Give Up Cheap Flights, Holidaymakers Told
By Ned Temko, The Observer
Some influential members of Parliament (MPs) in Britain are eyeing air travel as the way to reach the country's carbon emission reduction goal. Unsettled by "the government's willful disregard of the effects of cheap air travel on global warming," the MPs have aimed to put Europe's bargain intercontinental fares to rest with the intention to reroute some passengers to the more eco-friendly rail system. The airline industry has been reaping the benefits of cheap flights because of tax-free fuel and low passenger duty charges, but MPs say cutting use will be the most effective way to achieve Britain's goal of 60 percent less carbon emissions by 2050. -- Rachel Anderson
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1838313,00.html (via Utne.com)

Singapore Airlines is throwing a wet towel on hopes that the double beds and private suites on the new Airbus A380 would revolutionize high-altitude romance. The airline today asked passengers to “observe standards that don’t cause offense.” Cabins are private, but not sound-proof or sealed, Reuters reports. No word on the availability of cold showers on the new jets. • “So they'll sell you a double bed, and give you privacy and endless champagne and then say you can't do what comes naturally?” complained one traveler. “ http://www.newser.com/story/10661.html

Oversized and overhyped, the world's biggest plane is here. Is the Airbus A380 the "most hideous airliner ever conceived?" http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,516399,00.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/travel

YOU thought you got a good deal when you booked that $200 flight from New York to Fort Lauderdale after scouring various Web sites to find the lowest fare. But after suffering through a long delay, a cramped flight on an old plane and the airline’s losing your bags, that flight may not have felt like a bargain after all.

Most travel sites, like Expedia and Kayak, do a good job of digging up the cheapest airfare for a given route, often giving you dozens of options. But when it comes to key factors that can help determine whether a flight is worth the money or is one to avoid — like how much legroom you get, a flight’s on-time performance and mishandled luggage rates — travel sites tend to fall short. ...

Enter InsideTrip.com, a new travel site scheduled to arrive in test form on Tuesday. ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/business/10road.html?_r=1&em

So I was glad to see what appeared to be a genuine booking innovation last week, when TripAdvisor, the wide-ranging travel site owned by Expedia, introduced a search function that quickly sorted out flights and variables, including fees, connections and even the layout of the plane, from data pulled from a vast range of online booking agencies, including airlines’ own sites and sites like Travelocity, Hotwire and Expedia.

Like the popular travel site Kayak.com, TripAdvisor’s flight site gathers and sorts data from the booking sites, and a user can then click through to make the actual purchase. Kayak and similar so-called metasearch sites have loyal networks of users. But Trip-Advisor claims its user-friendly fees calculator is a major differentiator, at a time when fees can add a significant premium to a fare, and create a lot of confusion to boot.

Great ideas for the times of crisis: http://www.utne.com/Great-Writing/How-to-plan-a-staycation-1780.aspx?utm_content=08.17.09+Great+Writing&utm_campaign=Great+Writing&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email

By now you’ve heard of the staycation, touted as the recession-friendly cousin of the vacation. But, as political comic Will Durst writes in Funny Times, “The problem with most folks planning a staycation is they focus on the high points of local landmarks but forget to include all the little moments that truly distinguish memorable holiday excursions.” He then offers up his own list of tips for having an authentic vacation experience at home, adding all the waiting and frustration that happens in reality. You can find all of Durst’s suggestions for “Staycation Fun” in his column archives, but here are a few favorites:

Pack luggage like you’re really headed on a trip, then pick a piece to misplace for the duration.

Duplicate inevitable airport delay by wasting four hours at a 7/11.

Sit on curb outside your house for 90 minutes because your room isn’t ready yet.

Every two hours, burn 60 dollars.

Set alarm for 6 a.m. to receive wake-up call for room next to yours. Knock on door at half-hour intervals with a cry of: “Housekeeping!”  

Eat at a strange restaurant and grunt and point at the menu, unable to speak the native language, even if it’s only Floridian.

For full tropical experience, dump sand in your bed.

Or you may want to try this novel - I love the way it feels when I stop -  holiday gift idea.

STOCKHOLM — A Hindu spirit is stalking the streets of Stockholm, armed with this Nordic capital’s latest fad: the nail bed.

It is not the wood and iron nail variety used by Hindu fakirs, but instead a modern Swedish variation that usually consists of a light foam rubber pad, covered in cotton sacking and embedded with small, hard plastic disks with sharp little spikes. Modernized or not, it hurts. And the fewer the spikes, the more they hurt.

“It’s quite painful initially,” said Catarina Rolfsdotter-Jansson, 46, a yoga instructor and writer who uses her nail bed almost every day. “The trick is, all the adrenaline rushes, after which you relax and feel nice again.” …

Of course, not everyone here has purchased a nail mat. “I tried it, I liked it, it feels like it’s opening a flow in the body,” said Josefine Vilhelmson, 19, a receptionist in a fitness center along the Drottninggatan shopping street. But did she have one? “No, it’s a bit too expensive,” she said. …

[T]he largest manufacturer of nail mats has organized a medically supervised survey of 30 regular users. “We’re doing a clinical test, to see what happens in the body,” said Max Hoffmann, 45, who left a job at the Swedish home furnishings retailer Ikea a few weeks ago to become director of marketing for Shakti mats. “We’re not looking for what the mat can heal, but what happens to the body — you know, blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature.”

... Ms. Drake, 24, who works in an organic bakery in the historic center of Stockholm, said she had used her nail mat almost every evening since purchasing it six months ago. “It was a little bit painful at first, but now I’m used to it,” she said. …

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/world/europe/25stockholm.html?ref=world

Competition to Temprapedic? 

A gift idea

Organizing the Chaos of Online Travel Tips

Gliider, TravelMuse and NileGuide are among new Web tools that help travelers organize trip information.

http://www.ananova.com/News/story/sm_3605155.html (via Harper's Weekly Review)

A London law firm has come up with a 'must have' Christmas present for unhappy couples - divorce gift vouchers.

Lloyd Platt & Co claims to have had hundreds of enquiries since putting the vouchers, which offer couples half-hour or hour-long advice sessions with a lawyer, on sale.

They cost from £125 plus VAT and the firm says it has already sold 54 in three weeks, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Senior partner Vanessa Lloyd Platt said: "Christmas can be a very stressful time for families as we have always seen by the huge increase of people seeking advice in January." ...