Seattle deals, "no toll" rentals and more...

Posted by: Dean Foust on January 24

A number of interesting bits of news of interest to business travelers have surfaced in the past week, so thought it would be of value to provide a round up:

● Alaska Airlines is expanding its service between Seattle and six California cities including LA, San Francisco and San Jose—a move that’s viewed as a pre-emptive strike against ever-expanding Virgin America. Alaska is rescheduling its flights on these routes with “shuttle-like” departure times, leaving either on the hour or half hour. However, to produce the new planes it needs for this expansion, its ending its Oakland-to-Orange County route as of April 1, and that’s no joke. Read more here in this Seattle Times report. Alaska is also offering a “SEA double” promotion that gives fliers from Seattle to LA or SF double mileage points. Click here for more.

● More news on the airlines’ moves to provide Internet access to passengers en route. American Airlines has installed Net access on one of its 767s with more to follow, according to this story in the Dallas Morning News. Southwest also just announced its plans to offer satellite-based Internet, according to this story here.

● The State Department is now accepting applications for its new credit card-styled passports. For now, the card is only good for crossing the border into Canada by car or boat – not by air, and not by air to any country, period. It’s really designed for people who cross the Canadian border frequently, presumably for work. But it’ll be interesting to see if the program is expanded in coming years to include air travel.

The cards will run $45 for adults and $35 for children 15 or younger.

This story in Travel Weekly notes that the use of RFID chips has raised concerns with privacy advocates…

... the department's notice in the Federal Register stressed that no personal data would be encoded on the chips. Instead, they will merely record a "unique identifying number that has meaning only inside the secure [Customs and Border Protection] computer system."

Here’s a link to the State Dept. web site with more details.

● Dollar Rent A Car is slowly rolling out a new service where it offers cars equipped with those "prepaid toll" devices that let you blow through toll booths. Dollar's Pass24 pre-paid toll service is available to customers in Florida for $5.95 a day, or $27.95 a week, which includes all toll charges. But through March 31 the Pass24 fee will be included for free in the regular Dollar rental rates for customers paying with an American Express card. You have to use the promo code "AXTL" when renting. Here's a link to Dollar's web site.