BEAT OF HAWAII AND BEYOND

Some more nice deals came across my desk today that I want to mention.  They are available not only this fall, but well into summer next year.  Since these prices are not much higher than we saw last year, I’d jump on them right away if you’re interested.

• Portland to Honolulu $397 (NW).
• Seattle to Honolulu $407 (NW).
• Portland to Hilo, Kona, Lihue or Kahului $457 (NW).

Dates:  August 16, 2008 through June 25, 2009

It will be interesting to see what Hawaiian will do now that competitors are starting to come onboard with post-summer Hawaii airfare reductions.

Hawaiian has changed their award structure, and it isn’t in our favor. If you have Hawaiian Miles or Amex miles you were planning to convert to Hawaiian, here are the award requirements for travel starting September 1, 2008:

HawaiianMiles One Way Awards Continue Reading »

We saw American’s “Low Fares to Hawaii” sale, which is mostly not a sale, just hype.  But it does include a couple of notables.  We also found a reasonable fare from Phoenix on US Airways worth mentioning.

At this point, the fare sales are popping up, but they are still few and fare between.

• Pittsburgh to Lihue $610 (AA); through November 19
• Phoenix to Lihue $477 RT (US); August 16 to December 12
• Miami to Honolulu $598 (AA, CO, DL, UA); through November 19

If you are interested in any of these, I wouldn’t wait even one day.  They can expire at any time.

TSA is once again testing scanners that are capable of detecting items hidden in shoes. Here’s a picture of one of the new devices:

Continue Reading »

I plan to take the confusion out of travel insurance over the next four weeks. Each Wednesday you can expect a different post on coverage areas. We’ll be looking at 28 in total.

These coverage areas become a shopping list of sorts. Most policies include basic coverage for a variety of things, some of which will be of primary importance to you, while others may not.

From there you can add options that result in a policy tailored to your specific needs.

Just make sure to read thoroughly and understand the coverage areas, options and limits available, and the specific terms, conditions and limitations.

Travel insurance policies and their provisions vary so much that at times it seems mind boggling. While doing this work takes quite a while the first time, it does get easier over time. Believe me.

TIP: Most policies come with a free period (often up to two weeks) during which you can review the terms and conditions and return it with little or no cancellation penalty.

Continue Reading »

• American Airlines
• United Airlines
• Northwest Airlines

Late last week, Standard & Poors downgraded the debt of these three huge airlines even further into the “junk” category. This is due to high fuel costs, a weakened economy and overall travel industry woes.

S&P analyst Philip Baggaley said that this time the carriers are facing the upcoming risk of bankruptcy liquidation, rather than reorganization.

The risk comes starting at the end of the the year, when most available cash will likely be gone. At present, airlines are generating cash as quickly as possible during the all-important summer travel season.

Prior bankruptcy reorganizations allowed the airlines to streamline operations and cut expenses. That was accomplished by eliminating unsecured debt, reducing pension obligations and labor costs, and reworking of fleets and flights.

There previously existed a strong demand for aircraft. Creditors were apt to accept the return of airplanes the airlines were wanting to dump. The ripple effect in the industry, however, is removing that opportunity.

Therefore, this time, pretty much all of the fat has been cut, which would likely mean liquidation.

What should you do?

For travel starting late fall, we suggest travel insurance with a supplier default clause.

A credit card purchase will afford you a refund in the event a carrier liquidates and is thus not able to meet its contractual obligations. That doesn’t mean that you’ll find a replacement flight for the same time and at a comparable price.

Travel insurance, we believe best bought through a travel insurance agency (and not through the airlines or on-line travel agencies) will provide further protection.

Be sure to compare policies and read each area of coverage that you are buying.

As a reminder, most companies do offer a free look period. Here are our previous suggestions regarding travel insurance.

We’ve been mentioning the usefulness of RSS readers. I use Google Reader and Rob uses Bloglines. Each works just fine.

The point is that if you want to find and take advantage of all of today’s fleeting travel deals, we suggest you set up a reader, and I’ll use Google Reader as an example.

Why use an RSS reader? Continue Reading »

We’ve seen some very unusual English language signs throughout Asia.  This one, however, we found just down the street, at Dani’s Restaurant in Lihue:

If you find yourself on Rice Street, we like Dani’s for their perennially delicious banana pancakes, but frankly, not much else.  They only serve them until 11am.

1. Airline industry consolidation: You ain’t seen nothing yet.

The airlines, which reported earnings over the past 10 days or so, have gotten a good degree of control back, in relation to oil prices. While that hasn’t sent them from losses to earnings, except in the case of Southwest, it has still eased the problem.

What to expect next: consolidation including likely foreign ownership of U.S. airlines. According to Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon, for example:

Higher fuel prices and an agreement on loosening U.S. foreign ownership regulations could lead to a consolidation of the global airline industry into just a few companies…. I don’t believe any airline… will be able to avoid consolidation

2. More and more travel sites compete for your attention.

We’ve been reporting on some new travel sites that are trying to take your attention away from the bigs like Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity.

At the same time we’ve commented how the airlines and hotels are determined to get you to buy directly from their sites and cut out expensive middlemen websites.

There appears to be no end in sight to all this and new and better sites just keep coming. Consumer generated content (reviews) seem to be at the top of the list of important site components.

Here are a few more sites to check out:

• Dopplr: Lets you share your travel plans with friends and colleagues.
• Driftr: Helps you keep track of your travels, share your photos, reviews, and blogs with friends, and research destinations before you book a trip.
• TripTie: An online community of travelers devoted to planning, storing and sharing their trips and itineraries.
• TripWiser: A trip planner where users share trips, places, and reviews.
• TravelMuse: Wants to be your destination for a lifetime of travel by helping you with travel planning and research.
• TVtrip: A video guide that provides “unbiased” videos to help you in making the best choice.

3. Mobile travel sites.

With GPS coming to virtually all cell phones, expect the travel industry to quickly jump on board with many mobile offerings.

These will include, among other things, the ability to receive all sorts of geo-specific communications as you travel about.

Focus areas will include restaurants, local attractions, events, directions to your hotel, last minute availabilities, promotions, coupons, traffic, safety and weather information.

American Airlines (AA) has severed its relationship with Kayak and possibly Orbitz. I wonder if this will be an isolated incident or represent the beginning of a significant industry trend.

American says that reservations made on Kayak were linked through to Orbitz to complete the sale. This caused AA to pay a fee to both agencies on the same reservation.

The online agency business.

Online travel agencies have created a huge business in part by allowing potential customers to see all relevant flight, hotel or car rental choices in one view. In turn, they charge travel companies a booking fee, which over many reservations, becomes huge.  At a time when airlines are looking at every possible means to curtail costs, any additional agency fee is burdensome.

While airline ticketing fees may only be a few dollars each, in the case of hotels, the fees can be up to 20% or more of a booking’s value.

On the other side of the coin, Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Kayak and the likes have mustered a huge following that makes it hard for providers to ignore. And they provide a valuable service and generally superior user interfaces that can result in savings of both time and money for the traveler.

Travel providers try to wrestle business back from online agencies.

One question is whether providers will be able to offer greater utility on their own sites that consumers have come to expect.

An example is the flexible date search feature which is beginning to find its way to more and more airline sites. Today Alaska Airlines announced the new feature on their site. They now join American and Southwest in offering this most helpful feature, previously associated with online agencies.

If providers are able to offer greater usefulness both on their websites and in the data they push directly to consumers, together with discounts not available though online travel agencies, online travel agencies could fail, at least in the form in which they are monetized today.

How this affects us?

This dramatic move is likely to be the first of many as the travel industry remakes itself, perhaps to a greater degree than anyone ever anticipated.

Southwest Airlines long ago decided to forgo paying commissions to online agencies and instead sells its own inventory. They have nonetheless become the largest domestic carrier.

For the time being, I’ll continue to scour all the internet sites to find the best deals. It doesn’t bother me that American won’t be on Kayak, and yes, I for one will go directly to their site to check prices. For that matter, I subscribe to their fares, which makes even more sense, so they are pushing deals out to me. I do the same with all the carriers that I’m interested in.

Where do you think this will all end up?

There’s a variety of news today on Hawaiian Airlines I want to share:

1. Hawaiian’s traveler reviews are down.

Conde Naste Traveler readers have lowered their rating on Hawaiian this year from third to fifth place among domestic airlines. That still places them above any other carrier flying to Hawaii.

Beat of Hawaii: In the main cabin I would concur that Hawaiian beats the competition with their level of service and free meals. In the first class cabin, however, Continental is the clear standout as best to Hawaii. The first-class seats on Continental are more comfortable and there’s more privacy. Hawaiian, however, offers a better first-class meal.

2. Hawaiian fleet changes.

The airline announced it has canceled plans to add another 767 to its Trans-Pacific fleet this year. Their President and CEO, Mark Dunkerley, cited delays on delivery and increased fuel cost for the cancellation.

Dunkerley indicated that they are taking delivery of four additional 717 Inter-Island jets this year, and a fleet of new Airbus replacements for the 767 fleet starting in 2012.

No word yet if they will add 757 or 737NG planes to their fleet. This would allow Trans-Pacific service to smaller airports, including Kauai and Orange County.

Beat of Hawaii: Hawaiian is undoubtedly seeing an eroding demand for both Trans-Pacific and Inter-Island flights. They will likely come under increased pressure to cut prices in order to maintain market share and remain competitive to the mainland.

Within Hawaii, the uncertainty about Go! (and its parent company Mesa) will keep Hawaiian very strong. The high price of Inter-Island flights, however, will continue to soften demand for discretionary and off-season travel.

In the long term, Hawaiian can’t predict the future, and I believe the likelihood of their actually taking delivery of any Airbus planes is slim to none.

Hawaiian is still most likely a candidate for near term acquisition by one of the larger players, as we have previously indicated.

3. Aircraft stretched thin.

We have seen reports of numerous flight delays and cancellations at Hawaiian recently. The reason appears to be over-utilization of aircraft.

Beat of Hawaii: With the cancellation of the additional 767 craft, maintenance issues could result in an ongoing problem of Trans-Pacific delays and cancellations at Hawaiian. Inter-Island problems should be alleviated when the new 717’s start arriving shortly. We’ll keep an eye out.

When Fall airfare wars failed to materialize to Hawaii, I started turning my focus to cruise ships. I found some fabulous cruise deals that can really make sense, especially in light of current airfares.

Those I’ve listed below are round-trip from the West Coast which will eliminate or reduce expensive airfares.

Since airfare for Fall at this point could still run you in the $600+ RT range, you might consider your real cruise cost as little as $600 for a two-week voyage.

If these sound as good to you as they do to me, I’d follow up on them immediately.

• 17 days from Victoria BC to San Diego CA aboard Holland America’s Zaandam. September 21 sailing. From $1,305 (inside) with the exceptional deal being ocean view at $1,508.
• 17 days round-trip from Los Angeles aboard Princess’ Golden Princess. October 1 sailing. From 1,399 (inside).
• 15 days round-trip from Los Angeles aboard Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas. October 3 sailing. from $1,499 (inside) and $1,799 (ocean view).
• 14 days round-trip from Los Angeles aboard Princess’ Golden Princess. October 15 sailing. From $1,399 (inside) and $1,598 (ocean view).
• 14 days round-trip from Los Angeles aboard Princess’ Golden Princess. October 29 sailing. From $1,199 (inside), $1,398 (ocean view), and $1,896 (balcony).

These deals are courtesy of Vacations To Go.