Air fares are soaring again, especially in this country. Despite the strong pound, the price of a Business class ticket bought in Britain rose by 3% on average in the first three months of this year, taking the rise over two years to 20%, Long-haul fares to North America, Asia and Australia have rocketed in two years by 25%. Read more…
Travelers, brace yourselves: Pilots are about to follow safety rules to the letter — and that could spell delays. Some 41,000 members of the Air Line Pilots Association have been asked in a letter from their president to take three specific steps in what the union is calling “100% vigilance” to the rules. Read more…
Anyone who travels frequently by air knows that getting there is not half the fun. High fares, cramped seating, non-refundable, non- transferable tickets, flight delays and increased concerns about safety all add up to some very unfriendly skies. A new tongue-in-cheek guide called The Airline Passenger’s Guerrilla Handbook offers some useful tips on dealing with the air travel jungle. While it is aimed mainly at American readers, a lot of the advice is also applicable to Canadians. Read more…
Air travel has become so advanced, outspread and affordable that we have come to take it for granted. With millions of Malaysians travelling by air annually either on business, vacation or going to Mecca for the hajj, air travel has become all too familiar. Yet only three or four decades ago, air travel was as rare and remotely realizable as spotting an aero plane streaking across the skies and leaving in its wake the jet stream. Read more…
East Asia and the Pacific are poised to become the world’s biggest regional supplier of travelers, the World Tourism Organization says. The number of trips taken by people living there outstripped those taken by North American residents for the first time last year. Travel from East Asia and the Pacific grew 8 per cent, higher than from any other part of the world, to 94m trips; North Americans made 92m trips abroad. Read more…
While on the West Coast this summer, when I mentioned I would be spending a night at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport hotel it seemed everyone had a story to tell. People talked about either the rooms with runway-to-mountain views or the convenience of a hotel built right into the terminal — the whole no-hassle airport experience. Read more…
America West Airlines has a way for you to save that is a bit unusual. America West offers sale fares from Atlanta to your choice of 10 Western cities that are not in its or your travel agent’s computers. So if you call America West, they won’t know what you are talking about. I will tell you later how to book the bargains. Read more…