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RV Camping in Mexico

I have written about the need for extra protection when traveling/driving in Mexico and the importance of having all you ducks in a row when crossing the border in your car. Or when renting a car in Mexico, since they will NOT accept US insurance policies there as states do here in the continental U.S.

But I had never thought about renting or driving an RV into Mexico and lo and behold here is a great article from Suite 101 about RVing in Mexico. The article, titled appropriately "How to Plan an RV Camping Trip in Mexico" has great information about insurance, documents needed and what to expect from military checkpoints among other topics.

For anyone who isn't familiar with the aspects of driving in Mexico, it is a must read.

Summer Travel

In 2009, I published/offered a newsletter regarding the landscape for travel in the upcoming year. As I wrote one for this year however, I realized that 1) not many people read the first one and 2) information that is 6 months old does little good.

So I never published the 2010 Outlook but I did decide to write more frequent updates on the environment for travel in the upcoming year. Here is another post along those lines, only I 'lifted' it off the internet (not that I am offering it as my own writing) because it pretty much validated what I wrote last December anyway.

From U.S. News and World Report, this article 8 Travel Tips for the Summer gives clear and concise advice on what to expect this summer when booking travel. Like them, I have known that airfares were rising and hotel rates were still low (excepting in some areas) so it is good to know that I pegged the outlook correctly, even if no one read it!

I think the attached article/post will benefit anyone wondering about how travel will look this summer and especially whether they should book now or later.

Volcanos and Travel Insurance

During the recent travel disaster caused by the Iceland volcano, a plethora of insurance articles popped up with one main question at the forefront: Were people whose travel plans impacted negatively by the disaster covered by travel insurance? Or was this an "act of God" that no one could foresee (or price for) and thus not a covered event?

The answer to that question is worthy of yet another post (by me) regarding travel insurance. Naturally the answer is a 'sort of yes, sort of no' type answer but seeing why is half the fun!

First off, I am not a huge fan of travel insurance overall. I have stated on more than one occasion that most trips do not entail such risks that the added expense of insurance is a worth while expense. There are exceptions of course - traveling in summer where snow storms would not occur (which tend to disrupt air travel the most) would lead one to pass on insurance for the most part. Unless you had an expanded and somewhat complicated month long trip with numerous connections in foreign lands, in which case peace of mind protecting you from health disasters as well as travel disruptions might warrant a policy or two.

Such was the case in April. In our hotel, we have at least 4-5 sets of guests that not only ended having to stay an extra 4-8 nights in a hotel, they had to pay to rebook at higher rates in order to move 'up' on the list of departees ASAP(as soon as possible). Hotels in Australia were reported to have doubled or tripled the normal rate within hours of the disaster occurring so not only did some people have to delay their departures, they had to pay some $300 per night for the joy of not being able to get home. Airport hotels in Europe were reported doing the same.

Would they have been covered? According to the New York Times blog post I found, the answer is yes - if they bought the comprehensive insurance. Comprehensive insurance is expensive - up to 8% of your trip values, which means 2 overseas tickets and 2 weeks worth of hotel protection might cost some $800 extra! When so many people spend so much time looking for the cheapest airfares available for trips, the idea of spending another near thousand bucks for 'insurance' is usually not even an option.

But for those who were stranded and were paying upwards of $100-150 per night for food and lodging (much less $300 per night), they would have paid MORE than the insurance cost within 5 days even if they could still use their tickets without an increase in fare.

The post on the blog is well worth reading. It may change your mind about insurance in the future - at least for those trips where some (any) disaster (from terrorism to Mother Nature to missing your flight) causes you added and unexpected and often times prohibitive expense.

Travel Insurance - Vacation

Periodically, I write a post about insurance. Whether it be travel insurance, vacation insurance or car insurance for rentals, I try to stay current. Since we are now in the heart of winter and storms across the U.S> are fouling up people's travel plans, I think it my civic duty to provide another article regarding the need for certain types of travel insurance.

As one who has to tell several guests per month that we cannot cancel their same day reservation simply because they are delayed in Chicago or New York, I write as an advocate for the consumer. Hotels do NOT want to tell guests they have to pay to NOT stay, especially when it is it he fault of an airline which cancels a flight or Mother Nature that brews up a big snowstorm overnight and the best laid plans of mice and travelers are run asunder.

So here is a great article of exactly what kind of travel insurance policy you should ask about. I found it out of the U.K. on 'Wallet Pop' - an online website with a bit of everything for everyone. Their article "Travel Insurance: Cover to Protect You From Extreme Weather" hits the nail right on the head for identifying not only the need for travel insurance but what you can expect to buy and what coverage you should look for.

Car Rental Insurance Questions

"Would you like to purchase the vehicle waiver insurance?" Anyone who has rented a car in the last 20 years has heard this spiel from the car rental counter-person. For most, since you have personal auto insurance, the answer is a no-brainer. Others always buy it and wonder if they wasted money when nothing happens.

It may not ALWAYS be smart to decline the insurance, since your particular policy may not cover you if the rental car is stolen because you may not have comprehensive insurance covering an older vehicle or one with a salvage title (like mine).

The article I found is a good starting place to determine for yourself how to answer the above question if you are planning to rent a car in the future. It is an article about CDW (Collision Damage Waivers) and it just may open your eyes as to the risks you are exposed to when you rent a car. Remember, with any kind of standard deductible (say up to $500), if the car you rent gets broken into and they break a window or a rock cracks the windshield, your insurance MAY only kick in AFTER you pay $500! So you may just want to spend the extra $17.99 for CDW in that case!

Why PrePaid Hotel Reservations Are To Be Avoided

I have written several times regarding the risk versus the benefit of pre-paying hotel reservations. Most recently it was a post last March regarding the additional small discount you receive when you pre-pay but as a general rule, it does not make good financial sense to pay $100's if not 1,000's of dollars up front for an agency or hotel to use for months ahead of your arrival.

Here is yet another reason to think twice about pre payment for hotels. This sad story was printed by USA Today out of Hawaii about a Canadian couple who lost their pre-paid vacation because the hotel went under. As opposed to Third Party travel sites (which would re-book you somewhere else), there is no recourse when your chosen hotel goes bankrupt. With the elevated number of loan defaults and bank foreclosures lately, there is a greater chance of this happening than any time since the Great Depression.

IN my opinion, if you are pre-paying one night only, it might be OK to risk losing your money. But for this couple having paid for a MONTH? And now losing it all?

Not worth the risk in my opinion. But if you DO decide to take such a rosk, I always suggest you consider travel insurance and make sure your policy covers bankrupt hotels, etc.

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.

Booking for the Holidays

Every year it is the same story - people want to know whether they should book holiday travel early (and pay the higher than usual fares) or wait for last minute discounts. My answer has usually been that if you are flexible, you should always wait. But being flexible means you may miss Thanksgiving dinner because the cheapest flights are ON the holidays themselves. Another consideration is where you are going - like through or to the Eastern seaboard or MidWest (Chicago) and how many people are in your party and what ages they are. Families traveling with 3 small children will NOT like waiting 12 hours in an airport if delays occur or you are flying stand-by (on a Family Pass or as an airline employee or ex-employee).

The Wall Street Journal has a travel blog that I recently discovered and they answer the question "Holiday Tickets: Buy Now or Wait for Bigger Sales" very well. They take into consideration the economy and future seat capacity and offer a response with a healthy dose of common sense included. I think their advice is sound.

I would add the obvious caveats however. If you are flying on a tight timetable, you can't afford to dilly-dally around looking to book a flight for $20 cheaper. As they point out, if you find a price you can live with, grab it. The $20 savings (or even $100) is not worth it to miss Christmas with your family once every 5 years. And if you are flying through the notorious hot spots for weather or airport delays (New York, Denver, Chicago) in winter, you should consider travel insurance to cover any outlay you may incur, either from having to stay overnight if delays cause you to miss a connecting flight or to cover any added ticket expense if you lose your seat and have to re-book at the last minute at prices 4 times higher than what you originally paid. Lastly, think about flying ON the holiday. As I mentioned, this is the easiest day to travel because 95% of all others want to BE at their destination a day ahead of Christmas or Thanksgiving. If you can stand skidding in for dinner at 5pm, fly ON Thanksgiving or Christmas - the lines are not long and the delays are fewer.

Canceled Cruises Can Cost YOU

Within the reservation fine print for cruises are several clauses that can impact your trip. One I wrote about in a prior post (they can change the PORTS if they wish) but I learned from a recent Seattle article that they can also just cancel the whole cruise days before departure. And though they will offer a future credit or full refund, there may be a tremendous catch that costs you money - the airfares and hotel rooms that you CAN'T cancel in order to get to the cruise. This is the jist of the article and if you have been planning a cruise and never realized this could happen, I suggest you read it. It tells you how to avoid losing any money if your cruise operator were to cancel your cruise at the near last minute.

I agree wholeheartedly with what they suggest but would add one caveat. In this current discount climate for airfares, especially for future flights booked from one or two day 'special' sales by the airlines, it is not always expedient to wait to book until you are sure the cruise will depart. With all the recent cutbacks, flights are more full than ever and waiting until the last week or two may require you to fly on days OTHER than the day/night before the cruise. Simply because the date you want may be booked already. So having to arrive a day or two earlier may end up costing you a night or two extra in a hotel.

Not to mention that the air fare may be double or triple what it might be if you booked early or during a sale. But all in all, you could say you will be caught between the devil and the deep blue sea no matter what you do. I would advise NOT to buy non cancelable hotel rooms, as they will not allow for any changes or cancelations. As the article suggests, book a hotel with either a smae day 6pm cancel policy or 24 hour prior policy. Both should give you plenty of wiggle room in case of a cruise snafu. And as always, consider travel insurance for such an adventure. You can get protection from losing any money because of a canceled cruise, though the premium may be expensive since cruise cancelations are not an uncommon event.

Warning on start-up airline "Jet America"

Usually it is good news when competition increases in the marketplace. The airline industry is one marketplace where that doesn't seem to apply however. Increased competition has meant bankruptcy for some airlines, necessity to merge for others and lay-offs and downsizing for almost all the rest. As airlines struggle to make profits, they have resorted to a strategy of abandoning certain areas or regions - usually the small market regions. This allows them to concentrate their equipment and remaining staff in the higher revenue markets. This was one of the pitfalls to deregulation of the airline business in the 80's - the abandoning of certain markets - because before deregulation, the airlines were being propped up by subsidies to serve smaller markets.

So sure enough, some small regional airports (Spokane for instance) or small large market airports (Cleveland) saw service slashed in many cases. The newest start up airlines (like Spirit or Virgin) tended to either serve the larger markets (New York, L.A., S.F., Florida) and did not completely take up the slack left by the legacy carriers in the smaller market areas (Charlotte, Montgomery, etc), though Spirit did set up Detroit as a hub and offers great fares to and from there.

So it is hoped that into the void steps start up airlines with hopefully lower cost structures to serve the abandoned markets. And that is exactly what is happening with Jet America. A start-up airline (July 2009) that serves airports like Charlotte, Toledo OH, Lansing MI and South Bend IN, which will offer $9 fares to the first 9 people who purchase tickets. (The average ticket otherwise is around $200).