Downgraded: TSA
Upgraded: Airports with independence
Near Glacier National Park, in Kalispell, Montana, Glacier Park International Airport is hoping to boot the TSA off its property and replace the government security agency with private contractors. What?? I had no idea this was possible, but sure enough: Under the Screening Partnership Program, an airport can apply to reprivatize security, generally if TSA isn’t meeting the airport’s needs. The issue for Glacier was staffing: The TSA calculated staffing levels based on October traffic levels — when August is the peak travel time for the area. About 15 airports, including several in Montana, have opted out of the TSA’s domain.

Upgraded: Efforts to keep convention business. ANY convention business
Hotels need business. So, is there any problem with hosting a convention of swingers as a Holiday Inn in upstate New York did? The annual spouse-swapping event, “Entice the Falls” (link not entirely safe for work), featured some exciting events like “Flogging 101″ and a (canceled) body painting party. But how many bonus points do you earn for a weekend of debauchery?

Downgraded: Chrysler at the rental counter
The Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group is slashing its purchases of Chrysler vehicles. Their fleet is currently 76% Chrysler, but Ford will nearly tie Chrysler for new purchases (34 and 30%, respectively).

Upgraded: Luxury in Mecca
Downgraded: Raffles Hotels’ management’s common sense
Islamic pilgrims to Mecca who aren’t feeling particularly pious, but who are looking to live large, may be pleased to hear that Singapore’s Raffles Hotels are planning an enormous luxury hotel that will cast a shadow on the Muslim world’s holiest site. But what on earth is the hotel chain thinking? I’m sure some will find the uber-luxurious hotel an affront to the religious meaning of the site; are they painting a giant target on all the hotels in the Raffles brand?

Upgraded: Recliners!
The dip in travel has been a boon for furniture makers. What? Yes, according to the industry, sales of reclining chairs are up, as Americans travel less, stay home more, and look for greater comfort in their living room.

Upgraded: Spotlights on mileage running
I’ve been known to go on a mileage run or two (though not for a few years now) in order to bump up my elite-qualifying miles to the next tier, but I’m nowhere near the big leagues that these guys play in. Check out this 20-minute documentary on mileage runners, and the OCD spirit that drives them to collect miles and points with a singleminded focus:

In an effort to reduce their fuel burn and carbon emissions, Japan’s ANA, a fine airline in most every regard, politely requests that its passengers visit the loo before their next flight. The more you leave on the ground, the lighter the plane, the lower the fuel burn, and the happier the planet.

Airline staff will be present at boarding gates in terminals to ask passengers waiting to fly to relieve themselves before boarding, The Independent reported.

ANA hopes the weight saved will lead to a five-tonne reduction in carbon emissions over the course of 30 days.

The airline began the policy on October 1, according to Japan’s NHK television.

Although it is intended as an experiment lasting one month and 42 flights, the trial may be extended if it is well-received by passengers and if results are positive.

Based on an average human bladder capacity of 15oz, if 150 passengers relieved themselves on board an aircraft, this would amount to 63.7kg of waste.

…and that’s just the bladder… No word on the weight savings for performing other human activities on terra firma. Must be Japanese politeness that’s limiting discussion to #1.

(image)

My parents are about to embark on a trip to Venice, and in their travel planning, they discovered that the Italian city has an online discount program for using public toilets.

Seriously, there is really such a thing as the toilet card, a daily or monthly pass to the city’s public loos, available through Venice Connected, the city’s official site.

Instead of paying the current 1 euro fee to get into a public bathroom, tourists who think ahead can get one week or day passes to the bathrooms online.

Visitors can pay 7 euros online for 10 toilet visits over 5 days in high season, and 5 euros in the low tourist season.

For a regular toilet card, bought at a bathroom or other site, the corresponding costs are 9 euros and 7 euros.

The online day rate for 2 visits is 1 euro in low season, 2 euros in the high season. Otherwise, the card costs 1.50 euros and 3 euros respectively.
[...]
The pass is another attempt by Venice, which hosts about 20 million visitors a year, to deal with tourists who use the streets as urinals.

The program has been available since February 1.

So: Is a toilet “subscription” a brilliant plan to manage public spaces? Or is it another way to bilk tourists of their hard-earned cash? (Notably, locals only pay 0.25 per use.) Hit the comments!

(image)

Downgraded: Baggage carousels
I realize that airports are looking for ways to make money, and I admit I’m surprised this hasn’t been tried earlier, but the checked baggage conveyor belts will now display advertising at select airports. Yet another reason to carry on instead of checking bags…

Upgraded: Global travel
Downgraded: Swine flu
Good news on the swine flu front: A vaccine for H1N1 should be ready by mid-October. If true, that could have huge implications for the movement of travelers across borders.

Downgraded: Laptops at airports
How many laptops are lost at US airports weekly? 12,000. WEEKLY. And of those, 1200 are at LAX. Most are left behind at security checkpoints. Only a third are ever recovered. That’s horrible, and embarrassing for everyone involved.

Upgraded: Star Alliance
Continental gets the final nod to join Star Alliance. It will be departing SkyTeam.

Upgraded: Upgrades to Hawaii on Continental
Perhaps in the spirit of joining a new alliance, Continental is changing its rules to allow its elite-level OnePass members to upgrade free on flights to Hawaii. Jared Blank has more.

Upgraded: Traveling like a Dolphin
For the person who has everything, and wants to travel a little deeper: A personal submarine based on a dolphin. Promo video below. Bizarre.

Downgraded: Bali’s public health strategy
While a vigorous attempt to contain the spread of the H1N1 flu virus is understandable and sensible, Bali is taking the notion to a new level:

Upon landing at Bali’s airport planes will be taken to a remote aircraft parking area where the plane and its passengers will be sprayed with disinfectant. Passengers will then be disembarked and subjected to thermal scanners.

However, the Jakarta Globe is reporting that Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport is now requiring all arriving international air passengers to undergo a blood test. Nyoman Murtiyasa, the head of the airport’s health office, quoted in the Jakarta Globe said that all passengers arriving from overseas would be required to take a blood test at the airport.

Thermal scanners? Sure. Blood tests for everyone? Extreme. They make United States passport control seem downright lovable.

Downgraded: Airline uniforms
The airport administrators at Nepal’s Kathmandu Airport are taking an unusual step in an effort to reduce bribery: They are banning pockets in airline personnel uniforms. In a few months, expect reports of secret back-room sewing operations and black market tailoring.

Upgraded: Onboard duty-free, online check-in
Remember when airlines gave you extra miles for online check-in? It’s not coming back, alas. But Virgin Atlantic will give you a coupon for £6 off onboard duty free shopping when spending £30 or more. Whoo?

Downgraded: Jamaican sand wars
500 truckloads of white sand were stolen from a Jamaican resort development site in July 2008. Now, it’s going to trial, and other resort owners are among the accused. (hat tip to Veronica Stoddart)

Upgraded: Overview of disparate carry-on luggage rules
Steven Frischling at Flying with Fish has compiled a great list of 65 airlines’ carry-on baggage restrictions. Be sure to check the rules before your next flight.

Upgraded: Cruises with a theme
Downgraded: Pirates; Conscience
Finally, a cruise concept for the bloodthirsty: A Russian company is sponsoring pirate-hunting cruises. $5000 gets you on board, and you can rent AK-47s and buy ammo. The money quote: “They are worse than the pirates. At least the pirates have the decency to take hostages; these people are just paying to commit murder.”

Upgraded: Eclipse travel
THIS is a concept trip I could do: Special flights to view the upcoming solar eclipse. (Thanks, Kim!)

I think I’ve found a new favorite website for travel-related time-killing, filled with both comedy and horror. (It’s not a new site, it’s just new to me.) The Aviation Herald provides short descriptions of airline “incidents” that warranted some sort of diversion, maintenance, or the calling of the authorities.

But some of these are (unintentionally?) hilarious, despite their clinical reporting style.

Perhaps my favorite so far:

An Air India Boeing 747-400, registration VT-ESO performing flight AI-191 from Mumbai (India) to Frankfurt/Main (Germany) with 229 passengers, was enroute about one hour into the flight, when the cargo fire alert triggered. The crew activated the cargo fire suppression system, declared emergency and returned to Mumbai, where the airplane landed safely 1:45 hours after departure. Attending fire services found no trace of fire or heat. [...] Engineers found no fault with the fire detection system as well and started to suspect, that bags of finest curry powder within the cargo bay, part of a passenger’s checked luggage, could have been responsible for the fire alert. Further tests showed, that particles had escaped the bags and indeed triggered the sensors.

We’ve all heard about bird strikes, which, perhaps most famously, are suspected of bringing down the US Airways Airbus that landed in the Hudson River. But how about bumble bees?

Or pirate radio interfering with inflight communications?

How about model rockets crossing flight paths?

Laser beams blinding pilots?

And dozens of bomb hoaxes and attempted (but failed) hijackings. (Even a real bomb, which was defused, on board an Iranian airliner.)

It’s both frightening and amusing. Granted, most flights go off without a hitch, but with thousands of flights daily, somewhere around the world there’s got to be something odd. Those with a fear of flying may not appreciate the humor as much as I do, so be warned…

Yes, there’s a bit of sadness in there, too, as they analyze the serious events wherein people got hurt or died, too. But there’s so much more in there. Hours of fascination, sometimes even entertainment.

(Thanks to Kim for pointing this out!)

(images: 1, 2, 3)

One of the great frustrations of booking travel — air, hotel, car, whatever — has been the difference between initially-quoted price and the final bill. For hotels, the problem has often been surcharges like resort fees, local occupancy taxes, and other mandatory fees that aren’t included in the base rate. That may be changing, if only for European customers.

In an effort to meet the terms of European Union regulations, Pegasus Solutions, which provides hotel rate information to travel agencies and most major booking sites, is requiring hotels to break out their fees in a way that hasn’t been required before.

But just because a hotel is required to report all the parts of a room rate, that doesn’t mean you, the customer, will see things broken out when you go to book:

Once Pegasus provides the pricing breakdown to distributors, it will be up to each website where there are no governmental mandates, such as in the U.S., to decide how — or if — they want to display the information.

All websites that sell hotels eventually give consumers the total price, including taxes and fees, but some distributors force consumers to take two or three steps. Sometimes, distributors require credit card information before revealing the bottom-line price.

That means that US customers might still end up with partial quotes, lumped-together taxes and fees, and worst of all, surprises like mandatory resort fees, payable upon check-in.

The resort fee has always been my greatest hotel peeve. If it’s a mandatory charge, it should be quoted up front, with the rate. Now, with the Pegasus initiative, these fees will hopefully be visible — somewhere. But will the US consumer benefit? Unless they’re doing searches on EU-based search engines, I doubt it.

The major online travel agencies have been escalating their competition over the price and transparency of surcharges, for hotel booking fees as well as airline booking fees. So here’s a challenge to the agencies in the US:

Start breaking out the price of a hotel stay, including your fees, their fees, and the taxes. Be thorough about it, and show them right up front. Include the resort fees. Don’t make us go all the way to the brink of purchase before showing us the numbers. Give us the facts, up front, the first time.

(image)

It came as a surprise to me when I saw the sign pictured above in the parking lot of a Country Inn & Suites in Asheville, North Carolina this weekend.

I admit that I’ve never become intimately familiar with the Goldpoints frequent guest program from the Carlson family of hotels (Radisson, Country Inn & Suites, etc.), largely because I’ve never been a fan of their properties and rarely stay there. (Needless to say, I wasn’t pulling in to that spot…) There is also no reference to a parking benefit on the Goldpoints website, so I don’t know if this is a property-specific offer or a policy across the chain.

The spot itself was located next to the handicapped spaces, near the front of the lot. It’s not like it was a covered space with complimentary car wash and detailing. Frankly, it’s not a big deal.

And yes, “it,” not “they.” Singular. There was only one space labeled for elite members, so either the hotel doesn’t get much business from frequent guests, or the signage was purely symbolic.

So what say you? Nice perk, or superfluous? Obnoxious, or a nice recognition of repeat business? Hit the comments…

Upgraded: Jumping the gun
The EU Health Commissioner must have a wonderful sense of irony: On the very day that swine flu was confirmed on EU soil, the European Health Commissioner warned that EU member states’ citizens shouldn’t partake in “unnecessary” travel to Mexico or the United States. Backpedaling ensued, as the minister was just “speaking personally.”

Downgraded: Flight plans
Way to freak out an entire city: A backup 747 in the colors of the presidential plane known as Air Force One (but only when he’s onboard…) gave the city of New York quite a scare when it gave Manhattan a low fly-over. New Yorkers got the fleeting sense of deja vu. The White House apologized.

Downgraded: Airport upgrades
Fewer passengers, fewer airplanes, reduced cash flow at airports. No surprises there. The result: Airports cutting back on planned improvements. Sydney’s airport is delaying a new baggage handling system and an aircraft parking plan.

Downgraded: Promo materials
Ever go to a hotel, a restaurant, or a destination, and the reality isn’t quite what it looked like on the website? Then perhaps you’ll enjoy this lovely photo from a restaurant website, and mocked (”Tatooine’s finest restaurant”) at PhotoshopDisasters.com. I love the two suns, the perpendicular tides, and the break in the horizon. If you want to attract visitors, give the people as many suns as you can! (Thanks, J!)

Downgraded: The mile-high club
That’s what airlines need in order to survive the economic downturn: Hookers! “Federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania say [Roger] Sedlak used a non-existent airline, dubbed CQ Air, to arrange sex-for-cash trysts in hotels across state lines.” The thing is, the airline wasn’t entirely non-existent: “According to a grant application for federal funding, CQ Air sought $100,000, which included $75,000 from the Federal Aviation Authorities AA and $12,500 each from two counties. There was no sign it ever started and the federal government is calling it a bogus operation.”

Upgraded: Mile-high club, part deux
Downgraded: Marketing!
Free flights for taking off your clothes? Yes, a cheesy marketing gimmick is giving away 999 pairs of intra-European tickets for those who show up near-naked somewhere in central London. Oddly, for an unnamed airline. I’m sure some marketing agency thinks they’re being “edgy” or “buzzworthy” with this schtick. And yeah, I’m writing about it, so you could argue that I’m feeding into it. But since I can’t even write about their client who’s sponsoring the semi-nudity, it sure seems like a failure to me.

Upgraded: Midwest Airlines miles
Midwest Airlines passengers have long been able to use their miles on Northwest, and vice versa. Now that Northwest is part of Delta, that partnership is applicable to Delta flights as well.

Downgraded: International flights
Cash cow no more… United and Delta are cutting back further the number of international flights on their schedule. The planes that had previously been full of premium-cabin travelers are now flying empty up front. With i-bankers relegated to coach, the flights aren’t profitable any longer.