United doubles its fee for checking a second bag

Alitalia's unions, pilots, maintenance workers, and executives have been in frantic negotiations to avert a shut-down this week. The news at this hour is optimistic: A deal struck with major parties in the past day may--hopefully--save the airline. Unions agreed to allow the airline to cut about 3,000 jobs. But pilots and cabin crews are still resisting a deal. The airline may run out of money to buy fuel within days, and Italy's leading jet fuel supplier refuses to offer any fuel on credit. Other national airlines have shut down permanently before, such as Swissair and Belgium's Sabena. If you're flying Alitalia this month, be sure to check with FlightStats.com before you depart to the airport to make sure your flight has not been re-scheduled or otherwise changed. For our other advice, see our earlier blog post. MORE The Economist's estimable Gulliver blog is skeptical of the plan to salvage Alitalia

Today, online travel agency CheapOair expands beyond airfares and rental cars to offer comprehensive hotel listings for more than 85,000 hotels in cities worldwide. CheapOair is the ninth largest online travel agency, so you may not have heard of it before. What makes it stand out from the crowd? CheapOair's hotel search page displays up to 500 hotel results on one page. Other Web agencies take money from hotels in exchange for listing them at the top of the search results. CheapOair doesn't, listing all the hotels available, which you can sort by price or star rating. CheapOair also aims to streamline the payment process. It puts you through fewer screens than other online agencies to book a room. It also says it cuts deals with consolidators to offer lower prices than you can find elsewhere on some hotels. And like other Web agencies, it offers a money-back guarantee if you find a lower rate elsewhere. On the downside, the site charges fees of between about $5 and about $20 to book some—though not all—hotels. Other hotels can be booked without a fee. The fee, if any, is disclosed on the "detail" page of each hotel. Another downside is that you can't book dynamic packages, such as mixing and matching airfares with hotel rooms. Its hotel rates will not show up in metasearch site Kayak, but will show up in the results of some other metasearch engines. We'll keep our eye on CheapOair and update you as it continues to improve.

Since last week, Southwest Airlines no longer accepts cash for purchases mid-flight. Only credit or debit cards are accepted. Analyst Henry Harteveldt shares with The Big Money his prediction that all major U.S. airlines will have cashless flights within a year. Why? It's faster, it reduces theft, and it encourages passengers to spend as much as 50 percent more. Have an opinion? Feel free to post a comment.

Millions of Texans—especially around Galveston and Houston—are bearing the brunt of Hurricane Ike. We're thinking of you—hang in there. If you have a great memory of time spent in the area on happier days, feel free to post it.