As Virgin America evolves out of their infancy, they're starting to tweak some of their operations to make frequent passengers happy, cater to niche interests and maximize profits. Over the last few weeks the airline has unrolled a series of small changes to their operations; we'll fire through them quick for you so you can stay on top of things.

• Redemption of EleVAte points: Virgin America's frequent flyer program, EleVAte, has so far allowed you to accrue, but not spend points. The big advantage in this program among others is that members should be able to spend their miles on any flights – there won't be any blackout dates that prevent you from traveling on weekend/evening/holiday flights.
• Main Cabin Select: If you sit in the bulkhead or exit rows, in addition to the extra leg room you'll enjoy the amenities of first class: movies, food, premium checkin and the like. And yes, it does cost a bit more.
  
• Fully refundable fares: While the vast majority of us don't use fully refundable fares, the 10% of people that do book the tickets haven't been able to do so thus far. Fully refundable fares, while significantly more expensive than a regular "economy" fare give one the ability to change/return tickets at the last minute, which is why they're good for business travelers on tight schedules. Adding this flexibility now lets Virgin America try to capture some of that business traveler market. Note, that to get fully refundable fares you still have to call the airline to book -- they have yet to integrate that feature into their booking engine.
  

These small changes should add further leverage to the product that VA has been building and eventually broaden their market share – in case fun mood lighting and top notch In-Flight-Entertainment weren't enough. I'm glad that the airline is adapting and responding to user feedback and desires.

Now all they need to do is start flying to the Midwest and I'm sold.

Been eyeballing those super fancy fares on OpenSkies for the last few months but too afraid to jump on the tickets? Now's your time to take the bull by the horns and pull the trigger on that vacation to Paris or Amsterdam.

OpenSkies just announced that they put their Prem+ cabin on sale for the first 1,000 passengers on each route. For now, tickets will be $499 one way to Amsterdam, their newest route opening on October 15th, and $599 one way to Paris.

In case you aren't sure what "Prem+" means, that's OpenSkies code for plush, giant leather seats and premium service -- an experience better than many carriers in Business Class. Gadling got to try out Prem + first hand this past summer, and let me tell you, its well worth the dollar spent.

Sound like a good ride? You can take advantage of the Premium fares at flyopenskies.com or if you're feeling lucky, register to win free tickets at Gadling next Friday.

JetBlue seems to be kicking up their marketing tactics into high gear. Just a few weeks ago the airline started selling tickets on Ebay, and coming up in the next few weeks will be sponsoring "happy hour fares" in several target cities.

According to JetBlue spokesman Morgan Johnston, the airline will be setting up a happy hour bar-eqsue setting in select locations around the cities where people can mill about and see special last minute fares that will only be available at that location. Tickets will be available on a first come first serve basis for upcoming last minute weekend fares, and as customers see fares they like published on a blackboard, they can jump on the tickets on the spot.

Whether JetBlue will dynamically adjust the price of their last minute fares based on demand is an interesting question. Depending on how many people show up to the events, they may have a hard time selling strange flights at strange times. Or maybe people will just get excited and buy anything.

The overall goal, however, is pretty clear: get a group of dedicated JetBlue customers isolated, fired up about travel and in the spending mood then throw some tickets to the fray -- let the excitement of the moment overtake any reasonable doubts on prices. The same thing applied to the earlier sales on Ebay -- nobody really got a good deal, but in the heat of the moment, winning an auction is much more fun than saving on tickets.

Today's happy hour takes place in Washington DC, between 3:30 and 6:30 PM at the Reston Town Center Pavilion (11900 Market Street at the intersection of Discovery St.) Let us know how the the sales go and if it's a good deal we'll post more dates.

Considering Iceland's location and climate, perhaps it's no surprise that the country's credit markets are in a deep freeze. During the "boom years" of the '90s, Iceland became one of the richest countries in the world per capita, thanks to economic reform, a booming stock market, and an increased demand for the fish off its coasts.

But as the Guardian points out, "Iceland built its extraordinary wealth on the crest of the worldwide credit boom and now the crunch is sweeping it away, bankrupting a people for whom the past eight years have been, for most of them and by their own admission, one long party."

Iceland's currency is plunging towards the center of the Earth-- almost as weak as the currencies of Zimbabwe and Turkmenistan-- and supermarkets are having trouble paying for more food to be imported.

All of this is obviously terrible news for Icelanders, but travelers might find some unbelievable deals if they want to visit any time soon. Not only that, you'd be helping out the locals by providing some much-needed foreign investment.

More here.

(Photo via ContemplationDC)

Here's an idea for anyone who wants to travel alone, but hates to travel alone when it comes to meal time. These odd thoughts came cavorting through my mind after seeing this story on a Today Show segment. Imagine the scene:

There you are all by yourself while others are paired up or in groups. You are sitting waiting for dinner, maybe reading but feeling a bit dissatisfied. Perhaps you feel like a target to unwanted advances. You wish you had a detractor. Something that lets you know that you are not alone--or at least, if you are alone, you have a way to feel differently. Or perhaps you are a bit shy and wish you had a conversation starter, something that would break the ice when talking with strangers. And if a creepy guy is lurking about, something that would send a signal "hands off."

A fake baby might be the answer.

According to the segment, the fake babies look and feel real. That downy soft hair. The weight of them. The way they appear in a baby carrier.

From what I've been reading, despite the talk of how airfares are increasing, it's wise to keep checking for the travel deals. They can be found.

According to this AOL Money and Finance article, depending on where you are heading, you can find a reasonable rate. Heading to Europe, for example, may score a bargain because there has been an increase in flights which means more seats to fill which means cheaper fares. Last month I checked out ticket prices from Columbus, Ohio to Copenhagen, Denmark and found a fare on Northwest just over $700. Not cheap, but cheaper than I expected.

A friend of mine flew from Boston to Columbus the end of August and paid a little over $200--another surprise. Some cities are bargain destinations: San Antonio, Dallas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Phoenix, for example.

Last month, GrandLuxe Rail Journeys, a luxury train company we've blogged about in the past stopped operations due to financial woes. It's not that Americans aren't interested in train travel, Amtrak's business went up this summer, it just seems that fancy trains have a hard time making a go of it in the U.S.

Rachel Dunlap at Intelligent Travel stated her surprise that the GrandLuxe Rail wasn't able to make a go of it. As she pointed out, it had met with great reviews.

Dunlap is stymied about the demise, particularly since luxury trains have been able to find a market outside the U.S. Just yesterday David posted about VIA Rail's upcoming Concierge class for the discerning train traveler.

If you've been around the blog for more than a few weeks, you may have noticed that we seem to cover some of the newer and edgier carriers a bit more often. Virgin America and Atlantic, Southwest and OpenSkies seem to edge into our network fairly often and it seems like there's always a Gadling blogger close at hand (usually with a vodka tonic) to report on the hijinks.

Why is this? Are these companies secretly paying for extra exposure? Do Gadling bloggers get free tickets any time they want to jet set across the country supporting their vokda binged lifestyle?

The simple answer is Public Relations. Every day Gadling bloggers are out, scouring the interwebs, newswires and telephone lines finding out new information for you, the reader, and reporting on daily developments. And what we learn and how we report is directly related to how friendly, prolific and open the PR staff is. Contacts and friends that we've made at the above carriers keep us in the loop, let us know when things are happening and occasionally send us piles of spam. Unfortunately, that's about all we get for free.

When you're out comparison shopping for plane tickets, nine times out of ten you'll find the best fares directly on airline websites. Carriers do this to "train" you to refer to their websites anytime you want to purchase a ticket – and to not shop around. And it's a reasonable balance, because travel agent websites like Orbitz or Travelocity will charge you a few extra dollars for booking. Running a search on a metacrawler like Kayak or Mobissimo proves this, as often you'll see prices five to ten dollars lower compared from an individual carrier's website to something like Expedia.

To further incentivize you to use their websites, most carriers further offer what's called a "Best Fare Guarantee," effectively saying that if you find the exact same ticket on another website that is a lower price than theirs, they'll match the cost and often may give you a voucher for your time.

In theory, this sounds like a good practice, and once in a while you actually do find cheaper fares on third party websites that are tempting to purchase. But filing a claim for an adjustment is harder than you think.

Sarah Palin is in a corn maze. This does not mean that Sarah Palin is actually in a corn maze, but that there is a corn maze made to look like Sarah Palin. You have to be looking down on the maze and not in it in order to see the likeness. And it does look like her--and also Tina Fey.

I heard about this maze on News Update on Saturday Night Live and promptly checked out the story's validitity. Yep, the maze is in Whitehouse, Ohio not too far from Toledo. Although the maze of Palin is new this year, The Corn Maze at the Butterfly House where it is located is not new.