Travel news roundup

In BT's October issue, we awarded Megabus an Extra Mile Award—the most coveted snow globe in the travel business!—for taking intercity bus service to the next level. Since our story hit newsstands, Megabus has continued to innovate. Starting today, Megabus passengers can sign up to receive automated voice messages whenever their scheduled bus might be delayed or disrupted in its service. You can sign up when you book your ticket at megabus.com. The company says that about one in twenty of its arrivals or departures are delayed, which strikes us as a remarkably low record. Here's what we wrote about the company overall in Budget Travel's October issue: Call it prescient: In the past year, Megabus has expanded its operations to 25 cities in the United States and Canada as fuel costs have risen, giving travelers a cheap alternative to driving and flying when they need it most. The bus line keeps its fares extremely low—starting from $1 for the first few people who book seats on each bus—by selling tickets online and doing pickups and drop-offs in the centers of cities rather than at terminals. At the same time, Megabus hasn't skimped on quality—its double-decker fleet is equipped with free Wi-Fi, video screens, headsets, and seat belts. Plus, many buses run on biodiesel fuel. "We're conscious of what the traveling public wants," says Dale Moser, president and chief operating officer. "We're saving people money but still giving them a coach outfitted with the latest technology." Now even the 94-year-old grande dame of bus companies, Greyhound, is rethinking its business model. Greyhound joined with competitors this year to launch two bus lines, BoltBus and NeOn, with similar low fares and high-tech amenities. Megabus didn't start a trend, it reinvented bus travel for a new generation.—Jean Tang

If postcards just aren't cutting it, several websites now offer a more immediate way to say Wish you were here! Snapfish.com, Flickr.com, and Radar.net each let users instantaneously upload photos for online viewing from their camera phones. Plus, the mobile services at all three sites are free (although regular texting and browsing charges from you phone company still apply). Like Flickr, Radar will assign you a personal e-mail address when you sign up online. When you take a picture from your phone, you can send a photo message to the given address, and the pictures will automatically load onto your account. Snapfish has a universal e-mail account (save@snapfish.com), which recognizes your phone number from the information in your web account, and loads the photos to a default album from there. Each site also has a mobile version for viewing your photos on your Web-enabled phone (m.snapfish.com, m.flickr.com, and radar.net--which doubles as a Web and mobile version). Your friends' viewing capabilities vary, though. At Snapfish, no one can see your images until you invite them. If you want to invite someone from you phone, you have to go to m.snapfish.com and share invitations to e-mail addresses or phone numbers. A photo message to Flickr will allow you upload shots to your default settings, which you choose online in advance. Setting options include public (where anyone can view them), private (where only you can view them), and private to your friends/family (where you can specify contacts who can view them). With Radar, you have an established group of friends with access to your photos, so you don't need to invite someone to view a specific photo. (Although you can restrict certain albums to certain friend groups or set your default to a particular album on your computer, similar to Flickr.) Radar recently released a new alert system on the home page of your account to let you know about friend requests and new photos and comments. Flickr and Radar also allow users to comment on each photo from any Web-browser. However, Snapfish only allows comments at the end of an album and on a computer. Radar founder John Poisson keeps finding new uses for his site on trips: "I tell people where I'm going now by taking a picture of my boarding pass. On there is everything my friends need to know about my trip. By the time I get off the plane, I usually have a text or a comment from a friend in the area saying, 'Let's get drinks tonight.'" While not everyone will communicate through pictures as much as Poisson, these features still offer a cool way to show your office-mates the exact shade of blue of the Caribbean Sea while they're back in their cubicles—and to hear their thoughts about you when the photo is posted.

Between what feels like weekly changes in the airline industry—which carrier will fold or be sold next?—and the recent news about the demise of one of the U.K.s largest tour operators, XL, I'm wondering how many people are putting future trip planning on the back-burner these days. Have these happenings given you pause when thinking about booking trips a few months down the road? What about upcoming holiday travel?