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BEST INFORMATIVE/PRACTICAL TRAVEL BLOG

This award goes to a travel blog that provides news, commentary, advice, or general insight into the workings of travel. Informative, and useful: You learn from such a blog. Unlike a destination blog, this category is more practically minded.

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.

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

BEST GROUP-WRITTEN TRAVEL BLOG

This award celebrates travel blogs consistently written by two or more authors, regardless of subtopic.

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

BEST SINGLE-AUTHOR TRAVEL BLOG

This award celebrates the best travel blog written by an individual blogger. Again, the topic is open, as long as there is only one regular poster.

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

BEST PHOTOGRAPHY ON A TRAVEL BLOG

Some blogs focus more on the visuals than the writing. This award celebrates the best in visual media on a travel blog.

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

Spirit Airlines, known for its clever (and sometimes politically partisan) marketing, is the first airline in America to charge a fee if you want to check a second suitcase.

Effective February 10, 2007, each passenger will only be allowed ONE checked bag of 50 pounds. The second bag will cost $10 and a third will run you $100. Bags over 50 pounds will cost extra, as always. Full detail of Spirit’s baggage policies is here.

Smells like the nickel-and-diming business plan of European discount carriers like Ryanair, and I don’t like it.

As usual, the airline’s business case is understandable. Less luggage means lower expenses for the airline, and we’re already seeing signs that we’re headed for a-la-carte ticket pricing. But that doesn’t mean we have to like it. For those who are traveling with a second suitcase, this is effectively a fare hike.

If Spirit is in contention for your travels, it’s time to consider your packing strategy before you buy your tickets. Or just reconsider your airline.

SEE CORRECTION BELOW

A prevailing (and irritating) trend in loyalty programs is the shortening of your points’ lifespan. If your balance is stagnant, then you’re increasingly at risk of losing your account entirely.

For example, United and US Airways recently revised their rules to make points on stagnant accounts expire after 18 months. Delta does the same after 2 years. Air Canada is the worst, with activity required at least once every twelve months, and, in a slap in the face to loyal customers, expiring your points after 7 years, even if you’re an active account holder.

Sure, you can keep your balance alive by having any kind of activity — including redemption — on your account. Credit a withering account with a car rental, an online purchase through an airline mall, etc.

Even better: Fill out a silly survey and get some points to restart the clock, without parting with any of your money.

That’s just what you can do with Delta, breathing new life into your stale account: The “Insider Opinion” survey asks one single question (the questions rotate periodically) and rewards you with a quick and easy 250 points. CORRECTION: These points will NOT restart the clock on your Delta miles, after all. As Gary correctly caught and noted in comments, they are coded as a bonus, and thus don’t count toward expiration calculation. Mea culpa. Expiration rules are here.

Bonus:
InterContinental Hotels’ Priority Club (which includes the Holiday Inn hotels, too) doesn’t have an expiration date on their points (yet), but have a free-point survey anyway: it’s a fairly short (4 screens?) survey for 250 easy points: click here.

Got free surveys for other programs or alternate ways to restart your point clock? Post ‘em in comments.

Related:
- United cuts the lifespan of frequent flyer miles
- Air Canada joins race to the bottom on frequent flyer miles

Buying anything on board domestic U.S. flights tends to involve an announcement of the mantra that flight attendants would appreciate exact change. With a few important exceptions, most American carriers stubbornly refuse to accept credit cards in flight.

Now, those exceptions that DO accept credit cards are increasingly going the other direction: Credit only, no cash.

ATA switched to all-credit for onboard purchases last year, and now Hawaiian Airlines is following suit.

American Airlines appears to be the most flexible: accepting both cash and credit at this point.

I prefer having the choice of cash and credit, but honestly, I’ll take credit over cash any day, if only for the receipt (and the miles…)

Related:
- American Airlines now accepts credit cards onboard

The hubbub about the proposed passenger bill of rights last week is still alive and well, if my e-mail inbox is any indication. Several readers have written, asking for more information, or ways of supporting the cause of such a bill. (Let’s call it the PBOR for short, giving it that official-sounding government-ese acronymic flavor, and cutting down on my typing…)

The draft PBOR is posted here and at the angry passengers’ blog. A petition is available, too, if you want to show your support.

Congress is taking the PBOR seriously, and I think that’s a good thing, but even if such a bill passes, would it be enforceable? How do you determine blame? And if so, what are the penalties?

Most of the goals that the PBOR sets out are rules or requirements, but the only penalty that’s referenced is for flight cancellation or delay of 12 hours or greater.

For example: “Establish procedures for returning passengers to terminal gate when delays occur so that no plane sits on the tarmac for longer than three hours without connecting to a gate.” No doubt, that’s a reasonable goal, but whom do you blame, and what are the consequences, if this doesn’t happen?

I sat on the ground for hours once at O’Hare, flying back from Philadelphia, after a snowstorm wreaked havoc on Chicago aviation. (This was the same day, in 2005, when the Southwest plane went off the runway and into the streets of Chicago.) The 737 I was on was parked for hours on the outskirts of the airport, waiting for a gate to open. The rear toilets overflowed. It was one of the few times that I wished I was at a European airport like Frankfurt, where every other flight is parked out in the middle of nowhere and passengers are bused back to the terminal. There was no bus for us. Just a long wait, until another gate opened up. But with so much snow falling, few aircraft actually left their gates.

So who was to blame? The airline? The airport? The weather?

The problem with any such legislation isn’t the determination of what the desired outcome should be. It’s the determination of who is to blame when that outcome isn’t reached.

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

I’m not sure how KLM feels about this, but a coffin in the shape of a plane, painted in the Dutch airline’s colors, is (was?) apparently on display in the Smithsonian.

What kind of person would want this to be their final resting place? An aviation buff? A person with a penchant for irony, making a statement about airline safety? Richard Branson’s Dutch equivalent?

UPDATE: In comments, Mike points out that this is a coffin from Ghana. (More links to similar coffins in the comment section below.) In fact, if you look at the top left of the image, you’ll see the word Ghana on the wall of the museum display.

Bonus: Here’s a video from a German news report (transcript / auto-translation), showing how they make these. In German, obviously, but you can get the gist.

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Remember when jetBlue announced it would take out a row of seats, primarily to save on labor costs, but simultaneously adding a few inches of legroom? I noted at the time that the front of the plane was getting the bulk of the benefit. More room than the back, plus easier boarding and exiting (at least at airports where the airline didn’t use the air-stairs.)

I predicted then that jetBlue would “eventually start charging a premium for the seats in rows 1 through 11.”

Looks like my prediction was right:

JetBlue is working on a plan to reserve some of it roomiest seats for higher-paying passengers after it completes the reconfiguration of all of its A320 aircraft next month.
[…]
[CEO David] Neeleman said JetBlue management is convinced some of the public’s highest-paying travelers don’t fly JetBlue today because it doesn’t provide a first class section or a way to get the better seats at the last minute. Neeleman said the airline is working on a program to make up for that.

“To the extent we hold out a few of the 36-inch seats for the highest-paying customers, that’s probably the smart thing to do,” he said. But Neeleman added, with 34 inches of pitch for the rest of the seats, he’s not worried other customers will feel short-changed.

It may not be a full-fledged first class cabin, but the front of the plane is now effectively premium economy. You can’t pre-reserve seats there on a cheapo ticket. Unlike United’s Economy Plus, which is reserved for United elites until the day of the flight, jetBlue’s system doesn’t rely on status.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but face it, the days of egalitarianism at jetBlue are over. JetBlue is becoming a more “normal” airline every day.

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Buried in a New York Times article about celebrity chefs and how they actually earn their money is this item about Michelle Bernstein, the chef at Michy’s in Miami and a consultant to various restaurants, television shows, etc.:

She is also the consulting chef for Delta Airlines (she, like most chefs consulting for airlines, is paid in air miles).

She is paid in miles???! In a non-interest bearing currency that increasingly expires?

As much as I am a sucker for frequent flyer miles, even I have my limits. I have a hard time imagining that I would ever accept miles as a form of payment for business services rendered. Even if the number of miles was really high (and I can imagine a LOT of miles), I’d still strongly prefer cash, thank you.

I wonder how she values those miles on her tax return.

Related:
- The value of frequent flyer miles
- Reader mail: Whose miles are worth the most?
- Whose miles are they anyway?