Yours truly was named one of the “most influential travel bloggers for 2007” this week by travel writer, passenger rights torchbearer, and syndicated columnist Christopher Elliott.

I’m sure many of you know Chris. He’s written about the travel and airline business for many years — and currently, as usual, he has a couple of gigs going on. He writes a syndicated column on airline travel problems geared at consumers, he has his own blog, elliott.org, and I believe he’s also writing for a number of publications on a freelance basis.

What I have always liked about Chris is that he has never allowed himself to fall in the “travel whore” category.

You know the type. The ones who want free tickets, free this, free that.

Then we, as readers, passengers, or viewers, are supposed to believe that whatever they write, or say on TV, is unbiased.

Chris doesn’t work that way.

In his comment about PlaneBuzz, Chris said, “Holly writes the airline blog. There is nothing more to say.”

Woo hoo.

Other lucky recipients of Elliott’s largesse included:

Mark Ashley, Upgrade: Travel Better

Paul Brady, Jaunted

Arthur Frommer, Frommers

Wendy Perrin, Perrin Post

Ben Popken, Consumerist

Rick Seaney, Rickseaney.com

I note that Rick’s latest post has to do with the fact that New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong International takes his nod as having had the longest security check-in lines of any major airport during the month of November.

MSY came in with a checkpoint time of 40 minutes. Newark was second with 35 minutes, and DFW came in third at 34 minutes. You can read more about his geeky TSA misery index here.

As for Mark over at Upgrade:Travel Better, he had a post of fake vomit on his blog the other day when he was tapped for the list. Nice going there Mark. His post dealt with the recent Tainted Turkey incident involving United Airlines and the less than tasty Thanksgiving dinner it served its employees.

Yum. Yum.

I would only add that I think Chris should have included Brett Snyder, aka Cranky Flier to his list. Not too late Chris. It could just become the “Top Eight.” Heck, the more the merrier.