Flying on American? Use this 10% off code

by Grant Martin on

If you’ve been recently suffering from the aforementioned high airfares that George highlighted this morning, this should provide some solace. American Airlines is giving away free 10% off coupon codes at Century in the Making.

By voting on four of the best football moments in the last century, each visitor to the site (with a unique email address) earns a code with which they can discount future travel. Votes can be cast four times over the duration of the promo, once per each category (High School, College, Special, Professional.)

Not a fan of football? Simply pick four random choices and press vote — the 10% code will still be sent to your email address.

The discount may be used for ticket purchases made between March 1, 2010, and May 31, 2010, for travel between March 1, 2010, and May 31, 2010.

American Airlines expands mobile boarding pass system to 19 new airports

by Scott Carmichael on

Yesterday, American Airlines announced on Twitter that their mobile boarding pass system has been expanded to 19 new airports.

The system allows you to receive an email link to a mobile boarding pass on your (smart)phone, and to save the image to your device. At the security checkpoint and boarding gate, you simply show your phone, and allow the bar code to be scanned.

Now, this all sounds great on paper, but I’ve had my fair share of problems getting it to work correctly – the scanners at the checkpoint don’t always work, and when you are in line at the gate waiting to board, you’ll need to be sure you can pull up the image quickly.

When your phone goes into standby, it can take 20 seconds or more to get back to the image. Also, on the iPhone I’ve noticed that the image needs some zooming to work correctly. Back in 2008, our very own Grant Martin was one of the first to take the system for a spin – and had similar issues.

Still, paperless boarding is the future, and eventually the minor issues will be resolved, which means you no more late night hassles to find a working printer at your hotel.

The airports participating in the mobile boarding pass system are: Albuquerque (ABQ), Atlanta (ATL), Austin (AUS), Charlotte (CLT), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Cleveland (CLE), Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), Denver (DEN), El Paso (ELP), Houston George Bush Intercontinental (IAH), Jacksonville (JAX), Las Vegas (LAS), Little Rock (LIT), Los Angeles (LAX), Memphis (MEM), Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP), New York LaGuardia (LGA), Oklahoma City (OKC), Orlando (MCO), Phoenix (PHX), Santa Ana/John Wayne/Orange Counte (SNA), Salt Lake City (SLC), San Antonio (SAT), San Diego (SAN), San Francisco (SFO), Tulsa (TUL), and Washington Dulles (IAD) airports.

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Gadling TV’s “Travel Talk,” 001: Carnival, flight cancellations, Somaliland, airfare blunders, and more!

by Stephen Greenwood on

Looks like it’s finally time to take the wraps off ONE of the big secrets Gadling has been keeping for a while! Yep, it’s finally time to introduce Gadling’s Travel Talk TV!


Gadling’s Travel Talk TV, episode 1 – Click above to watch video after the jump

Travel Talk TV is Gadling’s version of a travel show. In each episode, we’ll discuss hot travel news; share fun, useful tips for both traveling and bringing your travel experiences back home; spotlight exciting travel destinations; and much more.

In this week’s episode, our hosts — Stephen Greenwood, Aaron Murphy-Crews, and Drew Mylrea — will discuss Carnival, airfare blunders, Somaliland, and who in the travel world got the Short End of the Stick. In addition, they’ll show you how to make a delicious south-of-the-border snack in “Tasteful Destinations”; Nikki will drop by; Bruce! will make an appearance to give you some travel tips… and of course, there’s a whole lot more. Watch it now, below!

If you have any questions or comments about Travel Talk, you can email us at talk AT gadling DOT com.

Be sure to tune in next week, for Episode 2 of Gadling’s Travel Talk TV!

Download the Show: Travel Talk – 001 (HD !!) // Travel Talk – 001 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted)

Update – Subscribe via iTunes:
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V).
[RSS M4V] Add the Travel Talk feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.


Hosts: Stephen Greenwood, Aaron Murphy-Crews, Drew Mylrea
Special guest: Bruce!
Produced, Edited, and Directed by: Stephen Greenwood, Aaron Murphy-Crews, Drew Mylrea

Music by:
 Dominic Balli & Mark Suhonen
“All We Need is Love (Remix)” [feat. Paul Wright]
myspace.com/marksuhonenproduction

This Holiday Life
“A Yes, Not a No”
myspace.com/thisholidaylife


Poll of the Week!

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American Airlines will begin commercial flights into Haiti starting Friday

by Aaron Hotfelder on

American Airlines is all set to become the first airline to resume commercial flights into Haiti, according to an announcement it made last night. The first flight will depart Miami International Airport at 6:40 am and arrive in Port-au-Prince at 8:35 am. Kayak lists airfare for that flight at $782 roundtrip.

According to a spokesperson for American, three flights a day will depart for Port-au-Prince from South Florida, with four flights a week from JFK in New York soon to follow.

The main airport in Port-au-Prince, damaged significantly by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake which struck January 12, has finally been repaired enough to begin acccepting commercial passengers. Haitian Customs will take place at a nearby cargo facility, however, because of damage to the main terminal.

Despite not sending commercial flights into Haiti until Friday, American has been flying humanitarian workers, supplies, and medical personnel into Port-au-Prince since the earthquake.

According to a senior official for American Airlines, the commercial flights which begin Friday “serve as major milestones toward helping the country rebuild… With commercial air service restored, we can better connect loved ones and provide consistent transportation to and from Haiti.”

More here.

American Airlines to remove free blankets – wants $8 to keep you warm

by Scott Carmichael on

Well, I hate to say that it is now “official”, but American Airlines really has entered into the territory of the low cost carrier – by charging for their blankets.

The new charge goes into effect on May 1st, and is just another fee facing passengers.

According to the airline, they are introducing the fee based on “customer surveys”. Unless that survey asked passengers for ways they’d like to receive less service for the same amount of money, I’m not sure where they got the kind of input that would force them to remove free blankets.

Of course, removing free blankets wouldn’t be so bad, if the airlines managed to keep the temperature on their planes at a comfortable level – alas – even though you are sitting inside a computer operated fly-by-wire jet plane, technology still has not evolved enough to keep the cabin comfy.

The new charge will apply to flights two hours and longer from the US to Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, the Caribbean and Central America. Shorter flights don’t get blankets, and long haul flights are apparently safe (for the time being). I guess the time has come for us all to bring our own Snuggie?

As always, we love to hear from our readers, so what do you think?

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