In a move that might make the Supernanny proud, Southwest Airlines sent a two-year-old (and his mother) to a time out, kicking them off of a flight from Amarillo to San Jose last week. It seems that the rowdy toddler was making such a ruckus that the rest of the passengers could not hear the preflight safety announcements. The kid's mother says that she was sure his screams of "Go plane go!" and "I want Daddy!" would have subsided once they were in the air, but the flight crew were not as confidant and ended up taxiing the plane back to the gate and booting the twosome off the plane.

Southwest threw the first punch in this round, lowering prices to a ridiculous $25 a seat in their football-themed "4th Quarter Sale." If you're flying distances under 374 miles -- like, say from Los Angeles to Las Vegas or Los Angeles to San Francisco -- it's really only $25 each way. Prices go up in mile increments, so it's $50 from Los Angeles to Reno, $75 to Salt Lake City, and then $100 to New Orleans or Chicago.

Southwest Airlines knows a marketable trend when they see one on their Twitter and stuff. Hence their new eco-plane (well, it's actually four years old, but it's eco-ness is new). The aircraft's first greeny flight was Wednesday evening, tracking a route from headquarters in Dallas up to rainy Seattle. The plane is not fueled by natural gas, like the eco-plane from Qatar; its environmental makeover is, sadly, entirely cosmetic.

Labor Day has come and gone, taking with it all the white clothes (and shoes) and most of the fanfare of lazy summer days. However, summer isn't officially, officially over until September 21 -- even though Starbucks is already trotting out that damn Pumpkin Spice Latte. In case you didn't get a chance to get away for the long weekend, or in case you did and it was such a blast you need a vacation from your vacation, you're in luck. My favorite trifecta of airlines all launched sales this week, designed to inspire travel lust in those hoping for a last weekend fling, or those ready to plan fall trips already.

Southwest Airlines is sure toeing the line in regards to their "no hidden fees" promise. They've now added a fee to their check-in process that, although not mandatory, might as well be. However, if the fee does what it promises, I'd be happy to cough up the $10 they're asking for the "EarlyBird Check-in" . This new fee allows passengers to board immediately after Southwest’s Business Select and Rapid Rewards A-List customers, meaning no rushing to wait in the A/B/C lines. As it stands now, if you want to coveted "A" boarding line -- for those of you not familiar with the fun cattle call that can be Southwest flying -- there are no assigned seating, and so the earlier you check in, the better your chances are for getting a non-middle seat.

Worse than snakes on a plane, some scorpions hitched a ride on a recent Southwest flight from Phoenix headed to Indianapolis (where were you on this one, TSA?). Seems that an entire family of little stingers took nest in Doug Herbstommer's carry-on luggage. Mid-flight, one of the scorpions made a break for it and ended up falling on Herbstommer, who initially thought the creature was an errant seatbelt. The arachnid in question quickly scurried up Herbstommer's pant leg (my own personal nightmare, BTW) who then tried to brush the "seatbelt" off and got stung between his fingers. Fortunately the scorpion was of the Arizona Bark varietal, whose stings rarely cause death. The errant scorpion met his maker shortly thereafter, courtesy of Herbstommer's flip flop.

Southwest Airlines has a sweet sale going on that ends today at midnight. The flights on sale are all fall flights, so think fall foliage, or alternately, places that will still be warm enough to eke out a last few days of bathing-suit wear. Note the sale ends just before the holiday season starts, but if you can take a week off for Thanksgiving, now would be an excellent time to book. Sale flights start September 9 and stop November 18. Several choice deals still available.

Southwest has finally migrated all the way east to New York -- not quite to JFK but close enough over at the LaGuardia airport. As we mentioned, Southwest has been hovering over the east coast ready to pounce on any weakness that United or American airlines may have, so that they make take full advantage of the large consumer base that travels around the eastern seaboard. As of Sunday, Southwest is now providing service between LGA and BWI, MDW, and about 45 more domestic destinations. To the delight of the LGA passengers, David Holmes, Southwest employee and rapper extraordinaire, was on hand to deliver a welcome rap. Check the original rap that made him famous after the jump.

Southwest is launching a new ad campaign to replace their old "No Hidden Fees" rhetoric, because, you know, they've added fees. That are hidden. The bigwigs at Southwest are not linking the change in ads with the addition of the new fees; no no, instead, they are claiming that "Southwest decided that the furor over fees had run its course, and that there was nothing to be gained by running more commercials with the same theme," or so says Dave Ridley, Southwest's senior vice president of marketing. The new campaign is called "Grab Your Bag. It's On," and it encourages customers to forget about the recession and get flying. Check out the "It's On" video for yourself after the jump.

In an unprecedented move, Southwest seems to be grudgingly adding on some fees to the otherwise fuss-and-fee-free airline. Don't worry -- checking your bags is still free, which is a minor miracle in this age of $25 per bag. But if you get greedy and/or are a bizarre pack rat, your third bag will now cost you $50 instead of the previous $25. Which is pretty fair really; who needs to pack three bags for any kind of trip? Another fee Southwest is introducing: $25 for any unaccompanied minor, which is considered a child under the age of 11 traveling without an adult.