Free airport WiFi this holiday season – courtesy of Google

by Scott Carmichael on

Starting November 10, 2009 , and ending January 15, 2010, Google is giving holiday travelers free WiFi access at 45 airports.

The list includes major airports like Las Vegas, Seattle, Boston and Orlando, but sadly does not include some of the largest in the country, like Chicago, New York or Atlanta.

Still, saving $10 on airport WiFi is a jolly nice gesture, and one that is greatly appreciated. Google has added a charity aspect to the promotion, by asking WiFi users to donate to one of three specially selected charities.

This is the second WiFi promotion Google is offering this season – previously, they announced that they would pay for your WiFi access on board Virgin America flights.

To get your free airport access, you don’t need to do anything special – just turn on your device, connect to the airport network and follow the instructions. No credit card will be required.

To learn more about the free in-flight or airport WiFi promotion, head on over to the Google “Freeholidaywifi” site.

A review of Cheapflights.com’s “Travelnomics: Calling on Cuba” guide

by Brenda Yun on

Change is upon Cuba, and American travelers are especially eager to capitalize on the end of the travel embargo. In anticipation of the easing of travel restrictions to Cuba, Cheapflights.com recently put together “Travelnomics: Calling on Cuba,” a helpful PDF guide on traveling to Cuba. The guide provides travelers with a glimpse of life and travel in Cuba, travel accounts from writers familiar with the country, and a list of airlines that are or will fly to Cuba.

Having traveled to Cuba myself, I think this handy guide is an accurate reflection of what it’s like to travel there. It provides interested travelers with a good overview of the country’s sights, sounds, and smells, which helped remind me of what made Cuba such a unique place — lost in time and unbelievably beautiful. Keith Jenkins of Velvet Escape and Cuba travel expert Christopher Baker further describe the country’s real richness and warmth.

I did, however, find the “Cuba — Fact or Fiction” section only marginally useful for travelers, as food, accommodations, and money were not properly addressed and present significant challenges for American travelers in particular. There are two kinds of “restaurants”, “hotels”, and currencies in Cuba, and the guide doesn’t make this distinction. Travelnomics guides “are written to help the traveler find deals in a down economy and reassure travelers that travel is easy and affordable,” but traveling in Cuba is not cheap (even penny-pinching budget travelers will find themselves spending about $50 a day) and the guide does not sufficiently “break down the barriers to Cuba travel” as it states in the guide’s subheading.

Right now, not anyone can just hop on a plane to Cuba. The list of airlines flying to Cuba seems a little too anticipatory and not cautionary enough.

For a more comprehensive guide to travel to Cuba, you might want to read my “Cuba Libre: Travel observations and tips.”

UK online bookings to grow this year

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Yes, you read that correctly – online bookings are expected to finish higher in the United Kingdom this year! Even in this dismal economy – which has been particularly brutal for the travel industry – the web guys have something to celebrate. Sure, the forecast is only for 3 percent, but that beats the losses being posted elsewhere.

Travel industry research firm PhoCusWright’s new study puts the amount spent on leisure and unmanaged business travel (i.e., employee picks for himself) at £17.1 billion for 2009, comprising 45 percent of all bookings for the year in the UK. So, a hefty portion of the industry over there is seeing some growth.

Meanwhile, the overall UK travel business is expected to shrink by 8.9 percent this year, with gross bookings dropping to around £37.6 billion. So, the online world is holding its own while the rest of the market gets spanked. For the near-term, PhoCusWright says, the “outlook is bleak.” The UK travel business should reach 2007 levels in 2012 (ouch).

“British travelers have had to cope with currency devaluation on top of the recession, and both have driven significant changes in travel patterns,” says Carroll Rheem, director, research at PhoCusWright.

The situation isn’t as bad at home, though. Rheem continues, “The blow to domestic travel has been relatively soft while the fall-off in U.K. visitors to the Mediterranean has been significant.”

Airline websites beat other suppliers in the digital space, the research firm says, picking up more than half of direct online sales in the UK. Hotel company sites are expected to grow with the market, and tour operators are forecast to have the biggest wins (in terms of growth rate) on the web. They’ve invested heavily in marketing to bring customers online, according to Peter O’Connor, PhoCusWright’s market analyst, U.K. and France. “Selling a combination of pre-packaged, dynamically packaged and decoupled travel components, their share of U.K. online direct travel is expected to increase through 2011,” he says. Even with the jump for tour operators, though, online travel agencies are going to lead growth for all online channels in the UK.

It’s not time yet to celebrate an end to the travel recession; that will only come when the bigger recession has been resolved. Nonetheless, it’s great to see some hope in any part of the travel business. It means that people are getting on planes and heading either to old favorites or new experiences. Let’s hope that next year the stats are higher in the UK and everywhere else.

Gadlinks for Friday 11.6.09

by Brenda Yun on

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m really grateful it’s Friday! I need the weekend to decompress, but these great reads have already helped me on my way.

‘Til Monday, have a great weekend!

More Gadlinks HERE.

Expedia drops telephone booking fees

by Scott Carmichael on

There is a bit of a war going on between the various large online travel sites. They are battling each other to see who can provide the best service, with the lowest fees. Of course, this war really only has one winner – consumers.

This morning, Expedia announced the removal of all telephone booking fees for trips booked through their service. This may not sound like a very important change, but when you consider that the airlines charge as much as $25 per person, per telephone booking, you’ll quickly realize that being able to book that same ticket through Expedia without any fees could come in quite handy.

The company eliminated online air booking fees and change fees and cancel fees on all hotel and car rental reservations in May 2009. Cruise change and cancel fees were also eliminated in May 2009 and cruise booking fees were eliminated in October 2009.

It is an odd world when big travel firms like Expedia are able to provide a better service than the airlines themselves, but as I said – we consumers are the real winners here.

Being able to book a flight over the phone is perfect for people who hate making online reservations, or if you need an last minute flight reservation and don’t want to deal with the hassle of finding a computer with Internet access.