Those guys at the delightfully reprehensible Matador Nights. They define mensch. Why the lavish praise, you ask?
These guys have compiled a list of where you can find the world's sexiest -- outside of the United States. I know this is not the criteria by which most plan their travel. But frankly I have heard of worse reasons (I have a pal that has this Mickey Mouse thing...but that's for another day).
So, where can you find the sexiest women?
MENDOZA, Argentina: "Go out on a Friday or Saturday night in January and there’s a good chance seven out of ten girls you see at the bars will be insanely beautiful ... the majority epitomize what you would expect from a smoking hot Latina: Brunette, olive skin, sharp, dark eyes and hourglass curves.
HAVANA: "Tall women with striking features ... the music will stir your soul. This is no place to be a shy gentlemen, but if you can’t open up with a few words of Spanish you’re sunk.''
SEOUL: "If East Asian beauty floats your boat you’ve come to the right place. Don’t confuse westernized with western here -- Seoul style is singular and unique. And if anyone tells you that Korean women are docile and humble, you have been misinformed.''
Sun Lee of Seoul was Miss Korea in this year's Miss Universe pageant.

I'll fess up: Jet lag does me in. I just got back from a quick trip to the Golden State. There's only a three-hour time difference, but it takes me about a week to get so I'm not still squinting quizzically through bloodshot eyes at the sun at 8:30 a.m. on the T.
I'm willing to try anything. Reader's Digest (I once had an English professor who likened the reading of digested material to the consumption of already digested material) has some tips. Most of them involve trying to get your body ready for the changes in advance; some focus on your general well-being; some are fabulously ridiculous. Here are a few (along with my own insights):
ACCLIMATE. If you’re going to be gone longer than a couple of days, begin acclimating your body to the new time zone by altering your eating schedule three days before your plane takes off -- cool, dinner at 3 sharp.
AVOID AIRLINE FOOD. See above. It seems if you're going to be tricking your body by eating closer to the new time zone you don't want at airline repast to mess up your schedule. Besides the food usually sucks anyway.
CHUG. Stay hydrated, but avoid alcohol and caffeine, as they can dehydrate you, mess up your internal clock, make you unpopular with the seatmate you have to climb over to get to the restroom, and exaggerate jet lag symptoms.
HIT THE LINGUINE. Or any other carb-dense food at dinner on the night before your flight. Recent research suggests carbs boost your ability to sleep — particularly when you fly westward. Wonder whether a Sam's summer ale would count. Carbs is carbs, right?
REFRIGERATE. Particularly if you need to sleep on the plane. I call this the suspended animation tip. Use earplugs to cut noise, an eyeshade to kill the light, and turn the air-conditioning valve on high. A lower temperature lowers your body’s core temperature and signals it’s time for sleep.
Here's the whole, unadulterated list.

Just got an email from an old friend, long on the move. Seems he hasn't slowed down:

"hi tom,
yes, just got the confirmation for angola.
will be there from august 1 till september 17.
as I previously told u, immediately after that there will be the festival in salekhard, siberia (sept 21-27) and hopefully few more!
I hope u can wait for me for sardinia, in spring maybe...

what about new years in bariloche?
please try to come!

presently still in srbija, went to exit festival in novi sad, great fun, especially manu chao's concert.
will be in brcko for a few days this week on the way back to italy.

send news when u can!"

Not that there's anything wrong with settling in one place. Take, for example, this from an Argentine friend who has lived in recent years in Kabul, Paris and San Francisco, and now arrived in Rio:

"My little house in Ipanema has a patio and bbq and is 3 blocks from the beach – I'm getting back in shape running every morning to leave the gordos club!, although this evening will cook stuffed squid."

Would make a good first line of a novel, by the way...

They're at it again -- the bulls, that is, as well as those who run with them.

Today marked the first of eight runs of the San Fermin Festival in tiny Pamplona, Spain, commonly known as the "Running of the Bulls" to the rest of the world. The Associated Press reported one man gored and four slightly injured. Check out some highlights from today's run.

I try to accept and appreciate the beauty and variety of all cultures, but I always felt Spain had the most nonsensical traditions out of any country. Let's see: You've got a suicidal sprint alongside fuming, two-ton, horned animals. Then in August you have "La Tomatina," when approximately 30,000 people descend on tiny Bunol, Valencia, to pummel one another with tomatoes.

Some other traditional Spanish celebrations include Fiestas de Haro (a giant wine fight), and Danzandores de Anguiano (some type of ceremony that involves people running down hills on stilts). That's before you even consider the country's commitment to bullfights as a form of entertainment.

I appreciate tradition, but I also respect progress, and part of me thinks that at some point in history someone in Pamplona should've said "Hey, I have an idea -- let's NOT risk getting our guts torn apart by the angry bulls this year!"

But then again, Spain isn't all tomato throwing and bull dodging. The country takes its festivals seriously, and many of them are very beautiful and respectful. Spaniards honor their saints and heritage, and treasure food and drink with family and friends above all else. I can respect that, and there's something pure about a country that has so stoically maintained its traditions throughout the centuries -- even the wacky ones.

So, if you're looking for a nonsensical yet traditional coda to your summer, you might consider heading to Bunol for "La Tomatina" on the last Wednesday in August. Flights from Boston to Madrid or Valencia run a steep $1,000 -- but the trip comes with free tomatoes.

We apologize to Sally Field, who actually said in her 1985 Academy Award acceptance speech: “I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!” Today, we’re talking about travel – Americans abroad, and how they are viewed.
A recent Pew Global Attitudes survey asks where we, as Americans, are most likely to be welcomed. It turns out that the countries Americans most like to visit are, for the most part, countries that like Americans. The survey polled residents of 24 countries – including the United States – between March 27 and April 21. In 14 foreign countries, a majority of respondents have a favorable view of Americans. (The United States itself, on the other hand, is well-regarded, on balance, in only nine foreign countries.)

I'm thinking with the skyrocketing price of gasoline that we may see a resurgence of interest in hitching. But, let's face it. The plaintive extended thumb on the highway on-ramp ... It's just so creepy, Rutger Hauer, old school.
Thank god we've moved on to Hitchhiking 2.0. Those interested in snagging a ride should take a look a couple of specialty message boards: hitchhikers.org for European travel and Digihitch for the United States and Canada.
On the sites, drivers who are willing to offer riders post listings, with info on departure dates, how many seats are available, and whether they're looking to share expenses (some drivers don't want any money; just a little company to keep them awake on a long ride).
Could be a win-win.
But if you're a driver and some old Teutonic-looking dude with a trench coat and a shotgun wants a ride... Let's just say this kind of thing usually doesn't end well.
Thanks to the Great Travel God Arthur Frommer for this one.

Anyone who has traveled anywhere has run into twisted language on signs. Sometimes they're twisted English translations in foreign countries; sometimes the language has been twisted by someone for whom English is purportedly their first (perhaps only) language. The folks at The Telegraph in UK have been selecting and running photos of some of the world's strangest. We're now in Week Four. These are just a couple of my favorites.

Orbitz is offering a very interesting deal right now. If you book on the site and pay their $7-$12 service fee they promise to reimburse you the difference if the fare for your flight drops before you take off.
This is the way it works: Orbitz will track prices from the time you buy your ticket until the day of the flight and will issue qualifying refunds of $5 to $250, according to details on the site.
There is, however, a good bit of fine print involved. Two big things to keep in mind. First, the reimbursement won't apply if your carrier goes under. And the second involves the way Orbitz keeps track of fare decreases: Specifically, another customer must get a lower priced fare on Orbitz for the exact itinerary you have. So, if a lower fare is available, say, through a carrier's own website it doesn't count. And since Orbitz only sells a fraction of the tickets for any flight (the folks at Online Travel Review put their estimate at about 7.5 percent on average) and since flight prices tend to go up as you get closer to departure the odds that they'll need to pony up a reimbursement seem a little low.
Orbit's plans were first reported by the WSJ.
A little complicated but what a concept, yes?

It's kismet. A kind of magical convergence. Here we are at the beginning of the weekend and the beginning of travel season. You are thirsty, and you have wanderlust.
Thanks be unto Matador Nights for compiling a list of how to order a second beer in 50 languages (for the first one you're kind of on your own).
Anyway, say you're in China in the Hou Hai Bar Area in Beijing. Turn to the nearest friendly publican and utter: yī gèng pí qí (yi geng pee quee).
Or how about if you're in Turkey: Bir bira daha lutfen. Or Finland: Vielä yksi olut (don't you just love a good umlaut?). Or Greece: boro na echo ena beera separakalo.
You get the drift.
OK, so maybe you can't afford international travel. Head over to the Sunset Bar & Grill in Allston-Brighton. I've heard they've got like 130 beers on tap and more than 300 bottled ones. Many from foreign countries. And when you want that second Dos Equis? Dame otra cerveza, por favor.

Air One has postponed Saturday's inaugural flight between Boston and Milan until June 27.
The Italian carrier said its first foray into the US market has been frustrated by a three-week delay in delivery of new business-class seats for its refurbished leased aircraft. More than 1,000 passengers already bought tickets for the first two weeks of flights and have been rebooked on Lufthansa, United Airlines, or other partner airlines.
However, those passengers will not get to experience the Italian cuisine and Italian in-flight films that Air One is known for. The carrier was to have offered five flights a week between Boston and Milan starting at $799 round trip.
"We do apologize," said Giorgio De Roni, Air One's chief revenue officer. He said the airline received its first reconfigured aircraft Thursday and expects the second one next week, but wants to wait until it has a third plane for backup.
Air One will staff its check-in counters at Logan and Milan's Malpensa Airport starting tomorrow to help ticket holders.

Posted by Nicole C. Wong, Globe Staff

Few things can dampen your vacation like a cold. When you're sniffling and sneezing and your throat is sore, the Grand Canyon may not seem all that grand. Most of us know that one of the best prevention methods is to wash your hands frequently, but, alas, many scrub for too short a time to do that much good. Consumer Reports' On Health newsletter suggests that to ensure you're washing long enough, you follow the example of many health professionals: When you start scrubbing, begin singing "Happy Birthday," and keep washing until you finish the song. But sing it to yourself, OK? Otherwise you may find that your vacation companions are few.

Richard C. Carpenter, Globe Correspondent

So, you still haven’t been to Paris? What exactly are you waiting for? The euro to shrivel? Oil to cheapen? The natives to speak English? Americans to be ever again welcomed as amusing, moneyed innocents abroad?
There is only one thing to know about Paris: It will be the City of Light long after all of us have returned to our stardust state.
In a previous century, I took my preschooler and her umbrella stroller to Paris for two weeks in June. Shepherded by my fluent sister and game young nephew, we visited towers and tombs and gardens and museums and churches and boats and bookstores and ice cream parlors (one of us napping almost daily while the other pushed en route to somewhere), climbed Notre-Dame, ate little sandwiches on the street for lunch, were invited to the countryside, dined with an au pair who had survived us, sampled pastries and roast chicken and even happened on some mediocre food. None of it on the scale of Carmella Soprano’s visit, but we were every bit as impressed.
For those of you who need more written encouragement to gauge how short is life and how grand is Paris, there are writers at your service – fluent in English, too. But all their words will have failed them and you if one does not command the day: Go.

Kips Bay? Of course. Southampton? Sure. There's even a designer show house in York, Maine.
But Moscow? Now that's one I'd like to see.
If you're headed to Russia this month, you might want to put it on your agenda.
The Russian Design Show at EcoEstate Pavlovskaya Sloboda, conceptualized by Janna Bullock, CEO and founder of RIGroup, an international real estate development firm, features six houses and the work of 24 designers, including Tom Dixon, Alain Moatti, the Campana Brothers, George Nakashima, Ron Arad, Gio Ponti, and Shiro Kuramata.
The homes, which include the Eco House, the Russian House, the Design House, the Nina Campbell House, the Phillips de Pury House, have all been constructed using environmentally friendly materials.
The show runs through July 1, from 12-8 p.m. daily except Monday. Two of the houses, the Nina Campbell House and the Russian Dacha, will be open through Sept.15. Admission is free.
The EcoEstate Pavlovskaya Sloboda is located at 26th km of Novorizhskoe Shosse.
For more information, see the website.

A year ago, Francesco and I would sit in the office at the end of a long day, uncork a bottle of Nero d'Avola and work on gaining a better understanding of the characteristics of Sicily's best-known grape. Professional wine tastings can be a bit force fed – a winemaker might quickly say what you should be seeing, smelling and tasting. Picking these characteristics out on your own inevitably forces you to go slower than they guy at the front of the room. Taking the time to really understand just one wine is a luxury. And you can really learn something.
A year later, I learned something different.
"Nero," says Francesco, making a diving motion with his hand, "is having a tough time."
We opened a 2006 Nero di Lupo (a 2003 version of which we tasted last year when it was called Pojo di Lupo) and talked about it.
"Traveling in Italy and abroad, I started to notice its absence in the last couple of months," says Francesco.
At Milan's best wine shop, the owner put it to him bluntly. "Nero d'Avola? It's over."
The Nero di Lupo name change was a clue; after a several-year run as one of Italy's trendiest wines, everybody wanted a piece of wines made with Nero. Producers started growing the grape in regions less suited to its production -- often far from Avola. Though quality winemakers are still making excellent wines, the bottom of the market has been flooded, dragging the good wine's good name down with it.
"It's been sold improperly," says Sicily's top chef, Ciccio Sultano, who is upset with both rising Nero prices and an overall quality decline. "Demand grew, but the wineries multiplied…It's too much."
"Take Bordeaux - it's crazy," he says, pointing to his head, "you can't justify the price. It's for the Russians.
"What's the difference between this and a Mouton Rothschild?" he asks, holding up a glass. "Is that 30 or 40 times better? It's marketing. Wine is like a cuisine – there is art and craftsmanship, but it's outrageous to pay too much for food and wine."

As an earthquake last week showed again, Iceland's foundations can be shaky. The remote island is home to geysers, volcanoes and other things that hint at the boiling and toiling beneath the earth's surface.
I saw little of that when I was there a few weeks ago, for the Reykjavik Arts Festival. I wrote a story about that event, in which ideas are the things stirring the scene, here.

While in the capital, I came across another interesting window into Iceland's roots. Just outside my hotel on a central street, a glass-covered box showed through the sidewalk to an archaeological dig down below. The ruins were on display for closer viewing inside a subterranean museum, called Reykjavik 871 + or - 2. The name refers to the year the country was first settled by Vikings, making it among the more recently inhabited pieces of land on the planet.
The museum features 21st-century technology, including digital imaging of people emerging on otherwise uninhabited shores to fish and build and live. It is worth a stop, even for modern travelers come to enjoy the weekend parties on nearby Laugavegur Street.

Good morning, travelers. Continental said that it is cutting 3,000 jobs and reducing its flight schedule in the fourth quarter by 11 percent. Continental currently carries 4.2 percent of the passengers at Logan (and they anticipate being able to talk details about schedule changes as early as next week so stay tuned).
This comes just a day after our friends at United said they would trim their domestic schedule 17 percent by the end of 2009, two days after Delta said it would need to cut flights beyond the 11 percent already announced.
Oh, and let's not forget American who, a couple weeks ago, announced its plans to reduce flights 12 percent.
What these guys are doing is getting rid of unprofitable routes and grounding older, more fuel-guzzling planes -- we here in the US have the unenviable distinction of possessing among the oldest fleets flying.
With all these cancellations, more and more travelers, who made reservations before the reductions were announced, are going to have their itineraries involuntary shifted.
I took a quick look yesterday at what this will mean. If you missed it, here it is.

Yesterday, I interviewed a farmer in his Ferrari for a story about the Sicilian melon market. Taking notes in a car with a suspension-adjusting switch marked "RACE" is not unlike trying to do the same in a 4x4 bumping through an olive grove.


Meeting a couple of melon farmers yesterday, Mr. F430 included, I kept getting distracted by their tomatoes. Odd bedfellows, melons and tomatoes love the soil and hot climate around the southern Sicilian town of Pachino and have become the town's financial backbone and its claim to fame.
Standing in a giant tomato greenhouse filled with the wonderful green smell of the vines themselves, Bruno Cicciarella (who drives a more modest ride pulls a fat thumb-shaped tomato he calls a 'pixel' from a cluster and hands it to me.
The taste isn't perfect, but compared to what we've grown accustomed to from the grocery store, it's mind blowing. It's plenty enough to put me out on the back deck with my family, eating salted chunks of dad's tomatoes straight from the garden.
I also try some tomatoes sold by Sebastiano Fortunato (a.k.a. Mr. Ferrari) and understand why he's got such a fancy pair of wheels. His cherry tomatoes are so sweet, it's easy to understand again why tomatoes are fruit.

Mon Dieu! It's bad enough that airlines keep us on hold interminably. But I'd rather be on hold than not be able to speak with anyone. Air France has a new policy this year that if the agents' telephone queue is of a certain length, a caller is disconnected after holding for 30 minutes! (Yes, they warn you.)

Over the course of several days I tested the Air France reservations line about five times. Once I got through quickly, twice I got a recording saying the wait time would be four minutes (I didn't stay on to check) and twice I held for 30 minutes before the call was disconnected. (Of course I was multitasking.)

This is what you could call ANTI-customer service. I asked Air France media relations rep Karen Gillo about the policy. Her answer: "I'm pretty sure we don't have a policy that says people will be cut off." Mais oui, I countered, which she later confirmed. I asked how many operators the airline uses and when do they turn on that blasted disconnect message, and of course she said, "we don't answer proprietary questions."

Airlines already charge us for things that used to be included in the ticket price: headphones to watch movies and snacks, for instance. Now some airlines have begun to charge a fee to check a bag ($15) and for a window seat ($5). Outrageous, you say? Think again, say I, and brace yourself for these possible new fees:
1. Bathroom. $1.00 per use. There are two ways the airlines could charge for using the bathroom. One is to provide flight attendants with a key. Pay a dollar, get the key plus three squares of toilet paper. (Extra paper: 25 cents per square.) The second way is to have a coin lock on the door: Deposit 4 quarters (one Euro on international flights) and the door twists open. Unlimited use of tiny squares of paper included.
2. Light. Just like in churches in Italy, the overhead light would be controlled by inserting a token. Each dollar token would provide 15 minutes of illumination, almost enough time to complete the crossword at the back of the in-flight magazine. Which reminds me:
3. In flight magazine: $1.00. You think glossy paper is free?
4. Questions. $1.00. If you press the button for the flight attendant, you had better have an important question to ask, something more compelling than "Which gate number did you say my connecting flight will be at?" Which reminds me:
5. Connecting flights: $15.00.
6. Air: $5.00. You want to twist that little nozzle on? It's gonna cost you.
7. Reclining Seats. $10.00. If airlines stopped selling seats that recline they could fit an extra row in each aircraft.
8. Beverages. No more free ginger ale, diet cola, or tomato juice for you. $1.00 per beverage. Cup with ice (if you B.Y.O.B.): 50 cents. Napkin: A quarter.
9. Mini-pretzels or peanuts (.05 ounces): 50 cents. Bundle price $2.00: above, with cup, ice, beverage, and napkin. A bargain!
10. Blanket. $5.00 (used) $10.00 (in sealed plastic bag).
11. Pillow. Ditto.
12. Child-free Zone. $30.00. This ticket guarantees that no child under the age of 12 will be seated within 5 rows of your seat.
Unthinkable, you say? Check back in six months. Or add your own predictions now.

This afternoon, I hitched a ride with Guido to his cabin where I figured I could work unconnected while he puttered around in the garden. He picked me up in his 1970s Renault R4 and headed back through Ispica for an impromptu tour of the old part of town.
"That's my church," he said, rounding a corner, cresting a hill and pointing out the window all at once. "Now, neutral!" he said, batting the old car's dash-mounted stick shift back and forth with his hand and letting the car coast. Next, he passed through streets so narrow, I had previously thought it was a pedestrian area. "Modern cars don't fit."
Five minutes out of town at the cabin he uses both as an artist's studio (he's a well-known artist, with an affinity for mail art) and a base for his gardening, his mulberry tree has a carpet of fallen berries below it. A week after I was here last, the berries on the tree are now a little bigger, a little riper and a lot tastier. With high wire comic panache, Guido again brings out the umbrella and fills up a plate of berries for me to nibble on while I write.

One of the nicest pleasures about being back in the Motherland is seeing everyone and everything again, picking up almost exactly a year to the day after I was here last. There are things to catch up on, there's a slight seasonal shift, but an overall feeling of being home.
Francesco's aunt Pinuccia, knowing I'm a sucker for good cheese, left a big hunk of a crumbly truffle-infused artisanal formaggio she'd picked up on a trip to northern Italy in my fridge. Usually, truffle-infused anything sets off little warning signals in my mind that read: "overpriced bunk". Not here.
We had a bite of the cheese and the truffles did what truffles are supposed to do: reach through your tongue and mouth like smoke, gradually settling into your senses like no other food can.
The next day, I ran into the farmer who sells still-warm ricotta out of the back of his truck. Two euros ($3) for raw milk bliss.
More recently, after starting the day with gelato from the nearby supermarket bar, Francesco and I stopped by Caffé Sicilia in Noto to see what Corrado Assenza – arguably Italy's best pastry chef – has been up to.
I had a cup of ricotta and pistachio gelato, the latter being the star, with a cake-like texture and beguiling simplicity. Francesco shared exactly one bite of his 'orange salad' gelato, based on a typical Sicilian dish that uses oranges, olive oil ultra-fresh onions. Barely sweet, the gelato went from an orange flavor to a vegetable one. It's one of those experiences that short-circuits your brain and leaves you with a smile on your face.
Finally, I made a quick lunch the other day – a pasta with a sauce that's so simple it feels like cheating: chopped up tomatoes, large amounts of good olive oil, salt and a bit of crushed garlic that all bubbles away while the pasta water is coming to a boil. In a moment of inspiration, I shaved bits of Pinuccia's cheese over the pasta, the truffle's potency and the sweetness of the cheese magnified by the warmth of the pasta.
Simple, complex, happy.
Posted by Joe Ray, Globe Correspondent, from his blog Eating The Motherland

NAPLES, Italy — Perception from afar can be a funny thing. We’re just back from a week in Naples, where the English-language news channels (CNN and BBC) make it sound like the world has ended and a mound of garbage threatens to bury the city as nearby Mt. Vesuvius inundated Pompeii. What none of the reporters bothered to mention is that, like many European cities, Naples has centralized trash collection points where people bring their garbage. The piles (and they are huge) are around overflowing dumpsters. It’s important to realize that Naples is a stunning city, and Neapolitans are proud of it. Wherever we went, they apologized profusely for the trash, embarrassed that their government had broken down. (Despite foreign reports, local sentiment is that the government has failed to issue the garbage contracts and it’s only natural that trash men won’t work without getting paid.) And contrary to CNN et al., it’s still a gorgeous place to visit—even under a Berlusconi government.

Posted by Patricia Harris and David Lyon

In Europe, travelers with rail passes aren't guaranteed spots on high-speed trains. Separate seat reservations are also needed. This applies to first- and second-class travel on such high-speed lines as the TGV (in France and Switzerland), Thalys (France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands), Eurostar (United Kingdom, France and Belgium), Lyria (France and Switzerland) and AVE (Spain) trains. An exception is the InterCityExpress (ICE) in Germany.

Seat reservations are not required on local, regional, inter-regional, and most EuroCity trains unless you're traveling during a peak time -- that being early morning and evening rush hour during the week, and weekends and holidays.

You can purchase seat reservations with your rail passes through Rail Europe , through another European train ticket provider, or at the train station. Prices range from about $5 to $35.

It's best to purchase your seat reservation in advance, says Samina Sabir, public relations manager for Rail Europe. Waiting until the day of departure to secure one at the station, for example, is risky because some high-speed trains limit the number of seats they dole out to rail pass riders. And popular routes, such as the high-speed train from Paris to Italy during the summer, sell out weeks early. (Washington Post)

It seems that every other week in Richard Carpenter’s Real Deals another women’s business has joined the travel industry. On bikes, on hikes, on safaris, out West, up north, across the Pond, women are traveling together, and cornering them has become smart commerce. (Other than to shoot game or play or attend one, do men travel together?)

Marybeth Bond won the Lowell Thomas Award for best travel book with “A Woman’s World: True Stories of World Travel’’ (Travelers’ Tales, 2003) by several dozen contemporary voices, many of them writers. Then she had a best seller last year with “50 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North America’’ (National Geographic, 2007). This spring she delivers “Best Girlfriends Getaways Worldwide” (National Geographic, 272 pp., paperback, 15.95). Bond is described on the jacket as “a travel expert, spokesperson, and motivational speaker” and it is this last calling that may, or that should, seem quite personal to the reader.

Hold tight, folks. American said this morning that it needs to tighten the belt big-time. What that means is that it will start charging $15 to most passengers to check a first bag, and that it plans to cut its schedule by as much as 12 percent. American also said it would raise other fees from $5 to $50 for a range of services like reservation help to oversized bags.
The carrier's decision on baggage comes just a month after it decided to join other major carriers in charging $25 for a second checked bag. This means if you arrive with two bags the tab will be $40 each way. The baggage fees will kick in for flights booked starting June 15. But it won't affect some American frequent-flier program members or those paying full fare or international passengers. American put the details on their site.
Delta reacted almost immediately, saying it wasn't planning to adopt the first-bag fee, but United said it would consider it.
Ned Raynolds of American said that the airline will take 40 to 45 big jets and 35 to 40 regional ones out of service in the fourth quarter, so this will affect schedules for regular American flights as well as those of its regional American Eagle service.
The airline hasn't decided which routes it will cut. But the odds that Logan will be affected appear pretty strong, as American serves about 17 percent of the airport's travelers, behind only Delta and JetBlue.
Amid fuel costs that have risen 84 percent in the last year, Raynolds said American was in the process of "unbundling'' services: Basically, offering a menu of services -- some of them formerly free -- and letting travelers choose which ones they want and are willing to pay for.
"As much as we love our customers,'' Raynolds said, "we need to survive and thrive in the current climate.''
Why do we always hurt the ones we love? Did I hear somebody say, "Ouch?''

Let Rick Steves be your guide as you listen to his walking tours of Italy's popular attractions, including Michelangelo’s David, the Sistine Chapel, or St. Mark’s Square.

Download the tours for free from his website or from iTunes.

More than a million tours have been downloaded since Steves introduced his France series last year.

"Quoting "The Godfather" always works," said Francesco within a few hours of my arrival in Sicily.

I'd been back in The Motherland for less than 24 hours when Francesco's uncle Guido unintentionally convinced me to re-open my blog for the two weeks I'm here.

It was an offer I could not refuse.
I arrived at Guido and his wife Pinuccia's Sunday barbecue laden with the groceries for my apartment. Pinuccia (pronounced "pin-noo-cha"), noted my nasty looking store-bought garlic, and handed me a small paper bag with a handful of heady-smelling aglio. "Here. Try these," she said discreetly. "They're from my garden. They're more flavorful."
Meanwhile, home-cured olives made the rounds. Served from a one-liter honey jar, they are slightly crunchy with a pleasant, lasting bitterness.
While thin steaks and sausages cooked on the grill in the fireplace, Francesco's mother sautéed chicken cutlets covered in a mixture of egg, parsley, nutmeg, oregano and "a little red wine." She handed me a bite on a fork – simple and perfect.
Walking over, a smirking Francesco said, "Just like KFC, right?"
Right.

At the table, it's a loud, pretense-free Sicilian family free for all. There seem to be more conversations than people, with everyone munching, talking and reaching across the table for a little more. Presiding over all, Guido grabs the tail end of the salad and eats it straight from the bowl.

Sated, he takes me for a tour of his garden that has furnished everything from Pinuccia's garlic to the mulberries and loquats that ended our meal. He shows off his lettuce and peppers before pulling some lemons from a tree and sticking them in a bag for me. It's five times more than I could possibly eat in two weeks.
Posted by Joe Ray, Globe Correspondent from his blog eatingthemotherland.

The Student and Youth Travel Association (SYTA) has released these Top 10 rankings for US, North America, and International hot spots for student and youth travel from their annual member survey, which polls student and youth travel industry professionals on current and emerging trends:

Top 10 U.S. Destinations
1. Washington D.C.
2. New York City
3. Orlando
4. Chicago
5. Greater Boston
6. Historic Virginia
7. Southern California
8. Philadelphia Area
9. Baltimore/Annapolis
10. Hawaii

Top North America Destinations
1. Toronto
2. Montreal
3. Quebec City
4. Vancouver
5. Cancun & the Yucatan
6. Calgary
7. Edmonton
8. Ottawa
9. Oaxaca
10. Mexico City

Top 10 International Destinations
1. United Kingdom
2. France
3. Italy
4. Spain
5. Australia
6. Germany
7. Greece
8. Brazil
9. Peru
10. China

Italian airline Air One said today it is launching its first flights between the US and Italy, including a flight from Logan Into Milan.

Air One said its inaugural flight to Boston will arrive at Logan International Airport on June 14; the Boston-Milan connection will fly daily, excluding Tuesday and Thursday.

Air One noted in its press release, "From lift-off, Air One passengers will be immersed in Italian culture, thanks to Italian cuisine, in-flight entertainment offering Italian films, and with onboard outfitting that guarantees maximum relaxation, making the flight an authentic 'Made in Italy' experience."

(At left, a Milan landmark.)

The press release also noted that Milan is "the industrial and financial heart of Italy, as well as the point of departure to some of Northern Italy's top destinations: elegant Turin; romantic Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet; exclusive Lake Como, and the magnificent Alps."
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)

Here’s an entry in the “good ideas for city living” department.

Sevilla, Spain, is a tangle of narrow little alleys, one-way streets, and main thoroughfares where the drivers must take their training at the bullring. (Sound familiar?) Driving a car in Sevilla is, at best, an inconvenience, and usually much worse than that. But the city is undaunted in its efforts to make it easier to get around. The city government’s “Infrastructure for Sustainability” office sponsors a solution so obvious that even Boston could do it. The SEVICI initiative touts bicycle riding as good for the environment—and makes it irresistible by proving access to nice, solid bikes for only 5 euros a week (or 10 euros per year, if you live there). The snazzy silver and red vehicles are parked at 250 high-tech stands all over the city. Each stand has a kiosk where you can subscribe with a credit card and pick up and deposit bikes. For more details on the program (Spanish only—sorry) take a look at the website: www.sevici.es.

Posted by Patricia Harris, Globe Correspondent

Welcome to another episode of: You Can't Make This Stuff Up. First up is the case of the airline passenger from Austin, Texas, charged with disorderly conduct after refusing to get off the wireless during a Southwest flight from Austin to The Big D.
According to the Dallas Morning News, flight attendants repeated asked the passenger -- one Joe David Jones, president and CEO of an Austin environmental start-up called Skyonic -- to please shut the phone down, as the FCC prohibits in-flight wireless calls.
Turns out Mr. Jones, apparently a black belt of witty repartee, nearly a Shakespeare of the clever comeback, reportedly responded: "Kiss my [expletive]." When asked for clarification, Mr. Jones, fearing his terse and pithy mots juste had not been properly recorded for future generations, repeated, "Kiss my [expletive]." Then delivering a linguistic coup de grace, he finished with: "Not happening.''
Mr. Jones remained on the phone for 20 minutes and when Dallas police later met him at the gate to question him displayed disorderly conduct and was charged with a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $500, according to police reports.
For his part, Mr. Jones, through a representative, explained that he was on the phone because he had been trying to reach officials in a cardiac unit after getting a message his father's heart had stopped.
Beth Harbin, a Southwest spokeswoman, was sympathetic but said, "It was a safety regulation that we're required to enforce, and we're simply not in a position to make exceptions."

Mount Olympus and Hades, Maui and Gary, mom’s and your brother-in-law’s – you have been there, done that, realized that scale can be everything. Here are two writers who take their own tacks to marry the wide angle with the myriad motives that fuel travel.

Navigating between heaven and earth, Tom Stone takes us to Greece on a roundabout itinerary that reminds the poorly educated among us why that country matters in the history of everything, including theology. Stone lived in Greece for 22 years, has written about the country and its culture and language, and lives now in another outpost of the gods, Los Angeles. “Zeus: A Journey Through Greece in the Footsteps of a God” (Bloomsbury, 336 pp., hardcover, $24.95) situates the reader with a brief chronology of Zeus’s long life and purposeful death at the hands of the newfangled Christianity, and then sets off alongside Stone and his wife en route, first, to Crete and Santorini. Those tourist destinations are where Minoan civilization began around 2500 B.C. Zeus, however, had been around for thousands of years already, worshiped in the Neolithic Age around 7000 B.C. in the Russian steppes and south of the Caucasus as a sky god, a belief system that was reflected by goddess-worshiping farmers from Mesopotamia who came to inhabit Greece and its islands and, importantly, Crete, about 6500 B.C. (Even then, everyone wanted to go to Greece!)

Headed for Europe? I know. Given the slumping dollar and the soaring costs of airline tickets it's heard to believe that anyone is but in its first international summer travel forecast AAA is actually expecting travel by Americans to rise 2.6 percent.
OK, so if you happen to be headed over you should know that the Auto Rental Wars that are percolating here are starting to brew there.
Hertz, which has a number of offices in Western Europe, just announced that it would start renting for periods shorter than a day. The new Hertz 369 program will let you rent for three or six hours for day trips, or nine hours for overnights.
It's no mistake that Hertz is doing this a little over a month after our own Cambridge-based, car-sharing pioneer Zipcar announced it was setting its sights on Europe (it already has an office in London).
My old friend Scott Kirsner wrote a story in March about how UHaul and the big rental agencies like Hertz and Enterprise , mature industries all, having been casting jealous glances Zipcar's way and are looking to compete for the sharing/short-term rental biz aux Etats Unis.
And now it appears a new front is being opened across the pond. This is a good thing.

If you're a golfer and planning on traveling in southwestern Ireland on May 14, here's an opportunity. County Limerick's five-star castle hotel, Adare Manor, is hosting the Irish Open May 15-18, and Irish golfer Padraig Harrington is returning to defend his title on the Robert Trent Jones Sr.-designed parkland course. Purchase a ticket to the event online prior to May 10, and you're automatically entered into a draw to play alongside Harrington in the Irish Open Pro-Am on Wednesday, May 14. Fine print: Men must have a certified GUI handicap of 24 or below; women 36 or below. Tickets for the event begin at 25 Euros; ages 15 and younger are free when accompanied by an adult.

If playing this course is too rich for your blood, consider the adjacent, but independent (despite its name) and far less expensive Adare Manor Golf Club, which wraps around ruins of a 13th-century castle, 15th-century Franciscan priory and church cemetery and provides views of another priory-turned-school and Adare Manor itself. Not too shabby.

If you're looking to fly this summer, maybe you'd better think about buying soon.
Delta and United have once again raised fuel surcharges, the second time in two weeks. This time the increase amounts to $10-$40 round-trip.
This increase pushes the domestic tote board figure for round-trip fuel surcharges to as much as $110 (!!) and the transatlantic figure to $230 (!!!).
Thanks to Rick Seaney at farecompare.com who has been keeping track and doing the math.
The latest hike comes a week after United pushed a similar one, which was joined by all the majors by Saturday.
And it was a week ago today that Delta CEO Richard Anderson said that US carriers would need to raise fares 15 percent-20-percent to offset rising fuel prices. They are most of the way there at this point so it would not be surprising to see a couple more increases heading our way.
Bear in mind, that these increases are not simply across the board. It's still possible to get a sale or a good deal on highly competitive routes. But this trend isn't going away any time soon.

One of the first words I learned in practical (as opposed to schoolbook) Spanish was ruido, or “noise.” Visitors have to be prepared for ruidos in Spain, especially (but not exclusively) if they’re staying at either budget lodgings or the very “best” locations. Budget hotels are usually located on narrow streets where the buzz of post-midnight motor scooters is a given, and they’re also usually upstairs from bars where the closing time is somewhere between 2 and 4 a.m. One simply learns to block out the ruidos of late-night revelries. But this morning, I was reminded of a different urban racket in Spain. Dawn was still a few hours away when the bells of La Giralda, the minaret of Seville’s mosque that was converted into the cathedral’s belltower, began to clang. Even though it was early, and I had hoped to sleep a little longer, they made a comforting, joyful ruido.

Posted by Patricia Harris, Globe Correspondent

It's that time of year again. The sun is shining; buds are budding, and airlines add international service at Logan ahead of the busy summer travel season -- and all just for your travel convenience.
So, get a pencil. Here's the list, courtesy of Matthew Brelis, Massport's director of media relations:
At the end of this month, Aer Lingus will increase Dublin service to seven times a week from four, and Lufthansa doubles Frankfurt flights to 14 from seven.
On June 6, Iberia heads to Madrid seven times a week, up from three. Two days later, Icelandair increases Reykjavik service to 11 times from seven, and on June 9 Air France takes off for Paris 14 times a week, up from seven. SATA will double service to Ponta Delgada, Azores to four times a week from two on June 26.

The Eurail Pass is not valid in Great Britain, but if you're between the ages of 16 and 25, ACP Rail and BritRail have a deal for you: Purchase any Eurail Pass and get a 50 percent discount off the regular adult price of a standard class BritRail Consecutive Pass, BritRail FlexiPass, BritRail England Consecutive Pass, or BritRail England FlexiPass.

The offer is valid throughout 2008. Phone 1866 938 RAIL and order your Eurail Youth and your BritRail Pass. If you already have your Eurail Pass, log onto BritRail.com and choose the Eurail Pass Tab on select BritRail passes. The Eurail and BritRail Passes must both be in your possession at the time you travel in Britain and they must both be valid for travel.

BritRail Passes are available for as few as 4 days and up to a month and can be used on 19,000 daily train departures to more than 2,500 destinations.

With the tumbling dollar this could be just the ticket.

Those of you arranging a Dublin celebration of Bloomsday in June might pause and reconsider. Try a taste of James Joyce’s own daring.

Here is Scott Huler, a writer in North Carolina, a man who, on NPR, bashed “Ulysses’’ and swore that after many failed attempts, he would never read Joyce’s novel. (No matter the lists it led as most important of the century, the millennium, the other millennia, the history of human civilization?) Dared to take back his swear by a diligent book group leader, Huler found himself finally enthralled – not by Joyce, though the book is, finally, on Huler’s life list, but by Homer’s “Odyssey.” And so he set out to retrace Odysseus’s steps.

A friend recently sent an email asking for travel tips. She was about to leave for Geneva and hadn’t been abroad for a very long time. Here was my response. (Blog readers: Feel free to comment with your own ways to make air travel easier!)

*The best way to get through a long flight is to upgrade to business class. (This is a joke, of course, but also serious! It's sooooo much better. I save my frequent flier miles for this.)

*Bring earplugs and eye mask as you never know when a screaming child will be in the next row. Also, the eye mask helps shut everything out when you want to snooze. If you sleep, make sure the flight attendant can see your seat belt is buckled--especially over a blanket--because if the captain turns on the "buckle seat belt" sign while you are sleeping...and you aren't buckled...the attendants will wake you up. What a pain!

*Speaking of blankets, I was told by an attendant that these and pillows are the worst source of germs on the plane. I bring a light shawl and use that instead. Also--I always wear socks & shoes because my feet get cold.

ENTRY XVI

Having departed the coast of Andalucía for the rugged mountains, we find ourselves out of the beach traffic—and being passed on blind curves on southern Spain’s most gorgeous natural hazards, its twisting mountain roads. We call them TMRs in our notes for the chapter of Pauline Frommer’s Spain that we’re writing. We need to caution readers without scaring them off, so we’ve come up with a TMR rating scale. Class 1 TMRs have blind curves, long vistas, and safety rails between the mountain and the drop-off. Class 2 TMRs have modest gulleys beside the road, where an accident might damage the car but leave driver and passenger unhurt. Class 3 TMRs have drop-offs that would lead to bodily injury, but with a reasonable chance of walking again. An accident on a Class 4 TMR means certain death.

Too bad that they’re also drop-dead scenic.

Posted by Patricia Harris and David Lyon, Globe Correspondents

Do you know the difference between "amatriciana'' and "arrabbiata''? (Both are spicey tomato sauces, the former with bacon, the latter with herbs.) Can you order your mineral water carbonated? (Acqua gasata)

If your answers were no, then Andy Herbach has the book for you. Part translator, part restaurant guide, the updated "Eating & Drinking in Italy'' (Open Road, $9.95) is slim enough to fit in your pocket and informative enough to ensure you'll know what you're ordering.

The crux of the book, the Italian to English word list, takes up more than half of the pages and is simple to use. The pronunciation guide is helpful as well.

I'm reminded of a tip from a good friend who joined us on a trip to Italy's hilltowns: Never eat in a place that posts a tourist menu outside. With Herbach's little guide, you won't have to.

ENTRY XV

Málaga in southern Spain, where my wife and I are researching the Andalucía chapter of Pauline Frommer’s Spain, used to have terrible traffic problems with both drivers and pedestrians. British tourists bound for vacations on the Costa del Sol usually fly into Málaga, where (heaven help them) they rent a car. We’ve been told that half the automobile accidents in southern Spain occur within a few miles of the airport, mostly from Brits unfamiliar with driving on the right side of the road. They have the same problem crossing the street, as they look in the wrong direction. Málaga’s ingenious answer has been to install the best animated pedestrian crossing signals we’ve ever seen. The little man (see photo above) starts out walking and seems to be running as the seconds tick down.

Posted by David Lyon, Globe Correspondent

ENTRY XIV

The ironic thing about researching a guidebook that will ultimately help people enjoy their vacation is that we often can’t behave like vacationers. It’s been raining cats and dogs for the last two days, and while the tourists on the Costa del Sol have been visiting museums and lounging in cafes, we've been going to the beach. Our rigid itinerary makes no room for deviation, so today we visited our favorite beach town of Estepona. Last time we were here it was sunny and 80 degrees; today it was 58 and the rain poured down like a bathtub faucet. But Estepona was still a delight, even in the cold rain, proving that great beach towns have much more than sea, sand, and sun to recommend them. At Bar Simonita, owner Ortiz Santiago Simón had a haul of tiny local clams ready to steam away the chill.

Posted by Patricia Harris, Globe Correspondent

OK, so you've been delayed. What now. Well, you can perhaps get some compensation from American, but it depends on how much you've been put out. And you'll need to tell them about it.
If your cancellation forced you to stay overnight somewhere, you can send a message to American's customer relations department and apply for compensation. There is a hot link on the website that gives you access to a form along with instructions. You will be eligible for refunds, hotel and meal vouchers, and a $500 voucher for future travel as an apology, said Tim Wagner, an airline spokesman.
American also will award vouchers of varying amounts to other passengers who message them from the site or write to them via snail mail (American Airlines Customer Relations/P.O. Box 619612 MD 2400/DFW Airport, TX 75261-9612) and detail how they were inconvenienced.
If you are scheduled on a flight that gets scrapped you can get a refund or apply the value of your ticket to future travel (Say Wa-Hoo, somebody). Travelers flying on any MD-80 flight from April 8 – 11, even if their flight has not been canceled, can rebook without fees. Travel must begin by April 17.

The sign outside Harry's Bar in Venice, Italy (AP Photo/Luigi Costantini)

If the depressing exchange-rate has you staying stateside more than you'd like, there's a bar in Venice that wants to ease your economic travel woes. Harry's Bar, which was frequented by libation-loving scribe Ernest Hemingway, is offering a 20 percent discount to American travelers in the restaurant portion of the eatery. Now the only thing left to do is figure out how to say "Another round please" in Italian…

Some tidbits gleaned from the morning news:
*Aer Lingus just cut a partnership deal with United. This comes a couple months after the Irish carrier reached a similar code-sharing pact with JetBlue.
What this means is that it will be easier to fly between anywhere United -- or JetBlue -- flies and any place Aer Lingus does.
Now if you and/or yours only hop between Boston and Dublin or Shannon, it's maybe not such a big deal. But it will make a difference for relatives across the pond who might want to make the rounds here in the States. Or maybe for that daughter of yours living in San Francisco who hasn't been to see the grandparents outside Donegal in a bit.
*Hard to believe but John Weikle, the founder of the bankrupt carrier Skybus, is "working on a plan" to get discounter flying again, the News & Record of Greensboro, N.C., reports. The airline has about $10 million in cash, Weikle said, which is enough seed money to attract other investors. Locally, Skybus flew out of and into Portsmouth, N.H., and Chicopee, Mass.
Excuse me? Didn't we just leave a bunch of folks stranded this weekend?
If you revive it, they will come? Can I have a show of hands: Even if Skybus makes it back, who will take a chance?
My advice? If they get it going again and you're determined to do it, snag tickets early and fly right away. Long-term planning is perhaps ill-advised, methinks.
(Thanks to Today in the Sky for pointing us to this last item.)

Even after reading Francine Prose’s subtle and revealing Sicilian Odyssey, some part of me expected to find Sicily the land of tough guys on dusty hills, vaguely sinister old men thoughtfully fingering their cigars as they sat around in villages squares—and pasta with meatballs and red sauce. But the only blood seems to be the red pulp of the sweet oranges, the only cigar smokers the after-dinner kind, and the only ragu I’ve seen was at the Ristorante Charleston in Palermo (Via Magliocco Vincenzo Generale 19, tel: +39 091 321366). (They mix it with gemelli to fill an oven-roasted, hollowed-out eggplant for their signature melanzana charleston.) Instead, I find myself feasting on fresh fish, new potatoes, and broccoli sprinkled with roasted pistachio nuts. Like Paulie Walnuts, I feel like asking, “Where’s the gravy?” The idea that travel dispels misconceptions is an old story. In the Greek ruins of Agrigento, a little boy spotted me, cocked his thumb and finger, and pointed to the sky: “Bang, bang, Americano!” Stereotypes die hard.

Posted by David Lyon, Globe Correspondent

Having a bad week? Feeling pathetic? Don't feel bad. There are bigger losers -- and some of them run airlines.
It seems that British discount airline Flybe was facing a $560,000 penalty if it failed to increase passengers on its Norwich-to-Dublin route, so it tried all kinds of things to hit the number, including advertising for actors to sit in the seats.
Funny, yes?
It seems that the airline had cut a deal with Norwich Airport, promising that it would carry 15,000 passengers on the route during the 2007/2008 fiscal year, which was ending yesterday. Flybe looked like it would come up 172 fliers short, according to a BBC story. So it added extra flights, offered to give away 200 return tickets, told staffers that they might have to take flights, and also advertised on a website for actors in need of work (StarNow), seeking "actors aged 16+ for paid work flying to Dublin.'' The pay? About $160.
Flybe said it ended up not using the actors. But the Telegraph talked to a woman named Suzanne Moore who was boarding a Flybe plane at Norwich yesterday. She said she was a "model" and had been paid to fly.
Norwich Airport Managing Director Richard Jenner was quoted as saying, "It doesn't seem to be in the spirit of the agreement.''
Ya think? Dude, this is like not only asking your cousin to the prom but plotting your move for the front porch drop-off.

That Sicily was overrun by invaders from all sides of the Mediterranean (and the North Atlantic, too, if one counts the Normans in the 12th century) is a given. The ruins of Selinunte outside Castelvetrano are instructive. Less fully restored than some ancient Greek cities in Sicily, it remains an active archaeological dig. Yet the two standing temples sit nearly a mile apart on the ridges above the Mediterranean. Founded either in 651 or 628 BC (depending on which Greek historian you read), it became one of the largest cities of the ancient world, trading wheat, olive oil, and wine. They took tens of thousands of Carthaginians captive to build their temples, which rose as high as 100 feet. But like one of the Greek tragedies that Aeschylus himself performed at the great theater of nearby Syracuse, its fate was sealed. In 409BC, General Hannibal of Carthage landed and nine days later Selinunte lay in ruins. Carthaginian soldiers pulled down the huge masses of stone that Carthaginian captives had raised.

Posted by David Lyon, Globe Correspondent

Thanks to the tanking dollar against the rising pound and Euro, accents are
plentiful on New England's slopes, from the Eastern Europeans manning the
lifts to the Brits skiing. Bretton Woods, N.H., is no exception. So, I
wasn't surprised, when I struck up a conversation on the Rosebrook Express
chair, to hear what sounded like a British accent peppering the reply to my
usual conversation opener: "Having a good day?"
I've met folks from all over and received insider tips from those chance
chairlift meetings, and I've meet folks from Newfoundland to Alaska, Bosnia
to New Zealand. But until yesterday, no one had ever replied to my "Where's
home?" question with "The Isle of Man."
Whoa -- I Googled the grade school geography files collecting dust in my
brain: Great Britain, no; Ireland, no; Scotland, close; Wales, not really.
Hmm, as familiar as I was with the name, I couldn't pinpoint it on my
inner-vision map.
"It's way out in the Irish Sea," he said. At least I was somewhat close in
my mental ramblings.
Back in my room, I Googled my computer's brain. Ahhh yes. The 227-square-mile Isle
of Man is located between England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (roughly
midway between Liverpool, England, and Belfast, Ireland). It's a
self-governing kingdom with its own language (Manx) and currency, although
English is the spoken language and the pound is accepted. Its parliament,
called Tynwald, was founded by the Vikings 1,000 years ago. Who knew? Not
me, but I'm intrigued enough to see if I can add it to a travel itinerary
the next time I'm in the general area.
But it won't be for skiing: It doesn't have a ski resort.

Posted by Hilary Nangle, Globe Correspondent

The bottom line: Yes, you should be worried but probably not for the reasons you think.
Over the past couple weeks, everybody's been reading about hundreds of flights being grounded because of maintenance problems. It started a couple of weeks ago when Southwest got hit with a record $10.2 million fine after admitting it missed required structural inspections on about 50 planes. And some days later the airline grounded dozens more because it wasn't sure that other necessary check-ups had been properly done.
In the past couple days, American and Delta have canceled hundreds of flights as they grounded scores of planes to inspect wiring. At Logan, this has ended up affecting more than a dozen flights.
No one wants to end up like Southwest.
But right now, with all these planes getting grounded for safety checks, you're getting kind of skittish about flying, yes. The airline wise guys say you're missing the point. In a story in the L.A. Times, they lay it out thusly: Yes, there is a safety issue, but it's not huge. Planes will not be raining down. What you are seeing is the result of an aging US fleet needing more maintenance at a time when carriers have less money to replace them and are trimming schedules to cut costs. As more planes need more work and with fewer options to reschedule we are going to start seeing more of these kinds of disruptions.
So air travel isn't necessarily less safe, but it could become a little less predictable.