Amazing the time some people have on their hands - by that I mean, time for posting alleged photographs of terrified Air France passengers in their “final moments”. But don’t be fooled.

These photos - which are scary as hell - ought to be, since they were the work of well-paid professionals from Hollywood. Look closely, and you’ll recognize scenes from the TV show, “Lost”.

Why do people do this? Hey, they’ve done it before - remember the famous 9/11 photo of the guy on top of one of the World Trade towers, with the onrushing plane in the background? That was debunked over at Snopes.com - which also debunked this latest Air France hoax.

Anytime you see anything that looks even the least bit “off” - check with the folks at Snopes: that’s their mission, debunking (or confirming) urban legends - or the latest internet crap.

Sure, you’re smart - or you wouldn’t be here!

But how much do you know, say, about some of the nuttier nuances of air travel? Take my quiz and find out.

I’ll get you started with the first question, followed by the answer:

1. Graduation time is here - which university did Virgin Atlantic founder Sir Richard Branson get his degree from?

A. Oxford

B. UCLA

C. He didn’t graduate from college

D. He didn’t graduate from high school

ANSWER - D. Richard Branson left school at 16 to start a mail order record business. It eventually grew into Virgin Records and today the Virgin brand is attached to everything from wine, books, mobile phones - and several airlines. The billionaire Brit is dyslexic, but does not believe that has hindered him in the business world.

Want to keep going, and see how you rank? Just click here to see the entire quiz.

An elaborate joke? A bizarre art project? You decide…

There is a website called, “Is this your luggage?” - featuring photos of various bags and suitcases and the purported contents (everything from parkas to bathing suits to underwear).

The website author claims these bags are “lost luggage” that airlines could not reunite with owners and eventually auctioned off. The author claims he buys these cases specifically to photograph the contents for his “weird voyeuristic passion.”

Well - I can’t speak for all carriers, but a very helpful press person over at American Airlines said he’s never heard of any such auctions. He pointed out that the vast majority of bags arrive at their destinations with their owners, but - in those exceedingly rare instances where passengers and bags cannot be reunited, the bags are kept for several months, then sold to a vendor that purchases unclaimed bags in bulk.

By the way, I was told there are occasions when an airline locates a bag — and the owner more or less says, “Keep it.” The person no longer wants the bag! Go figure.

So, who are these vendors of lost luggage? The airlines won’t say - but the Unclaimed Baggage Center of Scottsboro, Alabama sells lost luggage and unclaimed cargo - everything from clothing to cameras, electronics, jewelry, designer optical, and, yes, luggage.

Back to the weird website: the author says he hopes to find the owners of the bags he photographs. Well — if anyone sees a familiar bag -let me know.

Hat tip to Gadling.

A senator from Kansas makes a good point: we seem to have made private jets (and the people who own them and ride in them) a sort of “poster-child” for everything that’s wrong with the economy.

Remembers those howls of protest when the automakers came to Capitol Hill in “personal aircraft”?

But, according to Sen. Sam Brownback, the general aviation industry “contributes $150 billion to the U.S economy and employs 1.2 million people” - and, as is happening in many industries, a lot of those people are being laid off. Cessna, for example, is laying off 4,600 employees next month — and Hawker Beechcraft has already chopped 2,300 from its work force.

This is not a brief for the private jet - no, just a gentle reminder that, the working stiffs most affected by all the flak probably travel just like you and I do — in coach.

Our friends at the Aviation Biz blog in the Dallas Morning News have a trivia question for you:

What’s the maximum container size for liquids that you can tote through airport security checkpoints?

3-ounces?

WRONG.

It’s actually 3.4 ounces. Background: it seems the U.S. decided to it wanted the same liquid allowance as the European Union’s, once those folks settled on a size, and - the size they settled on was 100ml. And 100ml = 3.4 ounces. However, by this time, the U.S. had been advertising the “3 ounce” limit all over the place, and it sort of stuck.

So technically, you can take 3.4 ounces on board, but humor me and don’t. You know there will be TSA types out there who are not into trivia.

Two stories this week set off my native Texan “@#$%^&” alarm.

First I posted the other day a CNBC interview with the the CEO of US Airways where he states in justification of all the new airline fees (notably $2 for water):

“Average roundtrip cost of jet fuel (today’s prices) is about $300 per passenger … we would have to charge about $650 - $700 a passenger to break even…” - Doug Parker, CEO US Airways

Then today the musings of an airline economist on airfare prices:

“Fares probably need to increase at this point another 15-20 percent before airlines cover their costs” - Darin Lee, Airline Economics Expert

I was curious as the article mentioned a fuel calculator on the PhD economists website, so I decided to put the airline economists calculator to the test on Mr. Parker’s statement …

Not everyone can be a do-it-yourself travel agent, it seems — at least, not all the time.

Saw an interesting report in the New York Times over the weekend (by the inestimable Michelle Higgins) which said that 23% of online leisure travelers would use a good travel agent – if they could find one.

The article goes on to suggest ways to find one that suits your precise needs. Of course, it will cost you — but sometimes, especially with a complicated itinerary that includes a lot of different activities, it can be worth it — very much so.

But if you want to save as much as you possibly can, online is still the way to go — and FareCompare is soon to unveil even more easy-to-use tools that will make the process so smooth, you’ll think you had a travel agent doing it for you.

The other day someone sent me a link to a story on Wired.com (not one of my usual travel haunts) with air travel buying tips that don’t quite “jive” with mine.

I looked over the tips provided based on the observations from Farecast (now a Microsoft Company — I know them well as I spent many an hour in Seattle teaching them the ins and outs of airfare).

The main premise of the article is that “Shopping Early” for airline tickets doesn’t yield any results.

This statement and a few other tidbits in the article — well, I don’t quite agree — so lets break it down …

You’re all set for your trip: everything’s packed properly, there are no bottles bigger than 3-oz on your person, you’ve got your boarding pass and ID out, and…

“Not so fast, sir!”

That’s when you learn, you’re on the fabled “No Fly List”.

Whether you’re on it or not, keep reading; there are surprises ahead.

This is a myth I’ve busted again and again, but it keeps turning up in travel sites that ought to know better.

The latest reference is from a post explaining how never to get “screwed” (their word) by a cancelled flight again. How? By invoking “Rule 240″ because it means “your airline must book you on another airline’s flight if that is available and will get you to your destination quicker.”

Sigh. Chances are, it won’t work. Let me repeat: IT WON’T WORK.

And for a very good reason. Click “more” to find out what it is, and what your REAL rights are (hint: there aren’t many).

I thought I’d turn tables a bit, and instead of presenting you with some good advice, I’d tell you about some of the bad advice I see floating around the internet.

So, I’ve come up with this: 6-Pieces of Air Travel Advice to Ignore…and what you should pay attention to.

I talk about cell phones, passports, First Class and plenty of other things.

Just click “more” for…THE LIST.

Let me put on my myth-busting hat: I just saw this AP article in The San Jose Mercury News, called “When is the best time to book airfare?”

Good question; bad answer. According to the article, late Thursday is the best time to check. WRONG.

The article goes on to quotea source as saying “Our experience with airlines has shown us that they update available seats around 12 a.m. Eastern time every day.” WRONG AGAIN.

So when IS the best time to book? Click “more” to find out…

Liked this? Then check out “How to Buy Intelligently”

Back in 1971, airline hijacker D.B. Cooper jumped out of a plane with $200,000 in ransom money, and disappeared into myth.

Now, the FBI wants our help; they just released new drawings of the mystery man, along with a map of the rugged Washington terrain he parachuted over.

Most folks (including the FBI) don’t believe he survived the jump, but his body has never been found. Meanwhile, the FBI is asking for the public’s help: maybe one of us “remembers that odd uncle.”

You might also want to check out this recent New York magazine story on a possible new suspect.

This has been a big year for FareCompare, but we couldn’t have done it without you. You took advantage of our Free Airfare Email Alerts, discovered how good they are, and spread the word.

And I like to think we helped you in turn, by finding you the best of the cheap airfare sales, day-in and day-out.

But let me tell you how we’ve grown over the year (and this will include stories about our Top 10 Lists, ABC’s “20/20″ show, some weird myth-busting, and even Playboy).

A couple of weeks ago most of the day at Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport with a crew and producer from 20/20 chatting about a variety of travel myths.

The premise was myths in the form of a true/false quiz (they posted on their site early last week with the answers from the interview now).

We also posted a page on the site with further explanation on the air travel myths topics.

The video for the segment is posted (click more to the right) and take a look at our new “First Class Airline Ticket” blog for more details on discounted first class airfare…

The folks over at ABC News interviewed me a couple of weeks ago for a “20/20″ segment on travel.

Their focus is “travel myths” and I gave them a lot of fun (and practical) information about that.In the meantime, they’ve devised a quiz based on our conversation.

You can try it for yourself by clicking here.

I expect the “FareCompare faithful” will do very well.

But if you get stuck for an answer, no problem; just watch this week’s edition of “20/20″ on Friday, Dec. 14, featuring yours truly.

In a recent Newsweek story on airports around the world, what country’s airports were described this way?

“Citizens queue in interminable lines and suffer humiliating treatment at the hands of surly authorities”

The answer may surprise you!

There’s a lot of junk out on the internet. And I’m sick of it.One thing we pride ourselves on at FareCompare is accuracy; our goal, beyond getting you the cheapest airfare possible, is giving you information you can trust.

So when I saw this recent travel shopping blog post in the Washington Post, a post just riddled with errors, I thought, I can’t let them get away with this. So, here’s the REAL story.

No. You CANNOT open the door of a modern, pressurized commercial airliner in midflight.

That’s a myth. One less thing for you to worry about, okay?

Now, do idiots try to open these doors? You bet.

The latest incident happened aboard an American Airlines flight to Dallas this week; some woman yanked on the handle of an emergency exit door but was restrained by crew members and arrested.

This travel myth drives me crazy, because it misinforms travelers about their rights.

For those of you who haven’t heard the myth, I will let Peter Greenberg put it out there for you. Mr. Greenberg is not the only person perpetuating the Rule 240 travel myth, but since he is the travel editor for The Today Show, a columnist, an author and the “expert” that countless other writers and bloggers turn to for information, I figure he has probably passed the myth on to more people than anybody else:

We’ve all heard it before. Heck, most of us have convinced ourselves that it’s true. Airplane air makes you sick, right? It’s recirculated, it’s “stale,” and there’s that Airborne stuff to specifically protect you from it. It must make you sick. Well, that’s just another travel myth that isn’t quite true…

One of my biggest pet peeves is the notion that shopping “very early” will always get you the best deal. Yes, the early bird does get the worm, but when it comes to air travel the “very early” bird gets punched in the nose.

It should be noted that this discussion is only related to purchasing domestic U.S. airline tickets (not international).

First I want to be very clear that procrastination is not — I repeat NOT — a good idea. If you buy an airline ticket inside 14 days before departure, you are going to pay business rates which can be 3-6 times the rate had you purchased outside 14 days before departure.

So…when to start shopping? Click “more.”