Vegetarian or kosher meal? Window seat or aisle? All the options usually requested by travellers when they book a flight through a travel agent or over the phone, and when they check in at the airport, can now be pre-arranged by British Airways' customers online.

The options are the latest additions to a recently created area of the airline's website (ba.com) called "Manage my booking", which went live last week.

Seat requests are limited to around 30% of cabin availability and apply to all flights at any time prior to departure except those within Europe - requests on these will only be available to club-class customers and other passengers 12 hours before departure.

Renewed your passport?

The Passport Service is urging people to renew their passports now to ensure they are updated in time for their summer holiday. The call follows a survey of 1,000 adults by Post Office Travel Services which found one in five travellers have no idea when their passport expires. Around 2,000 Post Office (postoffice.co.uk) branches operate a check and send service to ensure there are no errors before the application is sent off.

Latvia launch

Latvia's national airline Air Baltic (airbaltic.com) is launching a direct London-Riga service from next month. The flights from Heathrow will operate every day except Saturdays from March 28, with tickets starting at £53 one-way including taxes. British Airways operates Heathrow-Riga five times a week from £148.40 return.