New flights to the Windy City

A stress-free airport experience is becoming less of a wishful fantasy and more of a reality thanks to paperless check-in with many smart-phones and PDAs. It started first with Continental Airlines. But now, others like British Airways, Delta, Northwest, Southwest, Air Alaska Alaska Airlines, and Air Canada are slowly rolling out a way for customers to check-in for a flight, via Web-enabled devices like iPhones and Blackberries. How to do it is all relatively similar between airlines, but not uniform. Delta allows the boarding pass to be scanned directly from your mobile device. Register your cell phone number to receive a text message with a boarding pass bar code. Then hold up the screen of your cell phone under the airport security scanner, rather than show a paper boarding pass. (As always, you have to present a government-issued photo I.D. too.) Delta is testing the service at LaGuardia Airport. Similarly, passengers on American airlines on nonstop domestic flights from Chicago O'Hare, LAX, and Orange County John Wayne Airport can now check-in at AA.com and choose to receive an electronic boarding pass via e-mail, in the form of a two-dimensional bar code. (For details and photos, visit aa.com/mobileboarding.) In contrast, British Airways offers to fax the boarding pass, send it directly to an airport kiosk or check-in desk, or send it in an e-mail to be printed later. —Meagan Drillinger

The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum will reopen this weekend in New York City after nearly two years of renovations. The ship, launched in 1943, belonged to the Navy's Essex-class carriers, renowned for helping to win WWII. The Intrepid fought in almost every major battle (and survived many kamikaze attacks), then went on to serve in the Vietnam War and recover NASA space capsules before retiring in 1974. In 1982, the museum opened aboard the ship. In 2006, the Intrepid departed its home on Pier 86 to go to Staten Island and New Jersey for renovations (after getting stuck in the mud). The entire project, which included rebuilding the city-owned pier, has cost about $115 million. After all that, it's time to celebrate. The grand reopening begins on Saturday; the first 1,000 visitors will get a commemorative coin. You can see the new interactive and multimedia displays at the museum, which is devoted to period aircraft, artifacts, and the life stories of the soldiers who fought in the wars. Plus, there are fireworks scheduled for Saturday night. The fun continues through Tuesday, which is Veteran's Day. Fun trivia: it took 7,000 gallons of paint to cover the 27,000-ton carrier. Pier 86, 12th Ave. and 46th Street, 877/957-7447, intrepidmuseum.org. Get detailed directions here. General admission $20. Open Saturday 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Sunday and Monday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and Tuesday 2 to 6 p.m. (last ticket sold at 5 p.m.).

A few travel stories that caught my eye this past week: Beyond the Bellman: Unusual, and Enviable, Hotel Jobs Duck master, vibe manager, and chief beer manager are a few of the titles [Peter Greenberg] 4 rules travelers should know for 2009 Mandatory passports, "transparent" airline pricing, and (quite possibly) a passenger bill of rights are all up ahead [Elliott.org] Calexico named NYC's best street food vendor for '08 The "Cal-Mex" street cart plans to have a bricks-and-mortar store soon [NewYorkology] Strange Statues Around the World Lots of creepy stuff is out there [haha.nu, via Happy Hotelier] Walt Disney World's new dinosaur-themed restaurant opens What's the fossil-dig pit filled with? "It's nice dirt. It's clean dirt…. It's Disney dirt." [Chicago Tribune]

A few travel stories that caught my eye this past week: 5 reasons to travel during the holidays Will this year be the best time to travel — ever? [CNN] Carnival fuel surcharges being eliminated The cruise line will eliminate the cost on 2010 bookings — the same time a price increase goes into effect. Some customers sailing in 2008 and 2009 will be eligible for refunds. [Miami Herald] A look at smoking bans worldwide in a nifty mash-up map [Jaunted] Best Guidebooks to NYC Fodor's, Lonely Planet, and HG2 all come in for praise [New York Times] Trying to translate snow to sand Sandboarding in Oregon: not as crazy as it looks at first [Boston Globe] Swiss bunker becomes first zero-star hotel The windowless, underground hotel, not yet open to the public, will have "images from the outside" projected on a large screen. [AP via Yahoo]