Travel prices are dropping faster than temperatures this fall. But look closely at who’s subsidizing these sales – it could be you. Take Air Canada’s recent Thanksgiving fare discounts. You could fly from Vancouver to San Francisco for as little as $248, or from Calgary to Phoenix, Ariz., for just $198. Not bad. But who’s underwriting the fare reductions? Could it be…the taxpayer?
2001
What a difference the right battery makes. Believe me, I know. Finding a fitting power supply is often the last thing you worry about when you buy a new gadget, which is exactly what happened to me when I started shooting pictures with a new Leica digital camera last year.
Q: My wife and I both travel for our jobs. After the events of September 11, the first thing [our supervisors] asked us was, “You’re going to fly next week, right?” This seems very unreasonable to me. What are your thoughts? Do you know who we could ask if it’s reasonable to refuse to travel [...]
I used to hate autumn as a kid. The end of summer meant the beginning of school – and nine months of misery for this below-average student. But I got over it. During college, fall meant escaping my summer job and returning to the world of so-called “higher” education. After graduation, it just meant the end of the warm weather.
When a massive thunderstorm diverted Stephanie Seacord’s Columbus, Ohio-bound flight to Pittsburgh recently, she knew the fastest way to her destination would be on wheels. But she worried that high demand for rental cars at the airport could drive rates out of reach. Seacord phoned Hertz to check prices anyway. “When the reservationist asked me if I had a membership rate, I remembered the little card that came with my Professional Sports Car Club race credentials,” she says. “So I mentioned it.” Total cost: just $59.
Q: I just flew from New York to Barbados on American Airlines last Saturday and returned Sunday. I’m concerned about the safety measures. Anyone can walk into the terminal. Nobody checked tickets or identification. At check-in, there’s wasn’t one question-even the old basic ones like, “Who packed your bags?” or “Where have they been?” I [...]
With only a few days before Microsoft unleashes Windows XP on all of us, you’ve probably read one report too many about the new computer operating system. You’ve seen the stories about Passport, the controversial e-commerce protocol that critics fear will compromise our data privacy. You’ve read about the Microsoft-AOL feud about desktop icons. You’ve probably also heard about smart tags, the clever XP components that add web links to your text.
Jeff Gonnason wanted to fly from Anchorage, Alaska, to Portland for his grandmother’s 94th birthday last weekend, and he was counting on a low fare. And why not? With most planes running half-full and the major airlines on the receiving end of $15 billion in federal money, a lot of passengers were expecting a fare sale to end all fare sales. Instead, they found nothing. In some instances, they even say that prices shot up after the government’s unprecedented bailout.
Unless you’re a travel industry insider, you’ve probably never heard of a “hidden city” or “back-to-back” itinerary. But these two ticket booking tricks can save you big money on your next vacation-sometimes more than 50 percent off the published fare. Which may be one reason you’ve never heard of them. Airlines claim that both hidden cities and back-to-back (or b2b) tickets are illegal because they’re a violation of their tariff rules. They say travelers who take advantage of these loopholes are breaking their contract, and they’ve gone to great lengths to keep people like you from finding out about them.
Q: We were about to board an America West flight when the attendant informed us that we could not take our bags on the plane even though they met the size and weight requirements. I explained that I did not wish to release the bags because they contained expensive computer equipment that I could not [...]
The road can be a cruel, unforgiving teacher. Especially when it comes to technology. Take it from me. I’m writing this column from a public library as a direct result of one of the road’s more painful lessons. My laptop computer, which I depended on for this trip, is history-the victim of dreaded OS decay. Yesterday evening when I tried to boot the Gateway Solo up it screamed at me-”Beep! Beep! Beep!”-revealing only a dark screen and a clicking hard drive.
Farewell, Travel Technologist. Good-bye, Biztravel.com. I never imagined I’d have to write this column. But now, because of circumstances that no one could have anticipated, I do. We’re history. Before I sign off, though, I wanted to do a few important things.
The cellular phone, which played a pivotal role in last week’s terrorist attacks, is now at the center of another controversy. Travelers who used to reluctantly respect the airlines’ ban on wireless devices now are vowing to defy the rules, and a confrontation appears inevitable.
Planning to fly this week? There’s good news and bad news for travelers who are headed to the airport. First the good news: the dire warnings of lengthy check-in procedures and frequent delays are, in some cases, unnecessary. Passengers who took to the skies after last week’s terrorist attacks report that while security is often [...]
Excuse me while I wipe the virtual egg off my face. I was wrong about business travelers not wanting high-speed Internet access in their hotel rooms, as I claimed in a recent column. More and more road warriors are looking for speedy connections, and they’re willing to pay for the privilege.
If you’re planning to travel by air during the next few days, anticipate lengthy delays, rigorous security checks, and a series of other unexpected inconveniences. For example, electronic tickets won’t always work. In some cases, both a paper ticket and photo identification will be required for air travel. It’s best to check with your carrier [...]
The tragic terrorist attacks that leveled the World Trade Center in New York and punctured a hole in the Pentagon have changed the way we will travel forever. But how? The government froze commercial airline travel as a first response – an unprecedented measure that practically guaranteed no further air assaults, but also grounded passengers [...]
If you’re having second thoughts about air travel in the aftermath of the tragic events in New York and Washington, rest assured. No one is going to force you to fly. And a refund may be available. Even though your airline ticket may come with every restriction known to you – and perhaps some of [...]
The early results are in, and the new and controversial online travel site, Orbitz, is mostly living up to its promise of low fares and customer-friendly service. Orbitz was spawned in the late 1990s, when airlines were struggling to reclaim some of the revenue earned by travel agents and Web sites for distributing tickets (commissions paid for domestic flights totaled $2.1 billion last year). Five carriers – American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United – joined forces to create what became Orbitz.
It is without a doubt one of the most laughable but little-noticed ironies of the information age: our cellular phones don’t like to travel. Think about it. Those ultra-light wireless devices that are meant to be taken everywhere are practically useless outside of our own country. It’s not that they aren’t portable, per se, but that they’re rarely compatible with another cellular network. You might as well leave the handsets at home.
