Out of the kindness of its ginormous heart, Google (GOOG) is giving holiday travelers a bit of cheer this season, providing free Wi-Fi in 47 U.S. airports starting today and running through January 15. As a bonus to Virgin America passengers traveling within the continental U.S., Google is providing in-flight Wi-Fi as well.

Of course, the Web search giant has an ulterior motive. In a statement, a Google spokesperson said: "This is one of our holiday gifts to our users, and when you connect, we also hope you'll take the opportunity to try some of the latest Google products."

Given the smorgasbord of economic demands and concerns -- domestic and foreign -- likely to face the new U.S. president, investors (and taxpayers) can justifiably ask 'Where's all the money going to come from to pay for these programs?'

Legitimate question, but one, for now, we'll let the political process sort out. (Current Gallup Daily Tracking Poll as of August 6, 2008, for the U.S. presidential election: Obama, 46%, McCain, 44%.)

Electing U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, or U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, will produce different programs and revenue priorities, due to the parties' different sources of power, but the argument forwarded here is that -- regardless of who becomes the new president -- the office holder should address transportation in a comprehensive way. Here are the major concern areas:

• Mass transit: We're early into the $4 gas era, of course, but initial U.S. Department of Transportation data indicates Americans are driving less and using mass transit more. The trouble is, many mass transit systems (rail, commuter rail, subway, bus) need to be expanded/upgraded to handle the increased ridership. Bigger, better mass transit systems will save the United States hundreds of billions of dollars in oil costs, not to mention the environmental benefits.

As you know, American Airlines -- AMR Corp (NYSE: AMR) has been having a tough week. The company started running a new round of inspections on Tuesday which has led to large cancellations for the past 4fourdays.

Today, once again there were more cancellations, with another 595 flights being grounded. It can be very frustrating to find out your flight has been canceled, but some airports are upping their efforts to accommodate the unlucky passengers. All combined, the airliner has been forced to cancel in excess of 3,000 flights this week, impacting some quarter of a million travelers.

We have all had to deal with canceled, or delayed flights... and one thing is for sure, it is never a pleasant feeling, so you can just imagine the mood in airports all across America in reaction to this week's mess. Well, according to a story from MSNBC, some airports are taking extra steps to help make American passengers as comfortable as possible.

If you've traveled to China, you've seen the digital TV screens in airplanes and airports. For the most part, it's AirMedia Group that operates the network, which includes more than 18,000 screens.

Now, the company has filed to go public.

In fact, AirMedia controls more than 95% of the digital TV screens for the 15 largest airports in China. And there are deals with nine airlines, which include the three largest in China (China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and Air China).

Basically, AirMedia blends advertising content with regular programming, such as news, weather, sports and so on. Although, the advertising portion is about 25 minutes for each hour block.

Last week we discussed airline seating, and which airlines were trying to stuff two hundred pounds of American into a 100 lb. bag. This week, thanks to U.S. News and World Report, we consider what airports to avoid.

While most of the time travelers buzz from one terminal to another, barely noting the bad food and overpriced golf clothes for sale along the way, every once in a great while a snowstorm or terrorist attack traps thousands of visitors for days at a time. Where would you rather sleep on the floor?

USNWR's Airport Misery Index, developed in cooperation with The Boyd Group, breaks their subject into two classes, large airports and small. The candidates for the most miserable large airports:

1. Detroit, MI -- Detroit Metro Wayne Co (DTW) --Hub --Northwest
2. Chicago, IL -- O'Hare (ORD) --Hub- American (NYSE:AMR), United (NASDAQ: UAUA)
3. Charlotte, NC -- Charlotte Douglas Intl (CLT) -- Hub -- US Airways (NYSE: LCC)
4. New York NY -- Kennedy (JFK) --Hub -- Delta (NYSE: DAL), JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU)
5. Newark, NJ -- Liberty Intl (EWR) (The airport People's Airlines made famous has brought ignominity upon the Garden State. Ask most people what they know of NJ, and they'll likely refer to the Newark Airport and Tony Soprano, neither favorably.) -- Hub -- Continental (NYSE: CAL)

The best large airports? Apparently, the west has it all over the east.

1. Oakland, CA -- Metro Oakland Intl (OAK)
   
2. Houston TX -- Wm. P. LHobby (HOU)
   
3. San Jose CA -- Norman Y. Mineta San Jose Intl (SJC)
   
4. Dallas, TX -- Love Field (DAL) -- Hub -- Southwest (NYSE: LUV)
   
5. St. Louis, MO -- Lambert Intl (STL) -- Hub -- American

Next -- the nation's best and worst small airports.

My shiny new Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPod Shuffle is barely bigger than postage stamp, while my regular-sized iPod fits in the palm of my hand. My husband lives and breathes by his deck-of-cards-sized BlackBerry, while my cell phone is as thin as a chocolate bar. Through some miracle of karmic favor, we've so far managed to keep tabs on all of these items throughout our various travels during the past few years - but we're among the lucky ones.

Chicago-based security firm Pointsec recent told New York Times writers that three to six percent of portable electronic gadgets with corporate network access go missing every year. These are left behind on all legs of trips, from the security gates at airports to hotel rooms. From April to September last year, Pointsec said, 8,701 mobile devices were abandoned in taxi cabs in and around the nation's capital alone, and 3,106 devices were abandoned in San Francisco area cabs.

Once lost, these items are sometimes hard to track down, even if you can remember where you probably left it. Airlines appear to have placed returning lost property "far down the list of priorities," and it is nearly impossible for a passenger to return to check his seat (or that pesky black-hole pocket in front of it) once he or she has exited.

Travel, particularly business travel, can elevate stress and cause rushed behavior, leading to lapses in memory and carelessness. Experts advise coming up with a "systematic approach for cues that can remind you of what you might otherwise forget" or even the use of checklists.

My husband and I have been pretty lucky, especially me, who can be quite the klutz (embarrassing true story: I once had to ask an airport gate attendant for a fresh boarding pass as mine had dropped out of my back pocket and into the toilet. Sigh). But we watch out for one another, double checking those pesky plastic crates after they spit through security and always running split-second mental checks ... iPod, cell, blackberry, laptop, purse/wallet, money clip. Good Samaritans still exist in this world, so a well-placed identifier on your devices might just get them returned to you if you happen to leave them behind.

It just takes a moment or two, and perhaps a deep breath, to collect one's thoughts and ensure that all of your import personal effects remain on your person. After all, a cell phone can be replaced for a couple hundred dollars or less, but the loss of one's contacts and text-message history? We all know that can end badly - just ask Paris Hilton.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ:JBLU) suffered yet another humiliation in the press.

BusinessWeek dropped the low-cost carrier from its first-ever ranking of "client pleasing brands" following the recent embarrassing revelations that it left passengers stranded on the runway for 10 hours during an ice storm. The magazine compares how Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) handled a similar situation and finds that JetBlue's response fell way short.

The airline, of course, says the same thing. Chief Executive David Neeleman has apologized more than Mel Gibson, Michael Richards and Kevin Federline combined. Wait, Federline hasn't said he was sorry yet for his rap album but he should.

This reminds of a time when I was invited to a chemical plant for a safety demonstration. While I was on the site, there was an accident. Timing is everything.

Maybe BusinessWeek is being too harsh. Judging from the huge response to my last JetBlue post, there are plenty of people who think the airline's service is great. But as a great sage once said, actions speak louder than words.

JetBlue Airways Corp. (NYSE:JBLU) Chief Executive David G. Neeleman needs to start worrying about whether the public will associate his low-cost airline with being cheap. Given his recent statements to the New York Times (subscription required), investors should also worry about whether he's starting to crack under the stress of bad publicity surrounding the huge number of weather-related cancellations.

As I argued before, people shouldn't be surprised by flight cancellations or delays caused by bad weather, But I gave JetBlue too much of the benefit of the doubt. The fact that the problems are continuing when the weather isn't nearly as bad is worrisome.

About 1,000 flights have been canceled over the past five days have been canceled over the past five days for "as the result of a shoestring communications system that left pilots and flight attendants in the dark, and an undersize reservation system," the New York Times said.

Neeleman's comments to the paper are unbelievable.

"We had so many people in the company who wanted to help who weren't trained to help," he said. "We had an emergency control center full of people who didn't know what to do. I had flight attendants sitting in hotel rooms for three days who couldn't get a hold of us. I had pilots e-mailing me saying, 'I'm available, what do I do?' "

Weren't trained? Didn't know what to do? Poor communication?

The fault for all of these problems lies ultimately with Neeleman. He told the Times that he was "mortified" by the screw ups.

Investors know that talk is cheap and that actions speak louder than words. But Neeleman will find that dealing with irate investors will be much harder than angry passengers. Wall Street is going to want more than a free flight on JetBlue to allay its concerns.

Neeleman is going to have to act fast or he will find that the skies for JetBlue will be very unfriendly.

JetBlue Airways Corp. (Nasdaq:JBLU) is getting beaten up in the press because passengers were left stranded for hours on planes that never took off from their runways because of the snow storm that's pounded the Mid-Atlantic region.

About 10 flights were "significantly delayed" with passengers aboard them at the airline's home base at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the company said. More than 250 out of 505 flights were canceled. The media is reporting horror stories of honeymoons delayed, sweltering cabins and unpleasant bathrooms.

Responding to the outrage, JetBlue called the delays "unacceptable" and offered a full refund and a free roundtrip ticket to customers delayed onboard any aircraft for more than three hours. That seems to be more than fair compensation to passengers who shouldn't have expected that flying would be that fun during bad weather.

I'm sure JetBlue, a Wall Street darling, is sincerely sorry for upsetting people and should find ways to prevent this from happening.Today's bad publicity would have been much worse if the company hadn't acted quickly and decisively to respond to the criticism. Other companies should take note.

Lucky for JetBlue shareholders, there was some good news today as well. Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock from neutral to buy. The shares rose almost 4 percent., indicating that Wall Street is expecting the storm of bad publicity to blow over fast.