Tips for Travelers Articles

(Dive Travel Business News - January 31, 2011) -- In the midst of Egypt’s peak tourist season, political unrest with demonstrations in Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Aswan and Suez are clearly upsetting tourism in that country.  The situation is in flux and news media reports have yet to comment on the impact on travelers to Egypt. As of this writing, the Egyptian Tourism Authority’s website makes no reference to the country's current problems. 

The U.S. State Department, British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs are among the Foreign Ministries that have issued travel warnings urging citizens to postpone non-essential travel to Egypt.  However, with the cancelation of flights to Cairo and other cities by major airlines like Delta, Lufthansa  and Air Berlin, the Government imposed curfew, the absence of law enforcement and the disruption in the communication networks, foreign travelers in Egypt are faced with questions about their safety.  read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - December 2, 2010) -- American Express is offering Platinum Card members a new suite of benefits that are worth hundreds of dollars, including an airline fee credit of up to $200, a 20 percent travel bonus and a travel app. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - October 28, 2010) -- As the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that the cholera epidemic in Haiti -with more than 292 deaths and 4,147 infected- still hasn’t reached its peak, Dominican authorities extend its "sanitary loop" to the country’s east and north tourism regions, where most of the tourism industry is based.

On Wednesday Health minister Bautista Rojas and other Government officials implemented a sanitary response to keep the epidemic from affecting the tourism regions.

Julio Llibre, head of the hoteliers and tourism businesses grouped in Asonahores yesterday urged stricter controls at the border to keep the disease out of the country. He said it’s necessary to keep the epidemic from threatening Dominican tourism’s stability and sustainability at all costs.

“We would really want that the announced control at the border be just a bit stricter, because I understand it is required, the creation of a sanitary loop along the entire border is needed, which at least prevents travel by people who can be infected." read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - July 22, 2010) -- Divers from all over the world can now share their knowledge and experience of dive operators, dive centers and liveaboards with a new online resource, Scubadvisor. 

From Belize to Bermuda, from Trinidad to Tonga, Scubadviser offers the collective wisdom of divers with first-hand knowledge of a total over 6000 dive centers and liveaboards worldwide.  Each reviewer rates on a range of measures including attentiveness, quality of diving, and safety awareness, and contributes their own take on the total dive experience. 

No longer do divers need to lurk on message boards or trawl the web when deciding on which operator to choose.  Scubadviser makes it easy to find out what other divers think of the operators that they have used—both good and bad.  All reviews are moderated and dive operators have right of reply. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - July 19, 2010) -- Planes are running so full this summer that U.S. travelers bound for summer vacations may have to wait overnight for the next plane if they miss a flight.

Flight cancellations due to bad weather and equipment problems are compounding the seat shortage issue, creating a domino effect, putting stress on other airlines and routes, and causing missed connections to international destinations. Few options are left for summer dive travelers who've paid for a ticket but can't get to their dive destination on their original itinerary.

For the past two years, US airlines have been cutting back service, using smaller planes or cutting routes altogether in a bid to address the impact of a poor economy, rising fuel prices and fewer passengers. The U.S. airlines' belt-tightening included a 6.7 percent capacity cut in 2008 and a nearly 9 percent cut in 2009 in a scramble to better match the number of seats to a reduced number of passengers flying. As a result, load factors - the measure of how full planes are - are up. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - July 8, 2010) -- Are your clients having difficulty committing to an upcoming group dive trip because of budgeting issues?  Voted "Best Budgeting Site" by Kiplinger's Magazine and  a "Top Pick" by Money Magazine, Mint.com has been helping spenders big and small set goals for their personal and household needs since 2007. In June, it launched a new tool to help travelers set a vacation goal and then save for it.

First, travelers establish how much they think their trip will cost. As a travel professional, you can start them off with package prices, air fare costs and daily spending estimates for their next dream vacation. 

Then with a new tool, Mint Goals, helps Mint users figure out how much they need to save every month to make their vacation goal by the travel deadline. Or, they can tell Mint how much they can save each month, and Mint lets them know when you can reasonably expect to be on that plane headed for their favorite dive destination. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - April 10, 2010) -- According to accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, hotels charged travelers almost $2 billion in hidden fees and surcharges in 2007. Full disclosure is not the name of the game with hotels and travel websites who are mum about additional fees over and above the room or package rate - until you check out, that is. 

Surprise fees blindside our clients and get them upset with us for not warning us upfront. Third party brokers like wholesalers and tour operators may be very careful to outline what's included in a package - yet some of them don't know or don't care to mention what's NOT included in the rate. We all look bad in the eyes of our clients. read more »

(Dive Travel Buiness News - March 16, 2010) -- It's hard to figure out the true cost of travel these days. Travel Professionals, Tour Operators and their customers are struggling to play catch-up with the changing baggage fee scene along with a surge in airline ancillary fees for meals, premium seating, blankets, WiFi and unaccompanied minors. 

In addition to the changing policies on ancillary fees, each airline has its own fee policy for these items. For instance, the fee for a single bag on a United international flight is determined by a combination of baggage weight, direction of travel, ticket class, the date the ticket was purchased, the date of travel and whether the bag will be registered at the airport or ahead of time on United's website. Then there is the question of whether or not you'll get your bag at the other end.

The situation is further complicated when factoring in how these policies affect codeshare agreements between two carriers and international-travel issues such as whether the weight limit on a bag will apply on all legs of the travel itinerary. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - February 3, 2010) -- Police in Antigua report that a 24-year-old man from Dominica has confessed to fatally stabbing a San Francisco woman in the neck during a cruise stopover. Tishara Daniel was arraigned on Monday Feb 1 and has been remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison in St. John’s to await a hearing on May 28. 

(DiveTravelBusinessNews - Dec 1, 2009) -- Luggagelimits.com is an ambitious new site built around a central database that picks out what you can expect by matching your airline with your departure and arrival airports. Once you choose your airline, a bunch of general information gets displayed, both as a broad description and in boxes with specific information. At the top there's a drop-down box where for setting airline-specific ticket class, which reflects the idiosyncratic options of each company. Visit LugggageLimits here.
 

** This RSS Feed is brought to you by www.DiveTravelBusinessNews.com **

(Jaunted.com - Nov 8, 2009) -- Why is it that the world is on sale for airfares and hotels but car ental car rates are as a high as ever?  According to a study by Abrams Travel Data Rate Index, rental prices increased nearly 50 percent from a year ago on daily rates for mid-sized cars booked a week in advance and weekly rates on compact cars.  In an AP item, Budget Travel's editor-in-chief said that car rental companies are much more nimble at responding to the current economic crisis than airlines or hotels in that they can trim their supply of cars very easily, maintaining a tight market for rentals.  Here are some tips to give the best value in rental cars:

Do your homework. Be prepared to shop around. And stay on top of your booking - and be prepared to change it if the price goes down.

Compare apples with apples: Know the terms so that you can properly compare prices: What is included in the price? Sometimes taxes and other fees are extras hidden in the small print. read more »

(MSNBC - Oct 15, 2009) -- As our memories of summer vacations fade, it’s time to start making travel plans for the holidays. Coordinating schedules with friends, family and the airlines is hard enough, but this year there are business headlines and health news we must factor into our decisions.

Statistics released by the Transportation Department earlier this month show complaints about lost luggage inched higher in August while airlines showed a slight improvement in on-time arrivals.

Airlines may be having an easier time getting from here to there because fewer people are flying and there are fewer jets in the air. According to a report released by the Brookings Institution, however, delays will most certainly get worse — especially in the 26 metropolitan hubs that serve about 75 percent of all domestic travelers. read more »

(DiveTravelNewswire.comn - June 3, 2009) --Tourists to the Indonesian island of Bali were warned against drinking the local spirit arak, after at least 25 people died in the past week when a batch was cut with methanol.

Bali's police said 25 people, including a British national, an Irish woman, a Dutch man and a American woman, died of alcohol poisoning after drinking arak containing methanol -- a toxic chemical compound often used as an anti-freeze or in paint.

Another 21 local residents have been treated at Bali's main hospital of Sanglah, police said.

Police have arrested the owner and an employee of a small rice wine factory in Denpasar, the capital of Bali, after finding evidence of arak that contained traces of methanol. They are investigating if this was accidental or deliberate.

This contaminated batch of arak was distributed to shops and roadside stalls in four different districts of Bali, police said.

 ** This RSS Feed is brought to you by www.DiveTravelNewswire.com **
 

Air travelers also are being urged to book tickets under their full name as it appears on the government-issued identification they'll be using when they travel. On Thursday, the TSA launched an awareness campaign for its Secure Flight program, in which it will gradually take over from the airlines the task of checking passenger names against government watch lists. The program will be phased in airline by airline, with all carriers participating by early 2010 on domestic flights and by the end of that year on international flights. Later this year, airlines will begin asking customers for their birth date and gender when they reserve. read more »

(Wednesday November 12, 2008 - CNN) -- A federal task force approved voluntary guidelines Wednesday for airlines and airports dealing with passengers stranded for hours on the tarmac but produced no fixed limit on how long they can be delayed before being allowed to leave planes.

Passengers who had hoped for stronger protections were left empty-handed by the guidelines.

"You have to admit that the game is still heavily weighted to business as usual," Kate Hanni, a passenger rights advocate, told her fellow task force members before voting against adoption of the report.

Passenger rights advocates said the report of the tarmac task force, as it is informally known, reflected demands by airline members that they have the flexibility to design their own response plans and not be pinned to a time limit for holding passengers on tarmacs.

Task force member Daniel Rutenberg of the International Airline Passengers Association also expressed disappointment at the lack of "time-specific triggers" for allowing passengers to return to gates and appealed to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters to address the issue. read more »

(November 23, 2008 - Jackson Citizen Patriot) -- When Cherie Moore, 62, of Jackson was planning a trip this past summer, she chose to go through a local travel agent.

http://www.divetravelnewswire.com/sites/all/modules/fckeditor/fckeditor/...); background-repeat: no-repeat; padding-left: 18px; background-position: 0px 50%; ">

Linda Gonding, travel agent and owner of A Dream Realized in Jackson, helped Moore plan her Alaskan cruise and made many suggestions, which turned the trip into an even better experience than Moore had anticipated. For example, Gonding encouraged Moore and her husband to spend time exploring "pre- and post-cruise" in British Columbia. read more »

(November 26, 2008 - The Salt Lake Tribune) --The Transportation Security Administration now permits passengers to board airplanes with large bottles of medically necessary liquids that exceed the agency's 3-ounce limit.

But there's a catch.

The catch is that passengers -- no matter how experienced with TSA security lines and procedures -- must go through specially marked family lanes equipped with scanners able to detect liquid explosives.

"It can delay your screening process if you have those liquids. But, on the other hand, it keeps you from having to put those items into checked baggage, as you had to before," said Dwayne Baird, TSA Salt Lake City spokesman, on Tuesday.

TSA rolled out the new procedure at Salt Lake City International Airport on Thursday - one week ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, when, according to the Air Transport Association of America, planes are expected to be close to 90 percent full despite a projected 10 percent decrease in passenger numbers. read more »

(January 21, 2008 - DTN) -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is reminding travelers that beginning Jan. 31 border crossers will be asked to present documents denoting citizenship and identity when entering the United States through land and sea ports of entry. This change primarily affects United States and Canadian citizens, who have previously been permitted entry by oral declaration alone, and marks the transition toward standard and consistent documents for all travelers entering the country. It is also the start of a more robust and concerted public education campaign, intended to inform travelers of document requirements which will be implemented next year.

Beginning Jan. 31, travelers will be asked to present documentation from a specified list of acceptable documents when entering the U.S. at land and sea ports of entry. Examples include birth certificates and driver’s licenses. read more »

(April 5, 2008 - DTN) -- Aircell received critical FAA approvals bringing in-flight mobile broadband connectivity one step closer to the flying public who have consistently requested this service. Aircell is now the first and only communications operator to receive approvals from the FAA to provide air-to-ground in-flight mobile broadband for U.S. domestic flights.

With its manufacturing facility fully operational and approved by the FAA, Aircell is producing the equipment needed to bring its in-flight Internet service to American Airlines and Virgin America on Boeing 767-200 jets in 2008. Enough manufacturing capacity is in place to accommodate rapid service introduction to all future partners as well. For more information, visit : Aircell.com.

** This RSS Feed is brought to you by www.DiveTravelNewswire.com **

(April 25, 2008 - DTN) -- A word of advice for all professionals and travel clients traveling with their laptops: The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) issued a warning to its members worldwide – and to all travelers traveling with their laptops– to limit proprietary information on laptop computers when crossing U.S. borders, and to eliminate any personal data, including photographs, finances and email that you do not want examined by Border Protection authorities.

The warning follows a decision by a federal appeals court on 21 April 2008 giving customs officials the unfettered authority to examine, copy, and seize travelers’ laptops – without reasonable suspicion.

“ACTE filed an Amicus brief contending that a traveler’s laptop was essentially intellectual property and not the same as luggage nor freight,” Susan Gurley, ACTE Global Executive Director, said. “The court has disagreed and this decision will have significant impact on travelers who have no idea their data is subject to search and seizure.” read more »

(May 27, 2008 - Modern Agent) -- As the summer travel season begins, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reminds travelers that coming to the checkpoint prepared for the security process will lead to shorter lines and less travel stress. Travelers must show ID and boarding pass.

Beginning May 26, TSA will use a standardized list of acceptable identification for airline travel. Passengers who present a federal- or state-issued photo ID containing name, date of birth, gender, expiration date and a tamper-resistant feature that is free from evidence of tampering can expect to be expedited through the travel document checking process.

Standardizing the list of accepted documents better aligns TSA with other DHS components and REAL ID benchmarks. Passengers should remove their government-issued photo ID from wallets, plastic holders and other similar carrying cases, and present the ID along with their boarding pass at the start of the screening process. Hold on to the boarding pass until through the magnetometer, where it may need to be shown again. read more »

(April 9, 2008 - DTN) -- As families around the nation head into the busy summer travel season, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is urging travelers to “pack smart” and to remember “3-1-1″ when taking liquids, gels and aerosols in carry-on baggage. Passengers can speed their own screening process by preparing ahead of time and checking out TSA’s travel tips on the web at tsa.gov.

Passengers are allowed to carry through the security checkpoint small amounts of liquids, gels and aerosols in containers of three ounces or less that fit comfortably in one quart-size, clear plastic, zip-top bag. Each passenger may bring one plastic zip-top bag. They must remove the bag from their carry-on and place it in a bin or on the conveyor belt for X-ray screening. They may bring on board the aircraft larger-size liquid and gel items, including beverages, provided they are purchased beyond the checkpoint in the secure boarding area. Bringing prohibited items to the airport will cause delays in the screening process. If passengers are not sure which items are prohibited, check TSA’s website for a complete list. read more »

(May 13, 2008 - New York Times) — On a recent visit to Cambodia, outside a children’s hospital a block from my hotel, I saw a large red-and-white sign that warned of a severe epidemic of dengue hemorrhagic fever. Years ago, the disease killed our tour guide’s 5-year-old brother.

My tripmates and I managed to escape even the milder form of this mosquito-borne viral infection — we all slept in an air-conditioned hotel and each day applied insect repellent with 30 percent DEET on our exposed skin. But I have since learned that I could have been infected on several previous trips abroad and even in parts of the United States. read more »