A while back I wrote an article analyzing the finances of online travel agency YTB. My conclusion was that it was better to be YTB than someone who is building a travel agency based on them. It all smelled a bit. Apparently I am not the only one who reached that conclusion as they were just sued by California’s Attorney General as a Ponzi scheme.

Brown Sues To Topple Online Pyramid Scheme

California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced a lawsuit against YourTravelBiz.com for operating a “gigantic pyramid scheme” that recruited tens of thousands of members with deceptive claims that members could earn huge sums of money through its online travel agencies.

Wireless culture taking to the air

Delta Air Lines announced Tuesday that it will introduce Wi-Fi access on certain aircraft by fall and expand it to its entire domestic fleet of more than 330 planes by next summer. American Airlines and Virgin America previously have said they will launch in-flight broadband Internet services on certain planes by year-end.

TSA to allow laptops to stay in approved bags

There’s a new option for people annoyed at having to take their laptops out of their bags at airport security. The Transportation Security Administration will now allow travelers to leave their computers inside “checkpoint friendly” cases.

Airline industry axes 60m seats

The global airline industry will fly 60m fewer seats in the run-up to Christmas - equivalent to a 7% cut in flights - as the oil spike and economic downturn force carriers to axe services.

Kayak and American Airlines are having a bit of a tif:

Kayak.com drops American Airlines airfares from listings

American Airlines telling you that it will no longer be displaying airfares on Kayak.com or sister site Sidestep.com.

American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner explained the company’s tiff with Kayak. The airline asked the meta-search engine to bar American ticket purchases through online travel agencies such as Orbitz.com or Cheaptickets.com. As of today, American’s airfares were not available on Kayak.com but flight schedules were still listed.

and in the expected follow up story:

Kayak.com drops American Airlines airfares from listings

American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner explained the company’s tiff with Kayak. The airline asked the meta-search engine to bar American ticket purchases through online travel agencies such as Orbitz.com or Cheaptickets.com. As of today, American’s airfares were not available on Kayak.com but flight schedules were still listed.

American Airline sues parent of Kayak.com and Sidestep.com

Fort Worth-based American Airlines is suing the parent of meta-search sites Kayak.com and Sidestep.com, saying the Web sites violated its agreement to use the airline’s airfare content.

At issue is whether the sites were allowed to display American fares through third-party sites, including orbtiz.com and cheaptickets.com — where the carrier must pay booking fees — rather than just on www.aa.com.

After Beheading, Greyhound Kills Ad Campaign

Yes, the company offering famously lousy service had just launched an ad campaign with the line “There’s a reason you’ve never heard of ‘bus rage’” when, on a trip from Alberta to Winnipeg, one of its passengers was apparently beheaded and eaten. Suffice to say, they’re doing away with the campaign

and in the strangest piece of news, the conspiracies around the murder that happened at the Olympics:

An American tourist is murdered, and conspiracy theories abound

What would make you stab a 62-year-old tourist to death in the middle of the day and then leap off a 150-foot tower? That’s a question you can’t help puzzling over if you’re in Beijing. What on earth was going on in the mind of Tang Yongming, the 47-year-old man who stabbed two Americans and their Chinese guide over the weekend? Todd Bachman, the father-in-law of the U.S. men’s volleyball coach, was killed in the attack.

Bag labelled ‘bomb’ got past security checks

A LARGE bag with “BOMB” written across it passed through Qantas check-in and security screening for oversized luggage at Brisbane domestic airport yesterday, the Transport Workers Union said.

Baggage handlers preparing to transfer the bag raised the alarm and stopped work for about 40 minutes as security staff and managers attempted to remove it.

With a weak dollar, America is a great buy for foreigners, yet visits are falling

A recent headline in The Guardian of London � “America � more hassle than it’s worth?” � underscores a stubborn global view that the United States is not an easy or a desirable place to visit.

Unesco Adds to Its World Heritage List

Unesco this month added 27 sites to its World Heritage list, which now has 878 sites in 145 countries. Nineteen new sites fall into the cultural category. They include the Historic Center of Camag�ey, an inland village in Cuba founded by the Spaniards in 1528; the Armenian Monastic Ensembles, three structures in northwest Iran that are dedicated to the Armenian Christian faith (the oldest dates from the seventh century); and the Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the Carpathian Mountain area (Slovakia), which consists of eight structures built between the 16th and the 18th centuries for the Roman Catholic, the Protestant and the Greek Orthodox faiths. New natural sites include Surtsey, a volcanic island in Iceland formed between 1963 and 1967; the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico; and the Socotra Archipelago in Yemen in the northwest Indian Ocean near the Gulf of Aden.

Delta: Body of woman, 61, found in plane bathroom

Flight attendants discovered the body of a 61-year-old woman in the restroom of a plane shortly before the flight landed in Atlanta Wednesday morning, a spokeswoman for the airline said.

JetBlue CEO to take pay cut in ’show of solidarity’ with workers

JetBlue CEO Dave Barger will take a 50% pay cut for the second half of 2008, something Reuters calls “a show of solidarity with employees as the low-cost carrier struggles with soaring fuel prices and a slowing U.S. economy.”

Rape Alley

IT was once a peaceful fishing village, then an upmarket family resort � but today it is ruled by drunken young Brits.

Shameless pairs have sex in public, hooligans brawl over a wrong look, girls parade in underwear, youngsters down cheap booze until they vomit and drunken teens menace the narrow streets on quad bikes.

Welcome to Laganas on the Greek island of Zante, the latest holiday destination to fall foul of Brits abroad in the wake of now-notorious troublespots Ayia Napa and Faliraki.

It seems like each day when I open my news reader, newspaper or email I see more information about additional fees that the airlines are charging their customers. Rarely this this a change in the ticket price itself. All of these fees are also additional to the taxes and airport fees that get added onto a ticket. When all is said and done a $300 airline ticket can easily cost $450.

Recent stories include:

US airlines want lighter bags

• Starting May 5, United Airlines will charge passengers with domestic nonrefundable economy tickets $25 to check a second bag.
• Spirit Airlines said that it would double charges for all checked bags: to $10 a bag if reserved, and to $20 without reservations.

Air Canada to charge for customer service

Air Canada said passengers who opt to pay an additional $25 one-way on short-haul flights and an extra $35 one-way on long-haul routes within North America will receive “speedy” access to “specially-trained” customer service agents who will help rebook flights on Air Canada or other airlines, as well as pay for hotel stays and meals, if necessary.

Unbundling Air Fare Costs

• Delta matched earlier moves by United and USAirways to charge $25 for a second checked bag. This fee ” will not apply to first-class or business-class customers or members of Delta’s frequent-flier program who log at least 25,000 qualifying miles of travel per year.”
• JetBlue also announced a fee for seats with more legroom, a practice used by United for many years.

Passengers paying for everything in flight

• Last year Air Canada got international attention for piloting a pay-for-your-own-pillow plan — a $2 Comfort Kit with a blanket and inflatable pillow.
• On Air Canada if you do not check in any luggage, you can get a $10 discount on your Air Canada Tango fare.
• Air Canada charges an extra $20 per passenger for bookings made via telephone instead of the website, up to a maximum of $50 per booking.

Delta raises fees for mileage tickets, children flying alone

• Delta Airlines boosted its unaccompanied-minor fee — the charge to transport a child between the ages of 5-14 flying alone — from $50 to $100 each way on a nonstop flight, the same it has been charging for connecting flights.
• Frequent fliers will be charged a $25 “handling fee” for award tickets booked over the phone with a Delta representative that include a segment on a partner airline, such as Alaska or Northwest. That’s on top of an increase from $20 to $25 for booking any type of ticket on the telephone.
• Delta, based in Atlanta, also said it will boost the charge from $75 to $100 for taking a pet in the cabin, and will raise the cost of taking an oversized bag from $100 to $150.
• Northwest’s fee for children traveling alone on connecting flights also goes up to $100 for tickets issued after today.

Part of what is starting to drive passengers crazy is the unpredictable nature of the fees. My boss and another co-worker recently took a weekend trip from London to Estonia. There was no extra fee for luggage on the way to Estonia but $300 in fees for the return flight which was more than the cost of the tickets.

In these days of rising jet fuel we have seen ATA and Aloha airlines cease flights recently and Alitalia is reported to be close behind them. Fees like this are likely to continue to increase until passengers start complaining or more importantly traveling less. So what can you do?

• Pack lighter
• Pack your lunch
• Dress warmer (you may not have a blanket and it takes bulkier clothes out of your luggage
• Pack your own headset
• Don’t call the airline if you can use their website instead

As of this afternoon a video on YouTube that is the latest safety video has been viewed 350,000 times. Huh? A safety video? Isn’t this what most people avoid watching on the airplane? Delta has even blogged about the making of the video and the press it has garnered.

Joe Dion from Fly With Me interviewed the star of the video on his most recent podcast.

Delta Airlines’ latest safety video has been getting a lot of hits on Youtube, and “Deltalina” is the reason. I talk with Chris Babb, the creator of the video, and with Katherine “Kat” Lee, the flight attendant who is featured in the video. Kat has gotten the nickname “Deltalina” because she looks like Angelina Jolie.