First time here? Check out the site's "greatest hits" or read a random post from the archives. Feel free to ask a question, and consider subscribing to the latest posts via RSS or e-mail. Thanks for visiting!

Not all travel advice published on the web is good advice. And with year-end pressure from editors to come up with “best-of/worst-of” year-end lists, there are bound to be some bad ideas coming down the pike.

Take James Wysong’s “25 Tips for a Better Flight,” for example. Mostly okay, but the tips related to dealing with other people’s rowdy children made me cringe. In particular:

Bring dollar bills, and if the kid behind you starts kicking your seat, bribe him with money to stop. Tell him that if he can keep from kicking your seat for the remainder of the flight, he’ll get $5. Works like a charm.

What the hell kind of message does this send to these kids, or their parents?? That bad behavior isn’t punished, it’s rewarded. In fact, it’s incentivized. Hey kids, kick harder, they’re not paying you yet!

Take it to the next level: Why stop with kids? Why not start bribing adults to move their seat forward if they’re reclining?

Or turn it around: If this keeps up, passengers can make a mint by threatening to recline, talk, belch, fart, get drunk, get amorous, or otherwise be unpleasant flying companions. Maybe start printing up cards with a menu of options for your flying compatriots:

- For the person behind you, you can charge $20 for not reclining ($30 if you see they have a laptop.)
- For the person adjacent to you, $40 buys them the armrest.
- Want quiet? $30. Not willing to pay? Well, then: Check out these photos of my nephew!

No thanks. I’m not going to endorse that road to escalation.

If the kid behind you is kicking your seat, talk to the kid first and ask him/her to stop. If that fails, try the parents. If you can’t charm the family, threaten to raise the issue with a flight attendant. Then carry out the threat. Ask that the offenders be moved, or that you be given an equivalent or better seat. If there are no alternative seats, ask for the purser and discuss the options, including a threat of having the family met by security upon arrival. But don’t reward bad behavior.

If you travel regularly for business between APEC countries (Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Viet Nam… and now the United States) you may be pleased to know that the U.S. intends to become a fully-participating member. What this means, in practical terms:

Holders of an APEC Business Travel Card, which you are eligible to apply for if you make multiple trips between member countries, are not required to apply for a visa to enter a member country. Upon arrival, you’re also allowed to use fast-track passport lanes. For travelers to the United States, this apparently means use of the airline crew lane. Bad for airline crew members, good for you.

The Global Traveller is on the scene at his blog. Homepage for the APEC Business Travel Card is here.

I was going to write a post on improving your travels this Thanksgiving weekend, or during the holiday season more generally, but CondeNast Traveler’s Wendy Perrin has already done most of the heavy lifting and offers six good tips. I’ll add my comments and addenda in italics:

1. Check in online.
Indeed. Check in up to 24 hours in advance. And use this opportunity to pick better seats, if they’re available.

2. Check bags curbside.
If you’ve checked in online, some airlines and airports have dedicated bag check-in areas for passengers who have checked in electronically. In Chicago O’Hare terminal 1, for example, that desk is near the far left end of the terminal (if you’re dropping someone off by car, it’s at the last Terminal 1 entrance door).

3. Label your luggage with your name and address, inside and out.
Indeed, and also put a copy of your itinerary inside the suitcase. If the tag falls off on the outside, they’ll look for identification on the inside. Adding the itinerary helps them know where to look.

4. Follow the TSA rules for carry-on luggage to the letter.
Print the TSA’s rules (PDF) and bring them with you, in case you get into a dispute over whether something in your possession is permitted through security or not. After all, screeners aren’t necessarily consistent in their knowledge of the rules.

5. Don’t wrap gifts. TSA might unwrap them.

6. Wear easily removable shoes.

And here are a few extra:

7. Not all security lines are equally busy. Some airports have less-popular security lines, either in an adjacent (but connected) terminal, or at the far end of a terminal building. A few of these “shortcuts” are listed here. They can shave a few minutes off your airport hassle.

8. If you’re traveling with a laptop, download your airline’s timetable. If you’re making connections, having this information on hand is invaluable for approaching a customer service agent and getting booked onto alternate routings.

9. If you have elite status, and your airport has an elite-access line for security, this is the time to use it. Even if you’re traveling on a different airline than the one you have elite status with, you may be able to use the elite line. (Terminal 2 at Chicago O’Hare is an example of this.) A lot of infrequent travelers are passing through America’s airports this week, and some will forget to take off their belt, remove some coins from their pockets, etc. The elite line has the seasoned veteran flyers, and it’s bound to move faster, even if it’s the same length as the general-admission line.

Safe travels!

(image)

Reader Diane writes in:

My family bought 3 roundtrip tickets on American Airlines […] with a connection through St. Louis, due to a cheap fare. Last week, my hubby got an e-mail of schedule changes. The changes are terrible, but it was a non-refundable fare. The flight now requires a 5:30 am departure and twice as long layovers each way through St. Louis. Looking for advice and/or direction that you might be able to give. Do we have any options with American Airlines or are we totally stuck?

Well, Diane, the options you have are limited. The American Airlines Conditions of Carriage statement, the contract which governs the ticket you purchase from them, contains this lovely provision (emphasis mine):

American will endeavor to carry you and your baggage with reasonable dispatch, but times shown in timetables or elsewhere are not guaranteed and form no part of this contract. American may, without notice, substitute alternate carriers or aircraft and, if necessary, may alter or omit stopping places shown on the ticket. Schedules are subject to change without notice. American is not responsible for or liable for failure to make connections, or to operate any flight according to schedule, or for a change to the schedule of any flight. Under no circumstances shall American be liable for any special, incidental or consequential damages arising from the foregoing.

Wow. I knew the airlines were absolving themselves of responsibility, but the degree to which American Airlines describes its own timetable as meaningless is amazing.

That said, the airline is known to be more flexible than that. American has traditionally allowed one itinerary change or a complete refund if your departure or arrival times changes by 90 minutes or more. It’s my understanding that such a refund would be considered “involuntary” and thus incur no change fees.

Without knowing what times your flights were originally scheduled for, it’s hard to say if you qualify for a free re-routing. But it’s worth a call. For now, I’ll assume your times changed more than 90 minutes, in which case you can request a reaccomodation, regardless of the fare you paid. Check the timetable online to see what flights might work better for you. Then call, say your flight times were changed, and ask to make a change. Make sure you’re not charged a fee.

If the times were changed less than 90 minutes, then you may not have any recourse.

Incidentally, these rules are more explicitly and publicly codified by other airlines. Both Continental and United, for example, publish their 90-minute rule.

Bottom line: If an airline changes its schedule after you buy the ticket, and the itinerary becomes problematic, it’s always worth calling to try to change it.

(image)

James Gilden takes on the subject of hotel companies’ “guaranteed lowest rates,” and how it’s often difficult, as a traveler, to enforce this rule. Companies promise you that their rates are the lowest, and that you can get a refund if you find a lower rate for the same room at the same property. But Gilden describes the travails of a customer who tried, at first in vain, to get Choice Hotels to honor their guarantee, after he found a lower rate elsewhere.

The company’s initial response is instructive: They replied that they were “unable to verify that the room offered at the lower rate is the same as the room you have booked.” In other words, was it a room with two beds, one king, etc.?

Falling back on this kind of mumbo-jumbo does a disservice to the company’s reputation and makes the guarantee itself seem silly. So how do you beat the system?

First, try to make sure you’re booking a specific room type that you can easily compare between websites for an apples-to-apples comparison. If you’ve got a reservation for a room with a king bed, you won’t be able to invoke the price guarantee if you find a lower price for a room with two double beds. The problem lies in the common description of hotel rooms, especially on some discounters’ sites, as “standard rooms” or “run-of-the house” rooms. Try to avoid booking these in the first place, since you never know what you’ll be stuck with.

Second, be persistent. If the company denies your request, escalate your request to a higher supervisor. Bring in the Better Business Bureau if you don’t get resolution. Consider alerting your credit card issuer as well, if you feel a credit is due, though this could be harder to manage.

Finally, vote with your wallet. If companies are failing to honor their guarantees, write to them and tell them you won’t be staying with them again.

And feel free to use the internet — like leaving comments or e-mail with this blog — to voice your frustrations.

Reader Dave S. writes in:

I read your “open letter” to Lufthansa with some interest. I’m also frustrated with Lufthansa, but for slightly different reasons. They keep deleting my seat assignments for a flight I’m taking in December. I am one of those people who carefully picks his seats in advance, and then obsessively looks up the seating chart every few weeks, and every time, the original assignment is cancelled. Sometimes the seats we chose are still blank (we have an aisle and a middle) but sometimes they put someone else in the aisle seat we reserved. I call them up and they tell me there’s nothing they can do. What am I doing wrong?

Dave, you’re not alone, and you’re not doing anything wrong. Just last month I heard some stories of people losing their seats repeatedly on Lufthansa.

Lufthansa may be worse than others, though I have no statistics to support that allegation, but it’s not alone, either. Most airlines offer seat reservations for longhaul routes, but won’t necessarily guarantee them, in a Seinfeld-ian way.

Some seat changes are understandable, especially if there is ever an equipment change. If the carrier swaps, say, an Airbus 340 for a Boeing 747, your seat assignments may be lost.

But you are right to try to pre-select and defend your seats. Smart seat selection is one of the easiest way to maximize your travel comfort, especially on long flights, so I advise readers to consult SeatGuru and SeatExpert for advice on choosing the best seat.

Then, stay on top of the airline. Some airlines let you view your seat assignments when you log in using your frequent flyer number. But to be sure, periodically run a search for your flights and look at the seatmap. (Try an agency like Orbitz or Expedia if the operating airline doesn’t make real-time seatmaps conveniently accessible.) If something looks suspicious, call and verify.

Not having a seat assignment can put you at a further disadvantage when you’re checking in: You’re stuck with the limited supply of seats that more proactive passengers have left you. Or even worse, you might be first in line to get involuntarily bumped off the flight, if the plane is overbooked and you’re without a seat.

Keep records of whom you spoke with if you made assignments on the phone, or print copies of reservations if changes are made online. If seats are deleted again, call their customer service number to complain. But there’s unfortunately no way to guarantee your seats aren’t taken away.

(Note: E-mail from readers is always welcome. Got a problem, a question, a complaint, or a compliment related to travel, for business or pleasure? Use the “contact” link at the top right of the screen and drop a line anytime.)

(image)

Reader AJ writes in. His question:

I would like to find an airfare search engine where I can put in an airport and see:

a) Where all the direct flights go and the prices for each.
b) specify “Europe” or “Asia” and see the best prices to countries in those regions.

Why you ask?
We frequently travel last minute, and frequently we do not care where we go, we just like to go. So if we have 5 days with nothing to do and want to go someplace, anyplace, in Europe it would be handy to see what the lowest price option is.

First off, I admire your flexibility, AJ. Way to go.

Your first criterion, finding only the nonstop flights from a particular departure point, is tough. Some search engines will let you specify nonstops only when you’re searching specific dates, but I can’t find a nonstop limitation on any of the broad, flexible searches I’m familiar with. (Other readers are invited to chime in with suggestions in comments!)

As for looking for the cheapest flight for ultra-flexible destinations, you’re in luck:
The two best options right now are offered by FareCompare and Mobissimo. Travelocity offers an option for domestic travel. ITA Software has a solution, too, but it requires more work and is not as flexible on dates. Here’s the breakdown:

- FareCompare offers a flexible destination search through their “Destination Deal Maps” in the middle of the page. Click on the continent you want, and a list of fares will appear. Clicking on a fare shows you the dates eligible for the fare. Pick a date, then an airline, and the system checks seat availability. FareCompare doesn’t sell tickets, so you’re directed to one of the major online agencies to close the deal.

- Airfare aggregator Mobissimo also offers a search like this, bizarrely located in the “activity search” tab. After selecting your departure point, you can select the desired continent from the pulldown. It’s odd to see “Europe” or “Africa/Middle East” listed as an “activity” right alongside “beaches,” “gambling,” or “opera houses.” But hey, the search works. Like FareCompare, Mobissimo doesn’t sell tickets, but directs you to the seller.

- Both FareCompare and Mobissimo effectively mirror Travelocity’s Dream Maps in format. But Travelocity recently neutered this tool for international travel searches. It still works well for domestic searches, and the site sells tickets directly. (The flexible international search was taken down because the fares didn’t include the fuel surcharges. See here for an explanation.)

- One final idea would be to use ITA Software’s search. ITA’s search requires you to input destinations, but it allows you to string a number of options together. For example, you could enter your departure city, then add a boatload of contending city names or codes to the destination field in the form. Say you’re interested in going to Europe, you could enter something like “ams;fra;par;lhr;dub;mad;cph;ath;rom” — a string of European cities’ airport codes, separated by semicolons. Then widen the destination search by using the pulldown menu to include any airport within 300 miles. Then click “more options” and uncheck “allow airport changes,” to make sure you arrive and depart the same city. That will pull in a LOT of destinations for the dates you want. ITA doesn’t sell tickets, and doesn’t point you to a seller — take your pick.

tags: travel | low fares | airfare search

The law, on your side:

Florida v. Wyndham et al.
Florida’s attorney general successfully prosecuted a case against Wyndham hotels for failing to disclose mandatory fees (such as resort fees, energy surcharges, etc.). The decision against the chain means that Wyndham hotels in Florida need to state the total price of a room at the time of booking. This includes price quotations on third-party travel sites. (via Elliott)

This is major. Mandatory fees are a big complaint against hotels, and in some parts of the country (like Palm Springs) the practice is rampant. Like airlines that impose fuel surcharges to make the base fare seem cheaper, resort fees should die a quick but painful death.

The court’s decision is an important step in that direction. For starters, Wyndham has agreed to change its business practices nationwide, and not just in Florida. (Aside: I wonder how this affects bookings through opaque sites like Priceline, where you sometimes get whacked with resort fees despite paying for your room up front…) Second, the case sets a legal precedent for other plaintiffs, so other chains are on notice to change their pricing or face a suit.

Until other hotels DO move to total pricing, the decision puts Wyndham at a disadvantage in side-by-side comparisons with other chains that DON’T quote total prices. Expect Wyndham, recently gone public on the NYSE, to push for total pricing in the industry, now that it lost its case. Other firms, and other states’ regulators, should heed the call.

British regulators targeting travel insurance
Travel insurance is a tricky game, both for medical insurance or trip cancellation/interruption coverage. Insurance companies are very adept at selling you the policy, but then finding a way to avoid payouts. Now the UK’s Treasury is investigating lazy or unscrupulous agents who sell these policies without disclosing the real terms and conditions.

Travel insurance is big business in the US as well, with about a third of travelers opting to buy in. For many, the coverage may be redundant, already covered by their homeowner policy, their medical coverage, or even their credit card. (For example, I’ve never purchased insurance of any kind, but my credit card’s automatic insurance covered the extra expenses I incurred — hotel, meals, transportation, etc. — when a tropical storm delayed my return home Barbados a few years ago.)

Three suggestions: Check your existing policies and credit cards to see if you are already covered. Only consider insurance for really big ticket items. And read the fine print of any policy you do actually consider buying, to make sure the thing you’re trying to insure isn’t excluded (e.g., cancellation due to hurricane evacuation, pre-existing medical conditions, etc.)

(image: &y)
tags: travel | hotels | Wyndham Worldwide Corp. | regulation | resort fees

Yesterday, the good folks at the Consumerist posted a helpful list of tips on actually cashing in your frequent flyer miles. (Yours truly was consulted and quoted.)

A few extra bonus-round suggestions, caveats, and clarifications for people looking to maximize their odds of using their miles:

1) Use miles for expensive tickets
Don’t waste your miles on tickets you can buy for dirt cheap. Check the cash fare first. Flying from Boston to LaGuardia? Chicago to Philadelphia? Cash should be fine. Flying from Charlotte to Perth, Australia? Salt Lake City to Ushuaia, Argentina? Now you’re talkin’. Use your miles for something really worthwhile, that you might not spend the money on otherwise. International filghts, ideally in business or first class, for example. If you can’t swing that, then still try to get the most value out of the miles. See Miles or Buy for a tutorial on maxing out your mileage value.

2) Another upside to the phone: Holding seats
The airlines’ award ticket web pages let you book seats, sure, but they generally don’t let you put them on hold. If you call, you can have the seats held for you while you look into hotels, etc., so you can tinker with your plans a little. The hold usually lasts 72 hours.

3) Persistence pays off: Keep calling
While the 331st day and four week rules of award ticket availability are excellent guideposts, seat availability is dynamic, and you never know when seats might open up. If they don’t have seats when you call on Monday, they may have them on Thursday — say, a person who cancelled seats, or whose hold expired. Call back every few days.

4) Downside of the 331 day rule
Let’s say you call 11 months before your desired departure day, and you snag seats for the outbound. Unless you’re coming back the same day, your return ticket won’t be available for booking yet. Again, this is where the hold function is useful.

5) Downside of the four-week rule
Last-minute seats can pop up, but much like #4, you might find outbound flights but no returns, because the return isn’t last-minute enough. Plus, some airlines (notably American, though United is joining them soon) charge last-minute redemption fees, which are a pure, unadulterated way to screw the consumer.

6) Not all airlines suck equally
Some airlines (cough, Continental, cough) are notorious for making it hard to redeem your miles. Others are better (American generally gets good marks). So if you have a hard time cashing in miles on one airline, you might want to rethink your loyalty, if you have any.

7) Not all airline websites suck equally
Some airline websites will tell you that your desired date is sold out, but they’ll show you availability within a couple days. Continental and United come to mind. Others, such as Air Canada, include some (if not all) partner airline options online, but this is still not as reliable as picking up the phone.

8 ) ITA: Best engine for timetable searches
If you want to know who’s flying where, it’s hard to beat ITA Software’s beta public website. (Click “login as guest.”) ITA most famously powers Orbitz, but Orbitz strips out a lot of the cool functions. Once you’ve run the search, you can build an itinerary segment-by-segment (click “choose flights” at the top of the results page).

And good luck…

tags: travel | frequent flyer miles

Reader Anya writes in:

Hi, I’ve got some miles in my Delta and Continental accounts, but not enough for an award. Is there any way to combine these miles into my American Airlines account so I can have enough for a free ticket?

There are ways of converting miles from one airline to another, but not just transferring them directly, like you might move money from savings to checking. Delta, for example, is notorious for being the Roach Motel of mileage programs. Miles transfer in, they don’t transfer out.

You will almost always end up with fewer miles than you started. Frequent flyer accounts are proprietary currencies owned by the airlines that issue them. Any transfers or conversions are at their discretion.

There are two potential methods of moving miles:

1) Convert points from one account to another… to another…
Sometimes, you can move points from airlines to hotels or other services, and then back to an airline. Airline to airline is harder without an intermediate stop. You’ll have to open a number of other accounts, and there’s a time lag as your points move from program to program. Your options generally stink, because you lose a lot of value. 5000 Continental miles can be transferred to Amtrak, then transferred again to Hilton HHonors, and finally transferred to American Airlines. What’s left? 1500 miles. You lost 70% of the miles, but maybe that’s still worth it to you. If you’re looking for options, there’s a calculator and planner at Webflyer.com that offers conversion alternatives.

2) Points.com
Points.com recently merged with Milepoint.com. The combined firm exists to capitalize on people like you, Anya, whose mileage balances don’t add up to a ticket. Not every airline participates here, either, and (even better) they don’t let you know how what the conversion rates are until you’ve signed up AND registered your accounts with them. Then they’ll bombard you with junk mail on a nearly daily basis.

Neither option is particularly appealing, but if you’re desperate enough for that free ticket, maybe one will work for you.

(image)

Tough day in the mosh pit?
Leave the mud people behind and retire to your tent room. Travelodge’s UK division is renting “Travelpods” — tents equipped with real beds, running water, and somewhat greater comfort — at European music festivals. And no slamming doors.

Waiting for a reply to your e-mail?
US Airways is so backlogged with customer service complaints… (”How backlogged are they?…”) They’re SO backlogged, they’re hiring dozens of temporary workers, at $8.50 an hour, to pick up the slack. (Sorry, there’s no attempt at humor in the answer, though some flyers may find the solution a joke.) Hey, at least they’re trying. …Unlike Technorati, the blog indexing service, who should try hiring some of those folks, too. They haven’t indexed or ranked this site in over a month, and my e-mails to tech support have gone unanswered. Grrr. The fact that I’m not alone is little consolation. If anyone has any bright ideas on how to escalate “[Support] Link count problem #36661,” I’m all ears. (sorry for the rant)

Renting a car in Croatia?
Be careful not to damage the vehicle. The rental car companies are NOT your problem. The Croatian government is: Even if no one is hurt, if no other cars are involved, and if the scrape is really minor, you’ll be required to head to court.

Traveling to France?
Dr. Vino, freshly back from a trip to Gaul, has some tips to make your trip a little smoother. Included: shortest American Airlines check-in line at CDG.

Dream of emulating CNN’s Candy Crowley?
The luxurious life of a CNN campaign reporter includes putting toothpaste on your toothbrush and unwrapping hotel soap before going to bed, to maximize the early morning jump-start. Sweet. That’s why Candy Crowley’s train runs on time. Katie Couric, on the other hand…

tags: travel | Technorati is broken

Travelocity has disabled its flexible search function for international destinations. According to SmarterTravel.com, the online agency pulled the option because the U.S. Department of Transportation argued that the existing search did not offer sufficient price transparency. The culprit: fuel surcharges.

Indeed, this was my own pet peeve with Travelocity’s flexible search. You start with a great fare to Paris and when you finish clicking, your fare went up $300 — $100 in taxes (expected) and $200 in fuel surcharges (suprise!). Often, Travelocity would come back with a message like “We found a lower fare for you than the one you selected.”

(The change also affects the international component of Travelocity’s Dream Maps. Interestingly, you can still see fares to international locations posted on the maps, but you can’t go the next step to find airlines or book them.)

I part company with SmarterTravel’s blame game: I actually think the DOT was right in pressuring Travelocity to offer a more transparent fare search. The existing product was misleading. It’s Travelocity’s fault for not configuring their fare search product in a way that includes surcharges. Fuel charges are a specific, identifiable line item in building a fare. Why can’t it be included in a search?

But for those who loved that flexible international search, now gone, what are the alternatives? Here are my picks, ranked in terms of similarity to Travelocity’s defunct search.

1) Zuji
Outsource! Zuji is Travelocity’s Singapore-based subsidiary, and it looks and feels much like the American site. And guess what: the international flexible date search is still there. The site is in English, and results are in US dollars. (If you’re based in the US, choose “other” for a country on the first page.) Some airlines are missing (but they were missing from the flex search on the US site in the last few months, too). Suggestion: Run your search on Zuji, then actually book the specific flights you find on Travelocity or elsewhere. Booking on Zuji may work, but you’ll incur higher booking fees plus extra charges for using a credit card overseas.

(Update July 29: A reader e-mail asks about Zuji and Dream Maps (referenced above). I can’t find a Dream Maps equivalent on Zuji. However, since Dream Maps will still show base fares (for now), but won’t let you click through to see airlines or schedules, here’s my advice: Use Dream Maps to find a good base fare in your desired region. If you see one, do a flexible date search on Zuji for that particular destination.)

2) FareCompare
On the plus side, FareCompare’s search acts much like Travelocity, except it’s organized by fare, not by airline. The downsides: It doesn’t show total prices (will it be targeted by the DOT next?). It also doesn’t let you book directly, but refers you to the big online agencies, where the price is often very different from what FareCompare quoted. Finally, it’s missing a number of smaller (but still mainline) international destinations.

3) ITA
The engine behind Orbitz, Continental, and others, allows you to search for fares to just about anywhere in the world, and it shows final prices including all taxes. It also finds codeshares and mixed-airline itineraries that are often good values. Its “month-long search” isn’t as broad a search as Travelocity’s, especially because you need to specify the length of your stay within narrow ranges, but it’s worth checking. But … it won’t let you book anything. You’ll need to go to an airline website, online agency, or traditional travel agent to buy the ticket.

4) Kayak
Kayak allows flexible search to international destinations, but only within 3 days of your specific dates. Some reliability problems here, too, for international fares that are quoted well below what the target sites actually charge. It’s not the free-for-all price-first dates-later approach of Travelocity (or Zuji) but it’s an option to consider.