Travel

Tucked unassumingly behind and above some of Cuba St's iconic shops and cafes, the hotel – which opened in November – was bustling with tourist families and corporate clients as I checked-in for my mid-week stay. When I opened the door to my top-floor room, I was blown away by the size and decor, and a framed view of Wellington from an angle rarely seen. The standard queen suite was super-modern and clean, but not sterile – it still felt homely. The head of the bed sat against floor-to-ceiling windows which stretched around two full walls, with a small balcony overlooking Cuba St off one side. Winter sun streamed in and a warm breeze brought the room alive. It was a huge novelty being able to fling some windows open, as many inner-city hotels have closed-in windows. The kitchenette was very clean and well fitted out, with the fridge sneakily disguised in a cupboard – but at least it was silent, nothing worse than a loud fridge hum in the middle of the
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Have you ever traveled with children ages five or younger? If so, SmarterTravel.com needs your help: We’re collecting tips from moms and dads to help others—especially new parents—figure out the tricks and tactics for vacationing with little ones. We want to know your recommendations for:The best modes of transportation Flying with babies and toddlers The best accommodations for families with multiple young children The right mix of activities and free time on vacationTo share your tips, please take a minute to fill out our five-question survey. You’ll briefly be redirected to another site. The article featuring our reader tips will be published on September 15 in a Special Report email newsletter, which will be mailed to all Deal Alert subscribers. If you’re not already a subscriber, you can join for free on SmarterTravel.com.

Patience was wearing thin for some by now desperate holidaymakers caught in the backlog of passengers stranded after cancelled flights at the weekend, with flights in and out of the resort fully booked for several days. Some passengers were upbeat about their unscheduled bus rides to or from Christchurch, Invercargill or Dunedin to connect with flights, while others took their heat out on airline, rental car or coach transport company staff. All up 10 flights in and out of the resort yesterday were affected, with five flights, two Qantas and three Air New Zealand flights, cancelled. They were mostly morning flights with some flights making it out in the afternoon. One Air New Zealand flight had to return to Christchurch after bad weather made it impossible to land even with the airline's new Required Navigational Performance technology, which enabled aircraft to fly into Queenstown with visibility as low as 153m. Other flights were diverted to Invercargill Airport and
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European low-cost carrier Ryanair will begin canceling bookings made on third-party price-comparison sites it says are illegal. These cancelations will begin for bookings made August 11 and beyond, and will likely account a thousand bookings per day. According to Ryanair, these “screenscraping” sites overcharge for Ryanair tickets and add unnecessary handling charges. The third-party websites in question—mostly European comparison sites like Bravofly and VTours (in German), among others—scan airline sites and match airline’s prices with their own. This allows the third-party site to match the airline itself, while never directing the customer to the airline’s site. However, Ryanair claims the scanning, or “scraping,” slows down its site, which hurts bookings made there. Whatever the situation is with these price-comparison sites, it’s Ryanair’s customers who will bear the brunt of its wrath. The BBC reports passengers will be “compensated” if their flight is canceled, but
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Many of about 200 Crown Plaza guests were ordered into the street and two fire engines rushed to the hotel after one flight attendant smashed a fire-alarm access point late on July 31. The false alarm cost the flight attendant $1500 to cover damages and the cost of the call-out. Qantas initially said two crew members were being stood down pending an investigation into the hotel incident, and yesterday the airline confirmed that two attendants had tendered their resignations. No further details were given. Crowne Plaza boss Brett Wilson said the other guests had been far from happy with the evacuation. "We were about 75 per cent full, so that's about 200 people, and we aim to get everyone out in about three minutes," Mr Wilson said. "(The guests) were very disgruntled."

Beginning September 15, members of Frontier’s EarlyReturns scheme will pay more to participate in the program—both more miles for awards and more and higher cash fees for program-related services. First, among the cash costs, Frontier will follow American ($5 fee) and US Airways ($25 to $50) in imposing a fee simply to issue an award ticket. Non-elite EarlyReturns members will pay $25 every time they redeem miles for an award ticket. In other words, no more free tickets. Other fee changes include a $75 charge for award tickets issued within 14 days of the departure date, a $75 fee for award ticket changes (up from $35 currently), and a $75 fee to cancel an award trip and redeposit the miles (also $35 currently). All three are waived for elite members. Award prices are going up as well. The cost of award tickets within the contiguous U.S. and Canada will increase by 5,000 miles, to 20,000 miles round-trip. Award trips to or from Alaska or Mexico will cost 30,000 miles
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There are no words, no pictures, no blogs or books that can adequately describe the beauty and grandeur of Alaska.  It simply must be experienced.  Whether you are a hearty and intrepid soul whose aim is to hike the Chilkoot Trail into the Yukon like the Klondike gold miners of days gone by, or aim to cruise the southeastern coast of Alaska by luxury cruise ship, you will experience something that you will never forget, long to repeat, and fail miserably to put into words. My first trip to Alaska was in July 2002.  Like the one from which I returned only today, it was aboard a luxurious mega ship (the Island Princess, which is actually small compared to many of today’s cruise ships.)  And as much as the two trips followed the same route, they could not have been more different.  Alaska changes all of the time: seasons (even weeks within seasons), time of day, weather conditions - even a change of the sun's angle can alter the landscape. People take
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its after midnight and me and Blake have settled on these places so far.. 1.  land in Frankfurt–hey military is paying for it! 2. upon arriving head straight to the train for Koln if in the morning, if afternoon-nite time, sleep at Army base 3.  and thats it, i got 4 days left until we arrive in kuwait, drop the rest of our army gear and hit the road : ) 4. this is really a un-planned trip…catch the train and see where it takes us..except i got a train ticket on the 18th for cologne to amsterdam, what happens if i missed the train time?????????????????

The morning mist clears high in the Peruvian Andes, and at last you see it: Machu Picchu. You’re sweaty, you’re muddy, you’re tired—and you couldn’t be happier. You’ve arrived after four hard days of hiking, and while you know there are all kinds of ways to see this fabled lost city, you’re sure now that there’s only one way to really earn it. What’s adventure travel all about, you wonder, if not putting everything you’ve got into reaching your goal? Well, maybe not everything. You, after all, paid hundreds less than everyone else in your group for the right to reach Machu Picchu, because you knew that some adventure travel operators offer big discounts on “late availability” departures: scheduled trips that still have spaces available. It’s not a new concept in the travel industry—airlines have been doing it for years—but last-minute discounts are still a relatively untapped source of savings for most adventure travelers. This year, why not skip that boring
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Want more frequent flyer miles? United thinks you do. As if there weren’t more than enough mileage-earning opportunities already, the airline has introduced Award Accelerator, “a new offering that is focused on rewarding customers by providing them with the option to purchase extra Mileage Plus miles every time they fly.” Mileage Plus members can already purchase miles directly from United, through the Personal Miles feature, for about 3.5 cents each, including taxes and fees. With Award Accelerator, program members can purchase miles at a slightly lower price—about 3 cents apiece—when they fly on United. It’s described as buying a bonus, keyed to the number of miles earned for a particular flight. So, fly between Chicago and Cleveland, for example, and you’ll be given the opportunity to double the 316 flight miles normally earned by paying $9, or triple the miles for $19. Is this a deal for consumers, or just another ancillary revenue-generator for United? The answer
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