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Another week, another new fee… Qantas has instituted a new fee for customers buying their tickets with a credit card:

Flat fees of $4.40 on domestic flights and $12 on international tickets will replace a charge of 1per cent of the ticket price from May 24. The fees will be charged per passenger per booking.

Fees for using your credit card are nothing new to Qantas fliers, or to many European travelers. In the U.S., though, such fees are nowhere to be seen. Not even when buying a ticket on Qantas. Yet.

I am no expert on the contracts that merchants sign with credit card processing companies, like this sample contract, but would such a fee be legal in the United States? Would it be considered prejudicial to charge extra?

And even if it were legal, would the airlines want to do it? If anything, airlines have been running promotions that offer bonus miles or elite-qualifying miles if tickets are purchased with a particular credit card.

Discouraging credit card use also discourages sales, period. With Americans’ spend-spend-spend consumer habits, I wonder how many people even have enough cash in their accounts to cover their plane tickets at the time of purchase.

As a traveler, I like paying for my ticket with the credit card, for several reasons. Obviously, the miles. But more importantly, the various forms of insurance that come with the card. Trip delay insurance, lost baggage insurance, and the peace of mind of knowing that the charge could be reversed if the airline goes under.

This is one class of fees I hope to avoid.

Aromatherapy has reached hotel lobbies. Chains are concocting signature fragrances, spread throughout the lobbies or rooms, the New York Times reports:

Omni Hotels is using scent machines to send a bouquet of lemongrass and green tea wafting through its lobbies, a whiff of mochaccino or sugar cookie in its coffee shops, and coconut sunscreen smells near the pools. Langham Hotels spritzes rooms with a ginger fragrance. The scents are designed to evoke specific emotions from guests. Westin hopes a whiff of white tea will help calm guests down and diffuse stress from their trips. Sheraton’s fragrance [fig, clove, and jasmine] is supposed to make guests feel is if they belong. And soon, Starwood’s Four Points brand will use the tang of cinnamon to help guests feel comfortable. The company is also considering changing the scents to reflect each season.

Smell is of course a powerful memory trigger, and a pleasant smell sure beats the odor of cleaning fluids, smoke, or the chlorine from the pool. I just hope they don’t overdo it.

Introducing a smell is a greater risk than upgrading the beds. Cloves or white tea aren’t everyone’s cup of tea taste preference, and you risk alienating the guest with a scent that’s too overpowering.

What’s next? Will there be scented and unscented rooms?

tags: travel | air travel | hotels

First it was Maxjet and Eos, the all-business-class airlines connecting New York and London, who introduced their service to compete against the major airlines. Now there will soon be another rival, if investors sufficiently capitalize upstart Silverjet in an IPO scheduled for May on London’s Alternative Investment Market.

Silverjet, which seemingly does not have a website as of yet, plans to operate 10 aircraft within three years, all with lie-flat seats. The primary route would be between London’s Luton airport and Newark. Like MaxJet, Silverjet intends to operate Boeing 767s.

But how much demand can there really be for airlines like this? Loads on MaxJet (which is also seeking to raise cash — $50M from hedge funds) and Eos aren’t great, though MaxJet optimistically sees the plane half full. Literally. Better than reports, but not great.

At the same time, the major airlines are lowering prices, offering greater flexibility, and slating for increased amenities. Plus, the power of the major airlines’ loyalty programs shouldn’t be underestimated. People really like collecting those miles…

This is getting ridiculous. We’ve now got business class service to Heathrow and Gatwick by the majors, plus Stansted and Luton on the startups. What’s next?: Will someone determine that London City airport needs nonstop business class service to White Plains or Islip?

I’d be very wary of investing my money in a new airline in such an already-crowded space.

Long lines at airport security checkpoints are no surprise, but not all lines are created equal. Conor Dougherty in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) points to some excellent shortcuts and counterintuitive strategies for getting through security faster.

The common theme is to find security checkpoints that are not located immediately behind the check-in counters, or that are closer to the smaller carriers’ counters. This will only work if the secure areas are connected: An airport like Newark, where each pier has its own security checkpoints, doesn’t have secret shortcuts. (Though there may be bus service past security, connecting the gates, now that I think of it… hmm…)

The tips are worth quoting at length:

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport

TIP: Get to the edges

Dallas is one of the most connected airports. Once flyers pass through security, they can travel to any terminal on the airport’s train (it comes every two minutes in each direction). DFW also has several security checkpoints at each of its crescent-shaped terminals. The speedy lines, we found, are typically at the ends of each terminal.

Take Terminal A, which has American flights. The fastest checkpoint is on the northernmost point of the terminal, just in front of gate A12 (average wait time of two minutes, compared with around 10 minutes for the others).

San Francisco International Airport

TIP: Get driver to drop you off at first point

Take Terminal 3. Travelers can access any gate from the terminal’s four security stations. American passengers are typically sent to one checkpoint and United passengers to the others — and you may not get turned away if you show up at the station typically used by the other airline.

Chicago O’Hare International Airport

TIP: Security stations with fewer magnetic gates often have faster lines

O’Hare International is the country’s second-busiest passenger airport and a hub for airlines, including United and American, which together account for about 80% of O’Hare’s traffic. It also has some of the most inconsistent security lines — so there’s often just a few dozen yards between a long wait and none at all.

The first checkpoint in Terminal 1 — the northernmost in the terminal and just before gate B9 — has eight magnetometers and an average wait of eight minutes on Friday at 4 p.m., and a maximum wait of 18 minutes. But resourceful flyers head to the southern end of Terminal 1. There, a checkpoint with two magnetometers,and a wait of two minutes, deposits travelers into a wide corridor leading to Terminal 2. But hang a hard right — down a dark and narrow hallway — and you’re on the secure side of Terminal 1.

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

TIP: Get to the people-movers

Phoenix is one of the country’s faster airports, with an average wait time under 10 minutes, according to the TSA. And it could get better: The airport added 10 security lanes in 2005. Terminal 4, which houses the recently merged America West and U.S. Airways, is the airport’s largest, handling about three- quarters of the traffic. It also has the most security options.

Any one of the four security checkpoints of Terminal 4 will give travelers access to their planes. But according to TSA data, the lines leading to “B” and “D” gates tend to be the shortest. (Inside the rectangular terminal, a network of moving walkways shuttle passengers quickly from gate to gate.) Unfortunately, this won’t work at other terminals — each gate area is served by a single checkpoint, and passengers can’t move between areas once they’re through security.

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport

TIP: Avoid checkpoints near Northwest gates

Minneapolis-St. Paul, a big Northwest Airlines hub, has two terminals — one big and one small. The smaller Humphrey Terminal has just one route through security, but waits tend to be shorter because the terminal isn’t often busy. But the larger Lindbergh Terminal, where all of those Northwest (as well as United and American) customers go, has several security entry points.

The trick: Avoid the security gates near the Northwest ticket counters — even if you’re flying NWA. The two southernmost checks in the area leading to the “F” gates can have waits of around 20 minutes on an average Monday morning, while the one next to them is about 30% shorter. In any case, there are six checkpoints in a row, and flyers can slip through any one.

I’m sure there are others. At Detroit, you can cut through the Westin hotel, which has its own security checkpoint, for example.

Of course, now that they’ve pointed these secrets out (and I’ve repeated them…), they might not be as secret much longer…

Any other shortcuts out there? Comments are open, as always.

Wednesday’s $39 Alitalia business class fare from Toronto to Cyprus caused quite a buzz, but only a lucky few were able to grab it. Fewer still will see the ticket honored.

Instead of $39, the fare should have been $3900. Oops.

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription) that 509 tickets will be honored, most purchased through Orbitz. Judging from the discussions here, many more people tried and failed to get the tickets. Only those customers who received confirmation of the purchase from both Orbitz and Alitalia will get to fly at that price. (Whether or not they’ll earn miles, that’s another story…)

This isn’t the first time this has happened. Travelocity and Air Pacific honored $50 tickets to Fiji, USAirways honored $2+tax cross country fares, and United honored its $20 fares from San Francisco to Paris. But not every booking agency or provider is as customer-friendly. The hotels, in particular, seem to renege on these offers more often than the airlines. Sure, some of these rates should never have been posted, but with Ryanair and Easyjet regularly selling seats for zero base fare plus taxes, or Spirit’s recent advertised $9 fares to the Caribbean, why shouldn’t the public assume some of these prices are legit?

Unfortunately, you just never know if the deal will be honored or not, but the corporate response will usually be swift. My advice is to book quickly, and ask questions later. Don’t call and ask for seat assignments or request a nonsmoking room, for example, until the dust has settled. Finally, don’t book non-refundable parts of the trip until you know the offer is being honored.

The hardest part is often finding out about the deal before it’s taken offline.

Enter the internet: Two websites in particular share a mission to alert travelers to these ludicrously low deals. Fare Alert sends e-mail alerts when someone reports a crazy-low fare sale to them. The tradeoff of an e-mail list is that the airlines themselves subscribe, so the mailing list tips off the providers that there is an error in their system. If you receive a FareAlert, act fast.

Free Traveling offers much of the same thing, without the e-mail list, but with added attention to best-rate guarantees. So, for example, if TripRewards.com (the umbrella site for Cendant hotels) has hotel rooms at $75, and Travelocity has the same room for less, then you can book on TripRewards and invoke the best rate guarantee, making your room FREE. This is Free Traveling’s strength, but it’s often for limited dates and obscure locations. But hey, you might get lucky.

tags: travel | air travel | free travel | Alitalia Cyprus

The last week has seen a number of travel-related protests, many of which have been affecting significant numbers of people moving from point A to point B…

The big story is of course France, where students, protesting a new labor law that would allow young workers to be more easily fired, blocked trains, roads, and airports. Even aircraft under construction were affected, as groups of protestors blocked a Toulouse-area road used by trucks carrying parts for the Airbus A380. (After aircraft operated by British discount carrier Jet2 were grounded by striking air traffic controllers, the airline’s chief, Philip Meeson, stirred the pot with some particularly feisty, and by some measures offensive, href="http://www.jet2.com/News.aspx?id=65">comments…)

In the United States, 275 Delta pilots picketed in Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, protesting the bankrupt airline’s hardball tactics with the pilots’ union. Days later, nearly 95% of the pilots voted to authorize their union’s management to call a strike if necessary.

Airline workers in Bolivia staged a protest as well, blocking runways in La Paz, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, and Tarija, demanding that the government nationalize the nearly-bankrupt carrier Lloyd Aero Boliviano. On March 31, the Bolivian military took control of the airports; the airline’s international flights have all been cancelled indefinitely.

Finally, protests over airport expansion hit the United Kingdom and India. Marking the 60th anniversary of Heathrow Airport, members of the environmental group Plane Stupid (previously mentioned here) chained themselves to the door of airport management offices. In India, protestors objected to the plans to expand Chennai’s airport without consulting local residents sufficiently.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley got off comparatively easy, given that plans to buy a cemetery in order to use the land for O’Hare Airport expansion have been challenged in the courts, and not on the runways. But the dead have been known to vote in Chicago elections, so anything can happen.

(images: BBC, NBC5 Chicago)
tags: travel | air travel | environmentalism | airport expansion | labor protests | Heathrow | Delta | O’Hare

If you’re routinely profiled by police and security officers as “suspicious,” and especially if you’ve ever lied to an officer of the law for any reason, prepare for “an intense atmosphere” when traveling to Moscow. Officials at the Domodedovo airport will be introducing lie detectors at security checkpoints. This is likely in response to the 2004 bombings of two separate intra-Russian flights. The perpetrators apparently got on board after bribing airline employees.

At first, only passengers deemed suspicious by the FSB, the security service that succeeded the KGB, will take the test. But it will eventually encompass all passengers.
[…]
The machine asks four questions. The first is for full identity, while the second, unnerving in its Soviet-style abruptness, demands: “Have you ever lied to the authorities?” It then asks if the passenger is carrying weapons or narcotics.

To cut delays to a minimum, passengers will take the test after putting their shoes and baggage through the X-ray machines and before retrieving them. Officials insist that it will take between 30 seconds and a minute.

The possibilities for abuse are obvious. Who do you suppose will be deemed suspicious?… Anyone flying to the Caucasus can prepare for a lovely conversation, I’m sure.

Interesting tidbit, courtesy of Randy Petersen, the editor of Inside Flyer magazine:

Among the programs here in America, members have cashed in a total of nearly 193.6 million free awards over the past 25 years (this does not include awards used for upgrades or awards for other than free flight).
Among the programs outside of America, members have cashed in 82.8 million free awards.
Total globally over 25 years: an astounding 276,400,000 free tickets given away (not counting upgrade awards).

tags: travel | air travel | frequent flyer miles

A number of peoples’ worst fears are coming true: Cellphones will be legal on selected Air France flights. Using technology from OnAir, AirFrance will outfit a single Airbus 318, set for delivery in March 2007, with equipment allowing customers to use their phones in flight.

In essence OnAir’s technology emulates a mobile network inside an aircraft. The specially designed pico-cell system, for instance, allows mobile devices to operate at lower transmission power and thus eliminate interference with other radio systems, according to the company’s website. The system also ensures that phones on board can’t attempt to log on to terrestrial networks.
[…]
To determine demand, the French airlines will ask all passengers using the service to complete a questionnaire. Depending on their response, the company will decide how many additional aircraft will offer the service. Details about pricing were not available.

Plans for the OnAir system are on deck to be retrofitted on existing aircraft for British carrier BMI and Portugal’s TAP.

In the U.S., public opposition to cellphones in flight is fairly strong, but Europe looks like it may go the other way.

(image)
tags: travel | air travel | inflight cellphones | Air France

Alitalia is offering a ludicrously low fare for North American travelers looking for a Mediterranean getaway.

If you’re not located in Toronto, you may want to hold off on buying your ticket TO Toronto, to wait and see if the longhaul tickets are honored, and wait to book a hotel. But jump on this.

Travel looks to be valid on any day/time where seats are available between now and the end of the year. […] If this fare does not show up immediately, you may need to expland your search results to include business class flights as well.

Fare is available on Orbitz, and potentially other booking engines as well. Click HERE to run a multi-site search on Kayak.com, or click HERE to search on Orbitz, which offers its Low Fare Guarantee.

Use the airport codes YYZ for Toronto and LCA for Larnaca, Cyprus. And HURRY.

Cyprus is a fascinating destination, with ancient ruins from several cultures, beaches, and great food. I visited in 1995, and it was fantastic. Big thumbs up.

Go.

UPDATE at 4:15pm CDT: Fare looks to be gone. Things move quickly…

Via FareAlert.
tags: travel | air travel

Newsweek offers a pessimistic assessment of some of the world’s greatest tourist destinations:

The number-one threat to tourist treasures, paradoxically, is tourism itself. The challenge is how to keep the world’s most esteemed monuments from being loved to death.

The list of the most endangered sites includes both natural and man-made treasures. Stories of visitors stealing ancient artifacts, or riding go-karts on the Great Wall of China — go-karts!!!? — are horrifying. Read the whole thing.

Travel is a great, life-enriching experience, but it needs to be sustainable, even if local vendors don’t always make it easy.

Joel Widzer makes the contrarian case FOR Northwest’s new policy of charging for aisle seats.

Widzer’s apologia suggests that the best justification for CoachChoice is that it gives travelers more, well, more choice. (A proponent of a la carte ticketing, Widzer must love the Ryanair model…)

Sure, the airlines are against the ropes financially, and at the same time, we all want to fly as cheaply as possible.

To have our cake and eat it, too, we need to support airlines that seek alternative revenue streams.

Huh? How about supporting airlines that actually respect their customers, and who provide a better product for the price? Just today we heard about JetBlue and United making the inflight experience better. We’ll have to wait and see which model will win: a package of quality, or a patchwork of choices.

Nonetheless, I’d agree with Widzer on two counts on the benefits of CoachChoice: First, it IS an effort to differentiate Northwest from its competitors. But second, and more importantly, it encourages customers to exercise their choice to fly a different airline.