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2010 Air Fare Sales from SFO

An excellent present for 2010 was offered by Virgin America recently - low, low sale fares not only through Jan 31st, but for only $10-$20 more, for ANY date in 2010. The only restriction is no travel on Friday or Sunday.

But for those hankering to go to Boston next summer, how about $119 each way? Or only $39 to San Diego until Jan 31st? LA and Orange County are only $49 ALL YEAR after Jan 31st - only $39 until 1/31.

It looks like some airlines are not going to fool around trying to convince everyone they mean business this time and raise rates grudgingly for only a month at a time. Virgin will likely only be the first to slash fares for all of next year. I would suggest however that there are likely only limited seats so it isn't as if you could wait until June to book a end of June flight to N.Y. at only $119 - I suspect those seats will be gone BEFORE the Spring thaw.

But for those who plan ahead and know when they need to go AND are flying out of SFO, check out the sale here.

More Comedy

It's Christmas week and no one seems to do much of anything between Christmas and New Years, so what better time of year than now to regale my audience with humor. As an equal opportunity offender, I try to offend any and everyone, so don't take it personal!

Three older ladies were discussing the problems of getting older. One said, 'Sometimes I catch myself with a jar of mayonnaise in my hand, in front of the refrigerator, and can't remember whether I need to put it away, or start making a sandwich' .

The second lady chimed in, 'Yes, sometimes I find myself standing on the stairs and can't remember whether I was on my way up or on my way down.'

The third one responded, 'Well, I am glad I don't have that problem; knock on wood, 'as she rapped her knuckles on the table. She looked up and said, 'That must be the door, I'll get it!'

On the Sunday before Christmas Reverend Billy Graham was walking down Highland street in Mt Holly, North Carolina on his way to see a parishioner.  However, he wanted to post a parcel urgently so he asked a young boy where he could find the post office.  When the boy had directed him, Reverend Graham thanked him and said, 'If you'll come to the Church this evening, you can hear me telling everyone how to get to heaven.' 

The boy replied, 'I think I'll give your sermon a miss. If you don't even know your way to the post office, how will you lead me to heaven?'

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December.

Female reindeer retain their antlers till after they give birth in the spring. Therefore, according to EVERY historical rendition depicting Santa's reindeer, EVERY single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to be a girl.

We should have known... ONLY women would be able to drag a fat man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost.

Grandpa decided that shopping for Christmas presents had become too difficult.  All his grandchildren had everything they needed, so he decided to send them each a cheque (check).

On each card he wrote:

    'Happy Christmas Grandpa'

P.S. 'Buy your own present!'

While Grandpa enjoyed the family festivities, he thought that his grandchildren were just slightly distant. It preyed on his mind into the New Year.  Then one day he was sorting out his study and under a pile of magazines, he found a little pile of cheques for his grandchildren.  He had completely forgotten to put them in with the Christmas cards.

Travel Agent Jokes for Christmas

 
Act of kindness? Near Christmastime, a travel agent looked up from his desk to see an older lady and an older gentleman peering in the shop window at the posters showing the glamorous destinations around the world. The agent had had a good week and the dejected couple looking in the window gave him a rare feeling of generosity.

He called them into his shop and said, 'I know that on your pension you could never hope to have a holiday, so I am sending you off to a fabulous resort at my expense, and I won't take no for an answer.'

He took them inside and asked his secretary to write two flight tickets and book a room in a five star hotel. They, as can be expected, gladly accepted, and were on their way.

About a month later the little lady came in to his shop. 'And how did you like your holiday?' he asked eagerly.

'The flight was exciting and the room was lovely,' she answered. 'I've come to thank you. But, one thing puzzled me. Who was that old guy I had to share the room with?'

A New Hampshire Congresswoman asked me to book her an aisle seat on the airplane.  She did not want her hair to get messed up by being near the window.

I got a call from a Congress man, who wanted to go to Capetown over Christmas break. I started to explain that he needed a passport. He interrupted me with, 'I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts.'

Without trying to make him lose face, I calmly explained, 'Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa.' His response - click, the phone went dead.

And one that is NOT a T/A story:

The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. This wasn't for any religious reasons. They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin.'
Jay Leno

Car Rental Tips

A recent AP story ran that caught my attention. As one who rarely rents a car, I was unaware that bargains in the travel arena were not flowing into the car rental business. I DID have a warning earlier this year when a local car rental executive told my owner/boss that car rates were headed HIGHER and not lower because it was too expensive to hold onto unused cars when times were slow. So most car rental companies were cutting back on capacity and just like the airline industry, that usually means higher prices.

The AP article titled Tips for Getting the Best Car Deal mentions that prices are up about 50% compared to a year ago and the article confirms what the exec told my owner - car companies were quick to downsize their fleets. Of course when the economy picks back up, if it does so suddenly and rental companies don't have enough cars to meet demand, will go even higher. (Supply and demand).

So in the year ahead, you may want to bookmark these tips if you think you might need to rent a car on a trip.

Exotic Places to Visit

Last month, a headline story on Yahoo caught my attention. Titled "Most Unique Places to Visit", the article went on to mention some truly unusual places to visit in the world that are not heavily traveled to. Granted, they are almost ALL in remote locations requiring a bucketful of dollars to get to, but if you are one of those that has been everywhere and /or seen it all, you may want to read this.

Other than salt flats in Argentina, I found the other locations very appealing. Trees that look like mushrooms, a monastery on a cliff - these are places I would love to see. Unfortunately, other than one site in Canada, none are close to home, unless you live in Bhutan or Socotra. There is even one spot in Siberia (not kidding).

If you go, send me a postcard!

The Importance of Noting Travel Details

Because this happened yet again, I feel compelled to write a post on a subject I have written on before. Not the least of which my whole Travel Tips and Advice book was written to provide this same advice. It is unfortunate that the people who NEED to read this are likely never going to. Hopefully, you will be one who doesn't make this same mistake.

I have often lamented the fact that some who travel do not print out the details of their trip and they land at the airport and start calling arounf trying to figure out which hotel they made a reservation at. Recently, I received a call from our sister hotel (same franchise) asking if I had a room for "Monroe". I said no but we had a room at an agreeable rate available so they sent the party BACK to the airport on their shuttle so the party could get OUR shuttle.

When they arrived, they insisted they had a reservation but I commented only in the sense that the other hotel had called and asked if we 1) had their reservation and 2) had a room available. It turned out that they had called 'some' number (they thought it was ours) from the airport, had reserved a room at the identical rate I had quoted and had provided a credit card number. They even had a name - Mike, who had told them he wasn't actually at the hotel but would make the reservation.

Needless to say, my name isn't Mike and even though the rate was the same, they had not made a reservation with either me or our central reservation system. (I checked) Plus, the 9 digit 'confirmation' number they had been provided was not one of our confirmation numbers for ANY hotel in our chain. They knew if they stayed with us they would be charged as a no-show somewhere else, so in the end (after 15 minutes of trying to help them) they decided to wait 25 minutes for a shuttle back to the airport and then wanted to try to determine who they had called and whether they had a reservation somewhere.

Overall, because they did not take good notes to know who they had called in the beginning, they spent almost an hour going to the (first) wrong hotel and perhaps another 45 minutes going back to the airport to then come to the second wrong hotel (ours). Now they were facing another 30 minutes just to return to square one and of course there is no telling whether they ever figured out where they were going.

As I have often advised, most mistakes made in the world of travel happen because people are too pre-occupied trying to do too many things. So it is important to write ALL the details down when facing such a situation, details like hotel name and address at the least. Had the 'Monroes' done so, they likely would have been in bed instead of sitting outside our hotel waiting to head back to the airport for a still unknown destination, which at best would require another wait for a shuttle. I'm not sure about you, but I would be furious having spent 2 hours wandering around only to end up with a undetermined outcome. But then, I know to take good notes!

An Internet Travel Site You DON'T Want to Patronize

Chris Elliott posted a story about an alleged Internet Travel Website that was fined by the Dept. of Transportation for not disclosing all pertinent charges and making it appear that flights and hotel rates were less than they really were. However, that turned out to be the tip of the ice berg and when I followed some of the complaints by consumers, I uncovered a horde of apparent rip-off schemes by not just the original site (UltimateFares.com) but other affiliated sites as well. Apparently, a past employee in the Billing Dept. was spilling the beans about the companies, which apparently were fleecing unsuspecting consumers in numerous ways. It alarmed me enough to do this post to try to warn anyone thinking about doing business with any of these companies.

I have no experience with any of them and no gripe of my own. I am simply passing along what I found on the net but it is disturbing enough to warrant my attention. People report they were overcharged or charged more than once for tickets and another complaint read in part; "Ultimate fares has a very bad reputation in the travel industry. They not only scam their customers, but also their vendors, partners and even their own employees". Not a company I want to do business with.

The Billing employee went so far as to suggest you simply google "reviews on UltimateFares.com" and see for yourself what others are reporting. This employee also mentioned 3 other companies apparently affiliated with Ultimate: Cheapflightsales.com, Arcade Travel, and Travel Services. You can find his/her review here. 

And as always, a partial solution is to get your credit card company involved, which will take months to resolve. In the end, you may just want to book directly with airlines and hotels - something I have been a proponent of in my books since the get-go.

Best Apps for Travel

 
U.K. based Globe and Mail asked 3 'experts' what were the top travel apps for Blackberries and iPhones. Because the answers even surprised me, I thought it would be worth passing along to you.

I was surprised from the get-go by realizing these new iPhones are replacing laptops in many cases for travelers. I should have known that since my brother constantly played with his new phone when we went camping last summer and he doesn't even have a computer. In fact, I am supposed to be the computer literate one and I don't have an iPhone or Sprint Phone or anything that even has apps on it.

The article mnetions apps that are sure to strike a chord with any traveler. Currency conversion, hotel reservations, maps, sports are just a few they recommend. You can see the whole article here.

What to Expect in 2010 Update

Two months ago, I posted an opinion that suggested any recovery in the economy would not take place until summer of 2011 and you might see weakness in the travel arena because of that. Yet you could expect higher air fares anyway because of airline capacity cutbacks. Hotel rates are in flux because hoteliers are caught between what once was (high rates in 2008) and what is (slashed rates due to plummeting occupancy) in 2009.

I am preparing another 2010 Travel Outlook newsletter to come out sometime this month or in January 2010 and I have a surprise for everyone. Statistics that have come out since October have shown that in certain areas, travel is not down all that much. Yet we keep seeing sales, sales, sales as far as airline fares are concerned and it looks all the world like another great year for travelers.

I have been leaning a different way lately, which I will outline in depth in the free report but suffice to say that in early November, the venerable Wall St Journal posted an article titled "Last Hurrah for Travel Deals?" and I already had been leaning that way before it came out.

I will automatically offer my newsletter free to anyone who is already on my list or you can keep your eye out for an announcement here when it is ready to print and obtain it free as well.

When Airline Service Goes Awry

We are coming to the holiday travel season once again and that means some people who NEVER travel
may take to the blue skies for a trip across the country to see loved ones. Only in winter, the blue skies are often white or gray and that means snow, ice or rain. The most common enemy of the airlines is bad weather for that is when planes can't fly and passengers can't fly. Holidays also means the already crowded airlines overbook and passengers get booted off planes. More passengers then have their luggage lost also. All in all, not a pretty scenario but one that is repeated every Thanksgiving and Christmas. Let us not forget that by far the VAST majority of people do make to where they are going, with all their luggage and within hours of when they expected.

But for those unfortunate few that are denied boarding or whose bags have gone to Cleveland as they were landing in Denver, it pays to know what the airlines can and won't do for you.

To the rescue comes the Wall Street Journal with this article: "Cracking Down on How Airlines Treat Travelers". It is a good article spelling out some basics and adding some stories from past travelers. One of the main points of the article is to advise us that even if airlines have their own 'policies' (like bag liability maximums) the FAA has their OWN liability schedule, which supercedes what the airlines may offer. For this reason, it is best to know your rights ahead of time, before you accept a less than satisfactory offer.