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Articles Tagged ‘rental cars’

Hertz adds car rental self-service at 50 airports

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Ontheroad
By Joe Brancatelli

Faster car rentals, less flight service: United Airlines fliers to London take note: United flights to and from Heathrow Airport
have shifted to Terminal 1. The airline says its new space there will
have an exclusive check-in area for first-class and Mileage Plus Global
Services fliers. … Hertz has added self-service car rental kiosks at 50
airports and the car rental giant is promising that renters can get
their cars within 10 minutes. … Up in Canada, Air Canada is pulling out
of Hamilton, Ontario. Effective July 31, its Jazz commuter operation is
dropping its flights to Montreal and Ottawa. … Hartford, Connecticut,
is losing some service, too. Northwest Airlines is dropping its flights
to Amsterdam (Hartford’s only trans-Atlantic flight) and Delta Air Lines
is dumping flights to Los Angeles (Hartford’s longest domestic route).

ROUTE MAP

Guess who’s still growing? Southwest Airlines finally released its fall and winter schedule and guess what? It’ll keep growing. Although the airline will drop 31 round-trip flights beginning November 2, it will add 40 others. By contrast, the Big Six airlines are shrinking by 10-15 percent in the fall. What is Southwest cutting? Two routes — Oakland-Tucson and Sacramento-Kansas City — and some frequencies, primarily to/from Chicago Midway and Oakland. What gets added? New routes from Denver to John Wayne/Orange County and Tulsa; a new route between St. Louis and Fort Myers; and three new routes from Fort Lauderdale: Las Vegas, Kansas City and Albany. Searching for a strategy in Southwest’s moves? Consider: Denver-based Frontier is in bankruptcy and Fort Lauderdale-based Spirit Airlines has warned employees that almost half of them may soon be laid off.

INTERNATIONAL AGENDA:

BA gobbles up L’Avion for OpenSkies: It’s been rumored for several months, but it’s finally happened: British Airways is buying L’Avion, the French all-business-class airline. The deal is for €68 million. BA says it will integrate L’Avion into OpenSkies, the boutique carrier it launched on June 19. But the exact form that integration will take is an open question. Although both L’Avion and OpenSkies fly Boeing 757s to Paris/Orly, L’Avion operates from Newark and OpenSkies uses New York/Kennedy. L’Avion’s aircraft are configured with 90 business-class seats while OpenSkies’ plane has 82 seats in three classes. And, needless to say, L’Avion is a French flag carrier and OpenSkies is a British airline. Watch this one carefully, folks. … Delta Air Lines continues to expand its international route network. It will soon add two more Latin American routes from its JFK hub: Flights to Bogota begin on August 19 and service to Buenos Aires launches on December 18.

CUTBACK CENTRAL

The big airlines are shedding smaller cities: United Airlines continues its contraction in South Florida. It plans to cut its once-formidable hub at Miami to just four daily flights and it will end all service at Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, too. … American Airlines will end all service in several cities, including Albany, New York; Providence, Rhode Island; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; San Luis Obispo, California; and Barranquilla, Colombia. … US Airways is cutting back intra-Pennsylvania service. The Pittsburgh-Harrisburg route ends on September 1, while October 1 is the last day for Philadelphia-Williamsport flights. … JetBlue Airways is dropping its West Palm Beach-Newburgh/Stewart route on September 2. … Horizon Air is dropping flights from Portland, Oregon, to both Klamath Falls and North Bend/Coos Bay, Oregon. The flights end on October 11. … Frontier Airlines is dropping flights from its Denver hub to Louisville, Kentucky.

NEED TO KNOW

On-the-road intelligence to help you travel smarter: Continental Airlines has improved the ticket-change procedure for same-day flights, but it will cost you: $50 for most travelers and $25 for gold and platinum level frequent fliers. The window for same-day changes is now 12 hours. It used to be 3 hours, but did not carry a fee. … Qantas will add a premium economy cabin to its U.S. flights later this year. The seats in the cabin will have 42-inch seat pitch and be 19.5 inches wide. Premium Economy will be available on Los Angeles-Sydney flights beginning November 14 and on Los Angeles-Melbourne flights on December 19. … the Internal Revenue Service has raised the per-mile business driving rate to 58.5 cents. The new rate goes into effect on July 1. … Marriott Rewards members can now cash points for luggage shipping. The hotel giant and the Luggage Club have struck the unique deal. … Speaking of luggage, Delta Air Lines says it will rebate the $25 second-bag fee for any traveler who had purchased tickets before April 9. … American Airlines is now testing in-flight Internet on two aircraft this week. The planes are on the transcon route between New York/Kennedy and Los Angeles.

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Joe Brancatelli is editor and publisher of JoeSentMe.com, a non-commercial Web site for business travelers.

Copyright 2008 by Joe Brancatelli. Licensed by contract for Orbitz use

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Continental, Singapore Airlines #1 in business travel survey

Monday, July 14th, 2008

Plane
Continental Airlines has been named the top U.S. airline in a survey of business travelers.

Singapore Airlines was rated the top international airline, while JetBlue earned the top ranking among low-cost airlines in the survey by Executive Travel magazine.

The 2008 Leading Edge Award winners were chosen in an online survey of readers of Executive Travel magazine.

Denver, Atlanta and Chicago O’Hare airports were rated the top U.S. airports, while airports in Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Singapore were ranked best worldwide.

Among hotels, Hilton was rated the best hotel chain, Marriott was rated best for business service, and Embassy Suites was rated best for meetings. Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton were rated the top luxury hotels.

Hertz earned the top ranking among car rental companies.

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The Las Vegas rental car quandary

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

Las_vegas_car
By Drew Butler, The Ultimate Vegas Blog

The subject of rental cars can spark a nice debate among people who go to Vegas regularly. I probably should and will devote a few blog entries on getting around in Las Vegas because there are a lot of options. But for now, let’s talk about some advantages to renting or not renting.

Why rent?

  • Super easy: There are car rentals at McCarran International Airport when you land. A number of Las Vegas hotels have rental locations.
  • Cheap: Some of the lowest rates in the country. Probably because they do so much volume.
  • Can move from hotel to hotel, Vegas strip or off-strip. You can go see attractions outside of Las Vegas (i.e. Red Rock Canyon and Hoover Dam).

Why not rent?

  • Traffic: Especially on the Strip in the late afternoon or evening and on weekends. You are thinking, "I have to drive in traffic every day, why do I have to do it on my vacation."
  • Alcohol: People gamble, casinos give free alcohol while you gamble, you do the math. Also, if you are going to do drink and drive, the penalties for getting caught are steep and not worth it.
  • Alternative transportation is easy: Cabs are plentiful and you can find them everywhere. The Las Vegas monorail can take you up and down the Strip. There is a bus that runs 24 hours a day up and down the Strip. Additionally, walking is free.

What I think

Everyone has an opinion about works best for them and their circumstances. Going in a five-person group might require you to rent a car. Going alone or with two people might cause you not to rent. I think you should try one trip renting and one trip renting maybe one or two days. Find out what works best for you.

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Drew Butler is a former newspaper reporter, current college instructor, and an avid traveler. You can find his travel blog at The Ultimate Vegas Blog.

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Taking teens on a road trip

Friday, April 25th, 2008

Teens_in_minivan

Persuading teens to take a road trip can be a hard sell. You have to overcome their fears of being cramped in a car, cut off from friends, and at the mercy of parental decisions. Two Orbitz moms have found some unique ways to give their teens independence while still promoting family togetherness.

From Donna Mulligan, full-time working mom to 3 hockey players:

Although I admit this is not very "green" conscious of us, we have resigned ourselves to the fact that taking two cars on the family vacation is a better option.

Taking a long car ride with 3 teen-age boys (ages 13, 16, 18) in the back –- none of whom wants the middle seat -– leaves everyone tense by the time we arrive, which isn’t a good start to a weeklong retreat.

With two cars, everyone arrives excited and happy. My boys have their own wheels to explore on their own, and my husband and I don’t feel guilty dining without them.

I would never have guessed these would be my words a mere five years ago, when the boys were 8, 11 and 13. But as the boys grow, it’s important we provide them with a bit of independence, while not compromising the family vacation altogether.

From Liz Robertson, full-time working mom to a 17-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter:

With all the distractions in a teen’s life, it becomes more of a challenge to get them excited about a family vacation. But you may be down to the last few summers you’ll have together before college and work obligations take precedence, so it’s worth pursuing!

Taking teens on the road can be a fun experience for all, if you have a different perspective then when you were planning trips for younger children. Here’s what I do:

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Tip: Rent a van, SUV for long family trips

Friday, April 25th, 2008

Suv_on_highway
By Jay

My wife was raised on a real Midwestern farm, and each year we leave the congestion of Chicago and make the 550-mile trek there with our two boys.

The secret to a great road trip, in my opinion, is renting a minivan or SUV. We don’t own a large vehicle, so I prefer a spacious car rental for long road trips. I bring along a shade to keep the sun off the kids.

We’ve found the second most important item is entertainment for our children. You can buy a portable DVD player for under $100 and rent some new DVDs from the library. We also pack crayons, books and electronic games.

During the road trip, we like to stop at a state rest area every two hours. This gives everyone a chance to stretch their legs and go to the bathroom. If it’s raining, McDonald’s play areas make a good pit stop for releasing energy. You can go to the McDonald’s Web site to find out if there are any along your route.

We pack our food and drinks, preferring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to fast food. Starting our drive early — and serving breakfast in the car — also provides another chance to get some miles behind in quiet and beat traffic.

On one occasion, we were caught off guard. My oldest kid threw up, after going through some bumpy road construction. Fortunately, we had some baby wipes to help clean up the car, but now we travel with a rag and a change of clothes.

After we get there, the 550-mile road trip is a distant memory. The boys tour the farm, climb on the huge machinery, fish for bluegill and sun fish, check out the cows up close, and enjoy our family time.

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Gearing up for the family road trip

Friday, April 25th, 2008

Minivan_by_lake
By Allan Jay Gordon Burstyn

Ah, the family road trip. No matter how many children and adults are involved, nothing evokes the potential for mind-numbing tedium and disaster like spending endless hours in a cramped car with the ones you love most in the world. We regularly pack our three boys — twin one-year-olds and a four-year-old — into our minivan and head out onto the open road. As daunting as that may sound, a little preparation can go a long way toward making the old adage ring true — "getting there is half the fun."

Where am I going again?

To get there you need to know where you are going, and for those of us without a GPS that means having a map. AAA offers their well-known TripTik service for turn-by-turn directions, or you can print out directions from Google, Mapquest or MSN Maps.

We like to plan approximate stops points before we get on the road but you should always remain flexible when you travel. If the kids have conked out, think twice before stopping because it’s a surefire way of waking them up. In general it’s a good idea to stop every hour and a half or two hours to stretch, go the bathroom, switch drivers and give the kids an opportunity to run around or grab something to eat.

What’s that blinking light?

My personal worst nightmare is a car breakdown in the middle of nowhere. It’s a good idea to make sure you’ve had a recent oil and air filter change and to check tire pressure before you get on the road. Besides lowering the chances of a breakdown, these steps also improve fuel economy.

If you do break down, roadside assistance can come in handy. Check to make sure your membership is up to date. Just because your card says your membership doesn’t expire for a year or more doesn’t mean your membership is actually active.

Here’s a small list of safety-related gear we like to keep in our car:

  • First aid kit (For those of you interested in putting together your own eHow and iVillage provide a comprehensive inventory if first-aid kit items.) 
  • Cell phone charger
  • Flashlight
  • Coolant
  • Blanket
  • Road flares
  • Water

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On the Road with Joe Brancatelli

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Ontheroad
Joe Brancatelli is editor and publisher of JoeSentMe.com, a
non-commercial Web site for business travelers.

SEASONAL STRATEGIST

You may want to rethink that Hawaiian holiday: The abrupt shutdown of Aloha Airlines and ATA Airlines within 48 hours of each other earlier this month has caused a catastrophic drop in the number of available seats and flights between Hawaii and the mainland. Although its schedule fluctuated since it began serving the mainland in 2001, Aloha had flown to all of Hawaii’s major islands from a half-dozen West Coast cities. ATA operated to the major Hawaiian airports from Oakland, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It also flew to Hilo, which hadn’t had a mainland nonstop for decades before ATA launched service in 2006. Airfares to the islands are likely to rise sharply and frequent flier award availability may be all but nonexistent this summer. Worse, there is little chance that any of the major carriers or Hawaiian Airlines will add significant amounts of new capacity. For starters, the transpacific flights are gas guzzlers, no advantage with oil at $100 a barrel. Worse, the most efficient planes on the Hawaiian routes — two-engine jets with so-called ETOPs approval — aren’t easy to find or certify for over-water operation. Worst of all, Hawaii routes have traditionally been only marginally profitable. That’s because there are few high-yield frequent fliers on the routes and many vacation travelers try to use frequent flier awards on the trips. There is a bit of good news, though: Hawaiian Airlines will launch a daily Oakland-Honolulu nonstop on May 1 using Boeing 767s configured with 18 first-class and 242 coach seats. Both ATA and Aloha had operated on the route.

DOLLARS & SENSE

Watch out for those new fees: Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines are the latest carriers to add a $25 fee to your fare if you deign to check a second bag. Northwest also increasing the fees it will charge for overweight bags and the third or additional bags checked. Elite frequent-flier program members and full-fare or first-class fliers are exempt from the second-bag fee. That means five of the six network airlines now have a $25 fee for a second bag. Only American Airlines is a holdout, but watch for it to match in early May. … Delta Air Lines has invented some new fees, too. Most notable: a $25 "handling charge" for claiming a SkyMiles award by telephone that includes a segment on a partner airline. That fee is atop the existing charge for booking travel on the phone and the existing phone fee is simultaneously rising to $25 from its current $20. Delta is also increasing the cost of carrying a pet in the cabin (to $100), the cost of flying an unaccompanied minor (to $100 for any flight) and the fee for oversized bags (to $150 from $100).

INTERNATIONAL AGENDA

An update on Terminal 5 at London Heathrow: London/Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 and it the lone tenant, British Airways, finally seem to be working normally. After almost two weeks of chaos surrounding the opening of the $8 billion facility late last month, BA is now running all of its scheduled flights. However, BA’s plans to move the bulk of its U.S. service into T5 on April 30 is now in question. As of now, only flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco operate from T5. Check with the airline for its plan if you’re booked to fly to London in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, BA has upped the minimum connecting time on flight transfers at Heathrow to two hours. And please be aware: The opening of Terminal 5 has made travel on the costly, but once efficient, Heathrow Express, much more time-consuming. The train formerly linked Heathrow Terminal 4, Heathrow Central (the stop for Terminals 1, 2 and 3) and Paddington Station in London. Now, however, the train goes from T5 to Heathrow Central to Paddington. Travelers who use Terminal 4 must switch at Heathrow Central for a separate train and that adds as much as 15 minutes to the journey. Heathrow Express officials never publicized the change in routing and the connection is poorly marked. You can examine the new schedule and the required connections here.

(more…)

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TechTraveler: Satellite radio goes off-road with ONIX 400

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

Onix400_2
By Howard Wolinsky

Millions of American travelers already know XM, the satellite radio, is fun to take on the road.

As the miles pass, they listen to music from their favorite era (from the ’40s through the ’90s) or favorite format (country, bluegrass, soul rock, Latin, world, blues). They tune into Major League Baseball along with news, talk radio, comedy and kids channels.

Now, in a first, XM has teamed up with Bushnell Outdoor Products to make satellite radio offerings available off-road with another popular technology, GPS, along with real-time weather data.

The new ONIX 400 is aimed at outdoors lovers who not only want to track their trails as they go hiking, camping, fishing or hunting, but also want to stay on top of the weather reports and tune into to the soundtracks of their lives on XM.

The ONIX 400 is slightly larger than other outdoor GPS devices — as opposed to GPS for finding addresses in the city. It is a handsome unit with a large, 3.5-inch LCD display so you can follow the storm systems as they move around the country, focusing on your current location or on one where you are heading.

When I first tried XM years ago, I griped that I couldn’t receive the signal in the urban jungles or on my commuter train. But XM has continued to improve reception.

(more…)

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San Sebastian: Beach vacation in Basque country

Friday, April 4th, 2008

Sansebastian
By Lena Katz

It’s time to start thinking about summer vacation (yay!!), especially if you’re planning to travel abroad. With the dollar in a state I don’t even want to mention, London, Paris and a lot of other European destinations may not be as appealing as usual. But instead of suggesting a Mexico vacation (because we all know about Mexico already), I’m pointing you to my favorite place in the whole world … San Sebastian, a little beach town in the Basque region of Spain.

It’s right on the Spanish/French border — in fact, a San Sebastian native I met by chance the other day told me childhood stories of swimming from the beach right outside his house over to France. (Biarritz, probably — it’s the closest town over the border). Was I envious for a minute? You bet. For some reason, San Sebastian isn’t nearly as expensive as Biarritz, or even Barcelona and Madrid. But most significantly to me, you can be a totally clueless tourist here, and still have fun.

The people are warm and friendly (and loud, and they like their booze). The nightlife — which mostly consists of small, unpretentious, no-name places — is ridiculously fun. The beach is gorgeous. The town is elevated a bit from the sand, and a seawall fronts it. At sunset the tide comes all the way up to the wall, and surfers ride the waves in while the whole town comes out to relax and enjoy the view.

This is Basque country, which means the food is slightly different than typical Spanish fare. Foie gras and game meat and peppery stews are served alongside tapas and amazing cheeses and fresh seafood specialties. The region also produces its own wines, most of which don’t make it to America. MuseoguggenheimbilbaoYou can’t take direct flights from the U.S. to San Sebastian, but Bilbao, the capital city of neighboring province Bizkaia (Biscay), is only an hour and a half ride by rental car.

And it’s worth noting that Bilbao has gained a reputation as a culinary and cultural hot spot over the past decade or so. From the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum to the Sheraton Bilbao, tourism hot spots boast award-winning restaurants run by adventurous, charismatic chefs. Traditional dishes like Vizcaina cod, grilled elvers and steaks a la bilbaina are reinvented for the haute cuisine table.

As a port city, Bilbao has a lot of attractions centered around bridges, waterways and marinas. The Bizkaia Transporter Bridge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, while the Old Port is as much a historical attraction as a place of commerce. Also worth checking out: the Guggenheim Museum and Memory Lane, with its many modern sculpture installations.

Bilbao is the bustling city; San Sebastian is the cheerful village. Together, they complement each other nicely and offer as multi-faceted a European summer as anyone could need.

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Lena Katz lives on the Left Coast and writes about
tropical islands, beach clubs and food, but her heart belongs to NYC.

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