British Airways In-Flight Mag Goes Online

by Josh Lew on

High Life, the 35-year-old in-flight magazine of British Airways, is headed from airspace to cyberspace. The famous rag launched its online incarnation on October 9th. BA hopes that the success of the print version will translate to the online world and raise the airline’s profile amongst travelers. The publisher of High Life’s print version, Ceder, teamed with web development company Reactive on the project. They are aiming to attract advertisers eager to have their name and product associated with High Life. Perhaps they are also hoping that well-heeled cannabis aficionados will happen across the site after Googling “high life” and decide, on the spur of the moment, to book a flight to one of the site’s featured destinations.

The first online issue has a food theme and is guest edited by celeb chef Heston Blumenthal. It seems mainly aimed at gourmets and those with an taste for the upscale aspects of travel. There is a bit of hipness, with contributions by the likes of Hot Fuzz’s Simon Pegg. Still, the site maintains the glossy feel of its printed kin.

Zimride Makes Ride Sharing Safe & Easy

by Mike Barish on

Gas prices are rising. The economy is tanking (no pun intended). You want to share a ride somewhere to split costs. You could try Craigslist but that seems like a crap-shoot. I mean, you want to find someone to share gas and toll expenses, not a casual encounter. Well, now there’s a more reliable resource for drivers looking for hop-ons or travelers in need of a ride: Zimride.

Zimride combines the technology of Google Maps, the growing power of social networking sites like Facebook and their own matchmaking algorithm to match drivers. The site offers rideshares for one-way trips, roundtrips and even daily commutes. And the social networking aspect of the service encourages people to learn about their potential travel companions before they buckle up and hurl themselves down the asphalt together.

In fact, upon registering, Zimride immediately asks you if you have a Facebook account. If you do, it will ask you for permission to access your Facebook profile. It populates your Zimride profile with information from your Facebook account. You then have the option to edit that information and add details about your vehicle, your preferred driving speed and even your favorite travel music.

Not sure I’d go cross-country using Zimride (though the founder, John Zimmer, did just that when traveling from New York to Palo Alto, CA to prove the site’s usefulness), but it might be a better alternative to taking the bus or train for short trips. And who knows? You may also find a casual encounter out of it.

Have you shared rides? Used Zimride? Have better ideas for finding travel companions? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Take a shortcut to Hilton Honors Gold Status

by Grant Martin on

Reaching the upper tiers of any travel related rewards program almost always takes money, time, effort, money and money — the rewards reaped should only be for the profitable consumer, right?

Occasionally, however, programs release shortcuts — ways that guaranteed high-dollar users can skip up a tier and enjoy the benefits — so that they can lock in a particular demographic or company. And when those shortcuts get published? That’s when people like you and I can sneak in from the back door.

Apparently, Canadian Aeroplan members were offered just this for the Hilton Honors program. From what I hear, by going to this link at the HHonors website, they could plug in code “CTHC”, sign up for an account and be catapulted all of the way up to Gold status. What a great shortcut. Not that I’ve tried it. But I hear it works great.

In case you’re wondering what the benefits of Gold status are at the Hilton family of hotels, membership gets a few nice small perks at checkin. Among the goodies are two of my favorites: access to the concierge level (where available), its free snacks and drinks, or free wireless internet among the network of hotels. Those alone are worth trying to get Gold status.

Gadling is on Twitter

by Willy Volk on

“What are you doing?”

We at Gadling want to know about the little things that happen in your life, particularly those little things surrounding travel. We want to know if you’re packing for a four-wheeling trip to Utah, relaxing on the beach in Cancun, or stranded at the airport in New York. We’re curious to hear if your road trip to Colorado is going well, if you’re waiting for a train to Midway, or whether you just scored an awesome wooden carving from a vendor in Lusaka.

How can we do this? Follow Gadling on Twitter. Once you follow us, we’ll help you connect with other travelers, and with other people who love to think and talk about travel. We’ll also keep you up-to-date on breaking news, fill in the gaps on some of the travel news that can’t fit on our blog, and share all sorts of (short) travel tips there.

If you don’t know what Twitter is, watch this short tutorial, which explains it very clearly. If you do know what Twitter is, then what are you waiting for? Follow us!

Frommers community site revamps, enters 2008

by Grant Martin on

Back when I was originally getting started in my travels, I used to do a lot of research and scouring through Frommers.com. As one of the oldest guidebook publishers, I found their website had a lot of user content that was useful for self planning and execution.

Maturing as a traveler, I moved onto sites that specialized in my needs — VRBO for apartments, Kayak for bookings, Flyertalk for deals. Frommers, alone, couldn’t satiate my appetite as an engaged traveler. Needless to say, I always wandered back now and then to the forums to get the lowdown on a particular community niche. I still remember spending weeks discussing Egyptian cotton with a local in Cairo and how I couldn’t fathom why it was better in The States.

And that has always been one of the strengths of Frommers — a dedicated, honest user base in which you can embed yourself and learn about local communities.

This week, Frommers.com started pushing out some changes to their site, starting with their community hub. Part of their updates include the addition of user photos and blogs to help integrate users better into the network, and I’m told that the blog will soon be strengthened and expanded as well — you can already see some small changes in effect. Wandering over into the forums, you can see that the structure has been redesigned completely.

All in all, the changes should help foster a better community — and therefore offer a better research base for readers. Stop by and take a look.