Misc. Travel News

Airline Fee Chart
The total price you’ll pay for airline travel today will probably NOT be the one shown when you purchase your ticket. A great overview chart showing the fees that different airlines are adding on can be found at Kayak.com.

United Pilots’ Opinion of Their CEO
Not only are the airline CEOs out of touch, but United’s CEO Glenn Tilton has been in the business world for decades yet apparently never even reserved his own domain name. United Airlines pilots have begun a campaign to oust him from the leadership of the company, using GlennTilton.com as their grievance page.

KLM Award Seats on Delta’s Website
Delta announced that members of its frequent flyer program can shop for award seats on KLM. Previously, passengers could shop for seats on Air France, Continental, Northwest, Hawaiian and Alaska.

American, BA, and Iberia Alliance
American Airlines, British Airways, and Iberia Airlines have announced a joint business agreement (pending regulatory approval). All airlines are members of the oneworld alliance.

Another Best-Airline Awards List
The UK Skytrax website surveyed more than 15 million air travelers worldwide, and has announced their “best” airline awards. We thought we’d mention it because we love silly lists. See how many U.S. carriers you can find in the awards.

1920s Postcard - Paris Opera

Capital One No-Fee MasterCards

A reader of one of our previous posts took issue (correctly) with our comments and mentioned having a Capital One MasterCard that carries no annual fee and which offers Capital One’s well-known 0% foreign-exchange fee. (Which is the primary reason we suggest using the Cap1 card only for international travel – the rewards programs are generally not that great.) We had previously found only one travel reward MasterCard in Capital One’s line, and that showed a $39 annual fee. Now, we’re seeing nine different Cap1 MCs on this page, four of which offer some type of rewards and all with no annual fee. (And weirdly, some Cap1 application pages show a card without any MC or Visa logo at all, and no indication of which card you’re applying for.)

Bottom line: We’re still generally under-impressed with Capital One’s reward programs, but think a Cap 1 card is the best for international travel (or even purchases from the U.S. that are made in foreign currencies, such as from an international merchant). With Capital One not charging the 3% forex fee most other cards charge, using the card for international purchases can be like getting a 4% rebate (1% cash-back rebate on some Cap 1 cards, plus not being charged the 3% forex fee).

Pet-Friendly Road-Trip Travel

We really don’t think it’s a great idea to fly with any animal – it’s stressful for both pet and human, and it’s risky (animals do die, although very infrequently). On road trips, though, traveling with the critters, especially dogs, can be relatively easy.

You’ll have three major aspects to consider. 1) While traveling in your car. 2) Lodging. 3) What to do with the dog(s) while you’re doing other things – tasting wine, shopping, etc.

In the vehicle, you should have plenty of space and carry a familiar blanket or pad. Make lots of stops along the way for short pee breaks. Don’t feed them significantly, but offer the occasional treat or dog biscuit. When you stop, unless you’re in the middle of nowhere and far off the highway, put them on a leash for their break – you don’t want them chasing a rabbit across the highway. Offer water outside the car during those stops. And, obviously, factor in a bit of extra time for all those breaks – traveling with a dog can easily add 30-45 minutes or more to a day’s drive.

There are many lodging options for dog travelers, but our favorites are motels that have individual cottage or cabin units. Some home rentals (vrbo.com is a good source for vacation homes) are pet-friendly, but most are geared to multi-day stays rather than single nights on the road.

When you go out for the day to do your own thing, take the dogs. Do not leave them in your room or rental (most lodging specifically prohibits it anyway). As with driving, allow extra time in your schedule for breaks and walks. If you leave the dogs in the car for two hours while you’re shopping, make sure they get a good 10-15 minute walk when you get back. Also, leave all windows opened a few inches to give the dogs plenty of air. And you probably don’t want to travel with animals at all during the heat of summer.

Take familiar objects along – dog beds, their usual food, toys, treats, etc. The more they feel at home the more your dogs will be good travelers. And if you have a barker, invest in a bark collar – they are not cruel, and should keep the peace with other travelers. Anytime, anywhere you’re walking your dog, pick up after it and dispose of the droppings appropriately. And do take them for walks a lot – they don’t have their yard or other usual outdoor space to run and play in.

Lastly, be a good traveling-dog owner. One lodge owner said to us that he’d had more problems with people and kids than with dogs, and therefore welcomed them. Be respectful and considerate, and more lodging owners might allow animals on their properties.

Resources:
PetsWelcome.com
Vacation Rentals Accepting Pets
Pets Allowed Hotels
DogFriendly.com
PetTravel.com

Can It Get Any Worse? (Of Course It Can)

Did all airline executives graduate from Dumb & Dumber University? Is there anything more that U.S. airlines can do to annoy their customers? (That’s rhetorical: We know there’s a lot more coming.) We aren’t aware of any other business that tries so hard to disenfranchise their customers – their source of revenue. Not even used-car dealers, not cable companies nor mortgage brokers. Sure, we may not LIKE some of those other businesses, but they at least seem to WANT us as customers.

Fees for food. Fees for “free” tickets. Fees for changing your mind. It’s become such a joke that there are charts all over the internet of both real and bogus fees. Changed flights, disappearing routes, opaque pricing, baggage fees and hassles. It appears that the airlines really DON’T want customers. Not us, not ANY customers.

Maybe airline CEOs and executives are just in it to make their huge salaries and bonuses, biding their time and waiting to go out of business. It seems like they believe that sitting in the big office is just something for them to do for awhile, passing their time making millions a year and not really caring (or knowing) anything about their business or their customers.

Oh, yes, we forgot. It’s the evil oil speculators who are FORCING the airlines to annoy us. Yup, makes sense. Oil speculators know that airline executives are dumb as a box of rocks, and will flutter around like wounded birds in a small room, knocking over lamps and crapping on the furniture. Yes, that’s it: The smart oil speculators are trying to push the airlines out of business so Americans and Chinese will have to drive instead of fly, burning a lot more automotive gas instead of a lesser amount of jet fuel that would have been used for equivalent per-person air travel. Yea, that’s it.

Any airline that returned its service levels (and lack of “fees”) to what they were 10-20 years ago would have our lifetime loyalty – no matter WHAT the price of a ticket. We want to be loyal customers. We want an airline that actually wants us as customers.

Of course, it’ll never happen. Graduates of Dumb & Dumber University can’t read, can’t think, and certainly don’t know how to run a business and retain customers.

It’s a Race to the Bottom: Run, Don’t Walk, Toward International Airlines

Flying to Europe or Asia for your next vacation? Are you a leisure traveler and not a business traveler stuck with a corporate account with a particular U.S. airline? If so, get yourself a domestic ticket on Alaska, Frontier, Virgin America, or JetBlue to an international gateway city (Los Angeles, New York, etc.) and fly a real airline (an international carrier) overseas.

The Upgrade: Travel Better blog talks about United’s possible new scheme to charge for all food on international flights. United is apparently doing the market research for that scenario now. As Upgrade says, we think your best choice increasingly becomes to fly international carriers and not U.S. ones. All the U.S. majors have international alliance partners, so even when you have to fly a U.S. carrier in the states, you can credit your frequent flyer miles to an international airline which flies most conveniently to your preferred destinations. As Upgrade says, it’s a race to the bottom, and the only winners will be international airlines and maybe a few domestic carriers such as Alaska, Southwest, or JetBlue.

Resources:
Star Alliance
oneworld
SkyTeam
SeatGuru’s premium economy comparison chart

Summer Travel: Ski Resorts

Even if you’ve never been a skier, consider a summer trip to a downhill ski resort. Many ski areas have a wide variety of summer activities – hiking, mountain biking, alpine slides, dining and restaurants, shopping, scenic chairlift rides, guided mushroom hikes or photography courses, mini golf, climbing walls, and a host of other activities. Many resorts are also world-renowned for music festivals, theatre, or wine-and-food events.

Ski resorts are scattered across every mountain range of the U.S., and offer a wonderful escape from the heat and noise of summer in the lowlands and cities. State-by-state lists of ski areas (all may not offer summer activities) can be found at HowToTravelAmerica, GoSki, SkiResortGuide, and SkiResorts.)

Most resorts that do have summer operations close shortly after the Labor Day Weekend, so they can begin preparing the slopes for next winter. But since most ski resorts are on National Forest or other public land, they offer opportunities for hiking or picnicking in the beautiful fall days of September and October, until the snow flies. (A few ski areas may be entirely on private land, and may therefore close the entire area until ski season.)

The majority of resorts offering summer activities are in the west (California especially), the Rocky Mountains (especially Colorado and Utah), and New England (a lot of the Vermont resorts), but there are many more. There are an estimated 600 ski resorts (to our knowledge in at least 38 states), so you should find something near you.

Frequent Flyer Programs and Credit Cards for Infrequent Flyers

Given the fact that we don’t have to travel for business, combined with the awful experience that air travel is today, we’ve begun planning more driving vacations and cutting back on our plans for discretionary flying. Until air misery improves, we expect to be flying only 3-4 times a year. So we got to thinking about other folks in similar situations or, especially, people who are new to the frequent-flyer and reward-credit-card games.

If you’re a newbie or just normally an infrequent flyer, you may want to re-think some of the commonly offered advice. Let’s examine 4 scenarios. (If you fly more than our examples, or already have a lot of miles, you’re probably OK with whatever you’re doing now.)

1 You fly once a year domestically to visit family or friends. You almost never stay in hotels.
2 You fly once a year domestically. You stay in hotels several times a year on your travels.
3 You fly once a year internationally for vacation, and another 1-2 times domestically. You almost never stay in hotels.
4 You fly once a year internationally and 1-2 times domestically. You stay in hotels several times a year.

Here are our suggestions.

Situation 1 & 2
Credit-Card Frequent Flyer Buying: We have two suggested options. Get a cash-back credit card (some offer as much as 3-5%, depending on category and spending limits – see some of our previous posts) and buy yourself an airline ticket with the money you saved. Alternately, look to the travel-reward cards outlined below. If you’re in scenario 2, seriously consider a hotel credit card instead. Assuming you like a particular hotel chain, your room rewards may work out to as much as 5% – far better than most cash-back or travel-reward card percentages. Some hotel cards also allow transfers to airline frequent-flyer programs. Some no-annual-fee hotel card options are listed below.
Flying: Sign up for the frequent-flyer program of whatever airline you fly, whenever you fly. Over time you may accrue enough flight miles for a ticket, if... you fly one airline as much as possible; your airline stays in business; the program doesn’t change the rules.

Situations 3 & 4
Credit-Card Frequent Flyer Buying: We’d still suggest a cash-back or travel-rewards card as your primary credit card. Hotel cards can again be very worthwhile if you’re in situation 4. You could also possibly – just possibly – consider a no-annual-fee airline credit card (as a secondary card only) if you fly one airline almost exclusively. The only major U.S. airlines that we know of which offer no-fee cards are United, USAir, and American. Still, you should get much better reward percentages with cash-back, travel-reward, or hotel cards.
Flying: Sign up for the frequent-flyer program of whatever airlines you fly. But... try to maximize your miles into one or, at most, two airline programs. Your travel patterns should show you which airlines are best for you. Then, take advantage of all the additional earning opportunities for your preferred airline program(s). These include contests, surveys, purchasing products through the airline’s shopping partners, car rentals, etc. Take at look at the many options shown on FreeFrequentFlyerMiles.com. Finally, and although this can get complicated for newbies, research the international airline partners of your preferred airline. For example, if your annual international trip is to Europe, look into the possibility of crediting all your flying miles to bmi rather than United, or to British Airways instead of American.

Specific Credit Card Advice for Infrequent Flyers

Avoid any reward card that charges an annual fee. Avoid the airline credit cards (except as noted above). Once you chose a card, stick with it – if you jump around between cards you’ll have less chance to build a large-enough point balance for redemptions. Never carry a balance on a reward card – most reward cards carry significantly higher APRs than non-reward cards.

Some folks appreciate the incentive of a travel-rewards card, feeling they’re getting more of a “free” ticket than simply using cash saved from other rebate cards. If you decide to go with a travel-rewards card instead of a cash-back card, there are two common types of point-based cards (with some variations).

One type allows you to earn points (fake miles) that can be used as a statement credit against any travel purchase. This category includes American Express FreedomPass and Blue Sky cards, Miles by Discover, and Capital One No Hassle Miles cards. Our favorite of this group is the Amex FreedomPass card, giving you 1.33% credit for travel purchases ($100 statement credit for 7,500 points). We like it because the FreedomPass card also offers some worthwhile travel discounts (for example: 3% off Delta or JetBlue tickets just by purchasing with the card).

The second category consists of cards where you need to contact the card issuer’s travel department to redeem your points (miles). This category includes the Merrill+ card, several Citi cards (ThankYou network), and Bank of America WorldPoints cards. These can be useful for acquiring that basic economy ticket within the U.S. Our favorite in this group is the Merrill card, giving you up to 2% value (a ticket up to $500 value for 25,000 points) as well as some other travel benefits, such as discounts on American Airlines tickets.

For hotel cards, some of the no-annual-fee offerings we’ve discovered include Hilton, Wyndham, Choice, La Quinta, and Best Western. We’ve personally been very pleased with Hilton’s Amex and Visa cards (the Amex card offers a little better point-earning rate). Look carefully at room rates and calculate your rewards percentage before getting a hotel card in preference to a cash-back or travel-rewards card.

Make every purchase count for something.

Garmin Nuvi 670 GPS Review

We’d been planning for awhile to acquire a car GPS, and after looking at the options and online reviews, we settled on the Garmin Nuvi 670. We were familiar with Garmin’s hand-held GPS units from wilderness search-and-rescue work, but this is a different beast. We’d also used GPS a few times in rental cars, and found them reasonably convenient but not essential. But we’ll be driving all over the back roads of Scotland for a month, and thought a GPS would be helpful. So we got this unit in advance, to see how it worked on road trips in areas we’re familiar with and ones we’re not.

The unit has an excellent four-inch-wide touch screen, and is easily viewed from both driver’s and passenger seats. The 670 comes preloaded with both North America and Europe maps – if you’re planning on using a Garmin in Europe, it’s much more affordable to purchase one with the Europe maps now rather than spending several hundred dollars to add them later.

Our favorite aspects:
The unit was great for finding gas stations (or restaurants, or...) in medium-sized towns, where you could aimlessly wander one small street after another. The gas-find aspect is also great while on the highway to find out whether you should stop immediately or wait a few exits. (Or if the gas station that the highway sign says if off Exit 10 is really there, or 5 miles down a back road to a small town.)
We also liked that it showed some shops, lodging, and attractions. On our California wine trip, we often didn’t know the physical address of a particular winery, but the GPS listed just about every one by name in its directory.
In general, the unit took us right to our destination along the shortest or quickest route. We seldom second guessed a routing, even in regions we knew well. The menus and screens are very intuitive, and the voice software usually pronounced names well enough to be understood.

Our significant complaints:
If you get off route (because you drove past your turn, or took an intentional detour) the unit never just tells you to turn around. It’s always trying to find a new route, even if that means going miles to the next right-right-left to get you back on your original route.
At least one town (it’s been there since 1900, so it isn’t someplace new) simply didn’t exist in the database. Nor did any of the town’s street names show up in surrounding towns. Oddly, the street names actually show on the moving map itself. The unit just said “not found” for the name of the town itself and all its street names.
It sometimes calls roads “Highway 78” and then sometimes calls the same road “Taylor Avenue” or some such. Maybe Taylor Ave. is the local name, but we really don’t want to keep hearing “drive 34 miles on Taylor Ave.”
We know roads change, but a major highway bypass that was completed at least five years ago didn’t show on one of our routes. (Our unit had up-to-date maps, and the GPS manufacturers suggest buying updates every year. Still, a change in a major highway five years ago?)

Overall, we were pleased. The unit is quite intuitive in inputting addresses, and most maps seem up-to-date. But we would suggest never following the unit blindly, nor travelling without a paper map for backup of any questionable routings. Still, we’re taking it to Scotland, and plan on using it extensively.

Amazon – Another Good Cash-Back/Travel Credit Card

If you spend a lot at Amazon (as we do), you might consider the Amazon Visa card, which offers 3 “points” per $1 spent at Amazon. This works out to 3% cash back or an Amazon credit. You can also use “15,000 points [for] $150 off [an] Airline Ticket” and “25,000 Points [for a] Round-Trip Airline Ticket Within the 48 Contiguous United States.” We can not yet find if this requires purchase through a travel-agent partner, but it should still represent at least 3% (or better, if the price limit on the round-trip ticket offer is higher than $250). This is far better than what we consider our return (2%) on an airline credit card. There is also the option of converting “6,000 Points [in] Exchange for 5,000 British Airways Miles.”

With the card, you also get a $30 credit for your first purchase with the card, and double reward points for the first 90 days. Purchases at “Gas Stations, Restaurants, and Drugstores” offer the equivalent of 2%, and it’s 1% everywhere else you use the card. (We think you can do better than that with other cards.) There are other rewards available, and there is no annual fee.

Tip: Call the International Flights Phone Number

Most of the major U.S. airlines that fly internationally have separate reservation/customer service phone numbers for international travel vs. all-U.S. routings. Every time we’ve called the number for international flight assistance, we’ve been connected to a call center in the U.S. Conversely, when we’re using the phone number for booking or changing a U.S. reservation, we end up talking to someone in Asia. This is not a bad thing, but we’ve found we can generally get more personalized assistance with a customer-service rep headquartered in the U.S. Thus, we always call the international flights number, and just “forget” which number we’re calling, or say something like, “sorry, I meant to push 1 instead of 2.” No one has refused to assist us. Bottom line, especially if you have a complicated situation, call the phone number for international itineraries, no matter what your actual destinations.

A Wall St. Journal Take on the Airlines' "Oil Speculators" Letter

We frequently disagree with the Wall St. Journal’s political stance, and editorial board member Kimberley Strassel’s columns often rub us the wrong way. But she has written the best response we’ve yet seen to the airlines’ letter to customers about oil speculators. Now if only a few of the airline CEOs made it far enough in school to be able to read....

IcelandAir MasterCard

We have found that a few places in Europe take MasterCard but not Visa. (We think that’s probably because those places take Maestro, MasterCard’s debit card.)

If you’ve been looking for a no-annual-fee MasterCard for international travel that charges less than the standard 3% rip-off foreign-exchange fee, take a look at the IcelandAir MasterCard from Juniper (Barclays). The card offers 5,000 initial IcelandAir points (miles) and 1 point per $2 of spending. The forex fee is a slightly better 2%. (There is also an annual-fee card available offering better mileage.)

No, that’s not as good as Capital One’s 0% forex fees, but Capital One has only one MasterCard in their line, which carries a $39 annual fee. All their no-annual-fee cards are Visas. (American Express charges 2% but is less widely accepted overseas. Discover charges 0% but is not accepted in Europe. The JCB card charges 1% but isn’t widely available to U.S. residents.)

If you’re interested in IcelandAir’s credit card, make sure you first sign up for an IcelandAir frequent flyer account through their current contest (ends July 29) – 120,000 points are up for grabs in the contest, with a 1,000-point sign-up bonus for new frequent-flyer program members.

Ahh. That sure tastes 3 percent better. (Vienna Woods, Austria)

Questionable Recommendations About Reward Credit Cards

Although many people consider Consumer Reports the final word about everything consumer-quality related – autos, sports equipment, financial services, clothes, appliances, etc. – we’ve never been impressed. In our observations, for product categories that we actually know about really well, Consumer Reports just about always misses the boat. It seems that CR assigns values to aspects of a certain category of product that really aren’t important, and then has non-experts write/research the articles. We’ve seen it over and over in various categories, which makes us skeptical of their reporting in other categories.

This all is leading up to the recent CR story about reward credit cards (“The Best Cash-Back Credit Cards”). There is a bit of solid advice in the article, but then they throw in something like this:

“‘Invariably, if you see a 5 percent card, there will be restrictions or other strings attached,’ [Curtis] Arnold [founder of U.S. Citizens for Fair Credit Card Terms] says. He points to Discover’s Open Road Card as an example. The card pays 5 percent cash back on gas and auto maintenance, but the fine print says that applies only to the first $1,200 you spend in the category. Another example is the Discover More Card, which also pays 5 percent on purchases in certain designated categories, but they change four times a year. ... But the right card can pay off handsomely. Arnold says he and his wife use American Express’s Blue Cash card, which, after you charge $6,500, pays 5 percent back on further purchases the rest of the year in supermarkets, drugstores, and gas stations, and 1.5 percent on everything else, with no limit on the reward amount.”

So CR is saying to avoid the card that doesn’t pay more than a certain amount (Discover), but use a card (Amex Blue) which doesn’t pay until a certain amount? And both have the “5%-strings-attached” feature. Huh?

The article then presents CR’s favorites, saying: “We screened out cards that charge an annual fee and selected among only those that rated five stars in Cardratings.com scoring...” We also dislike annual fees, as they effectively reduce your reward percentage, but for many users an annual-fee card can offer many worthwhile additional benefits.

But our biggest complaint is that the Consumer Reports recommendations are based on reviews from the cardratings.com website (which, by gosh, is the website of Arnold’s U.S. Citizens for Fair Credit Card Terms). Cardratings.com is an affiliate-marketing website first and foremost (in that every click to a card company’s application earns cardratings a commission) and an unbiased review site a far-distant second. For example, on the first page of cardratings “Featured Frequent Flyer & Travel Reward Credit Cards” section, one-third (3 of 9) of the cards are Capital One No Hassle cards. Most knowledgeable observers of the travel/reward-card world think Capital One cards have some of the poorest reward programs going. (In fairness, we actually like the card for its 0% foreign-exchange fees, but as a reward system it’s way down in the pack.)

We wholly agree with CR that no one should even consider a reward card if they carry a balance – just go for the lowest interest rate. But for those who pay off their cards every month, there are many superior cards to the eight best on Consumer Reports’ list, which includes two Discover cards (which they seemed to slam earlier in their article) and a 1% cash-back Capital One card (if you can’t get better than 1%, you’re not even trying).

The CR article is now making the media rounds, with CNN Money doing their article about the CR article in their “Raw Deal: Tales of Economic Injustice” section. The title of the CNN Money article about the CR piece? “Credit Card Rewards Are A Real Rip Off.”

That kind of reporting gives us a headache. We don’t know which bothers us most: CNN Money misrepresenting the CR article with an inaccurate and inflammatory headline, or the original CR article and its questionable recommendations.

So is it Frequent Flyer or Frequent Flier?

This silly digression probably took us more research time than anything else we’ve written in the last several months. (And if that isn’t a sad commentary on the quality of our journalism for those other articles, we don’t know what is.) So, the question: Which is it, Frequent Flyer or Frequent Flier?

Two well-respected FF websites take opposing views. FrequentFlier.com and FreeFrequentFlyerMiles.com both have lots of good FF information. (The “Other-Spelling-of-FrequentFlier”.com goes to a shell website that is comprised of nothing but useless ads; please don’t visit it.) Various other travel writers come down on both sides of the question. Peter Greenberg likes flier; Gary Leff and Arthur Frommer (one new-school, one old) prefer flyer. ABC News recently used both spellings in one article.

So our first stop, of course, was that wise sage of the web. We did a Google search (this generation’s idea of quality research). Frequent flier returned 1,210,000 results, and frequent flyer 3,880,000. (Frequent flyer vs. frequent flier returned 135,000 results, yet none on the first 10 pages actually addressed this topic.)

Next, we went to airline websites. Surprisingly, many do not use either word, but use words like “program” or simply refer to their particular loyalty scheme (as our Brit friends say) by name: Mileage Plus, SkyMiles, OnePass, and many others (including the wonderfully creative Mileage Plan – guess the Alaska Airlines marketing department took that week off). In general, though, we found that most airlines used flyer.

Even the major Brit airlines – bmi and British Airways – side with flyer (we’d have thought it might be “flyour”).

Conversely, our old AP Stylebook (does anyone even know what that is anymore?) came down on the side of flier, saying: “Flier is the preferred term for an aviator or a handbill. Flyer is the proper name for some trains and buses.”

Another of those seldom-used writing tools – our dictionary – has the main entry under flier, and under flyer says: “same as flier.”

So take your pick. In general, I think we’ll stick with flyer in our writing, but see nothing wrong with either spelling. What we do see wrong is that the FF programs are becoming more like the American meaning of the Brit word scheme. In UK-speak, scheme does not have negative connotations, it just means plan or program. Yet regarding airline FF programs, we sometimes think they’re reading our dictionary (there we go again) definition 1b of scheme: “a secret or underhanded plan; plot.”

May all your frequent flyer/flier plans/schemes/programs continue to bring you happiness.

Reward Credit Cards We Actually Use

We do a lot of credit-card juggling – using one card for some things and other cards for different categories of spending. Here is a rundown of where and why we use our various cards.

• Chase Freedom Visa – We get 3% cash back (or points) for up to $600/month in spending in our 3 “Top” categories. This usually works out to groceries, gas, and cell-phone bills. We spend enough in those categories that we have both opened separate Chase Freedom accounts, letting us get the 3% on up to $1,200/month. (After $600 spending per month, the rate drops to 1%.)
• Chase Business Visa – This gives us 3% at hardware/building supply stores, office supply, restaurants, and gas (plus a few other categories we don’t use it for).
• Hilton American Express – This offers the equivalent (to our way of thinking) of approximately 3-5%, valued at hotel room rates. We use this at restaurants, drugstores, and the Post Office (all offering the higher point value, as do groceries and gas, but we use other cards for those purchases). It’s also our card for car rentals (as it provides primary CDW coverage, with an optional program), as well as being our preferred everyday card.
• Hilton Visa – This gives fewer points than the Hilton Amex, but we use it as a Visa backup if an Amex card isn’t taken and our purchase isn’t in one of the gas/grocery/etc. categories above. We figure it at a 2-3% reward level.
• American Express FreedomPass Business card – This gives us only 1.33% (as a statement credit which can be used for travel purchases), but we use it primarily for its 3% discount on Delta and JetBlue tickets (just by purchasing with the card), 5% at Hertz, and a few others. It, too, can be used for primary CDW car-rental insurance coverage. (See our previous article.)
• Capital One Visa – Yes, the points are lousy (1.25% or less) but it charges no foreign-exchange fees. We use this pretty much just overseas. You can now convert points to cash at 1%, so you don’t have to be locked into a travel purchase with their weird point scheme.
• JCB card – This is new for us, and we’re still exploring its use. It only charges 1% foreign-exchange fees, but offers 1% cash back. It’s our second/backup international credit card.
• Airline cards – We still have United, American, and USAir no-annual-fee credit cards. They only offer 1-mile-per-dollar (which – depending on ticket price or using miles for upgrades – can sometimes work out to 2% or more) when purchasing tickets on the respective airline. For some reason, we feel that maybe, just maybe, if we get in a jam we might get a little better treatment if we purchased the airline’s ticket with their credit card. Especially for cheap fares, we think the loss of “better” points from using our Hilton Amex might be worth the tradeoff.

Finally, a side note. A couple of our cards are “Signature” Visas, supposedly offering some value-added benefits (lost-luggage reimbursement, some shopping benefits), but we just can’t see enough value in them to use the Signature cards in place of other cards, unless they also have good rewards schemes.

So that’s it. A lot of cards to juggle, but we do everything we can to maximize our rewards for the spending we’re going to do anyway. This may not be the best for you, but we wanted to share our little card insanity.

Airline Pricing Idiocy: A Model for Other Businesses?

Two travel news sources we regularly read, Joe Sharkey At Large and Aviation Insight & Perspectives, are frequently railing against the “follow-the-herd-without-the-real-facts” media and/or academic reports about the travel industry that are usually written by folks with little or no (it often seems) travel or business experience.

In the July 7, 2008 Wall St. Journal is an article titled “What E-Tailers Can Learn From Airline Pricing.” The short answer should be a resounding “Nothing,” but the five (yes, five) academic authors suggest internet retailers adopt demand-management pricing strategies.

We’ve done marketing and business consulting for a variety of businesses both large and small, and can’t imagine giving a client advice to adopt the worst pricing/business model we’ve ever encountered – the airlines’ model.

We know travel a little, we know airline operations even less, and we know marketing and customer behavior pretty well. That said, everything we ever encounter (from a consumer’s standpoint) about airline pricing boils down to this: The airlines are saying to us, 1) our product (an airline ticket) has so little real value that we can jack around with the price until you can’t see straight; 2) we’re doing everything we can to game our pricing, so you, Mr. & Mrs. Consumer, might as well try to game us right back; 3) we think we’re building your customer loyalty with “elite” levels and frequent-flyer miles, while actually we’re devaluing our own currency and annoying our best customers in the process; 4) our business model is so flawed that even we don’t really know what anything costs, so we’ll pull prices out of the sand and hope for the best and see what works; 5) my competitor next door sells widgets for xx dollars, so even if we did try to differentiate ourselves with a better product, you, Mr. & Mrs. Consumer, aren’t smart enough to see the difference so we’ll price our product at xx dollars also, and then complain about losing money because we didn’t know how to run our business.

This just makes us tired and we want to jump in the car and drive somewhere, even with gas at $5 per gallon.

U.S. Cell Phones for International Visitors

Since we frequently offer travel tips for international visitors, we thought we’d pass along this article on TravelTechTalk. It offers the best information we’ve ever seen about U.S. cell phone (mobile) pre-paid plans and phones.

Worst Airline Website Award

We’ve suggested before that you shouldn’t base your air travel plans solely on an airline’s frequent flyer program (unless you’re a true frequent flyer). Only you can decide what’s important – price, schedules, comfort, etc. Likewise, you probably shouldn’t base your choices solely on your web experience. But in today’s travel world, if you have trouble even booking your flights, you might decide to turn elsewhere. Thus, our very personal opinions of airline websites (mostly U.S., but including a couple of international carriers).

There is no competition for bad website – USAir wins hands down. The site is slow, glitchy, pages only half load, and it’s overall just dreadful. They only show selective code-share flights, and especially bad is the frequent flyer section (Dividend Miles). Delta comes in a close second, with frequent time-outs to its pages loading and other flaws. (Let’s hope if Delta and Northwest do merge, they adopt Northwest’s website, and not Delta’s.) Even bmi’s confusing site is better. If you can’t do it well (as do Alaska, American, United, for example) why bother doing it? Just try to redeem miles on the USAir website – fat chance. This all seems especially egregious in these days of extra booking fees for using phone agents, for redeeming awards, and other fees-upon-fees.

Of the airlines we’ve flown over the past couple of years (including American, United, Alaska, Kenya, Air France/KLM, British Airways, Delta, easyJet, Southwest, Continental, Northwest, USAir, Qantas) – and airline websites we’ve used (a lot more than just the airlines we’ve flown) – even the marginal British Airways and Delta sites don’t come close to the flaws of USAir’s. Do we sound frustrated?

We spent much of our career in marketing, stressing customer service in all aspects of a business. We started at the ad agency (Leland Oliver Co.) where Jay Chiat got his start (and where his shadow still loomed large). Customer service is the same as marketing – the only difference is that marketing is directed at new customers and customer service is directed to existing customers. In our view, USAir falls down in both aspects.

“I think technology advertising will have to stop addressing how products are made and concentrate more on what a product will do for the consumer.” – Jay Chiat

Fall Airline Capacity Cuts

There’s a great graphic on the USA Today website showing state-by-state airline capacity cuts (announced so far) for October 2008 (over the previous year).

The Future of Air Travel: Yes, Still Another Opinion

The news is always dire regarding today’s airline environment.

There’s another fascinating article about the near-future prospects of the U.S. airline industry on the Christian Science Monitor website, which includes this quote from former American Airlines chairman Robert Crandall.

“Unless something is done to move toward some kind of fix, we’re going to see every one of our major airlines in bankruptcy.”

Good, Bad, Indifferent Frequent Flyer Credit Card Advice

There is a lot of good advice, mediocre advice, and bad advice out there about credit-card frequent-flyer miles. Take everything you read (our blog included) with a BIG grain of salt, as it’s frequently colored by the writer’s experience, research (or lack thereof), timeliness, and a host of other factors. For example, we were disappointed in a recent post on About.com: Budget Travel about airline and bank cards.

In the airline card section of the article, the writer mentions cards from Northwest, British Airways, JetBlue, Delta, and American. Does he think these are the best? Or the only ones? In the bank card section of the article (several clicks away, as is always the case with About’s articles), he lists Capital One, Citi Premier Pass, one American Express card, and a couple of obscure regional bank cards (does he not know about Merrill+, several other Amex cards, and others?). And all the hotel credit cards (Starwood, Hilton, etc.) that allow transfers into airline programs aren’t even mentioned.

Sometimes the article mentions that a card carries a 3% foreign-exchange fee, most times it doesn’t make note of that (implying, to us, that the card does not charge the fee, while in reality just about every card does.) And in the description of the one card which does not charge any forex fee – Capital One – that fact isn’t mentioned.

Finally, to us the worst inclusion is noting all the different APRs the cards carry (which, of course, vary over time and by targeted offer). The APR should be a non-issue (except for any 0% initial balance-transfer offers). If you carry a balance you should use a very low-fee card and totally ignore any frequent-flyer or reward cards (all of the lowest-fee cards we’ve seen do not offer any sort of reward program).

The lines of journalism and sales continue to blur. We wonder if most of these articles are posted so that readers will click the in-line links (in this article, it’s the “fine print” link after each card description) that go to the card website so that the web publisher (in this case About) can make some revenue. Cynical is our middle name.

Boomer/Senior Travel – Thoughts & Predictions

Much has been made of the coming retirement of millions of baby boomers. This generation is supposed to be the wealthiest in history; to be interested in travel and recreation; and is expected to (bad pun alert) fuel the future of the travel industry (in addition to supposedly draining Medicare and social security).

One travel newsletter from 2003 said:
“Over the next two decades, the post-50 generation (don’t ever call them ‘seniors’) will be the major force pushing travel and tourism numbers to all-time highs. They have changed every other economic and business dynamic in the U.S. for the past 50 years, so is it any surprise that this population will change travel industry dynamics for years to come?”

And one from 2006:
“Over 55 million baby boomers are getting ready to retire. When asked what they intend on doing, travel and see the world is on top of there [sic] list.”

And others are still (late 2007) tooting the same horn:
“This generation is more use [sic] to traveling and so they look for exotic destinations and interesting sites to keep them entertained. It takes a lot more to make them happy than it did the generation before them.”

(Aside from all the bad grammar), we’re skeptical. Our guess is that baby boomers or new seniors (let’s call them BBS – Baby Boom Seniors) will be pulling in their horns. Air travel is uncomfortable (especially in economy, with cramped seats and no in-flight amenities), the airport experience is dreadful (thanks mostly to TSA), everything is becoming an unknown hassle (do I have to pay 25 bucks to check a bag? to change my ticket? to take a pee?), and it’s all getting more expensive every day.

So why should BBS travelers turn out any different from previous senior generations? Those generations occasionally took cruises, went on group tours, bought huge RVs (which they now can’t afford to gas up), spent time with family, and overall just traveled less. They wanted safe, simple, easy travel. And they were bargain-basement shoppers.

A very wealthy couple we know has traveled the world for years, flying to someplace exotic and exciting every couple of months. Lately, though still in their late 50s, they drive, they take at most one big air trip a year, they complain bitterly about the few short annual domestic flights it’s necessary for them to take, and they have adopted leisure activities which keep them more locally focused.

We expect that BBS travelers will also fly less, drive more, take group tours and cruises, and stay close to family. Unless the air travel industry (not just airlines, but all aspects of air travel) sees the light, this huge demographic of wealthy potential travelers will decide to do something else. And that something else will include flying as little as possible.

Arthur Frommer – the ultimate senior budget traveler – is constantly discussing cheap this, cheap that: cruise deals, affordable lodging (motel chains), the cheapest destinations, and free entertainment once you’re there. Wouldn’t want to splurge on anything, you know. It’s as if now that BBS have both the time and the money, they want to hang onto their cash until they die. This certainly isn’t the same generation that a few decades ago claimed to want to die owing the credit-card companies as much money as possible.

From a marketing standpoint, the travel industry certainly hasn’t yet gotten the message. Most travel ads feature darling 20- or 30-somethings looking sexy and acting trendy. BBS travelers really don’t want to be around those folks. BBS travelers may not want cheap lodging (per se), but want inexpensive lodging (a significant difference). This generation will be the ones most able to pay $10 for a wine tasting, but also the ones most likely to complain about it.

And while the BBS travel demographic is technologically savvy, it will shy away from the latest and greatest web schemes. It really doesn’t want viral videos, to be inundated by obnoxious music and advertising, to figure out what YouTube or Facebook are all about, and to be challenged by tiny type and obscure navigation tools. We actually wonder if the BBS traveler will fuel a resurgence of print travel media. We wouldn’t even be surprised to see brick-and-mortar travel agencies make a comeback.

It seems mostly that for the BBS traveler, it will be about the How of travel, rather than the Where or How Often. BBS travelers will focus on how well the travel experience meets their needs. How easy is it to make reservations? How comfortable is the flight/room/seat cushion? How many other people “like me” will be where I’m going? How much outside my comfort zone am I willing to go just to see something unusual? How can you, Mr. Travel Provider, make my experience easier, more comfortable, and cheaper?

The BBS generation may, indeed, prove to be a boon for many sectors of the economy (financial services, healthcare). As for the travel industry, if oil prices have reached a level that will mean $5-a-gallon gas for the rest of our lives and cheap airline tickets a thing of the past, our guesses for American BBS travelers are: cruise lines, especially those serving north and central America (less flying); tour companies offering canned (safe and easy) travel to international destinations; and more travel to U.S. destinations (New England, California) which are within one-day drives of large population centers.

And if this large, impactful generation travels less – just when the industry expects it to travel more – all travelers will see changes in the airline/travel industry that we might not even begin to imagine.

An Upside to Higher Airfares?

We’ve recently suggested that if you’re earning miles/points with a credit card, it might be better to go for cash back rather than dump credit-card miles into a frequent flyer program. Especially with airlines teetering on the edge, reducing capacity, and merging.
But now with higher airfares, unless the airlines raise the number of miles required for an award ticket (always a distinct possibility), your miles may become “worth” more as airfares rise. If you previously used 25,000 miles to acquire a $350 ticket, you may now be using 25,000 miles for a $600 ticket.

We still prefer cash-back if we can get 3 percent on our credit-card purchases. But getting a little better than 2 percent (as in the above example), we’d be getting close to sitting on the fence as to which is the better value.

And of course, this all assumes you’re using your miles to get a basic economy ticket – if you’re using your miles for upgrades, that also changes the equation. It also assumes that the availability of frequent-flyer seats remains relatively the same (not necessarily a safe assumption in the current airline environment).

International Credit Cards Accepted In The U.S.

Here’s the last in our short series about U.S., International, and Frequent-Flyer credit cards. (To see other entries, click "ATM and Credit Cards" in the Topics list at right.)

Most international visitors to the U.S. know that Visa and MasterCard (no matter what country they’re issued in) are generally accepted everywhere. Many U.S. merchants also accept other cards – most notably American Express and Discover. In smaller communities or at smaller businesses, Visa and MasterCard may be the only cards taken.

What you may not know is that several other internationally issued cards are accepted within the U.S. JCB (Japan) and UnionPay (China) cards are (supposedly*) accepted anyplace in the U.S. that displays the Discover logo, even if the business isn’t aware it can accept those cards. Likewise, Diners Club cards are accepted in the U.S. and Canada anywhere that MasterCard is taken (most newer Diners cards should have a MasterCard logo on either the front or back). Things with Diners/Discover will probably change in the future, as Discover has purchased Diners, with integration of their card programs scheduled to take two to three years. Finally, the Maestro card (a MasterCard debit card, widely used in Europe) is accepted anyplace that displays a MasterCard logo.

[*We recently received a JCB card, and it was not accepted at a Discover merchant. We were told by JCB that the Discover integration is not yet complete. We’ll keep testing the card, and post a JCB update in the near future. The JCB card has the potential to be a useful travel tool.]

China Unionpay Credit Card

Since we’ve been researching international credit cards, and recently applied for and received a Japanese JCB card, we’ve been looking at other “unusual” credit-card options.

The China Unionpay card is the largest card issuer in China, with more than 1 billion (yes, we said billion) cards issued, and is accepted in 26 countries. It doesn’t appear likely that Americans can obtain a China Unionpay card (unlike the JCB card, which is available to residents of some U.S. states), but it’s worth noting that U.S. Discover cards are supposed to be accepted at China Unionpay merchants throughout China. If you’re going to the Beijing Olympics, don’t leave home without your Discover card. (How we wish we could read this Unionpay “Club” page. It’s fun just clicking on the photos.)

In our odd quest to have as many “different” credit cards as possible, we’ll keep our eyes open for ways that we can get an actual China Unionpay card (rather than just a Discover that may work on their system).

OpenSkies Concierge

British Airways’ “new” sub-airline, OpenSkies, has announced a concierge service that “contacts you within 24 hours of booking your ticket” to see if there’s anything they can help you with (sell you) in either New York or Paris. Nice differentiation, but really useful? Maybe they need some extra excitement, since they were originally going to be an “all business class” airline and now they’re just a typical three-cabin airline – “Economy, Prem+, Biz.”

The Future Airline Landscape

The financial press has a slightly different take on the future of U.S. airlines than do the industry pundits. In a MarketWatch article yesterday, speculation varied from “there’s going to be just three global airlines and the low-cost carriers are going to become feeders,” to “domestic fliers on network routes...are going to find themselves on the equivalent of an airborne school bus,” and “people dependent on regional airports will likely see their fares jump, by up to three times what they've been used to paying.”

The article (oddly titled In 2010, U.S. Airlines Are Smaller, Maybe Smarter: Industry Could Stabilize for the Benefit of Passengers and Investors) speculates that Southwest, Air Tran, and JetBlue will thrive in a new domestic airline environment. As for legacy carriers, Credit Suisse upgraded its rating on Continental’s stock, while a CreditSights analyst put United at the bottom of the survivors list. Credit Suisse also noted that if the legacy carriers slash as much capacity as they’ve announced, they will wipe out the last 10 years of their domestic growth.

Lastly, to give a sense of the impact of fuel costs, the article notes that US Airways said that its average domestic roundtrip ticket will need to be priced at $299 just to cover its costs, up from $151 in 2007 and $70 in 2000.

Our take-away for consumers:

• Buy airfare early (to lock in lower prices), or...
• Wait until as long as possible to buy airfare (in case your carrier goes bust or flight schedules change)
• Spend those frequent flyer miles now
• Consider not even bothering with non-flight miles, and go for a cash-back credit card instead
• When flying a U.S. legacy carrier, consider crediting their miles to an international airline in the same alliance
• Drive instead of fly for shorter and/or last-minute trips
• Start building a flying relationship with a low-cost carrier that serves your market and preferred destinations
• Assume all the chatter, news, and advice will change on a yearly, monthly, weekly basis

Tourists Tourists Everywhere

If you’ve read some of our previous posts, you know how much we love useless surveys and lists.

Online travel company Expedia recently surveyed more than 4,000 hoteliers, asking their opinions about the best and worst travel traits and habits of various nationalities. Expedia chose hoteliers, because: “Hoteliers are the experts when it comes to interacting with tourists.” Uh huh.

• Complain most about accommodations: Americans, Germans, French
• Best fashion sense: Italians, French
• Worst fashion sense: Americans
• Overall best tourists: Japanese, Germans, British
• Best at learning a few local words: Americans
• Least likely to use a few local words: French, Chinese, Japanese
• Least interest in local food: Chinese, Indians, Japanese
• Most “fiscally conservative” (we assume this means cheap): French, Dutch, British
• Tidiest (leave those hotel rooms clean): Germans, Japanese, British
• Most generous (we assume this means tips): Americans, Canadians, Russians
• Noisiest: Americans, Italians, British

These tourists are from ....

Fee-dom In The Air

Rick Seaney of FareCompare has a great chart of current domestic airlines’ various (and extensive) fees.

How To Take A Wine-Tasting Tour

Whether you’re a wine-tasting newbie or an experienced wine-country traveler, there are many things you can do to enhance your experiences. Most of the following information applies to wine regions within the U.S. – some international wine destinations (France, for example) do not have the same “wine tourism” attitude we do in the states.

• Make some choices before you go. If this is your first trip to wine country, you might want to go to some of the big names – for example in Napa you might visit Mondavi, Sterling, and Beringer.
• Visit some smaller wineries. Even if you’re a wine-tasting newbie, take some time to visit several smaller wineries – at the smallest ones you’ll have a good chance that the winemaker/owner will be pouring in the tasting room, and you’ll have some great conversations.
• Make appointments. If there’s some place you really want to see (especially small wineries) make an appointment in advance.
• Don’t try to do too much each day. We find that three to four wineries in the morning, and another three or four in the afternoon, are generally more than enough.
• Buy some wine. Unless the wine just isn’t enjoyable, purchase at least one bottle of something you enjoyed at the tasting room. It will probably taste even better at home.
• Don’t be afraid to pour. Even the small tasting amounts can add up. You’re there for wine tasting, not wine drinking. The pour bucket is totally acceptable to use.
• There are no “bad” wines. A wine might not be to your tastes, but don’t say, “that’s awful.” If you need to express a negative opinion, just say that the wine isn’t your style.
• Not all wineries charge. Most smaller wineries – and ones in smaller regions – do not charge for wine tasting. In our recent travels, we’ve seldom been charged for wine tasting. But...
• Be prepared to pay. Many wineries, especially in Napa, now do charge for tasting. Some apply the tasting fee to purchases, others don’t. Also in Napa, be prepared for the “Disneyland” experience – at some big and popular wineries, it’s now become industrial tourism, with complimentary souvenir tasting glasses (after you just paid $10 for tasting), huge cheese and gift shops, and tour busses lined up outside.
• For the big wineries, go early. And at any time of day, if there’s a tour bus in the parking lot, go elsewhere, fast.
• Take a tour or two. We’d suggest taking one “big” winery tour, and a smaller one. On a recent trip to California, Washington, and Oregon, our big tour was at Benziger in Glen Ellen (Sonoma Valley), where the 45-minute tour goes through the vineyards, the production facility, and the cellars, ending with a tasting. Our small tour was just the two of us (the other three guests were late), at Mayacamas (outside Napa Valley) where we witnessed what winemaking was like a half century ago – not much has changed, and that’s all for the best. Note that the small Mayacamas tour and tasting was free, and the big Benziger had a charge. Both were excellent tours, nonetheless.
• Explore not just smaller wineries, but smaller regions. On that recent trip, we found several good wineries outside Hood River, Oregon, and wanted to spend a lot more time at the wineries in Amador County in the Sierra Foothills.
• Be enthusiastic and appreciative. You just might be offered a special wine, or be offered to taste the whole tasting list, rather than just the limit of four (or however many) for free.

Outside B.R. Cohn winery, Sonoma

Flying vs. Driving

Several recent surveys seem to indicate that many vacationers are forgoing flying – choosing to drive instead, even considering gas prices. So we thought we’d do a quick back-of-the-napkin comparison.

Say you’re planning a week or longer leisure trip along the west coast, and weighing the costs of flying versus driving. Let’s pretend it’s 800 miles one way – far enough that it’s a two-day drive, compared to a one-stop flight (which, of course, will take all of a day each way, with diving to the airport, security, plane change, and car rental time). If you can afford the extra day each way, here’s our very simple breakdown:

AIR
Cheap flight $300 each, x 2 for a couple = $600
Cheap car rental = $540
Airport parking $10/day x 7 days = $70
Total for transportation legs = $1,210

CAR
Gas at $4.50/gallon = $450
Lodging at $150/night x 2 nights = $300
Breakfast & dinner on the road x 2 = $120
Total for transportation legs = $870

So, for $340 less, but two extra days, you get to take your golf clubs, lots of luggage, and bring home cases of wine or gourmet foods.

If you’re a family, those extra airfares for the rest of the family send this comparison out the (car) window. As will extra-baggage fees if you want to travel with the luxuries you can stuff in your car for free. And if you want to upgrade to a decent car.

You don’t have to take your shoes off to go through security to get to your car. You can snack as you want (better and cheaper, too). You can still feel your butt even after a day of driving because you can stop to stretch and move around. If you have pets and can find pet-friendly lodging, you can take the critters and save on kennel costs.

You (probably) won’t be made to feel like a criminal by the U.S. government (TSA). You’ll see some incredible scenery along the way.

Finally, the cheap $300 airfare example we’ve used may soon be a thing of the past. Is it surprising that the U.S. airline industry is in deep trouble?

Mt. Shasta, California

Premium Economy Updates

It looks like Singapore Airlines is phasing out its Executive Economy seating on the LA and New York to Singapore flights.

United has begun selling their Economy Plus upgrade at time of online ticket purchase.

And add British Airways’ Open Skies New York-to-Paris subsidiary airline to the list of those offering premium economy seating.

We wrote more about premium economy offerings here and here.

Car Rental Insurance with American Express Cards

In the never-ending battle against car-rental ripoffs, here’s another tool to consider.

American Express offers a $19.95 car rental insurance policy that is primary rental insurance. Insurance provided by all other credit cards (except Diners) is secondary – in other words, the credit-card insurance only kicks in after you’ve gone through your personal auto insurance provider to try to resolve the issue. The Amex policy is valid anywhere in the world except in Australia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, or New Zealand (which is typical with most credit-card car-rental insurance coverage).

(There are some slightly different coverages and options, depending on what state you live in. See the Amex site.)

The Amex coverage is for the entire rental period (for up to 42 days), not per day. This seems like a cheap way to give yourself an additional layer of protection, especially if you’re a leisure traveler who rents a few times a year for longer periods (rather than a business traveler renting for a day or two many times a year). You are required to register your Amex card, but there are no charges until you reserve and pay for your rental with your Amex card.

America On Sale: International Visitors Still Coming

We’re trying to understand the news from the U.S. Dept of Commerce that international visitors to the U.S. increased 13 percent in January and February 2008 over the previous year. Some specific numbers are:

• UK up 11%
• Russia up 20%
• Canada up 24%
• Germany up 24%
• France up 22%
• Italy up 17%
• Netherlands up 17%
• Spain up 22%
• South Korea up 9%
• China up 22%
• India up 13%
• Australia up 8%
• Brazil up 22%
• (a lot more numbers are available on the Commerce website)

Why? The U.S. government continues to make obtaining a visa harder and harder. The politicos spend endless hours thumping their chests about border fences and immigration. The TSA makes every aspect of the air travel experience more dreadful every day.

Yes, America is obviously “on sale,” with the weak dollar making everyone else’s money worth more. We could understand it if the increases were just from Europeans: snow in Europe was so bad last winter that these could all be skiers coming to the U.S. for some decent snow. Yet for other visitors, why January and February anyway? Traditionally, international tourism to the U.S. has peaked in summer and fall, so what’s in store for this summer season? Maybe gasoline sticker-shock will change that picture.

Or is it just that money always wins? “We want it all and we want it now and we want it cheap.” The rest of the world is becoming more wealthy, and not just because of the dollar’s decline. Asians, Eastern Europeans, South Americans are wanting the luxuries that increased personal wealth brings – cars, toys, homes, travel. Combined with America On Sale... If that is the case, then America has won the world. Our values (money trumps everything else) are now universal.

This is a fabulous country to visit, and international tourists bring many more things to the U.S. than just their money. They enrich our cultural understanding of the rest of the world, and might even make some Americans less protectionist and isolationist. We’re happily surprised, but nonetheless, still surprised.

U.S. Credit Cards Accepted Internationally

If you’re traveling internationally, you’ll invariably take a couple of credit cards. The two “usual suspects” – Visa and MasterCard are widely accepted (in our experience, Visa somewhat more so, yet one hotel in eastern Europe accepted MasterCard but not Visa). American Express is accepted much less frequently, but will usually be taken at major car-rental agencies, large hotel chains, airlines, and high-end restaurants, especially in larger cities. Discover is accepted (depending on merchant) in Canada, Mexico, most of the Caribbean and Central America, China (on the UnionPay network), and Japan (on the JCB network), but still less often than Visa or MasterCard. (Update: The Discover/JCB/China Unionpay integration is apparently not yet complete.) Discover is not accepted in Europe or anywhere else in the world. The JCB card – available to residents of some U.S. states – is becoming more widely accepted in Europe and has a large presence in Asia, especially Japan. (JCB cards can also be used in the U.S. on the Discover network. But, integration with all Discover merchants has not yet been completed.) Finally, your Diners Club card is now a MasterCard, and will be accepted anywhere MasterCard is taken. (Discover recently purchased Diners, and their card options may change in the future.)

Package Shipping

Not only is checked luggage a time-consuming hassle, but now it’s getting more and more expensive. American Airlines just instituted a $15 charge to check even one bag. Most airlines have adopted a $25 charge for a second bag. Our suggestion is to ship it. If you absolutely need more than your carry-on bag, consider UPS, FedEx, or the Post Office. Several articles and blogs have claimed it’s too expensive – $200 for next-day shipping – but why should you need it next day? Send it ahead to your hotel or friends a week in advance. For a 50-pound package from coast to coast (and if you can’t get everything you need in a 50-pound box, you might just as well stay home), UPS charges $59 (8 days), Post Office $44 (7 days), FedEx Ground $51 (5 days). We’ve strongly suggested that you travel light, and the new airline fees makes us even more inclined to do so. The airlines are tacking on fees (baggage fees, change fees, phone-booking fees, in-flight food fees) in desperate hopes of raising revenue by nickels and dimes, and annoying travellers in the process. Pack a sturdy cardboard box with clothes and essentials, and ship it ahead. Buy your shampoo and toothpaste on arrival. Beat the airlines at their silly games.

Airlines Offering No-Annual-Fee Credit Cards

In our continuing short series (see our previous posts about sign-up bonus miles for U.S. and international airlines’ frequent flyer credit cards), here is a current list of airlines that offer a no-annual-fee card. This is different from a card that promises no annual fees for the first year, but then (unless you cancel the card) institutes an annual fee thereafter. As we’ve said before, we don’t think that we’ll ever again chose to pay an annual fee for a credit card, but you should decide for yourself. Some of the cards listed below may even offer a sign-up mileage bonus (less than that offered for the annual-fee cards), and most will only earn miles at 1 mile per $2 spending (vs. 1-to-1 for the fee cards). Still, these cards may be useful depending on how often you fly an airline, or if you just want to occasionally charge something to the card to keep a mileage balance current. You might also consider acquiring the annual-fee card for the first year (if it’s offered free that first year), and then calling to switch to the no-fee card just before your first year is up – we’ve had success doing this with both United and USAir (as we wanted to keep a card for those airlines).

Also note that with the state of the airline industry, some of these card offerings (and some of the airlines themselves) may disappear. For example, we know that some time ago Continental offered a no-fee card, but we’re not able to find that offer anymore. And as we write this, Frontier is in bankruptcy but still flying. If they go under, you can kiss goodbye any miles acquired from any source – including from the credit card.

Airlines offering no-annual-fee credit cards:

• American
• United
• USAir
• Midwest
• AirTran
• Frontier
• IcelandAir
• China Air
• Korean Air

Kansas Déjà Vu All Over Again

Seems like the state of Kansas has got a patented mojo working. First there were the 8 Wonders of Kansas, with nominations and voting and awards. Now, we have the 8 Wonders of Kansas Architecture. At some point, this gets kind of tedious. Will we soon have the 8 Wonders of Kansas Cheeseburgers? The 8 Wonders of Kansas Prairie Potholes? The 8 Wonders of Kansas Shopping Malls?

So we promise, for the last time, we’ll note that Kansas is on a PR roll. If you’re curious about the finalists for the 8 Wonders of Kansas Architecture, visit kansassampler.org.

International Airline Frequent Flyer Credit Card Bonuses

Here are the current (as of May 12, 2008) bonus offers for international airline frequent-flyer credit cards. The cards listed below are apparently available to U.S. residents. Generally, if we don’t list an airline, it’s because it doesn’t appear to offer a U.S. card or the information is unavailable. The cards offered by these airlines may be Visa, MasterCard, or American Express cards. As mentioned in our previous post about U.S. frequent-flyer credit cards, we suggest you visit Free Frequent Flyer Miles for a lot more info about airline frequent-flyer credit cards.

Some of these offers may be buried on sub-pages of the airlines’ websites. The terms and conditions may be different (such as only getting bonus miles if you fly within a certain time period, etc.) from typical terms you’ve come to expect for U.S. airlines cards. Most of these cards have annual fees (although at least one we know of, IcelandAir, offers a no-annual-fee card, but with lower bonus miles). Read everything carefully if you’re interested in any of these frequent-flyer credit cards. From what we can see, these are all typical U.S. bank credit cards – none are the up-and-coming international standard “chip & pin” cards. Note also that some international airlines value miles and reward flights differently than do the majority of U.S. airlines.

• British Airways - 20,000
• Lufthansa - 20,000
• Korean Airlines - 15,000
• IcelandAir - 10,000
• China Airlines - 7,500
• Asiana Airlines - 5,000
• ANA - 5,000
• Mexicana - free companion ticket

You WILL Be Paying Higher Airfares

“...no airplane was ever designed to make a profit with jet fuel at these prices, and no carrier has figured out a way to charge enough to make up the difference.”

That is from a fascinating article in the current (May 12) issue of Fortune magazine. The author, Barney Gimbel (quoted above), is interviewing American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey, and discussing the state of the industry.

The article talks of airline mergers (a mixed bag, but the Delta/Northwest merger isn’t viewed favorably); ticket pricing; extra fees and charges; competition (especially Southwest); and, most significantly, oil prices. “[Jamie Baker] J.P. Morgan analyst, thinks that at current fuel prices the industry needs to shrink as much as 20%.”

At jet fuel prices of $2.74 per gallon (when the article was written), American’s cost to fly one seat one mile increased 29% in one year. “The problem? The market allowed fares to go up only 5%.”

The final sad commentary comes from Arpey himself. “‘There is no business,’ he said, ‘that can go on forever selling its product for less than the cost to produce it.’”

"Who Flies Where" Airline Search Tool - jetnav

We’re always looking for better flight-planning tools, and we’ve been searching for the best “Who Flies Where” website. Although we frequently use ITA Software, its matrix results are sometimes too detailed, especially when we haven’t even begun price shopping.

The UK site jetnav.co.uk seems to offer a good Who Flies Where tool. In our rather limited tests, it shows more airlines than ITA does (ITA doesn’t show Southwest or easyJet, for example). Another thing we like about jetnav is that although you have to plug in dates, the results show what days a flight operates.

Since jetnav doesn’t list prices, the results are displayed by flight times (great for planning), and the endless combinations in ITA are simplified or eliminated. For example, jetnav showed all airlines offering Spokane, Washington (GEG) to Durango, Colorado (DRO) and showed “20 outward flights and 15 return flights,” while ITA had a staggering 500 combinations for the same city pair. ITA too often shows “United [or whatever] and other airlines” without showing what those other airlines are. jetnav’s results show both airlines of a combination. When we’re just trying to find what airlines fly from A to B, jetnav offers simpler results.

jetnav does seem slow for some of its searches from little airport to little airport, and for flights of more than one stop. And on an intentionally obscure search (FIH to BKK – Kinshasa, Congo, to Bangkok, Thailand) jetnav only showed one flight on Ethiopian Airlines, while ITA showed one-stops on Air France, South African, and Thai. Conversely, on a Stansted, London (STA) to Prague (PRG) routing, ITA showed a ridiculous one-stop on “Delta” which turned out to be an American flight from London to New York, and then a Delta flight from New York back to Prague. We’re glad that jetnav didn’t bother to show that one, yet did show all other airlines on that route.

This looks like a promising tool – we’ll continue testing.

All Electronic Tickets Coming June 1

According to Breaking Travel News, a large Australian travel agency (Flight Centre Limited) is concerned about the impending June 1 death of the paper ticket and the switch to all-electronic airline ticketing. There has been nary a peep from the U.S. media about the switch, yet Flight Centre makes some interesting points, including:

“...significant issues had not been resolved in relation to: Customers travelling with infants, as most carriers would not allow infants to travel on e-tickets; Some codeshare and interline fares involving more than one carrier; Some round-the-world fares.”

We’re not sure how much – if any – impact there will be for U.S. air travelers, but in today’s aviation environment, anything that throws a wrench in the system can have cascading effects down the line.

Airline Credit Card Mileage Bonuses

There’s always a lot of interest regarding airline frequent-flyer-mile credit cards, so we thought we’d present a wrap-up of current bonuses for signing up for various airline credit cards. These may be MasterCard, Visa, or American Express offers. Most waive annual fees (usually in the $75-per-year range) the first year. There may be a spending requirement over a certain time period to receive these miles. It’s up to you to decide if applying for new credit is worthwhile, and if you want to pay any annual fees (should you choose to keep the card).

In general, we find the best source for more detailed information about frequent-flyer credit cards is at Free Frequent Flyer Miles.

Here are the bonuses advertised on various U.S. airlines’ websites as of May 7, 2008.

Many international carriers also offer mileage credit cards, and we will research those soon and post their current offers.

• American - 25,000
• USAir - 25,000
• United - 21,000
• Continental - 20,000
• Hawaiian - 20,000
  
• Alaska - 20,000
• Delta - 17,500
• Northwest - 15,000
• Spirit - 15,000
  
• Frontier - 15,000
• Southwest - 8 credits
• Airtran - 8 credits
• JetBlue - 50 points
  

Stress-Free Travel Tips

We’ve reached the point where we want our travels to be fun, enlightening, relaxing, invigorating, and EASY. Stress is not on our list – in life or in travel. We want our travel adventures to be ones we plan, not ones that result when rural bus schedules change in third-world countries. Sure, things out of our control will happen – they always do. But we can do things to minimize the challenges of travel. Here are our ideas for reducing travel stress.

Plan Ahead
Make as many reservations in advance as possible. Especially for your first night or two of lodging, and for any car-rental, train, air, or other major transportation. Keep copies of all reservations and receipts.

Travel Light
We’ve said it, other commentators have said it, but few of us travel light enough. If any time on your last few trips you found yourself wishing for less crap to lug around, make a vow to travel only with a 20-pound carry-on next trip. Try it.

Be Flexible
If something doesn’t work out as planned, let it go. If your train schedule changes, call ahead to change your hotel reservation – but don’t worry about it. Aside from losing a passport or credit card, or having a major injury, most challenges aren’t worth worrying about.

Get Exercise & Get Rest
Don’t rush from place to place – take time to smell the croissants. Conversely, exercise every day – walk, swim, hit the hotel gym. But not obsessively. Mostly just walk as much as possible – walking is stress-relieving, as well as a great way to see and interact with locals.

Eat, Drink, and Enjoy
Life is meant to be lived. Linger over dinner and wine. Get up late. Take a picnic to a park and sit and read. Don’t become obsessed with capturing the sunset photo or making the 8 o’clock performance. Have another glass of that wonderful digestif instead.

Money Matters
Don’t be so cheap that you feel you’re depriving yourself. You’ve spent probably thousands on just getting where you are – allow yourself a few hundred for treasures. Don’t worry about bargaining a vendor down from 25 cents to 20 cents. As for money itself, rely on credit cards as much as possible, and use ATMs for local currency.

Mobile Communications
Take that international cell phone so you can call ahead to change reservations. And consider not giving the number to your friends at home. If something happens while you’re traveling, there isn’t much you can do about it from 3,000 miles away. Life works itself out. Use that cell phone for your convenience, not someone else’s. Likewise, stay off the internet as much as possible. Ditch the email, your blog, and web surfing as entertainment.

Leave Lots of Time Between Connections
Nothing, absolutely nothing, stresses your composure more than running across a train platform while towing a large suitcase behind you and having another two bags smacking you on the back.

Don’t Rely on (Probably Outdated) Guidebooks
Use those guidebooks mostly before you travel, to get general ideas about the “How To” of travel to a destination. At your destination, avoid the places listed in the guidebooks (especially lodging and dining), except for the “big stuff” you just have to see (Angkor Wat, the Tower of London, the Great Wall, the Eiffel Tower).

Hyatt’s a Riot

From our “Did anyone ask the marketing department?” files. Hyatt Hotels has a new “online travel community” called yatt’it. The company has put a trademark symbol after yatt’it, but they really needn’t have bothered – no one is going to infringe on that name. We’ve done brand marketing for dozens of companies, and have seldom seen names as dreadful as yatt’it. Oh, wait, we get it. They didn’t have to “talk to the marketing department” because this is from either the public relations department, or (from the sound of the name) was a Texas second-grade class project.

On the site, there are travel tips from “Gold Passport Members, Hyatt Concierges, and Frommer’s.” But it gets us rather suspicious when “Member” tips with high votes are posted by folks with screen names like Hyatthound and hyattleo. This is nothing more than a Hyatt PR feel-good site – if you have any doubt, read the Posting Rules section. Don’t say anything critical.

Aside from the dreadful name, we really don’t know why anyone would either visit the site looking for self-serving “tips” or bother to contribute. If you’re curious anyway, visit yattit.com.

More Premium Economy Offerings

Air France will reportedly be adding a Premium Economy class to their long-haul flights over the next year and a half. The seats are said to have 38 inches of pitch (typical economy seats are 31-32, depending on airline), and will have extra in-air amenities. The seats will be installed on all long-haul aircraft (including the new Airbus A380) except for the 747s, which are being phased out.

Other airlines are possibly jumping on this trend also. A good overall Premium Economy wrap-up article is on the (UK) Business Traveler website, which mentions that Air New Zealand, Qantas, British Air, KLM, bmi, JAL, and several other airlines are planning to either add or expand their Premium Economy product.

If, like us, you enjoy a bit of extra comfort short of a full-on business-class price, this is a welcome development.