Southwest has been running a heavy dose of TV commercials boasting that unlike most other airlines it lets passengers check two bags for free.But the airline said Friday it will launch a new TV commercial designed to boost sales on its website.

The ad, featuring singing and dancing employees in Chicago, is important to Southwest because its flights don't appear on online booking websites such as Orbitz and Travelocity.Also, Southwest is seeking actors for commercials that will target airlines that charge customers up to $150 to change their itinerary. Southwest doesn't charge a fee for changing flights on a ticket.Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins said the airline hasn't decided when or how widely the new campaign will run.Brett Snyder, who blogs about airlines as The Cranky Flier, said the change-fees ads will probably be less effective than Southwest's long-running "bags fly free" campaign. [Read the full article]

Delta Air Lines Inc said Friday it would add 1,000 flight attendants through a combination of new hires and recalls of furloughed workers for international assignments.Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said the carrier needed flight attendants fluent in languages such as Japanese and Mandarin. He said they were expected to be working by the middle of 2011.Delta, based in Atlanta, Georgia, has about 20,000 flight attendants. An election is underway to determine if they will be represented by the Association of Flight Attendants union.Last week, AMR Corp's American Airlines said it would bring back nearly 800 furloughed flight attendants and pilots to handle network expansion on international routes. (Reporting by Karen Jacobs)ATLANTA — Delta Air Lines Inc said Friday it would add 1,000 flight attendants through a combination of new hires and recalls of furloughed workers for international assignments. [Read the full article]

A motivational speaker with cerebral palsy said he was humiliated when he was kicked off a U.S. Airways flight after being told he was too disabled to fly alone.Normally we strive to bring you the best and most innovative tools for your journeys. This time around, we just wanted to have fun."I was raised to believe I could grow up doing what I wanted to do and it didn't lead me to any entitlement," Johnnie Tuitel, 47, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story Saturday. "By them denying me the ability to fly, I couldn't do my job."Tuitel, 47, of Grand Rapids Township, Michigan, said he has flown over 500,000 miles to give motivational speeches, but he missed one because of the Sept. 23 incident at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida.After helping him into his seat aboard a flight from West Palm Beach to Kansas City, a U.S. Airways gate agent returned and wheeled Tuitel back to the terminal, he said. [Read the full article]

Workers at the Hilton Chicago Hotel began a three-day strike Saturday, similar to temporary walkaouts under way at a Hilton in Honolulu and one in San Francisco.Unite Here union locals say the strikes protest what they call offers of "cheap recession contracts" from a company enriched by a taxpayer bailout.Managers at the affected Hiltons, part of the worldwide chain owned by Blackstone Group LP, say they are bargaining in good faith.The strikes by locals of Unite Here and their effects vary. But the locals all cited what they said was a Blackstone bailout.Blackstone in February cut a deal to reduce its $20 billion debt by about $4 billion. The debt was partially owned by the Federal Reserve, which had taken over the debt from lender Bear Stearns, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. [Read the full article]