A nifty deal on ski passes

Airfare savings alert: Virgin America has quietly lowered its prices for the week, a reliable source tells us. Now through Midnight Pacific Time this Thursday, September 11, all Virgin America flights booked on Expedia or VirginAmerica.com can be booked at about 10 percent off what the fares were a couple of days ago for the same itineraries. Travel must be completed by October 29, 2008. For instance, when I just checked, I saw on both Expedia and VirginAmerica.com a fare of $278.20 (including taxes and fees) to fly round-trip, nonstop between San Francisco and New York City in late September. For comparison, that was lower than any fare we saw in a search for any airline on the metasearch site Kayak (which points people to the sale fare, too). The sale is to celebrate a business deal. Starting now, you can find Virgin America fares listed on Expedia and on its partner site Hotwire. The main advantage of booking on Expedia instead of Virgin America is that the online travel agency allows you to create a package by adding a hotel. It has a hotel sale going on right now, too, so you might save by booking your airfare and lodging together. That said, if you only want plane tickets, then we suggest you follow our standard advice: Book directly at an airline's own website. Over time, we've found that this strategy is the most successful at turning up the lowest fare available.

Here's something new. JetBlue is temporarily auctioning off more than 300 tickets for routes out of six major cities. Opening bids are as low as 5 cents (plus taxes and fees) on JetBlue's eBay store. JetBlue says this is a one-time promotion, available until the supply of tickets runs out. For example, there were 20 tickets for flights out of Chicago for sale when I just checked. One pair of Chicago-New York City tickets had been put on the auction block this weekend for 5 cents, but the most recent bid was $152 for the pair of them. That's much lower than the total cost of buying two tickets on any other airline. But the price may be bid up in the two days remaining on the auction. JetBlue's tickets are nonrefundable. They're also non-transferable; if you buy tickets and can't fly, you're not allowed to auction them off to someone else on eBay. A warning: Scam artists on eBay may try to hawk JetBlue tickets, too. Only bid at http://stores.ebay.com/JetBlueAirways

While some cruise lines, such as Cunard, have long catered to the rich, it now seems that every cruise line is wooing them. Royal Caribbean and NCL (Norwegian Cruise Line) are at the forefront of this trend, says WSJ magazine. Royal Caribbean's CEO predicted in March that the next trend in cruising will be "disegalitarianism." That nonsense word means that high-paying customers increasingly want perks such as "priority embarkation" and reserved poolside seating—to name two services that Royal Caribbean will introduce shortly. NCL is also embracing luxury. It made so much profit by charging up to $30,000 a week for a 5,000-square-foot apartment on one of its ships that it recently decided to add super-sized suites to the Gem and the Pearl, too. NCL's Dawn already offers a couple of three-bedroom suites, each with wall-to-wall carpeting and white leather sofas, reports WSJ. And as of this June, passengers on any NCL trip can schedule appointments for Botox injections—a service that, while not necessarily aimed at the wealthy, is not offered at Wal-Mart either. NCL will soon launch F3 ships with grand quarters for the well-off. Each ship will have a bar made of ice; guests will receive fur coats to wear while sipping cocktails in 17-degrees Fahrenheit. Even Carnival, best known for offering value-priced berths, recently added nine spa suites to its Splendor. You can only reach the suites via a private elevator. I don't mind wealthy people enjoying themselves on their own ships, like Cunard's Queen Mary 2. What bothers me is that the spirit of cruising on lines like Carnival is supposed to be about bringing people together. All this segregating of passengers, though, achieves the opposite, as one of my colleagues has noted before. When a cruise line keeps reminding you of your status throughout a trip, it's not relaxing. Far more annoying, however, is when budget travelers feel they have been short shrifted. For instance, NCL markets Freestyle Dining in its premium restaurants as an opportunity to eat wherever you choose. But some passengers find that priority seating now goes to passengers who have paid higher fares. If true, ordinary passengers may be having trouble finding seats at their first choice of restaurant during peak times. Of course, far more people are satisfied with their NCL cruises than not, as shown by the high rate of repeat customers; so maybe there isn't any actual problem here. What do you think? Have you seen any of the cruise lines recently offer shabbier service to budget-conscious travelers than to wealthy travelers?

Swanky hotel group Leading Hotels of the World is having a fire sale on some of its room rates in honor of its 80th anniversary. For 80 minutes only starting at 8 a.m. (ET) on Oct. 1, the group will release "a limited number" of rooms at the rate of $19.28 per night (for its founding in 1928; get it?) for travel between Nov. 1 and Dec. 15, 2008. Pre-registration through its website is required. (Two-night maximum stay.) When we just checked, the website was overwhelmed with requests, so you may have to try refreshing the screen a couple of times. If you get one of these deals, let us know!! More details at The New York Post's On the Go: Travel blog