All posts tagged ‘Travel’

File Under: Business

No More Laptop Fooling For Traveling Monkeys

Sure, most of us are stuck at our cubes, offices, or living room couches creating websites all day. We know that some of our fellow webmonkeys have jobs that require travel, or at least have to fly to spend holidays with family.

Of course, ‘monkey travelers always have a computer with them, right? In the U.S. we’re familiar with removing our laptops from their secure holsters and placing them in a plastic tray for a ride over a conveyor belt. That may be changing.

Laptop bags - approved and disapproved styles

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has introduced new laptop bag procedures. No longer are travelers required to remove their laptop, as long as the bag allows a clear view of the machine.

TSA employees “know what the inside of a computer should look like, and can recognize irregularities. This is why they need an unobstructed view as the item moves through the X-ray machine.”

Your current bag may work, especially if it’s just a protective sleeve. If you’re in the market for a new bag, expect to start seeing ones that claim to meet TSA requirements (TSA is not itself endorsing any bags).

How do you know if yours will pass? There needs to be nothing but bag material above and below the laptop when it’s laying flat in the bag. That means no zippers or clips. Also, no power adapter or other items in a pocket unless it’s to the side of the laptop.

Several of the styles that TSA says will work are sectioned bags that unfold. So, there will still be preparation, along with removing jackets and shoes, to get your stuff ready to be screened. At least you won’t have to remove your laptop from its bag, although you won’t get nearly the number of compliments on your laptop stickers.

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File Under: Other

Farecast Goes International with Airfare Price Predictions for World Travelers

Farecast
Farecast, the airfare price prediction site for savvy travelers looking for the best deal, has finally moved beyond U.S. borders to offer predictions for those traveling to Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean and Canada.

Farecast’s new international price predictions are available for flights between major U.S cities and major cities in the new areas. Unfortunately if you’re going to or from smaller airports you’re still out of luck. But even though the coverage is still limited, at least Farecast has filled the most noticeable gap in its service and the company says it plans to continue expanding its coverage of international flights.

Of course even for those destinations where Farecast doesn’t offer predictions, you can still use the search engine features to compare prices. There’s even the option to compare Farecast’s results alongside those from other sites like Expedia, Hotwire and more.

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File Under: Other

Travel Site Upgrades Make Getting to Grandma’s House Cheaper And Easier

tripit.jpgJust in time to help out with those holiday travel plans, both Yapta and Tripit, two sites that offer a variety of ways the find the best deals and manage your itinerary, have both announced new features.

Yapta adds a Firefox plugin to its stable of tools, which joins the existing IE plugin and offers the same functionality — tracking flight prices and keeping an eye on your purchases. You can grab the new plugin from the Mozilla Add-ons site, and for more details on what Yapta can do, check out our earlier coverage.

One thing to keep in mind with Yapta is that some airlines will charge a fee for “processing” any potential refunds Yapta mind find for you. The amount varies somewhat, from the ridiculous, blatant rip-off fee of $100 to, in some cases, nothing. Depending on the amount of refund you might be eligible for, it may be worth it or it may not. Either way you’re unlikely to find out about price drops without Yapta.

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File Under: Other

Yapta E-mail Alerts Track Your Airfare Prices

YaptaYapta, the airfare price tracking site we’ve looked at before, has rolled out a new e-mail alerts feature to notify you of changes in airfare price so you can potentially get a refund. The company already offers a browser plug-in (IE only) that helps you add airfare data to the site, but the new e-mail alerts feature is designed to keep you up-to-date after you buy your ticket.

The free service allows you to forward your airline confirmation email to Yapta which will then automatically alert you when your flight is available at a lower price and you are eligible for a travel voucher or cash refund.

How does that work you ask? Well Yapta is exploiting a little known clause in most airline price rules. This rule says that if you buy a ticket directly from an airline and the price drops afterward, you???re eligible for a refund. The airlines seem to make the voluntary offer on the basis that almost no one is aware of it, or has the time to actually track and take advantage of the offer.

Like the browser plug-in, Yapta’s new e-mail alert service is designed to give you the information you need and track prices for you so you can potentially receive your refund, without the hassle of actually looking up the price all the time.

For more on how Yapta works, see our earlier review.

File Under: Other

Partnership Brings Farecast Airfare Predictions To MSN

Farecastmsn

Farecast, the airfare search site that predicts the best time to buy your tickets, has partnered with MSN to provide predictions for MSN Travel users. The front page of MSN Travel has been redesigned to accommodate the new widget which is featured just below the “top deals” from MSN’s Expedia.com.

The MSN Farecast widget is fully integrated into the main MSN Travel site though clicking through to search a destination will redirect you to Farecast’s own domain. However, despite the URL, the page retains the MSN Travel navigation bar and looks like it’s part of MSN.

Having saved a bundle of money of air travel this summer thanks to Farecast, I highly recommend it if you’re thinking about purchasing air tickets.

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File Under: Other

Trippert: Find Travel Inspiration And Plan Your Summer Getaway

Trippert

Trippert is new travel community site with a focus on in-depth guides to destinations around the world. Thanks to some dead simple navigation and extensive use of tags, it’s a great way to bone up on wherever you???re thinking of going this summer.

Regular readers know I???m a sucker for a good travel site, but these days most travel communities have become little more than blog providers ??? Live Journal clones with a travel focus ??? and most are sorely lacking when it comes to easily finding the information you want.

Trippert eschews the travel diary approach in favor of providing an easy way to collect and save articles and photos of interest. The site???s founders write:

 

We don???t expect to offer the traditional travelogue features ??? travel diaries, step-by-step maps that retrace a trip, etc.  Instead, we want to provide the best tool for you to add great photos and articles, to discover unexpected places, to save what you like, and to leave inspired to take a trip.

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File Under: Other

Yapta: A Smarter Way To Travel

Yapta
Yapta, a new way to track and compare airline ticket prices has opened its doors to the public. The private beta, which launched a while back, is now open to anyone, though the service is still in beta.

Yapta is a bit different than other services we’ve reviewed, like FareCast. Rather than plugging directly into the airline system as FareCast and Expedia do, Yapta simply tracks the data from other sites.

Yapta currently supports a handful of airfare aggregators like Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity as well as over half a dozen individual airline sites. Yapta says that it will be adding more sites as the beta period progresses.

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File Under: Other

New Yahoo Travel Feeds Summer Travel Fever

Ytravel
There’s nothing like a bright sunny Monday in May to get cubicle jockeys dreaming of a summer vacation. Yahoo has has channeled that impetus to redesign its Yahoo Travel portal adding some nice new features of those looking to plan a getaway.

The new Yahoo Travel combines Yahoo FareChase, a low-priced air fares search, with Yahoo Trip Planner, a social network for travelers which helps plan trips and create maps as well as offering options for online journals and photos.

Most of the new features revolve around user input, such as the new personalized recommendations which are drawn from search history and browsing activity.

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File Under: Other

IPod Vending Machines Are A Hit

Ipodvending
Earlier this year I passed through Atlanta’s Hartfield Airport on my way back from nine months out of the country. It was my first step back into American culture and the first thing I saw when I got off the plane was a vending machine filled with iPods, headphones and other small electronic gizmos.

I remember thinking at the time that America had made some massive consumer leap in my absence, vending machines having upgraded from candy bars to iPods. I thought it was a brilliant idea since the prospect of spending hours waiting in an airport surrounded by screaming babies and crackling passenger announcements would probably send even the most ardent of Apple haters scrambling to thrust their credit card in the machine.

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File Under: Other

Travelhiker: Earn Money For Your Knowledge

Travelhiker
There’s a whole host of travel related sites out there, I’ve looked at a few in past, but I found one today with an interesting twist. Travelhiker has all the usual trappings of travel networks, blogs, reviews, photos and more, but Travelhiker allows you to integrate your reviews with an AdSense account so you can earn money.

Travelhiker is looking for people to write detailed city guides. Travelhiker calls this “The Travelhiker Project.” Once you’ve signed up for an account you enter your Google Adsense ID and you’ll get half the revenue generated by your page. It’s a nice incentive to get people contributing and it’s always nice to get a little something for your writing. I don’t think anyone is going to get rich, but in many places a little bit of money can go a long way.

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