Budget Travel reports a surprising development at Walt Disney World. Something free from Disney? Cool.

For the last few years, Walt Disney World has offered free dining plans in September to entice visitors during a notoriously slow month. Well, Disney announced yesterday that the Disney Dining Plan will once again be offered free with select vacation packages. If you stay at one of Disney’s “value” or “moderate” category resorts—or at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa—between Aug. 24 and Sept. 20, 2008, and you book a 5-night “Magic Your Way” package (at a starting price of about $1,300 for a family of four), then they’ll throw in the dining plan for free. The plan ordinarily costs $38 per day per adult.

Popularity: 65% [?]

This week I had a rare business trip to Atlanta, Georgia. I booked the least expensive flight as usual using an airfare aggregation site. In this case I used Kayak.com as I often do. But fare alone is not the only measure of which is the best flight. I had two things that made my trip less than ideal.

• The night before I was scheduled to depart, US Airways cancelled my flight. They did not have a crew. So after I had spent a lot of time picking the right flight so I could spend an evening in Atlanta (not knowing that a tornado had torn up downtown) I ended up instead getting to my hotel at midnight.
• I had a very tight connection on my flight back (26 minutes) which is less than I would recommend for anyone. My flight was delayed a few minutes by bad weather and I ended up running between flights and arrived at the gate where the monitors said I would find a flight to San Jose but found a plane waiting to go to Seattle instead. A moment later they announced the last call for my flight 2 gates down.

There are always things that cannot be controlled when you fly, but situations can be predicted. For instance, some flights are habitually late. What if I had known that my flight from Atlanta was always late, then there is no way I would have taken a chance on with such a short layover. There is now a airfare aggregation site has just that sort of information. The site is InsideTrip.com.

Boston.com writes:

You thought you got a good deal when you booked that $200 flight from New York to Fort Lauderdale after scouring various websites to find the lowest fare. But after suffering through a long delay, a cramped flight on an old plane, and the airline’s losing your bags, that flight may not have felt like a bargain, after all.

Most travel sites, like Expedia and Kayak, do a good job of digging up the cheapest airfare for a given route, often giving you dozens of options. But when it comes to key factors that can help determine whether a flight is worth the money or is one to avoid - like how much legroom you get, a flight’s on-time performance, and mishandled luggage rates - travel sites tend to fall short.

For each search, InsideTrip provides not just fares but also evaluations of what Pelter calls 12 “pain points.” These include the amount of legroom in a cabin, how often the flight is on time, the aircraft type (larger jets get higher ratings), how crowded a specific flight typically is, and if you can walk to your connection. It even considers how long it usually takes to get through the security checkpoint nearest the gate.

Popularity: 42% [?]

I have mentioned Kayak.Kayak.com before as one of my favorite sites to use for booking air travel. Kayak sent out a reminder of how to save money booking holiday travel that is worth passing along. If you specify that your dates are flexible (you must create an account to use this feature) you can bring up a graph that will help you pick the best day to fly.

It pays to know what others are paying. After doing a flight search, check the airfare history for a desired route by clicking on Chart View on the flight results page. Kayak’s Best Fare Trend Graph charts pricing for city/date pairs found by Kayak.com users over the past 90 days.

This chart will:

1. Let you know if the deal you are looking at is a good deal
2. Let you know if you might get a better deal by moving your trip a few days

Popularity: 40% [?]

When we first travelled with our friend Susan we would say something like “oh I need a band-aid” or “does anyone have a wet wipe” and out of Susan’s magic backpack would emerge the desired item. After while it felt like being on the old “Let’s Make a Deal” when Monty Hall would ask if anyone had a raw egg. Susan did her research on what to pack (always including chocolate and peanut butter) on her own but some companies are trying to make this easier for travelers. So eBags for instance offers the Air Travel Essentials:

Air Travel Essentials If you are going on a trip by plane, you are going to want to have some necessary supplies for where you’re headed. The “Air Travel Essentials Kit” comes packaged in a thick clear slide-closing vinyl bag.

• 1 Survivor Industries® - Travel Safe First Aid Kit
• 1 Purell® Hand Sanitizer with Aloe
• 2 Shout® Wipes Stain Treater Towelette
• 1 Charmin To Go® Toilet Seat Covers
• 1 Charmin To Go® Bathroom Tissue
• 1 Jaraze® Sewing Kit
• 1 Kleenex® Tissues Pocket Pack
• 1 Gearaid® Mini Rolls Duct Tape (2 rolls)
• 1 BioZide® Disinfectant/Deodorant Pump Spray
• 2 Dramamine® Chewable Formula
• 1 Generic Poncho
• 1 Generic Small Flashlight

Raw egg not included.

Popularity: 45% [?]

If you are one of those people who plan their life in advance, who is planning on going to Europe this year and likes to travel by train then you should know that Eurail has got a deal for you:

Eurail Group announced today that it is offering an extra day of rail travel on all
six-, eight- and ten-day Eurail Select Passes purchased up until the end of
March 2008. Customers will then have up to six months in which to start
traveling.

Eurail Pass

Eurail Regional Pass

if you are pricing train travel you might also check out these links:

Rail Europe: Specials & Promotions
Austria Rail Pass

Benelux Rail Pass

BritRail Passes

European High-Speed Train Tickets

France Pass

German Rail Pass

Spain Rail Pass

Swiss Rail Pass

Youth Rail Pass

Senior Rail Pass

Popularity: 21% [?]

$75 off 4+ Nights, Flight and Hotel to Las Vegas when you use your MasterCard - COUPON CODE: 75VEGAS

$150 off 6+ Nights, Flight and Hotel to Mexico when you use your MasterCard - COUPON CODE: 150MEXICO

$75 off 3+ Nights, Flight and Hotel in Vancouver - COUPON CODE: VANCOUVER75

$100 off 4+ Nights, Flight and Hotel to Utah - COUPON CODE: UTAH100

Round-Trip Flights starting at only $154

Popularity: 12% [?]