For a good discussion of this week’s travel news check out This Week in Travel which is a new podcast that took part in today.

Excuse me? You want to charge me for what?

Top nine outrageous airline fees and extreme flying charges

Drivers at Luton Airport — a venue north of London, England, favored by discount airlines — must now pay to drop off travelers. That’s right, the airport is charging motorists roughly $1.50 just to pull up to the curb and let grandma out to catch her flight.

She says it was self defense. To be safe, don’t sexually harass Greek women. To be really safe, don’t sexually harass women.

British tourist set on fire by Greek woman

Marina Fanouraki, a Greek woman, will appear in court today after being charged with assault for setting fire to a British tourist in Crete after he allegedly pulled down his trousers in front of her. The incident occured in the holiday resort of Malia in which the 26-year-old woman allegedly poured a highly-flammable liquid over the man and set fire to it with a lighter.

You have read of people in the bible who rent their garments? That’s just what people can do in Australia.

Clothes for rent – the new vacation trend

Travellers will be able to hire clothes for their holiday instead of lugging heavy baggage to the airport in a new service to be launched in Australia next year.

This one reads like scene out of Tom Cruise’s movie Top Gun.

Pilot sacked over 777-300ER fly-by

After taking delivery of the new jet, the Cathay Pacific pilot made a low-level pass, with wheels up, just above the Paine Field runway before the big jet headed off to Hong Kong –with Cathay Pacific Chairman Chris Pratt and other VIPs among the more than 60 people on board. The stunt, which apparently had not been approved by the airline, got the pilot fired and the copilot suspended, it was reported Monday.

New York City is cracking down on people who perch where cafes perk.

No More Perks: Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptop Users

Amid the economic downturn, there are fewer places in New York to plug in computers. As idle workers fill coffee-shop tables — nursing a single cup, if that, and surfing the Web for hours — and as shop owners struggle to stay in business, a decade-old love affair between coffee shops and laptop-wielding customers is fading. In some places, customers just get cold looks, but in a growing number of small coffee shops, firm restrictions on laptop use have been imposed and electric outlets have been locked.

Time is running out on my prediction that the ban on travel to Cuba will be lifted in 2009, so I appreciate the help.

Violator of Cuba travel ban seeks to force court action

A Southland woman is among 270 citizens who openly made the illegal journey in the last two weeks. ‘My experience of traveling to Cuba has been life-changing,’ she says. Erika Crenshaw returned to Los Angeles this week from a 10-day trip to Cuba with a message for authorities charged with enforcing a ban on travel to the communist-ruled island: Come and get me.

Its a dog’s life for sure. Clearly this woman did not see the story about the creation of the pet airline.

Woman books entire business-class section so she can fly with dog

A woman booked the entire business-class section on a Paris-to-Tel Aviv flight so she could travel with her dog, UPI reports. UPI writes that the woman, identified only as “Rivka,” apparently “could not bear the thought”of having her eight-year-old boxer travel in the cargo hold of her flight. “He is my baby, and I asked El Al to rent out the business section and paid $32,000 to ensure my dog, Or (light in Hebrew), would be able to sit next to me for the entire flight,” UPI quotes Rivka as saying to a TV station.

Oh yeah, this will work…

Fans urged to drink whisky to ward off swine flu

Russian soccer fans have been told to drink whisky on their trip to Wales for next month’s World Cup qualifier to ward off the H1N1 swine flu virus, the head of the country’s supporter association (VOB) said Monday.

Other posts that I liked this week:

• Seeing best tourist attractions for free
• New strategies for fear of flying
• Ben Southall as island caretaker: Hit or miss?
• Global cruise business grows, but U.S. departures down