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Have a Happy New Year - Get a FREE 2009 Travel Outlook

My 2009 Travel Outlook newsletter is ready one day ahead of schedule. For any of my readers wishing to download this 15 page newsletter, go to http://www.traveltipsguy.com

There is no charge - it is Free for your enjoyment. I am hoping it will help you when planning your travels in 2009.

Have great New Year and keep it safe and sane in 2009.

End of Year Travel Scam Warning

A travel tip for you. Thanks to our ever vigilant travel rabble rouser Chris Elliott at MSNBC, he posted recently in his personal blog about a new travel scam for you to be aware of. It involves paper tickets issued by Travel Agents for a fee and if you are the type that likes paper tickets (rather than e-tickets), you should read this! It may be the best travel advice you read this year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

What else is there to say?

Your visits to my blog are truly appreciated.

Have very Merry Christmas and a very prosperous 2009.

How to Avoid Problems with Travel Agents

I've written several posts regarding travel scams lately but an article written by MSNBC's Chris Elliott earlier this month about how to tell if a?your travel agent is crooked is well worth reading if you use Travel Agents. This is not to suggest crooked agents are a huge problem - it isn't. But Chris' common sense advice describing what may tip you off to a problem is well worth reading.

Update for Your Holiday Plans

A major travel organization reported in early Nov. that travelers plans this holiday would be on a par with last years. Kayak had also reported that 73% of travelers will continue with travel plans even if costs are up 20-30%. Meaning the 'recession' might still affect the Travel and Leisure sectors but it won't affect  holiday travel in 2008. But on the other hand, the Air Transport Assoc of America reported that Thanksgiving travel would be down 10%, marking a decline in passengers for the first time in 7 years. So who was right?

Results for Thanksgiving were xxx as reported by XXX. This could mean BOTH were right - the same number of people planned to travel but fewer were going to fly. It is too early to know if Christmas will match Thanksgiving stats as well.

There is one thing however that can't be disputed: the airlines purposed to raise fares and make more money this fall and instead people stopped booking. Travel everywhere was down as expected and even the safe havens from the past (Las Vegas, Hawaii) were hurting. So the airlines did what they always do and slashed fares plus announced discounted fares for what many thought would be not available seats. And consumers responded by traveling.

Whether the airlines losses will shrink remains to be seen next year. But it's obvious they were sinking more than they expected in early fall so they cut fares and I mean dramatically. The LATimes reported lower domestic and said fares to Europe were down 25% versus last year.

So my advice if you are planning a trip after the first of the year, like to Asia or Europe, the strengthening dollar (apparently everywhere else other than the US!) means that in 2009 you will be able to get the greatest fares to be seen in years. It might be your Christmas gift to yourself.

Cell Phones Abroad

In my Travel Tips and Advice e-book, I mention that I have never traveled to Europe but I offered advice about using American system cell phones. I have discovered an article from the N.Y. Times titled "How to Make Phone Calls When Traveling in Europe" and thought it had great information for you, so I post it here for you to check out.

The advice they offer is similar to what I tell foreigners who want to call home from my hotel: Buy a Prepaid 'International' phone card from the local drug store! Now this does not address the question if you have a cell phone, so I think you may like the advice the Times editors offer. It certainly makes sense - you don't want to call your spouse in the hotel in Vienna from the plaza below by dialing to the U.S. and back to their phone. You may find the roaming charges to total in the hundreds instead of just costing 25 cents.

Airline Booking Mistakes You DON'T Want To Make

There are many things that can go wrong when you travel and it begins when you make your plans and reservations. People want the discounts that are available with non-cancelable bookings but then want to be able to change or cancel their plans when something comes up! So it pays to follow the rules and here are a few tips on what those rules are.

So the first rule of thumb is: Don't book a non cancelable, non-changeable ticket unless you are absolutely sure you will use it. Neither sickness nor injury will allow you to change the ticket without paying extra - including possibly losing the sale fare. And often you can die and STILL get only another ticket for future use and not a refund.

Make sure of the city and airport you WANT to go to. I have had more than one person cancel a reservation and tell me they thought they were leaving from San Francisco but actually were booked out of San Jose or Oakland. Third party sites like Expedia don't help matters either with their ridiculous web site set up. Type in your city 'San Francisco' and a sub menu pops up with 4 choices: San Francisco QSF (All Airports), Oakland, SFO (the correct one) and San Jose. Now why would they offer Oakland or San Jose if I typed in the words SAN FRANCISCO? It's illogical and sometimes people don't pay attention and check the wrong box. (When you type in Oakland, it puts in Oakland - it doesn't give the same 4 options so why do this for SFO only?)

Southwest Air to Mexico? Keep it Under Your Sombrero

It may not be SW purple and orange planes flying to Mexico but look beyond this terse announcement made last month and you can easily look ahead to a day when it isn't just Mexicana, UAL and Alaska offering seats to quality Mexican destinations.

Starting sometime next year, you might be able to book a trip to Acapulco, Mexico City, Guadalajara or even Cancun on Southwest because they have linked up with Volaris, a Mexican airline. The agreement is to link schedules and reservation systems, although the announcement did not specify what destinations will be served. But we all know SW is pretty smart about this so I envision a $79 one way advance booking fare to Guadalajara in the near future. And who knows, some day they might have a $49 one way fare to Cancun or something like it. Now that would make for "weekends in Mexico" in winter the same way snowbirds fleeng New York in winter head to Puerto Rico 'for the weekend' and back to work on Monday.

Las Vegas for the Holidays?

I get Alerts from Google for the hotel and travel categories and many blogs and newspapers are reporting that Las Vegas is welcoming guests with discount prices like never seen before. As always in a recession, luxuries like gambling (as well as Travel and Leisure) take a hiatus until the economy weathers the storm and people feel good about traveling again. In order to entice more travelers to Las Vegas, hotel rates and airfares have plummeted as have show tickets.

For instance, I found a rate of $65 for the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino for 12/17-12/21, Bally's for $64 and the Imperial Palace for $44. If you REALLY want to save every dollar for the gaming tables, try Whiskey Pet's at $24 per night or the Wild Wild West at $23 per night. BUT - discounts are also applying AFTER Jan. 1st, as I located a rate of $68.56 at the Imperial Palace (on the Strip) for March 7-10. Also, classic shows like Cirque du Soleil are offering show tickets starting at $107 for weekdays and $115 for weekends, $116 for Bette Midler on New Years Eve (only 2 shows left. Dec 10th already sold out) and Jersey Boys for $103 and up.

Airlines in the Pink

Which is better than the red they have been wearing as they bled money for the last few years. A recent Forbes article indicates that some of the old line legacy carriers like American and Delta are finally starting to operate in the profit column. After years of hearing about the airlines (except for Jet Blue and SouthWest) lose millions of dollars per quarter, Forbes cited one industry analyst this way: "I've never seen the domestic airline industry in better shape" (although he included two big caveats: rising labor costs and fuel price fluctuations). These kinds of words have not been heard in many a decade.

It appears then that the reduced capacity strategy has worked for the airlines. Even though airlines are offering lower fares than they had planned to because of lower demand, they are able to absorb that setback because fuel prices have dropped through the basement. So now, fewer planes are traveling fuller and that makes for happy airline execs because they do not have to offer as many seats at discounts.

This strategy has a dark side however. Less capacity means there is little room for error and once something happens (like a winter storm or an airport bomb threat) the whole situation unravels into a scramble for hotel rooms, seats on the next available flight (which are mainly full too) and long lines at the ticket window where chaos ensues. There are no extra flights available now to absorb that plane that has to go out of service and for those airlines with once a day flights (like to Australia or Hong Kong) there is no wiggle room for a seat the next day if the flight was cancelled.