INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL NEWS
U.S.
regulators on Monday selected four
airlines to start new flights from
Reagan National Airport after
a fierce seven-way contest for access
to the facility. Alaska Airlines,
JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines
and Virgin America were granted rights
to each start a single daily flight.
Seven carriers had vied to take
advantage of loosening restrictions on
flights between northern Virginia's
Reagan National and longer-haul
destinations such as the West Coast,
sparking a lobbying battle involving
airlines and cities keen to secure or
retain access to the nation's capital.
Four other airlines that already fly
to Reagan were allowed to start longer
flights, but they had to drop a
service to a closer-in city as Reagan
is congested and can only add a
limited number of new services. Air
Canada, Sun Country Airlines and
Frontier Airlines lost out in the
contest for new Reagan flights.
Alaska will
launch a flight to Portland, Ore.,
JetBlue will fly to San Juan, Puerto
Rico, Southwest is adding an Austin,
Texas, service and Virgin America is
cleared to operate to its San
Francisco base. All except
Southwest had applied to launch two
daily flights but received permission
to start just one. The U.S Department of
Transportation's move will nearly
double the number of flights allowed
to operate from Reagan to airports
more than 1,250 miles away, diluting
restrictions in place since the 1960s.
Four incumbent carriers at
Reagan—United, American USAirways and
AirOne—are splitting four new
round-trip flights between them.
Airlines are allowed to operate only
narrow-body planes on all of the new
routes, with new restrictions also
limiting the time of day that flights
can operate.
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The first
Boeing
747-8
Intercontinental
route:
Washington-Frankfurt!
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A world
premiere
is
approaching:
the first
Boeing
747-8
Intercontinental
in the
world will
shortly be
delivered
exclusively
to
Lufthansa
and from
June 1,
2012 will
operate
daily
(except
Tuesdays)
between
Washington
and
Frankfurt.
Flights on
the
Lufthansa
Boeing
747-8 can
be booked
now - and
the legend
can soon
be
experienced
anew! On
board, you
can expect
a very
special
travel
experience
with the
most
modern
service
classes
that
Lufthansa
has to
offer. One
of the
highlights:
the new
Business
Class seat
pictured
to the
right.
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25 ways to reduce
travel hassles
(Wall Street
Journal)
Full article.
The big flaws in hotel
rankings
(Wall Street Journal)
Full article
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United Airlines
24-hour fare guarantee
EWA now has the ability to
guarantee UA fares (as described below)
for 24 hours from the time the original
reservation was made provided the
reservation includes a fare quote. If
the fare increases within 24 hours of
the initial fare quote, the original
fare will be honored. To qualify
for the 24 Hour Fare Guarantee:
· There can
be no changes present in the
reservation except for advance seat
assignments
· The
original fare must have been valid
when the record was booked
· Request
for the guaranteed airfare must be
made within 24 hours of the original
booking
· Applies to
domestic and international itineraries
operated by United and/or United
Express
· The record
cannot contain segments operated by
other airlines
· Ticketing
must be completed within the same 24
hour period
Cellular
service abroad
(Wall Street Journal)
When in roam, be careful
with your phone. Smartphones and tablet
computers set to automatically update data
can trigger hundreds, even thousands, of
dollars in expensive roaming charges. Data
plans have become a more expensive travel
gotcha than expensive voice-call rates
overseas—as high as $5 or more per minute.
Even if your phone checks the local
temperature, that'll cost you. AT&T and
Verizon charge up to $20 per megabyte, so
uploading a few photos, downloading a few
attachments or watching three minutes of
YouTube video can easily cost $100;
watching a full-length feature movie
through an Internet-based service can be
an $18,000 show ticket.
Full story
Precheck Wall
Street Journal...Hate the full-body
scans, pat-downs and slow going at TSA
airport security screening checkpoints?
For $100, you can now bypass the hassle.
The Transportation Security Administration
is rolling out expedited screening at big
airports called "Precheck." It has special
lanes for background-checked travelers,
who can keep their shoes, belt and jacket
on, leave laptops and liquids in carry-on
bags and walk through a metal detector
rather than a full-body scan. The process,
now at two airlines and nine airports, is
much like how screenings worked before the
Sept. 11 attacks. To qualify, frequent fliers must meet
undisclosed TSA criteria and get invited
in by the airlines. There is also a
backdoor in. Approved travelers who are in
the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's
"Global Entry" program can transfer into Precheck using their Global Entry number.
"It's a completely different experience
than what you're used to," said Matt
Stegmeir, a platinum-level Delta Air Lines
frequent flier who was invited into
Precheck when it opened at his home
airport, Minneapolis-St. Paul. Besides
zipping through security screening quickly
and easily, Mr. Stegmeir noticed another
difference: TSA agents at the Precheck
lane are usually smiling. "It's really a jarring contrast. It
reminds you just how much of a hassle the
security procedures in place really are,"
he said.
Global Entry has been extremely popular
with frequent international travelers.
Approved travelers get to use a kiosk to
enter the country rather than waiting in
often-long lines to get their passports
stamped and go through Customs inspection.
Consider that in January at Chicago's
O'Hare International Airport, the average
wait in line was 35 minutes between 4 and
5 p.m., and the longest wait was 137
minutes. The wait at Terminal 1 at New
York's Kennedy International Airport
averaged 44 minutes in January for people
arriving between 10 and 11 a.m. Enrolling
requires a $100 application fee for a
background check, plus a brief interview
with a Customs officer.
For domestic travel, Global Entry pays
off because it gets you into Precheck.
Once TSA announced in the fall that
enrollment in Global Entry and CBP's other
"trusted travel" programs (Nexus for
frequent travel across the Canadian border
and Sentri for frequent travel across the
Mexican border) would get you into
Precheck, applications for Global Entry
took off. In February, for example, 26,602 people
applied, more than triple the number of
applications in February 2011, according
to CBP. And February applications were up
42% from January as more and more
travelers catch on. "We want as many people as possible in
the program," said John Wagner, CBP's
executive director of admissibility and
passenger programs.
TSA says it also wants as many people
as possible in Precheck, which is still in
pilot-testing phase. Both agencies say the
programs can enhance screening of people
they know nothing about if they can move
low-risk people who submit to background
checks out of the main queues. "We can reduce the size of the haystack
when we are looking for that
one-in-a-billion terrorist," said TSA
Administrator John Pistole. Mr. Pistole, an FBI veteran who took
over TSA in 2010, said that by studying
frequent-flier histories as well as
conducting background checks, he's
confident the U.S. now has the technology
and the intelligence information to make
less-rigorous, faster screening work. TSA
has been trying to move to more
"risk-based" security—something critics
have suggested for many years.
Once in Precheck, TSA still checks
names against terrorism watch lists before
every flight, just as it does for other
travelers. If a passenger is cleared for
Precheck screening, a code is embedded in
a traveler's boarding pass. Precheck members usually get to use
security lines set up for first-class and
elite-level frequent fliers. But Precheck
travelers actually don't know if they will
get to use the easy screening until the
TSA officer checking IDs actually scans
the boarding pass. If the pass has the
code, a Precheck passenger is steered to a
separate screening lane for what amounts
to old-style airport screening.
TSA says Precheck members are selected
randomly for regular screening to enhance
security. But that unpredictability irks
frequent travelers. The agency doesn't
make travelers go to the end of the
regular screening line, however, but
instead slips them into the front of the
regular queue. "I like Precheck, but it would be much
more valuable to me if I were able to know
before leaving for the airport whether or
not I had Precheck approval for that day's
flights," said Beth Allen, a University of
Minnesota economist and frequent traveler.
Gary Kaminsky, who travels 100,000
miles a year domestically, says he's
gotten Precheck screening on about 80% of
his trips so far out of Los Angeles
International Airport, his home base, on
AMR Corp.'s American Airlines. "When it
does work, it's phenomenal," he said. "It
cuts security screening down to about 30
seconds." For now, travelers say Precheck lanes
are almost always empty—no waiting. In
fact, Precheck may be making regular lines
longer since equipment and officers are
devoted to a little-used lane. Mr. Pistole
said that will change as the program
expands and the agency collects more data.
Currently, TSA is working with only two
airlines, American and Delta, because they
were able to handle computing requirements
set by TSA for the frequent-flier aspect.
Even if you get into Precheck through
Global Entry, it will currently only work
for you on American and Delta domestic
flights at airports with Precheck lanes.
Also, Precheck lanes are in place only
at nine airports. Currently, American
passengers can use it in Dallas-Fort
Worth, New York Kennedy, Los Angeles and
Miami. Delta passengers have Precheck
access in Atlanta, Detroit and Salt Lake
City. Passengers on both airlines can use
Precheck in Las Vegas and Minneapolis-St.
Paul.
Later this month, Precheck is set to
expand to Washington's Reagan National
Airport for Delta passengers and certain
members of the U.S. military, and Chicago
O'Hare with American. By the end of the year, Mr. Pistole
said Precheck will be in place at 35
airports and six airlines, covering most
major U.S. airports and airlines.
Expansion will continue in 2013, but
Precheck probably won't be available at
all 450 commercial airports, since many
have a small number of travelers each day.
"The goal is to cover the broadest
cross-section of travelers," he said.
