What will 50,000 British Airways miles (pre-Avios) and a little over $300 in taxes get you? Well, for starters, an economy seat on Cathay Pacific flight CX 831 from New York-JFK to Hong Kong-HKG. It'll also get you a few more flights around Asia and the long return leg, but for right now let's talk about the magic of the JFK-HKG jaunt.

Before British Airways devalued their miles by switching to the new Avios system, we made a feverish call to their award booking center. Our prime goal: get a seat on this flight, one of our favorites, which takes 16 hours to deliver you from the metropolis of NYC, up over the North Pole, down to the bright lights/big city of Hong Kong. The timing is perfect; depart NYC in the early afternoon before rush hour, and arrive to HK in the middle of sunset the next day. Surely if you could dig through the center of the Earth from New York, you'd emerge in HK.

Here's the video we shot just the other day:

Round up your friends, because Air Asia X has the contest for you! The Kuala Lumpur-based airline is sending out a call for their latest contest, Friendsy, for one person to win a flight from Sydney, Australia to the Malaysian capital. Sounds like a normal contest, but not so fast. Here is the twist: you can elect up to 302 Facebook friends to fly with you.

Only Facebook fans of the airline can enter to win the dream trip. Once you put together the ultimate travel group, you and your buddies will fly in your very own Airbus A330. Don't worry if you cannot find that amount of people with whom you are willing to travel; the empty seats will not be sold to the public.

General Electric. Pratt & Whitney. Rolls Royce. Sound familiar? Sure, as appliances and cars, maybe, but these companies are also very much into the business of manufacturing airplane engines. And just like when airplanes go into a hangar for maintenance, so too do their engines have a special work area.

Welcome to the Engine Shop for LAN Airlines, located right nearby Santiago, Chile's Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport.

It's really odd to stand in a room so clean it's almost sterile, and be surrounded by machines that not only cost something like $13 million each, but are responsible for hundreds or thousands of lives every day, each again. You know, we could walk into Harry Winston on Fifth Avenue and look at velvet-lined trays of jewelry worth just as much and more, but the pendants and tiaras don't do anything. Next to an engine, however, we were left with a profound sense that here, right here, is a real machine, something worth every raw cent spent on it and every cent (sometimes $3 million) spent to keep it in tiptop condition.

We don’t know when you need to buy a gift for that special someone in your life, but if she loves travel we’ve got a suggestion for you—perfume. Sure it’s something that’s not really easily transported through the security line at the airport, but once you check this out you’ll overlook the irony.

The Scent of Departure is a new line of perfumes—and perfume bottles—scheduled to arrive at some point this month. The bottles are designed with airline checked baggage tags in mind, so you’re able to pick up something that corresponds with your favorite airport, departure, or arrival. Hong Kong, Bali, Paris, Los Angeles, and many more are all options. Each should have its own scent and style to remind you of why you love this place or that place.

It’s not available just yet, but it does look like things are scheduled to land as soon as this month. We’ve heard that pricing should run around $45 or so per bottle, so it’s definitely pretty affordable. It’s certainly something we’d buy and we think it’s pretty darn clever. Our only complaint—at least until we get to take a sniff—is that we weren’t creative enough to think of it first!

[Photo: Official Site]