Posted by Andrew Hickey on Aug 12, 2009 in
Travel 
JetBlue just announced one hell of a deal for travelers that have a lot of spare time on their hands this fall. If you sign up for their “All-You-Can-Jet” pass and hand over $599 big ones, you will be entitled to fly…er I mean jet wherever the low-cost carrier goes between September 8 and October 8, 2009.
JetBlue offers more than 600 daily flights to 57 cities, which include New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Austin, and Chicago. That is some serious air time my friends!
For full details read below and to start jetting click here.
Tags: airfare, airline, austin, baltimore, bogota, burbank, chicago, Denver, houston, jet, jetblue, Las Vegas, los angeles, new york, orlando, portland, puerto rico, san francisco, seattle, st martin, tampa, Travel, west palm beach
Posted by Andrew Hickey on Jul 28, 2009 in
Travel With the summer travel season almost over (sigh), it is time for the airlines to look towards fall travel. Now while fall has always been a soft season for the travel industry, it is going to be especially hard this year to convince people to spend money that many just do not have. Everyday we see on the news or read in the papers about thousands of job losses per month. Many people I know have been given the pink slip this year and the last thing they want to do is spend big moolah on a plane ticket.
So the airlines have all been announcing sales for later this year and I have to admit many are looking pretty nice. Here are just a few that have caught my eye over the last week or so.
JetBlue: “The But Wait, There’s More!” sale is offering up cheap fall travel on more than 56 destinations that the low-cost carrier serves. Some of the great fares include:
- Long Beach and San Francisco for $39 one-way
- Fort Lauderdale and Nassau, Bahamas for $29 one-way
- New York (JFK) and Boston for $49 one-way
- Chicago and Long Beach for $109 one-way
- Austin and Orlando for $99 one-way
- Plus many more! Book by Wednesday August 5, 2009 for travel between September 8 & December 16, 2009
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To see where else you can Jet to this fall and for full details and restrictions, visit JetBlue.com.
Southwest Airlines: “It’s On” at Southwest as they prepare for fall travel with a summertime sale that ends this week. Some of the great fares include:
- Albany and Orlando for $99 one-way
- Austin and Chicago for $99 one-way
- Burbank and Las Vegas for $49 one-way
- Denver and San Francisco for $99 one-way
- New York (LGA) and Baltimore for $49 one-way
- Plus many more! Book by this Thursday July 30 for travel between August 18 and November 18, 2009
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For more information on this sizzling Southwest sale, plus rules and restrictions, check out Southwest.com.
Virgin America: To see what Sir Richard Branson and company has “On Sale Now” for fall travel, check out their website. But in the meantime here are some fares VA are offering customers:
- San Francisco and San Diego, Seattle, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, or Orange County for $49 one-way
- Seattle and Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Orange County for $69 one-way
- Boston and San Francisco or Los Angeles for $119 one-way
- New York and Los Angeles or Las Vegas for $119 one-way
- Washington DC and Los Angeles or San Francisco for $119 one-way
- You must book by Tuesday August 11 for travel between August and November 18, 2009
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For full details on this VA sale, check out VirginAmerica.com.
Tags: airfare, airlines, albany, austin, bahamas, baltimore, boston, burbank, california, chicago, colorado, Denver, florida, fort lauderdale, jetblue, jfk, Las Vegas, long beach, los angeles, maryland, massachusetts, nassau, nevada, new york, Orange County, orlando, San Diego, san francisco, seattle, southwest, texas, Travel, virgin america, washington, Washington DC
Posted by Andrew Hickey on Jun 5, 2009 in
Travel 
The always innovative Virgin America is going to have a very interactive contest with both their WiFi enabled passengers and people 30,000 feet below on Wednesday June 24. In what is being called “The Day In The Cloud Challenge”, contestants will have to answer a series of challenging puzzles to score points. The full details of the contest will become more clear beforehand, so be sure to check out the official website for more details as they become available.
If you happen to be one of the top scorers, Virgin will reward you with an awesome prize package. It includes 1 terabyte of Google account storage, an all new HP netbook, and one full year of complimentary airfare on Virgin America! Nice! Again for the full details, be sure to check out DayInTheCloud.com.
Tags: air, airfare, boston, chicago, Las Vegas, los angeles, new york, San Diego, san francisco, seattle, Travel, virgin america
Posted by Andrew Hickey on Jun 2, 2009 in
Travel 
Expedia has announced it will put an end to airline booking fees for good. Do I believe them? No way!
It looks like with a combination of a poor economy and less people traveling, mixed with plain old competition has brought all four of the top travel booking websites to waive airline fees permanently. Yesterday Orbitz.com announced it was removing all airline ticket booking fees on domestic and international flights. Travelocity said the same thing as well yesterday (coincidence?). Both of those websites just so happen to break this news upon hearing that Expedia said the same exact thing just last week.
So it is pretty clear that these companies are out for your hard earned dollar and will do anything to get it. Who would have predicted this 6-months to a year ago? Waiving airline booking fees? That is what makes these companies a majority of their cash. How on earth can they survive in the long term?
What started as a friendly little promotion by the big three, looks to now be just a standard when you book airline tickets via their sites. The other big dog in the game, Priceline.com, has been waiving airline booking fees since 2007.
Oddly enough, out of all four of the travel websites (Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, and Priceline), only Priceline saw a profit in the first quarter of 2009. So will the waiving of the airline booking fees by the others bring them the same luck as Priceline? Only time will tell.
But waiving fees is very risky, as most travel companies make their money that way, which is why most analyst see this as just a simple extended promotion. They feel that once the economy is stronger and people are traveling more, that we will see the return of the fees. I agree.
But like most businesses that struggle to turn a profit, the only next thing left to do is either shut down or merge. My money is on the latter. Perhaps an Orbitz.Expedia.com will debut by Christmas.
Source: Reuters
Tags: air, airfare, airline, booking fees, expedia, fares, opaque, orbitz, priceline, Travel, travelocity
Posted by Andrew Hickey on May 27, 2009 in
Travel
Want a cheap alternative to flying into and out of Chicago? Check out Lansing Airport, which is only 90 minutes away.
A start-up airline, which is being run by the former founder of the defunct airline Skybus, will be making travel very affordable…if you are willing to fly into lesser known airports and cities. Toledo, Ohio based Jet America is advertising $9 non-stop, one-way tickets between six U.S. cities, starting July 13. Those six cities include:
- Lansing, Michigan via Lansing Airport (60 minutes from Grand Rapids; 90 minutes from Detroit).
- Melbourne, Florida via Melbourne International Airport (Under 90 minutes from Orlando).
- South Bend, Indiana via South Bend Regional Airport (90 minutes from Chicago).
- Newark, N.J. via Liberty International Airport (Under 30 minutes from New York City).
- Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota via Minneapolis International Airport.
- Toledo, Ohio via Toledo Express Airport (60 minutes from Detroit).
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Rumored cities to be joining the Jet America itinerary include Greensboro-High Point-Winston-Salem; Charleston, West Virginia; Chicago/Rockford, Illinois; Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus, Ohio; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and St. Petersburg/Clearwater, Florida.
For more information, and to book one of their cheap tickets, head on over to Jet America.
By the way, enter for a chance to win any Lonely Planet guidebook of your choice by simply leaving a comment. Also vote for the Top 10 Best Town Squares. You have until Saturday and I will be posting the results all next week.
Tags: air, airfare, charleston, chicago, cincinatti, cleveland, columbus, dayton, detroit, fares, florida, illinois, indiana, jet america, jfk, lansing, melbourne, michigan, minneapolis, minnesota, new jersey, new york city, newark, OHIO, orlando, pittsburgh, rockford, south bend, st. paul, st. petersburg, toledo, Travel, winston-salem
