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Airfares Rise by $10 Round Trip, and Steeper Increases Are Circling

Jason Cochran — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 13:15:00 EST

Filed under: Transportation, Travel, Biz Brief, Travel, Family Money

The party may be over. This week, the airlines raised airfares by as much as $10. The way this usually works is one carrier raises fares and if its rivals match it, the higher rates stick. In this case, American Airlines was the first to increase fares by $5 each way or $10 round-trip for flights more than 500 miles, and by $3 one-way or $6 round-trip for shorter journeys. Its competition (United, Delta, Southwest, U.S. Airways, Alaska, Frontier, and Virgin America) matched them.

That's not very much. In fact, you might not have noticed the difference if I (and other media outlets clocking each twitch of the air industry) hadn't told you. But it's not over yet. The price of fuel is going up, and that accounts for as much as 29% of an airline's costs. Airfare watchers across the country, from American Express to Wall Street, agree that as fuel rates rise, so will the price of flights.

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Stand-up airline seats are here, but you won't use one soon

Jason Cochran — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:02:00 EST

Filed under: Transportation, Travel, Biz Brief, Travel

An Italian company, Aviointeriors, has designed and patented what it calls a "stand-up" airline seat, and representatives from the company have told Travel Weekly that some airlines are interested in them. But don't panic at the media reports: You won't be using them anytime soon.

The spindly-looking seats, as you can see, do not force passengers to stand fully erect. Instead, they provide for a half-sitting, half-leaning carriage, although the feet must be on the floor for it to function as designed. The "pitch," or distance between the front of the seat and the back of the next row, is only 23 inches.

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JetBlue's all-you-can fly airline pass returns, so deploy the inflatable slide

Jason Cochran — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:40:00 EST

Filed under: Transportation, Travel, Biz Brief, Economizer, Travel, Family Money

With Steven Slater now threatening to unleash his diva fits on the TV viewing public, funky set-price airline JetBlue is providing America with plenty of goofy headlines. Time for one more: From Sept. 7 to Oct. 6 (30 days), it's bringing back its all-you-can-fly pass.

The pass costs $699, which is $100 more than it cost at this time last year. A scaled-down version, which won't allow flights on Fridays or Sundays, is $499. The pass will be on sale until Monday, Aug. 23, when users can start reserving flights with it, but I wouldn't wait until then to book, since last year, it sold out a day early.

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Travelers can save money on car rentals with this advice

Mitch Lipka — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:15:00 EST

Filed under: Transportation, Travel, Economizer, Consumer Ally, Travel

If you don't want to pay top dollar for car rentals while traveling, KDFW consumer reporter Steve Noviello -- an ally of Consumer Ally -- has some sound advice that could help you cut the price in half or more.

He surveyed car rental prices at several airports around the country and found an enormous price differential between renting cars there and at city locations. He even included the cab fare to getting from the airport to the off-site locations.

Steve notes some of the wide array of fees car renters pay at airports (we've noted those, too; see the most recent item). By the way, you might want to think twice -- maybe even three times -- before you sign up for the add-on insurance every car rental place is intent on selling you.

See if you can save a buck the next time you fly out of town. Check out Steve's story:

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Labor Day travel deals await

Jennifer Oldham — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Transportation, Travel, Economizer, Travel, Family Money

If you've waited until now to plan an escape for the last weekend of summer, there are still bargains out there, whether you're looking to stay close to home, or to jet to a faraway land.

There are c ondominiums awaiting Labor Day revelers in Palm Springs for $43 a night. Rental cars parked on airport lots in Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and Dallas, among others, starting at $8.55 a day. And a seven-day cruise on the Norwegian Jewel to the Bahamas (leaving from New York) for $649 for an inside cabin -- a 70% discount.

Travel experts say that there are more Labor Day deals available for vacationers than in the past, particularly from hotels and cruise lines looking to cash in on the last hurrah for summer. But travelers must not hesitate -- these bargains go fast.

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Luxury cruises lure with deals

Jennifer Oldham — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Transportation, Travel, Economizer, Travel

With the recession dragging on, prices are plunging for cruises on high-end ships this fall and winter to popular ports of call, including the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and the South Pacific.

Some sailings are available at record-low prices. Luxury ship operators, including Regent Seven Seas, Silversea, Crystal and Seabourn -- which is owned by Carnival -- are so eager to fill fancy cabins that they're also offering other perks.

These deals include two-for-the-price-of-one cruises, kids sail free, and freebies for air fare and shore excursions. The deals are often on new vessels, including the Seabourn Odyssey and Sojourn, and Silver Spirit. Perks also include all beverages free -- including alcohol -- on Regent cruises, and on board credits of $2,000 on Crystal.

"Due to how far in advance cruise lines must order ships, a few new luxury ships have launched in the past two years," said Erica Silverstein, a senior editor at CruiseCritic.com. "Some have more berths to sell than ever before."

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Follow airlines on Twitter for last-minute air fare deals

Jennifer Oldham — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Transportation, Travel, Biz Brief, Travel

Jet from New York to Portland, Maine for $10 one way. Fly from Los Angeles to Sydney for $712 round trip. Or travel within Europe for as little as $61 each way. More airlines are jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, hoping to snag customers by offering last-minute deals to destinations around the world. While short-term sales on Twitter offering tickets for travel several days later were rare last summer, this year there are all sorts of offers to choose from.

And even as airfares overall keep climbing, Twitter sales provide great deals if you're willing to be flexible.

For example, today JetBlue Airways Tweeted several offers @JetBlueCheeps, including a $39 one-way deal between Las Vegas and Burbank, Calif. Social media savvy JetBlue is the most predictable Twitterer among airlines, Tweeting deals every Tuesday morning for travel that weekend.

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Norwegian Epic cruise ship unveils single cabins for solo vacationers

Jason Cochran — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Transportation, Travel, Biz Brief, Travel

Norwegian Cruise Line's newest ship, the Epic, made national television by serving as the setting for NBC's coverage of the Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular on New York City's Hudson River, with appearances by Justin Bieber, LeAnn Rimes, a couple of cast members of Eclipse, and Nick Cannon. But there's one more newsworthy event on board the new cruise liner: cabins designed for solo travelers. They may make vacations cheaper.

Usually, when you want to take a cruise vacation alone, you have to shell out and pay as if there were two people traveling in your cabin. That's because until now, the short-sighted cruise industry cost itself business by designing cabin pricing to be "per person, double occupancy." If you wanted to go alone, you had to pay for yourself, and then either for a second, non-existent person (to compensate for the empty space) or pay a steep "single supplement." Either way, the cost keeps lots of people from cruising, either because they want to go alone or because they're the odd person out in a group.

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'Big Brother,' 'Amazing Race' star Jeff Schroeder to travel 'Around the World for Free'

Jason Cochran — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Transportation, Travel, People, Travel, Family Money

CBS reality heartthrob Jeff Schroeder, who appeared on last summer's Big Brother 11 and the most recent season of The Amazing Race, will head up a new show by himself. This time, he'll travel the world over 100 days with not a penny in his pocket. In a true test of budget travel, he'll see the world with nothing more than a backpack and help from fans on the Web. The show, Around the World for Free, will be on CBS.com.

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Get thee to Europe; bargains abound with Euro at a four-year low

Jason Cochran — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Bargains, Transportation, Travel, Biz Brief, Economizer, Travel, Family Money

A surprising thing happened to me yesterday as I flew back to America from the airport in Berlin, Germany. I was given the option of receiving change back in Euros or American dollars. Faced with quickly deciding which currency would hold its value over the next few weeks, to my surprise, I found myself thinking of the dollar as the better bet. I haven't had that feeling in the better part of a decade.

The Euro's at a four-year low, and signs points it to going lower this summer. Greece and Spain already already having fiscal woes, and Hungary is reportedly joining the ranks of the ailing. As some participating economies are sag under debt, the whole Euro currency system is dragged with them, and some pessimistic experts even predict that the Euro as we know it will cease to exist in five years.

In the face of such apocalyptic warnings, there can be only one prescription for Americans: Go to Europe!

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Go for Less: World Cup in South Africa

Jason Cochran — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: Transportation, Travel, Video, Travel, Family Money

Sure, the Olympics are pretty big, but for most of the world, the year's biggest sporting event is the World Cup of soccer, which will be held across South Africa in June.

If you're looking to go cheap and you haven't laid any groundwork, forget it. It's a precarious quadruple hurdle of airfare, hotel, car, and tickets. Scrounging tickets to the matches is the least of your problems. At the New York Times Travel Show, WalletPop's Jason Cochran met Terry Von Guilleaume, whose company Destination South Africa puts together World Cup vacations for Americans.

Continue reading Go for Less: World Cup in South Africa

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Go for Less: The Winter Olympics in Vancouver

Jason Cochran — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: Transportation, Travel, Video, Travel, Family Money

They're coming soon! You may think that only the rich and well-connected can win a spot at the Winter Games, but that's just not the case. WalletPop's Jason Cochran talked to Amber Sessions of Tourism Vancouver, the city's official tourism authority, on how a visitor can hope to get in on the festivities in February, even if they haven't planned a thing until this late date.

You won't pay traditional budget travel rates, but there are tricks and tactics that will not only get you into the Olympics, but also at a rate that's lower than the corporate muckety-mucks have to pay for the same access.

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Go for Less: Vacation in Iraq?

Jason Cochran — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Transportation, Travel, Video, Travel, Family Money

Vacation in Iraq? That's not a joke. Westerners once included Baghdad, one of the world's most historic cities, on their lists for their classical Grand Tours, and there's still plenty to see there.

The question is, would you? Admit it: Aren't you just a little bit curious about what it's like there right now?

Granted, very few would pick an active war zone for a vacation. Except for someone like Michael Luongo, who recently joined us to talk about the cheapest ways to see Buenos Aires.

He's been to Iraq, he had a great time, and he's here to give us a perspective on what it's like for visitors. Find out what tourism means to Iraqi locals, what the double whammy of the recession and the war have done to the lifestyle there, and even how much it would cost you to visit the country, should your wanderlust get the better of you.

Sooner or later, Iraq will rejoin the world's tourism destinations. Luongo tells us if it will be within your financial reach to do so.

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Go for Less: Cruising on the new Carnival Dream

Jason Cochran — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Bargains, Transportation, Travel, Video, Economizer, Travel

It's definitely cruise ship season. Royal Caribbean just made a major splash by launching the largest cruise ship in the world, Oasis of the Seas. That made headlines, but there have been other news stories in the industry. Last week, the huge Carnival line also had an unveiling of its own in New York City. Oscar-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden was the godmother for its new ship, the Dream.

WalletPop was invited to take a two-night ride on the ship, which is impressive but no record-breaker, as a guest of Carnival. Since the ship was packed with die-hard cruisers and travel writers eager to get their first peek at Carnival's newest vessel, it was the perfect opportunity to ask experienced cruise travelers for their favorite money-saving tips for taking a cruise.

Once you've paid your fare, your room is taken care of. So are your meals, provided you stick to the few on-board restaurants that are included in your ticket price. But after that, the costs start mounting. WalletPop's Jason Cochran, who has taken quite a few cruises himself as a travel writer, asked passengers on the sparkling new Dream for their best money-saving tips.

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On board the new Oasis of the Seas: Is it worth the money?

Jason Cochran — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:10:00 EST

Filed under: Bargains, Transportation, Travel, People, Economizer, Travel, Family Money

So here I am, writing this from off the coast of Florida as part of the first two-day preview cruise of the magnificent Oasis of the Seas. Royal Caribbean has launched the largest cruise ship in the world, a towering dagwood of action-packed decks and over-the top superlatives: longest cruise ship, widest cruise ship, tallest cruise ship, heaviest cruise ship.

And as of today, the coolest cruise ship. Rihanna was on here yesterday, and I'm told Richard Branson has come and gone, too. By now, most of America has seen the particulars of this gargantuan, billion-dollar chunk of devil-be-damned engineering. Here on board, one of the stateroom TV channels plays, on a loop, the segments of yesterday's Good Morning America in which Sam Champion and his crew romped around the Aqua Theatre, the Solarium, the cocktail bar that rises and falls between three decks (pictured above), the huge Central Park and Boardwalk atriums (atria?) that carve an airy middle into the ship.

The ship is, simply put, astounding. I have never seen anything like it in my years of cruising. It took me about six hours to explore fully from Deck 3 (the Studio B ice rink) to Deck 17 (the stunning, and ridiculously expensive, duplex loft suites with two-story sea views). There's nearly no way to take in the enormity of the endeavor. If you could pack a small shopping mall together with a 2,400-room resort and send it off to sea, you might start coming close (one cynic described it as "a hotel on a barge," which omits the considerable frills and dazzle), but you'd still have trouble wrapping your head around it all.

It is so big as to be humbling, and sometimes, that makes it a little frightening. As we left Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, a police boat rushed a smaller craft that was approaching us and warned its captain to back off, as it was entering "restricted waters." Something this big and this audacious would be an obvious target, and local police are clearly taking no chances.

Royal Caribbean, ever adept at cleverly harnessing social media (remember that unfortunate recent case in which it was nabbed giving freebies to people likely to populate user-review boards with praise?), has invited large numbers of journalists, travel agents, and VIPs to take part on two, free, back-to-back, two-night cruises. Attending for WalletPop, I'm on the first one. For this run only, alcohol is free.

There were some early reports this week that the line would be, in effect, bribing the press for good stories by plying them with booze and by giving them stuff that will actually cost passengers on "real" sailings. Although alcohol is free, I can't say I've seen this accusation to be the case, and the crowd is a lot less drunk than it was for a paid sailing on the Carnival Dream a week ago. Not everything is handed out: I've had to pay for things such as a $2.50 coffee on the Royal Promenade or $2.50 for a hyper-sweet cupcake from its on-board cupcake shop. Whenever anything is offered to us, I ask what the price will be for paying customers.

Again and again, the answer I get tells me that many of the things we're getting are included in the fare anyway. That includes midnight pizza at Sorrento's, afternoon burgers at Johnny Rocket's, and twilight doughnuts on the Boardwalk (where there's a working carousel), and even rides on one of the twin FlowRider sheet wave machines, provided you can score a time slot. So although Royal Caribbean is pioneering obnoxious fees such as surcharges for late-night room service and hefty upcharges for the privilege of eating better food than its main dining regularly serves, I can't say it's using the launch of the Oasis to foist a lot of new ones on us.

There are some issues, of course. The first is lines. Royal Caribbean was wise enough to only pack this ship about half-full, which means we're all likely to get into the shows we want to see and we won't write reviews complaining about crowds. When it's full of paying guests, though, you'll have to make many of your reservations online or in a queue, adding another layer of hassle to what's supposed to be your break from it all. I also suspect the main pool area, on Deck 15, will not be able accommodate everyone who wants to swim. On balance, though, this is a pretty dazzling achievement, and diversion is around every corner.

When I see a ship as marvelously bloated as this one, I have to separate my sense of travel snobbery from my admiration for what Royal Caribbean has done here. I can't deny that passengers who immerse themselves in this floating circus might as well not be at sea at all. It's less a ship than a floating resort, and most of the passengers seem to be hanging out below decks than enjoying the sun and the sea.

Today, while I was having lunch in the Windjammer Marketplace buffet on Deck 16, I looked down at the smooth blue water to see dolphins playing alongside the ship. While I was admiring that sight, the couple behind me was engaged in a lively debate about the quality of this buffet compared to those on other ships. They were oblivious to their surroundings. It's typical of the attitude on board the Oasis, which is so loathe to share any glory with the oceans than most of its vantage points over the seas are sheathed in glass.

That's all right. This ship is a product, and whether you're a theatre reviewer or a travel writer, you have to remember the audience for whom you're reviewing the product. This audience is agog. I myself can't help but be impressed. For the next year or so, until its sister ship the Allure of the Seas matches her feats, this will be the ship to book, and rates are likely to be at around $150 a night or more (I wrote about upcoming deals to be had that were even better). I can't say that if I paid that price, high for the industry right now, that I would ever find that I was feeling ripped off.

Now that I've seen this ship, though, I might consider any other vessel that dared to charge me so much would be a rip. In this way alone, the Oasis may have changed the industry: It will be difficult for less exuberant ships to charge the same price, and if they do, they'll have to find some other hook, be it a boast about smaller crowds, better food (Royal Caribbean's food is not widely considered its strong point), Mickey Mouse appearances, or larger cabins. The sheer magnitude of the Oasis, its biggest selling point, will also be the very thing that convinces some customers to choose a sailing with more modesty.

And more importantly, remember that traveling is not always the same thing as vacationing. Not everyone wants to engage with other cultures; for many people, the floating fishtank of a cruise ship is all the exploration they need. The Oasis is a fabulous vacation machine, but it's about the universe it has created for itself, not about its place in the outside world. In that, it's a home run.

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