Big news, people: Expedia and Terrapass have partnered in a program to offer Flight Terrapasses to travelers when they buy plane tickets.
Although the travel industry has undertaken limited experiments with this kind of offering before, this is the first program of its size and scope to offer measured, verified greenhouse gas reductions to all travelers. Expedia will offer Terrapass to every U.S. traveler who buys a plane ticket through their web site.
This is an important development for the travel industry and for the fight against global warming. Air travel has exploded in popularity as the cost of plane tickets has dropped. But planes create a large and growing proportion of global warming pollution. For frequent flyers, plane travel creates more emissions than their cars.
Previously, there was not much travelers could do about their contribution to this problem. Now there is.
Please help us spread the word about this exciting program. A lot of people will be watching to see how it does. If it’s successful, more industries will take note of the consumer appetite for real, substantive action on global warming.
The co-marketed Flight Terrapass comes at three purchase levels: 1,000 lbs of CO2 for $5.99; 2,500 lbs of CO2 for $16.99; and 5,000 lbs of CO2 for $29.99, enough to balance about 2,200 miles; 6,500 miles; and 13,000 miles of flying, respectively.
At the smallest purchase level, your purchase comes with a nifty co-branded decal. At the two higher levels, you get a magnificent co-branded luggage tag, made of durable, high-quality silicone.
To buy a Flight Terrapass through Expedia, you just book a ticket as you normally would, and look for us on the “Customize your trip” page under the heading of “Featured Activities & Services.” You can also buy a Terrapass through Expedia separately from your plane ticket by clicking on the “Activities” tab and selecting dates and a destination.
A bit about our partner Expedia, for those of you who are new to this whole internet thing. The company has quite a pedigree. They were the first online travel agency, and they remain by far the largest. They’ve been selling travel online since 1996, when the entire internet consisted of six computers administered by a thirteen-year-old boy named Kevin.* Travel was the first truly successful mainstream retail category on the Web, and Expedia has been a pioneer not just in online travel, but also in sustainable travel.
Savvy customers have been able to buy Flight Terrapasses through our web site for a few months now. But this new partnership gives us a reach that is really just unimaginable, which is great for customers, for us, and for the environment. Congratulations to Expedia for taking leadership on such an important issue.
The future of the partnership depends on its success, so we encourage our readers who have not yet balanced out their flying to make their next ticket purchase through Expedia — and make it carbon balanced. Spread the word!
* I’m embarrassed to say this, but I’m pretty sure I stole this joke from Dave Barry.
Brought to you by terrapass.com
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