Do you really want to be connected in-flight?

January is prime time for "restaurant weeks"—when cities get restaurants to agree to three-course set menus at much cheaper prices. In theory, it's hard to argue with the trend—but if you're not careful, you may find that you get less than what you paid for. Six pieces of advice: 1. Book early—like now. Restaurants only set aside a few tables for these promotions. Some restaurants takes ressies through OpenTable.com—it makes life way easier. (I'm a huge OpenTable fan. Who likes dealing with snotty reservations people who can't spell your name?) 2. You have to mention when you book that you want the deal. By now many of us know that participating restaurants tend to have a special, limited menu (don't expect more than three entre— choices, and if you want lobster go to Maine). But some restaurants also put you in a lesser room. If this is a concern, ask when you book! 3. Avoid "hot" restaurants, where patrons get treated badly even when they pay full price. Look for restaurants that want to encourage off-peak business—try business restaurants (which are usually busy at lunch) for dinner, and smaller, neighborhood restaurants for lunch. You'll need to do some digging, but if you can find a restaurant where the chef is the owner, that's the best bet of all. Because they'll care. 4. Ultimately, and this is true for finding a good restaurant anywhere at any time, you should be looking for a small restaurant in a neighborhood where people actually live. Famous restaurants don't really need the business—The 21 Club is on the New York roster, but I wouldn't touch its restaurant-week with a ten-foot fork. 5. Beverages, taxes, and tip are not included. Don't be surprised if your server tries hard to upsell you on bottled water or other items. 6. Speaking of servers: Waitstaff loathe restaurant week because it brings in stingy customers who aren't likely to become regulars. Be nice, and maybe they'll be nice to you in return. For info on restaurant weeks in New York, L.A., Washington D.C., and Boston, follow the jump. —Los Angeles is having its first official restaurant weeks: Jan. 27-Feb. 1, and Feb. 3-8. Lunch: $15 or $22, dinner $25 or $34. DineLA.com. —New York: Jan. 21-25 and Jan. 28-Feb 1. Lunch $24.07, dinner $35. NYCvisit.com. —Washington D.C.: Jan. 14-20. Lunch: $20.08, dinner $30.08. Washington.org/restaurantwk. —Boston: Mar. 9-14 and Mar. 16-21. Lunch: $20.08, dinner $33.08. Bostonusa.com/rw08. PREVIOUSLY ON THE BLOG It is borderline outrageous for Carnival, Costa, Holland America, Cunard, Princess, and Seabourn to slap a $5 fee per passenger per day to the bills of passengers who paid in full months ago. And More than 60 readers lashed out.

Y'all are the most interesting travelers we've ever heard of. When we asked you about your travel resolutions for the New Year, more than 70 of you posted comments sharing your plans. The winner of the most ambitious travel schedule is Pat: Jan -- India Feb—Canada-winter carnival March—Las Vegas April—Canada -train to Halifax May—last cruise on the QEII to Med. June, July, August—time off Sept—train to Canada west coast and cruise west coast and thru Panama Canal to Miami Oct—Costa Rica Nov and Dec—more time off And the most inspiring trip plan we came across might be Sarah's: We're heading to Mongolia for the Nadaam Festival of the Manly Arts (wrestling, archery, and horseracing) in July. We'll spend 17 days traveling to Ulann Bataar, the Gobi Desert, Lake Hovsgol and to see the games in Moran where we'll meet the wrestlers in person. Hope to ride a camel, a yak cart, a Mongolian pony and a reindeer before it is all over! Then again, it might be Jessie's: Headed for the Adriatic in late May—trying to stretch my dollars: Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (small group trip). Fall will be a trip to Norway or Egypt, leaning toward either trip on my own. Although in my 70's, still traveling as much as I can afford. Here are some other trip plans that are wonderfully creative: In June 2008 we are planning a 17-day trip to Ukraine, Russia and Finland. We will start in Kiev, then up to Moscow over to St Petersburg then take a boat trip over to Helsinki and fly home from there.—Kimberly In 2008, we will be completing our endeavor to visit all 50 states.—Kent Waggoner In 2008, we are planning a 30 day trip to africa, egypt and dubai. we will do a 9 day safari, cruise the nile and ski in dubai!—Lisa In September, my son is treating me to a Polar Bear and Northern Lights stay at the Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge in the Cape Tatnum Wildlife area.—Marge Pacheco April: Yunnan, China, to photograph native plants, visit different ethnic groups. October: Cape Province, South Africa, to study southern hemisphere plants, Johannesburg to visit Soweto, learn about living conditions, changes since end of apartheid.—Linda My daughter and I plan to visit Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa, Mexico in late 2008.—Renee This February, a trip to Patagonia with a few days in BA. Wanted to go there for a long time....Later in fall--probably, Peru.—Tatiana. In February we are headed for southern Spain and Morocco. In September we plan to visit the Ukraine.—Fran Roux Full list, here.

Starting Jan. 7, passengers flying through London's Heathrow airport will be able to carry onto flights two pieces of hand baggage. This is a reversal of a previous ruling in August 2006, which limited carry-on baggage to one piece -- period. The rest of the world lets travelers take two bags on board planes, usually one suitcase and one personal bag, like a briefcase or purse. The one-bag limit is still in place at Gatwick airport. According to British Airways, these are the new rules: You can carry onboard one bag no bigger than 22 inches by 17.5 by inches x 9.85 inches, including wheels, pockets and handles. Plus you can tote on board one briefcase or laptop-sized bag. Items must have reasonable weights. EARLIER TODAY Southwest tightens its luggage rules. PREVIOUS POST ON LONDON'S HEATHROW AIRPORT Heathrow is an airport with many hassles for travelers.

Pretty soon, you'll be able to surf the Internet while flying. But this small new service may have unexpected consequences, changing the way airlines run their flights. In-flight WiFi is definitely on the way: We've blogged about how JetBlue Airways is experimenting with limited WiFi on one flight already. And we've blogged how American Airlines will be rolling out high-speed broadband service this year on some of its Boeing 767-200 aircraft transatlantic flights. Elsewhere, the blog Jaunted is spreading the rumor that Southwest Airlines will also add in-flight WiFi soon. But it seems highly likely that the airlines will have to do more than just offer WiFi. They will also have to filter the kind of websites passengers can access. For example, they probably won't want passengers to use the Internet to make Web-based phone calls. They will also probably feel obliged to screen out porn sites and other objectionable material, given that Congress recently has been pressuring airlines to shield child passengers from graphic content in their in-flight movies. In Australia, for instance, "Qantas Airways is designing its high-speed Internet services to block sites on "an objectionable list," including porn and violence," according to the Associated Press. What's more, airlines are probably going to try to make a happy buck off of the Wi-Fi service by offering two-tiers of service, similar to a cable TV model with free basic cable and expensive packages for more comprehensive service. For example, JetBlue and American are considering using systems in which they offer passengers a free Yahoo-like portal on their seatback TVs, offering merely a handful selected of websites for passengers. The airlines may charge passengers fees of about $10 a flight for access to a wider array of websites. These two factors (the need for airlines to filter Web content and the need to charge for different levels of Web access to maximize profits) may lead airlines to become online publishers, in a way. In other words, when you use in-flight WiFi, you'll have to go to the airline's "home page", which will appear on your seatback TV screen. That home page offers an opportunity for creative publishing. Once the airlines start getting into the Internet publishing business, there may be surprising side-effects: "Matchmaking services" for people seeking cab rides when they land? Facebook for an airline's frequent fliers? eBay auctions for buying and selling frequent flier points? TripAdvisor-type destination guides exclusively written by and for members of an airline's frequent flier program? Match.com personal ads for travelers on particular routes, such as to Las Vegas? Here are some of these ideas, sketched out... —Why not make it easy for passengers to connect virtually to set up shared cab rides once they land, saving passengers from having to stand in long lines and spend big bucks? Airlines could use their Web portals on the seatback TVs to make it easy for passengers to say where they need to take a cab, and to meet up. The model here might be Virgin America's system for sending instant messages to other passengers in mid-flight. Or it might be such as Orbitz's service for travelers to share alerts with each other via text message and Web-enabled cell phones while on the ground. —Why not turn frequent-flier miles into an eBay-style open market? That's what blogger and MacArthur Genius Grant-winner Jeff Jarvis proposes: "In miles, the airlines have created a virtual currency with far greater reach and value than those on Second Life or Facebook....So let us bid on frequent flier seats with our miles. Let us trade and barter our miles with each other—I'll sell you this iPod for miles I want to use to get my vacation." —Facebook for fliers? What if an airline like JetBlue created a social networking site for popular routes, or exclusively for members of its frequent flier rewards program? Jarvis, who blogs at BuzzMachine, suggests the following uses for such a service: * We can ask our fellow passengers who live in or frequently visit a destination for their recommendations for restaurants, things to do, ways to get around. * We can play games. * What if you chose to fly on one airline vs. another because you knew and liked the people better? What if the airline's brand became its passengers? What if the airline even found ways to encourage more interesting people to fly with them because they knew that would attract and retain passengers (they could offer discounts and benefits to people who are active and popular in the social network)? *They have a currency to pay for the information: They could reward us with frequent-flier bonus miles. Because they know who we are, they could even start to anonymously aggregate other data around this: "American Express Platinum customers recommend..." Read Jarvis's full post at BuzzMachine —What about destination guides exclusively written by and for members of an airline's frequent flier program, similar to TripAdvisor? JetBlue has already tried a version of this on their website with Blue Guides for five cities: San Francisco, New York, Orlando, Pittsburgh, and Houston. These guides would be a lot more interesting if passengers, in mid-flight, could read them and offer updated info on destinations and services. Meanwhile, Southwest is experimenting with having travelers share travel tips at their BeMoreProductive.com website, as The Cranky Flier has pointed out. —What about Match.com personal ads for travelers on particular routes, such as to Las Vegas? We've blogged before about new cellphone tools to help travelers date. But once the airlines start publishing Web portals, why can't they offer "at-your-own risk" matchmaking services? Feel free to share your thoughts below...