I logged into my account here at BoardingArea.com — only to find that the statistics are showing that there are still views to The Gate, despite not having an entry for almost two years and despite no longer being a featured weblog.

While you are certainly welcome to read The Gate — one of the original weblogs here at BoardingArea.com — this is a reminder that new entries to The Gate are being posted here.

Once again, I want to express my appreciation to Randy Petersen — for without him, there would be no weblog called The Gate, currently in its sixth year of existence.

Thank you, Randy!

As you can tell, we are winding down our postings here at BoardingArea.com.

However, we have had a number of readers ask about whether or not there is an RSS feed for the new home of The Gate, and we are happy to announce that yes, there is indeed an RSS feed:

http://feeds.flyertalk.com/the-gate

Please remember that the new home of The Gate is here.

Thank you for your support of The Gate. We truly appreciate it!

This is a reminder that The Gate has a new home.

Although we originally officially announced the move of The Gate weblog here, we have been double-posting on both weblogs for a while to assist in easing the transition.

We thoroughly enjoyed having The Gate as one of the BoardingArea.com weblogs for almost five years. We wish our fellow BoardingArea.com “bloggers” all the best of success moving forward into the future, but we are not saying goodbye. Rather, we hope to continue working with them and using each other for references. After all, the frequent traveler community is relatively small, and we need to work together for the best interests of the frequent traveler community.

Please join us over at the new home of The Gate and — as with BoardingArea.com — please add The Gate as part of your routine of reading travel-related weblogs.

Thank you for your support.

Lettuce review the meat of this story: a Pilot walks off plane for wrong meal, causing the departure of a flight of a United Airlines flight from Denver to Tampa to be delayed for 45 minutes.

While some wondered what the beef was with the big cheese of the aircraft, others were willing to chip in some bread to purchase a meal from a dining establishment on the concourse just to get out of this pickle.

Apparently sandwiched between all of this was the flight attendant, who did not chicken out of implying that it was now a match of principles between the pilot and the caterer, who was supposedly arrogant.

Find out how this potentially fowl situation concluded after the pilot decided to dessert the aircraft instead of roll with the punches. Perhaps he should have ordered a Bánh mì…

If you fly on Frontier Airlines, you can purchase a $50 Frontier Credit for $25 on Groupon. However, while you can buy multiple credits, only one per flight may be used. Still, there is the opportunity of significant potential savings on airfare if you are often a passenger on Frontier Airlines.

While this offer is only valid for new reservations, it can be combined with other offers…

…and if you use a shopping portal such as BigCrumbs, you can save even more money.

The United States Department of Transportation tentatively approved the swap of slots at Fiorello LaGuardia Airport in New York and Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. — but only under certain conditions.

Delta Air Lines and US Airways will be allowed to trade landing rights in New York and Washington, as long as they sell eight takeoff and landing rights in Washington, D.C. and 16 in New York to other airlines which hold fewer than five percent of current slots and do not code share with — or operate on behalf of — an airline that has greater than five percent of current slots.

Delta Air Lines will reportedly give US Airways 42 pairs of takeoff and landing rights in Washington, D.C. along with cash in exchange for Delta acquiring 132 pairs of takeoff and landing rights in New York, giving Delta Air Lines a significantly greater presence in New York, while US Airways increases its presence in Washington.

For additional information, please refer to the following FlyerTalk threads:

• DOT approves LGA slot swap!
• (UPDATE 7/21/11): DOT gives tentative approval to revised US/DL slot swap

New technology will enhance privacy on body scanners, TSA says, as new software for body imaging scanners at airport security checkpoints in the United States which use millimeter wave technology will replace the image of an actual passenger scanned with a generic outline of that person instead.

Note that this “enhancement” does not affect body imaging scanners which employ backscatter technology.

Will this “enhancement” convince more passengers to use the body imaging scanners instead of “opting out” and receiving full body pat-downs by Transportation Security Administration workers instead?

Details are not available yet at this time, but the area of Japan that was most affected by the massive earthquake in March earlier this year — as reported by The Gate — was just hit with an earthquake hours ago that measured 7.1 on the Richter scale.

A tsunami warning was issued as a result.

It is now official about Mileage Plus: Loyalty program for the new United in 2012, meaning that the days for the OnePass name from Continental Airlines are numbered as CO OnePass Fades Away…

The following are some data points outlined by FlyerTalk member UA Insider:

• No action is required. OnePass members who do not already have a Mileage Plus account will automatically be enrolled in the new program. For members who have accounts in both programs, you are encouraged to link your accounts now, and then all other accounts will be matched up as best as possible.
• You can still link your accounts ahead of time. If you have accounts in both programs and want to link them yourself before the first quarter of 2012, you can do so at united.com/linkmyaccounts or continental.com/linkmyaccounts.
• Your miles and status are safe. Rest assured that all reward miles, elite qualification credit, and lifetime status (if applicable) will be preserved OnePass and Mileage Plus are transitioned to a single frequent flier loyalty program in 2012. In addition, OnePass members will earn 2012 elite status based on their combined OnePass and Mileage Plus elite qualifying activity in 2011.

For those of you who miss wearing or using FlyerTalk-branded items since the original FlyerTalk store temporarily closed, your suffering from withdrawal is finally over.  The FlyerTalk Store is now open for business!

Once again, you may purchase such items as FlyerTalk shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, water bottles, clocks, teddy bears, key chains, magnets, buttons, and even food and water dishes for your pets.

By the way, in case you were wondering: yes, the infamous classic FlyerTalk thong is once again available for purchase.

Imagine a revamping of the pet policies at Hyatt Hotels and Resorts worldwide that would result in a new program called “Bark Hyatt.” The program would charge a fee for pets per stay — for example, $25.00 or $35.00, with a fee waiver for Platinum and Diamond members of the Hyatt Gold Passport frequent guest program. Just the basic necessities would be offered, such as a water bowl, for example.

The rules of conduct would be very restrictive — any problems and the pet is permanently banned from the program. There could be weight limits, animal quantity limits per room and breed limits as well. The pets would be limited to certain rooms to limit exposure to pet dander, odor and noise.

FlyerTalk member BallardFlyer — who proposed the “Bark Hyatt” idea — would spend an extra 10 or more nights per year at Hyatt properties if this idea were implemented. While there are those FlyerTalk members who agree with the proposal, there are other FlyerTalk members who opposed this idea — some of them vehemently. Find out why.