That's my laptop, with wireless USB modem attached, on the roof of the house I rented in Andalusia, Spain, in February. The roof was the only place where I could get a signal and thus get online. Too bad it was always raining.

by Wendy Perrin

If you've read my Perrin Report column in Conde Nast Traveler's May issue, you're well aware of the migraines I've had on the road trying to access the Internet from my laptop so that I can blog at you everywhere from China to Algeria to Russia to Jost Van Dyke to the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. You also know that I've found zero relation between a hotel room's rate and the presence of user-friendly wireless. You also know that some of the tech solutions I've discovered came from readers of this blog: Tim Ferriss of The 4-Hour Workweek fame, for instance, suggested JiWire's Wi-Fi Hotspot Finder (for scoping out hotspots at your destination before leaving home) and the GoldLantern WiFinder (for locating wireless signals within 300 feet of wherever you are). You also know that my life improved big-time after I got a Sierra Wireless AirCard 875U USB Modem (thanks for the tip, Gizmodo) that is compatible with my Apple MacBook (thank you, David Pogue).   

What you may not know--because I didn't know it myself until I read it on Chris Elliott's blog--is that now, instead of buying a wireless aircard, you can RENT one by the day from a company called RovAir (apparently for as little as $5.95/day). I was thrilled to learn about this . . . until I found out that the cards don't work overseas. And now, it turns out, the 875U is being discontinued. Which brings me to my question: Does anyone know of a way to rent aircards for international use???

As for my article about renting a house in Andalusia, it'll be in Conde Nast Traveler's June issue.

Warning: Loyal reader ripped off by taxi driver at Montreal Airport. 

by Wendy Perrin

Frequent globehopper Joe_Kayaker reports that he was "taken for a ride" when he landed at Montreal International recently:

"It was late in the evening, the shuttle bus to the Airport Novotel had stopped running at 10 p.m., and none of the taxis would take me on such a short trip. Grrr. I finally found a taxi driver who would take me. As we were driving to the hotel, he said he didn't understand why the Novotel was called an airport hotel since it's not really that close to the airport. We drove for quite a while, and the ride cost $30. When checking into the hotel, I asked how much a cab ride from the airport is supposed to cost and was told, 'No more than $15.'  I overpaid by only 15 bucks (well, Loonies), but how does one avoid being taken in by unscrupulous taxi drivers?  Thanks, Joe"

Joe, you paid $15 in what I call "tourist tax." I've been taken on circuitous routes and overcharged by cab drivers in many a city -- Cairo, Beijing, Moscow, New York -- but I have to say I'm surprised to hear of this occurring in orderly and lawful Montreal. Here's my test-driven advice for avoiding unscrupulous airport cabbies:

Virgin Charter's Web site makes bidding easy
(if you have several thousand to spare).

By Barbara S. Peterson

It was only Monday evening, but the hyperactive Richard Branson had already had what for anyone else would be an exhausting week. He had jumped off a Hilton hotel in Mumbai to launch Virgin Mobile in India, hopped on a charter jet from India to New York City, and then raced straight from the airport in a new GM hydrogen fuel cell car to a Manhattan news conference to announce he was purchasing a few of the green vehicles to ferry Virgin Atlantic Upper Class fliers from their homes to the airport. By that night he'd gone on to slap the Virgin brand on yet another product launch--fittingly, a service that will allow travelers to charter private jets just like the one that had gotten him to his news conference on time (or sort of--he was 30 minutes late).

But while Branson seems to announce a new product or company about once a week, the inevitably named Virgin Charter is one of his more intriguing endeavors. While Virgin is a majority owner, the company is actually the brainchild of dot-com veteran Scott Duffy, who has pulled together elements from eBay, Priceline, and Travelocity.

Dale Moss, managing director of OpenSkies.
Photo: AP Photo/Richard Drew

By Barbara S. Peterson

There's been speculation for weeks about the mysterious new airline British Airways has been plotting, and when MAXJet began to tank, many of us assumed BA would step into the breach with another all-premium class line.

But as I learned this morning when BA invited a few of us in the travel media to breakfast at Michael's in Manhattan, the giant British line has other things on its mind. Instead of taking on Eos or Silverjet, BA's creating a sort of "mini-me" airline, with a traditional three-cabin class structure. That might seem like a non-starter -- wouldn't an exclusively premium line make more money . . . and more sense? 

The BA clone isn't named OpenSkies for no reason.  Open Skies is the treaty that allows BA and other European lines to fly nonstop to the U.S. from any EU country as of April 1; the new company will start with just one plane flying from either Paris or Brussels to New York in June. (In the same vein, Air France has also announced nonstop flights from LA directly into BA's turf, at Heathrow.)

Note from Wendy: Please join me in welcoming Barbara S. Peterson to the blog. Barbara is a senior correspondent here at Conde Nast Traveler and already a legend, thanks in part to her stint as an airport screener. Barbara, the blog is yours.

by Barbara S. Peterson

The demise of MAXjet did more than strand hundreds of passengers on both sides of the pond on Christmas Eve. It set off a holiday-size wave of hyperbole, with analysts seizing on this latest airline failure to forecast everything from the death of the independent all-business-class airline to a new wave of bankruptcies and mergers--at the end of which, it seems, two or three monster airlines will be left standing.    

This is nothing new, of course: Remember Regent Air? MGM Grand? Legend? All hewed to the oxymoronic "upscale upstart" model that MAXjet attempted on an international scale, and when they failed, the pundits also predicted that there would be no more of their ilk and that the big guys had won.