While you were away: This week’s top travel stories

Delta’s Breast Cancer One campaign

Pre-cation, all I ever wanted
Slate called it the greatest job perk you’ve never heard of. Salon called it a trap. Known as a pre-cation, this new-hire perk is popping up more and more among tech upstarts. Basically, it involves employees getting to take a paid vacation before they’ve earned it, before they even start the job. What’s the catch? A Slate quote from Jason Freedman, CEO of San Francisco’s 42Floors, might give you a clue: “It’s like, ‘Yeah, have a great time! And when you get back here, work your ass off.’ ”

A win for the windy city
According to the Sun-Times, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport has reclaimed the title of busiest airport in the world for the first time since 2004. According to the FAA, more than 580,000 flights departed or landed at O’Hare from January to August. Meanwhile, international passenger volume is up 8 percent in the first half of 2014.

Shoot to thrill
Social media addicts with a knack for snazzy Instagram pics and a hunger for travel may be in luck. According to Yahoo! news, On-demand Internet media site Netflix is currently seeking three Instragram pros or “Grammasters” to travel the continent snapping stellar images it can upload to its Instagram channels. The stipend for each Grammaster is $4,000. (That would start to put a dent our New York room service bill).

You won’t believe #24!Need to vent about airline travel? Don’t worry, the folks at the Huffington Post have done it for you with their list of “The 30 Ultimate Rules of Airline Travel” including no first-class selfies, the word “connection” should never appear on your itinerary unless its to an island and the exit row is first class for poor people. Hmm, a better title for this article might be, “The 30 Ultimate Rules of Airline Travel for the Hard to Please.” Come on, people, you’re on vacation! Let’s try to enjoy ourselves.

Pink outside the box
That Delta airliner flying the friendly skies this month with a pink wing tip is on a mission. According to ABC News, the plane is called Breast Cancer One and carried 145 breast cancer survivors from Atlanta to New York this week to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Other travel providers going pink for October include Peninsula Hotels, West Grand Cayman Seven Mile Beach Resort and the Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai. Aww, that’s so nice we don’t even have anything snarky to say.

Tagged: Midwest, New York