Archive for the 'Travel Q&A' Category
Q&A: What is TSA’s Secure Flight and how does it affect you?
September 15, 2009 7:11pm
Talk about TMI. Now airlines are starting to ask your age and gender when you book a ticket. So expect to provide that, along with your first, last and middle name (if you have one) as it appears on your driver’s license or other government-issued ID.
It’s all part of the new Secure Flight program, an attempt by the Transportation Security Administration to reduce mistakes and smooth out the process of checking names against its watch list, popularly known as the “no-fly” list, of people suspected of posing a risk to aviation security.
The program is being phased in, airline by airline. Today, Sept. 15, American Airlines began asking for the personal information, and other carriers are expected to follow soon.
What happens if the name on your ticket doesn’t match the one on your driver’s license? Or if you make a mistake in giving your age? For answers to those and other questions, I turned to TSA spokeswoman Sterling Payne and American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner. Here are their answers, along with information from TSA’s website:
FareCompare’s 170+ Twitter accounts, new Dealfinder and Q&A with CEO Rick Seaney
July 9, 2009 4:56pm
I first heard about FareCompare’s new 170+ airport-specific, travel deal Twitter accounts Wednesday morning on Twitter. I quickly signed up to follow @flyfromLAX and within 24 hours already heard about a $356 RT LAX-Buenos Aires deal and an $81 RT LAX-PHX fare that was down 31%. As if Twitter has become the first choice in communication tools, I got in touch with FareCompare’s CEO at @rickseaney and scheduled a time this morning to talk about FareCompare’s new DealFinder and Twitter accounts. In our talks, the only thing that threw me off guard was the fact that they’ve found a way to automate their 170+ accounts. It might not be surprising to you, but I was envisioning an uber social media online travel geek behind six computer monitors, fingers flying fast as they tweeted travel deals to the world. Read on to find out about two new ways you can expedite your next airfare search.
Jen Leo: Is the Dealfinder new?
Rick Seaney: We came up with the idea a few years ago. We had a tool on the site with air deals posted on a Google Map (prices on cities in the map) but it didn’t do a 180-date combination seat check and wasn’t easy to sort. The new DealFinder finishes up our original dream of providing consumers the best air deals by departure date and then scouring hundreds of date combinations for seats in real-time. We officially launched the DealFinder Wednesday but it’s been in soft launch for about a month and a half.
What do you mean by the 180-date combination seat check?
It all came together when we partnered with ITA Software in December (they power the low fare search of many airlines, meta searchers and online travel agencies). Because we know when prices are dropping with our technology, we’re able to do some cool things with them. Our goal is that every time we show a price, they’ll be able to find that price sometime in the month. And then if an airline publishes prices with no seat availability too often we’ll pull them from the alerts.
The DealFinder with one click does the equivalent of 180 separate searches with different depart/return dates. Within a 30-day period, it searches six different lengths of stay (nights) based on the trip distance. For example, pick LAX to PHX and you see the prices for the whole month come up. Click a departure date and you can compare the price difference for different return dates. Select the one that best meets your needs and you’re off to get flight itineraries in a standard meta search that returns hundreds of flight choices that you can filter. We don’t sell tickets as a meta-searcher so you click on your flight and it takes you to either an airline or online travel agency for final booking (all of whom now have waived booking fees).
Now tell us what this Twitter account frenzy is all about. Did I hear that you have more than 170 accounts?
Ask Pauline Frommer a travel question on CNN.com Live
May 20, 2009 9:57am
Travel expert Pauline Frommer, author of Pauline Frommer’s Travel Guides, is going to be taking questions on CNN.com Live, a popular online webcast version of the CNN you know from TV. You can get your travel questions answered by e-mailing Pauline (pauline@cnn.com). The new online format is great because the readers get to have a conversation with the experts.
When: The program will be aired live online at Thursdays at 10 a.m., Pacific time.
This week’s topic: Pauline will focus on New York City, a topic that she knows well. “Pauline Frommer’s New York City, Second Edition” was just named best guidebook of the year by the North American Travel Journalists Assn. So, if you were to submit questions on travel to NYC or want to tell about a great discovery you made there, it has a good chance of being aired. But don’t let that thwart you from asking other destination questions or travel method questions — send them on in. They might get on the air or stockpiled for a future program.
Tip: Visit CNN early. It took me several minutes to download the Adobe Flash Player needed to run CNN Live. We wouldn’t want you to stress at the last minute that you were missing the program.
— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger
[Photo: Pauline Frommer ]
Virgin America comes to Orange County: ‘Twittologue’ with Richard Branson on Wednesday
April 28, 2009 2:13pm
Virgin America heats up the low-cost air carrier competition in Orange County this week. It is adding John Wayne Airport (SNA) as its ninth destination city, with daily nonstop flights between Orange County and San Francisco International Airport (SFO).
I’ll be interviewing Richard Branson via Twitter on Wednesday morning at 8:20 a.m. while he’s riding “Jane,” one of Virgin America’s 28 planes. The flight will have Wi-Fi, and you can catch our chat on Twitter between @latimestravel and @virginamerica with the hashtag “#vx2oc”.
Here’s a sneak peek at some of the topics we’ll be tweeting about in 140 characters or less!
— Wi-Fi in the sky. Virgin America to be the first carrier to offer full fleet Wi-Fi by June 2009 - how will that change air travel?
— Orange County launch - competition heating up
— Psssst … any more VX expansions before the end of 2009? First cities to add in 2010?
— Virgin Galactic and the Race for Space
A conversation with Paul Theroux about the ‘Eastern Star’
October 16, 2008 4:40pm
Perhaps the most popular words to describe Paul Theroux are “curmudgeonly” and “cranky,” but on Wednesday night at the Los Angeles Public Library, the inveterate traveler was in fine form.
His appearance, courtesy of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles in its marvelous Aloud public lecture series, organized by Louise Steinman, confirmed that the best travel writers are really journalists at heart, and Theroux’s sprawling and engrossing tome “Ghost Train to the Eastern Star” — the point of the evening’s discussion — proves what a terrific journalist and storyteller Theroux is.
Before a full house, Theroux had the somewhat difficult task of segueing from a live airing of the final presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, but he handled it with appropriate wit and an occasionally thinly veiled aside on the current state of American politics.
Read the rest of this entry »
WholeTravel.com launches: Q&A with CEO Matthew Davie
October 1, 2008 2:23pm
What would you like to do — take a safari, volunteer in a community, trek up a mountain, take a language class, try a zip line, relax at a health spa or even seek out a new destination to go fly fishing? Now ask yourself: Would you like to do that by the beach, in a rural setting — and in what country? Whole Travel jumped into public beta Tuesday and brings thousands of global accommodations to travelers where they can take part in these activities while at the same time educating themselves on the level of sustainability from four different points of scale: environmental, economic, social and cultural and customer interaction.
Whole Travel asks, “What’s your grand adventure?” I look at it from the perspective of, what’s my next grand adventure. Welcome CEO Matthew Davie to get us more familiar with the site.
Jen Leo: First of all, congratulations on bringing something different to the travelsphere, Matthew. It’s tough for travel websites to be unique when new ones are popping up monthly. Can you give us a little backstory on how Whole Travel came about?
Matthew Davie: The Whole Travel idea originated from a class at the Stanford Graduate School of Business with two MBA students and me, an Environmental Engineering PhD. We developed the idea, ran through all of the scenarios in a mock setting and performed a massive amount of research. And we quickly realized it was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up. The Whole Ranking system was later developed and perfected by our in-house sustainability specialist, Pam McLeod, who now heads our partner nonprofit, the Whole Travel Foundation. And here we are today, launching a website and a concept we are truly proud of.
JL: One of your main differences is the “Blue Sky” search functionality. Can you explain to our readers what this means, with examples of how to use it on Whole Travel?
MD: Absolutely. Blue Sky search allows consumers to search without parameters. Travelers are no longer constrained by dates and locations or even a finite list of activities. We encourage travelers to dream of their next great adventure and Whole Travel’s Blue Sky search will return relevant results. Try typing “experience of a lifetime” or “serenity” into our search bar and let your trip begin. You may find your dream adventure in a place you never imagined. Whole Travel offers hotels and resorts that are not found on any traditional travel search site.
JL: Matthew, I agree that your site is opening my eyes to properties I’ve never seen or heard of before on other travel websites, but I also get excited when I see a familiar brand as well. Can you give us some examples of hotels and resorts we won’t find on other travel websites?
MD: Sure. With this beta launch, we focused on the hard-to-find properties to enable travelers to discover unique and exotic travel opportunities they wouldn’t be able to find elsewhere. That said, we’re already reaching out to the major hotel chains to help them work on sustainability. They have a lot of properties worldwide, and we hope to make a big impact by working closely with them. We’ve already started this with Starwood Hotels & Resorts - they’re just launching Element Hotels, a new group of branded properties focused entirely on sustainability. As wholetravel.com continues to expand, I’d expect to see many more familiar hotels and resorts on our site as they continue their sustainability efforts.
JL: I found it a little challenging to think up cool things to search for. “Organic coffee farming” only delivered two results, but something like “spa” brought up heaps, as did “romance,” which I then narrowed by clicking “beach” for terrain and Mexico for destination. Can you tell us what your favorite search terms are?
MD: I like to start broad, with the type of experience I am looking for. Some of my favorites are:
“white sand”
“crystal clear”
Alaska Airlines goes cashless, charges ahead
July 3, 2008 6:15pm
Take off your shoes. Take off your belt. Unpack your laptop. Get cash to buy onboard drinks and food.
Alaska Airlines has removed at least one frustrating task that confronts all air travelers before boarding: Hunting for cash to buy drinks, food and other extras on a flight.
Starting Aug. 5, Alaska Airlines flight attendants will accept only major credit cards for onboard goodies. The flight attendants, who will be packing hand-held charging devices from Toronto-based GuestLogix Inc., will accept no cash.
What can you buy on board? For $5 you can get a “Picnic Pack” that includes crackers, cheese and salami or a “premium beverage,” such as beer, wine or vodka. Such drinks are complimentary for first-class passengers.
Several other airlines, including Virgin America, Hawaiian Airlines and JetBlue, have already switched to plastic for online purchases.
– Hugo Martín, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
[Photo: Alaska Airlines]
Chit-chat with Virgin America CEO David Cush about schedule changes
June 18, 2008 8:00am
Virgin America announced that it will be altering flight schedules a little bit. In response to the obvious high fuel prices that are affecting most airlines, VA will trim its midweek off-peak flights and add flights on high-demand routes this fall. In other VA news, I read on the Cranky Flier that Virgin America had added a $10 fuel surcharge to short hops and $25 to cross-country fares. I didn’t think that was such a big deal considering there are so many extra fees being collected lately. What would make me cranky is if they dampened their VA party spirit and started charging for luggage — but thankfully they haven’t gone there yet.
Deal or no deal? I tested the route between Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO) in August midweek (Aug. 12-19) and it was $64 each way before tax on Virgin America. Flying on the same dates with United brought the price up to $119 one-way before tax, but it was also only $64 each way on Southwest before tax. (Note: Here’s the Southwest secret for keeping fares down.)
Now that you’ve got a little back story, let’s read the chat with Virgin America President and Chief Executive David Cush about the recent and forthcoming changes.
Jen Leo: First things first, are you coming to the Vegas party on Wednesday night?
David Cush: Sadly, I will not make the SuperFly flight, but I hear it is going to be quite the scene. And frankly, I don’t think the marketing folks want the CEO onboard. Primarily for liability reasons. That was a joke.
JL: Which Virgin America route do you fly the most and is that one of the ones that will see a cutback or an increase?
DC: There were no specific routes really impacted in this move. This is a trim to off-peak flying –- some midday flights on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. We are not removing lines of flying or routes. Our growth plans are unchanged and we still plan to expand: We just added a JFK-LAS route and hope to be in Chicago in a big way by year-end, pending FAA approval.
Read the rest of this entry »
Q&A with Signspotting photo editor Doug Lansky; win a round-the-world plane ticket for sharing funny travel snapshots
May 7, 2008 6:29pm
Signspotting.com — Doug Lansky’s hilarious collection of strange photos of signs taken by travelers all over the world — has just become more user-friendly. Now you can upload your own crazy signage and vote on which pics you think are the best.
So far there are categories such as traffic flaw signs, accidentally R-rated signs, lost in translation signs and stick-figure signs to name a few. I spent a few minutes IM-ing with Doug (based in Stockholm, Sweden) to get the back story on this project that’s kept him laughing for years.
[Ed.: While you're at it, check out our LAT Your Scene Strange but True and Wierd America community photo and video sharing galleries - you can't make this stuff up!]
Jen: How many years have you been doing Signspotting? And where did it start?
Doug: Eight years. It started when I decided not to renew my five-year contract with the Chicago Tribune syndicate to travel the world and do a weekly column (Vagabond). And that was largely because my daughter was about to be born. I didn’t want to miss fatherhood.
Jen: How many forms has Signspotting taken over the years?
Doug: Signspotting has been the same from the start. But the site has changed. I did nothing to make it appealing to people on the Web. It was just a site to upload signs.
Jen: Until now.
Doug: Yep, until now.
Doug: Actually, a few months ago, I started putting up daily signs. But that also felt quite static. I wanted to make it more interactive.
Jen: How many submissions do you think you’ve received this whole time?
Doug: To date I’ve had over 20,000 submissions.
Rowed Trip expedition update from Oxford, en route to London; preparing to row across the English Channel (La Manche)
May 5, 2008 8:00am
Now nearly two months into the epic, self-propelled journey from the northern tip of Scotland to Syria, adventurer Colin Angus e-mails en route about his travels by oar and pedal power with his wife, Julie, in another Rowed Trip expedition update.
“We launched our rowboats in the Oxford Canal, a man-made waterway traversing Oxfordshire. These waterways were created several hundred years ago, and now the banks have matured with a growth of willows, hawthorn, and bulrushes. We paddled gently past small fields enclosed by tidy hedgerows and villages of stone and brick.
“The canals were surprisingly quiet, and most of the time Julie and I were by ourselves as we paddled through one of the most densely populated countries in the world. The traffic that we did encounter on occasion were invariably the narrow canal barges, brightly painted and usually skippered by couples enjoying the English countryside from their floating R.V.s.
