Gadling

OpenSkies and L'Avion, two of the last remaining all-premium carriers (arguably, THE last remaining carrier as OpenSkies acquired their competitor earlier this year) just announced a codeshare agreement between the two airlines, effectively increasing the number of available flights serachable from each carrier at any particular time.

The step brings them ever-so-closer to a complete merger of the two entities, although there is still no word on when/if the L'Avion planes will be rebadged and integrated into the OpenSkies fleet.

The codeshare agreement also means that those flying on L'Avion can now earn British Airways Executive Club miles, a huge benefit for business travelers and frankly a former concern from many prospective passengers.

Note that this still doesn't mean that one can earn OneWorld miles. On the phone with one of OpenSkies PR reps last week, I asked about when or if they would be looking into this. The rep said that she'd look into it.

Virgin America launched it's community website yesterday, where you can dig deep into the annals of VX history and read stories from contributing authors. Over at community.virginamerica.com, you can also find links to the assorted tentacles that the airline has slipped into the interwebs via Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. Soon, yes, you can be a Virgin America groupie too (I already have my monogrammed VX beret, treehouse pass and pajamas, thank you.)

Where did all of these testamonials come from? Stories at the community website are culled from a variety of sources including VX employees and passengers like you. So if you're absolutley bursting with praise for the airline, this is a great place to show your gratitude.

I wonder what criteria are required for getting your experienced published? Will VX only allow fun, happy experiences to make it online? Will they accept critical or analytical stories? I have a few fun storiess from Virgin America events that I could submit....

It's time. The worst travel day of the year is upon us, the sun has risen and it's time to get the shit kicked out of you at the airport. Have you got your passport? Did you sleep well last night?

Go through the rituals before you leave your house: passport and wallet, left pocket. Phone, right pocket. Laptop, charger, soap, jacket, headphones, book. Got a ride into the office and a ride to airport at lunch. Head to the airport empowered, take the bull by the horns and charge straight into the chaos with no fear.

You've got a great flight, great weather and great family and friends to binge on this weekend, so leave your stress at the door, get to the airport early and revel in the true beauty of travel, people moving, talking, sliding, shifting into new places and new times, the science and flow of departures and arrivals.

Every single one of us at Gadling will be out there with you, somewhere in the terminal or on the road, waiting in lines, collecting data, drinking sake at the airport bar, occupying the lav. We'll be with you all of the way. We promise.

It's going to be a great weekend. Safe travels to all of you,

<3 Gadling

Digital boarding passes in this eco-friendly, high-tech world are the next new big thing among the big airlines. Continental, American and Northwest are rolling out service to airports all over the country, and if you haven't got a kiosk at your local airport, there is probably one on the way.

In concept, the system is pretty simple. When you check in online, instead of printing off your boarding pass you're given the option to receive it digitally onto your phone or PDA. In addition to saving paper, the big advantage is that those on the go without a printer can just flash the barcode (it's actually a matrix code) at security and at the gate then not have to worry about the slip of paper.

In actuality, the system still needs some time to get going – or rather, the airport employees still need some time to adapt.

This past Friday on the way to New York's LaGuardia airport I was given the chance to try out a digital boarding pass on my iPhone. After the jump I'll tell you how it went.

After receiving my 37th email of the day from an airline PR firm hailing their place in this year's Zagat survey, I decided it might be worth taking a look into it. Rather than trumpet one airline's accomplishments over the rest in any particular category, however, I'll give you the straight up list of their #1's. You can find it on their website too.

• Best Large Domestic Airlines (Premium Seating): Continental Airlines

  Best Large Domestic Airlines (Economy Seating): Jetblue Airways
  

• Best International Airlines (Premium Seating): Singapore Airlines

  Best Airline Websites: Southwest Airlines

  Best In-Flight Entertainment: (Domestic): JetBlue Airways

  Best In-Flight Entertainment (International): Virgin Atlantic Airways

  Best Consumer On-Time Estimates (Domestic Only): Southwest Airlines

• Best Midsized Domestic Airlines (Premium Seating): Virgin America

  Best Midsized Domestic Airlines (Economy Seating): Midwest Airlines

  Best International Airlines: (Economy Seating): Singapore Airlines

  Best Frequent Flier Programs: Southwest Airlines

  Best Value for the Money: (Domestic): Southwest Airlines

  Best Value for the Money: (International): Continental Airlines

  Best Luggage Policy (Domestic Only): Southwest Airlines

Prevailing theme? LOW COST CARRIERS. The airline with the best hedged fuel and most leverage in industry, Southwest, captured the most awards, while other carriers like Jetblue and Virgin America cleaned up with most of the rest. The only other domestic airlines to take home prizes were Continental Airlines and the near-defunct Midwest Airlines.

Perhaps this will send a message to the legacy carriers that they're quickly losing ground to the younger, low-cost crowd and that it's finally time to come off of their high horse and cater to the masses. Or perhaps they'll use this as another excuse to instill fees and figure out how to make mileage tickets more expensive. My guess is the latter.

A Japanese man named Hiroshi Nohara has decided to take full advantage of his tourist's visa in Mexico City and has moved into the airport. He's been living there for two months, and the initial avoidance from the locals has recently turned into a curiosity.

Nohara, who can't explain why he decided to live in the city airport, has been getting by on free donations from local fast food stands and kind visitors. Apparently he was gaining so much notiriety with the local media that he's even being sponsored by a few of the stands who give him free hats and shirts to wear. Now, as a tourist attraction in and of himself, people stop by the airport just to take their picture with him.

Meanwhile, Mexican officials can't do anything to remove him from the airport as it's a 24/7 facility and technically he's there legally. His tourist visa runs up in March.

Until then, make sure you stop by on your connection to Acapulco and get your photo taken with Mr. Nohara. It's a limited edition engagement so your photo will be worth millions on Ebay someday.

Like me, if you've ever accrued more than 25,000 frequent flyer miles you know how terrible it can be redeeming them for an award ticket. It seems like 95% of the time, the ideal flight that you want is completely sold out and that the next available flight for you is on a Wednesday. In February. On a tiny airplane with 17 layovers.

What many people don't know though is that mileage award availability is a fluid system -- seats open up and close overnight based upon how many people are booked and the amount of time before the flight. So to stay on top of whether or not seats are available for your particular itinerary, you really have to check every day (if not more frequently) to see if anything has changed.

This can be time consuming and difficult, and until now, only by calling or checking the web every day or subscribing to expensive software like expertflyer.com could you check availability.

Enter Yapta.com. The search engine known for refunding the value of your ticket if the price went down recently announced that they would be hosting award availability from several carriers carriers on their site. They've also included a tool that automatically notifies you if seats open up on your ideal flights. Brilliant.

For now the service is only available on Alaska, Continental, Delta, United and US Airways, but if demand turns out to be as strong as I predict, it could expand soon. Log onto Yapta.com and give it a try.

If you're a member of the Delta mileage program, this year has been good to you. From double miles promotions to generous partner rewards to easy status

Their latest promotion gives members up to 150% bonus on activity (on and off the ground) through year's end. Rewards are tiered as such:

• Earn 0-5k miles, get a 50% bonus
• Earn 5-10k miles, get a 100% bonus
  
• Earn 10k or more miles, get a 150% bonus
  

So you could fly to Europe once (8000 miles) then, say, fly a transcon (4000 miles) and bang, you've got 12,000 miles plus a 18,000 bonus, or 30k miles, more than a free domestic ticket. That's downright generous.

Why would you do this? Conspiracy theorists among the Northwest crowd (who will soon be assimilated into the Delta ranks) claim that this is some sort of underhanded way to sleight the NW crowd and make the DL frequent flyers stronger.

Personally, I think that Delta have figured out that miles are starting to turn into a profit maker. With inherent fuel surcharges and checked bag fees on every itinerary, no flight is free anymore and the airline will still make a few dollars. And all of the time that we spend earning miles and digging around for nearly impossible-to-find award tickets? More time indoctrinating ourselves with the Delta brand. Is that worth a seat on a plane that isn't even full? You bet.

Southwest Airlines (WN) just announced that they're moving in on New York City's LaGuardia through the purchase of bankrupt ATA's slots. The purchased slots would be enough for seven round trip flights out of New York City per day. Says spokesperson Paula Berg:

"Through a stock purchase acquisition, Southwest would get several assets of the reorganized ATA Airlines, including the rights to 14 LaGuardia
slots, and various other assets including training materials and
trademarks, etc. No aircraft, facilities, or employees are included."

Bankruptcy courts and the legal hodgepodge still have to approve reorganization of the defunct ATA and the subsequent purchase of slots by WN, but at this point, the airline is pretty confident that they're headed for the Big Apple.

So what does this mean for the New York traveler? As the best-hedged and one of the few profitable airlines in operation today, Southwest has the advantage of undercutting the competition's fares, effectively forcing other airlines to compete and drop their prices out of the city. So even if you aren't a big fan of WN, you should be happy that they're driving down the price of tickets across the bar.

It should take a few months for details to develop on when WN will move in (they're being tight lipped about any schedule.) We'll let you know when the plan comes together.

Kayak has been tinkering with their search engine in the past few weeks (you may have noticed that they started publishing AA fares again) and just today unveiled some of the tweaks that they made.

The most interesting one I found was Kayak Insight. The tool basically takes your departure city and tells you what cities people are searching for as their search is made. I showed up and plugged in Detroit, and up popped Fort Lauderdale, $233. Pause. Then up popped Hawaii, $600. The map continues to populate like this as you browse around in a few tabs, then when you come back in a few minutes it's got a huge map of where people are planning trips all over the world.

Cool trick, but what is it good for? Well, for Kayak, it's a good instructional tool to tell people where they can go for how much. I can get to New Orleans next weekend for $150? Sweet! Salt Lake for $100? Rad! It's also a fun little app to figure out just what the heck people are thinking in planning their vacation.

Watching Detroit for half hour, (I didn't watch it the entire time. Really. I have friends.) what was the most searched region? Florida, duh. It's cold up here.

If I were Kayak, I would collect this data over time and sell it to tourism boards as a marker of how much interest travelers have in a city. Or perhaps they're already doing this......

Check out your own home city at kayak.com/insight.