Mobissimo

You've eaten the Snack Pack available on United and Ted flights. $5, not a bad price, the indigestion from the salami and soy chips 3 hours later - priceless. Look, the airlines are going through tough times, or are they? This article explains that charging for food and excess baggage may be cyclical.

Paying for amenities that used to be free might seem outrageous, but the practice is not exactly new to major airlines, according to Randy Peterson, an expert on frequent-flier programs and editor and publisher of Inside Flyer, a magazine for frequent travelers. The airline industry, he contends, is a cyclical creature that has been there, done that, when it comes to charging for meals and baggage. People Express Airlines, for instance, a popular low-fare airline that went bust in the mid-1980s, charged 50 cents per can of soda and $5 per checked bag.

There is no rule that airlines have to feed you, or maybe there is, but I don't know about it. However, the food on the airplane is so horrendous anyway, who wants to pay a premium for it? The warm nuts in United Business? Pass.

Not to brag, but if you're planning a trip to France to taste wine, you may want to rethink your trip. Come out to Cali and enjoy the world's finest wine. Seems Cali wines beat out French wines again, 30 years after the infamous Judgment of Paris:

French and California winemakers marked the 30th anniversary of the storied Paris tasting with another sip-and-spit showdown.

California won — and by more than a nose.

Native wines took the top five of 10 spots, with a 1971 Ridge Monte Bello cabernet sauvignon from the Santa Cruz mountains coming out on top Wednesday.

Read the whole AP article here.

Forget about slashing fares, marketing campaigns, governmental lobbying, you know the typical ways airlines wage war against other airlines. In this case, it's all about ... manhood.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish national airline LOT said this month that managers at cut-price competitor Ryanair would "drop their trousers" for extra publicity.

It turns out LOT spokesman Leszek Chorzewski was right.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary says he'll walk naked through Warsaw if LOT removes the fuel surcharge on its tickets by the end of this month.

I guess anything goes when you're looking for market share.

Pushing the envelope of air travel, new Japanese startup Starflyer is offering interent access and more. From Time Europe.

StarFlyer, a new Japanese carrier, is hoping that its combination of no-frills reservation procedures and slick cabin environments will help it win customers in a cutthroat market

A seat on the company's Airbus A320s can only be purchased online or via a cell phone (assuming, in the latter case, that you're hooked up to a Japanese telecoms provider).

Once on board, passengers enjoy a chic, black interior and an Internet connection in every seat. Personal video screens, coat hooks, cup holders, retractable foot rests, the widest seat pitch in any economy class and a 30% increase in space between seats (achieved by removing nearly 30 seats from the A320's standard 170-seat configuration) add to the comfort — and when not in use, the middle seat in each row converts into a table. At the moment, the fledgling airline only makes the hour-and-a-half-long trip to Tokyo's domestic Haneda Airport from its home base in the western port city of Kitakyushu, but look out in future for routes to Shanghai and Seoul.

We need one of these in the States:

Loft Plus One—described as "the world's only talk performance pub"—is a thing to be marveled at. This is the only place in Japan, if not the world, where mafia bosses will take to the stage and give frank answers to questions from the audience about lives of crime and violence. Porn actresses will share a podium with (as well as perform taunting stripteases for) members of the "Male Virgin Alliance." On one night, parliamentarians will be debating the government's policy on North Korea with hectoring drunks; on another, career pimps will be revealing the secrets of their profession amid a

Read more on Time Asia. Next time you're in Tokyo, check it out and let us know how it was.

Location: Shinjuku Loft Plus One
1-14-7 hayashi bldg. B2F
kabuki-cho.SHinjuku

Locale: Tokyo JAPAN

Cost: 2,500 yen w/ 1 drink

Loft Plus One Map

If you're looking for alternatives to the tackiness that is Cancun, check out Hautulco says the NY Times:

About six hours' drive from the city of Oaxaca and less than an hour by plane from Mexico City, Huatulco stretches 22 miles along nine bays between the Coyula and Copalita Rivers. It lies about 300 miles east of Acapulco, but there are no bunched-up high-rise hotel strips to mar the scenery, just soft sands, clear ocean, striking cliffs and dense forest. No casinos.

The Airbus A380, a double-decker passenger airplane that carries 555 passengers has been undergoing testing at various airports.  Because of it's immense size, airports need to be reconfigured to accomodate the A380.  However, major hubs like London Heathrow, Frankfurt, and Denver are spending the money to update existing facilities for the massive jet.

The A380 will stay at Heathrow for airport-compatibility tests before returning to Berlin early Friday. BAA Heathrow managing director Tony Douglas said BAA and Airbus staff also would conduct a series of tests, including crowd handling, during the aircraft's brief stay.

Heathrow operator BAA is spending some $850 million to upgrade the airport to accommodate the A380 and other anticipated ultra-large aircraft of the future. Other work has included runway resurfacing, upgrading runway lighting and the construction of new taxiways.

The Airbus is one solution to the future of air travel.  Huge planes will carry passengers to a hub and then smaller jets to the final destinations will fan out from the hub - the hub and spoke model.  Boeing is banking on the other model, point to point.  The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an extremely fuel efficient aircraft, able to fly long distances while consuming less fuel.  In addition, the interior of the 787 has been completely reconfigured, much larger windows, wider bodies, higher ceilings, a foyer.  While Boeing is banking on the p to p model, it has redone the 747 to compete with the A380.

Wow, that was Proustian.  Nice.  If you're a traveler, you know that not only do you have to bring back something for the loved ones in your family, but also you like to keep a momento for yourself.  Perhaps a stuffed piranha, a shellacked crab, a miniature Leaning Tower of Pisa, whatever, you still buy it.

Here's a curious trivia tidbit from U.S. history:  In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams took leave from their Europe-based diplomatic duties and traveled to Stratford-upon-Avon to visit the home of William Shakespeare. Not much was recorded of the occasion, but one fact of their pilgrimage to the Bard's birthplace stands out: At some point during the tour, the two American statesmen brandished pocketknives, carved a few slivers from a wooden chair alleged to have been Shakespeare's, and spirited them home as souvenirs.

While MobiBlog does not condone such vandalism, why do we do such things?  Even though the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum is obviously off limits to touching, of course I reached and rubbed it.  Why?  Don't know, but it felt good.  Regardless, souvenirs are as necessary as plane tickets, they are a must for any trip.  Next time, bust out your pocketknife and carve up a San Francisco Cable Car.

Many of you already know that Mobissimo has just launched the India site, Mobissimo.in.  The press is already flying about this industry leading launch - online, television, print, the media coverage for this is well ... overwhelming, we could not be more pleased.  Mobissimo's CEO sat down with Eye for Travel's Ritesh Gupta to discuss the significance of Mobissimo.in's launch.

 In an exclusive interview with EyeforTravel.com’s Ritesh Gupta, Beatrice Tarka, chief executive officer, Mobissimo, shared information about timing of the launch, plans for India and other Asian markets. Excerpts:

How do you assess the timing of Mobissimo’s entry into India? How do you assess India as a market for online travel?

At Mobissimo ...

You can read more about the interview here.  At Mobissimo we are committed to offering the best travel tools available, whether national launches like Mobissimo.in or even MobiDeals, Mobissimo is always leading the travel industry with prescient travel tools and relevant and hyper-useful search tools.

Mobissimo announces today the launch of Mobissimo.in, the first travel search engine for India. With the launch of Mobissimo.in, travel search in India has become that much easier. In one site, Mobissimo.in searches every Indian airline, online travel agency, and low-cost airline. Mobissimo searches popular Indian airfare sites like Air Deccan, Air Sahara, SpiceJet, GoAir, Jet Airways, Air India, and Kingfisher as well as the leading Indian online travel agency MakeMyTrip.

'Mobissimo.in marks an important step in global travel search.' says Peter S. Shin, Sr. Director of Business Development at Mobissimo. 'The global market for online travel is growing tremendously in international markets like Europe, where we also have Mobissimo.fr and Asia, where only Mobissimo searches fares from low-cost airlines like AirAsia, JetStar, and SpiceJet.'

Mobissimo.in addresses the need on the India subcontinent for travel search as the Indian travel industry has been growing at a staggering rate of 62% a year. Mobissimo.in also searches hotel and car sites for India travel in addition to the widely acclaimed Mobissimo Activity Search. With Mobissimo Activity Search you can simply put in your origin city and then search for activities like Beach or even Cricket. Only Mobissimo offers this tool to help travelers find the best destination to meet their needs.

Don't know what they'll come up with next, but this one seems a little strange.  I mean, nude beaches are fine, nudist colonies, but riding a horse naked?

TUCSON, Ariz. - Levi's and Stetson's are definitely out at this dude ranch.
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Well, the hats are still OK. But you won't need the pants.

The 30-acre Mira Vista Resort has opened as a "clothing-optional" resort, where nudists can enjoy lounging by the pool, playing tennis, doing yoga or even Pilates.

"It's hard to go back to wearing a bathing suit once you've tried it nude," Dave Landman, one of six new owners, told the Arizona Daily Star.

Well, I guess horseback riding isn't offered, but that's a good thing.  As always, we at Mobissimo recommend exploration, so give it a shot.

Well no, most of this was a financial restructure.  However, how do companies lose that much money in three months?  I don't get it, I mean the rise in gas prices is absorbed by customers, there was no major loss of traffic, please explain it to me.

ATLANTA (AP) — Delta, the nation's third-largest carrier, reported Thursday a first-quarter loss of $2.1 billion, plunging the beleaguered airline into deeper financial straits.

Excluding a flurry of bankruptcy restructuring costs, however, the Atlanta-based airline's losses are a tamer $356 million for the January to March period.

How is $356m tamer?  While a federal bailout is probably around the corner, the big three, and the other lesser airlines like US Air and America West need to do something and do something fast.  It has been a long time since 9/11 and the restructuring that was to take place should be well implemented by now.  It just shows that the legacy airlines will always think and be run the same way, antiquated.

Now only if she could order off the menu in 8 different languages. GPS tools are proving invaluable for travelers today. Especially in Europe where roads can be treacherous and directions from the locals vaguely helpful at best - especially if you don't speak the language. Enter the talking GPS, your navigation mistress to ease the usually painful drives from point A to point B in Europe.

In an odd way, it felt like my husband was having an affair. It wasn't so much a physical attraction as an emotional connection. It was right out in the open; he didn't bother to hide his admiration for her. He was gooey-eyed over this girl, ready to follow her wherever she told him to go.

I've never used one of these devices, as my solution to the problems of driving is being driven, or helicoptered to my destination. Driving in someplace like Italy is left to those who know. While I'm all for going out on your own and experiencing the open road, to me it's just not worth it. However, make it worth it to you and try one of the new GPS devices, it has been said to save marriages.

I fly. I fly a lot. I fly Star Alliance only. Except short hauls. Anyway, I'm approaching close to a million miles flown and the sad thing about it - I've paid for 99% of all of them, no business travel here. I've been with Mileage Plus since I could walk. With the recent troubles at United and its emergence from bankruptcy, a new vibe is definitely in the friendly skies. They love to fly, and it shows - am I mixing slogans? Pilots, yes, the guys who should be focusing on the 100 ton machine they're controlling are taking a more active role in customer service.

Under the program, you'll be more likely to see an actual pilot at the gate to explain to you why your flight is delayed. While airborne, frequent fliers may find a flight attendant pressing a note from the pilot into their hands: a personal thank-you for being aboard. And kids traveling alone will in some cases be offered a chance to call home while in flight, using a pilot's credit card.

Nice. And this isn't just pr driven fluff. On a recent international flight, the flight attendant brought me a business card from the pilot with a note expressing his appreciation for my flying United. A nice touch. Later on the train to switch terminals, his name was emblazoned on his luggage, so I introduced myself and thanked him for his card, we talked for a bit and then proceeded to the airport bar where we got completely hammered and then he flew a 767 to Newark. Just kidding. A good marketing campaign for United, costs them virtually nothing, but the little things, yes, the little things are what count.