Category Archives: Air travel

The IBIT Travel Digest 6.9.13

Leave a reply

The good, the bad and the bizarre in the world of travel

Yuyuan Bazaar, Shanghai, China

Yuyuan Bazaar, Shanghai, China — ©IBIT/G. Gross

WINNING ON POINTS
There are travelers who have become so adept at using credit-card points, loyalty points and frequent-flier miles that they almost never pay for trips anymore.

One of those people is Brian Kelly, who calls himself The Points Guy. If you want to see how Brian rolls — and flies — check out his site.

Meanwhile, he also recently talked to USA Today about how he does what he does.

TECHNO-TRAVEL
The New York Times has a fascinating — and perhaps somewhat disturbing — piece on the growing use of technology in our travels, especially biometrics.

We’re talking everything from fingerprint and eye scans at airport security checks to a hotel wristband with an embedded sensor chip that automatically lets you update your Facebook status.

And there’s more coming, being used not only with travelers but with employees of hotels of other establishments that serve travelers, sometimes without even their knowledge.

The day is rapidly coming, if it isn’t here already. when we may need to take a vacation as much from our technology as we do from our jobs. From here, it looks as if getting away from the job will be a lot easier.

-0-

BETTER TRAVEL SMARTPHONE TRAVEL PICS
And speaking of technology, are you among that growing number of travelers leaving their cameras at home when they travel and taking pics and videos with their smartphone instead?

The folks at Condé Nast Traveler have produced a truly useful online slideshow with tips on how to get better travel pics with your phone.

Smartphone cameras have a lot of travelers believing that getting great snaps is now just a matter of pointing and shooting, no need to fiddle with settings as you would with a camera. Others believe their phone has no way to adjust for those differences.

Wrong and wrong.

Even if your camera is built into a phone, you still need to understand its powers and its limits. The slideshow shows the kind of results you can get when you work with both.

-0-

AFRICAN AIRLINES: GOING LONG, GOING BIG
Two of the big dogs among Africa’s national airlines — Ethiopian Airlines and South African Airways — appear to be going all-in with the newest ultra-lightweight, long-range jumbo jets.

According to the African Aviation Tribune, Ethiopian, the first African airline to acquire Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners, is looking to add more of them to its fleet over next several years.

Its well-reported battery problems notwithstanding, Ethiopian is said to be well pleased with the Dreamliner’s performance and already is planning new routes to take advantage of its added range.

At the tip of the Mother Continent, meanwhile, SAA is eyeing both the Dreamliner and its competitor being developed by Airbus, the A350.

With African airlines having to fly thousands of miles to reach markets in Europe, Asia and the Americas, adding modern aircraft designed to make longer flights without stopping to refuel only makes sense.

While Ethiopian and SAA are going for distance, Zimbabwe, which has been pushing hard to boost its tourism in recent years, is going for size. The country’s national airline, Air Zimbabwe, reportedly is making noises about acquiring the world’s largest civilian airliner, Airbus’ massive double-decked A380.

-0-

And now, here’s The Digest:

AIR
from CNN
Airline kicks 101 allegedly rowdy high school students off a flight. The school wants to investigate the airline. This is going to get ugly.

from the San Francisco Chronicle
In a moment of apparent sanity, the TSA reverses itself and drops its plans to allow small knives aboard airliners.

LAND
from Budget Travel
If your idea of a cable car is confined to the ones running the streets of San Francisco, you may not be ready for these. No, you definitely aren’t ready for these.

from USA Today
Free things to do in ten of the world’s great cities. SLIDESHOW

from The Guardian (London)
Simon Gandolfi, by his own description, is an out-of-shape Briton who just turned 80. So how does he celebrate eight decades of life? By flying to India and making his way back to London by motorcycle, solo. Rocking chair? What rocking chair?

from The Guardian (London)
Now, this is my idea of a European rail trip — Paris to Sicily, by train. Yes, I know Sicily is an island. And no, it doesn’t matter to the train.

from the New York Times
Bike sharing comes to Manhattan. One user finds it a mixed blessing for tourists.

SEA
from USA Today
Bad news for the cruise industry: A Harris Poll finds that the spate of shipboard fires in the last year is causing travelers to lose confidence in cruising as a travel option.

FOOD & DRINK
from USA Today
Do U know your Q? A regional breakdown of barbecue in the United States. Because unlike men, all BBQ is not created equal.

-0-

AFRICA
from the Times of Zambia
Zambia’s Liuwa Plain National Park may be unique among the world’s land reserves in that it spends the first four months of the year underwater.

from Associated Press via Yahoo!
A UNESCO survey team finds damage to cultural artifacts done by Islamist rebels in the fabled Mali city of Timbuktu to be fare more extensive than first thought.

from the Seattle Times
Beautiful, diverse, edgy Cape Town.

AMERICAS
from the Washington Post
In San Francisco, the neighborhood known as Dogpatch, once a collection of meatpacking plants, is stepping up in class.

from NBC Travel
Tornado tourism? Yes, people actually pay to go out and look at — and pose for pictures with — tornadoes. A potential killer of a trip.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from Agence France Presse via France 24
A Chinese farmer restores a run-down section of the Great Wall of China on his own time and his own dime…about $800,000 worth of his own dimes.

from France 24
About two hours outside of Beijing, a luxury hotel opens in the birthplace of Confucius.

from France 24
Promoting South Korean tourism…Gangnam style.

EUROPE
from the San Francisco Chronicle
Is tourism in Turkey likely to take the same kind of hit from the current spate of street protests that Egyptian tourism did? In Istanbul, they don’t seem to think so.

from the New York Times
Do you love the fluid, vibrant colors of Claude Monet, the godfather of impressionism? Would you like to explore his country garden from which he drew his inspiration? You can, and without fighting your way through mobs of tourists.

from USA Today
In Europe, spending less for a hotel can actually contribute to a better travel experience. So says European travel guru Rick Steves. Been there, done there. It’s true.

from CNN
Want to chill out and kick back in style, and maybe work in a little exercise at the same time? Consider barge cruising in France. SLIDESHOW

Going long? Get in Travel Shape!

2 Replies
© Baz777 | Dreamstime.com

© Baz777 | Dreamstime.com

New airliners with longer range mean more hours in the air for travelers. Your best chance of reducing the misery? Get yourself ready.

It was the 19th century American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson who first declared that “life is a journey, not a destination.”

Love your work, Ralph, but you never spent 16 hours in an airline Coach seat.

Hammered by high fuel prices like the rest of us, the airlines are clamoring for passenger jets to fly ever farther on one load of fuel — and Boeing and Airbus have designs in the works to give them exactly what they want.

That means the next generation of passenger jets will be spending more time in the air, which means you will be spending more time in the air.

If you have enough cash or frequent-flier miles, seriously consider buying your way out of Coach — or as I like to call it, Sardine Class. And for those really long international flights, you’d do well to go with a 5-star airline like Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific or Emirates.

(NOTE: When you need to find a 5-star airline, go to the airline review Web site Skytrax. Don’t worry; there aren’t that many.)

But spending double-digit hours in an aluminum tube at 35,000 feet isn’t much fun, no matter where you sit on the airplane.

So what can we do about all this? Actually, more than you think. Preparation is the key.

Prepare your body
Use the time before your trip to get in shape. Walk. Ride a bike. Swim. Go the gym. Tighten up your diet. You don’t have to train for the Olympics, but being more fit will leave you better equipped to handle all the stresses of travel — not just the flight.

But it’s not just your body that needs some prep.

Know your airplane
Before you book your flight, get to know your airplane. Using the Internet, you can find out:

  • What type of aircraft the airline uses on your specific flight.
  • Get seat information for that plane on that flight — a seat map, leg room (measured in inches and called “seat pitch”), hip room, amenities (electric outlets, etc.), and other factors (whether your seat has storage space underneath, whether your armrests are movable or fixed).
  • In-flight entertainment options. What movies will be shown, what kinds of music and/or games are available.
  • Meal information, including special meals you can order in advance.

Choose your seat according what’s most important to you. Don’t let the airline sit you just anywhere if you can avoid it.

Use the info about the entertainment options on board to determine whether you need to bring your own music and/or reading material, or whether you can get by with what the airline offers.

Eat, drink and be merry
The same is true of meals. In-flight magazines published by airlines sometimes contain menus for your flight, broken down by seat class. Check the online version of the magazine, or ask the airline to mail you a copy.

Also, consider ordering one of the airline’s special meals. They don’t cost extra, are often better than the standard airline fare and you’ll probably be served ahead of your seatmates.

The only catch: The airlines need at least three days’ advance notice if you want a special meal.

Keep yourself hydrated. That means water or juices. Go easy on the alcohol — or better yet, avoid it completely.

Pack wisely, and sparingly
There’s a delicate balancing act when packing for a long flight. The trick is to bring just what you need, and no more. And that’s not something you can work out at the last minute.

Shoes that you can easily slip on and off without laces not only will help speed you through airport security, but make you a lot more comfortable if your feet and ankles swell in flight, which happens often.

Those horseshoe-shaped neck pillows you see some travelers using maybe look bizarre, but they do make it easier to sleep on the plane. The tradeoff: They’re bulky and hard to carry…unless you get a good inflatable kind, which you can find from travel suppliers like REI, Magellans, Travelsmith, Travel Essentials or Le Travel Store here in San Diego.

A lightweight, easily packable jacket or sweater can help for those hours when the cabin’s air conditioning system becomes a little too efficient.

If you can’t afford those pricey noise-canceling headphones, try in-ear headphones to help block out the engine noise. Plain earplugs will help you sleep better.

Do your ears hurt because of pressure changes during takeoffs or landings? There are pressure-equalizing earplugs that can help you with that.

Mind games
While waiting to board your marathon flight, change your watch to the time zone at your destination. The sooner you get your mind and body in synch with the time over there, the less trouble you will have with jet lag when you arrive.

Once you’re airborne, trying dividing your flight hours into manageable chunks of time — say, two to four hours — and plan what you want to do with each segment. Read. Listen to music. Watch a movie. Get up and stretch. Sleep.

Breaking that double-digit flight time into single-digit segments will make you feel a little more in control and a bit less of a prisoner. And if you end up sleeping through a planned segment or two, so much the better.

Whatever you choose to do in those chunks of time, focus on it, concentrate, engross yourself in it — to the point that you don’t think to check your watch or the time on your cell phone. Use the alarm in your watch or cell phone to alert you when you’ve finished one of your segments.

The clock that knows it’s being watched can bring Time to a standstill, on an airplane.

For the same reason, try not to look at that moving map on the in-flight monitor that shows your plane’s position, at least until after you complete a segment.

When you want to sleep for awhile, put your seatbelt on, even if the overhead seatbelt light is off. If the plane hits a little turbulence while you’re snoozing, the flight attendant won’t have to wake you up to have you put your belt on.

There’s not much that’s going to make transoceanic or transcontinental flights a good time, but with a little preparation and a few tricks, you can make it bearable.

The death of Black Atlas

Leave a reply

American Airlines’ online attempt to reach out to the black travel market quietly fades away. Was it just a casualty of the airline’s merger with US Airways — or its own scattered focus?

Four years ago, American Airlines brought forth on the Internet Black Atlas, a social media site that boldly proclaimed itself to be “your passport to the black experience.”

That passport has been revoked.

When you try to log onto BlackAtlas.com today, what you will see instead is this:

“Thanks for visiting BlackAtas.com. We’ve got a new flight path…aa.com”

“aa.com” is the default Web site for American Airlines. The message goes on to say that “BlackAtlas.com will become a part of the larger American Airlines travel community, and we hope you will continue to visit.”

Which is fine, except that you can’t visit Black Atlas…at all. It’s gone, history, past tense.

According to American Airlines spokeswoman Dori Alvarez, Black Atlas shut down April 29, but AA execs made the decision to pull the plug on the site late last year.

Ms. Alvarez also said the decision came entirely from within American’s management, not US Airways, American’s new senior airline partner.

“The merger itself did not impact this decision,” she said. “Rather, it is part of American’s new global strategy. We are focusing on more actively engaging all of our customers using American’s own communication channels, including aa.com, email and other digital / social media programs.”

That bit about “using American’s own communication channels” is telling because Black Atlas was not an American Airlines creation. It was put together for the airline by what Ms. Alvarez would describe only as “an outside vendor.”

Right from the jump, Black Atlas seemed to be swaggering through a minefield, from the moment it branded itself as “your passport to the black experience.” If you were born black in America, you’re already living the black experience. Do you need an airline to take you to it?

Probably not.

The goal for Black Atlas, as stated on its home page, was to become “the premiere destination for sophisticated African-American travelers.” Such travelers had little real need for such a site. How does digitally preaching to the proverbial choir grow your share of any market?

In strategic terms, the site seemed unfocused. Was Black Atlas trying to bring in new black travelers, or encourage more trips by its existing ones?

I was especially put off by what came across to me as condescension, as I said in my initial look at Black Atlas:

“At the risk of exposing myself as a less-than-sophisticated African-American traveler, why would I be hunting around Moscow for blues music, or jerk chicken in Milan or injera bread in Oslo? That makes about as much sense as Southern rednecks coming up to Harlem to look for tobacco-chewing contests, or German classical music fans looking for Beethoven concerts in Compton.

Are we really so insecure that we need to seek out reflections of ourselves wherever we go in the world? I’ve said it before on this blog and it bears repeating: If I’m that desperate for a taste of “home” when and wherever I travel, I’ll just stay home.”

When you looked at the site, it was hard to tell what it was trying to accomplish. In the end, it didn’t accomplish enough of anything to ensure its own survival.

The “outside vendor” may have made a mess of Black Atlas, but American itself is hardly blameless. A lot of people never even heard of the site until now.

How much effort did American put into marketing and promoting it to prospective black travelers? How much of its advertising budget went into touting Black Atlas in black newspapers, magazines and Web sites around the country?

Few, if any, of America’s cash-strapped black publications would’ve turned down a steady stream of ads for Black Atlas…and Internet users will view even a bad site at least once.

Still, the fact that you miss a shot doesn’t mean the shot wasn’t worth taking. The black travel market in the United States currently is worth between perhaps $40 billion a year.

As large as that figure may sound, it’s chump change when measured against the total estimated purchasing power of black America: $1.1 trillion.

Being in the business of moving people by air, American could hardly be faulted for wanting a piece of that — especially since, as we now know, the airline was treading in deep financial waters.

The travel industry as a whole — not just AA — has been struggling to find an effective way to reach out to black Americans and get them to travel. Thirteen years into the 21st century, the struggle continues.

You could argue that Black Atlas was a bad idea badly executed — and I’d probably agree with you. But American Airlines’ goal of tapping into the black American travel market was and remains perfectly “legit.”

It’s that goal that should remain the focus, because in a nation whose people are among the least traveled in the developed world, we are among the least traveled of all Americans.

And in the 21st century, that needs to change.

ALSO CHECK OUT:
Attention, black folks: American Airlines likes you! No, really!

AIRLINES: A new African bird

Leave a reply
Airbus A319 of Gambia Bird

Airbus A319 of Gambia Bird

The Gambia has a new national airline linking together West Africa, just in time for this year’s International Roots Festival. But its implications for West African travel extend far beyond that.

There’s a new bird in the skies over West Africa — a Gambia Bird.

From its hub in the Gambian capital city of Banjul, the airline first took to the skies last November with a paired of leased Airbus A319s.

Gambia Bird’s primarily flies to West African countries belonging to ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States. However, it also connects the Gambia to Europe via London Gatwick and Barcelona, Spain.

One small airline for West Africa. One big step for West African tourism.

The airline’s name itself is a clever play on Gambian tourism. Birdwatching is huge in the Gambia, and people come from all over to get a glimpse of some of the nearly 600 species of birds — some of which are flirting with extinction.

Its startup comes just in time for the 2013 International Roots Festival. But its importance to the Gambia and the rest of West Africa extends far beyond that one event.

gambia bird route map

Prior to this, few African airlines and even fewer non-African carriers served the Gambia, Africa’s smallest country. That left most travelers either having to reach the Gambia via Senegal Airlines from Dakar or traveling overland from one of the Gambia’s neighbors.

Road travel is seldom a comfortable option in Africa. If anything, driving for hours or days over beat-up, overtaxed and under-maintained African roads should be reserved for those who find value in suffering.

Gambia Bird not only gives West Africa a fresh set of airline connections, but also makes it easier for Europeans to fly directly to “the smiling coast of Africa,” as the Gambia is known. It’s also another option for Americans wishing to visit the Gambia, since there are no direct flights as yet to the Gambia from the United States.

Gambia Bird represents another European venture into the African airline market. It was founded by the German low-fare airline Germania, which offers some seriously cheap airfares within the European continent.

At reported in the IBIT Travel Digest, Britain’s low-fare easyJet already has set up shop in East Africa and is looking to expand.

Little by litte, with a push from European airlines exploiting an open market, Africa’s frayed web of airline travel is slowly being stitched together.

If Gambia Bird succeeds, don’t be surprised to see new hotels follow on the heels — or the wingtips — of this new airline.

AIRLINES: American pulls the pin

Leave a reply
American Airlines' new livery on their new Boeing 777-300ER airliners.

American Airlines’ new livery on their equally new Boeing 777-300ERs. How do you like the new look? | Image courtesy of American Airlines

American Airlines appears set to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy as the largest airline in the world — and the property of US Airways. What this bodes for the traveling public remains to be seen.

Some time today in Dallas, a bunch of business executives from American Airlines and US Airways will make official what we already know, that the two companies are merging to form the world’s largest airline company.

But it’s hardly a marriage of equals. American will keep its name and identity — for now, anyway — but it will be run by USAir’s boss, which makes it pretty clear which company is the shotcaller in this relationship.

The reason is equally clear. USAir is making money, while American has been losing so much of it that it had to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Simply put, American is agreeing to this deal because it has to, while USAir is doing it because it can.

You can find more details about the merger in this Associated Press story here.

Thomas W. Horton, American’s chairman and CEO, sent out an email blast today to American’s AAdvantage frequent-flier program members, which read in part:

“As a combined carrier – the new American – we will have an expanded network to even better match where customers want to fly and enhanced ability to invest in our fleet, modern technologies, and the products and services our customers value most.

“We’ve been making progress toward building a new American – from transforming our fleet with the largest aircraft order in history, to modernizing the travel experience, and refreshing our iconic brand. This merger is our next step in the process of building the leading global airline.

“Together we will offer our customers more than 6,700 daily flights to 336 destinations in 56 countries by maintaining all the hubs currently served by both airlines.

“…we will provide more options than any other airline across the East Coast and Central U.S. regions, and expand and further strengthen our network on the West Coast. The combined airline will add to our reach across the Atlantic and Pacific and bolster American’s industry-leading position in Latin America and the Caribbean. We’ll also enhance our existing loyalty program benefits through expanded opportunities to earn and redeem miles across the combined network.

“At this time, American and US Airways will remain separate companies and you can continue to count on American for excellent service and safe, reliable travel. We expect the merger to be completed in the third quarter of 2013 and will keep you updated.”

The AP says this deal has been brewing since last August, but regular IBIT readers know that the merger of American with one or more of its competitors has been in the cards — and in the works — for a lot longer than that. The only questions were who American’s dance partner would be, and when.

Over the last year and a half, it looked as if it might be Delta or United. But Delta, having already absorbed Northwest five years ago, apparently lost interest and United snapped up Continental instead, which pretty much cleared the field for USAir.

In the airline biz, though, today’s shark is often tomorrow’s guppy, especially in the United States. Since the 1970s and especially since Washington deregulated the airline industry in 1978, at least 20 once-familiar names have either merged with other carriers or vanished altogether from American skies:

  • Air West
  • Air California
  • America West
  • AirTran
  • Continental
  • Eastern
  • Jet America
  • National
  • Northwest
  • Ozark
  • Pan Am
  • People Express
  • Piedmont
  • Pacific Southwest
  • Reno Air
  • Republic
  • Texas International
  • TWA
  • ValuJet
  • Western

To many of you, most of these are just names from an increasingly dim aviation past, but some of us are old enough to remember flying with a lot of these outfits.

One of the arguments used to sell airline deregulation back in the day was that it would lead to greater competition within the industry, and thus better prices for consumers. What part of the above looks like greater competition to you?

George Hobica, founder of the Airfarewatchdog.com site, doesn’t think the American-USAir merger will be all that bad for consumers. His is a hopeful voice:

“Fares won’t increase all that much, if at all. If airlines have learned one thing, it’s that people stay home, drive or video-conference if fares go too high. Most air travel is discretionary, not “must do.”

“If fares on certain routes do go higher, that will make it more profitable for competitors to step in and lower fares once again. Yes, fares on “duopoly” nonstop routes (those where only US and AA fly nonstop, such as Dallas DFW-Charlotte, Philadelphia-Miami) may go higher at first, but that will open the door for VirginAmerica, JetBlue or another carrier to step in profitably. In fact, once the airline industry becomes consistently profitable, we may see another JetBlue enter the fray.”

You can read the entire text of George’s views on the Huffington Post here.

I don’t know. When was the last time you as a consumer saw airline fares drop to any great degree?

The number of add-ons fees being charged these days allows the airlines to play a kind of shell game with passengers by claiming their base fares are super-low, but by the time you’ve shelled out money for those fees, are you really paying less to fly these days, or more?

It’s true that newer, more fuel-efficient planes will allow American to cut their fuel costs, albeit at the expense of retiring those MD-80 jets with the two-seat side that passengers love — but what are the odds that those or any other savings will actually translate into lower base fares or the elimination of a single one of those extra fees?

IBIT says: For good reason, George Hobica is one of the most respected observers of the airline industry, so he may well be right — and we all need to hope that he is. But recent industry history suggests that’s not the way to bet.

ALSO CHECK OUT:
AIRLINES: The end of American?
AIRLINES: M is for merger
AIRLINES: US Air moves on American
AIRLINES: AA takes the straight and narrow
AIRLINES: American heading for bankruptcy?
You’ve gotta hand it to AA — every way possible!

the IBIT Travel Digest 2.3.13

Leave a reply

The good, the bad and the bizarre in the world of travel

cropped-hburghof.jpg

When you’ve finished overdosing on Super Bowl hype, chips and dip, come refresh your mind with a peek at what’s happening in the world of travel

PRICELINE+KAYAK=?
We are soon to find out, because according to Travel Weekly, the Federal Trade Commission has signed off on Priceline’s bid to buy the popular travel search engine for $1.8 billion.

That pretty much makes the sale a done deal, which could go down as soon as next month.

Snapping up Kayak gives Priceline a powerful search tool to tie in with its existing travel sales service. Less clear is how this marriage will benefit the traveling consumer.

On the other hand, Priceline has said that Kayak will to function as an independent entity, so we’ll see what happens.

-0-

CAR SHARING: THE BIG BOYS TAKE NOTICE
You know that a new way of doing things really works when the big, old-line corporations start diving into it. That’s what has happened with car sharing.

Car sharing is kind of the automotive version of couchsurfing. It got its start in Switzerland in 1948 and took hold in the rest of Europe in the 1970s.

Once you become a member of a car-sharing service, you can rent a car for an entire day, a few hours or even a few minutes, if that’s all you need. You pick up the car in town, use it around town, drop it off in town. Cheaper and often more convenient than conventional car rentals, more flexibility and independence than taxis.

The concept doesn’t appeal only to travelers. Some people who don’t need a car full-time every day are actually getting rid of their own wheels (and the costs that go with them) and resorting to car sharing instead.

It’s also a good way to get a real-world feel for operating an unfamiliar vehicle type, whether it’s a pick-up truck or an electric car — without having to put up with a car salesman.

One of the pioneers in this field has been Zipcar, available in 34 states and the District of Columbia, as well as Ontario and Vancouver in Canada, as well as Barcelona, Spain and five cities in the United Kingdom.

How well does this concept work? Well enough for some of the rental car industry’s biggest players to take notice.

Hertz is answering its challenge by creating a car-sharing service of its own which it calls Hertz On-Demand. Enterprise followed suit with what they call WeCar. Even U-Haul has jumped into this game with U Car Share.

Avis, too, is buying the Zipcar concept. It’s also buying Zipcar…for $500 million.

-0-

MORE (CRUISE) SHIPS AHOY
At this point, I’m not sure if the cruise industry’s shipbuilding binge is entering its second decade or its third. The one thing I do know: It’s not stopping.

Royal Caribbean, locked in mortal combat with Carnival for the dominant share of the market, is showing every sign of both expanding and updating its fleet super-sized cruisers.

They’re already moving to trademark the names of six new Oasis-class vessels that haven’t even been built yet.

The Oasis-class — led by its namesake, the Oasis of the Seas — is currently the largest cruise ship afloat, maxing out at 5,400 passengers.

But Royal Caribbean isn’t stopping there. The line also is working on a new, slightly downsized cruise ship, the Sunshine-class, designed to transport and entertain a mere 4,100 passengers at a time.

This ship is so new, the first one hasn’t been named yet, much less built. But according to Travel Weekly, Royal Caribbean has already committed to building a second one.

I have no idea how the folks at Carnival will respond to this, but you know that they will be respond. It’s like an arms race, only with oceanview suites, water slides and Bahama Mamas.

-0-

AND FINALLY…
If you were (or perhaps still are) a regular viewer of the 1970s TV series M*A*S*H, you might vaguely recall lots of occasional references to some mythical town or village whose name sounded like “Wee-John-Boo.”

Well, it turns out that Uijeongbu is no myth. It’s a real place, where the real Mobile Army Surgical Hospital operated during the Korean War. And in South Korea, its legacy extends far beyond film and television.

The people of Uijeongbu, desperately hungry during the war, made meals of whatever they could get their hands on. The result was a dish the locals called budaejjigae, Korean for “army base stew.”

Basically, it combined traditional Korean ingredients with whatever leftovers the locals could scrounge or smuggle from U.S. Army mess tents.

The shooting eventually stopped (the Korean War has never formally ended), but “army base stew” remained a staple of Uijeongbu — and Julie Wan of the Washington Post took advantage of a visit to her family in Seoul to seek out this most unconventional dish in its birthplace.

And as you’ll see when you read her story, she found it.

If you know the origins of things like gumbo, barbecue or fried chicken, you can relate to budaejjigae. Cookbooks today are full of dishes devised by poor, hungry people who tossed anything and everything into a stew pot and used a slow fire, a lot of spices and their imaginations to create something unforgettable.

If I ever find myself in South Korea, I may need to make a small side trip to Uijeongbu.

-0-

And now, here’s The Digest:

AIR
from Travel Weekly
JetBlue experimenting with an expedited security service that could — maybe — speed you past regular airport security lines. For a fee, of course.

from Smarter Travel
Visual advice on how to dress for air travel. Aimed mainly at women, but the fellas can learn a few things from this, too. SLIDESHOW

from Smarter Travel
The TSA shuts down an airport terminal in Atlanta because of an unattended…toothbrush? You can’t make this stuff up. I mean, those Colgate bombs can be deadly…

from Smarter Travel
Did you know that fresh oranges, in addition to being healthy for you on the ground, can help keep you hydrated in the air? These and other healthy food tips for air travelers.

LAND
from Travel Weekly
Hertz now letting its Gold Plus Rewards members upgrade their rental cars via their smartphone app.

SEA
from Travel Weekly
Carnival cancels Belize port calls for two of its biggest ships through 2013. The cruise line says the port is overcrowded with ships.

-0-

AFRICA
from Tanzania Daily News (Tanzania) via allAfrica.com
Serengeti National Park, already a UN World Heritage Site, wins a prestigious international tourism award.

from The Star (Kenya) via allAfrica.com
The German cruise ship MV Astor makes a historic port call at Lamu, setting aside fears of kidnappings by Somali bandits.

from The Star (Kenya) via allAfrica.com
Are British Army units training in East Africa arming and equipping poachers?

AMERICAS
from CNN Travel
Today’s Super Bowl is more than just a battle between two pro football teams. It’s also a tale of two cities, Baltimore and San Francisco, and how they play. SLIDESHOW

from NBC News
New York City’s Grand Central Terminal celebrated its centennial last Friday. The Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty may be great monuments, but if you want to locate New York’s beating heart, you’ll find it here.

from the New York Times
Yes, you can send an email to the Bahamas, but a mail boat can send you there.

from Travel Weekly
Haiti officially protests the latest U.S. State Department travel advisory on visiting the island nation, which reads in art: “No one is safe from kidnapping, regardless of occupation, nationality, race, gender or age.” State denies trying to discourage Haitian tourism.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from Yomiuri Shimbun
Deep in a forest, well away from the mad urban bustle of Tokyo, a village of Japanese craftsmen hand-builds elegant wood furniture with skills honed over 15 centuries.

from France 24
Missed out on the New Year’s Day festivities Jan. 1? Well, there’s still Chinese New Year coming up on Feb. 10, and the place to party is Hong Kong.

from CNTV
A small lake fishing village in China’s Yunnan province becomes a hidden tourist gem.

EUROPE
from the New York Times
Feel yourself choking on mobs of tourists in Venice? Find a way to go eat with some of the locals.

from Lonely Planet
Is this the world’s most beautiful train ride? It’s in Norway.

from Travel Weekly
The Waldorf-Astoria hotel chain is making a serious move on Europe. With hotels already in London, Rome and Versailles, the luxury brand is now opening a Waldorf-Astoria in Berlin. And they’re not done. SLIDESHOW

AIRFARE ALERT: AirTran

Leave a reply

The great thing about airfare sales is that when one airline offers dramatic temporary discounts, one or more of its competitors offer matching deals. But there’s no guarantee that they will.

Good news this morning: AirTran has a 10-day fare sale laid on for spring travel.

The airline is advertising fares as low as $69 one-way, but those sharp-eyed folks over at Smarter Travel have found some AirTran sale fares as low as $57.

The amount of money you could save varies like mad, depending on your departure/destination cities and your day of travel, but there’s no denying you could save you a few bucks. As an experiment, I priced a trip between Atlanta and Los Angeles on AirTran and three other airlines for Sunday, March 3:

                      ONE-WAY ROUND-TRIP
American..         $195         $390
United……         $203         $437
Delta……..         $239         $358
AirTran….         $158         $316

So far, there’s no indication on whether AirTran’s rivals — or for that matter, its owner, southwest Airlines — will choose to match the sale. But that often happens.

With some of these airlines, you might actually be able to beat some of AirTran’s sale fares if your travel dates are flexible by a day or two. But with work or school resuming following the Christmas/New Year’s holiday, most folks are more likely to be locked in to specific dates.

Of course, such sales don’t take into account all the various add-on fees that the airlines charge nowadays, but they do include taxes and surcharges, the ones the airlines used to conveniently leave out of their announcements to make you think that their fares were cheaper than they actually were.

So the prices you’re quoted now are a lot closer to reality than they used to be.

Another good thing about the AirTran sale is that the airlines gives you ten days to pull the trigger, rather than creating a one-day frenzy. Just because you can wait that long, however, doesn’t mean you should.

Airlines often limit the number of seats they offer at sale prices. Further, if they think their fare discount is drawing too hot response from consumers, they can cut it off early, at their discretion.

So if one or more of these fares works for you, don’t dawdle.

the IBIT Travel Digest 1.27.13

Leave a reply

The good, the bad and the bizarre in the world of travel

IMG_1605

DANCING THROUGH CUSTOMS
One of the fringe benefits of writing a travel blog is that you can make some great friends doing great work. One such friend of mine is Renee King, who publishes A View to a Thrill.

In her most recent installment, she gives us the 4-1-1 on of the US government’s trusted traveler programs that can seriously speed you through the Customs process upon your return to the United States. It’s called “Global Entry” and here’s what Renee had to say about it:

“Originally created to target frequent international travelers, the U.S. Global Entry program has been a virtual god-send for travelers who want a fast and secure way of skipping the lines altogether when re-entering the United States.”

To pick up all the details on “Global Entry,” check out Renee’s article here. And then bookmark it. You’ll want to keep this one handy.

Anyone who doesn’t “get” the importance of this program has never walked/stumbled/staggered off a jumbo jet with about 300 other exhausted souls after a transoceanic flight lasting 12 hours or longer, only to queue up in a Customs line…with the passengers of two, three or four other jumbo jets, all doing the same thing you are.

I have. I don’t recommend it.

If such a trip is a one-in-a-lifetime deal for you, then you may not need this program, especially when it costs $100. You’ll also have to make an appointment to be interviewed, electronically fingerprinted and see if you qualify for the program — and frankly, not everyone will.

But when you walk off that plane in a jet-lagged fog and breeze by all those folks suffering in line, you’ll swear it was the best time and money you ever spent on travel.

And if you make more than, say, three or four globe-girdling flights per year, you need this.

To apply for the Global Entry program, start here.

ALL ABOARD…THE NIGHT TRAIN
If it’s true that, in the words of the old Amtrak commercial, “there’s something about a train, then there’s something even more captivating about an overnight “sleeper” train.

Watching the sun set from the privacy of your own compartment, then bedding down for the night with a window full of stars and awaking the next morning in a different city — or a different country — is unforgettable.

It’s also practical. A sleeper train combines transportation and lodging in one. Instead of losing a day traveling between points, you arrive at your destination early the next morning.

It’s not cheap, but a private compartment often includes all your on-board meals, as well as other perks unavailable to Coach passengers, all of which makes the sleeper experience worth considering.

London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper has considered it at length, and compiled a slideshow of what they consider to be the top ten overnight sleeper train runs in Europe, including one between Europe (London) and Africa (Marrakech, Morocco).

Paris-Barcelona? Paris-Berlin? London-Penzance? Yeah, I could happily do any of those.

-0-

AFRICAN FASHION MADE EASY
Not many folks on this side of the Atlantic are aware of it, but Africa has developed quite the fashion scene. We’re talking high-end threads for men and women from high-profile designers from the length and breadth of the Mother Continent.

Until a few years ago, your best shot at checking out this vibrant and growing fashion world was to fly to one or more of perhaps seven African cities:

  • Lagos, Nigeria
  • Nairobi, Kenya
  • Cape Town, South Africa
  • Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Dakar, Senegal
  • Luanda, Angola

And if you want to get a feel for the sources of inspiration that drive these African fashions, that still might be the best idea.

However, you do have alternatives. Lots of them, in fact.

New York City, Los Angeles and Dallas both annually hosts African Fashion Weeks. But if you feel like giving your fashion trip some international flavor — with a bit less expense and a lot less flight time — there’s the Black Fashion Week in Paris and the Africa Fashion Week London, now in its third year.

-0-

And now, here’s The Digest:

AIR
from Business Insider via Yahoo
A Germany-based air safety monitoring group lists the world’s ten most dangerous airlines over the last 30 years. Read with some large grains of salt.

from eTurbo News
An Indonesian airline adopts new Sukhoi Superjet 100 airliners from Russia. The reason: They can operate from the country’s short runways.

from NBC News
Southwest Airlines is betting that you’ll be willing to pay $40 extra to board their planes early. Would you?

from eTurbo News
Ethiopian Airlines cuts flights from Addis Ababa to Europe.

LAND

from Travel Weekly
A heavy late-December snowfall has the skiing looking good at America’s ski resorts.

from The Telegraph (London UK)
What do you get when you take an Amtrak train between Toronto and New York? A 12-hour rail cruise through US history and some of North America’s most gorgeous scenery.

from Forbes via Yahoo
Can you measure a country’s happiness? The Legatum Institute of London says it can, and it’s produced a list of the world’s ten happiest nations. And no, the United States is nowhere in the top ten.

from Time
Has snowboarding lost its mojo?

SEA
from Cruise Industry News
More evidence of the cruise industry’s growing tilt toward Asia: Princess Cruises to homeport a second cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, in Japan.

from Cruise Critic
For those of you dying to escape the frigid winter, there are six cruise ships sailing in warm waters that nearly always have cabins offered at a discount.

from Cruise Industry News
The upscale cruise line Silversea plans to offer shorter (and thus cheaper) cruises in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.

from Cruise Industry News
As cruises go, this one’s the ultimate icebreaker. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises is planning an August cruise of the Northwest Passage fron Greenland to Alaska on one of its expedition ships, the Hanseatic. You don’t often see the words “expedition” and “5-star” in the same sentence.

-0-

AFRICA
from Reuters
You might want to hold off on that Cairo vacation a little longer. Things are getting hectic — and deadly — again in Egypt.

from al Jazeera
Museum in Mali trying to protect some of the country’s historic artifacts from the threat of destruction by radical Muslim insurgents.

from eTurbo News
British Airways pulls out of Tanzania, and Emirates is the first airline to step into the void.

from The Telegraph (London UK)
Tourism officials in Egypt report that foreign visits are up, but not as much as expected.

from eTurbo News
Ethiopia turning to China, India and Russia as potential new tourism markets.

AMERICAS
from the Huffington Post
George Hobica says Albuquerque NM has been overshadowed by Santa Fe, but it deserves a closer look. Especially if you’re a fan of beer, road trips and under-the-radar cool.

from Travel Weekly
Want a shot at some warm winter weather and a whiff of that new hotel smell? Start saving your coins and circle Dec. 2014 on your calendar. That’s the the 1,000-room $1 billion Baha Mar casino resort is set to open its doors.

from the Chicago Tribune
If you’re a baseball junkie, a visit to Chicago’s historic Wrigley Field is something close to a religious pilgrimage. Now, the Sheraton hotel chain is planning to put up a boutique hotel directly across the street from the old ballpark. Think they’ll pt bleachers on the roof?

from Reuters via NBCNews
More flights and a weaker dollar have combined to create record-setting tourism in Hawaii.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from BootsnAll
Southeast Asia is a great destination for rail travel.

from China Daily
The dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku (or if you’re Chinese, Diaoyu) Islands is throwing cold water on tourism between the two countries.

from SFGate.com
Walking in the path of samurai. Scenic medieval walkways in Japan.

from The Guardian (London UK)
What would you see on a 40-mile walk across a city of 30 million souls? Marcel Theroux gives us his answers from his trek across Tokyo, the first of a series of walks across the largest cities on Earth.

EUROPE
from ABC News via Yahoo
Welcome to County Kerry in southwest Ireland, where drunk driving is legal. And no, that’s not a typo.

from eTurbo News
Ukraine’s largest airline, AeroSvit, goes belly up, stranding hundreds of passengers in the process.

from The Guardian (London UK)
It wasn’t that long ago that the term “luxury hostel” might have been the ultimate oxymoron in travel especially in Europe. It’s fair to say that things have changed. A lot. SLIDESHOW

AIRLINES: Southwest v. No-Shows

1 Reply
Southwest Airline Boeing 737

Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 landing in San Diego | © Greg Gross

Southwest Airlines plans to charge passengers who fail to show up for flights without canceling their reservation beforehand. Another onerous airline fee? Not necessarily.

Come 2013, Southwest Airlines’ reputation as a passenger-friendly outfit may take a hit. That’s because, according to NBCNews.com, the airline plans to:

  1. Raise fees for overweight baggage
  2. Raise fees for early check-in
  3. Charge fees for passengers who fail to show up for a flight without canceling their booking

Charging passengers to check in early doesn’t make much sense to me, especially if they’re doing in via an automated process online, and baggage fees get on everybody’s nerves. But the biggest surprise at IBIT was my reaction to Number Three, charging no-shows.

I’m fine with it. In fact, I love the idea.

I hope all the airlines eventually adopt it, not because it generates more cash for the air carriers, but because it ultimately could bring an end to one of the longstanding aggravations of modern air travel.

Overbooking.

As we know, overbooked flights doesn’t happen by accident. It’s standard procedure virtually industrywide. Why? To make up for the inevitable no-shows, which can range from one or two, to a dozen or more if we’re talking about jumbo jets.

You can imagine what happens, then, when every booked passenger shows up for that overbooked flight. You’ve probably seen it — and perhaps even been caught up in it — yourself. Chaos reigns at the gate.

Passengers, who made their reservations in good faith, put themselves on standby lists and then hope for the best — a hope that often goes unfulfilled, especially during the holidays. When that happens, get ready for some serious drama.

Crowds of infuriated travelers descend on helpless gate agents. In the worst cases, people’s travel plans get shredded. Frantic passengers don’t reach their destinations on schedule. Some miss critical connecting flights. Whole vacations have been destroyed in this way.

It’s become the stuff of reality TV shows like “Airline,” “Airline UK” and “On the Fly.” But if you’re ever ensnared in one of these airport mini-dramas, I guarantee you will be far from amused.

So what difference could this no-show fee make? Connect the dots.

If travelers know they’re going to lose money if they don’t bother to cancel a reservation they know they can’t keep, it means fewer no-shows on the day of the flight, maybe even none at all. It also gives the airline a better idea of how many seats it will have available the day of the flight.

Tha should pretty much eliminate the need to overbook flights. No more stressed-out, anguished travelers. No more unfairly abused and harassed gate agents.

No more drama.

If you think about it, Southwest’s move is nothing new. If you reserve a hotel room and then fail to show up without canceling the reservation first, the hotel debits your credit card for the equivalent of one night’s stay.

The hotel industry has been doing that for years, with nary a peep from its consumers.

If this is what it takes to bring peace to the boarding area — and do away with the chaos and unfairness of overbooking — IBIT says, “Bring it on.”

the IBIT Travel Digest 12.16.12

Leave a reply

The good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media

©IBIT/G. Gross

©IBIT/G. Gross

DOWN AND (NOT) DIRTY EATS, WORLDWIDE
I’m not a foodie; I just like food. And I love checking out the hidden, under-sized, under-rated places. The incredible street vendor. The lovingly run Mom-and-Pop storefront.

It’s great when you do that in your hometown. When you can do it on the other side of the world, it’s magic.

So I could hardly restrain the joy when London’s The Guardian newspaper introduced me to a blog after my own heart, or at least my own palate: Culinary Backstreets.

This blog focuses on five cities — Istanbul, Athens, Barcelona, Mexico City and Shanghai. If their content is any indication, you could lose your mind — and gain some weight — in any of them.

It’s a reminder that you don’t need a fistful of Michelin stars to find a galaxy of wonderful flavors.

The specific blog post that The Guardian locked in on was one about a street food paradise in an old Shanghai neighborhood that was almost lost to redevelopment.

A story like that speaks not only to my love of urban street food, but my taste for preserving and enhancing an old community instead of tearing everything down and replacing it with the new, the shiny, the sterile.

Real people, in a real community, making and selling real food. How does “urban renewal” improve on that?

ANSWER: It usually doesn’t.

-0-

AFTER-CHRISTMAS (TRAVEL) SALES
One nice way to beat the post-holiday blues would be to score yourself some after-Christmas travel bargains, and the period between the day after NEw Year’s and Martin Luther King Jr. days is one of the best ties of year to do it.

The folks at The Motley Fool call this period “dead time” for the travel industry. I prefer to think of it as hunting season for the smart travel consumer.

To that end, the Motley Fool folks have some tips on how to snag some killer travel deals during that period.

Happy bargaining hunting.

-0-

LUGGAGE TAGS? TRY LUGGAGE APPS
Believe it or not — and I know some of you won’t — the airlines are getting better at not losing your checked bags. Statistics from the US Department of Transportation say so. Considering that they make you pay nowadays for the “privilege” of checking them, I’d say that’s only fair.

Still, air passengers do sometimes find themselves left waiting vainly at the luggage carousel, something we’d all love to avoid. And yes, there’s an app for that.

Delta Airlines started the ball rolling with its Fly Delta app that, among other things, allows you to track your checked baggage.

The makers of Bag-Claim say their iPhone app sends a signal to your phone and your Bluetooth headset to let you know when your bag is nearby, and it continues until your bag is literally in your hand.

Another possible option, depending on whether the Federal Aviation Administration decides to loosen up its rules on the use of personal electronic devices in flight, would be to toss your own GPS tracking device into your bag.

One example would be the Pocketfinder GPS Locator. Like Fly Delta, it works with iPhones, Android phones, Windows Mobile devices…and for us digital troglodytes out there, even Blackberrys.

-0-

And now, here’s The Digest:

AIR
from Business Week
Eastern Europe’s state-owned airlines are struggling in the post-Cold War era, with some cutting services and one, Malev of Hungary, shutting down altogether. Hopes that their Western European counterparts might buy them — and thus save them — so far seem in vain.

from Associated Press via Yahoo
Can you put your smile on strike? Flight attendants for Cathay Pacific sas they intend to do just that. And no, this is not a satirical piece from The Onion. The’re serious.

from USA Today
Is South Korea’s Incheon International Airport now the world’s greatest air terminal? The Airports Council International says yes. See why, and see how the world’s other major airports fared.

LAND
from the UN News Service via allAfrica.com
The number of tourists worldwide hit the 1 billion mark in 2012, a record. And as ominously huge as that number might sound, the UN World Tourist Organization thinks that could be a good thing. Maybe even a very good thing.

from Smarter Travel
Is duty-free shopping really the bargain it’s cracked up to be? ST’s Ed Perkins says don’t believe the hype.

from Independent Traveler
If you’re traveling in Britain, better keep it down in the hotel. The hotel noise police are looking — and listening — for you.

from Travel Weekly
Washington fires a warning shot at 22 hotel operators over their hidden fees.

from Travel Weekly
Hertz competes its purchase of Dollar Thrifty rent-a-car. What was three car rental agencies not that long ago is now one. Hertz now controls 26 percent of the rental car market. The company that owns Enterprise, National and Alamo controls 50 percent. So much for competition.

from Travel Weekly
OFFICIALLY COOL: Need some exercise? Need to charge your smartphone or your laptop? The Starwood Element Hotels chain is installing exercise cycles in its hotel gyms that simultaneously let you do both. Charge your devices by burning calories? Genius.

SEA
from Friends of the Earth
The cruise industry has sent the last decade or so trying to clean up its image as an environmentally unfriendly industry. If this report card from Friends of the Earth is any indication, it’s still a work in progress.

-0-

AFRICA
from The Star (Kenya) via allAfrica.com
Kenya launches a campaign to promote cultural tourism abroad.

from East African Business Week (Uganda) via allAfrica.com
Turkish Airlines begins flights between Istanbul and Mombasa, Kenya. Flight time, about six hours. Turkey could make a nice stopover enroute to East Africa. Hmmmm…

from The Herald (Zimbabwe) via allAfrica.com
Poaching in Africa is taking a frightening turn. Park rangers in Zimbabwe kill two elephant poachers in a shootout. The rest flee, leaving behind…mortar bombs? If poachers are using mortars, against animals or people, this is no longer a police matter. This is war.

AMERICAS
from the New York Times
Manhattan is for lovers. Book lovers, that is.

from BBC Travel
Think of Idaho and a lot of words may come to mind. “Cultural mecca” probably won’t be among them. Think again, says the BBC.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from The Guardian (London UK)
In Japan, the best skiing is found at small-scale local spots. No crowds and lots of perfect powder. Are you packing yet?

from GrindTV via Yahoo
This is how you get around China’s Mount Hua. When they say the view is to die for, they mean it. If you slip, you’ll be falling for awhile. Actually, you’ll be falling for a mile.

from Travel Weekly
Myanmar, the country most of us grew up knowing as Burma, may or may not have fully abandoned its dictatorial government and fully embraced reform — but that’s not stopping US and other Western travelers from bum-rushing this country. Good idea, or bad idea?

EUROPE
from the New York Times
There’s more to anchovies than those super-salty strips of fish most people want “held” off their pizzas — and anchovy season on the Black Sea in Turkey may be just the time and place to find out why. Ask for the hamsi.

from Reuters
Well, this is not jolly good. A TripAdvisor survey of travelers finds London not only dirty and expensive, but the second most unfriendly city in the world. Only Moscow was worse. Bloody hell, eh what!

from the Los Angeles Times
An early peek at Sochi, Russia, the Black Sea venue for the 2014 Winter Olympics.