New travel service for private jets offers one way to get places fast

by Jamie Rhein on

There is a new travel service that operates out of Albany, New York. Javian Jet Traveler doesn’t own jets, but helps connect private jets with people who are looking for rides.

Frank Figliomeni, the owner of the company, thinks, as far as he knows, that Javian Jet Traveler is the only one like it in the United States.

According to this article in the Daily Gazette, although, primarily serving people living in the central region of New York, Javian Jet Traveler’s data base includes 50 private jet companies across the country.

In a nutshell, if Figliomeni finds out that a private jet is interested in carrying passengers, he creates a flight package to connect customers to the jet.

Taking a private jet isn’t cheap, but as Figliomeni says, if people join together with others, the price is doable–kind of. Making a tidy income would help. The example he presents is three couples sharing a twin turboprop plane to Martha’s Vineyard for a weekend trip.

The total cost is $3,000. I would guess this is the cost for going from Albany to Martha’s Vineyard and back. That makes the trip $500 per person.

If you can’t afford the plane to Martha’s Vineyard, drive. My friend who lives near Albany said that you can drive there in about six hours. But, then, if you left after work on a Friday, you’d miss out on dinner while overlooking the ocean. Instead, you’d be rolling in about midnight, and stumbling into your hotel room.

Ryan Air to forbid booking through third parties

by Abha Malpani on

I heavily rely on multiple booking sites like Atrapalo, WeGoLo, Kayak, Rumbo, Orbitz, Expedia and CheapTickets. I find that 80% of the time, they are the best way to choose a route and flight to a destination. So reading that Ryan Air is not going to accept bookings from these sites, was an annoying blow.

Starting August 11, Ryan Air has announced plans to cancel all flight bookings through these intermediary sites (also called “screen scrapers”). Why? Apparently, these sites function against their terms and conditions, and are illegal. In addition, they want to ensure that passengers get the lowest rates, to avoid the Ryan Air’s website server be overloaded, and to be able to have direct contact with their customers. On the business front: When people book flights on intermediary sites, websites like Ryan Air lose sales on services such as travel-insurance, hotel-bookings, car-rentals, etc — probably the main reason for this action.

For the moment, BravoFly, V-tours, Opodo, Atrapalo, and OTbeach, are the main ones Ryan Air is taking action against.

I think passengers have the right to choose how they want to book their flights. There are more pros than cons booking with third parties, and if the customer is willing to pay the extra buck, the airline is no one to interfere with that. Anyhow, only 0.5% of Ryan Air’s bookings come through these booking engines; since Ryan Air will no longer appear on the flight options of these “screen scrapers”, they are bound to lose that business. Looks like they are just making an unnecessary inconvenience for everyone.

Gading Take FIVE: August 1–August 8

by Jamie Rhein on

This was a week of a wide range of travel news that captured the essence of variety in the entertainment world.

  • On the classy end of life, Josh posted on a museum exhibit about Finding Grace Kelly in Paris.
  • On the opposite end, Iva gave us the scoop on a character actor who hit a flight attendant and a police officer.
  • Also, on the bad behavior side, Aaron offered details about a flight attendant suing televangelist Joel Osteen’s wife.
  • If you want to see for yourself how celebrities behave, Grant told us about celeb spotting in Ann Arbor.
  • To see what a famous person’s private jet looks like, check out Sir Richard Branson’s sweet number.

There was also a wide range of details about how air travel can make you or break you.

So, that’s more than 5, but I saw patterns. Have a wonderful weekend!

JetBlue gives new terminal at JFK a dry run

by Grant Martin on

JetBlue‘s new terminal at JFK opens up on October first, and the airline is making sure to run it’s operations through the gauntlet before going live. We all remember what happened in Heathrow’s T5 earlier this year when they didn’t test their operations thoroughly enough: thousands of passengers and their luggage were separated and stranded, resulting in unruly passengers, thousands of complaints and an embarrased British Airports Authority.

To help simulate life in the fully operational T5, the New York City based airline has invited passengers to take the terminal on a dry run on August 23rd. That morning, over a thousand True Blue frequent flyers will converge on the terminal in a mock booking. Upon arriving at the airport they’ll be divided into groups and instructed on their roles — for example, four random people may be put together, given “luggage” and assigned an “itinerary” heading to Las Vegas.

Passengers will then go about as normal, checking in at the kiosks, sending their luggage through the system, going through the active TSA checkpoint and going as far as the gate before the simulation ends. Then, they’ll do it in reverse as if just arriving from their destination.

The trial is meant to test the opertion of the entire integrated teminal. As JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin mentioned earlier to Gadling today, each of the systems have been tested independently, but the true trial will be under operating conditions with real passengers — which is what they want to create on August 23rd.

For their time, passengers will be awarded with JetBlue branded goodie bags, be fed and several may even win a flight or two on the airline. And they get to see the innards of the new T5, the long awaited oasis in JFK mayhem.

Unfortunately, the event has already booked and overbooked its capacity, so if you haven’t already responded to your invite (or didn’t get one), you may be out of luck. Keep an eye on Gadling and we’ll try to get some good photos and reports of T5 during the event.

Happy birthday, Virgin America

by Grant Martin on

Virgin America, the low cost carrier that has been sending tremors through the airline industry, turns one year old today. In celebration, passengers on many of their flights today will be greeted with cake, treats and general merriment, the apparent modus operandi for any VA activity.

Pull up a carpet square as we take a look back at Virgin America over the past year.

2005: Virgin America (Then Virgin USA) secures funding from gazillionaire Richard Branson and submits DOT certificate application to operate in the States.

March 20, 2007: After a long legal battle to receive approval from the DOT, the airline is granted permission to fly.

August 8, 2007: Virgin America begins service on their inaugural flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles to New York City. Airbus A320 aircraft feature advanced in flight entertainment systems and snazzy mood lighting. Hipsters and rejoice and announce that they already flew VA and “it was okay. I mean, we’re kind of over it”.

November 28, 2007: Victoria’s Secret models show up on a New York – Los Angeles flight as the airline celebrates naming an aircraft after the ladies. Drinks, photos and skulduggery ensue at the after party in LA.

February 12, 2008: New service from San Francisco to San Diego is launched with a Valentine’s Day flight and party at The Ivy in SD.

April 8th, 2008: Celebration for the LA-Seattle inaugural brings rockstars, hipsters and lowly bloggers together as the in-flight party continues. Gadling runs into David Cush on the flight who foreshadows some of the coming events.

June 18th, 2008: Superfly Wednesdays kick off as VA offers free drinks on Wednesday flights and further discounts at clubs across the country.

What’s next for Virgin America? Approval for service into Chicago is well underway and hopefully the airline will be offering service to the Midwest soon. The airline also plans to be the first with full wi-fi service fleetwide by the end of the year.

Keep up the good work, Virgin America, and happy birthday.