticipated news this morning that discount king Southwest has decided to begin flying out of Logan, starting this fall.
Southwest, which has been flying out of airports near Manchester, Providence, and Hartford since the late 1990s, has been looking at Boston for quite a while and has made no secret of it. Nicole quotes Gary Kelly, Southwest’s CEO, as saying that the carrier initially will probably begin with eight to 12 daily flights to just a couple of destinations.
OK, this sounds like good news but what will this likely mean to you?
The answer is that, at least at first, it might matter most to business travelers flying to a few specific destinations, according to Rick Seaney, CEO of farecompare.com, which tracks airlines and airfare trends.

FULL ENTRY

The Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel has an escape for both parents and pint-sized travelers: the Kids Just Wanna Have Fun package. Included are room-service delivery of root beer floats for all the family, two adult and two children’s tickets to the Boston Children’s Museum, free dining for youngsters under 12 at the 606 Congress restaurant with two paying adults, an in-room movie, and use of the health club and lap pool. Rates start at $199 a night and the package is available through April 5. Reservations must be made 72 hours in advance.
Visit www.renaissanceboston.com or call 617-338-4111.

Posted by Richard P. Carpenter, Globe correspondent

JetBlue says it will give refunds to eligible customers who get laid off after purchasing tickets.
The offer is part of a push to encourage bookings as consumers shy from travel amid the economic malaise.
British discount carrier Flybe announced a similar program in January.
Under the JetBlue plan, customers who book between Feb. 1 and June 1 and lose their jobs after Feb. 16 may be eligible for a refund. JetBlue fares are generally nonrefundable. To qualify, travelers must request a full refund at least two weeks before the first day of travel. Customers can ask for a refund for as many as nine passengers traveling on one reservation.
Calyon Securities analyst Ray Neidl told the Associated Press that some car rental companies also are offering similar programs.

Bloomberg News is reporting that American will halt free meal service in coach on flights between the United State and Latin America and the Dominican Republic. Snacks will be sold for $3 or $4 on flights longer two hours starting March 1. And on longer flights passengers can buy sandwiches for $6.

Starting this week, Tripper Bus Service will launch regular service between D.C. and some of its suburbs and New York City. The fares on the buses, which feature reclining seats, power outlets, and free WiFi, begin at $1 and go up to $25. Any of this sound familiar, BoltBus and Megabus fans?
Why do you care? These guys are obviously chasing the same younger, urban crowd as Mega and Bolt and both of them first launched a DC-N.Y. run before heading here to complete the much-sought-after and lucrative Boston-N.Y.-D.C. transportation triangulation.
Anyway, I called Tripper yesterday and sure enough Jennifer Thomas, a spokeswoman for Tripper, says that company CEO Betty Unger sees Boston as a "target city'' and plans to expand here but that it will "be a couple of months before she begins this planning process.''
More competition. A good thing. Stay tuned.

This week, STA Travel is running a call-in contest promotion with 20 winners each day getting a chance to buy a round-trip ticket for travel through March 31 (think Spring Break) to New York, LA, Denver, Miami, or Chicago for $100, including taxes, fees, and any fuel surcharges.
The odds of scoring such a deal are obviously not good. Besides winners can only get one ticket and who wants to travel alone? So, STA will also be offering an online sale each day of a limited number of seats on flights to same destination city. What kinds of prices are we talking about? One way fares from Boston to New York $25; to DC $50, and to Miami: $75 -- plus taxes, fees, and fuel surcharge, according to Patrick Evans of STA. All these flights will be on American.
Evans said prices on Boston fares for the other destinations were not yet available.
This is the way the contest will work: On Monday-Friday, STA will announce that day's destination selected from the list above at 11 a.m. Today's is Miami. Starting at 1 p.m., the first 20 to call 800-360-9273 will be able to buy a $100 round-trip ticket from any departure city in the nation.
To qualify you must be a full-time student or teacher or under 26 years old and own or buy a $22 International Student (or Teacher) Identity Card or an International Youth Travel Card.

Posted by Paul Makishima, Globe staff

Et tu, US Airways? In a move pioneered by JetBlue, US Airways says it will start charging passengers $7 for a pillow and blanket on Feb 16.
US Airways' Power-Nap Sack (don't you just love the name?) includes a fleece blanket, inflatable neck pillow, eye shades, and foam ear plugs. The best part? It all comes in a bag embroidered with the US Airways logo.
How cool is that?
But wait! The sack also includes a coupon for $10 off any SkyMall item. Choice. Among the current top rated items on its site: Instant Pendant Light ($49.99), Heart Rate Ring ($39.84), and Foot Alignment Socks ($19.95).
So to cynics like yourselves it may just look like more piling on of fees, but it clearly all pays for itself.

February is always tough. Very cold, very snowy, and dark. But this year is particularly hard what with Mr. Layoff scratching at nearly everyone's door.
We need some uplifting; we need a break.
The one bright spot? That it's Black History Month so there are generally many interesting and cool events. But where to look for a compendium of all the state has to offer? Hard to come by. I scoured the Web and came up empty handed (try it yourself and if you find a major listing let me know). So I managed to scrape together more than a dozen, with the help of the Mass. Office of Travel and Tourism, which I pass on to you.
But surely there is more. If you know of any, feel free to pass along. I'm serious. Give a brother a hand here.
Feb. 5
Martha’s Vineyard Motown Night Event
The Anchors, Edgartown, 5:30 p.m.
This event marking Black History month and the 50th Anniversary of Motown Records is presented by the Edgartown Public Library and the town Council on Aging. It features a chicken gumbo and sweet potato pie dinner and a screening of the award-winning documentary, "Standing in the Shadows of Motown.''
Call ECOA at 508-627-4368, edgartownlibrary.com/

Feb. 6-15
Annual Boston African Film Festival
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
This event showcases African American films, including "Shoot the Messenger,'' "Paris Selon Moussa,'' "Heartlines,'' "Kinshasa Palace,'' "Delwende,'' and "Awaiting for Men.''
Museum of Fine Arts

Feb. 7
Tribute to Motown
Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Springfield, 8:00 p.m.
The orchestra joins with Motown foursome Spectrum in a tribute to the golden age of groups like The Four Tops, The Temptations, and Smokey Robinson & The Miracles.
Symphony Hall, Springfield, 413-733-2291, www.springfieldsymphony.org

Feb. 7-May 31
Faith Ringgold: Works on Paper
Mt. Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley
This exhibition includes 18 prints and paintings, echoing the themes of protest that characterized the artist's early urban narrative paintings, as well as examples from her recent series on jazz musicians.
413-538-3185
www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/artmuseum/exhibitions/index.html#FAITHRINGGOLD

Feb. 8. 15, and 24
Black History Month KidsFlicks Program
The Worcester Public Library, Worcester
The movies and dates are as follows:
"Night John'' - Feb. 8, 1:30-4:30 p.m.
"Kirikou & the Sorceress'' - Feb. 15, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
"Daughters of the Dust'' - Feb. 24, 6:00-8:30 p.m.
Worcester Public Library, 508-799-1672

Feb. 12, 6:00-9:00 p.m.
"Traces of the Trade: Massachusetts and the Economy of Slavery''
New Bedford Whaling Museum Auditorium, New Bedford
Program commemorates the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade with a screening of Katrina Browne’s documentary, "Traces of the Trade'' about a Rhode Island family and its connections to the slave trade. A panel discussion will follow.
Click here for more information.

Feb. 20
Victory! The 2009 Black History Month Step Show Celebration
Mechanics Hall, Worcester, 8 p.m.
The Victory! Step Show features regional and local step teams competing on the Mechanics Hall stage.
For tickets, call the Mechanics Hall box office, 508-752-0888
www.mechanicshall.org

Feb. 21
"Celebrating Cape Verdean Culture in New England''
The Zion Union Heritage Museum, Hyannis, 2-4 p.m.
Claire Andrade-Watkins of Emerson College will discuss her film. A sampling of Cape Verdean cuisine will follow the presentation.
www.zionunionheritagemuseum.org/calendarofevents.html

Feb. 21
Masters at Work: A visit to AAMARP
Roxbury, (Meet at the MBTA Stony Brook Station at 10:45 a.m.) 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Spend an afternoon visiting the African American Master Artist-in-Residency Program (AAMARP). Guests can tour two of the AAMARP galleries. Visitors will have the opportunity to speak to artists about their work and make purchases. In addition, many of the artist studios will be open for viewing, including those of Hakim Raquib, Susan Thompson, Gloretta Baynes, Keith Washington and Walter Clark.
617-427-1006, www.discoverroxbury.org

FULL ENTRY

Continental is offering an introductory fare of $777 for its new daily nonstop flight to Shanghai, China, from Newark Liberty International Airport, which is slated to launch March 25. The discount fare, which doesn't include taxes and fees, will also be available from Logan, but the flight will connect in Newark instead of being nonstop.
To be eligible, tickets must be purchased by Feb. 28 for travel beginning March 25-April 30. A seven-day minimum stay is required and travel must be completed by June 30.
For reservations and other details, check out the website.

Southwest kicked off a fare skirmish on Tuesday, offering one-way fares of $49-$99 for any day of the week on travel through March 31. This is a pretty unusual deal as it's not limited to travel on specific days of the week nor is the traditional spring break period blocked out.
Southwest's sale excludes travel to Florida, Orange County, Calif., and Washington Dulles. Flights must be booked before Feb. 6 and a 14–day advance purchase is required.
Now here's the really interesting bit. Turns out that American, Delta, Continental, Northwest, United, US Airways, and Alaska Airlines all matched the sale, according to Tom Parsons, chief executive of Bestfares.com.
Winter is the slow time for travel so sales are not uncommon. But with the economic malaise, I think we're going to continue to see unusual deals like these pop up a good bit this year.
I've said it before: If you can afford to travel, life will be pretty good this year.

Snow again. And it's supposed to go on for a while. I am officially tired of it, but no one ever asks me what I think before they let the white stuff go.

Salt, sand, shovel, and school cancellations. I guess we'll just have to live with it. Or maybe even try to find some ways to enjoy it. Like sledding.

South of Boston, where I live, we hit places like the Milton Academy, President's Golf Course in Quincy, Kelly Field in Milton, or parts of the Blue Hills.

But there are no shortage of great places in the area. Here are more than 40 suggestions for local places I've found from around the Web and from recommendations by Globe staffers. Please feel free to add to the list.

Flagstaff Hill on Boston Common (near the baseball diamond)

The Bowl in Boston next to Jamaica Pond

Larz Anderson Park in Brookline which offers both huge and more modest hills and parking.

Weld Hill at Arnold Arboretum, corner of Walter and South streets in Roslindale with parking on South street and various side streets.

Cory Hill Park in Brookline

Dorchester Park off Adams Street in Dorchester

Spy Pond Park in Arlington

Oakley Country Club in Belmont

Prospect Hill Park in Waltham which features some long runs.

Tufts in Medford. A nice hill in the back of the school.

Elm Hill Preservation off Route 16 at Wellesley/Natick border

Severance Hill at Wellesley College behind Davis Museum

Warren Park at Wellesley Rec Dept, Route 16 Washington St

Schofield Elementary School, Park at 27 Cedar St. in Wellesley

Kelly Memorial Field om Elmwood Road adjacent to Bates Elementary in Wellesley

Hillview Country Club on North Street in North Reading

Mount Hood Golf Course in Melrose

Glendale Park in Everett

Seven Bump Hill in Malden

Cable Hill in Ipswich

Jericho Hills, Brigham off Clover Hill Rd, off Forest in Marlborough

DeNormandie Dairy Farm in Trapelo Road in Lincoln

Mount Hood in Melrose

Lynch Park in Beverly

Dane Street Beach in Beverly

Wheatlands Hill in Topsfield

Benjamin Hill on Benjamin Road in Acton

Woodsom Farm on in Amesbury

Norfolk Golf Club in Westwood

Pete's Hill in Sharon, located near Sharon center.

South Shore Country Club in Hingham

Coast Guard Hill in Marshfield

Gaffield Park in Norwell

First Parish in Norwell

D.W. Field in Brockton

Borderland State Park in Easton/Sharon (behind the Ames mansion)

Ponkapoag Golf Course in Canton

Higashi School in Randolph

Furnace Brook Golf Course in Quincy

Scituate Country Club in Scituate

Strawberry Valley Golf Course in Abington

Coakley Middle School, Norwood

Attention, desk jockeys. Turn down the speakers on your office computer or plug in your headphones. The newest online fad flash game has arrived. "Hero on the Hudson'' is based on the recent heroics of the US Airways crew that was forced to make a water landing after a collision with a flock of birds knocked out both engines. (Yes, the graphics are lame, but this is flash. And it's free.)
Players use the left and right arrow keys to keep the plane level with the water as it falls from 1,500 feet. If you succeed, you get the applause track and passengers begin lining up on the wings. Fail, and......well, it's not a option. That's what your boss keeps saying, yes?

With Virgin America prepared to launch its service from Boston to San Francisco and Los Angeles on Feb. 12, JetBlue announced that it will revive plans for service between Boston and New York to Los Angeles International starting June 17.

JetBlue had planned to launch service out of LAX last summer but pulled back, citing the record high fuel costs. That meant that the closest their customers could get to the city was either Burbank or Long Beach as opposed to Virgin, which offers service out of LAX. The discount carrier, which hasn't decided on fares for the twice-daily service (bet on low introductory ones), will begin selling tickets to LAX Wednesday Feb. 4.
JetBlue also has said that it will revive nonstop service from Boston to San Francisco May 1 on a seasonal basis -- which means through Labor Day -- after discontinuing the service last year.
Sebastian White, a JetBlue spokesman, denied that the moves were in response to Virgin's entrance to the Boston market.
"As you'll remember, when we canceled plans to start up LAX service last summer, fuel was at an all-time high. Fares could simply not support the cost of operations in the market,'' he said in an email. "With fuel prices down and fares slightly up, the timing was right for us to finally make our debut at LAX.''
White, however, admits that the airline sees Virgin as a competitor on the routes they both serve.
David Cush, Virgin chief executive, has said that he sees the airline's main competition as the legacy carriers, not discounters like JetBlue. Cush says his carrier aims to link major business centers, offering travelers top-flight entertainment options, service, and other amenities.
White says of JetBlue, which is no slouch in the area of in-flight entertainment and amenities, "We're committed to making JetBlue even more relevant to Boston travelers, particularly our growing numbers of business customers, by offering flights to their most-requested destinations.''
OK, guys, sounds like competition to me. And even if y'all are focused on business travelers -- as are most carriers, since suits tend to fly more than the rest of us and are more willing and able to pony up high fares for the privilege of flying when and where they need to -- I expect this could signal the beginning of good things for regular travelers in Boston.

One more thing... JetBlue says it will start flying to Montego Bay, Jamaica, May 21. Boston customers will be able to connect to direct flights departing from New York.

Word is there's a big storm headed our way starting tonight through tomorrow. JetBlue has already put out a notice that it will waive change fees and fare differences to let travelers booked for travel to, from, or through New York's metro airports or Logan on Wednesday to rebook their flights because of the weather.
Most frequent fliers know that most airlines have such bad-weather change policies; many leisure travelers do not.
Typically this is the way it works: When weather bad enough to force flight cancellations either is looming or has arrived, airlines either will put out a press release or post a message on their websites announcing that the waivers are in effect. There does seem to be differences in how long the carriers will give you to rebook flights. Many require that you rebook within a few days of your original flight. Others will give you the option of booking months later.
If you find yourself facing weather that will likely force flight cancellations, you'll need to check with your airline for the specifics. But be aware that the waiver option is a regular part of doing business for most airlines.

The Big Deal about this Southwest offer of $49-$99 one-way fares to most of the carrier's destinations is that it is for travel any day of the week. Typically, such sales limit travel to Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.
Here's the deal: You must book before Jan. 27 online for travel through March 11, and a 14-day advance purchase is required. For all the details: http://"> details head to the website.
A new development: The AP is reporting that American and Continental say they are matching the Southwest fares. And Delta has just posted a systemwide fare sale on its website that runs through Monday -- same as the Southwest sale.
I just love competition. Don't you?

If you needed any more proof that fewer are flying, take note of two more developments today.
First, Southwest Airlines said that it would trim its schedule by 4 percent this year, the first time it's done that in about two decades.
And locally Massachusetts Port Authority says it will slice $17 million - or 4.5 percent - from its budget because it projects monthly passenger traffic at Logan will continue slipping through at least the first half of the year.
My pal Nicole Wong reports that Massport chief executive Thomas J. Kinton Jr. had this to say at today's monthly meeting of the authority's board:

"Our best guess - based on scheduled operations, seat availability, and projections from snapshots of activity at airports across the country - is that we may see month-over-month declines in the 5 to 6 percent range for much of the year, with traffic perhaps staging a comeback in the second half of 2009, depending on the economy. It's below where we'd like it to be, but it's better than where we were just this fall."

For passengers this is probably not great news. With fewer people flying and airlines cutting seats to bolster the bottom line, we may see some deals here and there in the short term. But carriers will look to recoup losses, keeping prices as high as they possibly can for as long as they can.

This past Sunday you may have seen my story on a Boston staycation. A couple of readers wrote with some interesting tips that I had missed and so I'm posting them you to enjoy. (Or add your own suggestions!)
A tour guide from Fenway Park wrote to say that even though the Sox won't be back till spring, you can still visit the park:
"...we do conduct tours all year...even tomorrow on Martin Luther King Day with fresh snow on our Kentucky Blue Grass field. With construction and renovations currently going on, we have modified our normal walk-around the Park in-season tour with a video/slide presentation in one of our luxury suites. The modified tour is entitled 'Building Fenway Park.' It is still a very popular tourist destination. In fact, last week, I had tour visitors from Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Colombia, Mexico, and yes even Portland, Maine."
Another reader wrote:
"We are a group of Boston lovers who are trying to be sure that Boston's women are mentioned in its travel articles (and its school curriculum etc). I urge you to refer to our web site or our guidebook, Boston Women's Heritage Trail. ...For instance, your sentence about Faneuil Hall could read, 'where John Hancock, Frederick Douglass and Lucy Stone spoke about issues of their day.' (Lucy's bust is up there right near Frederick's.)"

Thanks for sharing!

I love a good hotel package, and the Hilton properties in the Boston area have a promotion called "And Baby Makes Three" to help prospective expectant couples become actually expectant.
Packages at the four participating hotels start at $169 plus tax and include: an overnight stay, a romantic CD ("Your Heart and Soul'' by the incomparable love meister Barry White), champagne and chocolates, and a copy of "The Everything Getting Pregnant Book.''
To book, you must contact the hotels directly: Hilton Boston Back Bay, 617-236-1100; Hilton Boston Logan Airport, 617-568-6700; Doubletree Hotel Boston-Downtown, 617-956-7900; and Doubletree Guest Suites Boston-Waltham, 781-890-6767.
And one last thing: According to the National Center for Health Statistics, most babies are born in July, August, and September and on Tuesdays-Fridays (if that sort of thing matters to you).
Here's a little Barry to get you thinking.

Southwest has launched a three-day sale to Seattle with one-way fares from Providence as low as $95 for travel from Feb. 3-May 31. To score the discounts you must book from now through Jan. 22 either here or at southwest.com, using the promotion code SEATTLE.

With blaring horns, propane cannons, pyrotechnics, and -- if necessary -- a shotgun, wildlife technicians try to startle, harass, and haze birds to keep them away from Logan International Airport, to avoid scenarios like the US Airways crash on Thursday.
At a press conference this afternoon, Massport officials described the bird deterrent efforts taken at an airport that is particularly attractive to birds, as a wide open seaside space that sits in migratory bird paths.
Efforts are made to make Logan "as unwelcoming to birds as possible," said Ed Freni, director of aviation. That includes everything from planting special grass that does not go to seed, to scaring them away with cannons.
"We don't want to ring the dinner bell for birds," Freni said.
In 2008, there were 61 recorded collisions between birds and planes at Logan, out of 309,000 flights. But the vast majority of bird strikes don't even cause major damage, much less causing a crash like the one in New York. Last year, only one strike -- a JetBlue flight in November -- caused major damage to the plane, he said. That plane was climbing, had a bird strike, and landed safely.
The most severe bird strike collision occurred at Logan in 1960, when an Eastern Airlines flight collided with a flock of birds shortly after taking off, and plunged wing-first into Boston Harbor. There were 72 people aboard, and all but 10 died.
Bird strikes are as old as aviation itself, with the first recorded bird strike in 1905 by aviation pioneer Orville Wright.
Posted By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff

Necee Regis discussed great getaways this season in the Hub. Click below for a transcript.

Azores Express -- the US division of Portugal's second largest airline, Grupo SATA -- plans to announce this week that on April 5 it will add a third weekly flight between Boston and Lisbon that stops along the way in Ponta Delgada in the Azores, a cluster of islands off the coast of Portugal.
That flight will be on Sundays and cost $584 or more plus tax for a round trip to Ponta Delgada and $710 or more plus tax for a round trip to Lisbon.
The carrier also plans to add a third summertime nonstop flight between Boston and Lisbon starting July 1. That flight will be on Wednesdays and be priced at $816 or more plus tax for a round trip.
The additions will increase Azores Express's weekly flights at Logan International Airport in Boston from two to three year-round, and from a total of seven to nine during the summer. This is part of the carrier's plan to increase worldwide seat capacity by about 5 percent this year, even as other airlines cut capacity and industry forecasts sour.

Posted by Nicole C. Wong, Globe Staff

As another snowstorm hovers over New England, we take a look in Sunday's Explore New England section on ways you can hone -- and even improve -- your skills in a few summer sports. Golfers and softball and baseball players need not wait until the grass is visible to take some swings and stretch out sport-specific muscles.We were reminded at one point during our interviews of how fiercely loyal players and coaches can be to their sport. It brought back high school memories of hockey players derisively calling us basketball players "roundballers," and questioning our toughness.
Frank Niles of the South Shore Baseball Club in Hingham has been involved in baseball for decades, and he talked of teaching youngsters the fundamentals by sometimes "tricking them into good habits." It wasn't important, he said, "to know which neurons in the brain were firing. We just stress that they stand on the balls of their feet and be ready when the ball is hit to them. Almost anybody can get better," he said, "and know that they are getting better.'' He paused. "If not, we can always send you to a soccer clinic."
Ouch.

Ever wonder what it would be like to go on vacation with Ellen DeGeneres and her significant other, Portia de Rossi? Ellen offered viewers this look at the couple's holiday trip to sunny Bora Bora. It's really quite comforting to discover that celebrity vacation footage, even in beautiful and exotic locales, is just as boring as everyone else's.

JetBlue has launched an online sale with fares from Boston starting at $49 each way. Other destinations include: Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Raleigh-Durham, Richmond or Washington, D.C, from $69; Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa, West Palm Beach from $89; Nassau or Chicago from $109; Austin, Denver, Las Vegas or Seattle from $139; Cancun, Oakland or Long Beach from $149; and Aruba or Bogota, Colombia from $159.
The fine print: Sale deals require up to a 7-day advance purchase, and travel must be booked by Jan. 14 and completed for most destinations by April 1, but dates vary. And there are other restrictions. Go here for all the details.

It's still months away, but if you know an out-of-towner who plans to be in Boston for the Boston Marathon come April it's time to start planning ahead. Things tend to get a little busy around here - the John Hancock Sports & Fitness Expo runs April 17-19 at the Hynes Memorial Convention Center and Marathon Day is April 20 (Patriots Day). Book a flight to Boston on JetBlue and save $10 each way. Visit www.jetblue.com/promo and enter code RunBoston09. The offer is good for flights from any JetBlue city to Boston on April 17-19 and Boston to any JetBlue city on April 20-22. For help with lodging options, check with the Boston Athletic Association (click on "Travel and Accomodations.'') An alternative worth looking into is Marathon Tours & Travel, which offers special rates at hotels during the marathon. However, like those elite runners - and you know who you are - those special rates are going fast.

JetBlue, which has just cut a deal multiyear deal to become the official charter airline of the Red Sox, is throwing a 9-hour online sale of fares from Boston to the American League cities the carrier flies to, with one-way fares as low as $9 to Buffalo (as close as JetBlue gets to Toronto), $29 to New York, $49 to Chicago or Tampa, and $99 to Oakland or Long Beach, Calif. (which is outside LA).
The sale began at 9 a.m. Friday and ends at 6 p.m. There are some restrictions: Travel dates are Jan. 6-Feb. 10 with blackouts Jan. 15-19. Friday and Sunday travel is also excluded.
But few sales work for everyone -- or even most people, these days.
By the way, the significance of the number 9 (as in hours) is that it was Ted William's number.

Last Friday’s ice storm is still affecting some ski areas in New England. Crotched Mountain near Henniker, N.H., didn’t regain power until Tuesday at 11:45 a.m. and won’t reopen until Friday, Dec. 19, and Mount Sunapee in Newbury, N.H., just reopened today.
But loss of power is only one of the major hassles affecting ski resorts after an ice storm. And it may be one of the few times that resort operators wish they had old-style slow chairlifts.
High-speed detachable lifts are much harder to de-ice than fixed-grip lifts — like the old double chairlifts that took up to 15 minutes to reach the summit. “One or two hours with a crew of four to six guys, and you can have that [fixed-grip] lift deiced and you’re running,” Killington president and general manager Chris Nyberg told a group of ski writers’ earlier this week.
“A detachable lift is another story,” he continued. “When you look up at the hanger head which attaches to the cable [on a detachable chair], there’s big springs up there typically. In the type of ice we had this past weekend, you have to physically with a brass hammer beat the ice off of every one of those spring sets on every chair.”
He said operators at the top or bottom terminal have to push and pull each chair through the terminal and pound the ice from it — not exactly a morale booster. So at Killington’s newest lift — the Skye Peak Express that’s scheduled to open this weekend — they constructed a covered area where they can store all the lift’s chairs during an ice storm or other weather event.
With a storm dumping half-a-foot of snow (as of 10 a.m. today) at Killington and another two snowstorms scheduled to land in the next few days, the ice storm is a distant memory. At least for us skiers …
Posted By Peggy Shinn, Globe Correspondent

With all this year's excitement about Bus 2.0, with the arrival of BoltBus and Megabus to Boston, many have forgotten the old stalwart Greyhound and its regional partner Peter Pan.
The two companies are making a grab for attention with an offer of a 75 percent discount off the regular adult walk-up fare with an 10-day advance purchase. The bus partners will sell 250 discounted tickets daily.
Besides that deal, the companies are also offering these others:
* Friends and family: Up to three companions can travel at 50 percent off with the purchase of one adult standard walk-up fare. A three-day advance purchase is required.
* Holiday Bounce-Back Coupon: For all tickets sold in terminals during the holiday period (Dec. 15 – Jan. 5), customers will receive a coupon for 20 percent off their next trip during the redemption period (Jan. 6 – March 31).
These discounts are available online and in terminals. But the companies also say that those who book online already will find many fares priced at a 20-percent discount off the adult standard fare.
For all these deals there are no blackout days and, currently, there is no time limit (that is, said a Greyhound spokeswoman, until we decide to end it.)
Some restrictions may apply. For more information visit the website.

JetBlue detailed what it called the first step in its Logan expansion plans with an increase of a total of 11 flights to 12 US cities starting May 1.
Besides its previously announced plans to resume flights between Boston and San Francisco with seasonal service, the discount carrier says it will add second daily flights to Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago O’Hare; Pittsburgh; and Raleigh/Durham, N.C.; a third flight to Buffalo, N.Y., and Long Beach, Calif.; sixth and seventh flights to Dulles; and a ninth and 10th flights to JFK.
JetBlue said in October that it was planning to increase its Logan presence.
Analysts have characterized the growth in Boston as very smart as it targets gaps left by other airlines, which either have dropped routes or are no longer serving them as well as they might.
Boston is already JetBlue's second-largest city, behind New York, and the carrier offers service to more destinations than any other at Logan.
Sebastian White, a JetBlue spokesman, said that he was not sure when the airline would disclose further expansion but expected that there would be more news in the first couple months of 2009.

Spirit announced Tuesday that it will launch nonstop daily service from Logan to Atlantic City, N.J., starting May 1.
To mark the event, the discount carrier is offering one-way fares as low as $9 today and tomorrow on its website.
The special deals are only good on a half dozen days in May, and to get the $9 rate you have to be a member of the carrier's $9 Fare Club, which entitles you to at least $9 off the price of any fare -- but to join you either have to pay a $39.95 annual membership fee or get a Spirit MasterCard and charge at least one item a month on it.
Non-Fare Club members can buy tickets under the deal for $18.

American is going to announce this week that it will reinstate nonstop service between Boston and San Diego on April 7. The carrier stopped running the once daily transcontinental flight in September after the summer's record-high fuel prices made long-haul routes less appealing than shorter ones.
American cut domestic seat capacity by 12 percent this year, and it has slated a 6 percent reduction for next year. But in addition to bringing back the profitable and popular San Diego flight, American also plans to begin offering on April 7 a third daily flight between Boston and St. Louis, a fourth daily flight between Boston and Los Angeles, and a ninth daily flight between Boston and Dallas-Fort Worth. Starting May 1, American plans to offer a third daily flight between Boston and London and resume its daily seasonal flight between Boston and Paris.
But with the deteriorating economy, it's hard forecast how long these additional flights will remain viable.
"This is the first time people don't know what kind of demand we're going to have two to three months from now," James K. Carter, vice president for American's Eastern sales division, told a roomful of the carrier's Logan International Airport managers during a meeting detailing the service changes.
By Nicole C. Wong, Globe Staff

At long last. Delta will start offering in-flight Internet service starting Tuesday.
The service, dubbed Gogo, will be available initially on five MD-88 aircraft flying between New York's LaGuardia and Logan and Washington's Reagan airports, and on one Boeing 757, which will fly different domestic routes.
Next year, the airline will charge flat fees of $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on longer trips. The service will be free through the end of this year.
Delta expects 10 aircraft to be in service by the end of this year and to have its entire fleet outfitted by late 2009. And the airline says passengers should see Internet access on planes operated by its Northwest subsidiary by late next year.
Competitors American Airlines offers WiFi on flights from New York to Miami, San Francisco and Los Angeles, Air Canada and Virgin America expect to have the service soon.

Sleeping beneath the stars isn’t an option in wintertime, unless you are cultivating your survivalist instincts. An alternative is to break out the sleeping bags and head for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where families have the option of sleeping under, for instance, an enormous blue whale. This unique after-hours opportunity (no Ben Stiller sightings are promised) includes a screening of the IMAX film “Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure” and a spooky dinosaur-fossil exploration by flashlight. It’s designed for children ages 8–12 and their caregivers. Guests sleep either in the museum’s Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, under the 94-foot-long whale; beneath famous dioramas in the Hall of North American Mammals; or among the geological formations in the Hall of Planet Earth. The program dates are Friday, Jan. 9, and Friday, Feb. 6. The sleepover runs from 5:45 p.m. to 9 a.m., and the cost is $129 per person ($119 for AMNH members). It includes the movie and the fossil exploration, an evening snack and light breakfast, cots for all participants, take-home activities, and a live-animal exhibition (seasonal). To register, call 212-769-5200 or visit www.amnh.org/sleepovers for more information. Note: all participants must register in advance, and one adult is required for every 1–3 children attending. Space is limited and sells out quickly. The museum is located on Central Park West at 79th St. In Boston, the Museum of Science likewise sponsors overnight programs, but they are limited to museum members and their families (usually held in June), or to organizations such as Girl Scouts, Cubs Scouts, schools, and youth groups. For more information on their programs, which are also in high demand, families can call the membership department at 617-589-0180, and agencies can call 617-589-0350, or email overnights@mos.org.

Virgin America, the California-based discount airline, will launch service at Logan Airport starting Feb. 12 with service to San Francisco and Los Angeles.
"Boston is a great fit for us when you look at our business strategy. We link major urban centers, and there are a lot of ties between Boston and the San Francisco area in terms of tech fields, medicine, education,'' David Cush, president and chief executive of Virgin America, said this morning.
Virgin’s announcement comes three days after it said that it would suspend plans to fly out of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, the latest in a series of recent setbacks to the company’s aggressive growth plans.
Virgin is planning two daily flights from Logan to San Francisco International and three to Los Angeles, with main cabin rates starting at $149 one way, $570 for main cabin premium service, and $999 in first class. Tickets are now on sale on the airline's website.
Virgin, whose operational base is at San Francisco International Airport, began service in August 2007 with ambitious plans to be in as many as ten cities within its first year and up to 30 in five years.
It was the brainchild of British billionaire Richard Branson, who is a minority investor in the carrier and has licensed the Virgin brand to the company but is barred by US law from owning or controlling it.
Virgin currently serves San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, San Diego, and Seattle. Boston will be its eighth city.
Analysts have said that the key to Virgin’s growth would be its ability to develop a network around major business centers but it has recently been stymied in attempts to enter new markets.
The discount carrier said that it was planning to add two cities east of the Mississippi this year. And in a February interview, Cush hinted that the lucky two could be Chicago and Boston.
Virgin finally opted for Chicago and Newark, N.J. Plans for Newark got shelved this spring, however, because of government restrictions aimed at curbing air traffic in the New York area. And on Friday Virgin suspended its Chicago plans after failing to secure the gates they needed.
Virgin representatives had suggested that the carrier would likely not pursue expansion into Boston this year, amid the economic downturn.
But, Cush said, it was the decision to turn away from Chicago that opened the door to initiating service at Logan.
"We'd been talking to Logan since the beginning of operations in August,'' he said. "But things really heated up last week. We had some planes coming in, and we wanted to be able to put them in operation. So when it came time to look at pulling the plug on Chicago we got in touch with the people at Logan, and they were able to work out a nice offer of arrangements for us.''
Edward C. Freni, the Logan's director of aviation, has said that moves to consolidate operations of merger partners Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines in Terminal A would clear space for the airport to offer gates to another domestic carrier.
Virgin’s Logan operations will be based in Terminal B, Matthew Brelis, an airport spokesman, said.
While the airline’s focus is on business travel, Virgin has also found favor with many leisure travelers owing to its newer planes, hip interior designs and mood lighting, and its luxury approach to lower-fare travel, which features leather seats, satellite TV, on-demand movies, streaming radio, and selection of MP3 music files. It also plans offer WiFi on all its aircraft by spring 2009.

See the world (or at least parts of the USA). Meet new and interesting people. Drive the Wienermobile.
Who knew it was a real job?
Oscar Meyer is taking resumes until the end of January for one-year spots as Hotdoggers. As an official company ambassador, you'll set up, publicize, and attend promotional and charity events in the oh-so-stylin' Wienermobile. And you may need to do radio interviews or make television appearances.

What are they looking for? First, it helps to have an upbeat, bubbly personality. They'd also prefer that you have a BA or BS in communications, PR, journalism, advertising, marketing. But if you really think you're Hotdogger material they'll consider other majors.
If you get hired, the gig comes with a "competitive'' salary (What does this mean? Are there legions of other Hotdoggers out there who might be making more or less than Oscar Meyer pays?), expenses, benefits, and clothing.
They send you to Hot Dog High in lovely Madison, Wis., for training on Oscar Meyer's products, how to run your own PR operation, and, most importantly, how to drive the Wienermobile.
You'll get teamed up with one other Hotdogger and have responsibility for a region. After six months, they'll give you a new partner in a new region so you get a chance to see a bit more of the country.
But be warned. Competition is fierce -- the company typically gets more than 1,000 applications for 12 spots. Statistically, you've got a much better shot at getting into Harvard (although if you make it, odds are you will have much more fun than if you'd ended up in Cambridge).
How to improve you chances? Crank up that perky quotient. Judging from the site, the ability to pun doesn't hurt, and if you habla espanol they seem to like that a lot.
For those who are interested, here's a link to their official Flickr group and to their blog.
It's nice to know that even in a down economy there are still dream jobs out there.

(Thanks to The Lost Girls for pointing us to this one.)

Amid the slumping economy, another travel deal.
OAT, which specializes in adventure itineraries for the over-50 traveler, is halting single supplement fees for all land tours and some small ship cruises for 2009. To get this deal travel must be booked by Jan. 31 and is limited by availability.
Still for single travelers, this is a big deal as it can amount to savings of hundreds or even thousands of dollars depending on the trip.
According to USA Today's Cruise blog, this is part of a larger plan to market to a key audience segment: single women.
An executive of the Boston tour operator that said that single women account for 70 percent of the firm's business, up from 50 percent a few years ago, and that this year OAT expects about 47,000 women customers.
In fact, the company says that it plans to launch a women's only line of vacations soon. So stay tuned.

Everyone "loves" their in laws (really, honey, I do). Dinner with them? Cool. Picnics? Even better. Holidays? I'm so down with that. But staying with them, like at their house, under their roof, 24-7?
Yes, Mr. and Mrs. America, you are not alone. According to a new survey by Hotel Indigo, 36 percent of Americans would rather stay in a hotel than with family and a whopping 97 percent would prefer to avoid camping out with the in-laws.
To wit, Indigo is offering an Escape the In-Laws package through Jan. 14. It starts at $129 a night and includes breakfast for two and a Family Decompression Kit -- aspirin, aromatherapy oil, and a bottle of wine (I'm not sure but I don't think an upgrade to tequila is available).
Indigo currently has 19 hotels in the Americas, including in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Baltimore, Scottsdale, Ariz., Nashville, Buffalo, Rahway and Baskin Ridge, N.J., Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., St. Louis, Miami and
OK, you ask, what if they're coming here to visit you? It just so happens that there is an Indigo in Newton. So be generous. Let the in laws have the house. And the kids. Escape. That's just the way we roll.

Logan has not yet received whole-body imaging machines from the Transportation Security Administration and likely won’t get them for the rest of the year. Logan expected two of these passenger-scanning machines to arrive in the fall, which would have made it one of the first 25 US airports to deploy the technology that’s raised a ruckus among privacy advocates. The technology displays images of passengers’ naked bodies so TSA agents can visually search for concealed contraband, like liquids and ceramic knives. But the TSA said its deployment schedule seems to have changed and it has not yet announced its plans for 2009, so it’s not clear when Logan will get to test the machines. Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs the airport, declined to comment but previously said it would lobby for enough machines to outfit all four terminals.
By Nicole C. Wong, Globe Staff

It's getting tougher and tougher to find rooms anywhere near the Beltway for the inauguration. I've read reports reports of folks taking spots as far away as West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
But The Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in the new National Harbor project in Prince George's County, Maryland, across the Potomac from Alexandria says on its website that it still has rooms.
Here are the options:
*Check in Sunday, January 18 — Stay 4 nights
*Check in Monday, January 19 — Stay 4 nights
*Check in Tuesday, January 20 — Stay 2 nights
*Check in Wednesday, January 21 — Stay 1 night
One caveat: I poked around a bit and it appears that rooms start at about $800 a night. But check it out. Thanks to USA Today's Hotel Hotsheet for pointing us to this one.

At the beginning of the season, Boston sports fans certainly expected that one of their football teams would be heading to Tampa, site of Super Bowl XLIII, for a championship game. The surprise, however, is that while the Patriots are still fighting just to get in the playoffs, it's Boston College that's on its way to Raymond James Stadium this Saturday for the ACC Championship game against Virginia Tech.
Fans wanting to cheer on the Eagles can get tickets and hotel reservations through Boston College. Ticket prices range from $57 to $120. BC is also hosting a pre-game hospitality tailgate with unlimited food and beverage for $50 per person.
Delta and JetBlue offer nonstop flights from Logan Airport to Tampa, and weekend flights on those airlines are running $450 and up. One-stop flights can be found for under $300. In addition, Southwest flies direct to Tampa from both Manchester and Providence, and don't rule out flying into Orlando, which is only a 90-minute drive from Tampa.
If you're sticking around Tampa on Sunday, the New England Patriots Fan Club of West Central Florida is gathering to watch this Sunday's Pats game at KD's Pub at 13949 West Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa. Patriots fans certainly hope it's not their last chance to catch their team in Tampa.

***********
Globe travel correspondent Christopher Klein writes his own blog, HubTrotter, and is the author of the forthcoming book, "The Die-Hard Sports Fan's Guide to Boston."

The folks at TSA know that the holidays are -- how to put it -- a stressful time. Most people who fly know the carry-on rules, but for some reason it becomes easy to forget that the rules apply even to holiday goodies. To wit, the TSA reminds travelers that the following foodstuffs and beverages need to packed in luggage and checked:
* gravy (??)
* salad dressing
* oils and vinegars (who travels with oil and vinegar?)
* cranberry sauce
* salsa
* sauces
* maple syrup
* creamy dips (then noncreamy, less fattening varieties are OK?)
* wine, liquor and beer
* jams
* jellies
* soups (excuse me sir, is that a soup in your pocket or are you just happy....)

And who says these TSA guy don't have a sense of humor? Check out this last bit of advice from the website:

Note: You can bring pies and cakes through the security checkpoint, but be advised that they might be subject to additional screening. (italics mine)

Ya gotta love these guys.

Move over, Rockefeller Center. There’s a new ice rink in town.
On Nov. 22, the American Museum of Natural History unveils “The Polar Rink,” just in time for the holiday season in New York City. Built on the Arthur Ross Terrace, the rink is a first for the 140-year-old Upper West Side landmark that starred in the hit movie “Night at the Museum.”
Overlooking Theodore Roosevelt Park and the museum’s Rose Center for Earth and Space, the synthetic ice rink accommodates 200 skaters at a time. A 17-foot tall, stainless steel polar bear sculpture functions as the welcoming mascot at center ice.
Skating hours are Sunday-Thursday noon-8 p.m., Friday, Saturday and holidays 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Tickets for a 1-hour skate are $10, students and seniors $9, ages 3-12 $8. For more information, visit www.amnh.org or call 212-769-5200. The museum is at Central Park West and 79th St. in Manhattan. The rink will be open through Feb. 28.

By Jan Shepherd, Globe Correspondent

Photo courtesy of American Museum of Natural History/D. Finnin

The Hot Stove League may just be warming up, but it's never too early to start planning a baseball pilgrimage for next year. The World Baseball Classic returns in March and offers the perfect excuse to combine a trip to the ballpark with a visit to some of the world's great cities.
Tickets are now on sale for first-round games in Tokyo, Mexico City, Toronto, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Red Sox fans may be particularly interested in the games in Tokyo. Japan won the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006, and the tournament served as the coming-out party for Daisuke Matsuzaka. Dice-K and Hideki Okajima haven't committed to pitch for their home countries yet, but even if the Sox hurlers don't take to the mound, the atmosphere in the Tokyo Dome will still be electric when the home team plays.
While in Tokyo, seamheads can visit the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and Boston fans can also make the three-hour bullet train ride to Kyoto and drop in at the Sox-themed Fenway Park bar while visiting the city's ancient shrines and temples.
If you'd rather stay closer to home and head to warmer climes, second-round games will be played in San Diego and Miami, with the finals in Los Angeles. Tickets to those games go on sale December 8. Major League Baseball is offering travel packages to some of the tournament cities.

***********
Globe travel correspondent Christopher Klein writes his own blog, HubTrotter, and is the author of the forthcoming book, "The Die-Hard Sports Fan's Guide to Boston."

Good news, travelers. Southwest Airlinesplans to start flying into New York's LaGuardia.
Right now, the nearest the discount carrier gets to the Apple is MacArthur on Long Island, about 50 miles away from the city.
Southwest says that it has submitted a $7.5 million bid in US Bankruptcy Court to take over the 14 LaGuardia slots held by ATA, which filed for bankruptcy protection in April.
With those 14 slots, Southwest could fly as many as seven daily round-trips.
This move is a bit unusual for Southwest, which generally prefers to fly into secondary airports to save time between flights and avoid higher fees -- the reason why the carrier flies into suburban Providence instead of Boston.
So why are they doing it?
"Even in this volatile environment, we have said we must monitor the competitive landscape and take advantage of prudent market opportunities," Gary Kelly, Southwest's chairman and CEO.
In other words, this is is some part a nod to the fact that the competitors like JetBlue and Virgin America fly directly into JFK and AirTran into LaGuardia.
Despite the current economic malaise, Southwest, has recently been making other strategic moves, having cut marketing deals with Canada's WestJet in July and with Mexico's Volaris Nov. 10 to book flights north and south of the border starting next year and in 2010, respectively.

Southwest put fares on sale for the second time in a week to boost business in the slow periods after the holidays.
The three-day sale begins today and ends Nov. 20 for travel from Dec. 9 through Feb. 28. Sale fares are available only on the website, with the cheapest days being Monday through Thursday. Sample deals from Providence: Baltimore-Washington Intl. $49 one way, LA $99, or Chicago Midway $89.
``It is pretty obvious that there are more than a few empty seats hanging out this winter, even with the substantial seat cutbacks,'' Rick Seaney, CEO of ticket-research firm Farecompare.com, told Bloomberg News.

Still thinking about trying to fly home for turkey day?
Southwest just announced a sale that only requires a three-day advance purchase for travel Nov. 22-Dec. 2. Travel must be booked on the website by Nov. 29.
Now these fares are not systemwide. So you'll need to go to the website to see whether this will be useful to you. But a quick scan suggests that many of the deals look pretty good: $106 one-way to Philly; $107 to Baltimore/Washington Int'l; $251 to Portland, Oregon.
And while there are no official blackout dates, Southwest notes: "Seats are limited and won't be available on some flights that operate during very busy travel times and holiday periods.'' So it's a pretty safe bet you won't net a discount seat for a flight out on Wednesday Nov. 26 and back Sunday Nov. 30.

CraftBoston Holiday makes its much anticipated premiere today for a three-day run at the Boston Westin Waterfront. (The hotel is located adjacent to the new Greater Boston Convention Center on Summer Street.) It’s the best addition to the city’s holiday shopping scene since the popular 22-year-old “Crafts at the Castle” folded after last December’s show.

With 105 glassblowers, jewelry designers, furniture makers, fashionwear weavers and knitters, and metal artists, and home accessories craftsmen, CraftBoston Holiday offers one-of-a-kind and limited edition gifts by top regional and national artists. Sponsored by the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston’s Back Bay, the show is a streamlined version of the annual spring CraftBoston that features 175 crafts artists, lectures, theme tours.

Here’s the lowdown: Friday till 8 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission (good all weekend) $15, seniors $12, ages 12 and under free. Proceeds benefit Society of Arts and Crafts, 175 Newbury St., Back Bay. 617-266-1810. Visit website for admission discount coupons. Boston Westin Waterfront is at 425 Summer St., about four blocks from South Station.
By Jan Shepherd, Globe Correspondent

Discount air service Direct Air, which will give Greater Boston travelers a taste of Virgin America service, is offering $140 roundtrip fares to two Florida and one South Carolina cities to mark the launch of its service from Worcester Nov. 22.
The sale will begins Friday Nov. 14 on the company’s website and will run through Nov. 21. Travel must be completed by Oct. 31, 2009, and the fare certificates are transferable. Customers will be limited to 20 certificates.
Direct limits baggage to two pieces per passenger and there is a prepaid fee of $20 per bag per direction, $25 if paid at the airport.
Ed Warneck, president of Direct, said yesterday the air service will reserve 10 percent of seats on flights for the special fares, ‘‘and will obviously let more in if we have available seats on planes.’’
Direct, based in Myrtle Beach, S.C., will fly on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays into and out of Worcester Regional Airport, which hasn’t had regular commercial service since Allegiant Air, a discount airline and charter company based in Las Vegas, pulled out in 2006. The schedule calls for one arrival and one departure daily to its Florida destinations: Punta Gorda, near Fort Myers, and Sanford, outside of Orlando. Service to Myrtle Beach will take place on Thursdays and Sundays. Flight are nonstops.
Direct is an air service, which means it doesn’t own planes but leases them. For its Worcester service, it plans to use Virgin planes and flight crews for its Florida flights at least through spring of 2010 and USA Jet Airlines for trips to Myrtle Beach.
This will give local travelers who have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Virgin an opportunity to sneak a peek at the airline, which has garnered attention for its luxury approach to lower-fare travel, with its leather seats, satellite TV, on-demand movies, streaming radio, and selection of MP3 music files.

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For years, travelers have been screaming for setting limits on how long airlines can leave hapless passengers sitting on tarmacs during flight delays and even the US Department of Transportation's inspector general last fall recommended some kind of rule.
But the best a federal task force could do yesterday was to approve voluntary guidelines for airlines and airports. It failed to come up with any hard rules on how long airlines can keep you shut up in planes before being allowed to exit.
It's hard to find anyone who flies even semiregularly who doesn't have a story of being stranded on the tarmac for hours with no recourse.
(Full disclosure: I've been stuck twice. Both times were in California, once on an American flight and once with United, for three and nearly six hours, respectively, after the jets I was on appeared to be experiencing mechanical problems.)
Passenger rights advocates told the Associated Press that representatives of the airlines leaned on other task force members to reject time limits, saying they wanted the flexibility to design their own response plans.
Right. And what has kept them from doing so thus far on their own?
The DOT says it is working on rules to require airlines and airports to have contingency plans and include a time limit. But who knows when and if that will happen?
Well, you ask, what recommendations did the task force come up with?
They suggest the airlines update you on progress every 15 minutes; provide a secure room for passengers on overseas flight so they won't have to go back through security; provide refreshments and entertainment when practical; and try to keep the restroom clean.
The 36-member task force was created in December by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and was dominated by airline industry and airport representatives.
OK, Barack, I know you already have one or two other things on your plate but let's hope that you will be able to do a bit better by us. Yes, you can.

Lower-fare carrier AirTran joined the major legacy airlines in adding a $15 fee for a first checked piece of luggage on flights starting Dec 5.
Delta, American, United, and Continental all charge for first, and subsequent bags.
Discounters Southwest and JetBlue allow at least one free checked bag.
The move by AirTran reminds us that even the discounters, once thought to be a bit more insulated from the pressures plaguing the industry, haven't completely escaped the drag of the sagging economy and slowing travel demand.

Our friends at Priceline have released their annual holiday calendar of the most fiscally prudent days to travel, and there aren't any surprises: The cheapest days are Nov. 23, 24 and 27 for Thanksgiving, and Dec. 22, 23 and 24 for Christmas; the priciest are Nov. 21 and 26; Dec. 19, 20 and 28; and Jan. 3 and 4.

While those general guidelines are useful, they don't necessarily shed a whole lot of light on the key thing here: what you will need to pay.

But the travel website does offer a Best Days To Fly tool that I find more useful. This is the way it works: Go to the site and click on the Best Days To Fly box on the right hand side of the screen. A dialog box will pop up. Enter your departure and arrival cities. This will generate a calendar showing the lowest published ticket price found by Priceline customers for days around the holiday, and you can use this info to help you figure out when to fly and whether you're getting a good deal.

Brian Ek, a Priceline spokesman, says the site will continue updating the info.

Westjet, the Canadian discount airline that plans to partner with Southwest, sent out a questionnaire to consumers to gauge their willingness to pay for a menu of services -- or to save money forgoing them.

One of the questions, first reported by Chris Elliott on his blog, involved whether passengers would favor shelling out $10 to not sit next to a parent with a baby.

The Westjet queries are revealing, I think. They don’t necessarily reflect what kinds of fees all the airlines will go for, but they suggest what kinds of things they all must be at least considering (or are already trying).

Besides the baby question, the carrier also asked whether travelers would consider paying $10 for:

• Being among the first to get on or off planes
  
• Quicker baggage delivery
  
• Priority rebooking after flight cancellations
  
• Complimentary meals/hotel accommodations for substantially delayed or canceled flights
  
• In-flight Web access
  
• Guaranteed space in the overhead bin
  
• In-seat power
  
• Premium snacks/meals
  
• Freshly laundered pillow/blanket set that you may keep
  
• Amenity kits with earplugs, eyeshades, and toiletries
  
• Shorter waits to clear security checkpoints

The carrier also asked questions about which services travelers would be willing to give up in order to save $10 on flights of two to four hours. These included

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Good morning, travelers. The sale deals by both discounters won't help you with Turkey Day -- in one case the day is blacked out and the other requires a 21-day advance. But if you can travel in the windows they offer there are some pretty good fares to be had. Here's the rundown:
For the first times in months, Southwest is offering systemwide discounts, with fares as low as $49 one way. Travel must take place between Dec. 2 and Feb. 11 and require a 21-day advance purchase. Lowest fares are available Monday through Thursday, and Saturday, and must be booked through the site.
JetBlue is offering 10 percent off a number of flights, but you have to book through this page on the site and enter the promotion code: 10offNov. This deal is good for travel between now and Feb. 10, with blackout dates of Nov. 25-Dec. 2, Dec. 16-Jan. 7, Jan. 15-19, and all Sundays.
Both offers are only good through Thursday and there may be other fees and restrictions. But what else is new?

Southwest says that it plans to offer flights to Mexico through a deal with discount airline Volaris starting in 2010.
The US discounter says that it has taken a step toward creating a so-called codesharing partnership with that will allow the airlines to book passengers on each other's flights.
Volaris, which travels to destinations like Cancun, Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, Mexico City (via Toluca), Monterrey, and Guadalajara, plans to begin flying to the US in 2009 and partner with Southwest early the next year.
For Southwest customers this is great news. The discounter has made no bones about having international ambitions, and it announced earlier this year that it would cut a codeshare deal with Canadian discounter WestJet.
As Southwest and its two intended partners basically share similar business models, customers will be able to get discount flights all though North America from anywhere Southwest flies.
And who knows what's next? Europe? Farther south into Latin America? Stay tuned.

Don’t get me wrong. I like the newest and coolest discount bus services to New York, BoltBus and Megabus.
But let’s say you’re in the market for a bit more ... more.
LimoLiner, the old-school luxury bus service, is offering a special $49 one-way fare, basically half off the standard $80 price, for those who book at least two weeks in advance for travel through Jan. 31. There are some restrictions, the biggest being that it’s not valid for travel on Fridays, Sundays, or holidays and tickets are nonrefundable and nonchangeable.
This fare obviously doesn’t compare favorably to the $10-$15 tickets available for the Chinatown buses, Fung Wah and Lucky Star, or to the lowest possible fare on Bolt or Mega -- $1 (although it’s worth noting that my pal Nicole Wong wrote a story last week pointing out that the top end for Bolt is now $23; Mega, however, is charging as much as $40-$80 for a popular Friday night trip).
But Limo’s deal is that it offers some luxe appointments: leather seats, free WiFi, food and beverage service, live satellite TV and radio, and first-run movies. Yes, it’s a bit more. But choice is good.

We're not talking a long a funky 581-yard par-5 with a dog-leg to the left but if you happen to be in the Apple and are jonesing to get a club in your hand this may get you though the night.
The Crowne Plaza in Times Square, which has just undergone an $85 million renovation, says 18 rooms will be tricked out with mini-putting greens by the middle of this month. Rates will start at $349, and includes putters, balls and, of course, green fees.
Overall, the joint is pretty luxe with one butler floor (pretty much as it sounds) and five concierge floors. There is 24-hour brasserie service, a 29,000-square-foot health club, and a 50-foot indoor lap pool.
I mention all this only so you can be confident there will be other things to do in between rounds.

Every traveler I know here can't wait for the arrival of Virgin America.
Why? To begin with, it's a discount carrier with very competitive fares, but it's also cool: leather seats, free satellite TV, on-demand movies, streaming radio and a selection of MP3 tunes, power plugs for your laptop and soon,on-board Internet.
Virgin America plans to move into the Boston market in the future. But what if I told you that you could effectively fly the airline to Florida now?
Starting Nov. 22, Direct Air, based in Myrtle Beach, S.C., will begin flying three times weekly from Worcester Regional to Fort Myers/Punta Gorda and to Orlando/Sanford. This is the interesting part: Direct Air, which is essentially a charter company, is leasing Virgin planes and crew for at least the next two years for this service. So, basically, you get all the Virgin toys.
What about the discount part? Direct's fares are competitive: They start at $99 each way and are nonstop. Just as a comparison, I booked a hypothetical round-trip from Worcester to Punta Gorda departing Feb. 1 and returning Feb. 8 (these guys fly into and out of Worcester only Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays) and got a rate of $267, including tax and fees. I then got on Kayak and the best I could do nonstop was $319 on JetBlue and with one stop $250 from Continental -- both were Boston-Fort Myers.
OK, so what is the downside? First, you will be flying from Worcester, which hasn't had regular service since Allegiant pulled out in 2006, and into secondary cities. But if you already live in the western suburbs, going to Worcester and skirting the traffic and hassle of Logan is worth it -- particularly with the Virgin amenities. (Never mind parking fees: At Logan, a week in the economy lot will set you back $108; at Worcester you park in front of the terminal for $42.)
Direct CEO Judy Tull said that the flights are envisioned as year-round but the carrier would make adjustments after they get a better fix on the strength of the Worcester market. She said that most likely Orlando/Sanford would not change but the flights to Punta Gorda may be seasonally substituted for another destination.

Boeing Co.'s new 787 Dreamliner aircraft -- which Hainan Airlines Co. would use to fly nonstop between Boston and Beijing -- will not take its first flight by the end of the year after all, the manufacturer said today. Boeing is assessing the impact of its recently ended 58-day machinists strike on the Dreamliner's timeline, so the company does not yet have a new flight date nor know whether aircraft deliveries to customers will be delayed for the fourth time, said spokeswoman Yvonne Leach. The first flight was supposed to happen in September 2007 and deliveries already have been pushed back by two years. Hainan, which hopes to launch the nonstop service in 2010, could not immediately be reached for comment. The Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, is "waiting anxiously for the 787," Massport chief executive Thomas K. Kinton, Jr., recently told the Globe. He said the officials Hainan "looked at and continue to look at leasing an aircraft in the interim."
Posted by Nicole C. Wong. Globe Staff

Delta, the lone holdout among the legacy carriers, says it will start charging $15 for the service. The move will take effect for flights after Dec. 4. Checking a second bag will cost $25, half the current rate.
The airline also said it would trim its telephone reservation fee from $25 to $20, and, drop its $3 curbside check-in fee. And it plans to to eliminating a $25 to $100 fuel surcharge for SkyMiles and WorldPerks award-ticket holders in response to falling fuel prices.
Delta says it's making these changes as it moves to align its policies with those of its merger partner Northwest. Delta said last week it would adopt Northwest's policy of offering coach seats with more legroom, such as those in exit rows, for $5 to $25 extra.

At long last, we have the end to a campaign that feels as if it began sometime just after the last time the Cubs won the Series.
And now it's party time.
Federal government officials are preparing for what could be record-breaking crowds on the Jan. 20 inaugural. Whisper estimates run from 500,000 to 1 million. The port-a-potty bill alone may croke the organizing committee.
While the Obama folks haven't yet made public any plans you can be sure Hollywood's stars, who've not been shy about their support for the Democrat, will be aligned. Besides the normal cast of characters, caravans of young folks and minority folks likely will pour in. Rock the Vote. The Great Schlep. It'll be huge.
Oprah has said that, with the help of Michelle Obama, Caroline Kennedy, and Maria Shriver (and something called a "vision board'' with Barack's picture on it), she has already picked out a frock out for the festivities.
Speculation has arisen that Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, and P. Diddy will be on Obama's invite list, and P. Diddy has volunteered to DJ the event gratis.
Obama Girl, Amber Lee Ettinger, who has declared her love and shed most of her clothes on the Internet in service to the campaign, is just hoping inaugural organizers will show her a little love and put her on the list.
But I digress. What about you? Are you going? If so you'd better make plans.

FULL ENTRY

Do imminent $13 airfares between Boston and London sound too good to be true? That’s because they are.
A news report suggesting that Irish airline Ryanair might announce expansion of service from London's Stansted and Dublin airports to Boston, New York, Florida, San Francisco, and Los Angeles sent online readers into a frenzy of e-mailing the article all over cyberspace.
The problem is that the excitement appears a bit premature.
The initial story, which appeared Britain's News of the World tabloid on Sunday, quoted Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary on his plans for the carrier. The Associated Press picked up the report, which noted that Ryanair plans to offer flights as cheap as $12.70, before taxes.
The problem is that Ryanair has been talking about its plans for new service to the United States for a quite a while, but officials at Logan say as far as they can tell the carrier isn’t close to launching flights. They say they have had no formal talks with the European low-cost carrier, and two other airports in the region, T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, R.I., and Boston Manchester Regional Airport in Manchester, N.H., say they haven’t been formally approached either.
Furthermore the BBC quoted O'Leary today as saying that the airline was interested in new US flights but would only launch the routes if it could secure cheap long-haul aircraft from rivals.
"We haven't managed that yet, but we are hoping that in the middle of this recession ... that that opportunity might arise in the next 12 or 18 months,'' he said.

By Nicole C. Wong and Paul S. Makishima, Globe Staff

The $2.6 billion Delta-NWA deal is done, creating The World's Largest Airline. But what does it mean here?
The answer is initially nothing and beyond that the biggest change will likely involve a little reorganization at Logan and possibly the introduction of another domestic carrier there.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The combined airline, which will be called Delta, says that it hopes to be able to have its networks combined “before next summer,’’ according to Betsy Talton, an airline spokewoman. Until then, passengers who booked with either airline will continue to use that airline’s terminals; all routes and flights will continue, so passengers can continue to plan new trips on the routes each airline flies.
Longer term, the new Delta will become The Sky King at Logan, with nearly 21 percent of the passenger market share, according to Massport figures from September. But because it is followed closely by American with about 17 percent the airline’s presence won't be commanding.
Logan passengers will likely see little near-term change in service as there is no overlap in the nonstop routes either flies from here -- in fact, across their systems there is little overlap.
“When many people hear about mergers they think it’s all about cutting service,’’ Talton told me. “This one is focused more on offering customers more options.’’
Perhaps the biggest change will come in terminal assignments. Right now, Delta operates out of Terminal A and Northwest Terminal E. With this merger, Northwest will move and consolidate its operations with Delta's in Terminal A, according to Edward C. Freni, the airport's director of aviation. Freni says he expects the moves to take place as early as the end of March.
"We've been working with Delta on this for months,'' he said.
This makes a good bit of sense for all given that Delta had a bigger premerger presence (with 14.1 percent of the market vs. NWA’s 6.7 percent) and was located in the newer Terminal A, which had some open space.
From Logan's perspective this is a good deal, too. This will allow the airport to make better use of Terminal E for foreign departures, Freni said, and it clears space for Logan to try to attract another domestic carrier.
There are obviously any number of candidates and the folks at Logan would only say that they are constantly in talks with carriers. But it would make a great deal of sense if one of the carriers they have tea with is luxe discounter Virgin America. Logan wants and likes discount carriers as they offer competitive pressure to keep prices down, which, in turn, helps encourage traffic at the airport.
Executives at Virgin have said that they were interested in moving into the Boston market. Many airline watchers thought earlier this year that the carrier might be headed here as it said it would add two cities east of the Mississippi in 2008. In a February interview, Virgin CEO David Cush hinted that the lucky two could be Chicago and Boston, saying the carrier favored cities with large business centers.
Virgin finally opted for Chicago and Newark, N.J. Plans for Newark got shelved, however, because of government rules aimed at curbing air traffic in the New York area.
I asked Abby Lunardini, Virgin America director of corporate communications, what the outlook for Boston was and she said that there were "no immediate plans to enter the Boston market in 2009. We’re tapping the breaks on our growth at present given the current economic climate, so although we’re still growing ... we won’t be growing as quickly. Boston is a world-class city and important travel market and we do hope to be there eventually (it is still on our target list).''
I take her at her word, but it sounds like kismet to me.

United, teaming with FedEx, is offering to ship a passenger's bag overnight for as much as $358 round trip, $228 more than it would cost to check two bags even under the carrier's updated, costlier baggage rules.
Clearly, these guys are betting that anyone who would opt for this door-to-door service would not be doing so for economic reasons but to avoid having to schlep bags around the airport and sing "Kumbaya'' around the luggage carousel with The Rest Of Us.
United expects about 1 percent of passengers to use the service, Robin Urbanski, a United spokeswoman, told Bloomberg News.
The new service will be available to passengers on United flights in the 48 contiguous US states. The cost is $149 a bag each way for flights of less than 1,000 miles and $179 on longer routes.
The updated baggage rules kick in Nov. 10. They call for passengers to continue to pay $25 each way for a first checked bag but it doubles the fee for the second bag to $50.

Average domestic airfares in Boston rose 13.4 percent in the second quarter to $398.23, compared to the same period last year, according to Department of Transportation figures.
That increased topped the national average, which jumped 8.1 percent to $352, the highest level since the government started keeping track 13 years ago.
While the Boston figure may seem high, the city actually ranked 23d among the nation’s 100 busiest airports. The highest fares were in Cincinnati ($594.99), Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C. ($568.25), Knoxville ($524.11), Madison, Wisc. ($468.37), and Grand Rapids, Mich. ($461.23).
The lowest fares were found at Dallas Love Field, the home of Southwest ($220.81), followed by Burbank, Calif. ($252.01), Houston's Hobby Airport ($255.58), and Chicago's Midway Airport ($256.73).
Greenville/Spartanburg showed the biggest increase at 21 percent.
Airlines raised fares and fuel surcharges and created all kinds of new fees this year in an attempt to offset high fuel costs, which peaked at record levels in early July -- just after the end of the second quarter.
The federal figures were based on a sample of itineraries from April through June and excluded abnormally high fares.

Continental says it will waive the $15 fee for a first checked bag for Continental Airlines Chase credit and debit card members. Continental Airlines Presidential Plus holders will be able to check up to two bags without paying a fee, a savings of up to $40 each way.
Passengers traveling with card holders also will be eligible for waivers if they're listed in the same reservation and check in at the same time. The new policy is effective immediately.
More than 1 million people carry a Continental credit or debit card, the airline said.
Carriers instituted the baggage fees this summer to help offset high fuel prices. Among the major legacy carriers only Delta doesn't assess a first bag fee.

To cut costs, American says it will drop its minimum 500-mile guarantee for most frequent fliers, switching to awards based on actual miles flown. The change will kick in Jan. 1 and will apply to everyone except elite members of its AAdvantage loyalty program who fly at least 25,000 miles per year.
American's move follows a similar change announced recently by Continental whose policy will change with travel after Dec. 31 for tickets purchased after Nov. 14. United and US Airways earlier this year dropped the minimum for their mileage program members.
The loss of this little perk will matter little to many of us but will sting many frequent and business customers who fly a number of shorter hops and who used to be able to rack up big miles this way. Another one bites the dust.

To celebrate its new JFK home in Terminal 5, JetBlue has launched an airfare sale.
What kinds of deals are we talking about? Fares from Logan are as low as $59 to Buffalo or NYC, $69 to Washington, Charlotte, or Raleigh, $94 to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa, or West Palm, $109 to San Juan, Puerto Rico, $149 to Vegas or Seattle, and $169 to Long Beach or Oakland.
You must book by the end of the month and complete travel by Jan. 14. As usual, there are other taxes and fees and blackout dates. To get the special rates you have to book online. Here's the link.

Well, no, but it's not like the people in the wider world don't have a stake in the upcoming US presidential election. A story in this Sunday's Boston Globe takes a look at the world view traveling students find. For something barely more scientific, check out this from Foreign Policy. And this, from The Economist, where even the land is covered by a sea of blue.
In voting at The Economist.com, Georgia, a solidly McCain country only a few days ago, is now only leaning McCain. Yet the Republican does hold a lead in seven countries, including Iraq and Cuba. Hmmm...maybe American votes are swinging this election, too.

Megabus, they of the free WiFi and tickets from Boston to New York starting at $1, plans to expand in the Northeast.
Initially, the growth will turn New York City into a hub, and passengers will be able to book trips from The Apple to Albany, Rochester, Syracuse, and Niagara Falls, starting Dec. 4.
But next year, according to Bryony Chamberlain, director of operations for Megabus's parent Coach USA, the discount bus operator is looking at launching more links from the cities it serves. In the East, Megabus goes to Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo, N.Y., Atlantic City, N.J., and Toronto.
Besides New York, Mega also has a similar hub setup in Chicago. But, I think it's safe to say, the geography of the Northeast lends itself to more and quicker development, given how close major population centers are to each other here.
With airline service shrinking and prices rising, this is pretty good news.

Nothing eases the sting of disappointment over the Sox like a free taco. You know. Like the kind mom used to make.
With the Phillies-Rays series opening tonight (yeah, yeah, who cares, right?), Taco Bell is launching a Steal a Base, Steal a Taco promotion, in which they plan to give out free tacos to mark stolen bases. This is the way it works:
If a player on either team steals a base in Games 1-4 on Oct. 22, 23, 25 or 26, customers can score a free beef taco on Tuesday Oct. 28 from 2 p.m.-6 p.m. at any participating store. If there's a stolen base in Games 5-7, Oct. 27, 29 or 30, the redemption day is Monday Nov. 3 from 2 to 6.
Yes, it's a promotion and, yes, there's there's no shortage of fine print, but if you're jonesing for a free taco . . .
Not sure where the nearest store is or perhaps planning on being on the road on the redemption days? Here's a store locator.

Yes, airlines are cutting back, but they are still businesses and they will tend to gravitate to those places where they think they have the best chance to reap the biggest bucks.
That in a nutshell is the rationale for JetBlue's plans to expand its presence at Logan with more employees based here and more flights.
This is the way my pal Nicole Wong put it in her story this morning:

JetBlue, which is the second-largest carrier at Logan, behind American Airlines Inc., said Boston is one of the three most important cities in its growth strategy, centered around attracting more business travelers and contracts for charter flights to transport teams, companies, and other groups ...
Airline analysts say expanding in Boston is a savvy move for JetBlue, which offers 26 nonstop flights from Logan, the most of any carrier. The Hub is already JetBlue's second-largest city, behind New York based on the 3.73 million passengers it flew from September 2007 to August 2008.

The bottom line: For those who can still afford to travel a JetBlue expansion at Logan is nothing but good news.

In Queenstown, in the South Island, the town is ringed by mountains, what are informally known as The Southern Alps. These include a range called The Remarkables, and they truly are. (see photo)
This area is known as the adventure capital of the world. On the glacial-blue Lake Wakatipu and the surrounding waterways, down back roads and off mountain ledges, off towers and man-made bridges, adventuresome souls take jet boats and ride rapids, rent 4WD vehicles and mountain bikes, and downhill ski and leap from ridiculous heights while tethered to bungees. The latter activity is a little too hardcore for this hobbit, but I did hike the big hill that looms over town, Bob’s Peak, which gives a quintessentially wide panorama over Queenstown, the lake and the peaks beyond.
I also took a tour with Nomad Safaris, one of the first companies to offer back-country tours by Land Rover into the wilder areas near Glenorchy and beyond, where Peter Jackson filmed some of the more majestic scenes from "Lord of the Rings.'' Geeks: places like Isengard, the Ithilien Camp, beech forests near those used for Lothlorien and the battle where Boromir gets skewered by arrows. Not far, in Arrowtown, is the “Ford of Bruinen” on the Arrow River, one of two locations where Arwen called forth a magical flood in the form of horses that swept away the Ringwraiths.
But as I’ve said before, you need not be a Tolkien nut to dig this landscape. It is remarkable.

***********************************
Posted by Globe correspondent Ethan Gilsdorf who is traveling in New Zealand to research his book "Escape Artists."

We schooled 'em big time. Beantown came out on top in a Travel + Leisure competition, pitting 25 major US cities -- including big hitters like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, and Dallas -- in an East vs. West competition with 45 categories, from people to food to culture to night life. We whupped San Francisco in the finals. More than 125,000 travelers cast their votes in the contest.
So how did we do? We cleaned up in the culture category, particularly in classical music and historical sites and monuments, placing No. 2 of 25 in both. We did OK in shopping, with antique stores (No. 5), art galleries (No. 7), and luxury boutiques (No. 8) leading the way.
We didn't fare so well in terms of night life, making it only to No. 16 in clubs and No. 12 for the lounge scene.
We didn't embarrass ourselves in live music and bands (No. 11), and visitors like our noteworthy neighborhoods (No. 4) and public transportation (No. 5).
And it's no shock that in affordability (No. 20), traffic (No. 20), and weather (No. 22)...well, let's face we hate all of that too.
There were, however, some surprises.
In the people category, we weren't bad in terms of intelligence (No. 6). I don't feel too bad about being beaten by Seattle (No. 1) or maybe even Minneapolis (No. 2), but Austin (No. 3)?
And then there's friendliness (No. 20), but, hey, who cares what they think?
In attractiveness, we were No. 17. The top two were Miami and San Diego. I get that. Same with L.A. (No. 7) and even Denver (No. 10). But Phoenix (No. 11)? Please.
As a spring break destination, we're at No. 21. Come on. We have tons of students of every opposite sex here. And bars. And beaches. Wet t-shirts can be a little dicey in March, however.
Looking over our whole profile, we don't look much like cheerleader material but we'd be a shoo-in for class president. No matter. I hear nerd is the new black.

Having wished for some time that this country were in a different shape – that is, its political intelligence, its health insurance system, its educational structure, its leaders, its women, its Congress, its media (reading this with Fox News on in the background, eh?), its infrastructure, its nuclear waste sites, its polar bears and wolves (the four-legged kind, though now we all have to worry about the Wall Street species, too), oh, I could go on – here next to me is a book to inspire the perfect question for our so-called presidential debaters (so-called because in an actual authentic genuine real debate, you are expected to provide an actual authentic genuine real answer to the question) this week: How did the states get their shapes? And when both of them say, uhhh, well, uhhh, gee, that’s not on my playlist, they would be allowed to answer the variation: How have the states gotten into the shapes they are in: suffering from divisions along class lines, unemployment, ill health, mediocre education, alienation from the above-named anointed estates, but thrilled to see the band put the dot on O h i o on any given Saturday.

“How the States Got Their Shapes” by Mark Stein (Collins, 332 pp., illustrated, hardcover, $22.95) might be just the tranquilizer one needs when trying to comprehend US history, be it in the making or made already. Take Ohio. Imagine it before coal mines and marching bands.

FULL ENTRY

So you travel a lot for work. I know it's hard to make time to exercise, and you can just barely squeeze out time for the dentist a couple times a year and the doc once (note to self: schedule the annual physical).

Flu season is nearly upon us. Clinics for shots seem ubiquitous, but they're always in places you don't go -- like the drugstore or the mall -- or at times that aren't convenient. Thinking about blowing it off? Don't. The flu is not what you think it is. Most people say they have it when all they really have is a simple virus or a cold. If you get the real flu, you could easily be down for a week or more.
So what to do? This year about 21 airports are offering shots, up from about a dozen or so last year, owing to the popularity of the service. Some of the airports have contracted with commercial providers while others have enlisted local hospitals or public health agencies. Besides Logan, the list includes most of the biggies and hubs: Hartsfield in Atlanta, O'Hare and Midway in Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, LAX, JFK, Philly, and San Francisco. Hours vary, but most are open at least during regular business hours, and the cost runs from $20 to $35 (actually in Phoenix and San Diego they're free while supplies last).


The good folks at USA Today, have put together this complete list with details. No excuses now. Roll up that sleeve.

Boston isn't cheap.
Residents and visitors alike know that whether they're finding a permanent home or just a place to lay their heads for the night, the cost of sleeping is expensive.
The town of Bedford, however, has found the formula for cost-effective hotel stays in Greater Boston. Visitors willing to stay nearly 20 miles outside the city will find the best rates in Eastern Massachusetts.
According to travel websites offering hotel service, such as Hotels.com, Travelocity, and Expedia, two Bedford motels are among the least expensive places in the region to get a room: the Bedford Motel and the Bedford Plaza Hotel.
Leading the way is the Bedford Motel, which is almost always the lowest-priced per night, with rates between $55 and $60.
"We aren't a part of any franchise, so we don't have the overhead," said Sheila Patel, general manager.
The 40-room motel is family-owned and has four employees. The only amenity offered outside the rooms is Internet access, so the motel doesn't have to spend money on upkeep of a pool, restaurant, banquet hall, or exercise room.
The Bedford Motel does offer in-room necessities such as shampoo, soap, and other bathroom amenities, but those are available only upon request, so savings can be passed on to guests.
Despite low rates, the Bedford Motel has vacancies in the summer, which is its busiest time, along with October, when motel visitors tend to be Boston tourists and sightseers looking at fall foliage. However, on some weekends in those busy times, the occupancy rate nears 100 percent .
For the visitor looking for more than a bed, bath, and TV for the night, the Bedford Plaza Hotel offers a step up at still low rates.
Unlike the no-frills atmosphere of the Bedford Motel, the Bedford Plaza Hotel offers the room plus an indoor heated pool area, an exercise room, Internet access, banquet facilities, free breakfast, and a lounge. This time of year, rooms for two start at $89 but room rates vary with the season.
The Bedford Plaza is also independently owned -- by Jalaram Kutir Inc. -- so its rates aren't dictated by a franchise.
Its busy season, much like the rest of the Boston area, runs April through October, but it never reaches full capacity.
"It is difficult because people judge us from the look on the outside, which isn't as nice as what is on the inside," said Patel, who is not related to the Bedford Motel's Sheila Patel.
The Bedford Plaza Hotel is a triangular-shaped building with two sides flush against the busy streets and the third against a McDonald's parking lot. The parking is underground and at a lot across the street.
To improve the image of the hotel, Patel plans renovations to the outside of the building in addition to what is being done inside.

Posted by Brad Kane, Globe Correspondent

The movie "The Lord of the Rings" was filmed in dozens of locations throughout New Zealand. Rivendell, that bucolic hideaway and home of the elves, was shot about 45 minutes north of Wellington in Kaitoke Regional Park, a 2,860 hectare park in the foothills of the Tararua Ranges just off State Highway 2. Once in the park, you won't find the movie set anymore, which was built into the steep hills, thickly-covered with bush, and forests of rata, rimu and beech trees. But you can imagine it, and walk around, exploring the park with a guide from a company like Wellington Rover, or on your own. Or go for a lengthy hike. The Hutt River gorge runs through it all, and can be crossed on a swinging footbridge. Just don't forget your action figures
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Posted by Globe correspondent Ethan Gilsdorf who is traveling in New Zealand to research his book "Escape Artists."

Kids can get in free at nearly 130 children's museums around the nation through Oct. 26 when they are with a paying adult.
The deal comes courtesy of the Association of Children's Museums and Nick's Parents Connect. Here's the list of participating museums and the coupon.
A couple things to bear in mind: This is a one-paid-adult-one-child-free deal so to get two kids in you'll need two adults. And not every children's museum in America is on the list. For instance, in Massachusetts the museum in Boston is not participating but the one is Easton is.
If you're looking already planning to travel, however, in the next few weeks, say, to Portland, Maine, it might be worth checking out. You could hit the museum there or if you're going to Bangor you and the kids might pop into the Maine Discovery Museum.

My pal Sam loves to talk about how much money he's saved by buying a Honda Civic hybrid. So I plan to turn my boy onto Cost2Drive, a new webapp that estimates the fuel cost of any given trip. This is the way it works:

Say, you're planning a drive to P-town this weekend and you live in JP. You go to the site; enter your starting point and destination, the year of your car, along with make and model.
Cost2Drive uses your car's MPG, gleaned from the EPA. They then grab the average price of gas in your area from Oil Price Information Service, and bang it all up against and the distance, which comes via Google map technology, to "galculate" your cost.
After plugging my data into Cost2Drive I learn that getting to P-town in my 1999 Subaru Forester (stop laughing; it's a cool ride) will set me back $15.04; Sam, on the other hand, will only have to pony up $8.60.
Obviously, this calculation isn't high-level math so you could easily do it yourself. But if your car's EPA isn't tattooed to your forearm and if you aren't fully conversant in the current average price of a gallon of petrol in your hood and you want to know whether it makes the most financial sense to drive, take the train or just Fung Wah (or just be green and stay home), this app is worth a try. Besides it's fun.
Thanks to Riverwired for pointing us to this one.

If you’re planning to go on a long plane ride but have a painfully short attention span, have I got a book for you. ‘‘747 Things to Do on a Plane’’ by Justin Cord Hayes gives you, yes, 747 things to do to make a long flight feel less tedious. Hayes’s ideas range from no-brainers (read the newspaper) to morbid (write your own obituary) to bizarre (draw tattoos on your arms). His section on making lists is thought-provoking and a possibly eye-opening use of time (list the top 10 happiest moments of your life or the top 10 vacations you’ve ever taken). He gets desperately snarky in the section on pranks. Sneaking into first class (then what?) is one thing, but belching the alphabet and kicking the back of someone’s seat? Not that anyone who knows how to spell air marshal would actually act like such a jerk on a crowded plane, but still. The book is better than a magazine, makes a great gag gift, the word puzzles included are clever, and you won’t mind if you leave it behind when you finally arrive at your destination.

American said it will relocate 233 American Eagle pilot jobs from Boston to New York as part of the carrier's nationwide cost-cutting efforts in this year of record-high oil prices. The positions will disappear from Boston between Nov. 2 and Jan. 31 because Boston will no longer be a base for the Eagle pilots. However that does not necessarily mean the affected pilots will need to move to the New York area or commute there to start their work day, said spokesman Ned Raynolds. Eagle pilots will still fly 37-passenger regional jets between Boston and New York, Raleigh, and Toronto, and American will still have 382 mainline pilots based in Boston to fly the larger planes. The carrier is shrinking its 88,000-employee workforce by 8 percent and cutting 11 percent of its mainline and regional flights throughout the network this quarter, compared to the same quarter last year.
Posted by Nicole C. Wong, Globe Staff

Amid high fuel prices and a soft economy, American is moving to a la carte pricing starting next year. The AP is reporting that American, which was the first (but not the last) carrier to start charging for a first checked bag, plans to embrace the kind of "unbundling'' model that Air Canada has been practicing for about five years.
This is the way it works at Air Canada: Consumers choose from one of four fare levels. AP says the top two classes of tickets, Latitude and Executive classes, "are fully refundable and come with priority check-in, food and other goodies included." Basic Tango class "requires extra fees for upgrades such as a food voucher, advance seat selection, flight changes and airport lounge access," AP writes. You can also save a few bucks by electing to forgo frequent flier miles or by not checking a bag (all Air Canada customers can check at least two bags free).
I spoke with Ned Raynolds, an American spokesman, about the changes. He said he couldn't discuss any details but said it was a necessary move to fill seats and remain competitive. He also pointed out that the notion of al la carte pricing was not entirely new. "Largely,'' he said. "we're already there.''
And it's true. For the most part, it appears that the changes will not be stark. If you're flying coach, you're already paying for things like a refundable fare, food, and airport lounge access. There could be some shifts -- here, I'm thinking of having to pay for seat selection.
So the bottom line? More nickel and diming. Sure. But I don't think on its face that this is a huge shift for most consumers. I think you can, however, safely argue that by codifying the system what this does is make clear that this new era of proliferating and escalating fees, of trying to find out what travelers value so are willing to pay a premium for is here to stay.

Vacations may be put on hold as Wall Street trembles and high gas prices keep consumers at home. But for those still looking to get away, "lean and green" may be the mantra.
That's one conclusion of a survey of more than 3,000 US travelers from TripAdvisor LLC of Newton, which operates such branded travel websites as airfarewatchdog.com and smartertravel.com.
Many of the survey's respondents said they plan to go hiking or engage in an outdoor activity in a national park, and 11 percent of respondents said they are "likely to participate in an extreme sports activity," up from 8 percent a year ago, TripAdvisor said.
(The photo above this story was taken from smartertravel.com, where people are invited to post pictures from their vacations. According to the website, this photo was taken by Heather Wade, and it shows Bryan Nay bungee-jumping off Bob's Peak in Queenstown, New Zealand.)
No word yet on how many folks qualify as "extreme and green" vacationers, but green thinking is now part of many travel plan decisions.
"Thirty-four percent of US respondents said they will visit an environmentally-friendly hotel or resort in the coming year," up from 30 percent in a previous survey, TripAdvisor said. "Thirty-two percent of those surveyed said they will be more environmentally conscious in their travel decisions this year than they were the year before. Last year, 26 percent said they would be more environmentally conscious."
TripAdvisor's press release included a statement from Michele Perry, a company vice president.
"An emerging trend," she said, "is travelers getting greener."
Posted by Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

Enterprise said Tuesday that it was taking its car-sharing program nationwide. The announcement follows similar moves in late summer by Hertz and U-Haul, which both expanded their programs.
Enterprise's WeCar, however, differs from the others as well industry pioneer Zipcar, based in Cambridge, as its focus is exclusively on "defined-user groups'' instead of more general membership programs, according to Lisa Martini, an Enterprise spokeswoman.
Enterprise has been testing the waters with programs at Washington University in St. Louis, at the Google campus in California, and at the REI headquarters outside Seattle. WeCar, Martini says, will focus on cutting agreements with organizations, businesses, universities, even governmental agencies, to provide services.
"A big part of the idea here,'' Martini says, "is that this will appeal to, say, a business that has workers who don't want to have to drive to work or to park but may need a car during the day.'' And, she says, since each deal is negotiated separately, the program can be tailored to the individual needs of the group. "Let's say they want their people to be able to use the cars on weekends. That can be negotiated.''
Much of the way WeCar works is similar to the other car-sharing businesses. Reservations are made online and cars are unlocked with scanner cards.
Martini said that all WeCar vehicles are either hybrids or other fuel-efficient vehicles (which means at least 28 mpg).
For travelers, this is not potentially as big a deal as when Hertz jumped in. The auto rental company's initial plans call for it to roll out its program in a handful of major US cities, Rich Broome, senior vice president for corporate affairs and communications, told me in August. And Boston, he said, would "probably be part of a second wave.''

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Driving north from Wellington was a surprise: no major 4-lane Interstates exist in New Zealand. The major north-south routes are mostly two lane roads. Whadya know ... Here I pull over to the side of the road, take a rest stop and try to figure out where I am and where to go next --- and I take in a good breath of the scenery too.

Posted by Ethan Gilsdorf, Globe correspondent

Discounters reign. The folks at Forbes.com have put together a ranking of the nation's 10 major airlines, and Southwest rose to the top. Continental was No. 2, JetBlue No. 3, and AirTran 4.
The top dogs were followed by Alaska, Northwest, American, and Delta. And bringing up the rear were United and US Airways.
Now you're probably wondering which factors Forbes.com considered. They looked at five year's worth of federal data on on-time arrivals, cancellations, complaints, and mishandled baggage, with heaviest weight given to delays and cancellations. They then also took into account consumer satisfaction by looking at J.D. Power rankings from 2005-2008 as well as the airlines' financial stability as measured by their asset-to-liability ratios.
I like this ranking because it confirms my own prejudices and experience. However, on-time arrival figures for August, which were just released today, suggest that this ranking has limits in predicting anyone's actual travel experience.
Of the Big 10, the airlines that did best were Northwest, Southwest, and US Airways, followed by Alaska, AirTran, Delta, Continental, United, and American, And the worst? JetBlue. Go figure.

QUIBERON – After three and a half hours on an early train from Paris and another hour on the bus, the idea of sitting around tourists and retirees in a restaurant didn’t really float my boat. Returning from a meeting to set up an outing with a gooseneck barnacle fisherman, I walked right in front of the solution: La Belle-Iloise cannery.
Five minutes and a six-can variety pack of sardines later – everything from the little silver fish marinated in muscadet to two peppers, olive oil and lemon – I was in business. Sitting on the seawall, I ate a tin of sardine à la tomate served on pain Poilâne that I smuggled from Paris. Though there’s a fierce debate as to whether La Belle-Iloise or La Quiberonnaise makes the better sardine it didn’t seem to matter; in the space of five minutes, three people walked by jealously eyeing my picnic and smiling. One guy even offered up a “Bon Appetit!”
On the bus, I had listened to an interview with Alice Waters who extolled the virtues of both cooking and eating with friends, yet here I was, straddling the seawall by myself, getting a sense of place from a can.

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says!, the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

I spent a day exploring the mini-film empire of Peter Jackson -- the modest but now famous complex of studios, post-production houses and special effects companies. Affectionately called "Wellywood," the facilities are all located on the Miramar peninsula just outside of Wellington. Best known among them are Weta Workshop and Weta Digital, the folks behind creating creatures, costumes and props for "Lord of the Rings," the Narnia films, and others. There's also a newly opened gift shop right near the Weta complex, called the Weta Cave, where fanboys and fangirls can buy figurines and swords and capes, and watch a behind-the-scenes video of Weta magic. As for glimpses into real filmmaking, as you'll see, I was not entirely successful gaining access. But nonetheless, here's a sneak peek at what I could weasel my way into.
Posted by Ethan Gilsdorf, Globe Correspondent

Welcome to the land of bizarre travel ads. Please fasten your seat belt and make sure your seat-back and tray table are in the secure upright position for takeoff.
There's a theory among some ad guys that anything that brings attention to your brand -- good or bad -- is good. The people at Extended Stay Hotels must be adherents.
A new commercial by them is popping up around the Net. The commercial features a series of shots of various people engaged in fairly innocuous, routine activities in hotel rooms, all to a jaunty operatic score. The single commonality? They all appear to be passing gas.
That's right. The whole ad is one visual fart joke. And the tag line? "No place makes you feel more comfortable.''
I dunno. Do I want to feel comfortable in my hotel room? Sure. Do I want to be thinking of how others have been "comfortable'' there too?
I leave it up to you, my good friends. Loosen your belts and enjoy the show.

Delta, which offers 30 flights daily between Logan and LaGuardia, says it will start giving Shuttle customers the option of going first-class starting Dec. 1.
The carrier will offer 14 first-class and 128 economy seats per flight. First-class shuttle seats will be priced about $100-$250 above economy depending on the route, according to Susan Chana Elliott, a Delta spokeswoman. Besides flying between Boston and New York, the Shuttle also hops between LaGuardia and Reagan National in Washington.
SkyMiles Medallion members will be eligible for complimentary upgrades and the carrier's open-seating policy will remain for both tiers.
First-class customers will get a wider selection of options for snacks and complimentary cocktails, along with bigger, more comfortable seats. Delta will continue to offer all Shuttle customers complimentary snacks, wine, beer, coffee, teas, and soft drinks.
By the Dec. 1 launch, some of the Shuttle fleet's MD-88s will be equipped with WiFi, which the carrier plans to have on its entire domestic fleet in spring, Elliott said.

Attention, shoppers. For those of you who didn't get the memo, today is Friday and the start of the weekend. Many of you will spend some time in the next 48 hours in public houses while others will just hit the bahs.
It probably hasn't escaped your notice that Boston has become a more multicultural kind of place. So in the interest of providing our readers with news they can use, herein is a list of how to say, "cheers'' in 50 languages (with thanks to the folks at Matador Nights).
While it will be immediately useful to some, others, say, travelers, either actual or armchair, might also find the list useful or at least fun for your next trip, party, or even as a prompt for some educational role-playing with Your Significant Other.
Here's the list:

FULL ENTRY

I've decided it's time to get outside Wellington so I've rented a Hyundai and now I need to learn how to drive on the wrong (I mean, "left") side of the road.

In the early days of my travels in New Zealand I came upon this taxi driver who took me for a ride along the coast in Wellington and told me stories about the area's Hollywood hangouts and some mysterious cheese.

Posted by Ethan Gilsdorf, Globe Correspondent

Blue skies on the Cape the other day, as Chilean president Michelle Bachelet thanked Ted Kennedy for helping end oppression in her country.

It's a long trip to the other end of the hemisphere, and Santiago, of course. But it is there that one can meet Bachelet among her people, and learn of why she was so thankful. For that, read here.

American Airlines says it has suspended flights to and from Bolivia due to the country's political crisis. The airline's Bolivian sales manager says that American's daily flights to and from the South American country are on hold as a "precaution for the security of our customers, personnel and airplanes."
Edson Jauregui said regular service will resume on October 2, though the airline will run a single flight from Miami to La Paz on Sept. 29.
American Airlines runs the only daily nonstop flights between the US and Bolivia. The company briefly suspended service when anti-government riots broke out across eastern Bolivia earlier this month. (AP)

Wellington is a windy city. At least it is now, in September, the start of their spring. And drizzly. The city, set into steep hillsides that drop into the sea, reminds me of San Francisco: mostly wooden homes, lush greenery, and a funky rather than corporate feel. Not that there aren’t high rises and business people running about. But as one person told me, “Auckland is the rat race. Wellington is courteous and friendly.” Bars and cafes line Cuba Street.
It’s also the nation’s capital, the center for arts and generally the creative hub of the country. The national museum, Te Papa, in hunkered down here by the waterfront. On the Miramar peninsula, out by the airport, is where you’ll find New Zealand’s film making facilities, Stone Street Studios and Weta Workshop and Weta Digital. More on that later.
But as I said, it’s windy. I met a Swede today who said, “Have you been to Chicago? I think this place is windier.” In a tour bus that took me and my group past Miramar to Breaker Bay, we saw a surfer who seemed to be having a hard time making it back to shore. Our driver called the police, who called the coast guard. Apparently, the guy made it back to shore. He turned out to be a snorkeler.

Is it true Kiwis are friendly?
After my weekend in Sydney, I flew back to New Zealand. My destination? Wellington, home to “Wellywood,” the country’s movie-making mini-epicenter. The film industry is not huge, but it’s much bigger ever since Peter Jackson directed his Lord of the Rings trilogy.
In the check-in line at Air New Zealand, I met a couple, Paul and Kelly, just back from holiday in Macau and Hong Kong. We began to chat --- he’s a computer programmer, she’s a botonist, they live in Wellington --- and before long, they were talking about the “one degree of separation” rule regarding Lord of the Rings. The sheer size of the production meant everyone in New Zealand probably knew someone who had worked on a Peter Jackson movie. Or they had worked on one themselves.
In fact, Paul’s car had once been used in one of Jackson’s early movies, “Meet the Feebles.” As for Kelly, she had almost worked as a stunt double paddler for a boating scene in “Rings.” She had paddled a particular river often, and as she told me, she was “almost as tall as a hobbit. I was smaller then!” It turned out a friend of hers ended up doing the stunt work. I wanted to know more and asked if I could get their names.
Before long, they gave me half a dozen recommendations for places to eat and cafes to haunt. They told me how to get around in Wellington. Turns out, they live very close to my hotel, so they offered to share taxi from the airport. They even gave me their cell numbers and offered to meet me for a drink sometime during my stay in Wellington.

And they didn’t let me pay anything for the taxi. So far, the locals are very friendly.
Posted by Ethan Gilsdorf, Globe Correspondent

I flew a long, drawn out day that became two. Boston to San Francisco to Auckland. The plane hit the International Date Line and we lost a day. In Sydney for the weekend to see old friends, and recover from my jet lag, I knew I’d be heading back to New Zealand on Sunday. I’d come for adventure, the scenery, and to see what is the reality of New Zealand amid the fantasy promoted by the Lord of the Rings, “Home of Middle-earth.” Since the trilogy was filmed here, “Rings” has dominated the public image of this country.
On my flight, my seatmates were a couple from Orange County, who had rented a condo time share in the North Island. They liked the Peter Jackson films, but they had not come to New Zealand specifically to see the landscape of Mordor or the Shire. Still, they described the mountains and forests and rivers as “unreal.”
On my layover in Auckland, I perused the rows of alcohol at duty free, thumbed through “The Lord of the Rings” movie location guidebooks, and watched the sunrise out the airport windows. Rain clouds gave way to morning tinged with pink, orange, and robin’s egg blue.
A real land or a fantasy land? Join me for my blog over the next two weeks as I find out.

Posted by Ethan Gilsdorf, Globe Correspondent

Call it more a la carte pricing. Literally. JetBlue says it's thinking about adding a premium snack service, although the company hastens to add that it will still offer free snacks. This from AP:

Forest Hills, N.Y.-based JetBlue already offers a "premium" drink service that includes VitaminWater and Rockstar Energy Drinks for $3.
Speaking at an investors conference, chief financial officer Ed Barnes said the carrier will consider charging extra fees, but insisted that it will not look to charge customers for basic items.
JetBlue currently charges for things like extra legroom, pillows, and blankets.

Verified Identity Pass's Clear program, which speeds prescreened travelers through security checkpoints at participating airports, will debut at Logan this month. Clear gives travelers who pay the $128 annual fee a high-tech identification card to verify their fingerprint or iris image at designated security lane kiosks. Clear spokeswoman Cindy Rosenthal said the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, was one of the first agencies interested in this fast-pass program since it was tested in Orlando in July 2005. But she said Massport's long approval process has held up Clear's arrival, so instead Delta is sponsoring the program at its Logan terminal. More than 200,000 travelers have registered for Clear and used their fast passes nearly 1.5 million times across 18 airports nationwide since the program began three years ago.
Posted by Nicole C. Wong. Globe Staff

Here come again the fees again. Citing high fuel costs, United says it will to double its fee for a second checked bag to $50.
The carrier said the increased levy would apply to tickets bought beginning Tuesday for domestic travel starting Nov. 10. as well as flights or to or from Canada, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. And it expects about one of seven, or about 14 percent, of customers will have to pony up.
There are still exemptions and they remain unchanged: travelers in first or business classes, "Premier" frequent fliers, and active-duty military personnel.
The timing for this decision seems a bit out of step, considering that oil prices have been on the decline, falling from a high about of about $145 a barrel this summer to below $96 a barrel on Monday. But the carrier points out that fuel prices are still more than 50 percent higher than last year.

Massachusetts-based Cape Air will begin service from Lebanon, N.H., to Boston in November. Cape Air will provide six daily roundtrip flights from Lebanon Airport to Logan.
The New Hampshire municipal airport will stop providing Colgan Air service to LaGuardia Airport in New York after research showed the Boston market has the potential to grow.
Cape Air has a partnership with JetBlue and is expected to offer $54 one-way fares from Lebanon to Boston. (AP)

What a guy. On his blog, Bill Marriott says his company is offering 20 percent off weekend rates at more than 2,500 of his Marriott hotels now through Dec. 21.
To get the discount, you need to book online before Sept. 22 and use the promo code F5X. This deal is good at participating Marriott Hotels & Resorts, JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Renaissance Hotels & Resorts, Courtyard by Marriott, Residence Inn, Fairfield Inn, TownePlace Suites, SpringHill Suites in the continental United States, Canada, Caribbean, Latin America, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

TNT Vacations is offering Boston to Bermuda flights at $99 each way on scheduled nonstop JetBlue and Delta planes. To get the price, however, you must stay at least four nights at the Fairmont Southampton or the Fairmont Hamilton Princess. Rates start at $199 at the Princess and $236 at the Southampton. Travel must be booked by Sept. 27 and completed by Sept. 30.
Posted By Richard C. Carpenter, Globe Correspondent

Like they're not having a tough enough time anyway.
United stock plummeted yesterday after a financial-research firm mistakenly presented a six-year-old Chicago Tribune article on the carrier's 2002 Chapter 11 filing as new information.
Oops.
Shares fell as much as 76 percent before trading was halted for about 90 minutes, then recovered most of the decline.
Who's to blame? It's hard to say with all the fingerpointing going on. This is the way Tom Petruno of the LA Times described the action:

"UAL blamed the mess on a posting of a 2002 Chicago Tribune article on the Florida Sun Sentinel's website.
"The story then was picked up by Income Securities Advisors, a Florida investment newsletter, and disseminated as a one-line brief over Bloomberg News early Monday morning -- triggering a wave of panic selling.
"Tribune Co., the owner of the Sun Sentinel (and also the parent of the Los Angeles Times), initially pointed a finger at Google Inc., saying it appeared that the Internet search engine highlighted the story out of the Sun Sentinel's archives, which generated traffic and caused the newspaper's computer to move the story to a page of most popular articles.
"But Google said the company's search engine never would have bothered with the story if it hadn't been getting a load of hits on the Sun Sentinel site -- and with the weekend date on it, instead of the original 2002 date.
" 'It became a new item that said, "Hey, look here," ' said Gabriel Stricker, a Google spokesman.
" A Tribune spokesman said the company was 'still looking into' the matter."

Welcome to the brave new world of always-on, real-time communication, in which the wildest of rumors can be launched, virally disseminated, and debunked -- sort of -- in a matter of hours. Even by mistake.

I feel like I am stalking Sean Astin. Not really, of course. But I really hoped to interview him for my book, “Escape Artists.”
Astin starred in the cult kiddie flick “The Goonies” (as a child actor) and played a young would-be jock hero in the inspirational football film, “Rudy.” But he is now best known for his role as Samwise Gamgee, aka “Sam,” Frodo’s trusty sidekick from the film trilogy “The Lord of the Rings.”

So, here at Dragon*Com in Atlanta for four days, I hung out at the “Walk of Fame,” hoping to snag a few words with him alone at his autograph table.
I attended every one of Astin’s talks and panel discussions. I listened to his stories of being on the set of Peter Jackson’s fantasy epic. I heard about his weight loss and weigh gains to bulk up and down for various roles. I giggled with the hundreds of other fans as he described water fights between “Dom” (Dominic “Merry” Monaghan) and “Vig” (Viggo “Aragorn” Mortensen), related his odd encounters with the crusty personality of John “Gimli” Rhys-Davies, or his awe for Ian “Gandalf” McKellen. The stories may be five years old by now, but I sucked them up like a good fanboy.

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Logan improved its on-time performance for departures and arrivals in July, but not as much as most other large airports did, according to the latest data from the US Department of Transportation. Logan ranked 24th best in the top 32 major US airports with a rate of 73.74 percent in July, compared to ranking 18th with 71.16 percent in the same month last year. For arrivals, Logan ranked 28th with a rate of 67.46 percent, compared to ranking 27th with a rate of 63.35 percent in July 2007. The government considered flights to be on-time if they departed from or arrived at their gates within 15 minutes of schedule.
Posted By Nicole C. Wong, Globe Staff

News from the wonderful world of airlines:

Bowing to pressure from passengers, United has decided to drop a plan to start charging passengers in coach for meals on some overseas flights, citing "candid feedback'' from customers.
United had intended to charge $6 for snack boxes and $9 for salads and sandwiches in coach on flights from Dulles to Europe starting Oct. 1.
Robin Urbanski, a United spokeswoman, told Bloomberg News that not only were passengers miffed at the prospect of having to pay for food they were also not happy that they couldn't get a hot meal (have these people ever eaten airline food?).
United did go ahead with plans to end free snacks in coach. Earlier the carrier dropped the freebies on shorter flights and yesterday halted them on flights of longer than two hours.

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Starting Sept. 9, Southwest says it will no longer take cash for payment of cocktails, beer, wine, and Lo-Carb Monster energy drinks.
Instead the discounter says that it will accept credit and debit cards and Rapid Rewards drink coupons.
The really important news, however, is that Southwest plans to keep offering free snacks and soft drinks.

Carriers are raising air fares, charging us for bad food and movies, and hiding the pillows and blankets. There's talk of skimping on fuel and charging passengers by their weight. What's next, ditch the life vests?
That's exactly what Air Canada's regional carrier Jazz is doing to save weight and fuel. Apparently Canadian regulations say it's OK to use flotation devices (that's the cushion of your seat, remember?) instead of inflatable life vests when planes remain within 50 miles of shore. Jazz planes fly over the Great Lakes and along the Eastern Seaboard from Halifax to Boston to New York. Jazz says the number of flights over water are minimal and that the carrier is adjusting routes slightly to keep within the regulations.
Like every other air carrier, Jazz is having problems. This month it reported its second-quarter net income fell 32 percent from a year ago.
On a positive note, life vests for infants will remain. Let's just hope they don't start charging for them.

You think you have it bad, yo. Sean "Diddy" Combs says he's had to stop using his personal jet because fuel costs have rocketed.
In his Diddy Blog No. 12, making the rounds on YouTube (y'all should make sure the kids aren't in the room when my boy unleashes his [bleeping] tirade), Diddy complains, "I've been flying back and forth to LA pursuing my acting career. If I fly back and forth twice a month, that's like $250,000 round trip.''
Diddy videotaped his blog in an airline terminal before boarding a commercial flight. "I'm back on American Airlines now . . . and I'm in coach!"
The hip-hop star and entrepreneur urges "whoever the next president is we need to bring gas prices down,'' and he appeals to "all my Saudi Arabian brothers and sisters and all my brothers and sisters from countries that have oil if y'all could please send me some oil for my jet.''
Yo, Obama, McCain are y'all listening?
(A shout-out to the folks at the New York Post for this.)

This is Day 3. Each day, JetBlue is posting special one-way sale fees to specific locations on specific days. Today, you can book a $49 seat online from Boston to Dulles for Sept. 17.
At first glance it just seems goofy but if you take a closer look it's potentially a win-win for us and them. Let's say you book a $49 seat to DC on Wednesday Sept. 17 and plan to make it a long weekend, returning on Monday Sept. 22. You can get a return seat on JetBlue for $74, and the total for the round-trip is $144, including taxes.
I plugged the same dates into Kayak and the best deal I could come up with was $178 on United.
It's clearly a win for us, but what's in it for JetBlue? Sebastian White, a company spokesman, says, "Certain routes on certain days may have more empty seats on one leg than
the reverse leg. Directional fares are a good way to smooth out demand for flights
throughout the week while offering an excellent deal to travelers.''
Anyway, if you've still got itchy feet and aren't quite ready to switch out of vaca mode, this could be a pretty good deal.

Sounds unbelievable but it's true. CityFlitz, a auto-sharing start-up, will make vehicles available for use in Greater Toronto for $1 per day starting Sept. 1
How are they managing to do this? CityFlitz wraps their Mini Coopers and Clubmans and Smart cars in advertising -- charging companies about $400/day. So basically CityFlitz partners pick up the tab.
How does it work? You must be older than 23 and a licensed driver, pay a $30 one-time administrative fee to join, a $350 fully-refundable security deposit, and a $7 monthly usage fee -- remember this is an auto-sharing deal. Users must agree to drive at least 19 miles a day and can get cars for as long as a week at a time. All autos come with a full tank and must be refueled.
CityFlitz is launching its service in Toronto with 10 cars and plans to expand to Vancouver and eventually throughout Canada.
Admittedly this program is set up primarily for Canadians but it's not hard to imagine that some American travelers could also benefit.
Wonder what it would take to get these guys to Boston?

Southwest says that it will trim three flights each at Manchester Boston in New Hampshire, Bradley International outside Hartford, and two at T.F. Green near Providence.
The carrier says the cuts are part of a plan to trim its schedule by 190 flights, or 6 percent of its 3,400 daily total, starting Jan. 11.
Southwest slowed growth this year to 4 percent because of record fuel prices and a softening economy, but it has been able to remain profitable because it had locked in fuel-purchase contracts far in advance.
At Manchester, Southwest will cut one of ten daily flights to Baltimore and one of four to both Chicago and Orlando, according to Whitney Eichinger, a company spokeswoman. Bradley will lose one of eight to Baltimore, one of three to Chicago, and one of two to Tampa. Providence loses one of four to Chicago and one of six to Orlando.
Eichinger points out air traffic tends to slow in the winter months and that some of the cuts may be restored in spring.

The price of gas goes up and comes down -- but not that far down. According to the AAA, a gallon of regular in Boston will set you back about $3.61, but you can do a bit better if you shop around.
With the $2/gallon days over, everybody seems to be looking to score a hybrid. But the folks at Bankrate.com say that if you're really looking for economy focusing on just fuel efficiency is short sighted because it ignores other costs like repairs, maintenance, and financing.
They talked to Joe Spina, an analyst for Edmunds.com, which tracks the total cost of car ownership over a five-year period, and came up with this list of the least expensive cars to own.
1. Honda Fit (at right)
2. Chevrolet Aveo
3. Hyundai Accent
4. Toyota Yaris
5. Nissan Versa
6. Scion xB
7. Pontiac Vibe
8. Toyota Corolla
9. Kia Rio
10. Suzuki SX4

The Wyndham folks are offering this 50 percent off deal through the end of the year. This is the way it works: This discount is available Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, and you must stay at least two consecutive nights. The offer is subject to availability, and blackout dates apply.
What you get? Half off your second night or half off additional room on the same night (a useful option if you happen to be traveling with, say, teenage kids and would not mind getting them into their own room for a night). You can book either through the website or
by calling 877-999-3223 and requesting the Weekender package.

Just saying the word makes my teeth hurt. And ‘‘nocation’’ or the ridiculous ‘‘holistay’’ are no better. But my family and I took the staycation challenge last week and lived. We covered a fair amount of ground: camping at Nickerson State Park and a beach day in Brewster, an afternoon swimming at a local pond, two cookouts with family and friends in Rhode Island, a trip to the Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration in Connecticut, and a movie and dinner out in Cambridge. We were in no rush. In between we had time to play board games, ride bikes, read, relax, and recharge.

In the road trip department, here’s an interesting challenge: Drive your family cross-country on $250 a day. At first blush that seems easy, but when you factor in a hotel stay, gas, and food, it adds up fast. And what to do on the cheap to keep the kids entertained? Travel blogger Amy Graff from On the Go with Amy traveled from Santa Monica, Calif., to Chicago did it and stayed (barely) below her budget of $3,750 over 15 days. (Her trip was sponsored by Best Western, for whom she blogs, which I’m sure didn’t exactly hurt.) Her tips for a budget road trip? Drive a fuel-efficient car, carry refillable water bottles, avoid big-name destinations (sorry kids, no Grand Canyon or Disneyland), split entrees, and opt for cheap souvenirs. (It helps if your child likes to collect rocks.)

And it doesn’t hurt to have a sense of humor. Bon voyage.

It's all about doing the right thing. And the smart thing.
American says it will no longer charge active members of the military to check a third bag. Some peers, however, appear to be dragging their feet.
American's decision comes a couple of weeks after a story in the El Paso Times recounting the experience of a pair of Texas Army National Guard Soldiers who were charged for extra baggage as they headed for training before deploying to Iraq later this year. This year airlines have been raising fares and imposing new and higher luggage fees to offset surging fuel costs.
American has never charged military personnel fees for first and second checked bags. The carrier was, however, hitting them with a $100 fee for the third bag, a levy for which service personnel could be reimbursed by the government.
"We always understood that soldiers traveling on duty were reimbursed by the military for the fees on required excess baggage. However, after recently hearing of the burden the military reimbursement process put on soldiers traveling to war zones, the choice for us to forgo payment for a third checked bag from the Department of Defense was clear,” said Tom Del Valle, American’s senior vice president for airport services.
This is all a good thing but what about the other carriers?
Rick Seaney, airline blogger extraordinaire, says that United plans to drop its 3rd checked-bag fee in wake of American's move and that Southwest had already done so earlier this year.
Northwest, Delta and US Airways had not yet responded to inquiries but Continental told him: “This is a pricing matter -- we can’t discuss future plans.”
Come on, guys. This should be a no-brainer.

See, the thing about flying is that I like landing in one piece, and I appreciate anyone who helps make that happen.
It's both easy and fun to take whacks at the folks at Logan for all kinds of stuff, from problems with on-time arrival and departure rates to problems with baggage and parking -- both when it's warranted as well as when it isn't (it's kind of like being a Red Sox fan that way).
But credit where credit is due. This week the Air Line Pilots Association named Logan as its Airport of the Year. Why, you ask?
The ALPA, the world's biggest pilot union, cited Logan's efforts to reduce runway incursions and excursions through enhanced markings and technologies and its new physical improvements to reduce congestion and delays. All good things.
So, at least for today, we tip our caps to Logan. Tomorrow, as they say, is another day.

Ellen Creager spends a good bit of time on the road so has come to appreciate the not-so-subtle relative qualities of reasonably-priced chain hotels. The Detroit Free Press writer says her criteria for rooms are simple: night-time quiet and darkness; cleanliness; free Internet, free breakfast, and a comfortable bed.
While on a recent road trip, she tried out four different business hotels, each of which averaged $114 per night with tax: Marriott Courtyard in northeast Atlanta, Country Inn and Suites near the Nashville Airport, Hampton Inn in Bardstown, Ky., and a Holiday Inn Express outside of Cincinnati.
The winner? Country Inn and Suites. But she concludes that all of them beat her expectations. Here's her story.

Hertz, which had been testing rentals by the hour, says that it is planning to launch a major push into the car-sharing market later this year. What does this mean to you, dear travelers? The prospect of a multinational concern like Hertz getting into the business is potentially huge.
Rich Broome, senior vice president for corporate affairs and communications, wouldn’t offer much in the way of details, but said that the company would initially roll out the program in a handful of major US cities. Boston, he said, would "probably be part of a second wave."
Broome said, “Many people think of Hertz being primarily at airports but we also have 1,600 off-airport locations in the United States, and when we roll this thing out we will have leading-edge technology in place to be able to get customers what they want where they want it.’’
For