Photo of the Day (7.6.10)

by Stephen Greenwood on
This week I went aboard Virgin America’s inaugural flight from San Francisco to Toronto; and having visited Toronto only once before when I was young, I didn’t have very high expectations for Canada’s largest city. On this visit, I took the time to explore some of the outlying neighborhoods (Kensington Market) and cultural districts that really give Toronto a sense of flavor and diversity, and saw a different side that I can’t wait to visit again.

Flickr user PDPhotography has an incredible collection of photographs from Toronto that really capture the vibrance & quirks of the city. This shot was captured at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, which takes place next month from August 20th to September 6th.

Do you have summertime shots of a city you love? Share them with us! Submit to our Flickr Pool and your image could be our next Photo of the Day!

Summer reminder: keep track of your mileage and points accounts

by Scott Carmichael on

When on vacation this summer, pay close attention to your mileage and points accounts – despite all the advances in reservation technology, hotels, airlines and rental car firms regularly manage to “forget” crediting your account.

Especially when you are enrolled in promotions, getting correct credit for your stay or flight is very important. Here are some simple tips to be sure you get what you deserve:

  • Always make sure to enter your account number when booking
  • Make sure your account number is listed on your boarding pass and/or reservation email
  • If you change flights, seats, room or car, be sure your account number carries over
  • Always keep copies of your boarding pass and hotel folio if you need retroactive credit
  • Check your mileage account regularly for discrepancies
  • Add your frequent guest and flier accounts to a note on your (smart)phone
  • Sign up for an online mileage tracker like Pageonce or MileTracker

Even if you are not a frequent traveler, hotel and flight credits can add up fairly quickly, and getting credit for missed flights or stays can be tricky if you wait too long.

Alitalia joins Air France, Delta and KLM to form trans-Atlantic joint venture

by Scott Carmichael on

Several of the largest airlines in the world have teamed up to combine routes, creating the world’s largest trans-Atlantic flight network. Alitalia signed an agreement to join Air France, Delta and KLM and share revenue and costs. The new combination will operate 26% of all trans-Atlantic flights, with almost 55,000 seats on 250 flights. The total revenue from this trans-Atlantic capacity is estimated to be more than $10 billion.

Unlike some airline collaborations, this new alliance actually appears to help air passengers by allowing airlines to create new routes they normally may not have considered. The network also allows for seamless ticketing and baggage handling between the U.S. and European gateway airport. Examples of new routes include Delta non-stop flights from Atlanta to London Heathrow and Portland to Amsterdam.

The hub cities for the network are Amsterdam, Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York JFK and Paris CDG. Part of the joint venture will include codeshare flights (when allowed). The trans-Atlantic alliance is separate from the already existing Skyteam alliance.

[Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]

Google acquires ITA: the search for bargain airline deals is about to get even easier

by Darren Murph on

You’re an avid traveler, right? Sure, why else would you be reading this? Chances are that you’ve spent some quality time at either Kayak, Airfare Watchdog, Bing Travel or one of the many other niche ticketing sites in search of deals over the past few months. To that end, you’ve probably spent next to no time at Google searching for the same thing. But the obvious question is this: “why not?”

That’s a question that has obviously been bugging Google, which is a master of all things search in most every other category. For whatever reason, Google has allowed a number of other, typically smaller competing sites to grow their user base without any interference. But if Google’s so great at finding images via keyword, remedies to your strange medical conditions or more details on that vehicle you’ve been meaning to investigate, why can’t it do the same for travel?

Enter ITA Software, a Cambridge-based software firm that was born from an idea within the minds of a few bright computer scientists from MIT. Currently, the outfit is home to a highly advanced QPX software tool for organizing flight information, which is used by leading airlines and travel distributors worldwide including Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Bing, Continental Airlines, Hotwire, Kayak, Orbitz, Southwest Airlines, TripAdvisor, United Airlines, US Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways and others. Moreover, it’s now offering a completely new airline passenger reservation system to improve the customer experience. And as of today, the company is an integral part of Google…
Google has ponied up $700 million in order to acquire ITA and turn the tables in the online ticket search business, but what’s most interesting here is that there’s a good chance the resulting search engine will not only do its own thing, but also bring in results from your existing favorites (Kayak, for instance). In a way, it’ll be the ultimate airline ticket search engine, pulling information from every nook and cranny available and organizing it in a way that the Average Joe or Jane can fully understand and take action on.

Once the acquisition is complete, Google aims to “make it easier for you to search for flights, compare flight options and prices and get you quickly to a site where you can buy your ticket.” It’s important to note that much like Kayak, Google won’t actually be selling you an airline ticket directly; it’ll simply be providing the access to buy one. Still, this all sounds like a huge win for consumers who are tired of crawling three different airline search engines to get a somewhat comprehensive look at their options, and we personally can’t wait for this marriage to officially bear fruit.

[Source: Google]

Ryanair pushing ahead with $6 standing room only seats and paid bathrooms

by Scott Carmichael on

Last year, Ryanair first mentioned their concept for several rows of standing only seats. The idea back then was to install special standing seats and offer them for a reduced fee.

The new seating innovation has not been implemented yet, but Michael O’Leary wants everyone to know that he is still very serious about it, and hopes to pay for the new seats with proceeds from the paid bathrooms he also hopes to install soon.

If there is one thing I’ve learned about Ryanair, it is that even though most of their ideas sound like crackpot ways to generate some free PR, they take their silly ideas quite seriously.

Ryanair knows that there is virtually no limit to the inconveniences passengers will put up with in exchange for crazy low airfares. When your flight is just a few hours out of a one week vacation, the savings on airfare leave you with more money for food, booze and tacky souvenirs.

With the new seats, between 40 and 50 extra passengers can be loaded on the planes, pushing things to the absolute maximum the plane is approved to carry. Still, the big question is whether you’d be willing to pay an insanely low fare in exchange for a standing seat on a flight of several hours.

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[Image from AFP/Getty Images]