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Reader Ben writes:

Did you see the article in the NYT about buying carbon offsets to “atone” for emissions for flights, etc.? It’s something I may actually do this year as a karmic compromise for the international flights I take. What do you think about these offsets?

As the article indicates, there’s no consensus on whether offsets are a good thing or not. (Offsets are cash payments to a third party, which promises to plant trees or invest in technologies that reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, thereby “offsetting” the damage done to the environment. You can offset flights, you car, your home’s energy use, or pretty much anything.)

It’s good that you’re thinking about the environmental impact of travel, but as some will argue, it’s just a feel-good patch that doesn’t truly offset your behavior. In fact, it could justify your flying more, putting even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, because you feel you’re doing the right thing.

On the other hand, if you’re going to fly anyway, why not do something good for the environment — even if it’s a small gesture. Every little bit helps, right? And maybe, just maybe, the awareness of the carbon-burn problem will spur some people to implement environmentally friendly changes in other aspects of their lives besides air travel. And you might even get a certificate. Whoo.

So I’m torn. I haven’t done it yet, but would consider it. I’d be sure to check the effectiveness of the organization that’s sponsoring the offset first, to make sure the money is spent wisely and administered efficiently. (There are several different offset providers.) Assuming they’re a nonprofit, I’d look them up on CharityNavigator. If they’re not a nonprofit, I’d ask why not.

Have you ever bought a carbon offset? Would you? Sound off in the comments!

Related:
- Burn, baby, burn: Silverjet makes carbon offsets mandatory
- Reduced-guilt flying now readily available for online purchase
- Are open skies dirty skies?

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The European-American open skies treaty was signed today. Assuming the U.S. Senate ratifies it (as expected), the deal goes into effect in March 2008.

The big news is that American airlines can fly into any European city, and vice versa. Plus, American airlines can fly passengers between countries within Europe. European airlines can’t fly domestically within the U.S., so you won’t see Air France or Lufthansa flying from Orlando to Memphis.

Overall, this deal should lead to greater competition and lower prices. That’s good!

But… the devil is in the details. As the treaty is written, there are some concerns, as Ed Hasbrouck points out:

The “Open Skies” agreement [Article 8, Section 3] requires compliance with all “recommended practices” of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). By making ICAO recommendations mandatory, the “Open Skies” agreement effectively delegates to ICAO the legislative power of the E.U. and the US. This is especially problematic because national delegations to ICAO have never included data protection, civil liberties, or human rights authorities.

Less legalese translation: An unelected international organization can dictate the aviation policy (including aviation security policy) of the US and the EU.

Governments ceding some of their sovereign authority to international organizations isn’t anything new. But considering how much importance security issues have in the American consciousness, it’s startling that our leaders were willing to hand off so much authority.

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Reader Jeanette writes:

I am traveling to Europe this summer (June 2007) and I wish to travel in comfort without a great expense. I read that British Airways has a something between economy and business. How do I know which airlines have comfortably wide seats and room for long legs?

If you’re interested in wider seats, extra legroom, better recline, and potentially better food and drink on your trip to Europe, you might consider looking for so-called premium economy sections. They’re offered by British Airways (they call it “World Traveller Plus”), Virgin Atlantic, and SAS (”Economy Extra”).

Separately, bmi and United offer a section of the cabin with extra legroom, but no wider seats. Bmi offers improved catering in their version of premium economy, while United doesn’t. Zoom, a discount airline that recently started a New York-London route, also has an improved legroom offering to consider.

Premium economy is never as nice as the business class cabin — especially if a lie-flat sleeper seat is an option — but it’s nicer than regular coach. About an inch more width, 6 inches more legroom or so.

But don’t expect this to be a cheap ticket. I checked arbitrary dates in June for BA flights from Chicago to London, and found the lowest one-way base fare $466 in economy, $816 in premium economy. Still less than BA’s business class, but at that price, consider flying one of the all-business class airlines like Maxjet, Silverjet, or L’Avion.

The challenge is actually finding and booking these tickets. Since the major online travel agencies don’t sell premium economy (they sell only economy, business, and first) you’ll have to check fares at each airline’s own website. Even then, they don’t always make it easy. If you can’t find the premium economy option online, you may need to pick up the phone.

Alternatively, take your chances and ask for an upgrade from regular economy to premium economy at check-in. No guarantee, of course. You’ll likely pay for the privilege, but it could cost less than pre-reserving a seat. (See here for info on paid upgrades.)

Related:
- Virgin Atlantic (aff)

Skybus 1: How to contact Skybus
I know, I know, enough already with the Skybus posts! But it’s the gift that keeps on giving. Recall that the startup airline, in its multi-pronged efforts to save money, claims it doesn’t have a customer service phone number, according to the website. But they do. Chris Elliott does Skybus passengers a public service by ferreting out that contact number — (614) 246-8800 — as well as the e-mail addresses of their customer service executives.

Skybus 2: What’s next, Amway?
Be careful if you try booking a “vacation package” on the Skybus website. It’s really a timeshare sales pitch. Classy.

Beats getting three toasters
In a smart marketing move, Northwest Airlines has started a gift registry. Friends and family can make payment toward air travel, such as for a honeymoon. Note that the registry funds can’t be applied to hotel, rental car, etc., as part of packages. Air only. But still, it’s surprising other airlines haven’t done this before.

This isn’t Singapore Airlines
Iris Peterson, the oldest flight attendant in America’s skies, has retired from United Airlines. She started flying in 1946 and is now in her 80s. Quite a bit of aviation history she’s witnessed, and a good number of job title changes, “sky girl” and “stewardess” among them. Congratulations to Iris! Though frankly I’m glad that she’s not flying anymore. Honestly, was she able to perform all safety duties? How productive would she have been during an emergency?

Red, white and drunk all over NYC
Got 36 hours to spend in New York? Does a bar crawl feel a little too college for you? How about a wine crawl? Alright then. Dr. Vino shows the way.

On top of the world, pissing down on creation
When you’re done with that wine tourism, you might need to hit the WC. For the gentlemen, why not seek out a urinal with a view?

Car rental by the hour goes mainstream
Hertz and other big rental car firms must be feeling some heat from Zipcar, Flexcar, iGo, and other regional short-term rental companies. The big guys are increasingly offering hourly rates for their cars. Unlike hotels, hourly rates are a good thing, especially for business travelers doing same-day hit-and-run visits to cities.

Summer is coming soon in the northern hemisphere, which means it’s time for the annual business class fare sales. As business travel slows, paid premium traffic slows along with it. So bring on the sales!

Many of these sales aren’t advertised as such. The airlines simply load a lower business class fare into the system, and it’s not necessarily available every day on every flight. These are usually “Z-fares,” i.e., they have a fare code that begins with the letter Z. These come with more restrictions than a typical business class ticket, and will often need to be purchased relatively far in advance — sometimes as far as 60 days.

Bottom line: Before you hit “purchase” on an expensive international coach ticket, check the business class fare.

Beyond the big carriers and their summer discounts, there are a couple other business class offers worth mentioning:

All-business class Silverjet is rolling out its own loyalty program — the Freequent Flyer Program, har har. If you join the club and buy a ticket on the airline, you get a redemption code for a free ticket. The promotion ends May 25, 2007.

Oasis International Airlines, the low-cost long-haul London to Hong Kong carrier (that plans to fly to Hong Kong to Oakland later this year) is similarly featuring a buy-one-get-one-free offer on their Hong Kong-London route. Buy one business class ticket for , get a transferable voucher for another business class ticket free. £1595 (~US$3200) including taxes buys you both tickets. Purchase the first ticket by June 15, 2007. The voucher is good through March 2008. (via RoadGladiator)

Related:
- Why are there no Y-UP fares to Europe or Asia?

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Here’s a thought: Skybus, the cheapskate startup airline mentioned earlier this week, features this clause in their “Rules of Flying”:

Oh, and don’t sneak food onboard unless you brought enough for the whole plane.

Cute. But what happens if you DO bring enough for the whole plane? What if your carry-on luggage were stuffed to the hilt, say, with 162 candy bars? (That’s 156 for all the passengers on the plane, plus 6 for the crew: 4 flight attendants, pilot, and co-pilot.)

Let’s assume the person with the candy-laden carry-on is being altruistic, and not a shrewd businessperson. When United eliminated pretzels on their shorter flights, commenters on this post came up with the idea of starting a business, selling snacks onboard the flight. (Is there anything in the contract of carriage forbidding inflight passenger-to-passenger sales??)

So, Skybus travelers, who will put this food policy to the test?

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This is the kind of experiment I wish I had thought of first: The guys at FareCompare decided to put various airline websites’ low-fare guarantees to the test. The results are mixed.

They did it by actually buying a ticket on every airline in their test. (They only included airlines that HAD a guarantee, naturally, so that meant American, Continental, Delta (sort of), Northwest, and United. US Airways, Southwest, AirTran, jetBlue, etc., weren’t included, since they don’t have a guarantee.)

Because FareCompare’s fare alerts — which I have strongly recommended in the past — give you several hours’ advance warning when a fare is about to drop, they knew exactly which tickets to buy. They bought the tickets before the fare drop went live. When the fare went down, they took a screenshot of a lower fare and filed for a refund and/or voucher with the airline.

What they found: Lots of variation. Each airline eventually came through, but the amount of effort required varied greatly. It wasn’t always easy: Some denied refund requests at first, or didn’t respond within 24 hours.

The airlines’ policies vary, too. Most required a $5 difference before considering a refund, but Continental required $10. Most give a cash refund, but United only gives vouchers. Most accept a lower fare published on any site, including their own, while American and Northwest bizarrely exclude lower fares that appear on their own sites. Delta doesn’t have a guarantee, per se, but they’ll refund your ticket within 24 hours.

It’s a great experiment. Go read the whole thing.

Note that FareCompare was testing the airlines’ sites only. Some online travel agencies have guarantees as well. For example, the folks at Peter Greenberg’s site recently had to step in to help a reader enforce Expedia’s guarantee.

In all these cases, it’s up to the customer to proactively search for a lower price within 24 hours. No one is going to volunteer the news that the price has dropped. But if you’re willing to spend the time and effort to check the prices again and wrestle with customer service, you could collect a few bucks.

European-style ultra-discount airline Skybus started selling tickets this morning, with its first flights taking off in a mere four weeks (May 22). Fares start at 10 bucks, plus taxes. But this isn’t airline business as usual for passengers in the U.S. There are some important rules you need to be aware of before you buy your tickets.

For starters, they sell tickets point-to-point, which means you need to buy two separate tickets if your flight requires a connection through their Columbus, Ohio hub. Pain-in-the-butt factor? High.

Then there are the airports. Go to the Skybus website, and it looks like they fly to Boston, Los Angeles, and Seattle. In reality, they fly to Portsmouth, NH, Burbank, and Bellingham, WA. (Burbank isn’t terrible, but the others are WAY out there.) This is somewhat deceptive. (For now, they’ll fly to Bellingham, Burbank, Fort Lauderdale, Greensboro, Kansas City, Oakland, Portsmouth, and Richmond.)

But what’s really interesting — even shocking! — is their “rules of flying” and their more complete contract of carriage, the terms and conditions of your ticket. Some of them may come as a shock to the American flying public. Let’s dig in:

Checked bag? Check, please! Luggage fees
The first two bags are $5 each. After that, it’s $50 a bag. Checked bags are the American standard — 50 lbs. — and there’s a $25 surcharge for overweight bags. After Spirit Airlines started charging for bags, this policy doesn’t come as a surprise.

No Starbucks allowed: Food and drink verboten, unless they’re selling it
Everything costs money. No word on pricing yet, but there’s a charge for anything you consume, as well as for pillows and blankets, which you get to keep a la Air Canada. But here’s the kicker: “Oh, and don’t sneak food onboard unless you brought enough for the whole plane.” Huh? Self-catered food is prohibited. The contract of carriage also contains this doozy: “In the interest of safety, passengers are prohibited from carrying hot drinks on board.” Even with a Java Jacket and a cover?? Wow. No Starbucks for you, tough guy!

Amish-style entertainment: No video
“Bring a book. We’re not big fans of fancy in-flight entertainment systems.” Say no more.

No phone number means no phone tree hell
This one had me floored: “We don’t have a phone number. Seriously. We’d love to chat, but those phone banks are expensive. And a good website like skybus.com is even more convenient.” Better make sure your cellphone has a good data plan if you’re flying Skybus.

Do you work here? Ultra-low gate staffing
“You probably won’t see any agents at the gate until boarding time.” Better hope you don’t have a question or need assistance.

Board early for $10
All seating is open, much like Southwest, but you can pay a fee to jump to the front of the line. No word on whether they’re doing seating areas or zones.

PBOR? Not really
Stuck on the tarmac? Drinks are for sale! Or rather, they’ll try to sell you drinks. “We will endeavor to… make refreshments available for purchase.”

I’m sure there’s more, but this is based on a first reading of the info on the Skybus site. The way things are going, there are probably plenty of other doozies in there.

Contrast this with Virgin America, which claims to offer low fares and better service, including inflight entertainment. Two startup airlines, both claiming to be discount, but two different worlds. I know which one sounds better to me.

Upgraded: Carnival’s beverage policy
Carnival Cruise Lines has revised its recently-changed policy prohibiting passengers from bringing beverages onto the ship. “Guests may bring a small quantity of non-alcoholic beverages,” but the booze is still off-limits. Spokesman Vance Gulliksen admitted the company was “monitoring reaction to the ban” (cough, blogs, cough) and changed the policy in response to the grumbling. “Small quantity” is subjective, though, so expect some hassles if you bring multiple bottles of anything. Got an eyewitness report of Carnival’s beverage enforcement in practice? Hit the comments or drop a line.

Downgraded: The accuracy of Ryanair’s scales
Euro-ultra-discounter Ryanair is accused of improperly maintaining its baggage scales, leading to wide variations in the weight measurement of checked bags. Since Ryanair charges £3.30 (about US$6.60) for every kilogram over 15kg, the numbers could add up to real profits. One bag weighed 17kg in Girona, Spain, while only weighing 14.6kg back in the U.K.

Upgraded: The rights of taxi passengers at Minneapolis Airport
Remember the Minneapolis taxi drivers who were refusing to transport anyone they suspected was carrying alcohol? (Those duty-free bags were a dead giveaway.) First, the city’s taxi commission allowed the discrimination, by labeling cabs “wet” or “dry.” Then came reports that the taxis were refusing service to people with seeing eye dogs, too, since these were “unclean.” So the commission created economic disincentives, by forcing cabs to move to the back of the line if they refused a passenger. Now, the city’s taxi commission is finally imposing real penalties — license suspensions — on drivers who discriminate: First offense is 30 days, second offense 2 years. Good. “Cab driver” probably isn’t the right line of work for these guys, anyway.

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Airlines have long edited films for consumption aboard their aircraft (though they’re starting to show more movies uncut). But British Airways takes the cake in their latest editorial slice-and-dice of a movie: They’ve taken the latest James Bond film, Casino Royale, and edited it. Not to cut down the violence, but to delete a cameo by Richard Branson.

Why? Because Branson runs Virgin Atlantic, their competitor.

That’s amazingly petty. Poor sportsmanship. And just plain pathetic.

Branson does a brief cameo as a passenger who’s given the once-over by airport security. (A still from the film is above.) He requested the walk-on after providing the filmmakers a plane to use as a prop. In lieu of monetary compensation for the aircraft rental, he got to be in the picture. It’s good to be the king.

So if you’re flying on British Airways, and you’d like the full version of the (excellent) Casino Royale, you’ll have to buy the DVD(aff) and bring along the electronics.

(Separately, if you’ve never seen the original version(aff) of Casino Royale, which stars Peter Sellers, David Niven, and Woody Allen, you should. Each actor stars as James Bond — though technically Woody Allen’s character goes by “Jimmy Bond.” It’s a bizarre, trippy 1967 spoof of the spy movie franchise. Plus, the Henry Mancini soundtrack is fab.)

(Thanks to reader R.Y.!)

For years, banks quietly tacked on additional fees when travelers used their credit cards outside their home country. The fees were hidden, incorporated into the exchange rates, so the markup was hard to detect. The courts have spoken. Now, it’s time to get some of that money back.

Thanks to a class action lawsuit, you may be eligible for refunds of foreign credit card transaction fees for purchases and ATM withdrawals made abroad (including online) between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006. If the charge hit your account as a foreign currency, it’s eligible. How much can you expect?

Actual refunds will depend upon final approval by the court, and on the number of valid claims filed. Final approval is scheduled for Nov. 7 in New York. Plaintiff’s attorney Bonny Sweeney of San Diego tells me the refunds could range from 1% to 3% of your total transactions — or possibly more. “It will depend on the number of claims, when you used the card, and which credit card you used because the fees were different at different times,” Sweeney explained by telephone.

To get the refund, you’ll need to visit ccfsettlement.com and enter your information. That means you’ll need to pull out old credit card statements. (How many of us actually keep our credit card statements for ten years?! My wife mocks me for keeping ours for five or six years… I guess this is come-uppance.)

The practice of charging additional fees continues, but banks issuing cards in the United States are currently required to state the additional charge explicitly, as a separate line item on your statement. It’s just out in the open.

Not all cards are the same, so if you travel internationally a bit, try to find a card that minimizes the surcharge. For example, CapitalOne apparently doesn’t tack on extra fees besides the 1% that Visa International imposes. Most credit union-issued cards don’t add their own fees, either. This information is all in the cardholder agreement’s fine print, so be sure to read that carefully when you travel.

A good lay of the land of the foreign currency transaction fee issue can be found here.

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(via David Rowell)

Was there passport control at the Sea of Tranquility?
Annoyed you have to fill out customs declarations during international travel? Of course, it’s not personal. Even the Apollo 11 astronauts had to do it and had to declare the rocks they collected. It’s like leaving the Petrified Forest National Park. “Mr. Armstrong, did you take any rocks?”

500 free miles
Gary Leff, always on the lookout for a free mileage bonus, tracks down thanksagain.com, which offers 500 United, Continental, or Delta miles for signing up. The gist: Register a credit card and earn miles by shopping at local stores. In my area, it’s all dry cleaners for some reason, but none that I frequent. Is the free 500 miles worth the junkmail bombardment you’re bound to receive? You make the call.

TSA: A day in the life
Aviation Week’s Benet Wilson shadowed a TSA agent for a full day. I’m sure you’re jealous. It’s a worthwhile read.

The lowdown on watchlists
Wired has the backstory on where passenger watch lists (and no-fly lists) came from, how they’re maintained, and more. Well worth a read. A series, in three parts. Part one, part two, and part three.

Inflight cellphone use moves ahead
Air France has announced that their six-month trial of inflight cellphone use begins in July… on a single plane. This isn’t exactly a major rollout. I guess this is a baby step. The baby steps of a screaming, colicky child.

At the other end of the earth, Qantas will run a similar three-month test, but won’t allow voice calls, just SMS and e-mail. Passengers won’t know if their flight is cellphone-enabled until they board. Sounds like a variation on the Australian “mystery flight.”

All lounges, all the time
Seems like everyone is writing about ways of getting into airport lounges lately. There’s Joe Brancatelli’s debut column in the new business glossy Portfolio. The New York Times’ coverage of lounges brushes across the same issue. I’ll join you. Allow me to pimp a “vintage” post of mine which lays out the five ways to get into lounges: How to lounge in airports.

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