There's a new airport lounge concept coming to United Airlines, and it's pretty dandy. The first showpiece in Terminal 2 of Chicago's O'Hare airport opens up on Thursday, the 20th of December, and the improvements over traditional clubs are dramatic.

Design facets of the club are a mixture of the Continental and United brands, folded into tones of travel and warmth. The spherical lights over the bar, for example, symbolize the updated company logo. Tables and lights are modeled after jet engines, while the swept ceiling looks like a wing. Even the bathrooms, which have 787 Dreamliner-style mirrors, reflect the airline's livery.

United plans to open seven more clubs in San Diego, Seattle, Houston, London, San Francisco, Atlanta and Boston through the third quarter of 2014, and any remodels will hold this updated aesthetic. Take a look through the club in Chicago below.

Gallery: United's Updated Lounge Design

Lots of things make me uncomfortable about this video (including the music) but the most gut-wrenching is probably the final approach that this pilot takes towards the air strip. It's an acrobatic, if not risky way to land an airplane, but it sure does make for some sensational video. Skip up to 2:00 if you want to cut down on the superfluous music and footage.

If you have more than a couple of hours to spare on a layover in Chicago, a great way to soak up some time is at the nearby gambling hall. Rivers Casino is only a few miles from the airport and is an excellent diversion away from the humdrum terminal newsstands and blaring overhead announcements.

To get there, exit security then head downstairs and take the CTA blue line one stop ($2.25 one way at time of writing) to Rosemont. From there, take the only exit and jump on a free purple shuttle bus that runs from the transit center 24/7. The entire one-way trip from the airport on public transportation takes 30-40 minutes while alternatively, a $10 cab will take about 10 minutes.

Rivers casino opened last year on the outskirts of O'Hare airport and is the only casino near the city. On a recent Saturday morning layover, we discovered nearly packed tables stating at $10 per bet and enough slot machines to make any casual casino-goer happy. There's also a modest dining selection, which offers an interesting alternative to the overpriced airport food.

Keep in mind that you'll have to renegotiate security upon return to the airport, and that carry-on luggage should go with you, so make sure you've got at least three hours to spare before your flight leaves.

[Photo credit: Flickr user conorwithonen]

Remember that New York Magazine cover by Ryu Ho-Yeol showing the departure of a score of aircraft from a German runway? It's actually a composite image stitching all of the aircraft together, and we've now the same thing in video format.

Over the Black Friday weekend, filmmaker Cy Kuckenbaker captured every single aircraft landing on one runway at San Diego International airport and merged them into one composite piece of film. It's an impressive task when you consider the moving background and the number of clips involved. Take a look at the impressive shot above.

The last time you probably heard about El Capitan was when you read about Alex Honnold, the crazy free climber who summited the wall in Yosemite Valley without a rope. There's also a rope missing in the above video, but for a different reason. Anchored on two ropes, LiveLeak user tomservo set up a massive swing on the face of the wall by dropping to the end of one rope and then swinging across the expanse. There's a huge drop before the second line goes taut (you may notice it when your stomach tries to climb out of your throat) and the swing is definitely risky – but it makes for a great video.

"The Hobbit" opens in theaters this winter, and Air New Zealand is taking full advantage of the event to jump on the publicity train. Or publicity airplane, rather, as the carrier just revealed its newest Hobbit-themed Boeing 777, replete with garish external artwork rivaled only by ANZ CEO Ryan Fyfe's collar buttons.

It's actually a pretty great looking airplane (so is your shirt Mr. Fyfe, I tease), though I wish that the cabins had also been upgraded. We could call economy "The Shire" moving forth while first class could go as, say, Mordor. "One does not simply walk into Mordor without a flight attendant barring the aisleway."

There's a lively discussion going on among feisty members of the MilesBuzz! forum on Flyertalk about a blogger's role in the mileage and airfare deal community.

At issue is a group of bloggers who have been scouring the forums at sites such as theirs, identifying the best deals and then publishing the information in their blogs. Built for a wider audience, the blogs bring enormous traffic, often leading to a change in terms or cancellation of the deals.

Think of it like a trampoline. If two or three people discover the trampoline and take a jump, everyone has a good time. But if the entire town is invited, the trampoline breaks.

As an example, a recent loophole discovered by members of the forum found that prepaid spending cards could be loaded for no fee with a credit card, meaning one could charge two thousand dollars to a prepaid card, earn reward points and then pay off everything with no fee. The result was a way to effectively earn points for free, something that any budget traveler would swoon for.

Once the blog community caught wind of the deal, however, the financial companies got wise and changed their terms. Members of Flyertalk were enraged.

Further inflaming the situation is the income that many of the bloggers are earning from their sites. A blogger can poach a deal from Flyertalk, several community members pointed out, earn thousands of hits to their site and then burden the reader with dozens of potentially profitable credit card ads. Each credit card application processed from a referral link could score the blogger up to $200. Need an example? Count the credit card ads here. With a popup blocker enabled, I still count 20. Another blogger meticulously shows that with credit card offers he can make about $4000/month in extra income.

On the other side of the coin, bloggers point out that they do a service to the masses by distilling complex info into a simple, easy to read format. But are they putting their pocket books in front of the community?

It's a grey area. On one hand it seems that the credit card companies have so much influence over the bloggers that they'll post anything that they think will drive traffic. But on the other hand, public data is public data, and if they want to do the work to build the articles then traffic should dictate success. Whether they can do it with class is up to each blogger respectively. My guess is that when the axe man (ie FTC) comes calling all dues will be paid.

[Flickr image: sfbaywalk]

Jon Goldstein was able to publish our excellent series "In Bali With Baggage" over on "WireTap" this past weekend, marking the first time that a Gadling story has ever been broadcast on the North American radio waves.

You can check out the landing page for the show over on the CBC or subscribe to the weekly podcast here.



Our thanks to Mr. Golstein and the producers of "WireTap" for sharing the good word.

When Sean McLachlan approached me early last year with the idea of building some Iraq coverage I thought he was crazy. Iraq was a warzone. The security situation in the country was far from stable and I wasn't about to send a freelancer, husband and father headlong into the country in the name of a few adventure stories. I said no.

Sean persisted. As the military presence in Iraq ratcheted down and the dust from the conflict began to settle, he pointed to an increasingly secure infrastructure and a series of avenues in which a completely safe visit might occur. Iraq was still dangerous, no doubt, but it was possible to go on guided, armored tours to the safe portions of the country and cover some of the cultural angles. We didn't want to be on the front lines anyway – the story of tourism in Iraq is about the people who have weathered the storm, and the millennia of history still ingrained in the region. Finally, with the blessing of Sean's wife, an ironclad tour company, and a half dozen international wire transfers I signed off on the tip.

The series, "Destination Iraq," is running on Gadling right now, and will continue through the week after Thanksgiving. Sean is back, safe and sound and with dozens of stories (and just a few more photos) in the hopper, and we couldn't be happier with the coverage.

As part of the series I've asked Sean to do a Q&A (or Ask Me Anything) over on Reddit to answer some questions about the trip. How's the food? Do planes still have to land in a corkscrew pattern at the airport? Who's your favorite pro wrestler? Everything is fair game.

Join us at 11AM ET for the live session. Sean will be answering questions for a few hours and should have some great insight into what it's like to be a tourist in the newest destination in the planet: Iraq.

[Photo credit: Sean McLachlan]

Watching this journey through South America will fill you with wanderlust unparalleled. The composition of this video is amazing. It captures the beauty of the region, from the people to the cities to the landscapes, and the score is subtle and moving. Cheers to Vimeo user Vincent Urban for a job well done. We're amazingly jealous.