Last year, American Express expanded its Platinum card benefits to include a $200 travel credit, which passengers can use to cover everything from baggage check fees to lounge day passes on the airline of their choice. This benefit did not come without some sacrifice, however — AMEX announced that Continental lounge access would be discontinued after September 2011, presumably related to the airline’s merger with United, which does not offer lounge access to AMEX cardholders.

Beginning today, Platinum cardholders who pay the card’s annual fee of $450 (laughable, unless you happen to travel a ton) can now apply for complimentary Priority Pass Select membership, which includes access to over 600 airport lounges, with the notable exception of Continental and United lounges (hence the “Select” branding). With the addition of Priority Pass membership, Platinum cardholders now have access to select KAL, Swiss, Air France, and Air Canada lounges, in addition to the US Airways, Delta, and American lounges that already welcome Platinum cardholders. AMEX also announced that Platinum cardholders would be exempt from standard 3% foreign transaction fees, and can also apply for entry into the US Customs and Boarder Protection Global Entry program, with AMEX picking up the $100 application fee. For frequent international travelers, these additional benefits almost make the card a bargain, especially with employers often picking up the $450 tab.

I’m not one to spend much time watching amateur videos on YouTube, but I stopped working to watch this video of Space Shuttle Discovery’s final launch — shot from a passenger aircraft flying near Kennedy Space Center — over and over for about 30 minutes. Don’t send me any complaints when you end up doing the same! I’ll let the video speak for itself.

Via geek.com.

Planning a trip to the thermosphere on Virgin Galactic? Me too! (Just as soon as Sir Richard offers a press trip.) If you’re ready to pony up the $200,000 airfare (that’s roundtrip, including taxes and a rocket fuel surcharge), then head on over to Kayak.com to book! Simply type “50m” and “90n” in the from and to fields, respectively, select departure and return on the same date, click “first” class (to the right of the number of travelers field), and hit the search button. Unfortunately, you can’t actually book your flight through Kayak — clicking “Select” on the flight details page simply redirects you to Virgin Galactic’s website.

Since your flight into space departs and returns on the same day, spend the night at the Stratosphere (in Vegas) — click the strategically placed “Stratosphere Discounts” link just above the Galactic flight results, bringing your total package price to $200,150. Or, you can add dinner and a show in Vegas for just $50 more (per person), for a grand total of $400,250, assuming you’re planning to bring a friend on your flight 50 miles above the earth’s surface.

The fine print: As you can see from the aircraft description, you’ll be flying on a “Regional Jet,” so board early to avoid gate checking your luggage. Also, you may not have enough time to use the restroom during your 6-minute layover at 50M (see flight details), so take advantage of the facilities at Spaceport America (90N) before boarding.

(Via Jetset Farryn and Mashable.com)

Last year, my business and personal air travel brought me to 25 airports in 11 countries on 3 continents, flying a total of 99,003 miles between January 1 and December 9, 2010 — a mere 997 miles (or one JFK to MCO fight) shy of 100,000 miles.

I flew the greatest number of miles on JetBlue — 33,219 — with most accumulated during September’s All You Can Jet promotion, when I flew a total of 22 JetBlue segments for about $1,000 (including the $699 base price, plus taxes and fees for international flights). I flew 29,357 miles on American Airlines, on just 6 segments — thanks to roundtrip flights to Tokyo and Beijing. I flew 11 segments on Continental and United, totaling 26,083 miles, including a flight to Hong Kong and a return flight from Beijing. I also flew 5,013 miles on Delta (return flight from Athens); 2,311 miles on Asiana (Bangkok to Seoul); 1,071 miles on Royal Jordanian (Hong Kong to Bangkok); 677 miles each on China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines (roundtrip between Beijing and Shanghai); and 595 miles on Korean Air (Seoul to Beijing).

99,003 is the number to beat in 2011. With trips to Honolulu (where I’m currently on an actual vacation), Tel Aviv, Jackson Hole, and Paris planned before the end of February, I’ll have flown about 35,000 miles with 10 months to spare!

In line with the airline’s new “You Above All” campaign — they really seem to love the aviation puns — JetBlue has issued 10,000 TrueBlue Points to customers affected by flights cancelled during the December blizzard. It’s very unusual for an airline to compensate customers after delays or cancellations caused by weather, but JetBlue’s gesture — while unnecessary, as most other carriers would argue — reinforces the low-cost airline’s commitment to customer service, which, when other carriers offer flights at comparable prices on the same routes, is often the only thing that sets an airline apart, for business and casual travelers alike. And, unlike some other airlines, which were uncommunicative during the blizzard, JetBlue increased staff at its call centers and had representatives monitor Twitter 24/7, making every effort to get stranded passengers home, as several friends experienced.

Unlike most other frequent flier programs, which offer domestic reward tickets starting at 25,000 miles, 10,000 TrueBlue Points will cover a roundtrip flight to many East Coast destinations, or a one-way ticket to the West Coast. Points must be claimed (added to your account) by March 1st, so if you’re lucky enough to have scored, follow the instructions in the email to add the Points to your account. According to a JetBlue spokesman, “Customers that were impacted by cancellations between December 26 and December 31, 2010, and booked travel prior to December 25, 2010, were eligible for compensation.” So, if that’s you, “Happy Jetting!”

Last weekend’s winter storm resulted in thousands of cancelled flights at dozens of East Coast airports, but while some of the affected airports — including Philadelphia International — have resumed normal operations, hundreds of flights are still being cancelled at New York City area airports, including JFK, La Guardia, and Newark. Many passengers on cancelled flights have been stranded away from home (and work) for days, and with flight cancellations continuing through tomorrow, it may be as long as a week before stranded passengers are in the air.

If you’re one of thousands of unlucky stranded passengers, keep the following in mind when rebooking flights:

1. Consider alternate airports — The airline representative tasked with rebooking your flight may not search for flights departing from or arriving at alternate airports, often only an hour or two away by bus or train. If you’re trying to fly into New York City, for example, consider flying into Philadelphia (PHL) instead — SEPTA operates train service from PHL to 30th Street Station, and Amtrak offers express trains to Newark and New York from there. Your travel time will likely only increase by less than two hours. Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Boston are also options to consider.

2. Search for unusual connections — Trying to fly from San Francisco to New York? Use your airline’s website to search for individual flights, rather than allowing the search tool to choose your connecting cities. Instead of flying from San Francisco to New York with a connection in Chicago, consider flying San Francisco to Dallas to Miami to New York. I never recommend booking flights with any connections, but if your airline has rebooked you on a direct flight a week from now, consider this as an option.

Click the “read more” link for more rebooking tips!

3. Note flight numbers — Before calling your airline to rebook (or perhaps during that hour-long hold), find flights with available seats by using your airline’s booking website to search for one-way flights. You’ll be able to see the same seat availability as your airline representative, and providing this information will guarantee that you’ll be on the flight you want, while making the representative’s job a little easier and reducing the hold time for other callers.

4. Use Twitter — If you haven’t used Twitter in the past, this is a great time to sign up. Nearly every major airline monitors Twitter for passenger complaints, and most respond directly to Twitter users, either publicly or by sending a direct message. I’ve used Twitter in the past for rebooking @JetBlue and @Continental flights, and you’ll likely have a much better experience interacting with tweeting airline representatives than you will with customer service representatives on the phone.

5. BE POLITE — This last tip is perhaps the most critical — if you call your airline while calm, composed, and appreciative, you’ll likely be speaking to a like-mannered representative on the other end of the line. Everybody knows that you’ve been inconvenienced, but the airlines can’t be blamed for winter weather, and yelling at a representative won’t get you anywhere. If an agent has been particularly helpful, ask to take a phone survey or ask to be transferred to their supervisor to provide positive feedback.

My hotel in sunny Quebec feels like it’s a world away from the winter weather to our south, but thanks to an Internet connection (and a network of travel bloggers back home in New York), I’ve been closely following the travel situation while on vacation at Mont Tremblant. Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic – one of the airlines affected by winter weather at JFK – appears to be intentionally hiding from the fallout of a flight operations error that ended up stranding 250 passengers at the airport, but not before leaving them on an uncomfortably hot A340 for four and half hours (the AC was eventually restored two hours before the plane returned to the gate).

One of the passengers, travel writer Jason Cochran – who is still stranded at JFK – has been posting about his experience on Twitter since before he boarded Virgin Atlantic flight 004 to London over 18 hours ago. Since then, he hasn’t gotten a minute of sleep, but instead has been documenting the situation at JFK’s Terminal 4, where patience – and even food – has run out. Earlier today, Cochran appeared on ABC, NBC and CNN, along with countless Twitter feeds, while Virgin Atlantic has yet to address the situation via its own Twitter feed, instead choosing to respond to other customers, including one on vacation in Puerto Rico, who isn’t even scheduled to fly until Wednesday. Perhaps the airline’s Twitter representative isn’t responding to Cochran and other tweeting passengers and travel journalists for fear of escalating the situation, but ignoring them completely seems to be doing much more harm than good.

I hope Jason and the rest of the passengers on flight 004 are able to leave the airport soon, and that Virgin Atlantic makes an effort to compensate their stranded customers, some of whom weren’t even offered blankets for their overnight stay at JFK. At least Cochran is still maintaining his sense of humor, evident in his tweet, “A stranded @VirginAtlantic passenger enjoys one of the airline’s ‘flat bed seats’ on the floor of JFK’s T4.”

Photos above by Jason Cochran … #1: Virgin Atlantic Flight 004 parked at JFK before boarding … #2: Passengers rest near the store Time to Fly, as its entrance is ironically shuttered … #3: Stranded passengers wait in line for McDonald’s before the restaurant runs out of food.

It’s not unusual to see airlines advertise sub-$300 off-season fares from NYC to Europe, but with a catch — after adding taxes and fees, such as fuel surcharges, your flight could end up costing more than twice as much as the advertised fare. This week, however, Spanish-carrier Iberia is offering these super-low fares tax-inclusive, so what you see is really what you’ll pay. A (rather large) group of friends and I just booked direct roundtrip fares from JFK to Paris (CDG) for $291.53 each, including all taxes and fees. I’ve paid more than that for a 2-hour flight to St. Louis. When booking the same flights directly through American Airlines, the fare more than doubles, to $725.20.

I’m not a huge fan of Iberia (after they misplaced my luggage for the entire length of a trip to Barcelona a few years ago), so I was relieved to discover that the flight is actually a codeshare with American Airlines, meaning you’ll book the flight on Iberia.com with an Iberia flight number, but the flight is operated by American Airlines (and they’ll be handling your luggage, too). Flights are still available throughout January, February and March. You can also fly JFK to MXP (Milan) for $252 or JFK to BRU (Brussels) for $284. Just head over to Iberia.com to book — there are no special offer codes, so you should see those fares simply by entering the cities in the search form.

Wondering why there’s snow on the front page of the Miami Herald above? Even though our friends in the Sunshine State may likely be enjoying 70-degree weather on Christmas Day, many Floridians will be flying to (or connecting in) New York, Minneapolis, Detroit, or — if they’re even less fortunate — Chicago, where bad weather and packed airports will likely cause many delays. To borrow from my quote in the article above, “It’s just a recipe for disaster.”

All hope is not lost, however. If you follow the tips in my new friend Hannah Sampson’s Miami Herald article, then you might just get to where you’re going before it’s time to head home. The most critical tip: If your flight is cancelled, call your airline from your cell phone while you’re waiting in the rebooking line at the airport. You may get through to the telephone representative before you make it to the desk, and an earlier rebooking can get you on your way hours — or even days, if the system is incredibly backed up — before other passengers on your cancelled flight. Also, try to get on the very first flight of the day (5:30-6:30 a.m.), especially if you’re flying out of an airport where weather (notably icing) is seldom an issue — chances are your plane will already be on the ground the night before, so you won’t be waiting on an aircraft that ended up grounded at an airport up north. Even if you’re booked on a direct flight from Miami to San Diego, your flight could still end up being cancelled if your plane to San Diego is arriving in Miami from Chicago, for example.

Ready to brave the airports? Check out my Top 10 Holiday Air Travel Woes over at Frommers.com for some more tips for dealing with the holiday weather.

Each week, I write a travel tips and tools article for Frommers.com. This week’s submission outlines the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Trusted Traveler Programs, including Global Entry. These programs, which also include NEXUS (for Canadian border crossings) and SENTRI (for Mexican border crossings), enable frequent international travelers to pass through immigration without waiting in long lines and speaking to a CBP officer. Each program carries specific benefits and application procedures, so head over to Frommers.com for the full scoop.