Taking off Travel blog

Here’s a roundup of recent travel news.

IFlyBags

Earlier this week, Farelogix announced the launch of iflybags, a free online calculator to help travelers navigate the morass of baggage allowances and fees. The home page features a simple form where you can enter your planned departure and arrival points, and details of travelers and bags to find out what you are allowed to carry and how much it will cost in your local currency. It also incorporates extra allowances for frequent flyers and can recommend the best luggage combo for multiple travelers on the same itinerary. You’ll probably need a digital luggage scale to work out the weight of your bags, but otherwise you’ll be good to go. Jim Davidson, CEO of Farelogix, says: “The goal with iflybags is to ensure that no traveler arrives at an airport without knowing what their checked baggage allowance and fees will be.” The data used for the site comes from the Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO) so it is always up to date. Mobile apps for the site will be available soon.

Travel Offer Postcards – Watch Out!

In other travel news, the Department of Consumer Protection has alerted consumers about a possible travel scam. Some Connecticut residents have received postcards in the mail stating that they have won 2 round trip airfares as well as accommodation. It seems this might be a way to get them signed up for a travel club or website subscription, which means the offer definitely has strings attached.

“We are concerned that these promotions could lure consumers into believing that they are going to receive a free trip and hotel stay with no strings attached, when apparently, that is not the case at all,” said Consumer Protection Commissioner William M. Rubenstein. “The fine print on the cards indicates that “certain restrictions apply,” and according to complaints from consumers in other states where these promotions have run, the conditions often become clear when it’s too late to change one’s mind.”

Travel Agents – Still Valuable

Finally, an article by Brett Couvillion in TravelPulse at the start of the week reaffirmed the value of travel agents. The writer, in talking to travel suppliers, has found that they value the role of travel agents as a human point of contact with consumers who can deliver a valuable and personalized service. With travel industry employment continuing to grow, there is more need than ever for these professionals. However, Mr Couvillion urged travel agents to focus on suppliers that bring revenue into their business and to continue to highlight value in travel purchases for their customers.

Watch this space next Monday for details of how you can get a free $25 Restaurant.com voucher by booking 4 days or more of off airport parking via Park Ride Fly USA. We’ll also update you via Twitter and Facebook.

If you’re planning on heading to the beach this summer, you might want to check out the results of the National Resource Defense Council’s annual survey of water quality at US beaches. According to the report there were 24,091 beach closures and advisories in 2010, the second highest level in the 21 years since tracking began. That means there’s still bacteria in the waters. The BP oil disaster is a major factor in closures on Gulf Coast beaches.

Testing the waters at our beaches will get a much needed overhaul, with the Environmental Protection Agency due to upgrade its standard by next year. As part of that, same day results will be available for bacterial pollution, compared with one day results now. That should keep more people from being affected by rashes, stomach problems, pinkeye and other results of such pollution.

More on the story here, and you can also download Testing the Waters (PDF).

So, is your beach clean? Four US beaches have had perfect testing results for the last five years. They are: Rehoboth Beach and Dewey Beach, in Sussex County, Delaware; Park Point Lafayette Community Club Beach, in St. Louis County, Minnesota; and Hampton Beach State Park in Rockingham County, New Hampshire. Check out the ratings of your favorite beach here.

Image: federico stevanin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Travel news can be fascinating sometimes. In the past week, I found some interesting stories that had somehow slipped beneath my radar.

The first of these was the recently completed trial of Snore Absorption Rooms by Crowne Plaza. Tested at the group’s London hotel, they include:

• Sound proofing on walls to absorb the loud frequencies, deflect the sound waves and minimise the impact of snoring. The walls use egg box style foam which reduces the noise reverberating in the room
• A specially designed sound absorbing head board that will work together with the sound proof walling to muffle the echo within the room
• An anti-snoring bed wedge which acts as a body pillow, encouraging snoring guests to sleep on their sides or upright. Lying flat on your back makes the base of the tongue and soft palate collapse to the back wall of the throat which causes snoring
• An anti-snoring pillow which uses rare neodymium magnets to create a natural magnetic field, opening the airways and stiffening the upper palate which vibrates during snoring
• A white noise machine which is proven to help drown out the droning snoring noise and help sleep and relaxation

The idea is that even if you’re sharing a room with a snorer, you can still get a great night’s sleep. Can’t wait to see this in wider use. More on that story here.

Another travel question that’s bothered me for years was explained by John Cox in USA Today. It seems that my gut feeling that air travel is taking longer than it used to isn’t just a feeling. High fuel prices, more air traffic and greater environmental consciousness all add up to slower travel than in the days when the skies were mostly clear and prices were low.

Finally, I was fascinated by the story of Paul Gordon, who restores antique planes at the Helena, MT airport. Paul graduated from working on motorcycles and boats to planes in his 30s and to date he’s restored 12 of them, and he’s got a couple of his own as well.

Social media is here to stay, and travel industry professionals had better get used to it and use it well. That’s the view of Buckhiester Management Limited president Bonnie Buckhiester, expressed at a recent webinar on the issue. With almost half of all consumers using social media when they are making purchases, it can’t be ignored. Ms Buckmeister’s tips for using social media effectively to increase business include:

• checking out how facilities and services score on consumer review websites
• recording and analyzing social media metrics
• offering value (which consumers will share with their networks)
• accurate forecasting of demand
• business mix manipulation
• distribution management
• optimizing social media ROI

Read the full story here.

Happy Tuesday! I hope you had a great 4th of July weekend. While we’ve been enjoying ourselves, here are some of the travel stories that have made the news.

It’s looking like the proposed air traffic control overhaul is just too costly, so it could be delayed. Dubbed NextGen, the system would see the air traffic control system using technology that’s closer to GPS instead of radar, which dates from the second world war. This could help flight scheduling and routing and end up saving travelers money, but the problem is the initial outlay is costly, and it looks like no-one wants to be the first to try the technology, lest it be outdated by the time NextGen is fully implemented. See the detailed report on CBS News.

Speaking of costs, would you pay more to speed up security checks? I know I’d be tempted, and it seems I’m not the only one. In a recent survey by the US Travel Association, 45% of travelers said they would pay up. Many of these are business travelers who spend a lot of time on planes and want to use their time more effectively. More on that in the LA Times.

While airlines are seeing the benefits of increased travel costs, many airport are seeing a decline. That’s because we’re using more wheeled luggage and need fewer luggage carts. We’re also traveling lighter. Just to give one example of how this is affecting airports, LAX used to make $2.75m a year from cart rentals and is now losing $1m a year. More on that in the Green Bay Press Gazette.

Finally, biofuels aren’t just for cars, it seems. Air France will be blending kerosene and cooking oil to power some of its planes from September for flights between Paris and Amsterdam. If it works well, we could see more of this in the future. Maybe we’ll even end up paying less for our flights – we can only hope.