All right all you last minute travelers, if you want a chance to get out of town for NYE, Virgin America is throwing you a bone. For their final hurrah of 2009, Virgin America is having one last fire sale and has come up with fares that should go easy on your bank account, like $39 one-ways between Los Angeles and San Francisco, $59 one-ways between Los Angeles and Seattle, and the $99 one-ways cross country between Los Angeles and New York, Washington D.C. and San Francisco, and even between Ft. Lauderdale and Los Angeles.

Hilton Hotels are not known for being cool, trendy or hip. They're reliable and pretty standard as far as hotels go. But lately they've made some moves to change their rep. Though the company swears they didn't pay for any kind of positioning in the new George Clooney film, Up in the Air, they're sure promoting it. "As for helping to promote the film, the chain held the after-party for the Nov. 30 premiere at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, which included more than 1,000 guests (an event that Paramount and American Airlines also helped pay for)," reported the NY Times. "Hilton also is promoting the movie on its Web site, where, besides viewing a trailer, visitors can enter sweepstakes to win one million customer loyalty points and a trip for two to Paris. The company also is promoting the film on more than a million key cards internationally, a first for the chain, whose cards have never featured anything besides its own logos and amenities."

Virgin America is really stepping it up this year. First they went and offered up free holiday WiFi and now they've decided to gift holiday travelers with some in air swag. As of yesterday, running through the 26th there are eight golden ticket flights (they're calling them "Holiday Cheer" flights) that will surprise passengers with an open bar (like, whoa), free eats and the opportunity to win some sweet swag.

Continental is the latest airline to convert completely to plastic-only, in-flight cabin services. Starting today, If you want to purchase alcohol, headsets or snacks on board, you have to hand over your credit card. The "cashless cabin" trend really gained traction this year, with nearly all the airlines going plastic: United in April, American Airlines in June, Delta in November and now Continental this December. JetBlue and Virgin America have been cashless for years now.

While Black Friday caters to those willing to wait in line at 4 am, Cyber Monday is the day for those who would prefer to click, surf and save -- all from the comfort of their keyboard. The major players in this game are the airlines, though some hotels have gotten in on discounting too. First up is Virgin America. This is a sale I can get behind, with $39 one-way for short-hauls, like SFO to LAX, $69 for flights from LAX to SEA, and $109 for cross-country flights SFO/LAX to JFK. The best part about this sale is the timing. You can book from now until the 8th, and fly anytime from the 3rd through May 23rd. For those of you who've yet to book your holiday flights, or want to get out of town for New Year's Eve, now's the time to book on Virgin America. More deals after the jump.

JetBlue is at it again, with another one-day sale. This sale is hot on the heels of yesterday's version courtesy of Virgin America, and it is full of great deals, so if you've got the inclination and a few extra bucks, get a seat while they're hot.

In an unprecedented move, Expedia has dropped their phone fee, which is great news for those of us with complicated flight booking needs, or those of us who just prefer to actually talk to someone instead of clicking through a website. As of yesterday, the $20 fee to speak with a real, live agent has been dropped completely. This gives Expedia an edge in both customer service and in cost. Not only can you talk to someone live, it's now going to be cheaper to go through Expedia because most airlines charge ridiculous booking fees over the phone.

The price of connectivity looks poised to plummet to zero as planes and trains experiment with offering free onboard wifi. So far, airlines have charged for hopping on the web, usually connected to the length of the flight. Costs range from a few bucks to over $10 a pop, and adoption has been on the slow side. Perhaps people are reluctant to let go of their last vestige of disconnection while in flight, or they just don't want to pay another damn fee; whatever the reason, airlines are now trying to woo passengers by offering wifi as a free perk. We already told you that Virgin America and Google have a special holiday deal running from mid-November through January 15, but more airlines are following suit.

Virgin America is bringing the holidays a little early with a nice present for travelers: free wifi. While normally costing $6-$13 (depending on the length of the flight), the inflight wifi will be completely gratis from November 10 through January 15, 2010. Google is Virgin's wifi provider already, and this little gift is courtesy of a double team of Virgin and Google, who apparently really want you to try out surfing the web while you're in the air this holiday season. Perhaps the home page will load to the Skymall. Wifi usage so far on Virgin has been reported at around 12 to 15 percent on short flights and about 20 to 25 percent on longer hauls across the country. You can expect speeds close to on-the-ground mobile broadband. Check it all out here at the Google's Free Holiday WiFi site, and you can see a Google Map of Virgin's wifi-enabled travel destinations after the jump.

Virgin America is launching a reality show starring its flight attendants. Or rather, a select group or attractive women flight attendants. Said flight attendants will be filmed as they jaunt across the skies doing their flight attendant thing for the cameras. The show, Fly Girls, will be airing on the CW, so I'm expecting at least some manufactured drama, which should be easy to get seeing as how the five featured flight attendants will all be living together in a "crash pad" in Los Angeles. In Virgin's words: "From their shared home-base “crash pad” in Los Angeles, California, the young women will deal with work lives that include split-second decision-making, demanding and sometimes fascinating passengers, long hours in the air and layovers in interesting locales. Their personal lives are filled with romance, family, friendships and more than a few roommate conflicts."