Upgraded: Enterprise Rent-a-Car turns a new leaf
Enterprise Rent-a-Car has committed to purchasing 500 Nissan Leaf electric vehicles — not hybrids, electrics — for implementation in Phoenix, Tucson, Knoxville, Nashville, San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle. The cars can run for about 100 miles on a single charge. No word yet on rates, but you’ll start to see the cars at rental locations beginning in January 2011. The challenge, of course, is recharging it, unless you happen to have “a standard SAE J1772-2009 connector for level 1 and 2 recharging (110/220 V AC)” or “a TEPCO connector for high-voltage ‘level 3′ quick charging (480 V DC 125 amps) using the CHAdeMO protocol” handy…

Downgraded: Southwest Airlines
Southwest keeps acting more and more like a “regular” airline. The company has changed its contract of carriage to brazenly and bizarrely refer to a mechanical delay as an act of God. Deus ex machina? I don’t think so. Lame, and begging for a legal challenge…

Strong: Downgraded: Wegolo
The Netherlands-based discount-airline fare aggregator Wegolo lost a court case to Ryanair, thereby preventing it from scraping Ryanair’s website to include their fares in search results. Ryanair’s beef? Wegolo charged a surtax on the Ryanair fare for booking via the search site.

Downgraded: Star Alliance
After several years of expansion (with the addition of Continental being the biggest deal, from a USA-centric perspective), Star Alliance is losing a member: Shanghai Airlines, which is merging with China Eastern Airlines, is leaving Star Alliance for SkyTeam in October. Within Star Alliance, Air China remains the lone Chinese member airline. Will another Chinese airline join the fray? Maybe the butt-kicking staff at Sichuan Airlines will convince management to get interested in joining the party?…

Upgraded: Hotel ratings
Every year, the J.D. Power survey results come out with some fanfare, rating customer satisfaction with major hotel chains. The top line news is usually the winner in each category. I like to go deeper, and if you’re interested, the full results are here. Somewhat of surprise for me: The more casual Aloft brand beat (but effectively tied) the more established Westin brand within the Starwood franchise.

Downgraded: Mexicana
Upgraded: Repo Men
It’s not looking good for Mexicana Airlines right now. The company has had three aircraft seized by creditors, they are canceling flights, and they are publicly admitting that they are “probably” looking to enter bankruptcy. Points for honesty! If you’ve got tickets already, it’s probably too late to buy travel insurance. If you haven’t bought tickets, it’s probably a bad idea to click “purchase” until you know for sure what’s happening.
UPDATED August 3, 2010: Mexicana has indeed filed for bankruptcy. The airline is cutting back flights, but is still operating.
UPDATED August 5, 2010: Mexicana has now stopped selling further tickets, but is still technically operating. Not exactly a confidence booster to shut down your sales operations, though. Mexicana Click and Mexicana Link, the lower-cost domestic airline subsidiaries, are still operating and selling tickets.

Upgraded: This blogger
Back on the beat after a restorative vacation. Tanned, rested, ready. Bring it. Anyway, back to business:

Upgraded: Odds of chip-and-PIN in the US
A month ago, I blogged about the United Nations Federal Credit Union bringing chip-and-PIN credit cards to its American customers. That isn’t a huge customer base to be pushing a new technology. But what if a bigger player made a push for the increasingly-globalized payment technology? What if that player were Wal-Mart?…

Upgraded: Demand for parked airliners
When air travel slowed with the recession, the airlines parked a number of their planes in the desert. According to Rockwell Collins, the recent increase in demand will lead to airlines recalling those planes and putting them back into service. This may be wishful thinking by Rockwell, which services planes and spruces them back up for action, but if true, it could mean some respite from jam-packed flights, with planes flying at record loads.

Upgraded: Opportunities for speaking your mind to the TSA director
John Pistole, the recently-appointed TSA director, wants to hear from you. The TSA has a new comment/complaint form, and you’re invited to use it.

Upgraded: The male of the species
British Airways has been forced to pay restitution to a male passenger who was forced to change seats by flight attendants because he was seated next to an unaccompanied minor. BA admitted to sex discrimination against the man and paid £2,161 in costs and £750 in damages. I understand that airlines are worried about children being molested by strangers, but please: not all male travelers are child molesters. By the same token, neither are all female travelers drug-addled nymphomaniacs seeking mile-high-club entry with 14-year old male travelers… like this woman. (Thanks for that latter link to Mike Maddaloni!) Kinda puts the whole discussion of unaccompanied minor fees in some perspective…

Upgraded: First-mover disadvantage
The new Conservative-led British government has halted plans to expand Heathrow Airport, and has preemptively banned additional runway construction at Gatwick and Stansted. While I appreciate the sentiment and intent of a move by the new British government to discourage “binge flying” on environmental grounds, I fear that the net carbon footprint of the aviation industry won’t change much: Since many flights are through the UK, and not to the UK, the traffic will simply shift to Amsterdam, Paris, and Frankfurt.

A friend recently asked me about unaccompanied minors traveling internationally, when his young cousin was planning to travel from the US to Germany solo. Since it’s been 25 years since I’ve partaken of an airline’s unaccompanied minors policy, as a junior traveler myself, this was something I really didn’t know much about.

Policies vary by carrier, of course, and in this instance it was Delta’s policy that applied.

Delta charges a $100 (or 100 euro) fee when a minor is traveling alone. For that fee, a flight attendant will hold onto the boarding passes, passport, etc., and the airline agrees to release the minor only to a specified person at the destination.

Fees vary by airline, of course. So does service. Just as an example, Lufthansa promises a great deal more attention to the unaccompanied minor:

On board your child is welcomed and looked after by a stewardess during the flight. On the plane the child has a special seat located close to the flight attendants so that they can be on hand immediately. Games, crayons and colouring books and their own entertainment programme ensures – irrespective of the length of the flight and the route – that your child feels comfortable throughout.

Lufthansa’s rate varies according to distance flown. For a trans-Atlantic flight, for example, it’ll cost $150 or 100 euros. (Note the variation in exchange rates between Lufthansa and Delta…)

These were fees I wasn’t aware of. When I mentioned this to another friend, he expressed outrage at the cost. “They don’t actually take on real liability, so what are you paying for? Someone to hold the kid’s passport? What a ripoff!” Years ago, this service — like so many others — was free.

I think Lufthansa has the right idea by charging a fee that varies, depending on the distance flown. But it’s still pretty hefty.

So the question goes to you: Is it fair to charge a fee for unaccompanied minors? If so, how much? Parents, what do you think? Hit the comments…

Downgraded: Inflight booze limits
How much is too much booze to drink on a flight? How about 17 mini bottles of wine between London and Doha? (Thanks, Dr. Vino!)

Upgraded: Deals to Europe
Jared Blank may have posted this on May 27, but if you’ve procrastinated your summer travel plans, you can still (!) book roundtrip flights from Newark to several European cities for only $399 including all taxes, for travel through June 30, 2010. I found seats to Oslo, Berlin, and London, with relative ease. The catch, if you want to call it that: You have to fly via Iceland, with Iceland Express. Be sure to check that volcano ash forecast…

Downgraded: EasyJet’s name
Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of British discount airline EasyJet, has parted ways with the company he built, and is now preparing to sue to have them remove the “easy” prefix in their name. Sir Stelios wants to set up an online travel agency with the same name, which sounds like it’s going to be a delightful time for everyone involved. Haven’t the trademark battles over classic rock band names like Pink Floyd, Yes, and Black Sabbath taught us anything?

Upgraded: Me
Yes, this blog has been out of commission for two weeks, and I apologize for the unannounced absence. After some time fine-tuning the work-work balance, traveling to conferences, and grappling with an unpleasant illness, we’re back on the beat, baby! Thanks to those who wrote expressing concern.

In the U.S., airlines don’t typically charge a fee for using a credit or debit card to purchase a ticket. (Allegiant is an exception, by charging a $14.99 “convenience fee” for online bookings with credit card payment. Other U.S. airlines have tried, but failed thusfar.)

In Europe, a credit card fee is more of a norm. But Ryanair, which has been charging a fee for years, was just slapped down by the German courts for charging the fee:

Germany’s federal court of justice found yesterday that Ryanair placed consumers at a “disproportionate disadvantage” by offering no way to pay for flights without incurring a fee.

“By charging the fee is shifting in a one-sided manner on to customers the costs of fulfilling its own legal obligations … without bringing any service in return,” said the court, a practice at odds with German law.

The case against Ryanair was brought by Germany’s leading consumer organisation. It complained about the fee, which ranges from €1.50 to €4 per flight and passenger.

By not accepting cash payments, it argued, Ryanair offered customers no opportunity to pay for flights without paying extra.

I can understand the motivation behind this fee: Merchants accepting credit cards give up a piece of each transaction to the credit card processing bank. (The percentage varies according to card brand and total transaction size.) But there are rules to which merchants are required to adhere. I couldn’t find a European merchant agreement. But in the US, for example: “Visa merchants are not permitted to establish minimum transaction amounts, even on sale items. They also are not permitted to charge a surcharge fee when you use your Visa card.”

It will be interesting to see if other European countries see similar cases. Credit card fees aren’t limited to Germany, after all.

The UK Met Office has launched a website to help travelers — or just the curious — keep track of the spread of the volcano ash cloud.

The site maps the predicted spread of the ash cloud, and details the areas where travel will most likely be halted or reduced, for five days out. Here’s a sample:

The site assumes continuous eruption at the same rate, which is, of course, a big assumption.

This might be useful for those making last-minute plans to or within Europe, but it won’t help you any more than five days out.

Now if only we could get Chicago’s meteorologist extraordinaire Tom Skilling, who refuses to restrain himself to the analysis of Midwest weather patterns, to weigh in…

(Via Musings of the Global Traveller)

Bonus: Gratuitous video of bubbling lava below. Yes, I know, the problem with the Icelandic volcano is dust clouds, not lava. But dagnabbit, I have a space in my heart for lava.