A Dubai hotel group has introduced a new check-out policy that might be nice for guests, but could cause nightmares for housekeeping and other hotel staff: Your check-out time is exactly 24 hours from the time you check in.

For starters, you’re not locked into the 12pm checkout posted on the back of the door. That’s a nice layer of flexibility. You get a full day’s stay, without any housekeeping lockout time.

From the press release:

As per the new benefit, guests opting for Suite or Club room accommodations can enjoy the privilege of a total 24-hour stay without incurring late check-out charges. This is a ground-breaking service in the hospitality industry as guests arriving in the evening or even after midnight have the option of keeping their room for a complete 24 hours without having to follow the traditional check-out time of 12 noon.

As much of a change from the status quo this may seem, the Address Hotels that are offering this are only able to offer such a service when they’re underbooked, and they don’t need to worry about the next guest clipping the last guest’s heels.

Notice also that this is only being proposed for premium rooms and suites. The generosity isn’t quite universal.

As nice a feature as this might be, it’s unlikely to spread. Customers don’t expect it, it’s an inconvenience for hoteliers, and it’s not really that big a deal. You can, after all, negotiate a late checkout, especially if there’s space available. (At at the major chains, frequent guests get late checkouts anyway.)

Still, points for creativity and making lemonade out of lemons.

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There’s a good profile of Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza in yesterday’s New York Times, and it’s worth reading to get a sense of the mindset behind one of the most successful airlines in the US.

The problem with Spirit is not that it is cheap. It’s not even that it takes a hard line with its policies (sure, a little compassion would be nice… but it’s fine to be consistent). It’s also not even a problem when the airline says its only obligation is to get you from point A to point B safely.

There are three problems with Spirit.

First, the company has been using deceptive practices to get consumers to buy their stuff. There’s the fare club that customers automatically (and often unwittingly) signed up for. Another example:

[C]ustomers have unprintable things to say about the way Spirit charges for seat assignments and checked bags. To wit: your credit card is charged for your ticket, and only then are you asked if you’d like to spend more to pick a seat and check a bag. If yes, your card is charged again.

Second, the airline leaves you hanging when it cancels a flight. If the next available flight isn’t for another few days, that’s your tough luck. That’s not adequately clear when you go to buy a ticket from the airline.

Finally, a problem with the airline is that its ideas have caught on among its competitors. That’s not their fault, or even their own exclusive province — Ryanair, anyone? But Spirit’s competitors have been taking pages from their playbook and making their fees and practices commonplace.

Each of the (many) complaints I hear about Spirit Airlines mirrors one of these issues. But when it comes to their CEO, the complaints obviously fall on deaf ears.

Baldanza, a board game enthusiast with a whopping 1700 games in his collection, seems to think that every fee and every bilking of the customer is just part of a game. He even posted a list of board games that approximate the talents and skills of running your own airline.

Games, I can appreciate. But not when the rules aren’t fair. If Ben Baldanza wants to spend an evening playing Settlers of Catan, Power Grid, or Agricola, while discussing the ethics of his airline’s “gotcha” sales methods, he should consider himself invited to come on over to U:TB headquarters. I won’t even charge him for a beverage.

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I enjoy the little touches in this video, like the signs, the airport displays and gate information, the clocks, flight statuses, and the runners-up for “most alienating airport.”

Sure, it’s satire, but it might — just might — make you feel better about airlines and the TSA…

(Thanks to Ben and Robert for sending this one in!)

AIG isn’t just the well-deserved whipping boy of the moment. It’s also a company that many travelers depend on, directly or indirectly — they just may not know it. So what are some of the ways AIG’s future affects travel?

Travel Insurance: Buyers
With AIG now 80% owned by the U.S. government (but seemingly not under its control), there’s pressure to spin off some of its businesses, such as their Travel Guard travel insurance subsidiary. For those who buy travel insurance, the current mess and the subsequent spinoff will likely have little effect. The federal government sure isn’t letting AIG renege on its policies, so your current policy is secure. Heck, you may even be better off with an AIG-issued policy now than ever before. How this would affect buyers after a spinoff is a question, but it’s still unlikely to harm the company’s viability or ability to make good on promised payments. They may not ceremoniously present you with a giant check, but the check is unlikely to bounce. Call it a wash.

Travel Insurance: Sellers
For those selling AIG’s travel insurance products, the spinoff is undoubtedly a good thing. Even before the spinoff, you’ll be hard-pressed to find references to AIG on their website today. The stigma of selling something with the AIG name would be gone, and travel agents (the primary sellers) will be able to simply point to the “Travel Guard” brand, which has a long operating history. Advantage: spinoff.

Airlines: Plane leases
More complicated: AIG also owns International Lease Finance Corp, the worlds largest plane lessor, and a huge customer of Airbus and Boeing. Major airlines often lease the plane through ILFC rather than buying the equipment outright, so finance trouble at ILFC could affect their clients. Much like a renter getting booted from his apartment because the landlord was foreclosed, airlines (and their passengers) could feel the brunt of any funding trouble at ILFC, which has relied on the nearly-closed short-term commercial paper credit markets to finance its operations.

And ILFC is admitting it’s in trouble. The subsidiary “said it may not survive unless it gets help from its parent company or new access to credit.” While help from the AIG mothership (read: the American taxpayer) is promised, who knows how things could look in a month or two.

This could also affect the supply of new planes in the skies. The leasing company has 168 planes worth $16.7 billion on order, and needs to find a way to actually pay for them.

For the time being, AIG’s implosion and subsequent rescue haven’t hurt travelers, but the firm’s downfall has added uncertainty to an already uncertain system. As if travelers needed one more thing to think about…

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Upgraded: Passenger discontent with frequent flyer miles devaluation
A miffed Continental customer is suing the airline for charging him fees and higher mileage levels when trying to book an award ticket with his OnePass miles. He’s suing for “levying an illegal penalty, breach of contract and unjust enrichment,” technically. The details:

According to the lawsuit, Simon tried to book a flight in January from Los Angeles to Cleveland for 25,000 miles, which was the number of miles needed to earn an economy-class round trip within the lower 48 states when Simon joined the airline’s OnePass frequent-flier program several years ago.

The airline demanded 50,000 miles even though reservations officials said there were empty seats on some flights, said Simon’s lawyer, who described his client as a semiretired man in his 60s who “travels a fair amount.”

As much as the fees and continued mileage devaluation irk me, and as annoying as it is to be party to a contract where the rules are so prone to shifting, I don’t think he has a leg to stand on, legally. He may travel a fair amount, but Continental’s OnePass program is notorious for “selling out” tickets at the “EasyPass” level…

Downgraded: Expedia users’ web histories
Expedia is tracking your browsing habits and selling those data to advertisers, who may target you based on your purchases on the travel site. It’s cookie based, so it’s targeted to the computer you’re using, and allegedly doesn’t include personally identifying information, but your computer may be betraying information about you that you don’t want to share.

Downgraded: Homonyms
On the show “24,” the plot has turned to a private corporation that is plotting to use biological weapons against American citizens. That fictional company, clearly inspired by Blackwater (which is now renamed “Xe”…) is called “Starkwood.” I barely heard the “k” in the name when they first mentioned it on-air. My first thoughts: Why would Westin and Sheraton want to kill people?… (And yes, my wife makes fun of me for watching “24,” which she oh-so-lovingly derides as a “boy soap opera.” Guilty as charged!)

Downgraded: Digging to China
Ever wonder where the exact opposite spot on the earth is from where you’re standing? Too lazy to find a globe? The Antipode Map website is for you. And just so you know, if you want to “dig to China,” you’d better be standing in South America.

American Airlines and United Airlines are offering huge wads of frequent flyer miles for travel to/from London (and, in the case of AA, to Manchester as well). Through June 2009, you can earn up to 50,000 bonus miles per roundtrip if you fly over the Atlantic in higher-priced booking classes.

The 50K bonus is just for paid first or business class (discounted Z fares count!), while 25K is for the upper-end coach fares.

You’ll find American’s offer here and United’s here. Registration is required for both, so be sure to follow the registration links on those pages if you want to qualify for the offer. Remember, also, that you have to be flying to or from the UK. Transiting the UK to another destination won’t count.

[While you're at it, make sure you're signed up for the double elite-qualifying mile bonus offers that American, United, Continental, and (as of yesterday) Delta are pitching. Registration is required.]

Why the sudden burst of big-ticket offers?

Oversupply, oversupply, oversupply. Obviously, the airlines are trying desperately to fill seats, and in the case of the UK offers, fill those seats at higher price points. UK routes are particularly common among business travelers, and the mauling of the premium-cabin market has to be taking a bite out of the airlines’ projected revenue streams.

Plus, they know Americans are hooked on frequent flyer bonuses, so they’re trying to keep you from moving your business to the loving embrace of Virgin Atlantic or British Airways, both of which are offering great deals to the British isles these days.

By offering bonuses like these, the airlines are effectively throwing in a free (restricted) domestic ticket when you buy a UK-bound seat at full price. But realize that it’s not necessarily a bargain.

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Gary Leff points to a post by lucky, who caught a change in United’s terms and conditions: They’re eliminating the complimentary fare repricing policy. It’s the end of an era, and it’s shame to see it go.

What this used to mean: If the price of a ticket would drop in the time after you bought it, and if you were alert enough to notice the change, you could go online or call the airline and “refare” the ticket. You’d receive a voucher for the difference in the mail. Three years ago, I detailed the process here.

Repricing a ticket at a lower fare will now involve a reticketing fee — you’re cancelling the earlier “nonrefundable” ticket, paying a penalty, and using the credit from that transaction toward a new ticket.

United was the biggest airline to be doing free re-faring of an identical itinerary. Alaska, JetBlue, and Southwest still offer it for free. Most other airlines allow you to reticket, but there’s a fee of between $75 and $150. (It could still pay off if the fee is less than the fare difference.)

One warning to anyone repricing tickets, with fees or not: If you’re waitlisted for an upgrade, you’ll lose your place in line, and you may need to reapply. It’s a new ticket, so you’re starting fresh.

On the one hand, United’s abandonment of free refaring makes economic sense. Why give voucher refunds to people who have already paid for their (nonrefundable) tickets? The airline has your money, so there’s no incentive to give it back.

On the other hand, the voucher system is a way of guaranteeing future business. This is what the folks at Yapta, the service that tracks price drops after you’ve purchased the ticket, argued when they first launched their fare-drop tracking service:

Look, as an airline I still keep your cash. I’m taking a short-term hit, and over the next 12 months I have the opportunity to turn that $100 coupon into a $500 ticket. I’ve locked in your loyalty.

The voucher logic isn’t being abandoned entirely, after all. United and other airlines still give vouchers when there’s a customer service issue, and that voucher is designed to both show goodwill and lock in a future sale.

United’s change also means that they’re reneging on a benefit they offered as part of their “customer commitment.” As Gary points out, this was launched in order to ward off a passengers’ bill of rights, nearly a decade ago. Perhaps they’re planning to play the same card again: If pressure builds for another PBOR, then United can trot out a re-faring policy, just like they did last time.

The online travel agency battle royale is on. Just a few days after Travelocity and Expedia eliminated their booking fees for airline tickets, Priceline, the first agency to cut the fee, is fighting back with some copycatting of its own.

The agency is now offering price guarantees that mimic Orbitz’ “Price Assurance” for airfare and Travelocity’s “PriceGuardian” for packages:

That’s why starting today [we're] backing up every Flight AND Vacation Package purchase with Free Pricedrop Protection for orders booked by June 1st. Now you, and your users, are automatically covered if prices drop before the trip!

Up to $300 Cash Back if Flight Prices Drop:
If another priceline customer books the same flight for a lower price, we’ll automatically refund the difference in cash…up to $300.

Up to $600 Cash Back if Vacation Package Prices Drop:
If another priceline customer books the same vacation package for a lower price, we’ll automatically refund the difference in cash…up to $600.

As I’ve expressed before, I don’t think that a price guarantee that relies on another customer booking exactly the same itinerary is worth that much, unless you’re booking a really, really common route (and, in the case of a package, a midrange mainstream hotel). But hey, if it’s not costing you anything and doesn’t take any effort on your part, why the heck not.

Bottom line: The competition for your business is heating up. Who’s next?

Downgraded: Virgin America
Fun while it lasted, but Virgin America is starting to charge luggage fees like the old-school airlines have been doing for the past year. On the other hand, they sure let you check a ton of luggage: “$15 for the first checked bag and $15 for the second through tenth checked bag.” Tenth?!!

Upgraded: Dumbass tourist complaints
The Daily Telegraph offers up some linkbait with its list of 20 dumb tourist complaints. (Warning: it’s a slideshow, so it takes 20 clicks to read them all. I know you try to sell advertising with higher pageviews, guys, but it’s annoying, and no one sees the ads if they just keep clicking through the slideshow…) My favorite complaint might be: “It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England it only took the Americans three hours to get home.”

Upgraded: Yapta
Fare-tracking site Yapta will now track hotel rates, too. Since you can generally cancel a hotel reservation and book a new one at the lower rate, this could come in handy.

Upgraded: Pilot-cam, from 1909
Who knew that there existed first-person motion picture footage from a Wright Brothers plane? Wilbur Wright is at the controls in this 1909 film. It’s an amazing piece of history (sorry, copyright prevents embedding the video here).

Today, Travelocity dropped its booking fee for airline tickets. A week ago, Expedia did the same.

Both agencies are promising that the fees will be on hiatus until May 31, 2009. But bringing the charge back may be tough: Back in 2007, Priceline and Hotwire dropped their booking fees “temporarily,” and they still haven’t brought the fees back.

That leaves Orbitz as the lone holdout among the biggest U.S. travel agencies. So when will Orbitz, the biggest holdout, throw in the towel on fees?

Consumers should welcome the rollback of these add-on booking charges. But this episode shows how brutal the online travel marketplace is right now. If online travel agencies want to collect a surcharge, they’re going to have to get creative, and earn it. Simply offering price comparisons and a few online alerts — which are free elsewhere — won’t cut it. And Travelocity, Expedia, Priceline, and Hotwire have admitted that.

Sure, Orbitz may counterargue that they provide value-added with their price guarantee, but since that service is of relatively limited value, I wouldn’t pay a premium for it (though maybe it’s worth the $6.99+ gamble for someone else…)

Travelocity is even poking a stick in Orbitz’ eye by copying their “Price Assurance” model and bringing it to vacation packages under the name “PriceGuardian.” If someone else books the same package as you, and the price has dropped, you get a check for the difference. Yeah, good luck with that.

What we may see is a shift to voluntary fees for add-on services, much like the airlines are going a-la-carte themselves. Want a price-drop guarantee? Pay a few bucks up front. Want text message alerts? A few more bucks. That I could see happening. But the standard one-size-fits-all fee is history at the mainstream agencies.