Megabus – the bus carrier with service as low as $1 between Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago with points beyond — is temporarily altering its reservation system. Usually, travelers book no more than six weeks in advance. Now the popular bus service is taking reservations through November 30, which should help its devotees plan their Thanksgiving travels.

After one of Sun Country’s planes was stuck on the tarmac in New York for six hours, the airline announced Sunday that it will allow passengers to deplane after a maximum of four hours (click here for full story). Sun Country will also offer free food on planes delayed longer than one hour. The subject of delayed flights — long the battle cry of proponents of a passenger’s bill of rights — is heating up because the Sun Country delay followed the grueling six-hour, overnight delay of a Continental Express Jet flight at the Rochester airport. Unbelievably, the pilot was unable to persuade a worker at the airport during that long, late night to open up the terminal for the passengers, though passengers from a Delta flight did deplane. More than 600 flights were delayed for three hours or more during the first six months of this year, 278 in June alone.  Sun Country is the first airline to impose such rules on itself (though the Continental problem suggests they won’t always be the ones in control.) Still, I am hoping the bold move will help shake up the debate on the passenger’s bill of rights. The rest of the airline industry has long opposed such firm rules, arguing that deplaning could actually prolong delays (never mind that it would make them more bearable for passengers). Airlines have been restricting our experience onboard: no blankets or pillows, no free food, less space. Isn’t it high time they lay some rules out for themselves in the service of passenger’s benefit? I salute Sun Country for leading the way.

United airlines has joined US Airways in raising fees for baggage that is checked at the airport.
For both airlines, fees for checking a bag at the airport will be raised $5. That means slapping down $20 for the first bag and $30 for the second. Fliers can pay the current prices ($15 and $25, respectively) if they pay the bag fee online before arriving at the airport.
United’s increase goes into effect June 10 and applies to tickets purchased from today onward. US Airways’ fee goes into effect July 9 and applies to tickets purchased after April 22 (US Airways made their announcement last month).

The life of the travel editor isn’t all jet setting and beach parties. On occasion, I am required to empty my office mail box. Today, I found 8 books (I’ll review the one on Wisconsin; I’ll throw the others on the give-away shelf); a Country Inn & Suites puzzle in a tin (a note promises that completing the puzzle will give you a small taste of the Country, but, frankly, I don’t have the time right now); and a small box filled with Hershey’s Kisses and a press release, which I scrupulously ignored (as a journalist, I avoid gifts — no free rooms, no ipods from the Prez — but I admit to popping the occasional chocolate kiss as long as I don’t see who was trying to sway me with my weakness).

But the real show-stopper was a sample of “Go Girl!, Don’t Take Life Sitting Down” a new feminine hygiene product that allows women to potty while standing up, from Minnetonka-based FedMed, Inc. Such a curiosity — and I’m not talking about the double punctuation at the end of Girl. The device is made of pink silicon and shaped something like a triangle with a short hose at the pointed end; you tuck the wide part against you just so and your tinkle flows out of the narrow end. It is neatly packed in a hot pink cylinder with a plastic bag for disposal (though you can also choose to reuse the Go Girl). Seems to me, you have to unzip and pull down your pants (or hike up you skirt) anyway, so what’s the point? In the forest, there are trees; in grimy bathrooms, muscles can hold you up from the seat. The promotional material says that Go Girl is made for the active, traveler and germ-conscious woman. I say it’s also for the woman willing to throw away $5.99. What do you think?

Neal Justin is more than just the Star Tribune TV critic. He is also a tireless traveler of the Vegas-this-weekend-London-next variety, which makes him the most welcome kind of guest Escape Artist. Here, his blog:

My friend and I are are fairly frequent guests at Westin Hotels, so we weren’t a bit surprised to find a small bottle of decent red wine sitting on the desk when we arrived last week at our downtown Chicago room. I almost never use the minibar, especially when I can walk (stumble) to about a jillion bars from the lobby, so I carefully looked to see if there was any indication that the juice was going to cost us anything.  Because it seemed to have no relationship to the minibar, and because the bottled water sitting right next to was clearly labeled with a price tag, we made the assumption that it was a complementary gift.

Boy, were we wrong. When the checkout bill came, we discovered we had been charged $27. (Did  I mention it was a small bottle?)

An attempt to talk to a lobby receptionist was quickly shut down, but she did call a manager who showed up a prompt two minutes later. He  needn’t have bothered. He stated that the price was indeed revealed – but only if you utilized the minibar, which we completely ignored. Why wouldn’t we? He said it was company policy to display the wine that way in every Westin. Hope he’s mistaken. He also suggested that, in the future, I should always assume there is a charge UNLESS it’s clearly stated otherwise.

I guess that means that I should assume the hotel can charge me now for soap, shampoo and the freakin’ electricity unless I see the word FREE dancing in front of my eyes.

I’ve never had this problem before and since I plan to be wary of the Westin from now on, I hope to never have it happen again. But maybe this has now become a common scam.

I should note that the manager did take half the price off, but only after about a 20-minute, er, “discussion” and my friend’s reminder that he spends enough money at the Westin to buy a sports car (or three bottles of Westin wine).

Well, United Airlines has updated its policy about overly large passengers since I blogged this morning (see the previous blog). I just received an e-mail from a United Airlines spokesman outlining a new policy for flyers,  known to United as guests. The pertinent parts of the e-mail read:

For the comfort and well-being of all our guests, today United has matched eight other U.S. airlines and adopted a new seating policy that requires customers to purchase a second seat when they are unable to use an extended seatbelt, put their armrests down, and if they infringe on another guest’s seat.  Unlike WBBM-AM’s initial news report ,this will apply after all other solutions are exhausted, meaning the flight is full and we are unable to re-accommodate our guest next to an empty seat that is not occupied by someone else.   Should the flight be full, which is rare in today’s economy, and United is unable to re-accommodate the guest who is infringing on someone else’s seat, we will offer the second seat on another flight at the same fare that was originally paid …even when a second seat is purchased on the day of departure, which is when fares are often much higher.  Previous to this policy, when no empty seats were available, our guests would subsequently infringe on the seat next to them.  Last year, we received almost 700 complaints from guests who did not have a comfortable flight because the person next to them infringed on their seat, and this policy addresses this feedback.