Photo of the Day (1.1.2011)

by Catherine Bodry on

Happy New Year! We hope today finds you merry and optimistic about the year ahead, rather than remorseful about last night….

This photo of an empty waiting room seems appropriate for two reasons. First, I always associate an airport waiting room – or airports in general – with anticipation. I’m not usually inside an airport unless I’m going somewhere, or just returning. We can think about 2011 as a trip that we are about to embark on, with all the happy trip anticipation that comes with the sound and smells of an airport.

The second reason I like this photo is because an empty waiting room is generally a good thing. No one likes to wait, and a packed waiting room usually means that somehow plans have been delayed. Flickr user jwannie writes that “the MSP airport at 5am is boring,” but I happen to think it looks like a wonderful place to be.

Have any travel photos that exude optimism? Upload them to Gadling’s Flickr pool, and we just might choose one for our Photo of the Day feature.

Pat Robertson says “God and gays” to blame for recent snowpocalypse airport delays

by Scott Carmichael on

Were you one of the unlucky travelers stranded at the airport during the recent massive dump of snow on the East Coast? Flights all around the world ended up being impacted when operations at New York area airports were shut down, causing a massive disruption during what is one of the busiest times of the year to fly.

700 Club broadcaster Pat Robertson has the explanation for it all – it was God’s way of stopping gays from doing “something gay”.

According to Robertson, God shut down major airports “so that so that people who were hoping to fly to do something of a gay nature would have to take a train or a bus, so it might be days before the gay thing they were going to do could occur.”

And yes, since this comes from the Borowitz report, this can be filed under “fake news”.

[Photo: DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images]

Expedia suspends sale of American Airlines flights [BREAKING]

by Tom Johansmeyer on

I just heard from a spokesman for Expedia a few minutes ago that it has suspended the sale of flights by American Airlines. Expedia revealed the following to Gadling:

“We have been unable to reach an agreement with American Airlines due to American Airlines’ new commercial strategy that we believe is anti-consumer and anti-choice. American Airlines is attempting to introduce a new direct connect model that will result in higher costs and reduced transparency for consumers, making it difficult to compare American Airlines’ ticket prices and options with offerings by other airlines. American Airlines’ direct connect model is of questionable, if any, benefit to travelers, would be costly to build and maintain and would compromise travel agents’ ability to provide travelers with the best selection.

“As a result, the sale of American Airlines flights on our website has been suspended. We remain open to doing business with American Airlines on terms that are satisfactory to Expedia and do not compromise our ability to provide consumers with the products and services they need.

“We cannot support efforts that we believe are fundamentally bad for travelers. With or without American Airlines’ inventory, we have a robust supply base and broad array of choices for our customers and we continue to offer hundreds of flight options for the routes served by American Airlines.”

This follows Expedia‘s decision to hide fares by American Airlines in its search results and American’s move to pull out of Orbitz. Also, Delta has removed its inventory from CheapOair, OneTravel and Bookit.

2011: Attack of the Oasis sisters?

by Chris Owen on

The big…make that GIANT story for 2010 in the world of cruise vacations was Allure of the Seas, sister-ship to last year’s 220,000 ton Oasis of the Seas from Royal Caribbean. The monster ship gobbled up headlines, berth space at ports and will send other ships running in 2011.

I liked Allure better than older sibling Oasis but that might have been because they worked all the kinks out that come with moving 5000 people on, off and around a ship each week by the time Allure was born. Technically “twins” they’re really not exactly clones and both ships have a distinct aura about them that’s undeniable. Allure is actually a wee bit longer, enough to give her captain verile bragging rights, and both ships have some different minor features. Still, combined, they close in on half a million tons of ship and that’s nothing to ignore.

Each ship has more restaurants, more cabins, more things to do, more people to see than any other ship at sea. Feature-hungry cruise passengers got everything they had been asking for and more.

Is this a case of “be careful what you ask for, you might just get it?”

Between the two, Royal Caribbean has chased a lot of ships out of South Florida, leaving much of the market to themselves.

Time will tell but so far prices are holding at a high level and the new ships are filling up fast which equals success in any body’s book. They better too, at more than a billon dollars each, there’s a lot riding on their success. Down the line Royal Caribbean is going to have to find some new places for the ships to visit as guests get over the wow-factor and want to get off the ship at ports. That’s no easy task.

Not one port was set up to handle this size vessel before they were built and all ports had to be modified to make it work. Surely, it’s worth it to local economies to have a ship dump 5000 paying tourists off for a day. Southampton is drooling over the possibility and maybe even Brownsville, Texas will throw their hat back in the ring to finally get that cruise port they want so bad.

The future of new-builds for Royal Caribbean holds an empty slate which makes sense. The Oasis sisters will be a tough act to follow.

Bellagio hotel cancels $25,000 casino chip

by Melanie Nayer on

In a move that might even make Danny Ocean rethink his plans, the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas just announced it would cancel its $25,000 casino chips in an effort to thwart thieves who hit the casino a few weeks ago.

Associated Press reports the luxury Las Vegas casino and hotel is canceling the high-roller chip to send a message to thieves: the chips are worthless if they aren’t redeemed by April 22. Apparently, a man in a jumpsuit stole $1.5 million in chips from the casino and made off on his motorcycle two weeks ago. AP reports the majority of the stolen money was in the form of $25,000 chips.

The hotel also advises guests who might have $25,000 chips lying around to cash them in now, before the chips are out of commission.

We’re just wondering: If you had a $25,000 chip from the Bellagio, would you have it just lying around in your coin jar?