Author Archives: imblacknitravel

About imblacknitravel

Greg Gross is a New Orleans native. Southern California resident. Award-winning journalist. Lifelong writer, traveler, dreamer. you can never be too rich, too thin or have too many visa stamps in your passport.

AMTRAK: How to lose friends and discourage people

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America’s underfunded national railroad needs all the goodwill it can get. Crazy computerized routing is not the way to get it.

So I’m plotting a big trip in mid-June to the Deep South — Atlanta and New Orleans — and looking for ways to save money, when I get a flash of inspiration.

Why not make the return trip by train?

Specifically, a one-way ride from the NOLA back to Southern California on the Sunset Limited.

When I was five, I traveled with my mother from New Orleans to Los Angeles via the Sunset Limited, back when rail travel in the United States was nearing the end of its heyday.

It was her first trip to California. It was my first big trip anywhere. That was the trip that kindled my life-long love of travel — and my life-long love of trains.

Now, I could re-live those childhood days, and see how today’s Sunset Limited compared with the one that still flies in my memory across the American Southwest.

I eagerly logged onto the Amtrak reservation site on the Web, entered my travel information and waited to see what I could get.

What I got was a route that eventually brought me back to California aboard three different trains, not one of which was the Sunset Limited:

  • New Orleans to Washington DC aboard the Crescent.
  • Washington DC to Chicago aboard the Capitol Limited.
  • Chicago to Los Angeles aboard the Southwest Chief.

The Amtrak reservation page gave me three different prices for the same routing.

Only after scrolling down more than half the page of reservations did I come to the routing specifically for the Sunset Limited — and when I did, I found that it was cheaper to fly, anyway.

I’d already “told” the Amtrak reservation computer that I was looking for a one-way trip west from Louisiana to California. Why then would it first show me three routings going east and then north in a great transcontinental circle that would take five days instead of the Sunset Limited’s two?

Am I the only one who thinks this is nuts? Who’s programming Amtrak’s reservation system these days, Elmer Fudd?

I may be wrong, but I highly doubt that this kind of absurdity would happen while making a one-way reservation for the TGV in France or the Shinkansen in Japan, or even on one of China’s high-speed trains.

From its inception, Amtrak has had to fight for its existence, bowing and begging for funds from a Congress that has been bent on doing away with the service almost from the day it was founded. It needs all the friends it can get, both among the traveling public and on Capitol Hill.

This is not the way to get them.

ZIMBABWE WEEK: “The Cloud that Thunders”

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SECOND IN A SERIES

Victoria Falls, Zambia | © Francois Etienne Du Plessis/Dreamstime.com

Zimbabwe’s greatest natural attraction also happens to be arguably the world’s greatest waterfall.

When the Africa Travel Association convenes its annual congress this Friday in Zimbabwe, it will be located outside perhaps the greatest waterfall in the world, Victoria Falls.

The venue was not a casual choice.

Victoria Falls is more than a mile wide. Combined with its height of more than 350 feet, it produces the largest single sheet of falling water anywhere on Earth.

The beauty doesn’t stop once the Zambezi pours over the edge. The water is merely descending into the first of five gorges. It also is the hub that connects a half-dozen of Zimbabwe’s 11 national parks.

Victoria Falls is so big, one country isn’t enough to hold it. Zimbabwe actually shares the falls with neighboring Zambia. It is the dominant feature along the great Zambezi River in southern Africa, a natural wonder in its own right.

Small wonder that this was the first-ever destination on CBS’ The Amazing Race.

The Scottish explorer David Livingstone “discovered” the falls as far as the Western world is concerned; he was the one who named it after Queen Victoria. However, archeologists have found artifacts showing that humans had been there since the Stone Age, and maybe earlier.

Those first local inhabitants had their own more descriptive — and for my money, more accurate — name for the falls:

“Mosi-oa-Tunya.”

The cloud that thunders.

Foreign and local tourists have been coming here since the early 1900s. Periodic episodes of political strife and civil war sometimes pushed down the numbers dramatically, but could never completely stop the flow of people.

Mother Nature at her most powerful always pulls a crowd.

Those people who prefer to do rather than just see have got lots of options — horseback riding, bungee jumping, whitewater rafting, kayaking. I’m told you can also do some pretty serious sport fishing in the Zambezi.

If all you want is to soak in some of the world’s most spectacular scenery, you can cruise the river or take a scenic flight over the falls itself.

But maybe one of the best things you can do while at Victoria Falls is get a chance to meet and interact with the Zimbabwean people, who go to the falls as sightseers, just as you would. Indeed, more locals visit the falls than foreigners, something not typical of many of Africa’s attractions.

As far as accommodations go, Victoria Falls is one of the more highly developed tourist attractions in all of Africa, which can be both a blessing and a curse. At one point, the development was so out of hand that the United Nations was seriously considering revoking its status as a World Heritage Site.

Moreover, poachers, mostly driven by economic hardship, plague the surrounding national parks. The falls has its own anti-poaching patrol.

None of that, however, should stop you from traveling to see one of the most spectacular water shows in the world.

IF YOU GO
You’ve got multiple options for getting to Victoria Falls:

At this time, there are no direct flights from the United States to any point in Zimbabwe. Once in the country, you can fly to Victoria Falls via the national airline, Air Zimbabwe, as well as British Airways and South African Airways. However, the flights can be hideously expensive.

You might be better off financially seeking a package tour to the falls out of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana or Zambia.

For railfans, South Africa has two luxury trains that include stops at the falls, Rovos Rail and the Shongololo Express. There’s also a 1920s steam train that makes the run to Victoria Falls from the city of Bulawayo.

Bus transportation also is available from Harare and Bulawayo.

The falls also is home to the century-old and world-class Victoria Falls Hotel, a colonial-era showpiece, with prices to match. Many more economical tour packages, including stays at lodges near or overlooking the falls, are available.

Timing your visit may be the tricky bit.

Between January and April, the water volume going over the falls is at its height, but that thundering cloud of which the native peoples first spoke may be so thick that you can’t see much. Come September and October, you can see everything clearly, but the water flow is down to a comparative trickle, especially on the Zambian side of the falls.

Around October and November, Zimbabwe gets the lion’s share of the Zambezi waters, so if you’ve come for the spectacular, you’re better off then.

NEXT: A steady stream of wonders

ALSO CHECK OUT:
ZIMBABWE WEEK on IBIT
ZIMBABWE: Revealing “a World of Wonders”

Edited by P.A.Rice

AIRLINES: M is for merger

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American Airlines bows to the inevitable. The only remaining questions are when and with which of its rivals will the airline merge, and what will it mean for the traveling public?

After months of living in corporate denial, the owners of American Airlines finally are using the M-word.

AMR Corp., American’s parent company, announced last week that it would look at options for a merger while the airline goes through Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

It’s as if King Canute had waited until he was neck-deep in water to admit that his command to stop the incoming tide may need to be tweaked a little bit.

American’s high tide is one of red ink, bad luck and bad decisions. In the last decade, the airline has:

  • lost enough money to equal the gross domestic product of several small developing countries.
  • maintained a fleet of older, gas-guzzling aircraft in the face of sky-high fuel costs.
  • alienated its labor unions to the point that they cut their own back-door deal with a rival airline.

Does that sound to you like an airline in a position to dictate terms to anybody, on anything?

Through it all, however, the folks who run American have steadfastly insisted that when the airline emerges from Chapter 11, it will still be a “stand-alone” airline.

A stand-alone airline with fewer flights, fewer routes, fewer planes…and at least 13,000 fewer employees.

Small wonder, then, that when US Airways quietly went to American’s three unions with a merger plan that promised to save a lot of those 13,000 jobs, the unions came on board faster than passengers with seats in First Class.

The fact that those same unions hold a sizable chunk of American’s unsecured debt made that deal a lot more than symbolic.

In turn, US Air has made general statements about maintaining the American Airlines brand in any future merger, much in the same way that Southwest Airlines has maintained the AirTran identity after buying up that airline.

In my admittedly casual observation of the corporate world, the only thing that seems to be truly consistent is that promises are worth the paper they’re printed on — and not much else.

To put it another way: Being the buyer gives you the right to change your mind.

You can read more about American’s announcement in this New York Times story here.

As you’ll see in the Times story, none of these developments absolutely guarantees a merger. What it does mean is that AMR has finally decided to acknowledge the proverbial handwriting on the wall, which the rest of the airline industry has been reading for the last couple of years.

The one thing that no one can say right now is what an American Airlines merger with US Air — or anyone else, for that matter — would mean for the traveling public. Would some big cities have fewer American Airlines flights? Would other locales no longer see American at all? What would happen to our frequent-flier miles?

The problem with these airline mergers, as another Times writer recently pointed out, is that the voice of the traveling consumer goes largely unheard through the whole process. The corporate powers do what they do, the federal government nods in approval, and you and I get to swallow whatever comes out.

Dont expect anything different this time around, either.

ALSO CHECK OUT:
AIRLINES: US Air moves on American
AIRLINES: The end of American?

ZIMBABWE WEEK on IBIT

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FIRST IN A SERIES

We kick off the biggest annual event in African tourism with a week-long look at a country making a major comeback on the world travel scene — Zimbabwe.

Next Friday, the Africa Travel Association will convene its annual congress at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Government tourism ministers, private tourism organizers and tour providers from across the Mother Continent will be there.

Every year, this five-day congress is the single most important event for African tourism held on the continent itself, and 2012 figures to be no exception.

But even more than that, this year’s congress represents the re-emergence of Zimbabwe as a major travel destination in Africa, a journey that began when Zimbabwe renewed its ATA membership last summer.

So to celebrate, this week is going to be ZIMBABWE WEEK on “I’m Black and I Travel.”

Each day this week, IBIT will show you one of the reasons why Zimbabwe needs to be on your African travel radar, including attractions that have nothing to do with wildlife.

Don’t get it twisted. Zimbabwe is one of Africa’s great havens of flora and fauna, which make it an ideal safari destination. But there is so much more to Africa than just safaris.

So this week, IBIT will give you a peek at some of what Zimbabwe has to offer in both natural and urban attractions. And believe me, it’s only a peek, only a taste. If we were to get encyclopedic about this, it would take a lot longer than a week.

We’ll be looking at the country’s abundant cultural life, its role in African history, and get into some of the nuts and bolts of creating your own Zimbabwean visit.

So come with IBIT on a week-long journey to the land known as the “World of Wonders.” Zimbabwe.

Edited by P.A.Rice

Railcruising

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New Zealand devises a novel way to put unused railroad tracks back to work for the sake of tourism. Could this be the newest Next Big Thing?

Take some long-abandoned railroad tracks through a beautiful stretch of public land. Create mini-carriages carrying no more than four people at a time and send them down the line at intervals for a leisurely, scenic and self-conducted run of 12 miles or so. What do you get?

New life for old rail lines, and a new kind of rail-based tourism.

This is what’s being done today by an outfit that calls itself Rail Riders Ltd in New Zealand. They call it “railcruising.”

You can get more details about this at their Railcruising.com site.

When I stumbled upon this yesterday — on a French news Web site, of all things — the railfan in me was instantly intrigued.

This is a concept that you could apply virtually in any country in the world with a lot of unused rail lines — and a couple of places already are trying it.

France, which has some of Europe’s most scenic countryside and a lot of unused track, offers a little excursion called Vélo-Rail, featuring hybrid rail vehicles that you can pedal like a bicycle and carry up to five people at a time. Two pedal; the other three sit back and enjoy the ride.

I might’ve known the French would be out in front on something like this; they’ve been doing it since the late 1990s.

Across the English Channel, something very similar may soon be making its debut in North Wales, if it hasn’t already.

Where the New Zealanders seem to have taken a jump ahead is with their vehicles, which are motorized gasoline/electric-powered hybrids. Also, unlike the railbikes, the Railcruising hybrids are semi-enclosed, offering at least some protection from surprise storms.

But whether pedal-powered or propelled by hybrid technology, the idea is fascinating.

Indeed, this is a concept that could very quickly migrate around the globe, since there are few countries, if any, that don’t have abandoned trackage running through some spectacular bits of country.

The United States alone has an estimated 80,000 miles of abandoned rail lines. The United Kingdom has about 4,000 miles’ worth. Canada. Latin America. Asia. Africa. The possibilities are virtually endless.

We could be looking at the Next Big Thing in rail tourism.

If nothing else, it could throw an interesting curveball at the Rails to Trails Conservancy, which has been at work for years pulling up abandoned rail lines in the United States to convert the unused rights-of-way into a network of hiking and cycling trails.

It occurs to me, though, that this idea could be applied to more than just tourism or recreation. Could it not be applied to urban transportation, as well?

Engineers and designers have been talking for years about developing this kind of pod-based, on-demand rail transportation for major cities. They call it PRT, Personal Rapid Transit. But all the PRT concepts I saw in the past seemed to presume construction of new lines, be they conventional tracks, monorails or something else.

Why not apply the railcruising concept to unused rail lines within major cities as a way to get around? Something to think about, at least.

Meanwhile in New Zealand, the Kiwis are blazing a new kind of trail with their little hybrids. Don’t be surprised if this idea catches on.

CYCLING: Spinning our wheels

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touring cyclists

©Dmitry Naumov | Dreamstime.com

May is National Bike Month in the United States, and across the country, there are signs that America is finally starting to “get it” when it comes to bicycling.

Am I the only one who gets mildly annoyed at the steady stream of commemorative days, weeks and months, all begging for a sliver of our precious attention span? National This Week, National That Month.

Do you ever find yourself wishing for a National Nothing Month?

That’s how it is for me, too, with two exceptions. The first is Black History Month, which comes around every February and is far older than most folks suspect. The other is going on now.

National Bike Month.

It’s sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists, which is trying to get more American kids riding bikes to school and more of their parents riding to work.

Its motto: “Get Up & Ride!”

Cycling is wonderful fun, great exercise — and as folks are gradually learning, a practical means of transportation. It also works wonders for morale. I smile more on my bike than any other time (except when my beloved Oakland Raiders are winning).

So in the spirit of “Get Up & Ride!,” let me spend a few pixels here on cycling and cyclists.

BLACK and ROLLING
Black Americans are increasingly getting into bicycling. Some for exercise, some out of economic necessity, the most miniscule handful for sport.

In all those categories, though, our numbers are growing.

From the Major Taylor cycling clubs around the United States to grassroots cycling organizations, like Richmond Spokes and Red Bike and Green in the San Francisco Bay area, black Americans are taking their place on America’s roads.

Then, there’s the NBC that’s a network, but not on television. That would be the National Brotherhood of Cyclists, with its own chain of affiliated black cycling clubs around the country.

Go ahead and cross “cycling” off that list of things that “black folks don’t do.”

While you still have that pen in hand, circle the dates Aug. 8-12. That’s the when NBC will be holding its annual convention in Nashville, TN.

BYOB…Bring Your Own Bike.

Even in 2012, you won’t see many of “us” in road or track race cycling. But if you look, you will see a sprinkling of us.

Back in the day, it was Nelson Vails, who looks as if he could still hammer a banked track into submission. These days, it’s guys like Rahsaan Bahati, Justin Williams and Erik Saunders.

None of these guys may be household names like, say, Lance Armstrong. But Armstrong knows who they are.

Especially after Bahati and Saunders smoked him in a race in Ojai, CA back in 2005.

TWO-WHEELED STATION WAGONS
Much of the American public — maybe too much of it — still thinks of bicycles as toys. Cheap Walmart-bought toy bikes for their kids. State-of-the-art racing toys for adults — feather-light, technically sophisticated and wildly overpriced.

Little by little, however, people are starting to realize that these are practical machines that can transport not only a person, but a fair amount of goods.

That point was drilled home to me a few days ago when I encountered, for the first time, a cargo bike at my suburban San Diego post office.

Cargo bikes are exactly what their name implies, specifically designed to safely haul big loads. The one I saw at my post office had a frame elongated at the back, with double saddlebags.

It looked very similar to the bike above, except that it also was sporting a wide, flat cargo rack of tubular steel over the front wheel. It looked as if it could’ve easily accommodated a small microwave oven.

To me, it looked like an old-fashioned station wagon on two wheels. I’d seen bikes towing a trailer before, even commercial tricycles with humongous baskets over the two front wheels, but this was like nothing I’d ever seen on asphalt.

I was absolutely blown away by it, too stunned even to chase down the rider and ask him about his remarkable machine.

You can bet I won’t make that mistake again.

As US gas prices continue their painful climb toward $5 a gallon and perhaps more, I fully expect to see a lot more bikes like this in American cities.

-0-

So this is a good month to think about digging that bike of yours out of that corner of the garage where it’s been buried, dusting off the cobwebs — from both the bike and yourself — getting yourself a bike helmet…and getting out there.

AIRLINES: The travelers’ voice

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When airlines merge, who represents your interests? It’s time for the traveling consumer to have a seat at that table.

Not long after I wrote about some of the back-door maneuvering by US Airways to force a merger with American Airlines, my good friend and editor, P.A. Rice, pointed me to a financial column by Ron Lieber of the New York Times.

In it, he posed a simple question: When airlines merge, should you and I, the customers, have at least a voice, if not a say, in what happens?

Mr. Lieber spent 1,400 words saying what I will say in two: Damn right.

You can read the Lieber column here.

Much of the column is an intricately — and in some ways, excruciatingly — detailed examination of the ins and outs of airline mergers and bankruptcy protection, which American is now seeking. “Inside baseball” stuff, as a former editor of mine used to call it.

But that doesn’t mean Mr. Lieber has missed the mark. On the contrary, he is entirely on-point.

When airlines go into bankruptcy proceedings, the bankruptcy court forms a committee of creditors, representing people with a vested interest in the airline’s fate. Large companies to whom it owes money, the unions, with whom it holds labor contracts — and which, in the case of American, hold a sizable amount of its bond debt.

And naturally, American itself, its management, its stockholders, are represented throughout this whole process.

What about the traveling consumer, the man or woman who’s been flying with American for years, in some cases, decades? The loyal customer who has spent thousands of dollars steadfastly earning frequent-flier miles year after year. The person without whom none of these airlines would even exist.

Who represents you?

Routes get reorganized, shrunk. Airports find their number of flights reduced or even eliminated. Through no fault of your own, you lose your miles. And your input into all this is zilch. Everything is presented to you as a fait accompli.

Basically, the consumer is treated like a mushroom — kept in the dark and fed on horse dung.

As the people whose money makes it possible for these businesses to be in business, shouldn’t you at least be heard on some of this stuff?

Mr. Lieber’s answer is a 1,400-word “yes.” Take a look at his column and see if you agree.

ALSO CHECK OUT:
US Air moves on American
AIRLINES: Bailing out
AIRLINES: The end of American?

AIRLINES: Delta rolls its own

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Delta is taking a novel approach to cutting its fuel costs. The airline is going to produce its own fuel in its own refinery. For sheer corporate swagger, you can’t beat it.

Show me an airline in the United States and I’ll show you a bunch of executives ready to jump out of an office window over the price of fueling their airplanes.

Yeah, I know, the airlines only pay half per gallon of what you and I pay at the pump. But you and I aren’t burning through billions — that’s right, billions — of gallons of fuel every year.

Fuel costs now take a bigger bite out of airline profits than wages and benefits. And the airlines all are desperate to do something about it, from replacing older airplanes and their gas-guzzling engines to tacking on one absurd add-on passenger fee after another.

Over in Europe, Ryanair is giving passengers thinner magazines to read on board and putting fewer ice cubes in their drinks. That’s how ridiculous things have become.

Comes now Delta Air Lines with a stunningly different approach. The company is buying its own oil refinery.

The first time I heard that Delta’s corporate heads in Atlanta were thinking about this, I thought it was a joke. It isn’t. By year’s end, Delta will be rolling its own.

Fuel trucks, that is.

This would be roughly equivalent to trucking companies buying up a chain of gas stations, or Amtrak buying a steel mill to lay down its own rails (which, in Amtrak’s case, might not be a bad idea).

You can find more details on this highly unconventional move in this Associated Press story via Yahoo! here.

For sheer corporate swagger, you’d have a hard time topping this one. Or you could take the glass-is-half-empty view and say that Delta is desperate. Either way, the airline is coloring way outside the lines.

Conventional wisdom says “stick to what you know.” Any time a business jumps with both feet into a venture totally outside its area of expertise, it’s taking a frightful risk.

Some of us are old enough to remember when PSA, the once highly successful Pacific Southwest Airlines, decided to branch off into the hotel business, one of several ill-advised moves that contributed to its demise.

And let’s be real: Delta knows as much about refining crude oil as I know about flying jumbo jets.

But if they hire the right people to run it, who knows?

Only time will tell whether this approach actually makes deep cuts into Delta’s fuel bill, but you can bet the rent that every one of its airline competitors will be watching with keen interest.

And if it shows any sign of making Delta seriously more profitable, we could see an Oklahoma-style land rush on oil refineries, courtesy of the airline industry.

What would really be cool would be for Delta to save so much money on fuel that it could afford to drop their airfares, and still be profitable.

Yeah, I know…in my dreams, right?

Whether this gambit ultimately succeeds or fails, you have to give props to Delta for thinking outside the box — or in this case, off the tarmac.

VISAS: The traveler’s hall pass

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Obtaining visas for international travel can be more of a pain than getting a passport, and you’ll do it a lot more often. Luckily, there are folks who will help you — for a fee, naturally.

The most important travel document you’ll ever own is your passport. Number Two may well be those visa stamps imprinted in it.

A visa is essentially your hall pass to enter someone else’s country, so it stands to reason that governments would be careful in issuing them, especially in a post-9/11 world. Still, obtaining visas in advance of a trip can be a time-consuming, expensive headache, especially when dealing directly with foreign embassies.

I’ve heard some real horror stories from travelers trying to obtain simple tourist visas.

There are passport agencies, usually government offices, that can help you get your passport within a matter of several weeks — or for an extra charge, even faster. There also are privately-run passport expediters which, for an additional fee, can get your passport for you in a week or even less.

But you only have to go through the hassle of obtaining a new passport every ten years. You could need two, three or more visas in a single year. Wouldn’t it be great if there were services to help you cut through the aggravation of acquiring a visa?

Well, I just discovered that there are. They’re known as visa service agencies, and there are scores of them, if not hundreds, across the United States. A few examples include:

(NOTE: I pulled these outfits at random as examples of what’s available. Their listing here in no way represents an endorsement by IBIT.)

Some agencies provide visas for virtually any country requiring one from US visitors. Others specialize in certain countries or regions of the world. Several offer to expedite your passport, as well as visas, some in as little as 24 hours.

They may offer other services, too, such as notary public and/or power of attorney services to authenticate documents for legal use in other countries. They also may translate your legal documents from English into other languages.

A few things to bear in mind:

  1. Due diligence is the watchword here. Check out these agencies with the Better Business Bureau, travel trade organizations with codes of ethics, such as the American Society of Travel Agents, the US Tour Operators Association, the Global Business Travel Association, and anyone else you can think of. You are entrusting important personal documents to the care of strangers, so it behooves you to make sure that the agency itself is trustworthy.
  2. Being private, for-profit enterprises, the visa service agencies will be charging you a fee on top of what the government charges for the visa itself. The faster the service, the higher the fee.
  3. Each agency has its own way of doing things. Once you’ve chosen an agency to help you with your visa, make yourself familiar with their procedures beforehand, preferably by talking to a live human being who can explain the steps.
  4. In terms of the documentation required, applying for a visa is almost identical to applying for a passport. You’ll need proof of identity, proof of citizenship, and a couple of passport-sized photos of yourself.
  5. Unless there’s an agency in your town, you will have to mail the agency your passport or other required personal documents for processing. This makes some folks nervous but there’s no way around it — and in truth, passports move this way all the time, almost without incident.

One last thing, which could end up saving you money as well as time.

If you’re taking a package tour to a country that requires a visa, your tour providers may offer to obtain your visa for you (for a fee, of course). Check with a visa service agency to see if they can do it cheaper.

Bear in mind that you’ll have to pay the agency fee, the mailing costs and the visa application fee charged by the country you plan to visit. Even so, if you act early enough, you just might find that going through the agency for your visa is cheaper than the tour operator.

Remember too that he who hesitates pays more. There may be emergencies that suddenly crop up that leave you no choice, but that’s not most of us, most of the time. Don’t let procrastination cost you money that you could’ve brought with you on your trip.

THE ENTRY FEE AMBUSH
Even with your prepaid visa affixed to your passport, you still may have to crack open your wallet one more time before being admitted into the country you want to visit.

Many countries around the world charge entry fees just to enter the airport as a foreign visitor. These fees can range from a few bucks to well in access of $100 — per person.

It’s retaliation, and it has everything to do with 9/11.

After the World Trade Center attacks, the US government needed ways to fund its newly created Department of Homeland Security. One was to start charging entry fees to a wide range of foreign visitors, most of them from countries with no history of terrorism against the United States.

Most of the countries whose citizens were stung by these new fees answered with entry fees of their own, strictly for Americans. And like seemingly everything else in life, they have been creeping upward ever since.

Edited by P.A. Rice

AIRFARE ALERT: Discounts gone global

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Delta opens the week with a sale on international fares, and multiple airlines match. So where do YOU want to go in the world?

The Smarter Travel crew have spotted a killer of an airfare sale from Delta — and unlike the sales we’ve seen for the last week or so, this one’s offering discounts on international flights from the United States.

We’re talking fares as low as $218 round-trip. And that’s all–inclusive — taxes, fees, everything.

The sale covers destinations in Europe, the Caribbean and Asia. The only region that seems to be excluded is, naturally, Africa.

But that’s a whole different conversation.

For more details, go to the Smarter Travel page here.

As is always the case with airfare sales, there are some tricks to this one. These fares are for spring travel (think of it as a sale for the shoulder season, just before summer starts), and you have only until May 7 to buy.

And don’t forget that if an airline thinks a sale has become too popular, they can always shut it down ahead of schedule. So if you’re seriously thinking about pulling the trigger on one of these deals, don’t dawdle.

He who hesitates stays home.