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Air Travel

All the latest articles about Air Travel

What’s there for you in DOT’s new tarmac-delay rule?

04/09/10
Yes, the Department of Transportation’s new rule taking effect April 29 promises stiff penalties for airlines that strand passengers inside idling airplanes for more than three hours. But look closer at the 81-page document detailing DOT’s new Enhancing Airline Passenger Protections rule, and you’ll find other regulations that apply more broadly. They require carriers to […]

WestJet offers hands-free Clapper technology

04/01/10
Here’s an interesting idea: Today WestJet announced that it is introducing Clapper technology on board its aircraft that will allow guests to operate amenities such as lights and live seatback television, simply by clapping their hands. “Made popular on television in the mid-1980s, Clapper technology is making an in-flight comeback thanks to the addition of […]

Airports – and now airlines – trash talking each other

03/27/10
For my At the Airport column on USAToday.com this month, Airport wars escalate with attack ads aimed at rivals, I wrote about a new YouTube video about San Francisco International Airport, that features cameo appearances by SF  Mayor Gavin Newsom and Marion & Vivian Brown, the kooky 83-year-old identical twins who have become beloved San […]

Souvenir Sunday: 22-foot tall candles and tiny Lego pilots

03/21/10
I spent the last few days poking around Oregon’s Mt. Hood territory, stopping in small towns with ‘wonder what’s there’ names such as Boring, Rhododendron, Happy Valley, ZigZag and Damascus. Visiting Damascus was a special treat, because out in front of the Damascus Fire Station there’s a 22-foot-tall candle. For years, this was just an […]

Airport smackdown: it’s “gloves off” when dissing rivals

03/17/10
My “At the Airport” column for USAToday.com this week – Gloves are off as airports go after their rivals in ads – is about airports rolling out funny, “in your face” campaigns. In a video about San Francisco International Airport, Mayor Gavin Newsom has a cameo. So do Marion and Vivian Brown, the kooky 83 […]

Travel contests: you can’t win if you don’t play

03/15/10
Traveling is expensive. Especially if you want to eat and sleep when you get somewhere. So we’ll start the week off with two contests you many want to enter to help subsidize an adventure. AirTran Airways has a Facebook-linked sweepstakes encouraging students to become a “Facebook creeper,” which they describe as someone who “crawls Facebook, […]
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