What we’re reading: AirTran posts a profit, unlimited travel on Greyhound, Orbitz cuts booking fees

Baggage and miscellaneous fees help AirTran post profit

Despite declining revenue and passenger traffic, AirTran managed to post a profit for the first quarter.

The bright spot in revenue came in a section labeled “other” in the company’s earnings report. “Other” — which the company doesn’t elaborate upon in its press release — jumped from roughly $30 million in the first quarter of 2008 to about $56 million for the same period this year, a $26 million — or more than 86 percent — bump.

Get Unlimited Travel on Greyhound

Greyhound just announced a price drop for the Discovery Pass.

Greyhound offers the option of Eurorail-style unlimited travel – you can buy a 7, 14, 30, or 60-day pass, which gives you unlimited rides throughout (most of) the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

You can get a 60-day pass for $499, which probably beats two months worth of paying for gas and parking, and that’ll take you as remote as Prince Edward Island, Baja California or even Alaska.

Orbitz cuts hotel booking fees, begins displaying total price

Orbitz recently reduced its booking fees for hotels and will begin displaying the total price up-front.

Orbitz is the first online agency to display the total price of the hotel up-front. The other online agencies require consumers to click through to the details page to view the total price of the booking.

Orbitz spokesman Brian Hoyt said Orbitz Worldwide CEO Barney Harford has “a laser-like focus” on improving Orbitz’s hotel business and decreasing the company’s historic dependence on air sales.

Tagged as: AirTran, greyhound, Orbitz