After getting all defensive and insisting on its impeccable safety records late last week, Southwest today announced that it has decided to do a little spring cleaning in response to the FAA’s investigation of its safety practices. Based on its own “internal investigation,” the airline has decided to place three employees on administrative leave and hired an outside consultant to come in and evaluate its maintenance program. No word on which employees were involved or what their roles were within the company.

Southwest Airlines Responds to Preliminary Findings of its Internal Investigation

Pretty funny stuff, via Engadget. A traveler carrying one of the new MacBook Air laptops (touted as the world’s thinnest laptop for its ability to fit into a manila folder) baffled security agents with the high-tech device’s lack of drives or ports. The laptop aroused enough suspicion to keep the traveler, one Michael Nygard, detained long enough to miss his flight. Luckily for Nygard, a younger, in-the-know TSA worker stepped in to explain the laptop’s mysterious features to the wary security team.

The Eagle Creek Take 2 ORV Trunk caught my attention with its divided construction. With a top half that zips off (hence the name) and a main compartment outfitted with collapsible dividers for separating gear, this roller bag with integrated backpack straps is one of the more versatile pieces of luggage I’ve seen lately.

If you discover your bag is weighing in at the 50+ mark when you check in, no problem. Zip off the top and either check two bags or whip out the backpack straps and lug one half as a second carry-on. I also like the interior divider idea - great for keeping gym clothes or dirties separate from other stuff. Eagle Creek also makes lots of accessories that integrate with the ORV Trunk. I like the Pack-It Mud Box, which fits right into one of the interior compartments and keeps grungy boots, wet suits, pet items or sandy toys separate from the rest.

Guess what? You can’t. At least not while you’re using the Denver International Airport’s free wireless Internet access. Boing Boing is one of the sites that the airport has reportedly blocked. The Vanity Fair web site is another. Ostensibly, the airport’s decision to block certain web sites is meant to protect children from accidentally spotting porn on the laptop screens of pervy travelers, but they seem to have gone a little overboard. Also, the airport mentions nothing about the policy on its own web site.

As Jaunted points out, it “discovered” the censorship months ago and also found similar censorship practices in place at some hotel chains.

Denver’s Airport Wi-Fi Blocks Racy Sites

Here’s a tip: If you’re trying to breakup with your boyfriend, don’t cook up some loony scheme to accomplish the task by calling in repeated airport bomb threats. Nah-gunnah-happen, folks. Instead, such a tactic is likely to have the following outcome:

Woman Gets 2 Years for Break-Up Bomb Hoax

Of course, in this case, it is worth noting that the woman’s crackhead logic did kinda end up producing the intended effect. She will, in fact, get some relief from her unpalatable relationship. Two years of it, to be exact.

Needless to say, this is not a headline any traveler wants to see:

Southwest Airlines Flew ‘Unsafe’ Planes

Not surprisingly, Southwest Airlines has refused to comment. Oh the irony that an airline could be so uptight about passenger conduct and yet so lax with its own.

It seems the placebo effect is alive and kicking. Thank you, Airborne, for proving this scientific wonder to the general populous once again. Yesterday, the well-known peddler of herbal supplements aimed at travelers made headlines when it agreed to pay a $23.3 million settlement in a class action lawsuit brought against the company for false advertising. While Airborne refuses to admit any wrongdoing or false claims, its willingness to drop megabucks to halt the lawsuit speaks volumes.

According to AP news reports:

“There’s no credible evidence that what’s in Airborne can prevent colds or protect you from a germy environment,” said CSPI Senior nutritionist David Schardt. “Airborne is basically on overpriced, run-of-the-mill vitamin pill that’s been cleverly, but deceptively, marketed.”

I’ll admit it. I was one of the suckers who thought these things actually worked. God knows how many of those things I’ve taken. But I’m looking on the bright side. No more narsty glasses of fizzing Airborne before hopping on the plane.

If you were similarly duped, you could be eligible to receive a refund for the Airborne products you purchased. You can find info at the link below:

Airborne Settlement Information

If you fly Delta often, you may want to keep Delta’s Best Fare Guarantee in mind. The mountain of ifs, ands or buts associated with these kinds of policies usually keep me from taking advantage of them, but I’m not everyone. With a little sleuthing, this might save you some cash and earn you a $100 voucher towards your next flight.

Here’s how it works:

- Book a ticket on Delta.com

- Find an identical itinerary (same flight number, travel dates, cabin class, etc.) on another web site (Orbitz, Travelocity, etc.) that’s going for at least $10 less than what you paid on Delta.

- You can either a) cancel your Delta flight with no questions asked, as long as you do so within 24 hours of your original purchase or b) submit a claim to Delta that, if validated by the airline, will land you the fare difference and a $100 Delta travel voucher.

Like I said, it’s a bit complicated. Especially the “validation” part. But for anyone who regularly books Delta tickets, it might be worth your while to compare Delta.com fares with those on competing sites to see if you can test the policy.

Further proving that all-business class flights are as popular as ever (despite the demise of MaxJet), Singapore Airlines has announced plans to convert its Airbus A340-500 planes into all-business class flights outfitted with 30-inch-wide seats that double as flat beds. When they take to the skies in between June and September of this year, the newly configured planes will fly the airline’s Singapore to New York and Singapore to LAX routes.

Singapore Airlines to Launch First All-Business Class Flights From USA to Asia

A pesky little practice called the Frequent Flyer Tax Recovery Surcharge means car rental companies are actually charging travelers daily fees for the privilege of earning airline miles (and in some cases, hotel points) through partnership promotions. Here’s how it works: You rent a car, and the company tells you that you can earn miles for your chosen airline. You end up paying between $.06 and $.50 a day for the privilege of earning those miles - and usually you’re not even earning that many miles to begin with. The fee is the car companies’ way of recouping their cost - levied by the airlines - for participating in the partnership and offering miles to you, the end customer. Here’s an interesting little tidbit I spied yesterday on the Consumerist blog:

Budget’s Free Frequent Flyer Miles Promos Will Cost You

If you ask us, it’s pretty shady to quietly charge travelers for the privilege of earning miles through a promotion. So we checked into it, and Budget is hardly the only company whacking travelers with hidden - or to be fair, very quiet - charges.

Avis Frequent Flyer Tax Recovery/Surcharge

Thrifty Frequent Flyer Tax Recovery/Surcharge

As I am sure you’d imagine, there are so many ins and outs to these surcharges that it’ll make you feel like the car rental companies are doing you a favor by charging you so you don’t have to read all this crap. But interestingly, the surcharges vary quite a bit depending on the combination of frequent flier program and car rental company in question. For example, Thrifty only charges $.06 per day when you earn American Airlines miles, but $.50 if you choose to earn Alaska Airline miles.

And buried in Northwest Airlines’ Special Offers for Elite Members, I learned that World Perks members will pay $.24 per day when they earn miles for a Dollar Rent A Car rental.

If you really want to geek out on how all this works, the topic has been hashed out in detail by the intrepid travelers on the FlyerTalk Forums:

Frequent Flyer Tax Recovery/Surcharge on FlyerTalk

In the end, the charges are so small that most travelers will just continue renting and earning miles as usual. But it sure makes for good cocktail conversation.