Airline launches flights to Chicago Midway, Baltimore

By Joe Brancatelli

NEED TO KNOW

On-the-Road Intelligence to Help You Travel Smarter: Northwest Airlines has shifted to Delta Air Lines gates and facilities at Fort Lauderdale Airport and Tampa. … The SuperShuttle shared-van service now operates to and from Pittsburgh,
its 33rd airport. … A federal district judged has tossed the
false-imprisonment lawsuit filed by one of the travelers held for more
than nine hours on an American Airlines plane diverted to Austin in
December, 2006. … The Diners Club card, owned by Discover but licensed
to former owner Citigroup, has added some airport lounges to its
network. The card will now get you access to the 11 Salon Premier clubs
operated by AeroMexico and two Premium Plaza lounges in Singapore's
Changi Airport. A Diners Club card now gives you access to about 130
airport lounges worldwide.

BOSTON BOUND

Southwest Adds Another City to Its Network: You're forgiven if you think this is the same story as a few weeks ago: Southwest Airlines has announced its new routes and service from Boston's Logan Airport and the destinations it has chosen are Chicago/Midway (five daily flights) and Baltimore/Washington (five daily flights). Service begins on August 16 and advance-purchase fares range from $49-$89 each way. Southwest announced the same rollout recently for its new service from New York's LaGuardia Airport, which begins on June 28. Why are Midway and BWI getting so much attention? Well, for starters (and most importantly), both cities have enough point-to-point traffic to make it worth Southwest's time. And both cities have a substantial number of onward connections, meaning that flights to Midway allow travelers to tap into Southwest's Western network and the flights to BWI open up Southwest's Southern and Southeastern network.

Related Orbitz resources:

• Business travel
• Airline tickets
• Chicago hotels
• Baltimore hotels
• Fort Lauderdale hotels
• Tampa hotels

Joe Brancatelli is editor and publisher of JoeSentMe.com, a non-commercial Web site for business travelers. Copyright 2009 by Joe Brancatelli. Licensed by contract for Orbitz use.

Tagged: Midwest