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:

Behind the scenes: Removing snow at O’Hare international airport

by Scott Carmichael on

Flying to or through an airport that gets hit with a lot of snow is a major hassle – if you managed to actually make it to the airport, you’ll probably end up spending a night in a hotel while your airline waits get its planes dug out of the snow.

But as much as we complain, an entire army of snow removal teams have to work behind the scenes to make the airport usable again – and we’ve collected some photos of those teams at work.

Chicago’s O’hare airport is used to snow – but a 20.6″ blizzard hit this week, canceling all flights and requiring the use of some pretty heavy equipment. A convoy of 20 trucks lines up to clear one runway, and needs up to 20 minutes to clear the entire stretch. Once the snow has been blown off the runway, it is collected in massive heated containers, and the water is dumped in the sewer system.

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A convoy of snow blowers and plows clears a runway with the Chicago skyline in the background.

Singapore Airlines Cargo 747 lands on a nice clean runway.

Not your average backyard snowblower!

[Photos by Scott Olson/Getty Images]

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]

Advertising in airport restrooms: awesome or too far?

by Gadling Staff on

Just when it seems like they can’t find any more ways to inundate our lives, marketers get creative. First they took over our pre-movie experience, and now they have come up with the most outlandish location to sell us on products. Ads while washing your hands? Really?

NBC Chicago is reporting that O’Hare International Airport (ORD) is allowing Clear Channel Airports to install 40-inch mirrors which will display ads to the nearly 200,000 people who pass through the airport daily. The high-definition mirrors have motion sensors, as they display ads until restroom users saddle up to the sink, minimizing them into a corner to make preening in the mirror possible. The mirrors, created by a company called Mirrus, will be able to track viewing statistics for advertisers.

A video on the company’s website (http://mirrus.com/mirrus-network.php) shows a demonstration of how the mirrors work. The best part of the video is the man in it, who behaves just as I imagine I would when encountering these odd ads. I am torn between being vaguely outraged the idea of ads (and cameras?) encroaching into one place I thought they would never reach and looking forward to hamming it up just as the man does in the video. Tested at the airport in December, NBC reports that the mirrors will be in ORD within the next 3 months, and possibly in sports venues like Wrigley Field and Soldier field later this year.

Has the search for advertising revenue gone too far, or would you be interested in seeing something like this in an airport near you?

[Image via Mirrus.com]

Tokyo’s cat cafes newest trend

by Laurel Miller on

Hasta la vista, Hello Kitty. Get lost, LOL cats. Tokyo’s hot new phenom are neko cafes (“neko” is Japanese for cat). At first appearance typical, cozy coffee houses, closer examination reveals live cats lounging on the furniture, in baskets, or on laps. Which, I guess, isn’t nearly as bizarre (or kinky) as Tokyo’s maid cafes. Actually, to a cat lover like me, it’s quite appealing.

CNN reports that about 100 neko cafés can now be found in Japan, with more popping up in South Korea and Taiwan. More than 50 of the cafes are in Tokyo proper, with almost 70 in the outlying suburbs. Neko no Mise, for example, is a popular neko cafe in the Machida suburb that just celebrated its fifth anniversary.

Right about now, you’re probably asking yourself, what kind of person chooses to hang out in a neko cafe? Banish the image of the stereotypical Crazy Cat Lady from your mind, because these places are a huge hit with young professionals–particularly couples (childless, perhaps?). Far from being frumpy, many neko cafe clientele are hipsters who like to take their dates out for an evening of coffee and cat-watching. Single patrons are welcome too, however, as evidenced by the proliferation of cat bloggers.

Apparently, the neko cafe craze is accountable for many a blog starring specific coffee house felines: some have their own mixi profiles, which, I’m sorry, is definitely halfway to crazytown. And I say this as one who has been frequently dubbed a CCL (yes, that is my cat wearing a sweater in the photo, and I was trying to cut my heating bill). But not everyone is on board with the concept of caffeine and kitties. A young woman named Yuko told CNN, “My sister wanted to go so badly, she took me to one. It was weird, I thought. People just hanging out there with the cats, but you’re not allowed to wake them up or pick them up, they were just watching the cats and smiling and stuff … it was a little scary.”