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Nominations for the 2007 Travvies, celebrating the best in travel blogging, are now closed. Alas.

Many thanks to everyone who made nominations, and thanks to all the bloggers out there who helped spread the word. Several people have e-mailed, indicating that they’ve enjoyed reading the nomination threads, discovering new sites. That’s great, and exactly the desired outcome of the whole nomination process.

The list of sites will shortly be in the hands of the judges, who will spend the next week reviewing the nominees and selecting the finalists. When finalists are announced, we’ll announce the names of judges as well. (We don’t want the candidates trying to influence judges’ decisions, after all.) All will be revealed soon. Public voting begins February 21. Stay tuned!

Thanks again to everyone who participated, and best of luck to all the contenders!

If you’re looking to review the nominations, check them out here:
- Best Travel Blog
- Best Destination Blog
- Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog
- Best Group-Written Travel Blog
- Best Single-Author Travel Blog
- Best Photography on a Travel Blog

Consumer interest in the proposed Passengers’ Bill of Rights must be gaining momentum, because American Airlines just blinked. The company is publicly making policy changes, in an obvious attempt to avoid regulation.

The Global Traveller caught wind of this last night, and details are now more readily available:

American Airlines Inc. says it won’t hold passengers on grounded aircraft more than four hours, a policy born from a December debacle in which thousands of passengers spent hours in Austin and elsewhere waiting for storms to pass inside crowded parked planes.
[…]
In addition to the four-hour policy, American is making changes at its systems operations control center in Fort Worth to better handle diversions and make sure officials are aware when passengers’ wait times are building up.

The airline is creating a position to oversee diversions and help schedule flights to get passengers back to their connecting hubs.

It is developing automation tools to warn managers when passengers have been on the ground a long time.

The carrier said it also was “reviewing all procedures related to customer handling and make appropriate changes as needed.”
[…]
4,600 customers on 67 planes sat more than three hours Dec. 29, a good portion of whom were kept on board for more than four hours.

American is sending apologies and vouchers of up to $500 to passengers who were subjected to waits of three hours or more on the ground.

Four hours in a parked plane is still more than the three hours that the draft passenger bill of rights calls for, but it’s better than nine…

Interestingly, too, the airline is trying to buy off the angry passengers by throwing them $500 in vouchers, six weeks after the debacle.

Something tells me that Kate Hanni and the other “stranded passengers” won’t be mollified by a promise and a voucher. They shouldn’t be. It’s good that the airline is acknowledging that there are problems with the way it does business, but more needs to be done.

Related:
- Will a passenger bill of rights be enforceable?
- Update: How to support the Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights
- Do we need a passenger bill of rights?

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Maybe US Airways does have a liquor problem…
Maybe New Mexico’s recent restrictions on US Airways’ serving liquor on flights to and from the state had something to do with company CEO Doug Parker. The executive has apparently been busted for driving under the influence, perhaps after downing one too many mini-bottles from the drink cart. Maybe he should have had a cup of the God-awful “Ma Parker’s roast” coffee that his airline served instead. (Then again, that swill will drive anyone to drink.)

Delta looks the other way
What does Delta owe you if you PROVE that one of their baggage handlers stole a camera out of your suitcase? Nothing! The Consumerist has the story of a sleuthing passenger who tracked down his stolen camera on eBay, got the seller (a Delta employee) arrested (and fired!), and even got his camera back. But he didn’t get an apology voucher from Delta. The airline argues that they’re even. He got his camera back, and they got him from point A to point B, and so he’s due nothing. No mention of the fact that their own staff ripped him off, causing him countless hours of hassle and endless frustration. Jeez, throw the guy a bone! Apologize and give him a coupon!

Oh sure, blame the volcano
Flashback to 1982: A British Airways 747 loses power in all four of its engines, and starts going down. Miraculously, it doesn’t crash and everyone survives. The culprit: volcano ash. It’s a fascinating tale, and a good way to start the weekend. (via David Rowell)

Pilots packing heat: Captain Bernard Goetz wishes you a pleasant flight
The U.S. State Department and Homeland Security are trying to get more countries to allow American pilots to carry guns when they fly internationally. ( “Who’s Bernard Goetz?” See here.)

Reminder: Travvies Nominations close Monday morning, bright and early
Just a short reminder that nominations for the Travvies — the awards for the best travel blogs — end Monday. Then the nominations will be sent off to the judges, who will pick the finalists. Public voting starts just over a week later. Thanks to everyone for all the great nominations so far! Click here for the nomination start page, or click on the award categories in the sidebar.

After updating yesterday’s post regarding British Airways’ absurdly expensive surcharges for checking a second piece of luggage, one item in the fine print stuck with me. It was the exemption:

“World Traveller customers travelling / connecting to or from the US, Canada, Caribbean, Nigeria, Brazil and Mexico will continue to be allowed two checked bags in line with the local government regulations.” (emphasis added)

I did a search for the American regulations, so I checked the rules at the FAA, FTC, and TSA. I couldn’t find anything mandating the inalienable right to two suitcases on flights to or from the United States.

After all, Spirit Airlines just instituted a rule that a second suitcase would cost you $10 extra. So I don’t think there’s anything on the books here in the U.S.

So what is going on? I suspect that British Airways is using the guise of government regulation to create this exemption, given the amount of competition on routes to the United States. Once word gets out, passengers who travel with two bags would be loath to book with BA if Virgin, American, or United will happily take two bags.

In fact, this may largely be the “Virgin exception.” Virgin Atlantic flies to the US and the Caribbean, while Virgin Nigeria flies to Nigeria (obviously). Virgin still permits two free checked bags. To Brazil and Mexico, maybe there’s another carrier that BA is really trying to hold off.

In any case, I call BS on the “local government regulations” line. Corrections are welcome.

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This isn’t living up to the blog motto of living the first class life at coach prices, but it IS living the first class life at business class prices…

If you’re flying to London, American Airlines is offering a complimentary upgrade to first class from semi-discounted business class fares. Full details here, with instructions on how to book it on aa.com.

The fare basis code for this fare is DUP — much like the Y-UP fares that seat you in first class under an economy class booking code on domestic flights. But be warned: these aren’t the cheapest fares you’ll find, so the value proposition is questionable. But if you’re booking a business class trip anyway…

(Thanks Todd!)

Related:
- Reader mail: Why are there no Y-UP fares to Europe or Asia?
- More tips on finding discounted first class fares (Y-UP, Q-UP, etc.)

Just three days ago, we learned that Spirit Airlines would start charging $10 each way if a passenger wanted to check a second bag. But that’s peanuts. British Airways will be charging £120 — the equivalent of $235 — for an extra bag. Each way.

British Airways announced this change at the very beginning of the new year, probably (correctly) assuming that reporters were on holiday and not paying attention. But with the effective date of the new policy (February 13) creeping up, the media (and yes, this blog) have now woken up to the change.

I’m in favor of traveling light, of course, and I strongly prefer to travel with carry-ons only, but sometimes that just isn’t possible, especially nowadays, when a fourth ounce of shampoo is perceived as a threat to Western Civilization.

But British Airways’ “New Simpler Baggage Policy” (love that marketing spin!) is outrageously expensive. For travelers in economy, you’ll only be allowed one checked bag without a surcharge, even on long-haul flights. A second bag, limited in weight to 23kg (51lbs), costs £120 for long flights or £60 for shorter trips.

British Airways is seemingly doing everything it can to tarnish its own image in the eyes of consumers. They won’t let you make seating reservations unless you’re on a full-fare ticket — even discounted business class travelers can’t get a seat assignment. They jerked their customers around during the recently threatened strike — flights are on! cancelled! back on! — throwing thousands of travel plans into disarray. And now this. At this rate, upright “seating” may soon be a reality after all.

British Airways has an increasing disdain for their customers. With that kind of attitude, why fly with them?

Unless you want to pack an extra suitcase full of money.

(Update: British Airways will NOT be charging this fee on EVERY flight. “World Traveller customers travelling / connecting to or from the US, Canada, Caribbean, Nigeria, Brazil and Mexico will continue to be allowed two checked bags in line with the local government regulations.” Lucky for those traveling to/from/through those countries. But muddled rules are a recipe for inconsistent enforcement. If you’re flying BA, better print the rules before you head to the airport…)

(Thanks Hamish!)

Related:
- British Airways limits advance seat selection even further
- Pack light: Spirit Airlines charging fees for 2nd checked bag

Reader Raul S. asks:

You’ve mentioned paid upgrades at check in, but how much does that actually cost?

The price depends on a variety of factors, such as the route, how full the plane is, and possibly other, secret factors. It’s impossible to accurately predict an offer of a paid upgrade, but it can never hurt to ask. Not all airlines offer upgrades for sale at check-in, either; in fact, I’d say the number that DO sell them is in the minority.

U.S. carriers are far and away the most likely to try to squeeze out some extra revenue if business or first class seats remain available.

Alaska Airlines is the most explicit in describing their paid-upgrade policy, and they’re also the cheapest. As outlined in their chart, upgrades only cost $50 for every 1250 miles flown. US Airways charges a little more. United has lately been selling domestic upgrades at check-in at a rate of $65 for every 500 miles (or portion thereof) flown. I’ve seen higher, too, but $65/500 is the normal rate.

Internationally, it seems to vary more. On United, I recall being offered an upgrade from coach to business for $550 on the Washington-Amsterdam route — on award tickets — and $450 on paid tickets from Chicago to Frankfurt. $550 is a seemingly magic number that comes up a lot for trans-Pacific routes. American’s upgrades are similarly priced — and considering they charge a fee to use miles for upgrades, the all-cash upgrades are a decent deal. British Airways also occasionally offers upgrades for sale — even on board. I’ve heard of upgrades from regular economy to premium economy for about $250, but that was several years ago.

All these upgrades are one-way, of course. If it’s available on the return flight, you can expect to pay up again. And it may not be the same price. Crapshoot!

Note also that you don’t earn any class-of-service bonus miles for sitting in the bigger seats, even if you’re paying money for it. It’s still an upgrade from a lower booking class, not a purchase of a premium-class ticket.

Is it worth it? Depends on you. But at least you’ll be sitting up front.

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Update December 9, 2007:
The freetraveling.com site is dead. So the list of promotional codes for American Airlines and other carriers, linked below, is down. However, there IS a 5% discount codes for American Airlines, as well as a discount for US Airways Vacations, in the 2008 edition of the Entertainment book, which may be a worthwhile investment.

The text of the original post follows, as originally published.

————————

The folks at FreeTraveling.com have compiled a list of promo codes (Edit: link is deleted, as the site is dead) for several U.S. airlines.

Most of the discounts are for American Airlines, but I found codes for Continental and Northwest as well.

To find your code, you need to select your destination city from a pulldown menu first. At this point, there are about 40 cities with promo codes.

Discounts aren’t always available for every time frame, much less on every airline, but it’s worth taking a look before you buy.

To use the codes, you may need to select “advanced” fare search options on the airlines’ websites. They don’t always make it immediately apparent.

Alternate way to get a discount: Buy an Entertainment book. The price of the book varies according to the “home” location, but each book contains a 5% discount code for American Airlines.

The major airline alliances — StarAlliance, oneworld, and SkyTeam — may be in for some competition. JetBlue is linking up with Ireland’s AerLingus to create what may be the blueprint of an international discount alliance.

It’s too early to declare this a “real deal” yet, but in a few years, it might be a contender. Aer Lingus is already quitting the oneworld alliance on March 31, 2007, following its decision to be more like a discount carrier. Unlike its Irish brethren, Ryanair, Aer Lingus still flies widebody planes long-haul and has a business class cabin, so it’s not quite a discount carrier. It’s in that same intermediate space as US Airways, calling itself a low cost carrier, but still featuring legacy carrier networks and services.

Much like Aer Lingus isn’t quite a discount carrier, the proposed alliance is half-baked at this point. There isn’t even any codesharing on deck. Rather, by the end of summer 2007, each airline’s website will feature a “button” to the other’s website. Whoo.

A global discount alliance might work, and other discounters are toying with alliances already. AirTran and Frontier have an agreement allowing cross-selling and mileage-earning. Southwest and ATA have a similar deal.

Alliances are a mixed bag: On the one hand, they offer you a broader range of destinations to book on a single ticket, ostensibly with point-earnings, mutually-recognized status, and a global network of lounges, etc. to boot. But they’re never as smoothly integrated as the marketers claim. (For some more discussion of the downsides of alliances, see here. For some more color on the pros and cons of codeshares more generally, see here.)

In a “traditional alliance,” in which two ostensible competitors work together to sell each other’s flights, there’s a risk that consumers lose. For example, Lufthansa and United both fly Washington to Frankfurt, but since they cross-sell each other’s flights as codeshares, they don’t really compete. The companies are given a license to collude on pricing. It’s a fair assumption that fares creep up when codeshares crop up on the same routes.

But a jetBlue-Aer Lingus alliance may be different in this regard. JetBlue doesn’t fly to Dublin, and AerLingus doesn’t fly within the United States. No overlapping networks, so no collusion is possible. Win-win, for airlines and consumers? We’ll see.

What they need is a good name. BlueLingus?

Related:
- The shortcomings of airline alliances, and Star Alliance in particular

WELCOME TO THE 2007 TRAVVIES

As announced last week, we’re kicking off the very first Travvies — the travel blog awards.

Why do this? There are a number of great blogs out there devoted to travel. When I tell people that I write a travel blog, people often immediately follow up with, “You mean, you write about your trips?” Not exactly. There’s a misconception that travel blogs are all travel diaries. Some of these might be terrific, but the scope of the travel blogosphere is much larger. More and more, these blogs are influencing the way consumers, companies, and journalists get information. The Travvies try to take this breadth into account.

Any travel blog that existed in 2006 and that generated at least 52 posts in 2006 is open for consideration. The primary focus of the blogs should be on some aspect of travel. They should be blogs about travel, not blogs about a bunch of stuff with only an occasional mention of travel. While quality travel blogs are written in many languages, we will unfortunately only consider English-language blogs for the Travvies.

Descriptions of each category are in the posts below. You will also be able to navigate to the category of your choice via permalinks in the sidebar.

General rules and procedures are outlined here. Nominations are open for one week, and will close at 8am, Chicago time, Monday, February 12.

Thanks in advance to our panel of judges, who will cull the list of nominations to select the finalists. The names of the judges are being kept under wraps for now, so nominees aren’t able to lobby them or otherwise curry favor. When finalists are announced, the judges will step out from behind their curtain.

Thanks also to the many people who offered feedback, suggestions, and assistance in putting this together. Much appreciated.

Any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or use the contact link.

REMEMBER, YOU CAN NOMINATE UP TO THREE BLOGS IN EACH CATEGORY, AND YES, YOU CAN NOMINATE THE SAME BLOG IN MULTIPLE CATEGORIES.

This should be fun. Good luck to all bloggers!

Click below to go straight to any nomination category.

- Best Travel Blog
- Best Destination Blog
- Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog
- Best Group-Written Travel Blog
- Best Single-Author Travel Blog
- Best Photography on a Travel Blog

BEST TRAVEL BLOG

This is the big one, the grand prize.

As the overall winner, this award will go to a blog whose travel-related writings have been consistently interesting, entertaining, useful, well-written, or otherwise worth spending time reading.

You may nominate UP TO THREE BLOGS by leaving a comment in this post. (Click here to do so.) If your favorite has been nominated already, feel free to nominate it again. Show your love!

Note: The comment form automatically asks for name, e-mail address, website (optional), and a text field. E-mail addresses will never be shared or visible publicly, in keeping with our privacy policy. Enter all nominations in the text field. Use the “website” field only if you are linking back to your own site.

Click below to switch to another nomination category.

- Best Destination Blog
- Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog
- Best Group-Written Travel Blog
- Best Single-Author Travel Blog
- Best Photography on a Travel Blog

BEST DESTINATION BLOG

This award celebrates the best travel blog focusing on particular destinations — cities, countries, wherever. Quality writing and/or photography about that location that make you want to book a flight (or train, or ship) as soon as you can.

You may nominate UP TO THREE BLOGS by leaving a comment in this post. (Click here to do so.) If your favorite has been nominated already, feel free to nominate it again. Show your love!

Note: The comment form automatically asks for name, e-mail address, website (optional), and a text field. E-mail addresses will never be shared or visible publicly, in keeping with our privacy policy. Enter all nominations in the text field. Use the “website” field only if you are linking back to your own site.

Click below to switch to another nomination category.

- Best Travel Blog
- Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog
- Best Group-Written Travel Blog
- Best Single-Author Travel Blog
- Best Photography on a Travel Blog