How to give your luggage a better chance of finding you again if lost

Place an itinerary in every suitcase or item that may be hung up or that you carry:

•             Name, local address and phone number
•             Departing from/ to, airline, flight number and time
•             Returning  from/to, same as above
•             Name of hotel, address, phone number and the dates you will be there.



Why you should own a “carry-on” bag rather than rely on your purse

Instead of carrying a purse on flights, I use a large canvas beach bag and pack the empty purse.  Airlines consider it to be a “personal item” and it holds a lot more than a purse.  I put light items in the bag and heavier items in the carry-on.  I can fit a lot more in my carry-on that way and the bag does double-duty as a shopping bag once I reach my destination.

I do both of the above, works out great.

Delta Gets Hit With Phishing Scheme

Delta is the latest airline to get hit with a phishing scheme. Delta passengers have been targeted with emails that look very similar to those that the airline sends out after an online purchase. The email says your credit card has been charged with a certain amount and you can click on the attachment to view the purchase invoice. Most people would probably look at the attachment immediately to see what was charged. Doing this causes a file to download to your hard drive and it starts sending messages to other servers giving personal information, log-ins etc. If you have not purchased a ticket on the airline in question, ignore the attachment and check your bank account. If you don't see that item on your statement it’s a scam.  



Airbus A380 Too Big For LAX

The Qantas Airbus A380 is proving to be too big for the Los Angeles Airport. Air traffic controllers have warned that, unless there are changes made, the aircraft will be turned away. Its only because of the number of reduced flights at the airport that the huge plane is allowed to land. The plane is difficult to move around because of its enormous wingspan. The wingspan is too broad for the existing runway and each time one of them land, all ground traffic on the tarmac is brought to a standstill. The plane is 50' wider than any other aircraft. The plane has been flying into LAX from Melbourne and Sydney since last October and carries just under 500 passengers on two levels and can carry more cargo than most other planes. Qantas now flies two of the planes LAX and is the only carrier to do so at present. Air traffic controllers said if four or five of the planes came in each day, other flights would face chronic delays.

Southwest Agrees To Pay $7.5 Million fine

The fine was levied against the airline last year for reportedly failing to perform necessary checks for fuselage cracks on certain Boeing 737s. The original fine was for $10.2 million but by agreeing to repay the fine in three equal installments over the next two years, agreeing to improve FAA access to information about its maintenance and engineering activities and review it procedures to ensure regulatory compliance, the FAA agreed to lower the amount of the fine.



Spirit Airlines To Charge A Passenger Usage Fee

Spirit Airlines has been working with the Department of Transportation to come to an agreement to be able to charge a passenger usage fee when a customer purchases a ticket. The amount of the fee is not known but thought to be about $10 - $15 per ticket. the fee is for the privilege of buying a ticket anyplace other than at Spirit's airport ticket counters. The airline tried a similar fee last year charging passengers $7.50 as a usage fee along with a $2.50 "natural occurrence interruption fee" and an $8.50 "international service recovery fee" to pay for some taxes and fees charged by foreign governments. The DOT didn't like this and ordered the airline to stop charging the fees and fined them $40,000. The airline said it would introduce the new fee in a way the DOT would be comfortable with.

Wired Offers Feature Article on Flight Delays At NYC Airports

This article has some very interesting graphics and it covers the issue of eliminating flight delays and the redesign of the skies over the New York City area with some background history. Go to http://www.wired.com/cars/futuretransport/magazine/17-03/09_airspace to read this very informative article.



Do airlines even read their own rules before they post them?
by Janice Hough

Okay, we all know that a lot of airline fare rules don’t make sense.

But some of them don’t make sense more than others.

While American Airlines is far from the only culprit, witness their current rules display for a one-way fare from San Jose, California to Orange County, California:

CANCELLATIONS

TICKET IS NON-REFUNDABLE

NOTE- TICKET HAS NO VALUE UNLESS PASSENGER CANCELS TICKETED FLIGHT RESERVATIONS PRIOR TO TICKETED DEPARTURE TIME.

CHANGES

CHARGE USD 150.00 FOR REISSUE.

     Then there is a bunch of airline-speak about the ticket having value towards a future ticket for up to a year, although the change fee still applies. And that changes to a higher fare mean the fare difference plus the change fee.

All fine, except, the fare is $99 one way.

So let’s see, if you remember to cancel or change the ticket if you aren’t taking the flight, you can pay a $150.00 penalty plus fare difference on a $99 ticket. But if you no-show the flight you lose the whole $99.

Glad they let us know.

Published on March 4, 2009

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Hawaii Superferry Announces $39 Passenger Fare
Mar 06, 2009
By: Mark Rogers

Hawaii Superferry is now selling passenger fares at $39 each way. The one-way fare is available for travel through January 3, 2010 and is a flat rate for adults, military personnel, seniors and children. Infants under two years of age travel free.

Passengers who book 14 days in advance will save an additional $5 per person. One-way vehicle fare is $57, inclusive of a fuel surcharge. These one-way passenger and vehicle fares do not include applicable taxes and fees. Peak pricing is applicable on certain travel days.

Visit www.hawaiisuperferry.com

New Airport Security Rules Require More Personal Information

The TSA is getting ready to institute new rules in regards to booking airline reservations. In the near future passengers will be required to give their birth date, sex, and their full name. The name on the ticket MUST match exactly the name on the photo ID you will be using. so you will need to be very careful when booking a reservation. The new program is called Secure Flight and takes responsibility for checking passenger names against "watch lists" from the airlines to the TSA. Only passengers who are cleared by the TSA will be given boarding passes. The TSA says the program will improve the quality of the watch lists and will reduce the misidentification of innocent travelers who are mistakenly placed on the "no-fly" list. The new rules are set to begin first on domestic flights early this year and on international flights late in the year. The TSA says the information will be held for no more than seven days. It will cost the airlines an additional $630 million to reprogram their reservations systems.

Deal or no deal? 6 secrets for spotting a bargain
by Christopher Elliott

Carol Hodes thought the “special” $209 room rate offered as part of an upcoming convention at the Bellagio Las Vegas was a reasonably good deal — about $10 a night off the regular price.

“Then the group holding the event announced two weeks ago that the price had been lowered to $159,” she said. Skeptical, she ran an online search and found that rooms were going for as little as $119 a night.

All across the travel industry, people who thought they were getting deals are discovering that they aren’t. As airlines slash their fares, passengers with advance reservations are finding that their tickets weren’t bargains. The “low” hotel rates? Turns out they had a lot lower to go. Ditto for cruise tickets and rental cars.

Fortunately, Hodes hadn’t booked her room at the Bellagio yet, so she easily locked in a lower price. “I’m almost afraid to look and see if the price has been lowered again,” says Hodes, a writer who lives in Old Bridge, N.J.

Others aren’t so lucky. Many hotels refuse to refund a rate difference once a reservation is made. Most airlines balk at giving cash refunds when their prices fall, preferring to offer a credit and sometimes adding a hefty change fee, too. Maybe the only exceptions are car rental companies, which still allow you to cancel and rebook your reservation without penalty.

Erik Hastings, a syndicated talk show host who declared 2009 the “year of the travel deal” says most of the bargains are on the up-and-up. “There’s been a tremendous increase in packages and deals since the beginning of the year,” he told me. “I think 90 percent of them are the real thing.”

But how do you know? Here are a couple of tips:

1. Be a deal-watcher

2. If it looks too good to be true, it is

3. Beware of the bait-and-switch

It’s a favorite game of travel companies that are desperate for your business. “Look for phrases like ‘certain restrictions apply’ or ‘subject to booking fees’,” says Ellie Kay, author of “Living Rich for Less.” For example, one restaurant Web site offered a $25 gift certificate for only $2. Unbelievable? Yes. While some participating restaurants had only a few stipulations — like “dining in only, not good for carry out” — others were far more restrictive. In extreme cases, they limited the coupon to “one per party, per month, per restaurant” or “valid with a minimum food purchase of $40, excluding alcohol, 18 percent gratuity added to full bill,” according to Kay. That’s no deal. It’s an elaborate way to get you in the door and then hit you with a full-price meal.

 4. Pay attention to the details

The fine print is where you’ll find the line between a true bargain and a bogus offer. For example, Barbara Hakala was quoted a $33 per night rate at a Ramada property near Disney World recently. “That wasn’t the problem,” she says. “The problem was the hotel charged a mandatory $5 per night fee for parking, use of the in-room microwave and refrigerator,” says Hakala, a massage therapist from Springfield, Va. So her total rate was $38 a night, which is still pretty decent, but not the same deal she thought it would be. Never mind the fact that the hotel probably won’t remove the fee even if you don’t have a car and don’t need to use the refrigerator or microwave. The point is, the rate is deceptively low, and you wouldn’t know about it unless you reviewed the fine print. So read up — or pay up.

5. Use the right tools

Social media is a terrific way to determine if an offer is right for you. Shooting a message to an online forum or a microblogging site like Twitter when you have a question is one of the best ways to find out if a bargain is a bargain. I also like Yapta which can show a trend-line for air fares. “You can see the airfare pricing history on a number of flights between various city pairs,” company spokesman Jeff Pecor told me. Of course, Yapta can also monitor your flight and notify you if the price drops. But airlines make it difficult — sometimes impossible — to get a refund. One Yapta user, Mary McInnis, recently e-mailed me when the price of her United Airlines flight to Hawaii dropped from $1,332 to $857 per ticket. United deferred her refund request to United Vacations, through which she had booked her trip. United Vacations hasn’t responded to her request for a refund.

6. Assume nothing

Even basic terms like “free” and “discount” can mean one thing to you but an entirely different thing to a clever marketer bent on selling you something. Edgar Dworsky, who blogs at the consumer Web site Mouseprint.org recently found an interesting definition of “buy one, get one free” on the Spirit Airlines Web site. You would assume anyone who takes advantage of a “buy one, get one free” offer would be able to book two flights for the price of one, right? Not right. “Spirit had a very different idea,” he says. “The free trip had to be taken separately from the paid trip, by the same person, taxes and fees had to be paid again, and the free trip had to be months later than the paid trip.” And that assumes Spirit is still in business when he qualifies for the second flight, he adds. Bottom line: ask the travel company to define its terms before you buy. Don’t make any assumptions.

Remember, behind every bargain there’s a smart travel marketer who is often using sophisticated technology to determine how much you’d be willing to pay for your next airline ticket or hotel room. Many of these people know where the line is between a deceptive ad and one that’s legit, and they dance on it — now more than ever.

“Your best bet,” Stuart MacDonald, the chief executive of the Canadian travel site Tripharbor.com, told me, “is to be an informed traveler and let common sense rule the day.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

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IMPORTANT NOTICE*************

Due to a new Federal requirement, the traveler's birth date and gender will be required for TSA use. This information will need to be provided for all passengers booked from March 12, 2009 and beyond. The new Federal law goes into effect May 1, 2009 but we have been asked to start doing this as soon as possible.

We will also need the middle name or initial if it appears on the traveler's ID. This is also a new requirement.

DOT’s monthly report reveals a new winner … uh, loser
by David Burns

The U.S. Department of Transportation released its monthly Air Travel Consumer Report yesterday, which covers on-time, lost baggage and complaint data for January 2009. According to the DOT’s news release, things got better for travelers. On-time performance inched up a bit, fewer reports of lost baggage were filed and fewer of us found things to complain about.

Unless you’re a customer with a disability - those types of complaints rose a whopping 27 per cent versus the previous month, but I’m going to cover that topic another day.

On-time Performance

Last month, when the full-year statistics were released by the DOT, US Airways was quick to boast “We’re the #1 on-time airline for 2008*” to anyone who would listen.

Note the asterisk.

Statistics, as we all know, can be manipulated to say just about anything, and what US Airways really means is that they were #1 for the year only if one discounts two other carriers - Hawaiian (admittedly a small airline and not a head-to-head competitor) and Southwest (the airline that enplanes more passengers than any in the nation). US Airways used the phrase “among the big six hub and spoke carriers” to keep themselves out of trouble. I’m not quite sure how “big six” can leave out the one that enplanes the most people, but what do I know?

I’d be remiss if I didn’t give the folks at US Airways props for improving reliability, but they may need to eat a little humble pie. In January, as they were busy ballyhooing, they slipped to #4 in their convoluted ranking of the “big six hub and spoke carriers” and wound up in 9th place, according to the true measurement - the DOT.

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