Are high gas prices disrupting your holiday travel plans?

by Aaron Hotfelder on

In the US, Memorial Day weekend is usually one of the busiest for road-trippers. Spring is springing, the weather is warming up, and for many of us, school has just let out. A great time for a drive, I’d say!

Unless gas is $3.83 a gallon, that is. In the past few days, the papers have been full of stories of would-be travelers who are stuck at home this weekend thanks to rising gas prices. The Washington Post reports that this weekend will bring the first decrease in Memorial Day travel since 9/11. The Salt Lake Tribune says that travelers will still be hitting the road, but more will be traveling less than 50 miles from home than in years past. My hometown paper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, tells the sad story of several travelers who are forgoing their annual Memorial Day fishing and camping trip because they can’t afford the 2 1/2 hour drive.

How ’bout you, Gadling faithful? Are any of you cutting down on Memorial Day (or summer) travel plans because of the high cost of gas?

Gadling giveaway! The new Traveler’s Tool Kit: Mexico and Central America

by Aaron Hotfelder on

I recently sang the praises of this new Traveler’s Tool Kit guide on another site, calling it “the guidebook for people who hate guidebooks.”

Although co-authors Rob Sangster and Tim Leffel provide less practical information on where to stay and what to do in Central America than, say, Lonely Planet, it leaves you with a greater opportunity to escape the well-worn backpacker trail. The book combines a healthy dose of travel philosophy with just enough practical advice to help you feel prepared. In short, if I were leaving for Central America tomorrow, this is the guide I’d take.

Now, we here at Gadling are offering you the opportunity to win this great new book. Just leave a comment on this post– something to the effect of “Ooh, pick me!”– and we’ll enter you in a drawing to win. Be sure to include your email address so we can get in touch with you. Good luck!

  • To enter, simply leave a comment below.
  • The comment must be left before Friday, May 23 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time.
  • You may enter only once.
  • Four winners will be selected in a random drawing.
  • Four Grand Prize Winner will receive a copy of Traveler’s Tool Kit: Mexico and Central America (valued at $22.95)
  • Click Here for complete Official Rules.
  • Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.

What to do when Mother Nature disrupts your travel plans

by Aaron Hotfelder on

When Mother Nature is doing her best to ruin your travel plans, either through thunderstorms, earthquakes, or hurricanes, it’s hard to argue with an airline or hotel employee who says that you’re screwed because these are “acts of God.” After all, it’s not the desk clerk’s fault that most of your hotel has been reduced to a pile of rubble. So what can you do?

In light of the seemingly high number of natural disasters that have been popping up all around the globe, travel Sherpa Chris Elliott has some advice for finding your way home when disaster strikes, and for replying to any employee who invokes that old “act of God” line.

First, if it’s important that your vacation goes as planned, buy a good travel insurance policy. Check with a travel agent to make sure you buy the right one, says Elliott. Also, although book-it-yourself travel is all the rage these days, travel agents come in handy when disaster strikes. Your agent will call around and ask for refunds, but “it’s a team effort,” writes Elliott. “While you agent is applying pressure for a full refund, it’s no time to rest. Phone your airline, cruise line or hotel and find out if you can get your money back, too.”

Finally, when your travel company is playing the “act of God” card, writes Elliott, you should respond with the “victim card.” “You’ve just been caught in an earthquake, hurricane, tsunami or volcanic eruption, and you need to get outta there quickly. Even though travel companies don’t want to bend their rules for you,” says Elliott, “they can and they often will do it when you inform them of your circumstances…. Speak up! The people on the other end of the phone are human, and they are capable of compassion. They just need a little encouragement.”

Whole thing here.

More free miles: Northwest elite members get 50% bonus

by Grant Martin on

Perhaps as a result of some of the recent increased marketing (read: fare sales) lately or perhaps because of the pending mergers and passengers switching carriers, several airlines have been pitching to frequent fliers in an attempt to retain their business. I posted earlier on double miles promotions on Delta and American, two classic examples of the pitches.

Northwest just launched a similar promotion: now, any elite member who purchases and travels on a flight before August 31 is eligible for a 50% bonus on their earned miles. Real quick, since I know you guys hate numbers, you’ll thus now earn the following miles for a sample Detroit – Los Angeles leg:

Silver Elite: 1980 base miles + 990 Silver Elite miles + 990 bonus miles = 3960 miles
Gold Elite: 1980 base miles + 1980 Gold Elite miles + 990 bonus miles = 4950 miles
Platinum Elite = 1980 base miles + 2475 Platinum Elite miles + 990 bonus miles = 5445 miles.

So on a roundtrip you could be earning as much as 11,000 miles, or about 2/5 of a free domestic ticket. Neat huh? Of course you have to be an elite member to reap any of these benefits, which means you have to fly at least 25k miles a year anyway. So the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Sound like any tax plans you’ve seen recently?

Check out Northwest’s promo page if you want to participate.

National Car renters: get free Executive Status

by Grant Martin on

[Disclaimer: I’m not really sure where this code came from, but am reading multiple reports that it works]

For those of you familiar with rental companies, you know that they give away memberships like candy. National Car’s “club” is called Emerald Access, whereby you put in your driver’s license and preferences online and get a membership number. If you’ve made a reservation, you can then just show up at your departure terminal, jump in a car, hand them your info on the way out and zip away before half of the other schlubs are even out of line.

It’s a pretty good system and I’ve been an Emerald Member for the last four years or so.

Like other hotel/airline/travel rewards programs, it takes a certain number of reservations or “nights” to reach the upper tiers of rental car redemptions. Once you reach those levels you can rent the nice Cadillacs or convertibles for no extra cost from a midsize rental — but it takes a long time to reach that status. In National’s case, the Executive Selection takes a fair dedication to renting cars and traveling, so is pretty much out of reach for even the casual business traveler like myself.

It looks like they released some sort of promo code that grants Executive Status though, and its been leaked around some of the travel forums. Using this link, you can put in your current Emerald number (which you can get for free if you don’t have one), fill in your information, click the link for “not switching companies” and you’ll automatically get upgraded.

Give it a try and see if it pans out. It worked for me.