As an American living in a post-9/11 world, it’s somewhat counterintuitive to abolish border checkpoints. Over the past few years, our government has heightened security measures and implemented new passport regulations. But in Europe, just the opposite is happening, as nine more countries will sign the EU agreement on Friday.

Traveling throughout Europe is much like traveling domestically from state to state. Europeans have enjoyed the freedoms of borderless travel since the founding countries (France, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg) signed the so-called Schengen treaty in 1985. Since then, the EU has grown to include 15 countries.

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member Vicho.

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Posted in International Travel, News & Alerts
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For this week’s post, I’m inspired by the recent return of a fellow IgoUgo employee who ventured off on a two-week trip to Yemen. Despite the warnings from the State Department—and pleas from his mother—our friend ventured into a land that is (was) purported to have a high risk of kidnapping for westerners. Yet, he returned, replete with some of the more stunning photos of vast plains, spectral hilltop villages, and children just curious about the camera.

I am all for trying new and uncharted and even slightly dangerous waters, in fact, I think I would prefer them to the placid sea, but certainly some things that call themselves adventurous don’t seem as daring as other, more extreme choices. Of course, to each his or her own—to some, being daring can depend on your location.

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member HELEN001

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The travel industry may have found a way to improve security and go green at the same time. Continental Airlines and the Transportation Security Administration at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston are testing a new check-in procedure using cell phones instead of a paper boarding pass.

The technology involves using encrypted bar codes on mobile device screens, eliminating the chance of a traveler presenting a fraudulent boarding pass. During the three-month pilot program, Continental passengers can receive boarding passes electronically and a TSA officer will then scan the bar codes when the passenger goes through the security checkpoint.

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Posted in Air Travel, News & Alerts, Security & Safety
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Editor’s Note: It’s “holiday week” on The Window Seat, and our editors get into the spirit of the season with a series of articles exploring the many facets of this busy travel period.

On Thursday, President Bush announced a plan to reduce congestion in the skies over the Thanksgiving weekend. The plan, which opens up designated military airspace to commercial airlines, has been dubbed the “Holiday Express Lane.”

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member rokiss.ch.

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Posted in Air Travel, Holiday & Seasonal, News & Alerts
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“Gas Prices At $4” screamed the headline of yesterday’s San Jose Mercury News. According to the article, people around the country are paying more at the pump, and the Bay Area has some of the highest prices around. While plenty of my friends worry about the rising cost of gas, I generally shrug off oil-related drama. I don’t drive, so it’s not my problem, right?

Wrong. As gas prices rise, so do jet fuel prices, and these prices get passed on to the consumer. United Airlines announced yesterday that it plans to add a surcharge of $5 each way for most of its domestic flights (except to Hawaii, which already has a $25 one-way fuel surcharge in place). This announcement comes on the heels of a similar statement by American Airlines that it plans to tack on a $10 one-way fuel surcharge for its continental flights.

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member torpedo1962.

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Posted in Air Travel, News & Alerts
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At last, fall has blown in like a much needed cool breeze and travel life has resumed to a more relaxed, more normal flow. Even the on-time performance levels are looking better recently. We travelers tend to think normal is always better because those pesky families and kids are back to school and our airports are largely dominated by well-heeled travelers like us who know the ropes and can handle the routine more adeptly.

But I've been thinking that perhaps our definition of normal is not quite right. Perhaps the norm should really be these holidays that bring out the masses. With the biggest travel days of the year just weeks away I've asked other travelers what they think of the current state of air travel.

What I found was a little frightening. Many air travelers are not in sync with what is really happening out there. One glaring example is that only 2% of respondents say they expect delays after security and yet one in four flights are delayed. Another finding showed that the majority of respondents considered more than a half an hour to be excessive waiting time. Though there is no official tracking of how long people wait for any given flight, most airlines pad their schedules and can therefore make up for a limited amount of waiting without being officially "delayed." Yet these days, I consider a half an hour of waiting likely. (See complete poll results.)

Photo provided by IgoUgu member MichaelJM

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Posted in Air Travel, Holiday & Seasonal, News & Alerts, Polls & Studies
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Reading the New York Times travel section this weekend made me yearn for a quick getaway to someplace sunny and warm. Or at least someplace that felt better than here (New York City aka The Big Apple.) Usually I just love fall but it has been a bit of a disappointing fall this year, you know, with the wacky weather and the leaves not quite performing as we’d like all like. Although the air has only just turned chilly this passed week I’m already thinking about what’s next on my travel horizon…

The New York Times seemed to be leaning toward the Caribbean and the call of the warm blue waters. The section was dominated by an opening with a fruity umbrella topped cooler and the allure of soft, sandy beaches. They’re clearly not the only ones with some beach-time on their mind. Maybe it’s a result of the increased access with new flights to the Caribbean but I’ve looked at the data for thanksgiving and noticed that the share of travel to the Caribbean is up 20% this Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving? you ask. Sure thing. It’s trendy to take turkey abroad. Mexico’s share is up by 17%. Even Europe’s is up too. (And I thought the whole Western Hemisphere Passport Initiative and the new passport rules combined with the weak dollar was supposed to be deterring people from traveling? Well apparently not.) What’s more is that these people aren’t like me and thinking I need a little break, uh, now! They’re booking in advance. WAY in advance. The average domestic ticket for thanksgiving this year was booked 85 days prior to departure, international tickets were booked over 100 days in advance. Given that math, that means right now I should be booking for sometime in January possibly more like February.

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Posted in Air Travel, Beaches, Caribbean, International Travel, News & Alerts, Thanksgiving '07
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Not too long ago, I won a gift certificate for a last-minute weekend getaway. Problem is, the dollar amount that I won stretches about as far as…Pittsburgh, PA. Or, if I go during off season, I may be able to swing exotic Topeka, KS!

As I started researching my options, I was reminded of an acquaintance’s ongoing tour of America’s underappreciated cities. Once a year, he meets his buddies in a second- or third-tier city that tourists may not clamor to visit: think Bangor, Cleveland, Raleigh. Kansas City was apparently a big hit.

Cleveland photo courtesy of IgoUgo member RoBoNC

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Posted in Budget Travel, Last-Minute Travel, News & Alerts
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Earlier this week, over lunch with a few journalists and resort executives, one of the hot topics for discussion was customer service as it relates to the airline industry. Not a new topic, for sure (in fact I’ve written about it a few times here), but one that continues to resonate. While we alternately shared horror stories and opinions on what we thought needed to happen to improve customer service, USA Today had just published a story on this very topic in that morning’s paper.

The very next day, several airlines reported their third-quarter earnings. Despite the level of dissatisfaction among passengers, the airlines are doing just fine, thank you. Continental Airlines reported a net profit of $241 million; Southwest, $162 million; and Delta, $220 million; to name a few.

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Breakfast at Tartine in San Francisco’s Mission District is a journey--its flaky pastries and café au lait transport you to Paris the instant they touch your lips. On a foggy morning, I met there over the most beautiful and butterscotch-ey bread pudding to be regaled by travel tales and discuss this winter’s hottest food trends with Jen Catto, Travel Director of Gourmet Magazine.

Jen had recently returned from a trip to France in which she tried something she never had before. On the beaches of Brittany at this time of year, large amounts of algae wash up onto shore. It used to be that this algae was only used for bath salts, but local restaurants in St. Malo made the algae into a butter and then used this butter to prepare fish. The aromatic and briney taste that resulted is something that could only come from that particular region, anchoring the dining experience firmly and wonderfully in France at that season and place.

Photo courtesy of Jen Catto.

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Posted in Bakeries & Sweet Shops, Foodie Souvenirs, Holiday & Seasonal, LSBF '07, News & Alerts
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With two levels of passenger seating, the new Airbus A380 super jet is bigger than anything we civilians have seen yet. Yesterday, Airbus officially delivered its first A380 to Singapore Airlines.

A typical A380 with three cabin classes accommodates a whopping 525 passengers. Take out the first and business classes and make the plane all economy, and that number of passengers soars to over 800 (imagine that boarding process!). By 2011, this plane will be able to take off and land in 70 airports around the world.

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member alancf.

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According to the Los Angeles Times, lost luggage may be a thing of the past. A new technology, already in use at Hong Kong International Airport and McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, promises a most efficient way to track bags separated from their owners.

Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, uses a passive radio transponder embedded in a luggage tag that's put on your bag at check-in to track your bags. Other airports are looking into implementing RFID, though it's unlikely any will do so before the busy holiday season, when an increase in air travelers means an increase in mishandled luggage.

The current system, which uses bar codes, is imperfect, as any of the thousands of passengers who lost their bags last summer can attest to. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, nearly 8% of luggage was mishandled this past August -- down slightly from the previous August, but no consolation to anyone who spent three days in the same underwear.

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Posted in Air Travel, News & Alerts, Packing & Baggage
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But no cash please. More and more airlines are moving towards a cashless in-flight experience, according to the Los Angeles Times. Seems that it's not enough to make you pay for things that were once free, but now the airlines want to tell you how to pay too.

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One of my duties at Travelocity is writing about cruises. Here’s the typical response I get when I announce this at dinner parties.

“Cruises”?! (Person chokes on a bite of food.) “Aren’t they for old people”?

If you tuned into the premiere of the modern-day TV classic America’s Next Top Model, then you would have seen Cycle 9 kicking off onboard Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas. There, the model hopefuls were coming down with seasickness, noshing on rich cruise cuisine while accusing one another of eating disorders, and even attempting to “work it” on the jogging track, much to the displeasure of runway expert Miss J.

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member PNelson

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Northwest Airlines seems to think so. The Detroit Free Press reports the airline's workers, including flight attendants and reservation agents, will undergo intensive training to improve customer service. The airline was the subject of countless news reports this summer, when it cancelled more than 4,000 flights in a two-month period.

Here's the question -- will better customer service make a difference the next time you need to book a flight? Or does price trump all?

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I'd never flown Southwest until a few weeks ago, when I made the short hop from Oakland International to LAX on the famous low-budget carrier and experienced its infamous "cattle call" boarding process firsthand.

Rather than assigning seats, of course, Southwest follows a policy whereby the letter printed on your boarding pass--A, B, or C--determines the order in which you're allowed to board the plane and choose your seat (those with the coveted As go first.) Imagine how surprised my boyfriend and I were when we decided it was finally time to join one of those long lines snaking through the departure lounge, and found that Sean's boarding pass bore a sucks-to-be-you C and mine a proud, triumphant A.

Why? Well, your guess is as good as mine. We booked our tickets together, checked in (early) together, and were obviously traveling together. Perhaps the gate agent just liked the look of me or something.

(Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member Torpedo1962)

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Coming off a pricey, overcrowded summer travel season can there be any relief in sight for the fall? That's what most travelers I talk to want to know anyway. So here's the skinny on fall travel and what you can do to make your traveling life a little better.

You can still expect fall travel to be busy – but the good news is it won't be quite as busy as it was all summer long. According to the International Air transit Association (IATA) airline passenger growth is slowing. IATA reports that global growth weakened slightly in the first half of the year. They also have reported that load factors (that means the percentage of people in seats on a given plane) aren't growing nearly as fast as they have been. Well what does this mean aside from a few less people in the skies? It means that we could finally see what we call in the travel biz a "softening" of demand. And the reason that is important is it means that you might just see some lower prices out there!

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member Panda1

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Could there be two more dreaded words in the traveler’s vocabulary than “flight delayed”? This week, it’s been all over the news: It’s officially the worst time for flight delays in 13 years. To put that in perspective, the last time we had it this bad, O.J. Simpson was white Bronco-ing it along the Los Angeles freeway.

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Hallelujah! Is help actually on the way for those of us traveling to and through New York? Well it's not like we're all going to fly first class without paying for it – but there does seem to be a silver-lining for passengers in New York's three metro airports (EWR, LGA, and JFK) who get held on the tarmac for more than three hours.

Last week Elliot Spitzer signed into law a New York passenger's bill of rights. It's a start. The law stipulates that on airlines that have been on the tarmac delayed for more than three hours that airlines MUST provide food, water, air, restrooms, and power to their passengers. This is progress! The airlines must also provide information that clearly explains passengers their rights, consumer complaint information and contract information to file air travel service problems.

In New York, the first state to pass this kind of legislation, they're creating an Office of Airline Consumer Advocacy that should help the next time an incident such as the awful Jet Blue stranding on Valentine's Day which was the original impetus for this kind of legislation.

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When Virgin America began ticket sales late last month, the site was so flooded with traffic that potential customers – frustrated by long delays – simply gave up trying. Certainly, plenty of people were trying to book at once, but the real culprit was an orchestrated cyber attack that resulted in a slow start for sales. Though the offender remains unknown, it does get you wondering. Could a rival airline have been responsible? Very unlikely, though several of the legacy carriers lobbied vigorously to block Virgin America from entering the market.

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Posted in Air Travel, Business Travel, California, International Travel, New York City, News & Alerts
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There are several places I've officially "visited," despite the fact that my time there consisted merely of a few hours wait in the airport during a connection: Tokyo, for instance, and Seoul. Last week, I went to Chicago to attend the BlogHer conference, and while I'd wanted to visit the Windy City for years and years, the most I saw of it, unfortunately, was during my journey to and from the airport, when I leaned out of the cab window, craning my neck for a glimpse of Sears Tower, the cafes and boutiques I'd been urged to visit in Wicker Park, and maybe, just maybe, a spare slice of deep-dish pizza, which--if you can believe it--I still have yet to try.

I could tell you all about the conference center or my hotel room, though.

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Now, personally, I'm not the type of girl to spend $250 on a hotel room when I go on vacation. No siree---not when I could be spending that sort of money on food or souvenirs or (in the case of my recent three-month jaunt around Southeast Asia) two months worth of local beer. (And we're talking several a day. Every day. Honestly, in Beijing, it was only a quarter!)

But if you are looking to drop the mad cash when you travel abroad, you might like to know that the Peninsula Bangkok has been voted the world's best hotel for USD$250 or less in a reader survey conducted by Travel + Leisure magazine.

I can't, of course, vouch for its excellence, as I stayed in an $8-a-night flophouse with a shared bathroom in the backpacker mecca of Khao San Road the last time I was in Bangkok. But since the Peninsula beat out the prestigious Tu Tu’ Tun Lodge in Gold Beach, Oregon and the Post Hotel & Spa in Lake Louise, Alberta--which came in at second and third place respectively--we'll just have to go ahead and assume that it's pretty darn fancy.

After all, I'm fairly sure you get your own toilet there. Which is more than I can say for where I stayed.

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Posted in Asia, Hotels & Lodging, News & Alerts
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Of all the things that, ahem, stink about air travel, the bathrooms are surely one of the worst. Little more than glorified closets, they're tiny, smelly, likely to encourage claustrophobia, and usually--at least by the end of the flight--sporting suspicious-looking sprinklings on both floor and seat. It's enough to make a passenger cross her legs and hope for the best.

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Like a crushed beauty queen, the Statue of Liberty was relegated to the runner’s-up lounge to weep with the Easter Island statues after the “new” seven wonders of the world were revealed over the weekend. Read the winner’s list, though, and you’ll see she had some tough competition. Edged out by the likes of the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, and Brazil’s Christ the Redeemer, she really has nothing to be ashamed of.

Although I’ve been to a lot of wondrous places, I’ve been to only three that made the list: the Roman Coliseum, Chichén Itzá, and, most recently, Machu Picchu.

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Posted in Educational & Historic, International Travel, News & Alerts
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Common etiquette dictates that one has a year after a wedding in which to buy the wedding gift. Question: when does this rule not apply? When the couple has requested travel as their present, that's when.

Forget Crate and Barrel and Macy's--an increasing number of brides and grooms are turning to honeymoon registries to collect on the goodwill their guests will be feeling upon the announcement of an engagement. In fact, I'm attending a wedding this weekend not with a toaster in my arms but with a voucher from Honeymoon Wishes for the Mr-and-Mrs-to-be to indulge in a couples' massage. In Mexico.

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Posted in Air Travel, News & Alerts
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This blog isn't called The Window Seat for nothing, you know. I mean, as far as airline travel goes, the spot beside the window is obviously the best seat in the house. In second place, of course, you've got the old aisle, whose pros (easy access to the bathrooms, a bit of room into which to stretch your legs) are tempered only slightly by its cons (flight attendants crashing into your ankles and elbows with the drinks cart, having to get up and down every few minutes to let your neighbor--lets call him Mr. Overactive Bladder--make his non-stop trips to the lavatory.)

But who in the history of the world has ever asked for the middle seat?

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Last month I went to a wedding in Mexico with a group of friends, requiring several of them to get a passport because of the new regulations implemented by the U.S. State Department earlier this year. Two weeks before our big departure, most of them still hadn’t received their documents, which should have already been in their hands. One of my friends even made the drive from Dallas to the Houston passport office to pick it up in person.

Lucky for summer travelers who procrastinated (shame on you!) and didn’t apply for their passports in time, the U.S. eased the new passport restrictions, allowing passengers who haven’t received their documents to travel with just an official passport receipt and photo ID.

Passports have been a hot topic in travel since January, when the U.S. began requiring a passport for travel to all international destinations – including Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. Travelers have been forced in recent months to alter or cancel their vacation plans because of the time it took to receive a passport, a process that normally takes only six weeks but is now taking at least 12. (Back in the day, I got mine in less than two!)

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Posted in International Travel, News & Alerts
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I’ve often wondered why so many Americans are obese when places like Wal-Mart and Target are so enormous that surely just walking from Electrical to Greeting Cards must burn off a few hundred calories.

And so I wasn’t particularly surprised when I read that some Las Vegas tourists--exhausted, evidently, by strolling from casino to buffet and back to casino again--are hiring motorized bikes to navigate the Strip.

Called “mobility scooters,” these controversial forms of transportation were originally intended for the elderly, infirm, or disabled--all people who should, without question, be able to use them to make their vacation a little easier. But for $40 a pop, perfectly able-bodied patrons are hiring their own mobility scooters to make that afternoon walk from the Luxor to the Bellagio, well, a drive.

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Posted in Health & Wellness, Las Vegas, News & Alerts, San Francisco
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What’s a trip to Australia without seeing a koala or a trek in Peru without a llama? Sure, there are zoos and animal parks that bring giraffes to the Bronx and hippos to Cleveland, but, to me, there’s nothing like seeing animals in their natural habitats.

Like a lot of people in the Bay Area, I’ve been following the story of the humpback whales that have lost their way out of their natural habitat and into the waters near Sacramento. Everyone I know is really rooting for them to make their way back through the Golden Gate and to the ocean. To have whales come in such close proximity to the Governator’s office is a novelty, and the rescue effort is drawing large crowds of both locals and tourists alike.

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: flying domestically within the U.S. is like flying in a third world country.

In fact, it’s worse than flying in a third world country. I should know. Last fall, I made the trip from tiny Bagan, Myanmar (formerly Burma) to tiny Inle Lake, Myanmar on the modest Air Mandalay. Aside from the fact that I’d picked up some tropical parasite and felt like death warmed up for the full hour and a quarter, it was one of the most pleasant flights I’ve had. The aircraft was clean, new, and perfectly punctual, the crew was delightful--several flight attendants even offered me Ibuprofen when they saw I wasn’t well--and we were (gasp!) actually given food we didn’t have to pay for. Sure, the flight was announced by a man yelling through cupped hands, and the same woman took the payment for our ticket, checked us in, and--for all we know--even flew the plane, but the experience was still better than any I’ve had flying within the U.S.

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