F2 WHAT’STHEDEAL?
Thisweek’s travel bargains fromaround the globe
LAND l Book a roomatNorthern California’sNapaRiver Innand get a dining credit of $100 per roomper night, good at four restaurantswithinwalking distance of the property.Rates start at $249 per night double, plus $35 tax, and include breakfast delivered to your room. Stay throughMarch 31; two-nightminimumon Saturdays. Info: 877-251-8500,
www.napariverinn.com. l TheHilton CancunGolf&Spa Resort is offering almost free unlimited golf, plus a $50 spa credit, for stays Jan. 1-May 31. Rounds of golf are free (a game of 18 holes typically costs $159 per guest), but each playermust pay a $35 cart fee per
round.Rooms start at $119 per night double, plus $16 taxes.Offer is not available on weekends; five-nightminimum stay required. The on-site championship course features a viewof the ElReyMayan ruins, a pro shop and clubhouse, and equipment rental. Book byDec. 31. Info: 800-445-8667,
www.hiltoncancun.com.
SEA
lWithHollandAmerica’s View &Verandah sale, get up to 50 percent off on outside and balcony cabins on select sailings, plus free or reduced fares for third and fourth
passengers.Destinations include Alaska, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and the South Pacific. For example, on the seven-day Alaskan Explorer,which sails round trip fromSeattle onMay 15, oceanviewcabins start at $749 per person double, 40 percent off the regular
rate.Add $123 per person in taxes. Book by Feb. 28. Info: 877-932-4259,
www.hollandamerica.com. l Expedia is offering special perks onmostNorwegian Cruise Line sailings in 2011, such as free
EZ
EE
KLMNO Christopher Elliott
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2010
DOT hears our SOS THE NAVIGATOR
I BIGSTOCK
On China Spree’s China Delights tour, see the Garden of the Humble Administrator in Suzhou, China.
onboard coupon books, upgrades and up to $100 in onboard credits per reservation. For example, book the five-nightWestern Caribbean cruise aboard the Norwegian Sun,which sails round trip fromPort Canaveral, Fla., on Jan. 8, and receive a four-level upgrade and an onboard coupon book valued at $400.Rates start at $671 per couple, including fees and taxes. Book byMarch 27. Info: 888-249-3978,
www.expedia.com.
AIR
l For last-minute travelers, BritishAirways is offering discounts on its Club World business-class fares, which feature fully flat beds. Through Jan. 8, round-trip flights fromWashingtonDulles or BWIMarshall to London start at $2,832, including taxes, a savings of $300 off the regular fare. Book byDec. 28. Info: 800-247-9297,
www.ba.com/ business-sale. l Lufthansa has awinter sale to several European cities, includingAmsterdam,Geneva, Milan and
Zurich.Round-trip sample fare, including taxes: WashingtonDulles toDublin, $604. Book by Jan. 6; travelDec. 24-April 30.Other airlines are matching. Info: 800-645-3880,
www.lufthansa.com.
TRAVEL PACKAGE
l China Spree has discounts of up to $700 per person on its 2011 China tours. For example,with the discount, the 12-day China Delights tour—which visits Beijing, Suzhou, Tongli, Hangzhou and Shanghai—costs $1,758 per person (typically $2,458) inMarch andDecember, and $2,258 (vs. $2,958) in summer,with departures from NewYork’s JFKairport. Valid March 1-Dec. 31. Credit card payments cost $200more. Packages include round-trip air
fromNewYork or San Francisco, hotel accommodations,most meals, sightseeing, entrance fees, airport transfers and internal transportation, tour director and guides, baggage handling, evening entertainment and taxes. Book byDec. 31. Info: 866-652-5656,
www.chinaspree. com.
—K.C. Summers
Submit travel deals to whatsthedeal @
washpost.com. Please include your phone number and e-mail address. Prices were verified Thursday afternoon when the Travel section went to press, but deals sell out and availability is not guaranteed. Restrictions such as blackout dates and advance purchasemay apply.
Editor: Joe Yonan • Deputy Editor: Zofia Smardz • Art Directors: Marty Barrick, Alla Dreyvitser • Staff Writers: Andrea Sachs, Nancy Trejos • Editorial Assistant: Becky Krystal • Travel Advertising: Joseph
E. Teipe Jr., 202-334-6250 • To respond to one of our articles: E-mail
travel@washpost.com, call 202-334-7750 or write us: Washington Post Travel section, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. Manuscripts: Because of the volume of mail we receive, the Travel section cannot return or acknowledge unsolicited manuscripts, article proposals or photographs.
t turns out that all the negative things that happened to air travelers in
2010—invasive body scans, multiplying fees, erupting volcanoes—were offset by at least one positive change: an increasingly passenger-friendly Transportation Department. The federal government introduced new rules to help air travelers and enforced the regulations already on the books with a fervor unlike any administration in recent memory. “Transportation Secretary
Ray LaHood is leading the first consumer-centered DOT in the history of commercial aviation,” says KevinMitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, which represents corporate travel interests. “And he’s doing so in a very thoughtful and sophisticated manner.” In the spring, the agency imposed a controversial rule that effectively limited tarmac delays to three hours. A series of proposed consumer protection initiatives that would, among other things, strengthen airlines’ customer service requirements, force carriers to display airfares and optional fees to allow better side-by-side price comparisons, and boost fines for overbooking were proposed over the summer and are expected to become finalized in early 2011. If approved, they could change the way Americans fly more than any government action since the airline industry was deregulated in 1978. And a year-end tally of DOT’s
fines suggests that the agency has surpassed last year’s enforcement actions against airlines that didn’t meet its standards. For 2010, the department’s Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings, the nation’s top airline cops, issued 47 tickets totaling $3.44 million in civil penalties. Last year, it issued 30 tickets totaling $2.6 million in penalties. The fines include punishing
Delta Air Lines to the tune of $100,000 for allegedly distributing a misleading brochure about baggage compensation; a $40,000 fine against US Airways for failing to quote a full airfare to customers on itsWeb site; and a $30,000 fine against El Al for not complying with international laws in its baggage policy. “The Department of
Transportation has made real efforts to give air travelers a break,” says San Diego-based aviation lawyer Jerry Sterns. And it has done so without breaking the airline industry. Indeed, initial fears that the department was being too heavy-handed with air carriers,
particularly when it comes to tarmac delays, proved to be unfounded, says Paul Ruden, the senior vice president for legal and industry affairs for the American Society of Travel Agents. “Consumers are being treated better, and the airline world has not collapsed.” Quite the contrary. The U.S.
airline industry is wrapping up a banner year and is expected to earn $5.1 billion in profits in 2010, according to one estimate. Earlier this fall, the
Transportation Department issued a statement saying that the new tarmac-delay rule was “working as planned,” and this month, it reported that there had been no delays of more than three hours for the month of October, the first time this has happened since the new rule went into effect.
moving away from the body scan/pat-down choices. Another DOT-watcher,
Thomas Dickerson, the author of the book “Travel Law” and a New York Supreme Court justice, says that the agency ought to spend more time regulating
fees.Much of the airline industry’s 2010 profit was derived from fees for luggage, ticket changes and other optional products, and these extras were often poorly disclosed. “DOT needs to address the indiscriminate use of fees to generate extra revenue for the airlines,” he says. “The reaction of airline passengers to unbundling of service fees has been mixed, and there has been litigation over surcharges, airport concession fees, government fees and passenger facilities charges.” WilliamMcGee, who
LUCI GUTIERREZ FOR THE WASHINGTON POST But the department isn’t
without its critics. Some worry that the government’s declarations that the tarmac- delay rule is working are premature. They point out that last summer’s weather was unusually storm-free, limiting the number of delays, and they cite research by aviation analysts Darryl Jenkins and JoshuaMarks suggesting that the rule caused an increase in canceled flights over the summer, leaving 384,000 passengers stranded, and that an additional 49,600 air travelers experienced gate returns and delays because of the rules. “I have no problem with DOT
trying to improve customer service, as long as everything is well thought through,” says MichaelMiller, a vice president at the American Aviation Institute, aWashington-based aviation-policy think tank. “I don’t think the tarmac-delay rule is well thought through. And I’mnot alone.” Miller says that for the DOT
to cement its legacy for consumer-friendliness, it must introduce new initiatives that would make air travel noticeably better. One place to start is a partnership with the Department ofHomeland Security to improve the way airline passengers are screened,
participated in the DOT’s Future of Aviation Advisory Committee on behalf of Consumers Union, says that more passenger protections are on the way. The committee has proposed a slew of new measures, including more comprehensive and systematic provisions for passengers facing flight delays and cancellations, as well as better disclosure of fees and airline codesharing. He says he found the
government receptive to his ideas and described LaHood as a “very proactive passenger- rights DOT secretary.” There’s a sense that the
department’s work to protect airline passengers is just beginning, and that any future consumer protections must be weighed against the cost to the airline industry. Imposing new rules doesn’t
hurt anyone in a year when air carriers are profitable. But what happens when the industry falls back into the red, as it inevitably will? “In carrying out our aviation enforcement activities, we have tried to strike a balance between vigorously protecting the rights of air travelers and not being overly punitive to the companies against whom we assess fines,” LaHood told me. In the end, putting the
passengers first may be the legacy of the current Transportation Department. After years of government working in lockstep with the airline industry, LaHood and his team are finally addressing the needs of an increasingly exasperated flying public while balancing the demands of a historically fragile industry.
Elliott is National Geographic Traveler magazine’s reader advocate. E-mail him at
celliott@ngs.org.
COMING&GOING
Continental FareLock program, Chernobyl opens for tours
Lock in that fare With most airlines’ high
cancellation fees, reserving a flight is often more stressful than it is exciting. But a new program from Continental Airlines now allows commitment-phobic passengers to hold an itinerary—for a price.
With FareLock, unveiled last
week, travelers can get a three- day hold from $5 and a weeklong lock starting at $9. For example, CoGo was able to secure a quote of $310.80 for a round-trip flight from Reagan National toMiami and hold it for 72 hours for an additional $9, or for seven days by coughing up $19. The option is valid for
reservations made by phone or online for Continental flights only. The fee is non-refundable and cannot be applied to the cost of the fare. You’ll have to pay for the
flight before the hold expires, or you can set up the auto- ticketing feature. And for additional wiggle room, the
airline will still uphold its 24- hour rule, which allows customers to have second thoughts —without penalty—a day after booking.
Meet yourmatch Hertz Car Rental is so
convinced it has the best prices in the industry that it’s willing to match its competitors’ fees. Under the newHertz
Ultimate Experience Challenge, you can bring proof of a weekly or weekend reservation made with another rental company, andHertz will match the deal— plus give you a coupon for $50 on any future rental. But there’s a catch or two:
The rentals have to be made directly through competitors such asNational, Budget and Avis, and not through a third- party booking site such as Priceline orHotwire. The offer also is not available at locations in Florida,Hawaii and the metroNewYork area through December. It’s available at other airport locations in theUnited States, Canada, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands through Jan. 31.
Travel tickers Starting Jan. 1, passengers
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flying out of Germany will be charged a departure tax: about $10.60 for short flights within Europe, $33 for medium-haul flights outside the European Union and $59 for long-haul trips. In protest, many airlines said that they will reduce flights to/from Germany; Ryanair, for one, will cut 34 routes and 414 weekly flights next year. . . . Curious travelers will be able to dig deeper into the world’s worst nuclear disaster next year when Ukraine opens the Chernobyl nuclear power plant for tours. Chernobyl’s ReactorNo. 4 melted down on April 26, 1986. . . . As of June 6, Air France will operate a daily A380 service between Paris andWashington Dulles, making the nation’s capital the secondU.S. destination, afterNewYork, served by the airline’s super jumbo. With 538 seats, the plane will allow the airline to combine two flights that leave at similar times.
Reporting: Andrea Sachs, Nancy Trejos. Help feed CoGo. Send travel news to:
cogo@washpost.com. By mail: CoGo,Washington Post Travel Section, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071
CRUISE.COM
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