A great summer for travel?
Surprise! After a dismal spring for travelers - one marked by intrusive airport security searches, fluctuating air fares, and more fears of domestic terrorism - experts tell us we’re about to have one of the best summer travel seasons on the books. Airports will be less crowded. Prices for everything from hotels to airline tickets will remain reasonable, and we may even see some healthy discounts. For the first time since Sept. 11, many Americans will get out of town and take a well-deserved vacation. In a survey conducted by Protocol Communications, a Danvers, Mass., research firm, 57 percent of leisure travelers said they were relatively unconcerned about safety in the wake of the terrorist attacks.
Posh, not pricey
And the winner is … Cozumel. In a U.S. News survey of 223 travel agents, the Mexican island off the eastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula topped the list of destinations that offer the best vacation value in North America and the Caribbean. Secluded St. Bart’s, on the other hand, is the place to go if your cash flow is endless. The Caribbean isle led the ranks of spots that give the least value for the dollar.
Adieu, troubleshooter
Q: I heard that the Travel Troubleshooter column has been cancelled. Is that true? If so, what happened?
– Jim Nova
A: Thanks for your concern. The answer to your question is: yes and no. The Travel Troubleshooter, which has been appearing weekly on SmarterLiving.com, is over. But the column will live on - in syndication and [...]
More yield management strategies
In last week’s column, I compared the airlines’ mysterious yield management systems to a game. In this installment of the Travel Tightwad, I’m going to tell you how to stack the metaphorical deck in your favor - and win. Airfare sales, which were the topic of last week’s story, are a great way of getting on the right side of the yield management equation. But if you overlook the other opportunities to play the system, you’ll miss out.
Should tax pay for blunder?
Key Largo’s heroic efforts to salvage the U.S.S. Spiegel Grove, the world’s biggest and most expensive artificial reef, is weighted down by a troubling and largely overlooked fact: Much of the estimated $1.2 million that it will cost to scuttle the vessel isn’t really its money alone to spend. The funds belong to the taxpayers and, to some extent, the tourists who visit the Keys.
Playing the system to win
What’s the easiest way to start an in-flight brawl? Tape a picture of Osama Bin Laden to your seat? Drink a quart of vodka and make a pass at your seatmate? Nope. Just tell anyone how much you paid for your airline ticket. Chances are they shelled out more than you did (they’ll get the first swing) or you overpaid (then you’ll get it).
Given the once-over
Q: On two recent flights with Southwest Airlines I received complete baggage and body searches. Apparently I match a profile because I made a reservation within three days of travel, traveled on a one-way ticket, or changed my time of departure.
The latest security checks have been totally ineffective. On a flight from Chicago to Cleveland [...]
No future for tech travel?
Is there a future for those of use who travel with technology? A review of the headlines during this column’s five-year run would suggest that the answer is “no.â€
Save US Airways
Market forces should have killed US Airways long ago. Years of mismanagement, a bungled merger with United Airlines and the burden of the industry’s highest labor costs, left the Arlington, Va., carrier in critical condition. And a dismal last year, in which the airline lost a record a $2.12 billion, put it on life support.
No dream vacation in Tahiti
Q: My boyfriend and I recently took a trip to Tahiti, purchasing a vacation package from Tahiti Vacations. The booking representative told me that our hotel had snorkels and outrigger canoes free of charge and available for our use. When I got there, I found out they didn’t have the outriggers, and the snorkels were [...]
A last look at the mail
Last week I promised I’d take a look at the mail this column received during more than four years on the Internet. There’s a good reason for this retrospective. Not only is this column ending in a few weeks, which is probably as good an excuse as any to look back.
Good deals are ‘inn’ season
Some of you out there are cringing. I just know it. You saw the word ‘inn’ above my byline and maybe you remember the last time I wrote about bed and breakfasts. After that story appeared on CNN.com I thought I’d never darken the door of a small hotel again. Well, this should come as good news to both the irate innkeepers and their disheartened guests. I’ve revisited some of the properties I badmouthed, and while the experiences were generally positive, it’s the deals that compel me to recommend a B&B this summer. I recently covered an uptick in two-for-one travel specials during June, July and August for U.S. News & World Report, but there’s no more dramatic an example than among small hotels.
Kill the TSA
Before Sept. 11, when airlines still paid for their own security, critics charged that profit-hungry carriers had quietly run a chilling cost-benefit analysis. Since it was virtually impossible to create an airtight security system, the airlines decided to hire the cheapest guards and buy the least expensive screening equipment.
A technologist retrospective
In three short weeks The Travel Technologist is scheduled to log off. But don’t click away just yet. Although I’ll continue to cover travel technology elsewhere (more on that in a future article, I promise), I’m taking a moment this week to look back on a feature that’s lasted almost five years.
Flying shotgun
Can a pistol-packing pilot stop the next terrorist hijacking with lethal force? Airline crewmembers, who believe they’re the last line of defense against a repeat of Sept. 11, have been lobbying the government to let them carry firearms on board.