All New Best Travel Products

Budget Travel lists its favorites from the annual Travel Goods Association show in Clever New Travel Products Arrive. Among the top picks are Pitotubes, airtight reusable bottles for toiletries; Anne McAlpin packing boards and the Steripen Handheld Water Purifier.

Buying Travel Online – Explore these 10 buying tips

I got a good list of travel tips from the Baltimore Sun. If you are a frequent traveler and you do most of the bookings online, then I think this is something for you.

Personally, I like the approach and I think its very important to know whats lying behind the door.

Explore these 10 buying tips

Site59 is now lastminute.com

A big change in the world of online travel. Travelocity’s Site59 will soon become lastminute.com. Travelocity bought both companies in the past. Site59 was bought in 2002 and lastminute.com in 2005. The rebranded site will feature all of the same content available at Site59, which offers deals on last minute travel.

“Site59 has been one of the travel industry’s best value propositions, but for many people the name is difficult to remember, and usually requires an explanation of what it means – the 59th minute,” said Michelle Peluso, CEO of Travelocity and former CEO of Site59. “The acquisition of lastminute.com in Europe in 2005 gives us the opportunity to apply this much more recognizable name to Site59 here in the US.”

U.S. and E.U. Air Travel Pact = Cheaper Tickets?

An agreement between the U.S. and E.U. may soon allow airlines more flexibility in their trans-Atlantic flight operations. If approved by Congress and E.U. transport ministers later this year, the pact would allow European carriers to fly into U.S. airports from airports outside their own countries. As it now stands, for example, a British airline can only fly into a U.S. airport from a British airport. The change will allow much more competition among airlines, which could lead to increased options for travelers and – we hope – lower ticket fares. If approved, the pact would take effect in October 2007.

U.S. Transportation Department to Review Airline Contingency Plans

As per statement made by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the department will investigate recent incidents that led to airline passengers being stranded aboard planes for hours. The most talked-about incidents involve American Airlines and JetBlue, but other airlines are also guilty of stranding passengers on the tarmac for lengthy time periods. Just last month, I was stuck on a AA for 2 hours before take-off.

Source : Department of Transportation Statement