From next week, my traveling schedule is exciting but ridiculously hectic. Madrid-Seville-Madrid; then Madrid-Dubai-Muscat-Dubai-Madrid, then Bristol-Darlington-London-Madrid, all within the month of June. I'm short on time at each destination so want to fly where ever I can to save time but don't want to break my bank either.

Madrid is not a very well connected city for cheap flights, the only budget airline here is Vueling, but the places it flies to is limited. Also, trying to go to individual budget-airline websites and booking on multiple sites is just a pain in the neck, so after a few hours of being depressed looking at my possible flight bills, I was thrilled when I found Wegolo.com.

It's awesome because it searches 75 airlines that are ONLY budget airlines, to your destination. It gives you all flight options, you can search dates before and after your selected dates, and it completely omits traditional airlines -- so all the options it shows are the cheapest possible. Because of the number of airlines it searches through, it's easy to book multiple flights from multiple destinations without having to get off the site -- it just makes things so much easier!

All information is updated in real-time, there are no hidden costs, all airlines they search have: e-ticketing facilities, you can buy with Visa, MasterCard and American Express, and booking confirmations in English. I'm quite relieved to find this site! Do check it out.

I'm still trying to get my head around how this was possible: a couple and two grandparents FORGOT their 2-year old whilst trying to catch a flight from Vancouver to Winniepeg in Canada.

With only 10-minutes left for boarding, the family was running towards the gate, and apparently each of the 4 adults thought that the baby was with one of the other three.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? Were they running so far from each other not to notice the absence a child? Also, their child is 2-years old, if you are adults running to catch a flight, surely you'd take him in your arms -- couldn't they see that no-one was running with a baby!? AND, even if you are not sitting together on the flight, how can you not realize that one of you is missing!? What world are you in!? This stuff is only allowed to happen in movies!

Anyway, the good news is that Air Canada took control of the situation well: they found the child, figured out who he belonged to, and put him onto another flight to regroup him with his family.

I think this is inexcusable and such families shouldn't have children at all.

Sounds almost too good, doesn't it. I don't think anybody is ever going to give you a better excuse to travel around Southeast Asia.

Malaysia Airlines announced today it plans to offer one million free seats for flights within Southeast Asia as part of an aggressive campaign to boost sales and income amid high oil prices, USA Today reports. The airline hopes that the Everyday Low Fares campaign will help them fill up its planes and recover some costs as passengers will have to pay the fuel surcharge. The seats to be given away represent 30% of surplus capacity.

Under the campaign, bookings can only be made online for 24 regional routes - including selected routes from Malaysia to China - for a two-week period from May 21 for travel between July 1 and Dec. 14. Passengers will still have to pay airport tax, administration fees and the fuel surcharge. The free tickets are non-refundable and will only be offered on lean flights. Malaysia Airlines first launched the zero-fare campaign for domestic destinations earlier this month, also offering a million free seats for travels between June 10 and Dec. 14.

(*Flights attendants are especially hot in First Class, which--sadly--is not free.)

More than three months after announcing a new route between JFK and Los Angeles International Airport that was to begin later this month, JetBlue announced yesterday that it was suspending the route, a move driven largely by the rising cost of jet fuel.

The route was to add a second Los Angeles airport to JetBlue's system. Instead, the airline will continue serving Long Beach Airport, to which passengers who had bought tickets to LAX are now be re-ticketed.

A spokesman for the low cost carrier told the Associated Press that while flying to Long Beach instead of LAX isn't likely to save the company much money on fuel, starting a route to LAX had a whole host of new costs associated with it -- leasing gate and check-in space, maintenance facilities -- that were not prudent to undertake at a time when the entire industry is watching its bottom lines.

New routes are seldom profitable for airlines at first. The spokesman said that in order to make LAX payoff, JetBlue would have been forced to raise ticket prices beyond what customers were likely to want to pay.

The cost in fuel to operate the JFK - Long Beach route has increased to $15,000 per flight from $9,600 since 2007, JetBlue told the AP.

No word yet when the company might move forward with serving LAX.

We're slowly starting to see more stories of airline crews getting fed up and kicking people off flights for using their mobile phones, but none are as controversial as this.

A Texas businessman named Joe Jones was recently arrested following a Southwest Airlines flight on which he refused to get off of his phone prior to landing. Flight attendants had repeatedly asked the man to stop the conversation and turn off his mobile, receiving a "kiss my ass" in return each time they asked. Frustrated, they had state police meet him at the gate, where he continued to make a ruckus.

As his spokesman later explained, however, Jones had just received word that his father's heart had stopped beating and was wildly trying to contact the hospital. Given the life and death situation, he felt it necessary to make the phone calls.

And I can empathize with that situation -- if I knew that my parents were gravely ill and had to call the hospital, I can totally see how I would be trying to call the doctor in panic. My questions are as follows: how did Jones get the message in the first place? Was he on the plane with his phone on when a text came in or did he get the call before he boarded? And isn't interfering with an aircraft landing with your mobile phone signal also a life and death situation?

What strange things have been found on planes?

Click the image to read the bizarre story...

Think that your seat on the airplane is uncomfortable? It could be worse: you could have been Gokhan Mutlu, a New York man who just filed a lawsuit against Jetblue for making him sit on a toilet for more than three hours of his flight.

Apparently, Mutlu, who was flying on a buddy pass ticket (a free fare), was the last person to get a seat on his recent journey. A flight attendant on a non-revenue ticket was also on the aircraft, but she gave up her real seat to sit in the jumpseat during the flight so that everyone could fit.

But when she got uncomfortable, the pilot came back and asked Mutlu to relinquish his seat, telling him literally to "go hang out" and directing him to the toilet. When he objected, court papers say that the pilot apparently said that "he was the pilot, that this was his plane, under his command [and] that [Mutlu] should be grateful for being on board".

After nearly three hours in the lavatory, a flight attendant returned to tell Mutlu that he could return to his seat, but at that point, my wager is that he was pretty ticked off. The lawsuit was filed for over two million dollars. Jetblue should be glad that he didn't sue for more.

Midwestern fans of the newest, shiniest airline to hit American soil, Virgin America, received some good news this morning: the airline is seeking government approval to set up shop at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

O'Hare, the world's second busiest airport, would make Virgin America's 8th official destination with plans to fly to and from both San Francisco (SFO) and Los Angeles (LAX).

No official word on when this would happen if given approval, but we'll keep you updated.

Chicago Business has a good rundown of the logistics of such a process, and what it could mean for Chicago and O'Hare.

Yahoo: Virgin America Seeks Service to Chicago O'Hare
Photo: Kevin Miller on Flickr (CC)

American Airlines yesterday released an internal memo in which they comment on a April 20 incident that involved an AA flight that took off from Dallas, promptly lost a "large panel" on the underside of the plane during its initial ascent, and proceeded all the way to Paris, despite both the captain and crew confirming that they knew something was amiss.

Just what was wrong the crew didn't seem to know until touching down in Paris. And it doesn't seem that passengers were aware that anything was unusual. Several crew members managed to snap photos of the missing panel after landing, and circulated the shots in e-mails. The photos were attached to the internal member that CNN managed to obtain.

The company issued the statement after receiving upset e-mails from passengers, who stumbled upon pictures of the missing panel on the Internet.

All AA is saying is that it is investigating the matter.

What strange things have been found on planes?

Click the image to read the bizarre story...

Happy Cinco De Mayo! In honor of this fifth day of May, we're teaming up with Southwest Airlines to give away a free pair of roundtrip tickets to anywhere they fly.

That's right, whether you want to fly from Albany to Albuquerque for your Aunt Jennie's Apple Pie or Washington DC to West Palm Beach, for cousin Willy's famous four-day Thanksgiving bar crawl, you can cash these tickets in on us.

Tickets are good to redeem up to one year from the contest end with no blackout dates for you and a special friend. Just leave a comment below telling us where you'd like to go should you win the tickets and we'll randomly draw one winner by this Friday. Make sure you give a shout out to our friends at Southwest for providing the tickets for the giveaway as well.

Happy travels from Gadling and Southwest Airlines!

• To enter, simply leave a comment below telling us where you'd like to go should you win the tickets (See a map of where they fly here).
  
• The comment must be left before Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 5PM Eastern Time.
• You may enter only once.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• One Grand Prize Winner will receive a free pair of roundtrip tickets to anywhere Southwest Airlines flies
  
• Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• Tickets are valued at $400.00 per ticket.
• Tickets are fully transferrable, are valid for one year, and are good for travel to any of the 64 cities Southwest serves.
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.