For every route, airlines load a dozen or more different fares into reservation systems and then pick which one applies to a specific flight at a specific time, usually based on how well that flight is selling and what the airline expects in demand for seats, including demand from business travelers who book later.

WSJ: Finding the Best Fares to Europe

Pick up the phone to book a flight with JetBlue and you might reach Margo Canaan at her rented home in Salt Lake City.

FORBES: The Slipper Solution

But if you can afford 75 inches of TV, you can also afford a quick flight to Seoul to pick one up.

ENGADGET: Samsung announces 75-inch ES9000 smart TV for Korea, with similarly gigantic price tag (eyes-on)

United's text analyzer looks for particular words and themes and can pick up on a customer reporting a seat where the in-flight entertainment didn't work, for example, said Martin Hand, senior vice president of customer service.

WSJ: What United, American, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska, Virgin America Airlines Learn From Customer Surveys

Pick up some gorgeously packaged petits fours, crunchy rice crackers or dried shredded squid for the folks at home, and pick up a couple of onigiri (rice balls) for an in-flight snack.

BBC: The depachika of Tokyo

On that flight, the EagleMed helicopter was headed from Oklahoma City to pick up a patient at a hospital 90 miles away.

NPR: Medical Copter Crashes In Okla., Kills 2, Hurts 1

All top flight players, but could most of you reading this piece pick these guys out of a lineup?

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Global Hawk can pick out objects as small as a truck with its synthetic aperture radar, which uses the plane's flight path to simulate the curve of a radar dish several hundred meters long.

FORBES: We See You