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For each of the proposed US routes, you can already buy round-trip airline tickets for about $120

No, you can't. From the very first one:

https://www.travelocity.com/Fl...

"We've searched more than 400 airlines that we sell, and couldn't find any flights from Cheyenne (CYS) to Pueblo (PUB) on Mon, Oct 23"

Well, Nigera, Kenya, South Africa, and many more countries have cancelled all flights. But Obama said that he "can't" do that. Why he can't do that he didn't say though.

Give me a list of all the direct flights from infected African countries to the US. Go ahead, I'll wait. Here this might help: http://travelocity.com/

You are not buying stuff at the same price as 6 years ago, maybe you should actually pay attention to the receipts.

beef, pork, avocado, fruits, veggies, almonds, pinenuts, walnuts, mozarella, cheddar, other cheeses, seafood, grains, soy, soy, palm oil, milk, gasoline, beer and more beer, limes, canadian bacon, barley, restaurants, restaurants, restaurants,electrical energy, car rentals, hotel rooms, cab fairs,

air travel and air travel gets more expensive in many other ways, various extra fees, less room, more seats on planes

aluminium,

They sell plane tickets.

A travel-watcher bot would be really nice.

Travelocity has one. Works pretty well, too, at least for North America-to-the-rest-of-the-world type of info...at least you'll know when the prices start dropping for your preferred departure/destination pair.

The problem is that the competition takes place on web sites like Orbitz or Travelocity where the only criteria for comparing airlines is route and ticket price. There's no indication of whether a particular airline charges extra for checked bags, carry-on bags, or refreshments. Nor is there any indication of how much leg room to expect, how often the airline departs on time, or how often the airline leaves passengers on the tarmac for six hours.

When the only information passengers have is route and ticket price, the airline that can scheme to have the lowest upfront price will win.

A round trip from San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO) to Dallas, Texas, USA (DFW) starts at $308 according to http://www.travelocity.com/. That's not very expensive, even with Costa Rican wages. Also, here's Racsa's website, they DO offer internet access, and I HAVE used DSL through them. http://www.racsa.co.cr/ - It says they partner with Amnet to offer cable access, as you already mentioned.

Yes, but only if you do it like this:

Orbitz!

(think: litigious bastards)

Agreed!

Henceforth I will ignore any blather from the lips of mansion-dwelling Hollywood liberals or hypocritical lefty politicians who want me to turn my life upside down in the name of environmentalism.

Not that it isn't a pita to have to wait, but I wait at least that long, or I take a taxi. The company is covering it for business, and if it's not business, then anyone who would be picking me up probably came in on the same plane as me.

In short, there are plenty of ways around a 40 minute wait that don't require a cell phone call from the air. So it's hardly a reason for me to have to suffer the droves of cell phone yappers in a cramped environment. Anyway, the only people who could possibly need to be at that level of constant contact have an entourage of people to take care of such things, or better yet, their own damn airplane. Think POTUS. People still flying a commercial airline don't need to be able to call from the air.

Travelocity was "Born of leading travel innovator Sabre (the world's largest travel agent reservation system)." (In fact, recently spun off from?)

Dulles or Reagan?

Warning: 21-day advance purchase required for most fares. Many restrictions apply.

Dulles or Reagan?

Warning: 21-day advance purchase required for most fares. Many restrictions apply.

For tomorrow's fares, Boston to NYC is $64 one way by Train, $123 by Air (cheapest American Airlines), both for Tomorrow at 9AM. So, Train still wins.

And if you need a subsidy example, it's called the SouthEastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA). They're really happy, because they've managed to reduce their 2004 operating deficit "from $54 million to a still-formidable $26 million" (link) (last year's budget was $875 million + a $55 million deficit).

Who pays for all of this? We do... One way or another, the entire nation is paying for this inefficient mess. From this article, the counties pay for 8%, states at 38%. Another report states that even though federal subsidies have dropped in the last 5 years, money is still indirectly funnelled from Federal to State to SEPTA ($800 mil given to PA from the fed last year, $40 mil is directly accountable to going to SEPTA), not counting the $2 billion that the Federal gov has already invested in rail & car refurbishments. Oh, and they've only been sucking our money since 1963... not quite 60 years, but pigging out the same.

Now, imagine if we privatized the deal, and actually forced them to make money on their own? Because by Bus (the 3rd method of mass transit, privatized), I can go from Boston to NY City tomorrow at 9AM for $30. At 215 miles at 20 mpg & $1.75/gal for gas, its $18 by car, the ultimate privatized driving method, and I guess thats why people like to drive themselves.

1. You are not traveling for the purpose of arriving at your destination, for clearly airfare is cheaper, therefore you must be traveling for some alternative reason.
2. The Midwest, by definition as only partway to somewhere else, is an intermediary place. You don't travel to the Midwest, you travel through it. Therefore stopping is tantamount to etymological excoriation.

1. Enjoy the ubiquitous spaciousness of the scenery, or
2. Hyper-inflate your ego

You asked about making reservations online. Are you trying to save a buck, or trying to shoot for convenience?

Like many people, I've made many reservations, happily and without problem I might add, using Travelocity or travel.yahoo.com. That's a good way to save a buck or two.

If money is less of an object, and you're shooting for convenience, call up a travel agent. Pull open the yellow pages and look for "travel" in your metropolitan area. That's what I did for my honeymoon in October 2000. I conducted most of my business over the phone and through e-mail with my agent (contrary to what most services tell you, the agents get kick backs roughly equal to what yahoo or travelocity do), and only had to go to the office to pick up the tickets. I wanted to get access to some extra services, like a premium floor at the Contemporary 2 at DisneyWorld (I couldn't figure out how to do that over the web 2.5 years ago). But calling up and talking to a travel agent helped me get flight arrangements, park tickets at a discount, and set up a private car so we didn't have to hunt down a taxi to take us to and from the hotel.

Yes, you might possibly be able to save a few bucks, or use this novel "Internet" to help you make all the decisions yourself. Or, a travel agent who does this kind of thing professionally may be able to help you out and find you options you didn't know you had. Maybe you pay the same. Maybe you pay more, but get better accomodations.

Choose carefully. Your bride will remember this experience well -- and tell her friends about it. Heck, you probably will, too.

Oh, and Disney World was great. If you go, go first to Epcot Center's gift store and let it slip that you're on your honeymoon. They used to give out bride and groom mouse ears. Once you have those, you get to the front of LOTS of lines. And October is a very temperate, less busy time of year to go.

I wish you many happy years.

Travelocity is probably the only real suggestion I can give you. It's basically an online travel agent. They do flights, hotels, car rentals, trains, and vacation packages (as I recall). Check them out, even if you're Canadian - they rock, comparatively speaking.

Or you could - and I'm going to be radical here - leave your house (*gasp*) and go and actually talk to a real travel agent. They'd know more about the local attractions, as well as other nearby places you could take them too.

Seriously, the internet is not the answer to everything. Sometimes you have to go out into the big room with the green floor and the ceiling that's sometimes blue with a yellow heat lamp and sometimes black with little white status LEDs, and actually use more than twenty muscles for once.

--Dan