As I was driving on the Indianapolis highway after visiting a customer, I saw a big electronic sign for a gas station and saw the price change as I was looking at the sign. While I first thought that it was odd for the price of gas to change in the middle of the day, I soon realized that the price was changing back and forth between the price that you would pay with a credit card and a lower price if you paid cash. The difference was 4 or 5 cents a gallon if I remember correctly.

I guess it makes sense since credit card companies take a percentage of any sale charged to the card, but it still looks very strange at first and I don’t think I had even seen something like that before the prices went so high. Maybe they’ll start offering specials if we bring big barrels every time and buy in bulk Only time will tell.

After a relatively calm travel summer, I started travelling again this week for a few days. As I was checking in through the self-service system in Montreal for US Airways, I was surprised not to be asked if I wanted to check any luggage. When I got to the counter, I was informed that this is because US Airways has a new policy where there is now a 15$ fee for the first piece of luggage you check in. Yes, you read that correctly. They are not charging you only for the second one or because your luggage is overweight. They are charging you for the very first piece of luggage that you want to check in!

Thankfully, my Elite status with the Star Alliance network waved these fees, but I can easily imagine how hectic it will get in the morning or at busy times when everyone is trying to get out on trips and have to stop to pay for this fee. Not only that, but a lot of people won’t want to pay the extra fee and will try to bring bigger and bigger items with them on the aircraft. From what I have seen in the six flights I took this week, this means more crowded overhead bins and people frustrated when there is no skycheck on some of the flights. If it does not fit on the plane, then they are stuck checking it.

US Airways is not the first airline doing this. I know that American started the festivities back in June, and now United and Continental joined, if not more airlines.

My next surprise came when they announced that beverages were no longer to be free on the plane. Not even water! So you need to pay 2$, cash only, if you want a regular drink, and 7$ for an alcoholic beverage. The lesson here is that you should now always bring something to drink on the plane. If we could at least bring our own water from home. But of course, as you know if you have traveled in the past two years, this is not allowed for security reasons. Therefore, you have no real choice but to put your money in someone’s pockets: the airline or the concession stands at the airport.

Personally, I wish they would just add 20$ to everyone’s airfare and just be done with it, let us check our luggage and give us something to drink on the darn plane. It would bring some order back into a situation that I feel will just get more and more chaotic.

Finding the best RSS Reader application for my needs has been an ongoing search for the last couple of years. After using the desktop client RSS Bandit, then moving to Bloglines, I have tried the Google Reader web-based application a few times without being convinced that it was right for me… until now. What partly prompted my change is the fact that I really don’t like the new Bloglines interface and am not sure how soon they are going to phase out the old one.

I just reloaded all of my feed addresses in the new Google Reader page and find that it’s interface has become very slick and to the point to show me all of the news feeds that I love to read. It’s always great to see all of the improvements that the folks at the Google Labs add to their apps. Check it out if you like to keep up with news from multiple sites.

The one feature that I find that is missing is the ability to sort news items by site when viewing them all. However, I have found the chronological sorting to be adequate.

After keeping track of my travel on facebook for some time, I just decided to bring that information on my personal site. You will find a new map section that includes all of my travels around the world.