Oil prices and unrest in Egypt: Will they affect travel?

by Chris Owen on

Airlines and Cruise lines have been watching the price of oil for quite some time. Fuel surcharges are unpopular fees and neither wants to add them on again if they can possibly avoid it. Some say fuel surcharges are inevitable and quite possibly the least of our worries.

Cruise lines, almost universally, have a ceiling of between $70 and $90 a barrel for oil. If the price reaches that point, they can add on a fuel surcharge. Prices have actually exceeded that threshold recently and cruise lines still did not add on the extra fee, fearful that the fee combined with the recovering economy could drive buyers away.

American Airlines added fuel surcharges of as much as $5 each way on many routes with United Continental Holdings Inc. adding a $3 each-way surcharge. Just Friday, British Airways said they would increase the fuel surcharge they already have in place.

“British Airways will increase its fuel surcharge on long haul services from Tuesday, February 8,” it said in a statement but not on short haul services.

How it will all play out is up for grabs right now but US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is concerned about additional factors that could affect travel far greater than a fuel surcharge.

Flickr photo by ayman_ay17

Saying the Middle East “”is being battered by a perfect storm of powerful trends,” Clinton is concerned about unrest in the region.

“Leaders in the region may be able to hold back the tide for a little while, but not for long,” she said. “This is what has driven demonstrators into the streets of Tunis, Cairo and cities throughout the region. The status quo is simply not sustainable.”

If danger presents itself, travel warnings issued by the US Department of State could be extended to neighboring regions as well. If that happens, tour operators, airlines and cruise lines would probably react similarly to how the have this week, canceling service to Egypt.

On the other hand, tour operators in Spain can see an up side to the whole issue, as alternative ports of call and destinations found for booked travelers. This week, the German divisions of Thomas Cook and TUI Travel said they were seeing a trend for customers to switch Egypt holidays for ones to Spain or Turkey.

While a safe alternative is a good idea, it will hardly fulfill the lifelong dreams some have had for visiting Egypt, a trip that probably won’t happen any time soon.

The Travel Channel offers these tips for traveling overseas:

Spring Break deal: $100 off any Lufthansa flight from the US

by Scott Carmichael on

Bored with the usual Spring Break destinations? You could consider checking out 5 tips for alternative destinations from our friends at AOL Travel, or if you’d like to get really creative, head to Europe for a bit. Thanks to a promotion from Lufthansa, you can now book a flight on one of their routes for $100 off.

The promotion requires you to enter your name and email address, and minutes later, you’ll have a unique promo code in your inbox.

The fine print is pretty simple – book and redeem between now and February 21 for travel between now and March 31. Promo codes can only be used on Lufthansa flights (so no codeshares) and only on flights that depart in the US. According to the terms and conditions, the promo can be applied to any ticket code! Promotions like this don’t last long – so snag yourself a code as soon as possible.

Found yourself a flight for a nice price? Share it in the comments section!

[Photo: AFP/Getty Images]

Galley Gossip: Flight attendants trained to spot human traffickers at the Super Bowl

by Heather Poole on

What do hundreds of flight attendants, thousands of under-age prostitutes and the Super Bowl all have in common? Dallas. On Sunday they’re all traveling to Texas. American Airlines, American Eagle, Delta, United, and Qantas hope to help stop human traffickers from pimping out women and children by holding training sessions that will enable flight attendants volunteering their time on the ground to help spot signs of trafficking. According to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot in an article posted by Reuters, the Super Bowl is one of the biggest human trafficking events in the United States. During the previous two Super Bowls fifty girls were rescued. This year with authorities, child welfare advocates, and the airline industry all collaborating to fight under-age sex crimes, even more lives could be saved.

How did the airlines even come to be involved in human trafficking? It all started with Sandra Fiorini, an American Airlines flight attendant based in Chicago. Because of Fiorini flight attendants now know what to look for and who to call if they see something suspicious on board a flight. This after Fiorini tried to report a situation and no one responded. It involved an eighteen year-old boy on a six-hour flight carrying a newborn infant with its umbilical cord still attached. No wife. Just one bottle of milk and two diapers stuck inside his pocket. In 2007 Fiorini met Deborah Sigmund, founder of the organization Innocents at Risk, and soon they began working together with airline employees to become the first line of defense against human trafficking.




Flight attendants aren’t the only ones who can help. There are more frequent fliers now than ever before. Passengers should also be aware of what to look for while traveling.

Warning Signs

1. Someone who doesn’t have control over his/her own identification

2. Someone who has few to no possessions.

3. Someone who is not allowed to speak for themselves, or is made to speak through a translator

4. Someone who isn’t sure of where he or she lives or is or has no sense of time

5. Someone who avoids eye contact or appears fearful, anxious, tense, depressed, nervous, submissive.

6. Someone who rarely is allowed to come and go independently and may be accompanied by someone who controls their every movement

7. Someone who may be dressed inappropriately regardless of weather conditions.

Number to call

Human Trafficking Hot line 1-888-373-7888.

(Don’t wait until it’s too late. Put that number in your cell phone now!)

There are more slaves today than any other time in human history. A person can be sold several times a day for many years, opposed to drugs that can only be sold once. Because of this human trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world, only second behind drug trafficking. It generates 32 billion annually for organized crime. Each year two million women and children become victims. 300,000 children within the United States are being trafficked each year. Most are forced into a life of prostitution and pornography in large urban areas such as Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Florida. If it can happen on my flight, it can happen on yours. Open your eyes. Get involved. Write that number down!

Photo courtesy of The Consumerist

You can still watch the Super Bowl if you’re traveling during the game

by Grant Martin on

Years back it used to be that if you were traveling by airplane you had very little chance of getting any updates about the big game. The best that you could hope for was for the captain to radio down to the towers during the flight to get updates — and to relay it back to the passengers.

Now that we’re in the information age that role might be switched. With TV and internet empowered users in the back of the airplane, many traveling this Super Bowl weekend will have full access to the game, from television in the back of some Jetblue, Virgin America and Delta aircraft and wireless internet (and updates therein) across a broad spectrum of other aircraft.

Our old friend Scott Mayerowitz over at the Associated Press (via Bloomberg) has a nice roundup of how empowered users can enjoy the game this weekend — it’s an interesting and hopeful ready for any football fan on the road.

What willl really be interesting is to listen to the chatter over the aircraft radio during the game — some carriers like United allow passengers to listen to the cockpit communication at their seats. How many scores will pass through the sky during Super Bowl weekend as airplanes crisscross the planet?

Virgin America lets loose in Cancún

by Stephen Greenwood on

Virgin America just can’t sit still these days. In the past two months, they’ve launched service to Dallas/Forth Worth (and added frequency from both LAX & SFO), placed an impressive order for 60 new A320’s (to be delivered starting in 2013), said adiós to Toronto for the time being, and launched service to two cities in Mexico; Los Cabos and now, Cancún.

Everything about Cancún seems like a good fit for the airline. It’s sunny. It’s flashy. It’s exotic. It attracts a young crowd and has high seasonal traffic with a significant need for competitive nonstop options from the West Coast.

But Cancún is a destination that has a way of polarizing travelers. For most Americans born after 1975, it’s notoriously synonymous with Spring Break, loud nightclubs, and excessive resorts as far as the eye can see. For some vacationers, these are the only reasons to go. For others, they are the reason to never even consider going. Yes, the beaches may be spectacular and the attractions plentiful, but the rush to develop and commercialize both has left most of the city devoid of a single trace of ‘authentic’ Mexican culture – a fact that managed to earn Cancún the top spot on Gadling’s list of places not to go in 2011.

With that in mind, allow me to be the mediator here and tell you exactly why you should go (or at least fly to) Cancún in 2011…

Simply put, Cancún is an affordable, accessible, and a safe gateway to the larger Yucatán peninsula. Yes, it may be an overdeveloped tourist mecca with little soul or culture in the eyes of true travelers. But the vivid blue waters, white sand beaches, and Mayan ruins of the outlying areas offer an entirely different world that’s only six hours away.

Before taking Virgin America’s inaugural flight from LAX to CUN, the farthest I’d ventured in Mexico was Puerta Vallarta. I didn’t really have high expectations for the Mexican Riviera, since my association of it was a blur of generic beach scenes from a decade-old MTV Spring Break broadcast. Which is ironic in hindsight, considering that our flight was the backdrop for an episode of VH1’s Top 20 Countdown; complete with an in-flight performance by the Goo Goo Dolls.

The 5 hour flight itself was great. The margaritas were festive and the atmosphere was as playful as all Virgin America’s inaugural launches are. The only hitch that passengers will encounter in the ‘complete’ Virgin America experience is the lack of in-flight WiFi after crossing the US-Mexico border – an issue that Gogo and Aircell will hopefully address with coverage expansion in the coming years.

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Upon our arrival, our Virgin-worthy accommodation was the gorgeous and brand-new Live Aqua. If you’re accustomed to hotels with two white Rolls Royce Phantoms parked outside, chic interiors filled with hip ambient music, extensive spa services and an array of tasteful eateries, then this is the place you’ll want to stay. It is plausible that you could forgo leaving the hotel grounds and be perfectly content with relaxing by the beach for your entire trip. And for the price of an all-inclusive stay, that’s exactly what I would do.

But, it turns out there are actually things to do around Cancún besides lounging and clubbing. Escape the herds of tourists and head south to quieter beaches at Playa del Carmen, where you can hop across to Cozumel and explore Mayan ruins. Or venture west and check out the ‘authentic’ colonial town of Tizimín on your way to catch a boat to the tiny but charming Holbox Island (and swim with whale sharks in the summer).

If you’re short on time but looking for adventure, then look up one of Cancún’s best day trips; Selvatica’s zip-line & ATV jungle excursion. In the span of a half day, you can fly through the trees on seven different zip lines, drive your own ATV, and swing from ropes into a beautiful blue cenote (Spanish for giant swimming hole).

I can understand why people dislike Cancún. It’d be very easy to come expecting authentic Mexican charm and leave never wanting to lay eyes on another beer-toting American again. But keep your time in the developed area of Cancún short, and you won’t be dissapointed.

Needless to say, my only regret is that I didn’t have more time to explore the outlying areas of Cancún. For a sub-$500 flight that’s just under 5 hours from LAX, or roughly 6 hours from SFO, it’s an easy trip that I certainly plan on making again. Especially if Virgin America can keep their fares low, which they usually do for recently launched destinations. Better yet, enter to win one of three VIP trips that the airline is giving away right here.

If you have your own crazy stories or suggestions about why or why not to go to Cancun this year, leave them in the comments section below!