Category — Air Travel
Turkey during turkey month?
Turkey is a country that has a unique culture at an important point in its history, facing questions of religious and regional identity. Although it has always been an exotic, beautiful, somewhat off-the-beaten-path alluring destination, this time of sweeping change makes Turkey an even more exciting place to be right now. The timing works out well in this case, as the lovely autumn climate and many deals on flights are currently rolling in. For example, Turkish Airlines is offering roundtrip nonstop flight between New York and Istanbul for just $564, between the dates of October 26-November 1 and November 7-30. Flights to other less visited (and therefore usually more expensive) cities in Turkey are also very reasonably priced next month, such as Izmir for $689, and Antalya or Kayseri for $729. Many of these rates apply for flights leaving from Chicago as well. Additionally, the favorable exchange rate allows the affordability to continue after you step off the plane. From cultural and historical adventures such as ancient ruins to breathtaking natural wonders like Cappadocia, a trip to Turkey is an enchanting (and inexpensive) way to ease yourself into the winter.
October 25, 2007 No Comments
Traveling By Air? Be prepared to wait.
Flying, it seems, is becoming less a question of convenience and more a question of patience and good nerves. U.S. airline delays have apparently soared up to a 13-year high, according to a New York Times report. And things are expected to get worse. According to data provided by the Department of Transportation, U.S. Airlines’ on-time arrival rate for June was just above 68 percent, compared with June 2006’s 72.8 percent and May 2007’s 77.9 percent. As the agency reported further, nearly 25 percent of flights on the 20 largest carriers have not arrived on time so far in 2007. At the same time, there has been an increase in the mishandled baggage rate, while the number of filed consumer complaints about the airline service is higher than the number of complaints received in June 2007 and May 2006.
There are several reasons behind the worrying data. Firstly, the demand for air travel is rising, both on major airlines and smaller regional carriers. Rather than flying bigger planes, airlines tend to rely on small 40- to 80-seats jets that fill up more easily, hence fly with fewer empty seats and are more profitable. This strategy, however, puts additional pressure on already crowded skies and runways. As a result, the number of delayed flights increases. Also, the increase can partially be attributed to bad weather conditions. According to government agencies, weather-related delays in June were up seven percent in a year.
Furthermore, the airline industry puts the blame on an outdated radar-based system. With a modern satellite-based air traffic control system, they claim, flight passengers could see some improvement in the present situation. In the meantime, however, the technological upgrade has been suspended due to a pending decision on the lawmakers’ part as to who should cover the related costs. Before it becomes clear whether it is the big airlines or the users of smaller aircraft who should be responsible for paying the money, the delays might get worse.
August 16, 2007 No Comments
Virgin Troubles
The neophyte airline Virgin America is drawing a bit more attention its way. For starters, they are causing a small fare war between big competitors: JetBlue Airways and Dallas-based Southwest Airlines. JetBlue is stating that they are willing to match fares of the synonymous routes Virgin America’s has recently announced. JetBlue, a similar airline that provides fun and enticing amenities for low prices, is now offering round trip tickets at $278 between New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Southwest Airlines is also putting up a fare fight claiming to match one of the route’s prices. But Virgin could have a bigger problem.
According to Frommer’s Travel Guides, Virgin Airlines haven’t exactly been cleared for an official take off. They have posted deals and prices flying between five major cities (Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Las Vegas), but they are unfortunately still waiting for the approval of the Department of Transportation. Therefore, it may be a good idea to wait and see if this company will actually follow through with what it promised on August 8th. Although, if you have already bought tickets and the airline doesn’t past the test, you are qualified to receive a rebate up to 200% of the original ticket value or have alternate transportation provided.
August 2, 2007 No Comments
Painless Traveling
Slow moving lines, screaming infants, and a beeping medal detector are just some of the airport security inconveniences that result in a pounding headache. It’s time to plan your trip well in order to avoid these annoying occurrences and finally have a smooth sailing vacation. To help, here are five things you can do that will make your next trip to the airport less painful.
1. Over packing is a no-no.
Although it may seem necessary at the time, it will just cause you a sore shoulder as well as a longer wait as airport security sorts through your over sized luggage. Supply enough to be comfortable and with a couple extra selections, but limit the extra necessities that could cause more of a pain under the medal detector.
2. Check what ever you can.
When checking in your luggage, squeeze as many bags on the conveyor belt behind the check counter as possible. This way you will have to carry less to the security checkpoint.
3. Make sure to have identification at all times.
To avoid any problems, make sure to supply enough identification necessary to the destination you’re planning to fly to. If you’re flying domestically, bring a photo id such as your driver’s license. If you’re flying internationally, don’t forget to bring your passport so you’re not stuck in the airport like.
4. Buy a ticket way in advance.
This will not only enable you to find a cheaper ticket and a better seat on the plane, but will also lower your chance of being randomly selected for baggage check.
5. Arrive at the airport at least an hour before the flight.
Showing up at the airport early is a really good thing. Not only will you wait on a shorter line, but also you will avoid a panic attack from being less rushed. The more time you have to concentrate on the little things (aka: kids, medication, etc), the less stressed your journey through the medal detector will be.
These tips will help to make you next trip a little easier and smoother. Preparation is key to a safe, less frantic, and relaxing vacation for you and the entire family. Bon Voyage!
July 26, 2007 No Comments
A Virgin to Competition
The extensive list of amenities that Virgin America provides combined with its low fares shake the foundation of competitors all over the country. This rumbling has caused some early friction between future airline contenders, resulting in a battle for the sky.
Even before Virgin America’s first flight, the competition was becoming restless. Delta Airlines, Continental Airlines, and several other U.S. based airlines felt that this British based company, coupled with billionaire Richard Branson, was infringing on foreign U.S. territory. The airlines put up a fight stating that Virgin America was exceeding the federal restriction for foreign control of a U.S. airline at 25%. In simpler terms, Virgin America must be 75% owned by U.S. shareholders in order for it to be a U.S. competitor according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The company responded by affirming that it will make a genuine effort to sell an increasing number of stocks to U.S. investors, and as a result of these sharp glances, is also forcing Virgin America’s chief executive, Fred Reid, to step down in November.
This “domestic” feud between airlines looks like preliminary anxiety to the future success of the already flourishing Virgin Atlantic Airlines. Although Branson has experience running his own business back in the UK, a new face representing Virgin America might result in an immature company that can’t hold a candle to the big boys of the U.S. It’s up to this novice airline to hold its own on the runway.
July 26, 2007 No Comments
Virgin America
Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic’s new airline, has finally trekked across the Atlantic to make a permanent landing on U.S. soil. As of August 9th and 29th, Virgin America will become a functioning domestic airline. The San Francisco based airline Virgin Atlantic Airways, originating in 1984, has expanded their repertoire and is now offering flights between five U.S. cities ranging from San Francisco (SFO), Los Angles (LAX), New York (JFK), Las Vegas (LAS), and Washington D.C (IAD). This is excluding the 27 other locations that Virgin Atlantic Airways regularly services.
Virgin Atlantic Airways is known for their luxurious amenities, being the first airline to supply every individual passenger with his/her own television. Each individual traveler will experience subtle mood lighting, leather seats, a nine-inch TV with live feeds, an array of 25 movies to choose from, and has access to a power outlet. Extra luxuries in first class include all of the above amenities, as well as oversized massaging seats.
Virgin America is currently holding an opening sale seven days a week, through November 14th. This sale includes cross country flights from both New York to Los Angles (starting August 29th) and New York to San Francisco (starting August 9th) for only $139 each way. If you want to upgrade to the mechanical masseuse class, it’s $389 each way. If you’re looking for an inexpensive, accommodating, and relaxing airline between the major cities in the states, Virgin America is your provider.
July 19, 2007 No Comments
How to Get Cheap First-class Airline Tickets
If you plan to travel from the United States to Canada, you should know that the unusually high price of the Canadian dollar could affect your budget and force you to sacrifice comfort over money. However, there are heavily discounted first-class airline tickets available for over 100,000 US and Canada flights. While most people have some idea of how to get cheap airline tickets, only very few know that there are inexpensive first-class airline tickets available. There are a number of reasons for which you might find this article useful:
You plan to travel from the United States to Canada. Knowing how to get the best travel deals could come in handy to compensate for a more expensive Canadian dollar and increased travel costs.
You travel from Canada. You may be in luck as the Canadian dollar’s purchase power has gone up over 10 percent in just the last two months. Why not get first-class airline tickets and save money here, too?!
You like the idea of enjoying a comfortable first-class flight for a fraction of price that you normally have to pay for a first-class ticket.
If any of the above applies to you, read on to find out more about the cheap first-class airlines tickets. The discount first-class tickets offered for US-Canada flights can be unusual. While the passengers sit in first-class, these tickets are intentionally published by the airlines to look exactly the same as any other coach ticket. The origin of these cheap first-class tickets is difficult to trace but it is generally known that they were designed to help the airlines’ most important clients on their business trips. Coded as coach tickets, they allow a handful of chosen clients to get away with skirting corporate “No First-class Travel” policies.
The discount first-class tickets can be less than $300 round-trip. For the most part, the price is approximately the same as that of business walk-up and 7-day advance purchase airfare. Therefore, with a little luck, you get all the first-class comfort when taking your next flight.
7 First-class Airline Tickets Tips That You Should Know About:
Discount first-class tickets are available for most of the United States/Canada flights, including peak days and times, such as Holidays, Mondays, Fridays, and Sundays. They could also be available for last-minute trips. There are no discount first-class tickets for international coach, business or first-class air travel outside the Northern American continent.
While most of the air travel transactions happen online, it is important to know that the booking flow for discount first-class tickets does not show up in common travel quote queries based on city/date-based search.
Discount first-class tickets are incomparably more reliable than a first-class ticket upgrade lottery. The upgrade is occasionally available when the airline needs to move more passengers taking a given flight from the rear of the aircraft (Economy section) to the front (Business and First-class sections. These operational upgrades, however, rely on nontransparent and quite unpredictable hierarchy-driven principles. Premier fliers with frequent-flyer programs have a priority, ordinary members, military personnel, and passengers who paid for a full-fare economy ticket follow. Only if there is not enough people in these categories will the ground staff look for someone who is “polite and well-dressed”.
Unlike those counting on the upgrade lottery, travelers with a discount first-class ticket do not have to keep their fingers crossed. They can enjoy the luxury of being “confirmed” first-class.
Most phone agents are trained not to offer cheap first-class tickets. Ask for a discounted first-class ticket explicitly! Also, make sure that you check with the agent that the plane on your itinerary has a first-class cabin. Some of the regional jets do not have these.
Most of the discount first-class tickets are one-way. Therefore, if you miss a flight, ask the airline agent to check for first-class discounts. These might be often cheaper than the walk-up coach ticket for a replacement flight.
Since these tickets are booked in the first-class cabin, the frequent flyer mileage that you receive for these tickets will reflect a first-class ticket purchase.
July 5, 2007 No Comments
How to Get a Cheap Airline Ticket
Do you assume that there are secrets to how to get a cheap airline ticket that the airlines try to keep from you? Do you always feels nervous and slightly dizzy whenever you are about to click on the “Buy Now” button when purchasing your flight? Your skepticism and worries are justified. An attempt to get the best airfare could be as difficult and frustrating as trying to figure out on what number to place your bets in a lottery game. But unlike gambling, there is more to airline ticket purchases than a sprinkle of luck. Knowing a little bit about how the system works and remembering a few useful tricks could maximize your chances of getting the best air travel deal possible. And although the suspicion that the person sitting on the plane right next you got his ticket for half the price of yours could never be entirely erased from your mind, there are some key rules of thumb that can put the one cheap airline ticket right into your pocket. Why should you pay more when you can get the same ticket for less, especially when the currency trends already increase most of your travel costs?
The Canadian Dollar recently approaching parity with the US Dollar is just one of many topics driving discussions of a weakening power of the US dollar. Hence, with the US Dollar pushing prices of traveling abroad and overseas up, an extra cheap airline ticket could be a welcomed way of making the trip more economical. Similarly, with a USD/CAD exchange rate possibly hitting a 1:1 ratio, knowing how to get a cheap airline ticket within the United States and Canada could be especially useful.
10 useful tricks to get you your cheap airline ticket:
Know what is a cheap airline ticket
The key to the successful purchase of a cheap airline ticket is knowing what ticket is really cheap. As far as domestic US airline tickets go, a cheap ticket should cost you around $100.00 for a short-distance travel (within or around two neighbor states), around $150.00 for a medium-distance travel and around $200.00 for long-distance coast-to-coast travel. Also, be prepared to pay additional fees and charges to these prices, such as a $20.00 roundtrip non-stop fee, a $40.00 fee for connecting roundtrip flights, or a premium for popular destinations (beaches and resorts in the Caribbean, Mexico, etc.). Due to a smaller competition that would keep prices low, your cheap airline ticket is likely to be more expensive if you travel to or from smaller regional airports.
Know when to travel
If you are flexible about the date of your trip, choosing the right day of travel could make the airline ticket price cheaper. While beginnings and ends of weeks and weekends are the most expensive due to a high demand (most people travel arrange their flights on these days), Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays are usually the cheapest. Also, except Fridays and Sundays, flying in the evening can increase your chances of getting the cheap airline ticket you want. Similarly, taking a “red-eye” flight can pay off well, since not too many people like the idea of leaving the airport at 5:30 in the morning and arriving at their destination at 3 AM.
Use the same airline both ways
For reasons hidden from the eyes of ordinary mortals, a one-way flight is usually just as expensive as a roundtrip. Always go for a roundtrip ticket if possible.
Start searching for your cheap airline ticket early
While the airlines charge a premium for purchasing a ticket prior to four months ahead of the departure, absolutely do book your ticket sooner than two weeks in advance. Fourteen days prior to travel is considered the breaking point for business and leisure. And since most of the airlines make their profits from business travelers, avoid purchasing your ticket too close to your flight date.
Get a travel club membership
If you travel more frequently (more often than twice a year), join a frequent flyer club. Even though you are usually asked to make some initial payment, benefits of the membership will easily pay that off in the long run.
Use your age
Find out about senior and student discounts. Airlines sometimes offer them with their tickets.
Ask about alternative airports
You can most definitely save money by using alternative airports, which are often used by many low cost airlines. While a real money-saver, make sure that you consider the convenience factor. Alternative airports may account for some 2-hour drive extra.
Learn about cheap first class airline tickets
If you are big on comfort but still hope to scoop the best travel deals out there, learn more about discount first class tickets. Many airlines offer cheap first class tickets for flights between and within the United States and Canada.
Keep checking before you purchase
Like the price, the availability of flights is an incredibly volatile element. Airlines may add discount tickets without warning. That way, a flight you gave up on months ago could be suddenly available for even a better price.
Stop checking one you purchase
Prices of airline tickets are subject to a constant change and their purchasing is very similar to trading stocks. There are only a few perfect times a year to purchase. Only hindsight will show what these actually were. Checking the prices after that very online click that has dinged your credit card when you finally purchased your ticket is running a risk of seeing you ticket sold cheaper. On the other hand, keeping a record of how prices fluctuate could help you grasp how this unpredictable market works. Eventually, you might be able to make a better, more informed decision.
July 5, 2007 No Comments
Defensive Flying
You are the most advanced fighter in the world. You have the stealth capabilities, advanced radar, state of the art weapons systems and ultra efficient turbofans that allow you to “supercruise” at supersonic speeds. You’ve gone up against the best that the US Air Force and Navy has to offer, taking out F-15s, and F-16s during simulated war games in Alaska.
Yet in moments you find yourself deaf and dumb over the Pacific Ocean on a 12-15 hour flight from Hawaii to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Japan. Yes, you the F-22 Raptor have been felled by the international date line (IDL).
When six Raptors crossed over the international date line, multiple computer systems crashed on the planes. Navigation, partial communications and fuel subsystems went offline completely. Any attempts to reboot met with failure.
Thankfully, visibility that day was not a problem. Had the Raptors gotten seperated from their refueling tankers or had the weather been bad there would have been no attitude referance. “The Raptors had no communications or navigation,” said retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd. “They would have turned around and probably could have found the Hawaiian Islands. but if the weather had been bad on approach, there could have been real trouble.”
The glitch turned out to be a Y2k like problem in the millions of lines of code. someone made a small error in a couple of lines of code and the U.S. Air Force may have been forced to admit that their aircraft which cost $125 million USD apiece plus had been knocked out of the sky.
Luckily the error was discovered before combat and the problem was fixed with tiger teams in about 48 hours and the airplanes completed their deployment.
“This could have been real serious in combat” observed Shepperd.
March 8, 2007 No Comments
Asian Airports – Best in the World
After surfing the web, I noticed that many travelers are turning to Asia upon late. This isn’t surprising, since the new emerging markets throughout China, Korea, and Singapore, just to mention a few, are booming. Along with their impressive economic growth, many tourist opportunities have opened up, and a lot of people are recognizing it, thinking of their exotic, Eastern appeal.
Something I found more interesting while searching, however, was the prominence of Asian airports. Nearly all of the airport rating groups, editorials, and related articles laude these cities as the best for travelers, both vacationers and businesspeople alike. They’re ranked in this order:
1. Hong Kong International – China
2. Singapore Changji International – Singapore
3. Incheon International – Korea
4. Kansai International – Japan
5. Kuala Lumpur International – Malaysia
All of these locations are praised for their modern, comfortable, plush, and accommodating features. Most have many activities for travelers to entertain themselves as they wait for their flights. Beyond large shopping complexes and luxurious restaurants and bars, some have pools, beauty salons, and attached five-star hotels.
Some of the other best airports include those at Copenhagen, Sydney, and Munich. These are also excellent and worth checking out!
December 1, 2006 No Comments
Make your Money Go Further
Our monthly reports tell you what countries and currencies offer the best deals. Travel and buy smart!