Has your wine spoiled? This resort knows

If hotel lobbies aren't your kind of dating scene, you may be interested to learn about three new dating services that are available via cell phone. This month, Match.com launched a mobile dating service that allows its more than one million paying members to send messages to potential dates from their phones, according to Reuters. The service costs an additional $5 a month on top of the $17 a month members pay for six-month contracts. Want something faster? MeetMoi is a new "location-based" dating service. You send a text-message to the website providing your current Zip Code or street address. MeetMoi then tells you if there are any other members of the service who have said they're looking for a date in your area. You also receive info about people whose profiles match your criteria. The service is free to join and costs 99 cents for 10 anonymous text messages. [via SmartMobs] Prefer to talk to someone before you meet them? Zogo is a dating service that connects singles who want to talk by smartphone. Surf to Zogo.com on your phone's Web browser and see a list of singles who meet the criteria you've provided. If you find a member's profile interesting, you can click to ask for a phone call with the person. Zogo then passes along your request to the person via text message. If the other person agrees, you can have an instant phone conversation without each member learning the other's phone number. The service is currently free. [via the Orlando Sentinel] About 3.6 million U.S. cell phones subscribers used a mobile dating service in May, the most recent month with available data, according to the research firm M:Metrics. Photo: MeetMoi publicity Here's advice on flirting for women travelers, as two bar owners and authors told our readers in the 2007 issue of Girlfriend Getaways. Are you comfortable with dating on the fly? Or do these cell phone services make you queasy? Feel free to sound off by posting a comment below. Like this blog? You can keep up to date with the latest travel news with an RSS newsfeed, such as My Yahoo or Bloglines. Every time something is published on this blog at BudgetTravel.com, a copy of the post will be made available to you. Learn more about RSS newsfeeds and how to use them.

The new low-cost carrier Virgin America takes flight tomorrow (Tuesday), and I dropped by JFK airport this morning to receive a tour of one of its new planes. My guide was Adam Wells, the man most responsible for designing what's in the hulls of Virgin America's aircraft. We walked through a plane sitting on the tarmac. Adam pointed to the tinted windows, which filter out harsh sunlight. He said that the glare-reducing windows combine with soft interior lighting to help passengers appear healthier. Once he pointed this out, it became obvious: There was no harsh yellow and green light, which makes passengers in many standard airplane cabins appear washed out. "The goal is to make passengers feel more relaxed," he said. And his theory is that passengers will relax more if they look around and see other people looking relaxed. The airline's seats feel more like the seats you would find in a Mercedes-Benz than in the economy-class section of an airplane. Under each seat there's a hidden bucket that prevents your tush from feeling any metal bars through the seat cushion. (Thus, the seat avoids the common "bump in the rump" problem that makes so many air travelers so irritated.) The upholstery also cradles the spine a bit more than the typical airline seat. Adam was quick to point out another of the features he championed: A sleek mini-bar at the back of the coach class cabin from which passengers can fetch waters and sodas in mid-flight. If you want food, you press the button marked "food" on the remote control that is hidden in your armrest, place an order using a touchscreen TV, and then swipe your credit card through the bottom of your seatback screen to pay. My favorite unique service is that you can use the "Qwerty" keyboard on the back of your seat's remote control to sound off about your experience. When was the last time you heard of coach class passengers being encouraged to email a customer satisfaction survey to corporate headquarters in mid-flight? Earlier: Virgin America has sparked a price war.

Starting Monday July 16, in New York City, L.A. and San Francisco, you can get driving directions delivered to your cell phone via a text message. Here's how it works: You first call 347/328-4667 ("Directions" spelled on a keypad). Next, say where you are, whether it's a street address or an intersection. Then you just name your destination, which can be a street address, intersection, or business name, such as Starbucks. You'll immediately receive a text-message with point-to-point directions. The free service is from new outfit called Dial Directions and the info comes from MapQuest. Luckily, you don't need a fancy smart phone to use the service. Any dumb phone will do. Plus, outside of your cell phone provider's charges, there's no cost for getting information via text message. I tested the service and found that the point-to-point directions were easy-to-follow. One downside is that when you call 347/328-4667, you have to talk to a computer instead of a real person. If you hate that type of experience, you won't like this service. But I found that the computer understood words with a high degree of accuracy. (Cartoon: DialDirections.com) Related: More tips on maximizing your phone. Earlier: Jet Airways is launching U.S. service with great economy-class seats. Virgin Atlantic is launching U.S. service with hip new planes.

Under proposed rules, you will soon need a passport to re-enter the U.S. after traveling to any other country--even if you're going on a quickie getaway to the Caribbean or Canada. But the rules are confusing because they keep changing. This winter, a new rule required passports for flights home from Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean, just like other countries around the world. But the government was overwhelmed by a deluge of passport applications, and it responded by relaxing the rules for the summer. Until Sept. 30, if you have a confirmation slip that your passport application has been accepted (which can take a week or more for you to receive), you can still fly home from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, or the Caribbean with a government-issued ID, such as a birth certificate or a driver's license. The rules are different if you're driving across the border or sailing a cruise. You won't need a passport for those trips--at least not for this year. But next year, even driving across the border may require either government-issued ID or a passport, according to the most recent announcement from the Department of Homeland Security. By early January, U.S. citizens may be required to show a passport or an acceptable alternative form of I.D. The bad news: It apparently won't be good enough to show a traditional state driver's license. Under proposed rules, states will be required to create enhanced forms of identification that are more secure than standard driver's licenses. For example, the state of Washington is developing an "enhanced driver's license" that will provide Washington residents, who voluntarily apply and qualify, with a document that is acceptable for use at U.S. land and sea ports. The enhanced driver's license will cost slightly more than a standard one, and residents will need to go through a process of proving their citizenship and identity that is similar to the process for applying for a passport. The enhanced licenses may include electronic chips for faster identification by border control officials using electronic scanners. Until Aug. 27, you can tell the government what you think of the proposed new rules for border control by visiting Regulations.gov and searching for docket USCBP-2007-0061. The website will fetch for you the proposed rule with the title "Documents Required for Travelers Entering the United States at Sea and Land Ports-of-Entry from within the Western Hemisphere." To the right of the document, you'll see link that says "Add comments." Click on the icon that looks like a cartoon balloon of someone talking, and you can submit your comments on the proposed rules. Update (7/5; 9:30 ET): As I have emailed most of the people who commented below, if you want your comments read by the government, you need to submit your comments to the government through the Regulations.gov website, as I described above. Comments posted below are not being forwarded to the government because the government requests that individuals submit their answers individually.