Two, Two, Two Best Airlines

We just saw two Tweets on Twitter – one from jetBlue that said, “Woot! Thank you all so much! J.D. Power and Associates ranked us top in Customer Satisfaction for the 5th time,” and the other from Alaska Airlines that said, “Thank you! Highest in customer satisfaction among traditional carriers in North America 2 yrs in a row!”

At first quick glance, we were confused, two “highest/top” ratings? Then, we looked more closely – Alaska did say “...among traditional carriers.” So we went to the J.D. Power press release, and saw that indeed, both statements were accurate: Alaska was tops in the Traditional Network Carrier Segment, and jetBlue tops in the Low-Cost Carrier Segment.

What’s interesting are the actual numbers. We assume (which often gets us in trouble) that the metrics were the same for each category. If so, ALL the low-cost carriers had a higher numerical score – and therefore were rated better – than the BEST traditional carrier (Alaska). This isn’t to pick on Alaska – we really like the airline – but it shows one huge reason that the low-cost operators are successful. Wake up Big Guys, it’s not (just) the ticket price of the upstarts that attracts consumers, it’s actual SERVICE.

Yes, we know that’s a strange concept, but as J.D. Power notes, “...overall customer satisfaction with airlines in 2009 has declined for a third consecutive year to a four-year low.”

For the record, the low-cost carriers, in order from the top, were: jetBlue, Southwest, WestJet, Frontier, and Air Tran. The traditional carriers, again in order, were: Alaska, Continental, Delta, Air Canada, American, Northwest, United, and US Airways

Loose Threads – 29 June 2009

The weird, wonderful, and hugely popular London Eye is being refurbished – one cabin at a time. The upgrade is planned to be complete by the opening of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.

View From the Wing has an excellent roundup of current mileage and hotel reward credit cards.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded Delta’s credit rating – still better than its rivals, though. According to ATW News, Fitch also commented earlier this month that United, US Air, and American “could be forced to file for bankruptcy protection ‘as early as the winter if operating trends fail to stabilize.’”

We’re still not completely sure about multi-country SIM chips for GSM phones, but a new one has caught our eye. We haven’t tried it yet, but the Global Roaming chip seems to offer excellent world-wide coverage and very competitive rates.

Republic & Lufthansa

We’ve been pondering the latest news of acquisitions by Republic Airways (U.S.) and Lufthansa (Germany). And we really haven’t come up with any brilliant commentary about whether their recent acquisitions hold portent for the future of air travel, or are just signs of a couple of successful (?) companies growing while the cherry picking is good.

Just for the record, here are the airlines that Lufthansa owns (or at least will probably own once regulatory approval is granted), plus a couple of others that Lufthansa has an ownership percentage in.

• Lufthansa
• bmi
• Brussels
• Austrian
• Eurowings
• Swiss
• Air Dolomiti
• Germanwings
• Sun Express 50%
• jetBlue 19%
• Luxair 13%

Republic’s list reads like this. Note that Republic hasn’t operated any planes under its own name. Yet.

• Frontier
• Midwest
• Republic Airlines (operating flights for US Airways Express, Midwest Connect)
• Chautauqua (operating flights for AmericanConnection, Continental Express, Delta Connection, United Express, US Airways Express)
• Shuttle America (operating flights for Delta Connection, United Express, Mokulele Airlines)

Just focusing on the U.S. airline landscape, back on April 15 we said, “Here’s our only slightly tongue-in-cheek prediction: Five years from now the U.S. will have five dominant airlines – Southwest, jetBlue, Alaska, and two other airlines created from some combination/merger/bankruptcy of the existing five majors.” But we certainly are far from being airline experts.

Yesterday (6/25), Swelblog (who does know something about the airline industry) wrote: “The top domestic airlines of tomorrow might be Southwest, jetBlue, Republic and maybe two of the five current legacy carriers.”

Ryanair – The World’s First Completely Self-Service Airline

We’re beginning to think that Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has been drinking too much of his own Kool-Aid.

From the Los Angeles Times:
“Ryanair... Europe’s largest low-cost airline, will bar passengers from traveling with anything other than hand luggage as it seeks to cut costs.
Ryanair plans to offer an ‘unlimited’ allowance for carry-on bags ... while abolishing checked luggage from next spring.
‘We’re going to move away from check-in luggage to more carry-on luggage,’ O’Leary said. ‘This isn't the end of civilization as we know it, it only sounds revolutionary. I can assure you it’s not.’
Ryanair is already scrapping airport check-in desks for passengers from Oct. 1, compelling people to register for flights via the company’s Web site. According to O’Leary’s new rule on baggage, passengers must carry all belongings onto the plane themselves and only when overhead lockers become full will items be stowed in the cargo hold.”

The airline is basically being converted into a complete self-serve operation. Think of the history of grocery checkout. Originally, you’d enter a store and ask the clerk for everything you wanted. Then came stores where you could wander the aisles, choosing your own products, and upon checkout a cashier would unload your groceries and total your bill. Next came the conveyor belts, but a store employee would still unload your cart onto the check-out belt and the cashier would ring it up. Soon, you were emptying your own cart onto the belt, and sometimes bagging your own groceries. Now, you can go completely self-serve, without interacting with another person (unless the flashing lights go off and the nasty voice tells you there’s a problem).

We can see that happening with Ryanair. Some day soon, you’ll purchase your ticket online; print your own boarding pass; schlep yourself and your bags through security; scan your boarding pass at an automated turnstile; throw your bags in the belly of an airplane; find a seat by yourself; watch a recorded safety briefing; break out your credit card to go take a pee; deplane upon landing; search through the cargo hold for your bags; and continue on your jolly journey.

Each Ryanair flight will then only require three employees – two in the cockpit and a hall monitor in the cabin. No check-in personnel, no baggage handlers, no one collecting boarding passes.

Is this an airline you’d want to fly?

Loose Threads - 23 June 2009

If you write a travel blog – or any blog, for that matter – watch out what you write and how you disclose any compensation you might receive. The Federal Trade Commission wants to get in your face and “monitor” what’s written online about products, trips, or anything that purports to be a sort of “review” that might have been influenced by compensation from a company. The FTC has an 86-page document detailing the proposal.
UPDATE: John C. Dvorak, writing on pcmag.com, has the most well-written commentary on this topic. He didn’t pay us anything to say that.

Travel Business News:

• Lufthansa has entered into agreement to purchase the majority of bmi airline.
• Frontier will be acquired by Republic airlines, but will continue to fly under the Frontier name. (UPDATE: And today Republic announced the acquisition of Midwest.)
  
• Clear, providers of verified-identity security services, has folded.

Loose Threads - 22 June 2009

View From The Wing has a good evaluation and commentary about the proposed new carry-on-baggage-standardization bill that’s been introduced in Congress. The bill, HR 2870, is delightfully being called the “Securing Cabin Baggage Act.”

No airline has yet to make it work – the all-business model (Silverjet, EOS, Maxjet) – and it looks like the last holdout may not survive either. Speculation is rampant that British Airways will soon shut down their OpenSkies subsidiary. We’ve wondered about it from the beginning. Weirdly, BA is inaugurating a new all-business service from London City to New York.

Finally, another mention of how provincial we can be in viewing the airline industry. Today’s headlines from Alternative Airlines News:

• Vietnam Airlines signs for 18 new Airbus aircraft
• Daallo Airlines launch services from Hargeisa
• airBaltic launch flights Riga to Warsaw and Pskov
• Iranian Airline Mahan Air launches UK to India service
• BH airlines (Air Bosna) and Montenegro Airlines announce new routes
• Australia loses third airline [Oz Jet] this year
• Avianova - New Russian Low cost airline to be launched
• Chile gets new domestic airline - PAL
• Moscow to Irkutsk, New Route From Transaero Airlines
• Mexican airline, Aviacsa grounded
• SBA Airlines launch Panama to Caracas

Questioning Travel Blogger Ethics: Painting With Too Broad a Brush?

Nicholas Kralev, in his blog On The Fly (published by The Washington Times), revisits an ongoing discussion about the ethics of travel blogs (and, by extension, all blogs) that aren’t written by “professional” journalists. While fairly objective, in my view the article perpetrates some myths about travel writing – on blogs or in traditional media. I wish Kralev had taken this nascent discussion and expanded it a lot.

Kralev writes that, “the blogosphere has no editorial rules; authors are free to write anything they want, and they don’t answer to editors.” Generally true. He adds: “The absence of an ethics code hasn’t been lost on travel companies, which have been offering bloggers free or discounted flights, hotel stays and meals. Most mainstream media organizations are almost certain to decline such gifts.” I guess also technically true, but....

Having been in the “mainstream media” as a writer, editor, and publisher, I agree that any outward appearance of favoritism in the industry is kept pretty well in check. And generally freebies are frowned upon. But I also know that there are myriad subtle shadings of favoritism. Big advertisers may be more likely to have their products reviewed in the publication. Publishers can design special editorial sections to appeal to an industry or group of advertisers. And writers who successfully pitch a destination story idea will be paid (by the magazine) for their words and insight into that place – maybe not getting directly “paid” to travel there, but they will be recompensated for their travels by the article sale.

Mainstream Media are businesses – they’re in it to maximize profits. Travel publications want readers to desire to visit a place, and to buy the next issue of the magazine; purchase airfare from advertisers; and shop with other travel suppliers – negative destination articles don’t sell magazines. Conversely, few, if any, bloggers make enough money to pay even their minimal web hosting costs.

The world is full of self promotion. Lodging properties game the system on TripAdvisor and other travel review sites by recruiting folks to post glowing reviews; small book publishers have been known to round up friends to write great reviews on Amazon; and many of your “followers” on Twitter are out to sell you porn or cameras or airline tickets or their product/service of the moment.

I believe that most travel bloggers are in it for the joy of writing and sharing their thoughts. To me, they are the least offensive self-promotional folks out there. As long as a travel (or other) blogger indicates that his or her trip was paid for, a review can be taken in its proper context. And even if the writer doesn’t explicitly state that a trip was a freebie, well, Sunset Magazine doesn’t always say in the opening of an article on North Wonderfulstan that there’s an ad for the same destination in the back of the book.

The common complaint is that when freebies are given, the travel blogger seldom writes anything negative. Yet so it is with Mainstream Media. Negative articles (covering any topic) usually come from deep “investigative” research. Seldom does a Mainstream Media travel writer say anything bad about any destination (look no further than the Sunday travel section of any newspaper). If anything, I believe that travel blog writers might be more likely to be objective or write a critical piece simply because they don’t have a Mainstream Media advertising director sitting in the next office. Bloggers are known for being opinionated, and revel in voicing those opinions.

A consumer is probably more likely to be fooled by a slick color brochure for Tropical Holiday Paradise than by any blogger’s write-up of the property – no matter how glowing the words. Another check-and-balance is that most bloggers offer their readers a way to comment directly and immediately on their postings. Blog readers are quick to slam anything they disagree with or perceive as inaccurate.

There have been too many Mainstream Media articles painting bloggers as not being “real” writers. I’ve seen some terrible writing on travel (and other) blogs, but I’ve also seen third-grade writing (and research and editing) in the Wall St. Journal and National Geographic Traveler and a host of other publications. And I’ve also seen – especially in the travel realm – many instances where it’s obvious that the writer of the mainstream-publication article does not know the subject; has not even traveled to the destination; or has been edited (supposedly by professional editors) so that a great deal of the story is missing or inaccurate.

Lastly, I even dislike the word “blogger.” We are writers. Some of us are good, some are crappy, most fall in the middle. But that’s true everywhere. There’s a class-distinction feeling to having a different name for folks who write about travel and other topics on “non-professional” websites or blogs. We don’t call newspaper writers “newsies” nor magazine writers “maggies.” Let’s get away from the somewhat pejorative term “blogger” and just all be writers.

We Don’t Make ‘Em Up, We Just Report ‘Em

Coming soon to a country near you: In-flight cell phone use. The last two major holdouts in the UK cell phone industry – Vodafone and Orange – have agreed to let their subscribers use their mobiles on aircraft featuring the OnAir system.

A report in the UK TimesOnline says that the service will cost £2.50 per minute (about $4 currently). The article stresses that many mobile users could be shocked by a big phone bill, but the CEO of OnAir offers the best quote in the piece. “The British do not talk much, but the Italians talk a lot. It must be a cultural thing.”

For us, though, the scariest line from the article is this: “...British Airways will introduce the system for its service from London City Airport to New York this summer.” Currently, U.S. airlines have resisted implementing in-flight cell usage, but you could lose money betting that ban will last for long, with the airlines scraping for every cent they can make from fees and add-ons.

Prepare to say goodbye to whatever tiny trace of civility was left in the airline cabin.

Reward Credit Cards Redux

Just a few days ago, we posted a piece about a survey from MilesLink that said most credit card users (in their poll) strongly preferred frequent flyer miles as rewards. We tended to disagree, noting that we felt miles seldom offer the most value. A recent article by finance columnist Liz Weston quotes a J.D. Power survey about which cards and card companies users were “happiest” with. American Express was at the top of the list and HSBC at the bottom, echoing our sentiments.

Similarly, the card users in the survey strongly favored hotel rewards as the best, followed by cash back – again, our feelings and recommendations exactly. (One small but shocking tidbit in the article noted that J.D. Power said that, on average, 10% of consumers reported having problems with their account in the previous year.)

Travel rewards, annual fees, award reductions, changes in terms are rampant in today’s credit-card environment. We’ll continue to follow and comment on the latest news, especially as it relates to travel and rewards cards

Thoughts About Twitter

Everyone in the world is apparently either on Twitter or talking about Twitter. On the site, there seems to be this weird competition to see who can have the most followers. (In case you’re one of the last four people on the planet who doesn’t know, on Twitter you post 140-character Tweets, and people can choose to follow your postings. You, of course, can also choose to follow other people or companies. Or not.)

It seems that many folks are on Twitter just to spew their babblings – there are an incredible number of inane “I woke up tired this morning” posts. But I guess for some folks that’s fine. Personally, I view Twitter as a mini blog feed – it’s a place where I can see quick information bites from folks whose opinions I value. Thus, as I said on one of my Twitter posts, I can’t imagine following even a hundred people – just the people I like to read.

As for followers, well, I guess more followers spreads “your words” out there, but so what? I write of things that interest me, and that I feel might be of interest to others. If you don’t want to read what I write, that’s totally OK. When I read a newspaper I skip many articles – I don’t think the writer cares too much. Maybe I’m missing something, but I just don’t need a hundred or a thousand or a million followers. I’d rather take pride in the fact that the followers I do have chose to follow my rambling thoughts and opinions.

As I write this, I just looked at Twitter to see what’s up. Through one of the people I follow, I saw one of his people links, which led to this site. This is exactly what I’m talking about. This bozo and his bozo software (“Increase Your Followers By 10's of Thousands!” [sounds like computer Viagra to me]) are focused on one thing – MORE followers. This guy has nothing to say, nothing worth reading, is just focused on egotistical self promotion. He apparently doesn’t even write anything, just uses the software he’s pitching to create automated posts by the thousands.

So forgive me if I don’t have near as many followers as either you or Oprah do. I really just don’t care. But if you do find my writings interesting, thanks for following this blog and on Twitter. (Find us on Twitter here.)

More Fun With Numbers

The June 10 MilesLink newsletter reported results of a poll about preferences for frequent flyer and reward credit cards. One of the questions was....
“If you could have one credit card only from the list below, which card would you choose?
66.7% Co-branded credit card earning miles in a frequent flyer program
0% Co-branded credit card earning points in a hotel loyalty program
16.7% Cash-back credit card.
11.1% American Express Membership Rewards card.
5.6% Diners Club Club Rewards card.
0% Other type of credit card not listed above.”
We, of course, found this rather strange. Many reasonably knowledgeable observers who follow trends in the world of rewards credit cards frequently recommend Amex Membership Rewards or the Starwood Hotels’ Amex (and occasionally Hilton’s Amex, as we do). These same writers are very frequently of the opinion that airline card programs give you far less value and versatility.

In unrelated fun with numbers, four airlines received votes in our recent blog poll: “What U.S. airline will be the first to fly to Havana, Cuba?”
Delta received 41% of the votes
American 33%
United 11%
Virgin America 11%
We didn’t vote in our own poll, but our two bets were for Continental and JetBlue.

British Airways CEO Speaks

We love good quotes. According to ATW Daily News, British Airways CEO Willie Walsh wrote in the latest edition of BA News that “[the OpenSkies subsidiary] is not profitable, Heathrow is not profitable, Gatwick is not profitable, cargo is not profitable and British Airways is not profitable.” Cheerful.

Good Guess or Just Wishful Thinking?

“Think Tanks Expect US Travel to Cuba to Open Fully by Oct” – Jamaica Observer

Stupid

Could we possibly say anything more when the headline says it all? “Airlines Reduce Size of Spoons to Save Fuel” – Telegraph UK

Opinion: The Two Most Rewarding Reward Credit Cards

After posting several entries recently about changes in credit card rewards, we thought we’d detail our two current favorite reward credit cards. (Note that we are NOT an affiliate marketing site for any card or other product, so we have no agenda in recommending any one card over another.)

The Hilton American Express offers 6 Hilton HHonors points per $1 spent at grocery stores, gas stations, drug stores, and for phone, cable/satellite TV, and internet service; 3 points for other purchases. This card is useful primarily if you stay at Hilton properties (ranging from Hampton to Doubletree to Hilton, etc.). When we use points in lieu of payment, we generally feel we get about 1% reward per point. Thus, the Hilton Amex gives us what we think of as 6% or 3% rewards for our purchases.

The Schwab Visa offers two significant advantages: It offers 2% cash rewards on all purchases, and it does not charge any foreign-currency conversion fees (nearly every other credit card charges about 3%). So used for international travel (or any purchase in a foreign currency) the Schwab card provides the equivalent of a 5% reward. The Schwab rewards are a little awkward, in that you need to open a Schwab brokerage account for the rewards to be credited to. But there are no fees nor minimum balances for that account.

(We still have a fond spot in our hearts for the Alaska Visa, but Alaska Airlines isn’t a viable airline for many folks around the country. In addition, the card has a $75 annual fee, but you do receive an annual $50 companion ticket – a pretty good value if you use it for an $800 Hawaii ticket. And Alaska does have many airline partners, including Delta, AirFrance, American, British Airways, Qantas, LAN. Still, the card’s reward is only 1 mile per $1 spent, so you need to use your miles wisely to get a return better than 2%.)

Needless to say, within the current credit-card environment, you’ll never know in advance whether or not your card’s rewards will be changed in the future. But for now, and for most travelers, we think the Hilton Amex and the Schwab Visa are your top two bets.

UPDATE: Our friend Marcus (@CreditMatters on Twitter) reminded us that Hilton’s new fee card – Surpass – offers 9 Hilton HHonors points for spending at Hilton properties (in addition to the same other Hilton points as above), and comes with a basic membership in the Priority Pass airport lounge access program ($99 value). If you spend $20,000 per year on the card, you receive Hilton Gold status; with $40K spend you receive Diamond status. Annual fee of $75.

Delta Extends Mileage Expiration with 1 Mile Deposits

Delta Airlines seems to have deposited 1 mile in every frequent flyer account. That means you now have another 24 months before your miles expire. This is good news for infrequent flyers who may have some miles with an airline, but don’t want to lose them if they don’t fly the airline for awhile. Remember also that once you link your Northwest and Delta frequent flyer accounts, you can transfer back and forth between the two until the Delta/Northwest merger is finalized.

Misc. Travel News

Microsoft has entered the travel-search game with Bing, a combination of Farecast and MSN Travel. Bing also has a weeklong trivia contest on Twitter, beginning today, June 3.

Hilton Hotels is offering 25% off their “best available rate” if paying with a Visa Signature card. Pre-qualification of the card is required before booking. Finally, a decent benefit for Visa Signature.

United Airlines has a game you can play daily through July 17 for a chance to win a year’s Economy Plus Access.

A survey by IdeaWorks looked at on-line award seat availability on 5 U.S. and 5 International carriers. The results are limited, but interesting.
1 Iberia – successful 83% of the time
2 Lufthansa – 66%
3 British Airways – 63%
4 American – 58%
5 Air France/KLM – 53%
6 Delta/Northwest – 44%
7 Continental – 36%
8 United – 18%
9 Scandinavian Airlines – 7%
10 US Airways – 4%

What's In a Name? (Not Shakespeare)

The TSA is now requiring the name on your travel documents (passport or driver’s license) to exactly match the name on your ticket. So if your passport says John James Smith, you better not buy a ticket for John J. Smith (unless you want even more hassle from the TSA – as if that were actually possible). The TSA says they’ll cut travelers a little slack “for the near future.” Sure.

Most driver’s licenses use middle initials; passports use middle names. Some airline websites don’t have fields for full middle names, just initials. Have fun.

Note, also, that on August 15, you’ll have to provide your birth date and gender when purchasing tickets.

Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
JULIET:
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

The Sky Is Falling (On Credit Card Rewards)

Here we go again. Both the House and Senate have quickly passed legislation that will attempt to curb some of the credit-card industry’s current practices in the areas of fees, interest rates, late-payment penalties, and the like. Of course, The Pundits are out in force, proclaiming (to paraphrase): “The end of rewards cards as we know them,” “Annual fees will reappear for most cards,” and our favorite, “Use your rewards/miles/points now before you lose them.” (Some examples: Recent articles from the Wall St. Journal, New Credit Rules, New York Times, and Barron’s.)

With enough spin from The Pundits, this might provide travelers with a new worst enemy to focus on instead of the airlines. Realistically, we expect that, yes, there will be some changes in terms and rewards. But the credit-card landscape is incredibly competitive. Despite any new legislative caps on fees or disclosure rules or other regulations, the credit-card companies will still want you to spend more and more on their cards. They only make money when you use your plastic, not when your card sits unused in your desk drawer.

Sure, some credit-card rewards may be reduced (as is apparently already happening with some cards), but we also wouldn’t be surprised to see some sweet new offers coming along. Again, compare this to the airline industry, which is now throwing frequent flyer miles around for shopping, bonuses for flying certain routes or times, signing up for newsletters – all in a competitive effort to retain and gain business.

Make no mistake, the credit-card companies do not want you to switch your spending to cash (unless you are one of their defaulting customers). They do want you to carry a balance, since even somewhat lower interest rates on outstanding balances make them lots of money.

As the Chinese proverb says: May you live in interesting times. The proverb should also add: Pay your credit-card bill in full every month.

UPDATE 5/21/09: A couple of other sensible and non-sensational views on the (proposed) new regulations on credit card companies, and what the changes mean for reward cards. View From The Wing and Upgrade: Travel Better.

UPDATE 5/22/09: Obama signed the law today, which takes effect in 9 months. It will be interesting to see which of the many viewpoints noted above turn out correct.

UPDATE: 5/23/09 A purported “expert article” on Yahoo Finance (really just a cut-and-paste roundup of other articles) offers still more views on this topic. The Words of The Pundits keep flowing.

Airline Customer Satisfaction

Yippee! Another fun, mindless survey of the airline industry is just out!

Readers of this blog know of our fondness for surveys that purport to be gauges of customer experiences, quality, favorites, or just silly lists. The latest is the annual “American Customer Satisfaction Index.” The ACSI rates or ranks many industries, and businesses within those industries. Here’s how the airlines scored:

• Southwest 81
• All Others 77
• Continental 68
• Airlines (as an industry) 64
• Delta 64
• American 60
• US Airways 59
• Northwest 57
• United 56

A couple of observations. No matter what the scale, the difference between the bottom four airlines is essentially insignificant. (Although, from our personal consumer perspective, United deserves its bottom rating.) Secondly, the “all others” category contains, we assume, JetBlue, Alaska, AirTran, and others. The average of 77 for these mystery carriers compares to the average of 60.7 for the six legacy carriers – that is a significant difference.

See kids, numbers can be fun!

How many, uh... airlines, yea airlines... can you see in this picture?

Dual-Number (U.S. and UK) Cell Phones

We’ve long been fans of pay-as-you go international SIM chips for GSM cell phones. The two basic types are single-country chips and multi-country international chips. Our experience has been good with single-country chips, and mixed with international chips.

Now, Telestial (one of the largest U.S. retailers of chips and phones) is offering a dual-number (U.S. and UK) international chip. There are 3 Passport options, but the Telestial website does not have an easy comparison chart – you’ll have to look at each offering, and do the pencil-on-the-napkin comparisons yourself. (We’ve had mixed experiences with Telestial. A few years ago, a chip we purchased [no longer offered] worked poorly, couldn’t be topped up, and we couldn’t contact the Telestial customer service number from overseas. But, upon our return, they did send a replacement chip with additional call credit at no charge.)

The big advantage to this type of phone is that it should be cheaper for your U.S. contacts to call your U.S. number than calling an international number. From an outgoing call standpoint, the call charges seem a little high in most countries – depending on which of the 3 Passport chips you choose – but not terrible. (A lot cheaper than most of Mobal’s outgoing call costs. Mobal may have the broadest country-coverage, but their rates are pretty darn high. We keep it in our bag as an emergency-only chip.)

If you’re seriously interested in a multi-country SIM, it’s worth your while to check out PrePaidGSM for a good comparison of the many offers available. (The site also offers extensive info on single-country SIMs.) Note, too, that many international SIMs are call-back type systems, where you place a call, wait for your phone to ring, then answer and are connected. If you find this cumbersome, dig deeper into each offering to see how it operates.

Bottom line, the Telestial Passport could be an interesting international communications tool. Until we dig a little further, we’ll probably continue to stick with single-country SIMs for our overseas travels, unless we were planning that around-the-world trip, when a multi-country chip would be invaluable.

UPDATE 17 May 2009:
It looks like several international-roaming cell operators will be rolling out dual U.S./UK SIM chips. These products are all still very new. Our suggestion: Wait. Any problems with the new chips should work themselves out in 6 months or so. As always, we suggest checking the PrepaidGSM.com website for the best unbiased info.

Another warning: Single-country cell operators (Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, etc.) seem to generally be staying in business. The international-roaming operators come and go. We’ve seen United Mobile (once universally touted as “the best”), 09, Yackie, and others disappear in just the last year. Again, buyer beware.

Why Would You Ever Want to Fly These Airlines?

Ryanair charges up to £40 just for boarding passes.
Air Jamaica charges for bags that may not even arrive.
US Airways can’t figure out how to board passengers.
Alitalia ... is, well, just “the world’s worst airline.”

Significant Reward Credit Card Changes

Not that we’re really surprised. In today’s credit/financial environment, change is the rule rather than the exception. We’ve received notice of (or read about) several coming changes in travel rewards credit cards that we have previously recommended.

Indications are that the popular Chase Freedom card – which offered 3% rewards in certain categories – is being eviscerated. The new scheme is apparently only 1%, with allegedly some monthly bonus categories to be announced.

The Freedom card had been one of our highly recommended cards, with its 3% rewards beating most airline mile cards. No longer, apparently. Guess we’ll now stick with the Hilton American Express (which offers good-value Hilton points) and the Schwab Visa (2% cash rewards on everything) for most of our purchases. We’ll also look more seriously into the Starwood Amex (even though it carries an annual fee).

Also, according to our latest American Express FreedomPass (Open savings) business card statement, the 3% discount for purchasing Delta tickets with the card is ending May 15, 2009. The 3-5% discounts for purchases from Marriott (many, but not all, hotel brands), Hertz (U.S. rentals), JetBlue, Hyatt (U.S. properties), and some other non-travel businesses continue in effect. (Plus, Amex is adding to the list of non-travel merchants in this discount program.)

Finally, Advanta, issuers of business credit cards (which had pretty lousy rewards anyway) is apparently ending its credit card business. This shouldn’t affect too many of our travel readers, as the card has never been a prime “travel” credit card.

Cuba Travel Petition from Orbitz

Orbitz wants you to sign a petition to help end the Cuba travel ban. In exchange for signing their online petition, Orbitz is offering a $100 voucher for a future “vacation” to Cuba when/if such travel is allowed, and when/if Orbitz offers such travel.

Excellent Customer Service

It’s time for a couple of Customer Service kudos. We know we can get kind of grumpy on this site, so we’d like to acknowledge two recent excellent customer-service experiences.

We recently purchased two carry-on bags from Rick Steves, and the telescoping handle on one bag became disconnected the first time we used it. Their customer service department responded in one day, and is sending a replacement bag, no questions asked.

Secondly, Alaska Airlines continues to impress us. Actually, there was no single “special” customer-service treatment, just the fact that the airline actually performs as if they want us as customers/passengers.

Virtual Credit Cards

After suffering from one too many online credit card fiascos and ripoffs, we began researching virtual credit card numbers. (In the past month, we had a disputed charge with Earthlink, we had one of our credit card numbers used by some scumbag, and we received a letter from Batteries.com about a security breach of their computers.)

Virtual credit cards are one-time or short-term numbers that are created by your credit card company and can then be used for an online transaction. These temporary numbers can be time-limited and amount-limited.

We have found the service offered on most Bank of America credit-card accounts, and on some Citi accounts. (Discover also apparently offers the service, but we don’t have any Discover cards to test it out.) Charges on the virtual cards go right to your normal credit card statement, and carry the same purchase and fraud protections that your card offers.

Of course, this adds a small level of complexity to your online shopping, but may be worthwhile for purchases from unfamiliar merchants. Also, we see this as a way to stop unauthorized recurring billings and card-number theft, since the virtual card has a dollar limit. Once you feel confident with a new merchant, if you choose you can use your regular card number for future transactions.

You can use a virtual credit card any time you don’t have to present a physical card. Which means, of course, not to use it for airline tickets, hotels, or car rentals, as you will probably have to present your card at the counter.

Another small benefit, surprisingly, is that using a virtual credit card number requires you to log in to your card website to obtain the number. That also gives you the opportunity to check all your charges and balances more frequently – something we should all be doing more often.

Opinion: Don’t Panic About the Swine Flu

Disclaimer: This is our opinion only – take medical advice from medical professionals.

But.... The average annual number of regular, seasonal flu-related deaths in the U.S. alone is 36,000. The Centers for Disease Control says, “[Study] results...showed that...36,171 flu-related deaths occurred per year, on average.” Additionally, estimates are that worldwide flu-related deaths are 250,000 to 500,000 per year.

Currently (May 1) reported by the World Health Organization there are 9 confirmed swine flu deaths in Mexico, and 1 in the U.S. (Mexican health officials are reporting 159 deaths from the disease.)

We just read an absurd travel newsletter where the author talks of going out and buying more than 60 pounds of rice at Costco (in case food supplies are interrupted worldwide for months?), and that he couldn’t find hand sanitizer packets anywhere. (This is also a travel writer who still doesn’t believe in Global Warming.)

In our opinion, you’re more at risk of getting sick from using the bathrooms at Costco than from flying or traveling during this flu “pandemic” (a lovely scare word from the medical community).

Yes, this may get worse – much worse. But for now we think it’s another media/political thriller. Wash your hands. Try not to kiss someone who’s sneezing. If you have travel plans, go. You’re probably more likely to be killed in an ambush in Kazakhstan or get food poisoning by eating a bad fish taco than you are of getting – much less dying from – the swine flu while you’re traveling.

America, and the world: Stop being so afraid.

Does the World Need First Class?

Does anyone really need first class seating and service? Wouldn’t it be nice to spread the wealth more toward the back of the plane?

It’s kind of like those arguments that Wall Street has been making saying that without obscene salaries and bonuses, the “talent” will go elsewhere. It’s claimed that the huge compensation packages are necessary to keep all the geniuses from abandoning ship and starting hedge funds. This, of course, referring to the brokers and wizards that got the financial industry into the mess it’s in – these being the same bozos that sank the whole world into the Great Recession.

OK. Now that that’s off my chest....
Qantas has said that they “have too few seats on some of our aircraft.” As reported in ATW Daily News, the airline has or will be removing some first class cabins, and reducing the number of business class seats so it can focus on economy and premium economy.

This makes great sense, even though in the fat times airlines made tons of money off first-class passengers paying thousands of dollars more than the price of an economy ticket. But now reports are that paid first class tickets are rare, and the airlines are filling those seats with upgrade passengers.

But the bigger question is whether the airlines – or the world – really need that level of ostentation. (Showers and casinos for first-class passengers, Mr. Branson?) We can only hope that the world will continue to be “a different world” after this financial wake-up call. We’re skeptical, but a more egalitarian world – with wealth and luxuries ratcheted down a bit and spread around a bit more – would be a wonderful place.

New Credit Card for Old Northwest Visa Holders (and Others)

With Northwest being absorbed into Delta, the Northwest Visa that was offered by U.S. Bank will be disappearing – just like the terminals, signs, and paint jobs on anything that said Northwest. With that change, the only Delta affiliated credit card will be from American Express.

But U.S. Bank isn’t sitting still. If you’re a current Northwest WorldPerks Visa card holder, you should be receiving a new U.S. Bank FlexPerks Visa card – with the same account number (thus, no interruption in auto payments, etc.). Of course, U.S. Bank will also be offering the card to new customers.

The card is a “fake miles” card, which basically awards points you can redeem for a ticket on “more than 150 airlines.” The Signature Visa earns the equivalent of up to 2% return (“up to $400 ticket value for 20,000 miles”) and carries a $49 annual fee (waived the first year; also waived for $24K annual spending). There are also some bonus point categories and other perks/benefits. U.S. Bank also has a lower-tier Visa, with no annual fee but a reward ratio coming in at 1%. There is also a business Visa available.

It’s not clear how rewards are handled. The U.S. Bank website mentions redeeming via a user’s account page. This may mean that the card redemptions are similar to Capital One or Amex FreedomPass, where you receive a statement credit for a ticket purchase. Alternately, it may function more like the old Capital One or the current Merrill+ plans, where you need to contact the reward center to book a ticket.

Bottom line: 2% isn’t too bad, but you should be able to get that return or better with other cards. With this type of card, you generally need to redeem at the top of each reward level, or your reward percentage effectively declines. (Those 20,000 points are for a ticket “up to” $400 value. If your ticket only costs $250, you’ll still pay 20,000 points.) We’re less than impressed with these fake miles cards, but for some travelers they can be useful travel reward tools. Finally, if you’re a new customer interested in this card... wait a bit. The U.S. Bank website doesn’t yet even seem to have an application page available for this card.

Capital One Updates

We’re still not huge Capital One fans, yet we get more inquiries about their credit cards than any other topic on this blog. So we thought it was time to re-survey their offerings and post an update.

As we’ve said before, we think their reward schemes are generally unimpressive (not bad, just not great). But they are also one of a very few cards that do not add foreign-exchange fees, making them a top choice for international travel. For most purposes, that’s the only time we use our Capital One cards.

Capital One’s website lists 28 different cards (yes, 28) and most seem like pretty much their old standards, but two new (to us) cards caught our eye.

• The latest version of the No Hassle Miles Rewards card offers 2 “miles” per dollar after $1,000 a month in spending, with one mile otherwise. (Capital One “miles” aren’t real airline miles that you can transfer into an airline account. They’re simply points you can redeem for statement credit for ticket purchases.)
• The Orbitz Visa Signature offers Capital One’s usual 1 point per dollar, except it gives you 3 points/dollar for purchases from Orbitz. In general, 1 Capital One point translates to a 1% rebate/travel credit. So if you use Orbitz a lot, this would be equivalent to a 3% return – pretty good in today’s reward environment.

Many frequent-flyer commentators value traditional airline miles at about 1.5 cents each. With real airline miles, you need to make sure you maximize your miles (ie: don’t burn 25,000 miles for a $200 ticket), or you could end up having less value than Capital One’s 1%. We, however, feel we use our airline miles at about 2 cents each, so with other types of reward cards for cash or points, we look for a 2% or better return.

We’ve discussed points/miles/reward cards frequently. Browse through our archives on the topic, and you’ll also see some suggestions for cards for international travel.

Rip-Off Alert: EarthLink Internet Services

On one of our recent travels, we spent a month in a location where we couldn’t easily get wireless or other high-speed internet service, but which did have a landline phone. We researched options, and settled on EarthLink’s dialup internet – for one month of service.

We did NOT set up recurring service, but EarthLink continues to charge our credit card (and we continue to contest the charge). EarthLink has not responded to our cancellation and refund requests, and their only option for cancellation is via postal mail.

So we’d suggest: 1) As always, Buyer Beware, and 2) Avoid EarthLink. If you’re looking for short-term or dial-up internet options while traveling, look elsewhere.

Opinions About a la Carte Pricing

There’s been a lot of back-and-forth lately in the travel media about fee-based ancillary revenue. It’s frequently called an “a la carte” pricing strategy – sell a basic ticket, but charge extra for checked bags, a preferred seat, meals, etc. These being aspects of the travel experience that the airlines now believe are optional.

Some commentators suggest that in many cases the added fees are the only revenues that are keeping some airlines alive. And of course, Europe’s Ryanair has been successful from the beginning with a model that stresses seemingly dirt cheap fares, but the customer pays for EVERYTHING additional – seat selection, baggage, food. It’s gotten so extreme that Ryanair itself had a tongue-in-cheek contest last month asking consumers what they thought the airline should charge for next.

But that’s the Brits, and if you know the Brits, you know that they have different expectations about the travel experience than Americans do. So from a U.S. consumer standpoint, the biggest challenge with varying add-on fees is comparing apples to apples. Only a few new “metasearch” websites are just now beginning to experiment with showing fares plus add-on pricing options.

Our view is that the airlines at some point risk alienating their customers so much that there will be a backlash. But then, unless everyone starts flying Southwest (with their wonderfully transparent pricing and terms), consumers don’t have many options as long as every other major airline is playing the same game. (Of course, domestic dinosaur airlines have been alienating their customers with awful customer service for years now. That culture is so ingrained that it’s hard to conceive of how they can alienate customers even more. Joe Sharkey just posted a great article on that topic.)

So is this an opportunity for one airline to differentiate itself and go back to offering service and amenities all in one package/price? The only current hint of a crack in the armor of the a-la-carte pricing model may be Air Canada. The airline recently booted its CEO, and installed a new boss who publicly claims to be reevaluating the a-la-carte pricing strategy.

Maybe that would be the other way out of this mess – for one of the big airlines to scrap all fees, and become hugely successful as customers rushed to support that airline. Oh, wait, that’s Southwest, isn’t it? And Southwest is expanding aggressively as other airlines are cutting capacity and plunging deeper into unprofitability.

So here’s our only slightly tongue-in-cheek prediction: Five years from now the U.S. will have five dominant airlines – Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska, and two other airlines created from some combination/merger/bankruptcy of the existing five majors (Deltanental? UniCon?). In addition, there will be several new airlines based on the Ryanair and easyJet models (with commodity-level prices and a passel of add-on fees), as well as some existing smaller/regional carriers (such as Spirit, Midwest, AirTran, Allegiant, etc.) that will adopt the no-frills model.

One other possibility is that the U.S. government opens up the domestic airline industry to increased foreign ownership, or allows international carriers to fly within the U.S. Washington seems to be moving toward a governing model that may let some huge businesses fail (GM) or become more foreign owned (Chrysler/Fiat). If the dinosaurs (United, USAir, Continental, American, Delta) are to survive, they may need to shake up their business models by a lot more than adding fees.

Hungry for a great airline meal? That'll be 15 bucks, please.

Canadians vs. Americans in Cuba

We seem to be on a roll with Cuba posts.

Just read an article in the Canadian Globe and Mail about Canadians worried about an “Invasion of the American Tourists” to Cuba. It must have been a slow news day, or some Canadians are really whiney. Or is Canada upset about losing tourist dollars flowing into Toronto and Montreal from the currently “illegal” American tourists to Cuba who fly from those Canadian cities?

From what we saw in Havana and elsewhere, the Italian and German tourists were generally a lot more annoying than were Americans. The Canadians there were certainly “good” tourists, as were the many Scandinavians and Brits we encountered. It really seems disingenuous of the Canadian visitors to Cuba to want to keep it “[their] own little island.” The article does go on to point out that many other Canadians are just fine with American tourism to Cuba.

Travel is great for everyone. It broadens our horizons in much more than a physical sense. Certainly I don’t like some tourists, from any country – but that’s about the individuals, not classing them as a dislikable group. And having lived in tourist towns in the U.S., we have also witnessed the “idiot tourist” mentality first hand – but mostly those folks have given us a laugh much more often than they have disturbed us.

Oh, well, as we said. Must have been a slow news day in Canada.

Travel Twitter Tips

The world is full of too much noise. The web is full of too much babble. And sites like Twitter just make it worse. We actually like Twitter, but are already getting sick of reading “I went shopping” tweets from folks we like to refer to as “nit-twits.” Here is the best article we’ve read about using Twitter: “Twitter Tips from 25 Tweeting Travelers.” Most of the advice boils down to: Please say something useful or just shut up.

Airline Brand Naming Gone Very Wrong (or At Least Very Funny)

We just saw the news that a new airline, Baltia, has received U.S. Dept of Transportation permission to fly from New York JFK to St. Petersburg, Russia. The report we saw on themoscowtimes.com indicates the airline will begin operations sometime this summer.

What we find hilarious, though, is the airline’s name for its frequent flyer program – Freeloaders. We really don’t think this is tongue-in-cheek, but rather a cheerful reminder that some things just don’t translate well, even in this interconnected world.

We also wonder if they chose the name “Baltia” simply because the dot-com domain name was available. OK, we get the Baltic part of the name. And we wish them all the success in the world – but we’d also suggest they hire someone for their marketing department.

We can’t wait to sign up and get our Freeloader card.

U.S. to Cuba Travel, a New Blog Poll, and Win a Cuba Guidebook

Ever since we were lucky enough to travel to Cuba several years ago, we’ve been fascinated with the country. Now, with the strong probability of the easing of travel restrictions for all Americans traveling to the island, we thought we’d start a new blog poll. The question: When travel restrictions are finally eliminated for American travel to Cuba, what U.S. airline will be the first to announce non-stop service from the U.S. to Havana?

Vote on the right, but if you’d also like to leave your guess as a comment, we’ll send a Cuba travel guidebook to the first person who guesses the ultimate airline correctly (make sure you leave an email address/contact info so we can contact you if you’re the winner).

More Misc. Travel News

Results from last month’s “Worst Airline Customer Service” blog poll:
United – 46% of voters
American – 15%
Continental – 7%
USAir – 7%
Delta/Northwest – 7%
They’re all terrible – 38% (Multiple choices were allowed.)
Interesting to note that JetBlue, Alaska, Frontier, Virgin America, and Southwest didn’t receive any votes as the worst. Totally unscientific, but hopefully entertaining.

BAA, the operator of most of the airports in the UK (seven of ‘em), has been ordered by the Competition Commission to sell three of its airports – Gatwick, Stansted, and either Glasgow or Edinburgh.

The Middle Seat blog has a short story on the inevitable – cell phones in airplanes. The EU currently allows it, while the U.S. does not. But we’ll bet with enough pressure from U.S. airlines that want every possible source of extra revenue, that the U.S. ban will eventually give way. If you have any doubt, note that American Airlines just announced it will install WiFi on all planes.

The Loch Ness Monster (Photo) Anniversary

It’s approaching April Fool’s Day, so we thought we’d post one of the great April events from 75 years ago.

On April 21, 1934, the most famous photograph of the Loch Ness Monster was published in the UK Daily Mail. The so-called “Surgeon’s Photograph” was supposedly taken by London gynecologist Robert Wilson. Sixty years later, the photo was revealed as definitively being a hoax. The photo was of a toy submarine with a sculpted “head and neck” made from plastic-wood modeling material. Rather than revealing a monster, the image showed an object estimated to be no more than three feet long.

The Surgeon’s Photo of the Loch Ness Monster.

Yet the legend of the “monster” began long before the photograph. Where did those stories come from? Humanity needs its myths and legends – real or imagined. The waters of Loch Ness, and the mystery and drama of the Scottish Highlands, lend themselves perfectly to a legend of a monster. Who can say what’s real and imagined, especially in the mists of time.

Scotland in the mists – any legend is possible.

Misc. Travel News

Icelandair will begin non-stop service from Seattle to Reykjavik beginning in July. Icelandair connects to about 20 European destinations, including London, Amsterdam, and Paris. Icelandair also has an interesting Premium Economy product; plus, there are no charges for layovers in Iceland.

TripAdvisor now has a booking engine that shows most added fees when searching for airfares, allowing more realistic comparison shopping. The site also has a new contest offering 1 million Continental miles.

According to SkyScanner, the number one complaint by air travelers is airlines’ hidden charges and fees. Following closely was queueing (Brit-speak for standing in lines – checkin, security, boarding) and lack of seat space.

Speaking of Iceland.... If, like us, you have an 09 international mobile phone chip (an Iceland operator), don’t rely on it in the future. Several reports indicate that 09 went bust with the Iceland economy.

More Details of Air France’s New Premium Economy

To update our recent article about Premium Economy, Breaking Travel News has a few more details about the new Air France product.

To be called Premium Voyageur, the cabin will feature 28 fixed-shell seats with 38-inch pitch, 19 inches wide, 4-inch leather armrests, and that will recline 123 degrees. Each seat will also have 10-inch video screens.

Meals are reportedly to be the same as in regular Economy, but passengers will receive amenity kits with noise-canceling headphones, pillows, blanket, etc. On the ground, the Premium Voyageur service will offer priority check-in, 66-pound baggage allowance, and bonus frequent-flyer miles.

The service is scheduled to begin this fall, with eventually all long-haul A340s and 777s offering the new product.

Restrictions on Cuba Travel Beginning to Ease

It’s still not an end of the travel ban to Cuba, but Congress has relaxed travel rules to Cuba for relatives of Cubans on the island.

Also, the first chip in the 47-year trade embargo has appeared, with the U.S. now allowing some food and medicine to be exported to the island.

Finally, the spending limits (previously zero) for allowed travelers has been raised to $179 per day.

As we have speculated before, it’s probably only a matter of time before all restrictions for all Americans traveling to Cuba are lifted.

What Happens When You Let PR Folks Write Consumer Copy

This is an email we just received from Hilton Hotels about their new brand, Denizen Hotels. Corporate-PR-flak-speak is highlighted in red.


"Born modern, with global appeal and a local accent

"Denizen Hotels will become a cultural epicentre at each of its destinations, cultivating community within its walls. Eclectic, social and humbly authentic, each property within the brand will be smart in design, cultural in character and sensitive in service delivery. Developed as an international intersection of business and pleasure, Denizen Hotels will redefine how guests stay and play. With innovative check-in technologies and in-room comfort controlled at the touch of a button, Denizen Hotels destinations will harness the best and brightest design and technology to provide a seamless guest experience for the modern traveler.

"Denizen Hotels and resorts will range from unique, select boutique experiences to larger destination resorts, creating a unified yet eclectic brand for the global traveller. Active development negotiations are currently underway for resorts and destinations in key cities throughout the globe; including, but not limited to Abu Dhabi, Austin, Beverly Hills (California), Buenos Aires, Cancun, Hollywood (California), Istanbul, Jerusalem, Las Vegas, London, Los Cabos, Miami, Montreal, Mumbai, New York City, Panama City and Washington D.C.

"To become a Denizen, visit denizenhotels.com."

Airline Customer Service, Flying in the “Idiot Cabin,” and a New Blog Poll

There’s a post over at One Mile At A Time (and several other travel blogs and news sites) about a United flight attendant calling passengers in economy “idiots,” and being overheard by a passenger listening to the cockpit channel. On every United flight we’ve taken in the past year (in Economy Plus, which is still in the “idiot cabin”), that’s pretty much how we’ve been treated, so it’s really not a surprise to hear the FAs actually saying it. The best commentary about United’s service, specifically, was on a post at Wing and a Prayer.

But is there something else going on here?

Twice recently, we’ve ridiculed the Association of Flight Attendants for making inane comments (not specifically referencing United) about flight attendants’ duties being primarily that of “safety professionals” in the sky.

We’re beginning to wonder if the Association of Flight Attendants is intentionally putting out moronic statements so as to lower our (already low) expectations regarding actual customer service in the cabin. Maybe if they get enough of us believing that their real duties are as overgrown hall monitors, we won’t even expect courtesy any more.

If that is the mindset of the FA’s union, and that message is being passed on to FAs at most airlines, is it any wonder that there’s an adversarial attitude between airline management, pilots, flight attendants, phone reps, gate agents, baggage handlers, and ... oh, yes, customers.

So with spring in the air, and April Fool’s Day approaching, we’ve added a new poll to this blog. Over in the right column, voice your opinions about customer service on U.S. airlines. Poll closes on ... April Fool’s Day.

New Discover Escape Card

Discover has introduced a new travel-rewards credit card. The Escape Card’s rewards are similar to many other “fake miles” cards, such as some Capital One, Merrill, and American Express cards. The Escape Card gives you 2 miles for every $1 spent – working out to a 2% reward ratio (but only 1% if you want to redeem your miles for cash instead). That’s better than some of the other cards’ reward ratios. However, like the other fake-miles cards, instead of actual air miles you are given credit that can be applied to any travel purchase made with the card.

Offsetting that 2% reward ratio is a $60 annual fee, although you receive 1,000 “bonus miles” every month for the first year. (There have been some reports of the 1,000 miles bonus for 25 months, but we can not find that offer on Discover’s website.)

But the intriguing part is the inclusion of primary car rental insurance (as well lost or damaged luggage insurance, travel delay insurance, and trip cancellation insurance). Note that for international use, Discover will be instituting a 2% foreign-currency-exchange fee in May. (Outside the U.S., Discover cards are currently only accepted in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and China.)

We actually believe this type of fake-miles-reward card can be useful for some types of spenders and travelers. For infrequent flyers looking for some “incentive” to save for that basic economy ticket, these cards might be useful, and may have more perceived travel value than the same level of cash rebate.

Nonetheless, we think there are other cards with which you can usually obtain rewards that are better than 2%. If a flat 2% (for all purchases) is all you want, you can get that with the Schwab Visa (with no annual fee). Still, if you like Discover’s products, the Escape Card may be worth looking into – that primary car rental insurance is quite enticing.

Customer Service on U.S. Carriers - Right From the Horse's Mouth

Just a couple of weeks ago, we posted about flight attendants’ new “main responsibility.” We quoted Corey Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants, who said that the union, “views Wi-Fi as a potential threat to flight attendants’ ability to keep order in the cabin. Our duties involve securing the safety of the cabin ... the main requirement that flight attendants are on board for.”

Now, we read this quote (from a post on Upgrade:TravelBetter, in an article about USAirways eliminating fees for coffee and soft drinks).

“Flight attendants are safety professionals first and foremost,” [Mike Flores, president of the US Airways’ unit of the Association of Flight Attendants] said. “This decision by the company will help return us to that status rather than being salespeople in the aisle of the airplane.”

Yet in another report on the same topic, Flores is quoted as saying: “The bottom line is that the airline industry is not the transportation industry. It’s a customer service industry and if you’re not pleasing your customers then you’ve got a problem.”

If it’s ever been possible, we’re speechless.

ATM Foreign-Withdrawal Fees Update

Several banks actually seem to be lowering fees or reimbursing ATM-owner-imposed fees. (Isn’t competition – especially from the internet banks – a wonderful thing?) So rather than list a bunch of small banks offering 0% or 1% fees, or that reimburse ATM-owner fees, we thought we’d highlight some of the Wall of Shame Banks – banks that still charge exorbitant fees (sometimes as much as 3% plus $3 per transaction!) just so you can get your money from a wall. (Note that the high fees may not apply to all cards from these banks, and that there are generally no fees for withdrawals within each bank’s own network.) The banks to watch out for include: Chase, Citibank, Citizens, HSBC, ING, PNC, US Bank, and Wells Fargo.

There are really several types of ATM fees banks can charge:
1 – A fee from your bank (the card-issuing bank) to use any “foreign” ATM. In bank-speak, foreign means any ATM not affiliated with one of their branches. It is charged by your bank, not the ATM owner. (Some banks do not charge ATM fees for withdrawals within their “partner” networks. For example, Bank of America customers do not get charged ATM fees for withdrawals from Barclays in the UK, Deutsche Bank in Germany, and several other international banks.) A few banks do not charge any fees to use a foreign ATM.
2 – Some banks also have a “foreign”-foreign ATM fee that is higher for withdrawals from international ATMs than from domestic ATMs that are out of their network. Again, this will be a fee imposed by your bank. And again, some banks do not charge any foreign-foreign ATM fees.
3 – ATM-owner fees. These are the fees that pop up on an ATM screen saying the ATM you’re using will add a $2.50 (or whatever) fee to your cash withdrawal. Surprisingly, many international ATM machines do not impose these owner fees. These are the fees that banks like Schwab or Bank of Internet advertise they will refund to you. Most other banks do not rebate or refund these fees, so even if your bank doesn’t add any of its own fees, you could end up paying this one. (In the worst cases, you might be hit by a high-percentage fee from your bank for using a foreign ATM, plus get this ATM-owner fee added in as well. In that case, we suggest you get another bank.)
4 – Finally, there’s the possibility of a hidden “fee” you’ll never know about. That is the fact that you never really know what exchange rate a bank uses to convert your foreign-currency purchase or withdrawal into U.S. dollars. It may be the Interbank rate, or may be slightly higher.

If you’re planning on accessing cash from ATMs while traveling, and your bank charges ridiculous fees, we suggest opening an online checking account with the likes of Bank of Internet, Fidelity, Schwab, or State Farm. Make sure the online checking account has no monthly fees, and then fund that account with just enough money for your travels. This is probably much safer than carrying a debit card tied to your regular checking account (especially if you have a large balance). If your debit card were lost or stolen, your entire bank balance could be wiped out.

(This is part 3 of a short 3-part series of updates on international credit card and ATM use. Part 1. Part 2.)

Dynamic Currency Conversion

Just say no.

The practice seems most prevalent in Europe, but some merchants (anywhere in the world) will offer to charge your credit-card payment in U.S. dollars rather than in the local currency. Don’t do it. This “dynamic currency conversion” can cost you as much as 5% more for your purchase, as the exchange rate the merchant uses is usually much higher than the Interbank exchange rate. This is even worse than the 3% most Visas or MasterCards charge. Again, simply refuse. Visa representatives say that any merchant accepting their cards must allow the customer to pay in local currency.

Also watch out for international purchases through PayPal. On a recent purchase, we were offered to convert the price (in British Pounds) to U.S. dollars “at the PayPal exchange rate.” We declined, as it would have been much less favorable than using the open-market Interbank rate. On our $35 purchase, the PayPal exchange rate would have added more than $2 to our transaction. Can you spell “rip-off”? Just another reason to dislike (and avoid) PayPal. If you must use them, decline the PayPal exchange rate if possible (some PayPal merchants seem to offer this option, some don’t), and if paying with a credit card (whether through PayPal or directly) use a 0% foreign-conversion fee card such as Capital One or Schwab.

(This is part 2 of a short 3-part series of updates on international credit card and ATM use. Part 1. Part 3.)

Ryanair Inflight Cell Service

It’s a sign (unfortunately) of the times. European cheapo carrier Ryanair has installed in-flight cell-phone service on 20 of its aircraft. According to the report on Breaking Travel News, only six people will be able to use their mobile phones at one time. Since Ryanair has virtually no service that it doesn’t charge for, maybe all the galleys on the aircraft will be empty, and the cell-phone users can stand next to each other and the flight attendants and bother them instead of other passengers.

Ryanir will become the second airline offering in-flight cell-phone service, following Emirates which began the service last March. Breaking Travel News says that bmi has been testing text messaging, and that British Air will allow text messaging on some flights. According to the article, “Other carriers that have begun testing inflight technology include Air Portugal, Qantas, Air France, Oman Air and Royal Jordanian. Meanwhile Lufthansa has ruled out using the service.”

Credit Card Foreign-Exchange Fees Update – Discover and Other Cards

Despite the fact that the Discover credit card does not have as much international presence as does Visa, MasterCard, or America Express (it’s only accepted internationally in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, China, and Central America), it was one of the few cards that did not add foreign currency transaction fees when converting purchases made in other currencies. No longer. According to Discover’s terms and conditions, the card will begin charging 2% beginning with billing periods ending after May 1, 2009.

Thus, the only credit cards we know of not charging any forex conversion fees (0%) are Schwab and Capital One. There are several cards from small banks and credit unions that charge 1%, but realistically for most consumers, practically all popular Visas and MasterCards charge 3%, and Amex charges 2.7%. (FlyerGuide Wiki has an overview of credit, debit, and ATM forex fees, but we have not independently verified all their information – it is a user-edited Wiki, after all.)

Technically, the 0% that Schwab and Capital One advertise means that those banks are absorbing the 1% that Visa and MasterCard tack on above the Interbank exchange rate for ALL foreign-currency conversions. Those 3% fees from most banks means that in addition to Visa/MC’s 1%, those banks are adding another 2%.

(This is part 1 of a short 3-part series of updates on international credit card and ATM use. Part 2. Part 3.)

Hilton American Express Card Changes

It looks like it’s official. The Hilton HHonors American Express card has changed its reward ratios. The new terms offer “6 points for Hilton Family Hotels, Supermarkets, Drug Stores, Gas Stations, Home & Wireless Phone, Cable & Satellite TV, and Internet Service Providers.” 3 points for other purchases. This is up from 5 points previously in several categories, but Restaurants and the Post Office have been eliminated from the higher reward tier.

This doesn’t seem like a big deal to us. We still think the Hilton Amex is one of the best reward cards available, and an extra reward point is always a nice thing. The big unfortunate change is the elimination of restaurants from the top 6-point tier. It’s getting harder to find reward credit cards offering more than 1% for restaurant purchases. (The Costco Amex and the Chase Business card both still seem to offer 3% at restaurants.)