Posted by Seth on May 19, 2009 under Uncategorized | 
Who says you need to book way in advance to get the best rates? That certainly doesn’t seem to be the case these days for many destinations. Advance bookings are down across the industry in many areas and deals abound for those willing to search them out.
Most notably for me was a hotel booking I made on Saturday for an arrival this Friday. Only 6 days in advance and there were plenty of rooms available, all at ~20% off the web rates. A quick call to the hotel was able to secure that deal. It works better with non-chain properties so there is that, but I’m quite happy saving a few hundred dollars that way and giving up the points.
Book a refundable reservation farther out if there is concern about missing out completely, but check up closer to the arrival date. Odds are there are deals to be found with the industry the way it is right now.
Posted by Seth on May 18, 2009 under TSA |
It is very rare that any media outlet summons the integrity to publish an article critical of the TSA. After all, “they are there for our safety” and we all have to “think of the children” and “do everything possible to protect ourselves.” Every now and then USA Today or CNN will have an article with a bit of bite to it but even those are generally tame. Today CNN managed to publish a story online that calls into question one of the TSA’s new favorite technologies – millimeter wave imaging scans, also known as the strip search machines.
The machines render an image that clearly shows a passenger’s body – underneath their clothes. It is a strip search, plain and simple. And the TSA is using them as their primary means of searching passengers in at least six airports around the country and as an additional screening method in a dozen more. This has happened without a clear and detailed explanation to the public of what they are about to endure and is, quite frankly, reprehensible.
My favorite part is that the TSA refuses to share with the public a full-size copy of what their screeners see when a passenger walks through the machine. All we get to see are 300 pixel images that represent the results. And even those are pretty clear views of the people in question.
The TSA has a great reply to those questioning the technology – “over 99 percent of passengers choose this technology over other screening options.” Of course, since the TSA doesn’t tell the passengers what’s about to happen or what the alternatives are these numbers aren’t particularly surprising. And they claim that the image viewed is “fuzzy.” But if it is fuzzy then how can they identify prohibited items? It can’t be all that fuzzy.
The other interesting thing about the program is that in the locations where the strip searches are now the primary detection method the only alternative is to pass through a metal detector AND to receive a pat-down, even if there is no alarm raised from the metal detector. So when I pass through Miami next week on my way home from Belize I get the luxury of choosing between a strip search or a groping. Even better, I get to pay the government for my fun. I think I will choose the groping. For one thing, it will take TSA goons away from their otherwise sworn duty of standing around. And for another, I might actually have some fun, too. 
Image courtesy of the TSA.
Posted by Seth on May 13, 2009 under Trip Reports |
I often lamented my struggles with picking up foreign languages. I’m pretty sure I’d actually be fine at dong so if I bothered to try, but I’m pretty lazy so it just hasn’t happened too much. Besides, I have managed to get by well enough most places I’ve visited (even Tokyo, though only one 15 minute conversation over 3 days was a strange experience) so I haven’t really felt a compelling need to get another language in my repertoire. And then, sitting at the bar for dinner at my favorite Italian place the other night, I heard an explanation of my attitude that was way more eloquent than anything I ever would have thought of: “I don’t speak foreign languages; I speak food.”
It turns out that I am not particularly hung up on having deep and meaningful conversations with folks as I travel. I probably should, as it would expose a completely different side of the culture and destination. But every time I find myself in a new destination with new language challenges I find that I survive. Because apparently I speak food. Take this example from my Hamburg trip a few weeks ago. I was sitting in a Greek restaurant in Germany where a guy asked us a question in Italian and I managed to answer in French. I’m even pretty sure that I got the answer right; he definitely understood what I was saying.
More importantly though, I also managed to order dinner just fine. Just like I have pretty much everywhere I’ve been in the world. I may not always get exactly what I want, but I get something that I can eat and that is the most important thing.
In Tokyo my food language skills were stressed a bit more, but I managed to get by quite fine based on the bills I accumulated for sushi. I had many different ordering means available to me at the various places I dined. At one there was a guy who spoke English outside who took my order and as I walked inside to sit down he just shouted it at the woman behind the corner. There were a couple where they dug through the menus to find one in English. There is the fact that I know a few of the fish I like by their Japanese name. And then there is the all-powerful ability to point.
At my last meal – the nicest of the four sushi meals I had – I sat down at the counter and the chef asked if I spoke any Japanese. I said no and he appeared somewhat disappointed but I quickly intimated that I would happily point to what I wanted. A quick series of hand gestures later (I chose my seat based on proximity to the stuff I wanted to try) I had quite the spread in front of me. And ordering o-toro for dessert earned me a smile and a nod of approval. But I never got past the couple words I know for sushi orders and a well placed arigato.
Yes, I should really get better at one of the many languages I speak 10 words of and Spanish is probably the leading candidate on that front. But in the meantime, I’ll continue to live my foreign experiences one meal at a time. It has worked pretty well so far.
Posted by Seth on May 12, 2009 under Uncategorized |
What do $15 here and $25 there add up to in the US airline industry? Over one BILLION dollars in 2008. That’s right. A billion. With a B. The carriers do not break out the revenue from checked baggage in their individual annual reports, but the Department of Transportation does require that they report it so we finally got a glimpse into the real numbers there with the release of the Fourth-Quarter 2008 System Airline Financial Data report yesterday.
The numbers overall are rather depressing. The carriers mostly lost money. A lot of it. But in that sea of data there were some bright spots for the carriers. Like the fact that they collected, as a whole, $498.6MM dollars in baggage fees in Q4 2008. Because the fees didn’t really start to show up until Q2 2008 we don’t know what the full year impact will really be year over year, but it isn’t too far fetched to think that the $1.1 Billion that we saw in 2008 is soft. Then again, the whole industry is soft right now so maybe not.
And so, thanks to the fine folks at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the numbers are available for our perusal. The data are available to be broken down by just about any variable out there. Want to know which carrier had the highest excess baggage revenue in Q3 2008 in the Pacific region? That data is available (Northwest, by far). Here’s the summary for the full year system wide:
| Airline |
Excess Baggage Fees ($000) |
| American Airlines Inc. |
$ 277,991.00 |
| US Airways Inc. |
$ 187,081.94 |
| Delta Air Lines Inc. |
$ 177,063.00 |
| United Air Lines Inc. |
$ 132,994.00 |
| Northwest Airlines Inc. |
$ 121,599.00 |
| Continental Air Lines Inc. |
$ 99,315.00 |
| JetBlue Airways |
$ 35,307.65 |
| AirTran Airways Corporation |
$ 29,400.96 |
| Southwest Airlines Co. |
$ 25,226.00 |
| Alaska Airlines Inc. |
$ 24,773.00 |
| Frontier Airlines Inc. |
$ 15,155.82 |
| Hawaiian Airlines Inc. |
$ 11,627.18 |
| Midwest Airline, Inc. |
$ 3,977.84 |
| Virgin America |
$ 2,568.56 |
| Sun Country Airlines |
$ 1,304.90 |
Those numbers are in thousands of dollars so American Airlines’s number represents almost $278 Million that they realized all on their own, about 25% of the total in the nation. If you combine Delta and Northwest’s numbers they actually represent a slightly larger piece of the pie (~$298.6MM) than AA does. Southwest Airlines, famous for their “no fees” approach to fares managed to pull in about $25MM in fees, thanks to folks paying for overweight or additional bags beyond the first two. jetBlue seems to be pulling in more money for their Even More Legroom seat up-charges than they are for their baggage fees (first bag is still free on jetBlue), but combined the two do make a pretty reasonable contribution (~$70MM) to the carrier’s bottom line.
For an industry that lost billions of dollars last year these revenue numbers are a bit of silver lining. The money being taken in is very real and, for some carriers, quite substantial.
Posted by Seth on May 12, 2009 under Uncategorized |
An American woman and her two children were recently denied entry into Canada – twice – because, according to the Canadian border agent, people on welfare shouldn’t take vacations. This raises and interesting set of points to consider.
The main reason that people are denied entry into a foreign country these days seems to be a concern over intent to emigrate rather than just visit. This woman was going to visit friends and family, so she had a base of support infrastructure available to her on the Canadian side of the border. And it is arguable that she had nothing tying her down in the USA that was particularly compelling to make her want to return.
It may not be politic to say it, but I can understand where the Canadians are coming from on this one and I actually tend to agree with the decision. I don’t know whether the woman was planning on emigrating or not, and saying it the way they did was probably stupid, but the border agents operate within a relatively well defined set of guidelines and this case seems to have met the litmus test of probably not being a viable candidate for entry.
Posted by Seth on May 11, 2009 under News |
Hilton has come up with another new brand to add into their portfolio. Maybe it is because they have hit a snag with the lawsuits related to the Denizen brand, or maybe it is because they are just thinking irrationally, but they have decided to make a change to one of their longer established brands – Embassy Suites. The appeal of Embassy Suites properties has always been that they are actually suites. Two rooms, with walls and a door to separate them. Plus free breakfast every morning and the Manager’s Reception happy hour on weeknights. But the brand name has the word “suites” in it. There isn’t a lot of wiggle room there. Or is there?
Apparently Jim Holthouser, brand manager for the Embassy Suites brand within Hilton’s corporate structure, feels that having that extra room in each suite is actually pushing business travelers away. "For years, customers have told us, ‘We love Embassy Suites with family. But for business? Not sure I quite need that’," is his take on the situation. Apparently business customers have actually been calling up Hilton’s corporate offices and telling them that they don’t want more space.
Yeah, we’re really supposed to believe that.
Even worse, somehow the folks at Hilton convinced USAToday to write their article on the change using that exact theme as the leader as though it much be fact because they said it was:
Ever driven past an Embassy Suites hotel because its two-room suites were too spacious for you and your laptop?
Embassy Suites execs think it’s time to fix that. They’re rolling out a one-room version of the chain’s standard, two-room suite for travelers who don’t need – or want – the extra space. It’s the first major room change since the chain was founded in 1984 aimed squarely at road warriors.
If the folks at Embassy Suites really want to focus on the bits that are probably driving business travelers away they should probably consider that their properties are generally located in tourist districts more than business districts and are frequently filled with families that want that second room for the kids and the free breakfast every day. So there are kids running around all over the place (in my experience, at least) and it can be pretty loud. At least they have a restaurant and room service at most properties.
The one room “suites” will only be an option for 20% of the rooms at any given property and they are actually only about 20% smaller than the regular suites, so it isn’t too much of a loss of space. Though the reasoning and justification are certainly specious at best. In the mean time, look for the new “suites” opening up in Buffalo, NY; Louisville, KY and St. Louis, MO in the coming months.
Read Lucky’s take on the story here. More objective than the USAToday bit by a long stretch.
Posted by Seth on May 10, 2009 under News |
Big news out of the American Airlines AAdvantage program over the weekend – rewards can now be issued as one-way tickets rather than round trips. These rewards can be redeemed at 50% of the typical round trip reward levels so no reward price inflation. It also means that rewards can be redeemed “mix-and-match,” allowing for travel to and from different zones or in different cabins in each direction at the combination of one-way prices.
And now the bad news. No more stopovers allowed at the International gateway city. Up until now American had perhaps the most liberal stopover policy of any carrier worldwide. A stopover was allowed at both gateways for international travel. So if flying New Orleans – Paris the trip could be routed via Chicago and London with a free stopover at each of those cities. That essentially got a couple more hops out of a reward ticket. The new rules will still allow the stopover at the departure gateway (Chicago in the above example) but not at the far end of the trip. With rewards booking as one-way trips it would be possible to book the international gateway stopover on the return part of the trip (it would be the “local” gateway at that point) but that used to be allowed anyways so it does cut down on options. That same New Orleans – Paris trip previously could have been routed with stops in Chicago, London, Paris (destination), Madrid and New York all on a single reward ticket. Now only one of the North American stops will be allowed and one of the European stops (in addition to the actual destination).
Should an AAdvantage member want to book the stopover they’ll simply have to pay the extra miles for the one way trip. Or pay cash. In some cases that isn’t a huge deal. For an intra-Europe stopover there are likely LCCs or rail options that can make up the loss at a reasonable price. But if you were planning a stopover in Hong Kong or Tokyo on your way to Thailand or Bali the costs just went up significantly, either with cash or miles.
This truly is a mixed bag change. The ability to do the “mix-and-match” redemption in different classes or different zones is a significant improvement and brings American up to match a number of other carriers in that regard. But losing the stopover at the international gateway is a pretty big loss. For the bulk of their customers who live in their hub cities the stopover at the near-side gateway is essentially useless since the trip starts at the gateway. As a customer I’d be much happier with simply a single stopover instead of them dictating which end of the trip it should be at.
This wouldn’t be enough to drive me away were I a heavy AA customer. I’d just take my stopovers on the return side of the trip and call it a day. And as a very light customer (1-2x yearly) I actually like it since I have fewer miles and can get a one-way here or there and actually afford it with my earning pattern. But it definitely changes the landscape of the reward market in the United States. The waiting game now begins to see if any of the other legacy carriers will match the move (the non-Legacy carriers already offer such redemptions in their programs).
Posted by Seth on May 9, 2009 under Trip Reports |
One nice thing about Bermuda is that there is no shortage of water. It is everywhere. The airport is carved into a strip of land just wide enough to hold it in the middle of the ocean, and the beaches and harbors surrounding the island are numerous and easily accessible. But the best part is the huge variety of blues that you get to see. Between the various depths of the water and the sky there are hundreds of different shades of blue out there. Quite beautiful, really.
And so, without further ado (or text), pretty pictures showing off the blues of the islands.
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| Looking down on the outer shoals on approach into Bermuda’s airport |
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| Looking off shore near the 9 Beaches resort |
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| OK…so there is some green in this one, too. |
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| Another view from the air on departure |
That’s all….some pretty shades of blue.
Posted by Seth on May 8, 2009 under News |
It is about effing time!
The Department of the Interior announced today that access to the interior of the statue will be permitted by July 4th, 2009, albeit with some limitations. Most notably, access will be restricted to 10 people at a time, along with a Park Service Ranger.
“On July 4th, we are giving America a special gift,” [Secretary of the Interior Ken] Salazar said. “We are once again inviting the public to celebrate our great nation and the hope and opportunity it symbolizes by climbing to Lady Liberty’s crown for a unique view of New York Harbor, where the forbearers of millions of American families first saw the new world.”
The crown was closed in 2001 amid “safety concerns,” also known as irrational panic by the government. Since then parts of the statue have been reopened but the climb to the crown has not. The Park Service has previously maintained that it is dangerous because it is hot and the stairs are difficult to navigate. That may be true, but the interior climb was open for a long time and it wasn’t too dangerous then. Fortunately a more reasonable approach is being taken now.
Unfortunately this access is only for a short period of time. The Statue will be closed in two years to allow for a more comprehensive upgrades to the interior of the statue to improve accessibility to the crown.
Getting to the crown will almost certainly require a different “special” ticket for access (I can’t wait to see how much those sell for or if a secondary market appears) and will also require waiting in line to get into the pedestal, a line that was over an hour on a not-too-busy April afternoon. Still, it is nice to see that some of the less rational decisions our government has made are being peeled back, slowly but surely.
Posted by Seth on May 8, 2009 under Trip Reports |
In addition to its place as an insurance and financial powerhouse, Bermuda is probably best know for its pink sand beaches. At least that is what I’ve been told. And there are plenty of beaches available, though I’m not sure I’d really call the sand pink. No matter there, though. Depending on the type of beach excursion you are looking for odds are that Bermuda has an option to fit your needs. No nude or topless beaches that I am aware of, but there are a range of other options available, from desolate to crowded, social or isolated and even an option or two for full-service luxury or just a few random merchants selling services on the waterfront. There really are options to meet just about any need.
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| A quiet walk along one of the more isolated beaches of the South shore – Marley Beach |
Always a crowd on Horseshoe Beach |
Most of the beaches are along the south shore of the island, all within a couple miles of each other. They share the same beautiful, crystal clear (and quite chilly) water and the sand is generally the same – powder soft and wonderful to walk or lay on. But the difference in crowds can be quite noticeable. Marley Beach, for instance, was desolate when I visited. Horseshoe beach, on the other hand, is the most famous of the beaches on the island and it was packed commensurate with its fame.
Looking for something with a bit more style and luxury? Head over to the Fairmont Resort – Southampton. Their beach is directly adjacent to Horseshoe beach, just a couple hundred yards to the west. You can actually park in the Horseshoe lot and go through the gate between the parking lots to access the beach of the Fairmont. It is quite lovely and has a nice breakwater to help protect it from the waves and whatnot. There are also chaise loungers and fancy umbrellas and such, though all at a price – one I did not check for fear that my heart would stop functioning. At Horseshoe Beach there are guys renting umbrellas and chairs, too, and for more reasonable prices. Of course they are not quite as luxurious, but they are there.
Just a bit east of Horseshoe Beach is Warwick Beach and Long Bay Beach. If you’re looking for some quiet alone time on the beach give one of these a try. Long Bay is incredibly long (Duh!) and both parking and access roads are limited. This means fewer crowds and more space to spread out. Indeed, while there were a couple hundred folks on Horseshoe Beach one Tuesday afternoon there were a combined total of six visible on the much larger Long Bay/Warwick combination.
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| Finding some peace and quiet on the rather desolate Long Bay Beach |
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| The Portuguese man-of-war are prevalent in the waters and on the beaches. And the stings hurt. A lot! |
In addition to the normal hazards of relaxing on the beach – lots of sun and sand in crevices you might not know you have – there are two other significant threats in the Bermudan waters. The Portuguese man-of-war is particularly prevalent. They were literally EVERYWHERE on the beach. And there were plenty visible in the water as well. They come with a nice long tail that is covered with little balls of poisonous stinger. And they hurt like the dickens when you get stung. Plus you can be stung from many feet away so it really is hard to avoid them. Be very careful. The other big risk is of riptides. Fortunately those are less common, and there are lifeguards on duty at a few of the beaches where they are most common so that helps mitigate that threat.
There are also some pretty cool birds that circle the beaches. Their tails are particularly long which I’m sure serves some particular purpose but I have no idea what it is. They were still fun to watch flying overhead, and catching a glimpse of one of them nesting in a little cutout in the rocks at the western end of Horseshoe Beach was pretty cool, too.
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| One of the many long-tailed birds that are frequently flying over the beaches of Bermuda, resting and nesting in the rocks overlooking Horseshoe Beach |
If you happen to be out on the west end of the island, near the dockyards or otherwise in the Somerset Parish there are always the beaches at the 9 Beaches resort. They are very isolated and quiet, which can be a very nice thing. The beaches there are interspersed between the overwater bungalows that make up the lodging options at the resort. But since pretty much all beaches in Bermuda are open to the public there is nothing preventing you from using them, other than their incredibly inconvenient location relative to most other sights/destinations on the island.
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| The bungalows and one of the beaches of the 9 Beaches resort |
So pick your desired style of beach life and then pick the appropriate beach to visit. They are all a pretty quick bus ride from Hamilton or a walk from the majority of the guest houses and hotels in the Southampton or Warwick Parishes on the south shore.
More Bermuda photos here
