United Airlines announced it’s plan to charge some passengers a fee of $25 to check more than one bag. It will be charged to customers who purchase non-refundable, domestic economy tickets and who are not members of United’s frequent flier program, Mileage Plus. Currently, customers who are members of their Star Alliance partner programs will also be exempt. This move is expected to have many other airlines following suit in the coming months, according to a number of travel industry experts.

It’s not unheard of to only allow one checked bag (see my post on Virgin America); however, it has only been done on low-cost carriers. United is the first legacy carrier to implement the change and others will follow suit. In order to avoid the additional fee, I recommend you enroll in the frequent flier membership programs for all of the major carriers. Links to their membership programs are provided below.

US Airline Carriers:

• American Airline - AAdvantage
• Continental - OnePass
• Delta - SkyMiles
• JetBlue - TrueBlue
• Lufthansa - Miles & More
• Northwest - WorldPerks
• Southwest - Rapid Rewards
• United - Mileage Plus
• US Airways - Dividend Miles

The current annual membership for MPI is $375 and that doesn’t include access to the hundreds of events held every month across the nation. Each additional event will range from $15 to $775 for conference registration. Having been a member of MPI for a number of years, as a student and professional, and as an event planner and vendor, I can tell you that there are better ways to learn about event planning and validate your skills. Don’t get me wrong, if your company is willing to pay for your MPI membership, and you are a power networker, you may find MPI to be of great value for you. But, if you want to learn the basic meeting management skills, look no further than your local community college or state university. With the meeting and event industry booming, many colleges are creating professional development programs that teach the art and science of meeting planning.

If you are considering joining MPI I suggest attending 3 – 4 events and see how you like it. It’s worth the extra $10 or $20 for the non-member fee to see if the program fits your needs.

Additional Resources:

• Sacramento State – Continuing Education Meeting Planning Certification Program
• San Diego State - Meeting and Event Planning
• Sonoma State – Extended Education Event and Meeting Planning Certification
• check your local community college for more…

1. Headphones don’t cancel out sound. Unless you’re wearing Bose headsets (highly recommended by the way because they cancel out all airline noise) then others around you can hear what you’re listening to. Be mindful to turn down the sound.
2. Use your armrest, not the chair in front of you when getting up. How annoying is it to be woken up during a red-eye flight by someone pushing off your chair to get out of their seat? You know you hate it when others do it to you, so use your armrest to leverage instead of the person in front of you.
3. Dim the lights. Do you really need the tv, your overhead light and your computer going at the same time? If you see your neighbor is trying to sleep then try to pass with the essentials.
4. Plan your restroom breaks. If you see that the flight attendant is coming down the aisle with the drink cart, then it’s probably not a good time to take a bathroom break. Unless, you feel like sitting on the lap of the person in the aisle seat as you try to finagle around the attendant.
5. Don’t be a chatty Cathy. It’s great that you want to be friendly with the person you’ve become so personally intimate with in the seat next to you (on most airlines you’re practically sitting on top of each other), but you should still respect their privacy.
6. Who gets the armrest? Although you shouldn’t be a chatty Cathy, that doesn’t mean you can’t talk to the person next to you. If you’re in the middle and they have an isle, be polite and ask them to share the armrest.

For more airline etiquette tips, check out Delta Airlines “Planeguage” videos. Have a tip you’d like to share? Leave it in the comments section below.

Check-In: Normally I use online check-in, but as this was my first time on Virgin America, I wanted to see them in action. We used the kiosk for check-in which was smooth and then waited in line to drop off our checked luggage. After we were in line for about 10 minutes waiting to drop off the luggage, we noticed that there was no line for an agent. (I guess the airlines just have us trained already!) Each passenger is only allowed 1 bag up to 70 pounds and an additional bag up to 50 pounds is another $10. Even though I planned to do a lot of holiday shopping in New York I decided to forgo the extra bag. This practice is typical of European low-cost carriers, but is now making it’s way to the US.

• Score: 4 stars out of 5 due to the extra charge for a second bag

Comfort: The seats in coach class were the most comfortable seats I have experienced . The A320 planes are all brand new with black leather seats and glossy white plastic casings. The headrests are similar to those on international flights, which fold up on each side and move up for us taller individuals. Each seat has it’s own LCD monitor with entertainment system and headphones are handed out for free when you board (choice of earbuds or over-the-ear).

The only downside to the comfort was that when the seat in front of you reclines (approximately 5 inches according to the Virgin America website) you feel like a sardine. Even if you recline as well, the screen feels like it’s about 5 inches in front of your face. And, I am tall and slender, but trying to get out from the middle seat to the isle to use the restroom was quite challenging. Realizing this dilemma we tried to “upgrade” to premium seats (bulkhead or emergency exit row) for an additional $25 per person per leg, but they were sold out for our return flight.

• Score: 3.5 out of 5 due to the lack of pitch in coach seats

Entertainment and Food: Now this was the best part of the flight. The entertainment center features satellite television, popular shows on demand, movie rentals (although $8 per pop), a full selection of music, and video games. Each seat also has standard electrical plugs (ours didn’t work), USB (for charging cell phones and iPods), and ethernet (not yet available). And, instead of the attendants crowding the isles with large drink carts and waking everyone up on long-haul flights, you can order your drinks and food (for an additional charge) right from your screen. They’ll bring it to you at any time during the flight.

• Score: 5 out of 5 for the tech gadgets and on demand drinks

Final Thoughts: Virgin America is on par with JetBlue and is great for business professionals and tech-savy dependent travelers. I’ll continue to book with them, but will definitely pay the extra fee for the premium economy seats with extra legroom.

Booking travel through the site is easy using their interactive travel map or you can type in your search criteria directly, easily adding in up to 4 segments for a multi-trip itinerary. On their “Deals” page you can search for available specials, but as their site is still in beta, they offer a limited selection of departure airports represented by the major US hubs. In addition, Vayama allows you to easily search for Business and First class tickets and research visa requirements.

The Google home page, or iGoogle, is a dashboard of widgets that you can drag and drop to make a page as creative as you are. The widgets, a graphical user interface that allows 3rd party content to be placed on a web page, are created by both individuals and companies. There are basics such as clock, weather, maps, and multiple news sites. A few of my other favorites are:

• Google Reader – allows me to quickly view the top posts from my RSS reader (read my post on creating an RSS Reader)
• To Do List – keeping personal items on your work computer is difficult and dangerous, since anything you put on your computer is property of the company – keep your to do list right on your home page so you can access it quickly and easily at work or home
• Google Calendar – lets me sync multiple calendars to view on one page, including iCal, Outlook, and Yahoo! Calendar – as with the To Do List, you don’t want to keep personal items on your work computer so sync to Google calendar and you can keep your work and home calendars together
• WikiTravel – links to breaking travel news and destination highlights from their website
• Flight Stats – widget that allows me to quickly check the flight status of any flight by route, flight number, or airport
• Fandango – movie show times at my local theater
• Local Gas Prices – shows the cheapest gas prices by zip code
• Wikipedia – I never have to go to the site directly, I just search straight from my home page

To get started go to www.google.com/ig. You must add the widgets straight from iGoogle, since there are no links from the individual websites linked above. If you already have a Gmail account then log in using that, otherwise, click the link to “Get Started” and follow the instruction. There are thousands of widgets and you can arrange them in any way to like to make browsing and searching more efficient and fun. And, change your theme to suit your mood. Right now, I’m using Hong Kong to get pumped about my upcoming trip next March!

• Guest Room
• Breakfast
• Morning Break
• Lunch
• Afternoon Break
• Dinner
• Meeting Room Rental
• Standard A/V (audio/visual) equipment (e.g. flip chart and projector)
• and, the “++” taxes and gratuity

As a former sales and conference planning manager for the hospitality industry I will bring you more posts on meeting and event planning. But, for now, save yourself the hassle of arranging all the details ‘a la carte’ and find a hotel that offers a CMP.

I gave it a try and am pretty impressed. Once you create an account you just email your confirmations to plans@tripit.com, no matter where you booked. They put together a master itinerary from which you can email, print, or view on your mobile phone. You can also sync your itinerary with your Outlook or Google calendar and share your travel calendar with friends and co-workers, add maps and directions, and post special notes.

Take a look at their sample itinerary and watch their online demo.