Airlines: Richard Branson unveils V Australia

I like JetBlue, always have. I booked a flight from JFK to Long Beach, Calif., before the airline announced that you could pay a bit more and get seats with more legroom. (I looooove more legroom.) So when the airline sent me an email saying that we could change our seats and get 38" of legroom for "as little as $10 more," I checked it out. But I had to bail out of the process because the airline would not be clear about what exactly the cost would be. ("As little as $10" only gets you so far--this ain't my first time at the rodeo.) I'm sure it was $20 per flight--which I know is the ceiling for the legroom fee--but I got so annoyed that the airline wouldn't just say so that I kept our initial seats. Plus: We're two people currently in a window and an aisle, with an empty seat between us. If we upgrade to the 38" rows, I expect there's zero chance we'll end up with an empty seat in the middle. And legroom is great, but unless they're going to start making the seats wider--and they should!--more legroom will only make me so happy.

American Airlines has introduced an option to pay through your checking or savings account when buying tickets online. This service is terrific for budget travelers because first, it's free, and second, it encourages you to stop putting things on your credit cards. It's cliché but true: The best way to stay out of excessive debt is to pay now rather than pay later whenever you can, as I've learned myself the hard way. The downside to this new service is that you must book your tickets through AA.com. Be sure to use another search engine to compare fares before you book through AA.com. While AA.com promises to offer you its lowest fares via its own website, another airline may be serving the same route at a lower fare--and you might miss it if you search only on AA.com. AA's payment system looks like a snap to use: You type in your bank routing and account numbers printed on the bottom of your paper check or your savings account withdrawal slip. You also enter your address and driver's license or state-issued ID number. (When purchasing a ticket, just look for the option to pay by electronic check.) Kudos to American for launching this service. Northwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and US Airways accept payments by PayPal, which is a similar service that allows for electronic payments to be deducted via your checking account. But you may be hit with charges, depending on how you do these transactions. Check the fine print before you pay.

Thanks to pressure from Florida's Attorney General's office, Carnival Corp. (owner of Carnival Cruises, Holland America, and Princess Cruises) will refund supplemental fuel charges for bookings made before Nov. 7 last year for trips starting Feb. 1, 2008. The fees were $5 per person per day, and the attorney general said that the fees were not properly disclosed at the time of that reservations were made, according to the Associated Press. Erik Torkells first blogged about this last November: "Adding fees after you've paid?!" He also complained about the fees on Fox Business, as noted earlier. EARLIER Royal Caribbean does the right thing.

USA Today has a story today about how the TSA is planning on testing a "kindler, gentler" screening process at Baltimore-Washington International airport. What does that mean? Mauve lighting, soothing music, and smiling employees. (Big sigh.) If the TSA is serious about making people less stressed during the screening process, they should focus on making enforcement consistent from airport to airport. It's not, and it's maddening. And for Pete's sake, please don't play music. I flew Delta last weekend, and I went crazy listening to the music they play while the plane waits for the go-ahead to push away from the gate. The songs weren't bad--it was a fairly modern playlist--but it's not enjoyable, and it doesn't remove my stress; it makes it worse. Adding music to the security process is just so fraught. I mean, I can already hear the TSA screeners yelling even more loudly at passengers ("Get your laptops out! Take off your shoes!") to be heard over the sounds of Josh Groban.