Clicking on the travel link on MSN's homepage won't take you to the familiar Expedia reservations page anymore.

Instead you'll find yourself at the reservations site of Chicago-based Orbitz.com.

MSN says it hooking up with Orbitz instead of Bellevue's Expedia because it provides more innovative travel choices to its patrons.

Neither side will say as much, but I suspect money had something to do with it.

The change of alliances could be a blow for Expedia which depended on MSN for about 3.5 million contacts a month.

MSN and Expedia were both Microsoft creations but Expedia was spun off several years ago.

News of new glitches in the contruction of mid-fuselage sections of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner helped send Boeing stock downward again today.

The stock was trading at $64.63 a share down 82 cents at midday after news surfaced of problems in a South Carolina assembly plant, Global Aeronautica, jointly owned by Italy's Alenia and Boeing. Boeing recently acquired its share of plant ownership from Vought Aerospace of Texas.

The Charleston, S.C. plant halted production for 24 hours beginning Monday night after an Federal Aviation Administration review in mid-June found evidence of failure to follow procedures to eliminate foreign object damage to the plane's structure.

Foreign object damage occurs when a tool or surplus pieces of the plane are accidentally left in the structure potentially causing damage to the structure or wiring.

All Global Aeronautica workers were given an 8-hour retraining session on FOD procedures.

The 24-hour shutdown came after another disclosure that a worker at the plant apparently misdrilled holes in the structure of the composite midbody section. That midsection was repaired.

The inauguration of new air service this week between Seattle's Boeing Field and Portland International Airport has spurred a fare war between the new player and dominant incumbent Horizon Air.

SeaPort Airlines, which will make eight daily roundtrips between Boeing Field near downtown Seattle and Portland with 9-passenger Pilatus PC-12 turboprops, is offering an introductory price of $75 each way on a roundtrip.

Horizon Air, which has 31 daily flights with 74-passenger Bombardier Q400s between Sea-Tac Airport and Portland, is countering with a $69 roundtrip good through August. 24.

Remember flight attendants asking if anyone has change for a $50 as they walk down the aisle selling drinks and renting media players?

Well, that won't be happening any more on Alaska Airlines.

The SeaTac-based carrier is going cashless in the cabin beginning Aug. 5. Flight attendants will be accepting only credit and debit cards for on-board purchases.

Flight attendants will use a handheld credit card reader from GuestLogix Inc. of Toronto to charge purchases. The airline has been using such devices for about a year on transcontinental flights.

In Alaska, where cash is still king, Alaska will sell $5 vouchers at ticket counters to pay for on-board purchases.

A strike by the Sprinkler Fitters Union Local 699 this week is shutting down construction sites around the Puget Sound including Franciscan's St. Anthony's Hospital in Gig Harbor.

The union, which represents workers who install fire protection sprinkler systems in commercial buildings, went on strike Tuesday at 12 a.m.
after the workers and the companies that employ them couldn't agree on a new contract.

Workers are picketing today outside construction sites where they would be working if they had a contract such as the new Nordstrom at the Tacoma Mall and St. Anthony's.

Members of other labor unions have also stopped working in support of the strike, shutting down construction sites in Western Washington.

The union and the companies that employ its members - represented by the local office of the National Fire Sprinklers Association – have been negotiating over a pay increase and contract language, said Gordon Sansaver, who is on the contract negotiating committee and a member of the executive board of the union.

"We are one of the hardest working crafts in any industry. We are proud of that," he said.

The employers – a group of construction and sprinkler companies – offered $14 an hour over four years, said Jeff Bennett with The McKinstry Co. construction company and a member of the bargaining team.

A full time union member can make $100,000 a year, he said. Union members say that includes over time work.

Bennet said the employers presented their final offer on Monday, which was rejected by the union. They are waiting for the union to call for further negotiations.

The union represents more than 500 workers in seven Western Washington counties including Pierce and King.

Raw numbers mean nothing if you're worried whether your favorite caffeine refilling station will close.

But raw numbers are all that Starbucks is now providing when it comes to its plans, announced Monday, to close down 600 Starbucks outposts nationwide between now and March 2009.

Here's the explanation from a Starbucks spokesperson about why the Seattle-based coffee giant isn't publishing a list of stores that will be affected:

Details for specific locations are still being finalized. Store closures will begin in July 2008 and continue through March 2009. Out of respect and dignity for our partners, and our desire to share this information with impacted partners first, we are not publishing a full list of the stores. Individual stores will be notified by their district manager and/or regional director approximately 30 days prior to the anticipated closure date. Concurrently, the approximately 6,600 remaining U.S. company-operated stores will be notified that they are not affected by this announcement.

It's been two weeks since we last visited the generally unpleasant topic of gas prices.

We're here to say not much has happened since then on the retail front, though oil futures have hit new records.

It appears that at least for now in the higher cost areas in Western Washington, prices have stabilized albeit at a high level.

For example:

Two weeks ago, the average price of a gallon of regular in Tacoma was $4.342. Today, the same gallon in Tacoma on average will cost $4.35.

In Seattle, the price today, $4.377, is a fraction of a cent less than what it was on June 18, $4.38.

Meanwhile in Eastern Washington, prices are catching up with the west side of the Cascades.

Two weeks ago, a gallon of regular in Spokane was a bargain $4.044 a gallon. Now its $4.104 a gallon according to AAA Washington. It's still a bargain compared with Western Washington prices just not as much of one.

In the Tri-Cities, the story is much the same:
Two weeks ago, $4.179 a gallon. Today, $4.236.

If you're really looking for a bargain gas price, head to the nation's midsection. In Oklahoma, you can buy a gallon for $3.878.

Stay away from Alaska and California if you want to keep your wallet intact. The average price for a gallon of regular in Alaska is $4.649; in California, it's $4.578.