Jetiquette | The Sky Steward

As you’re packing for holiday flights, here’s all the incentive you need to keep those extra boots and sweaters out of your luggage: Airlines’ overweight-bag fees are as high as $175. And that’s on top of the fee to simply check the bag.

Major airlines began the fee parade in earnest in 2008, when fuel prices were soaring. They picked up the pace during the deep recession, and airlines now say there’s no turning back. No wonder: Fees are helping [...]

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SAN FRANCISCO — Closer to rolling out its long-awaited operating system, Google on Tuesday said notebook computers running Chrome OS will be ready for consumers by the middle of next year.

“We finally have a viable third choice for an operating system” in addition to Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s Mac operating systems, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said at an announcement in San Francisco.

Aiming to make a laptop feel more like a smart phone, Google on Tuesday opened [...]

Yes, fares on many routes are much more expensive this holiday season than last, but airfares are not static and there are (relative) deals to be had any time of year. Here is Airfarewatchdog.com’s best advice for making your airfare dollars go farther no matter what the time of year.

1. Sign up for airlines’ e-mail feeds and frequent-flyer programs.

We know, you already get too much e-mail, but the airlines want to develop a relationship with you, so they’ll send you [...]

A month ago, San Francisco restaurateur Mark Pastore of Incanto wrote an impassioned blog post, Is OpenTable Worth it?, in which he bemoaned the reservation system’s fees and encouraged his readers to better support restaurants, many of which are operating on the edge of business viability, by calling them directly for reservations, thereby reserving OpenTable’s substantial fees for the restaurants themselves.

It’s a complicated relationship that restaurant owners have with OpenTable. There’s no question that OpenTable fills seats that would [...]

A Changing Travel Market
From 2008 to 2010, online travel agencies were able to chip away at the online market share of their suppliers, reducing the suppliers from owning 62 percent of the online business in 2008 to 59 percent in 2010, according to travel industry research firm PhoCusWright. Bargain hunters drove the market, which eroded the importance of brand loyalty.

From 2009 to 2010, PhoCusWright notes a “strong countercyclical performance for the OTA category.” In 2009, sales fell only 1 percent [...]

When Iceland’s volcano erupted last summer, Anne Morgan Scully, owner of the Washington-area travel agency McCabe World Travel, had her clients’ Plan B set within hours.

Avoiding closed British airspace, Scully diverted the couple to Dubai – which she knew they had always dreamed of visiting – then back to New York. Indagare, a New York-based agency, went so far as to try to charter a private plane, though ultimately managed to reroute clients normally.

More related to this story

Don’t [...]

A fast food franchise, an airline, a ballot initiative, a couple newspapers, a porn actress, and a boatload of colleges and sports teams. These are some of the items that comprise the United States of Autocomplete — a map labeled with the first results that pop up when entering state names into Google Search.

The map was compiled on December 3, between 5:45 pm and 6:10 pm — so attempts to replicate the content may [...]

Virgin America, the California-based domestic airline, started San Francisco (SFO) service to Dallas-ForthWorth International Airport (DFW) today, Dec. 6, marking its second West Coast connection to the heart of Texas in less than a week.

On Dec. 1, 2010 the airline commenced services to DWF from Los Angeles International (LAX).

Virvin America celebrated the launch of its new upscale, low fare service to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) – the 12th airport in its growing network and first mid-continent destination.

Known [...]

Alaska Airlines is adding more flights and when an airline does that it usually means more savings for consumers, says Rick Seaney of FareCompare.com.

Daniel Acker file photo/Bloomberg News

Knowledge can lead to powerful savings, at least when it comes to [...]

As you’re packing for holiday flights, here’s all the incentive you need to keep those extra boots and sweaters out of your luggage: Airlines’ overweight-bag fees are as high as $175. And that’s on top of the fee to simply check the bag.

Major airlines began the fee parade in earnest in 2008, when fuel prices were soaring. They picked up the pace during the deep recession, and airlines now say there’s no turning back. No wonder: Fees are helping [...]

Here’s the mystery. Silicon Valley now has the nation’s most modern and efficient airport with the best on-time performance. It’s right next door to global technology giants like Cisco, Adobe, Google, Apple, eBay and Intel. Four million people live closer to Mineta San Jose International Airport than to any other Bay Area airport.

Yet California’s first city has only one flight a day to New York. And it’s a red-eye. However, an hour’s drive up the congested Highway 101, our [...]

concerns over competition, airfare, and technology,

Dec 04, 2010

Citing a litany of concerns over competition, airfare, and technology, a US Senator is calling on the Justice Department to put conditions on Google’s purchase of travel software company ITA.

In a letter to the DOJ on Wednesday, Senator Herb Kohl outlined a number of concerns over Google’s purchase of ITA — the independent software provider that powers many of the top [...]

The following are the day’s top
business stories:

1. Groupon Is Said to Walk Away From Google’s $6 Billion [...]

Gas prices jump in East

MONTREAL — Gasoline prices in Eastern Canada have jumped by as much as 12 cents a litre in recent weeks as competition, the fortunes of the U.S. dollar and crude oil costs all create volatility at the pump.

Wild swings in the price of gas are a sign of “guerrilla warfare” pricing tactics among gasoline dealers, an industry analyst said Friday.

Prices in Toronto hit about $1.15 a litre on Friday. Price monitoring website Gasbuddy.com said a litre [...]

Google (GOOG) announced two new acquisitions in separate blog posts Friday: It has bought speech-synthesis software maker Phonetic Arts and video-distribution technology firm Widevine Technologies.

The U.K.-based Phonetic Arts acquisition will help the search giant improve its voice-activated search services, making them more “natural” and less robot-like,” Mike Cohen, Google’s manager of speech technology, says on the blog. “We are excited about their technology, and while we don’t have plans to share yet, we’re confident that together we’ll move a little [...]

Relaxnews

Friday, 3 December 2010

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AFP PHOTO / Marius BECKER

[...]

Google’s unabashed ascension to the Internet search throne has caused some to doubt the sincerity of its “Don’t be evil” motto and made it a prime target for market watchdogs.

The latest headache for the firm came Tuesday when European Union officials announced an antitrust probe into accusations by rivals that the Silicon Valley giant was rigging the online search market.

Smaller companies accused Google of “unfavorable treatment” of their services in both unpaid and sponsored search results, the crucial listings that [...]