BidonTravel Travel Updates, Tips, & Commentary

Since 9/11, Amtrak passengers have not faced the same types of security measures found at airports. After all, you can't hijack a train and fly it into a corporate tower.

Amtrak took a quieter approach, with the most visible component being reducing the amount of luggage that you are allowed to carry on board. (An important change, because you can't check bags to or from most Amtrak stations.)

Last week, however, Amtrak instituted mobile security teams to go from station to station inspecting passenger luggage. These random checks with explosive detection machines come without warning.

If pulled out of line for a check, you can refuse, but, if so, you won't be able to travel.

We like this new system, which preserves the ease of boarding for most Amtrak passengers.

Posted by Don Nadeau at 07:39 PM | Permalink

If you're driving to San Francisco or Marin County, CA from Oakland Airport, check this link for Oakland Airport emergency detour directions.

On April 29th, the gasoline tanker truck that overturned and exploded north of Oakland Airport caused the collapse of a portion of the freeway that is the usual route to San Francisco and Marin County. If you try to drive this way, you'll face major delays and frustration for the next 6 months.

Take our detours instead!

Posted by Don Nadeau at 06:03 AM | Permalink

Just to clarify: during 2007, you will a passport to enter the U.S. from Canada if you are traveling by air.

That means airlines will NOT let U.S. residents fly into Canada unless they have a passport (with a few exceptions that do not apply to the majority of travellers) for the return trip.

During 2007, auto, bus, and rail passengers, if U.S. citizens, can continue to enter the U.S. from Canada with either a passport OR an official copy of their birth certificate ALONG WITH a government-issued photo id such as a driver's license. (A driver's license alone does not prove citizenship.)

Although passengers entering the U.S. from Canada by ship do not yet officially need a passport, they should contact their cruise company for its policy, which may be more stringent than the government one.

Posted by Don Nadeau at 03:04 PM | Permalink

This Wednesday, Jim Cramer, CNBC’s lively stock guru, mentioned that his favorite potential merger deal is one between BNSF and Union Pacific railways.

Please, no.

It’s not the anti-competitive issues we worry about. Not that those huge potential problems don’t exist. Between them, BNSF and UP control nearly every major rail line west of the Mississippi.

No, it’s the impact this merger would have on Amtrak that concerns us. A viable Amtrak keeps airfares lower on competing routes.

On the tracks of most railroads, Amtrak tends to run reasonably on time or nearly so.

But when it uses rails controlled by Union Pacific, Amtrak routinely arrives 5 or 10 hours behind schedule and even later.

Amtrak has tried to work with Union Pacific. It has padded its schedules and changed its departure times, but nothing seems to overcome what appears from press reports to be gross operational mismanagement.

Union Pacific cites freight congestion for the delays, and it’s true that UP like other U.S. railroads faces unprecedented volumes of freight.

However, BNSF, which shares fully in the growth of western freight traffic, handles its Amtrak trains well. Routine long delays that ruin Amtrak’s public image and provide fodder for Jay Leno are not a problem on BNSF.

Where there’s a will there’s a way.

In fairness, UP’s current operators must deal with chronic underinvestment in railway infrastructure by previous corporate managements, which perhaps allowed these to show better short-term financial results.

But, current UP management cannot claim innocence—not at all.

Although Amtrak’s contracts with Union Pacific specifically give passenger trains preference over freight trains, both Amtrak passengers and the press report that this has obviously not been happening. This has not been happening for many years.

Until these problems at UP are resolved, please support no merger that combines BNSF and Union Pacific corporate officers.

Posted by Don Nadeau at 03:12 PM | Permalink

Do you take photos when you travel?

Want an innovative photo gallery to share them with your friends and family?

Professional travel photographers as well as vacation photo enthusiasts will enjoy FotoMaps. FotoMaps is a new flash photo gallery that lets you put your photos on a map. Choose any map you like, then place each photo at the exact location where it was taken. This geographical context gives your photographs more meaning. It allows them to tell a story.

FotoMaps has a cool floating interface that lets you zoom in and out or drag the map around to explore your photos. It's very easy to add photos to the gallery by editing an external XML file. You can add single photos or group photos into slideshows.

For more information, demo, and purchase see: www.fotomaps.net.
You can also download a free trial version at download.com.

- Benek Lisefski
Bidontravel.com webmaster & FotoMaps creator

Posted by Benek at 04:29 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Just to clarify--During 2007, you will only need a passport to enter the U.S. from Canada if you are traveling by air.

At the moment, Canadian and U.S. officials continue to work on an identification card that can be used in lieu of a passport once the U.S. begins to require auto, bus, rail, and ship passengers to have passports when entering the U.S. This should be cheaper and quicker for immigration officials to scan.

Posted by Don Nadeau at 08:21 PM | Permalink

Being inundated with spam comments promoting products inappropriate for this travel blog.

Please understand that all comments are manually reviewed before posting.

Please do not waste your time or mine.

Posted by Don Nadeau at 04:25 PM | Permalink

Today, Homeland Security finalized January 23, 2007, as the date ALL persons entering the U.S. by air from ANY other country must have a valid passport, other than the exceptions mentioned in the "Your Passport: Don't Leave Home Without It" post below.

This extension avoids impacting the peak holiday travel season, but remember that an airline will not allow you to fly out of the U.S. earlier without a passport if your return date is on or after January 23rd.

Posted by Don Nadeau at 09:16 PM | Permalink

You may be used to flying into the United States from Canada and Mexico without a passport, but that will change this winter.

Effective January 2007, U.S. citizens, as well as foreign nationals, must have a valid passport to travel by airplane into the U.S. from Bermuda, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean (other than Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Exceptions include active duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces traveling on orders, sailors who hold the U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner document, and those who have the experimental Air Nexus card used at Vancouver International Airport.

Even if departing the U.S. by air prior to January, you may be refused boarding without a passport if your return date may come during January or later.

Expect this anti-terrorism measure to create much disruption, including loss of nonrefundable airline tickets and vacation payments, when travelers show up at airports without knowing the new rule. On the positive side, anticipate bargains in places like Jamaica as hotels and resorts attempt to deal with empty rooms due to a downturn in last-minute travel.

Although various tourist organizations have been lobbying for more time, you may also need a valid passport to enter the U.S. from Canada or Mexico by auto, bus, or train as early as January 2008.

In any case, apply for or, if needed, renew your passport now. Unless you pay steep last-minute fees, processing a passport takes some time. Applications may be picked up at many courthouses and post offices.

For more information, see the Department of State website.

Posted by Don Nadeau at 08:52 PM | Permalink

Here's some great news.

By mid-2007, Air France, Delta, Emirates, KLM, and United Airlines plan to integrate Apple iPods into their in-flight entertainment systems. This means that you’ll be able to charge your iPod and watch iPod videos on seat back displays.

While this innovation applies to flights that offer seat-based in-flight entertainment, which are usually long flights, Delta plans to go one step further and offer iPod functionality on all its U.S. flights by 2008. On Delta, this will include on-demand movies and live satellite television.

Apple expects more airlines to sign up soon.

Posted by Don Nadeau at 09:40 PM | Permalink

This week, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) liberalized its airport security rules, which should make traveling in the United States much more convenient. However, you still have to be careful to avoid triggering time-consuming extra inspection, which happens when you attempt to carry on prohibited items.

Use this TSA link to find out exactly what you can now take and still cannot take through security. You’ll need to have pop up windows enabled to view this information.

Moreover, liquids, gels, and aerosols purchased after completing security screening at the checkpoint may now be carried aboard a plane. This includes purchases from duty-free shops as well as other vendors beyond the security checkpoint.

Posted by Don Nadeau at 03:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, the only Democrat in President Bush’s cabinet, will resign July 7th apparently not due to any dissatisfaction with his performance. He will be 75 in November.

Secretary Mineta served as Secretary of Commerce during the Clinton administration, represented Silicon Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives for over 20 years, and was mayor of San Jose, California, whose international airport was later renamed after him.

In his long career, Secretary Mineta has not operated without controversy.

The Secretary led the fight against racial and ethnic profiling in the security screening process at the nation’s airports after 9/11. This action, many believe, weakened efforts to stop the people most likely to be terrorists in another 9/11, persons of Arab descent.

However, I’ve strongly agreed with the secretary. For one reason, having a profile, instead of a unpredictable random system, makes it too easy for potential terrorists to work around that profile. The recent arrests of seven people of non-Arab descent in the Miami area alleged to have been plotting the destruction of the Sears Tower in Chicago supports this point of view.

Secretary Mineta himself was profiled during World War II because of his family background.

In 1942, then eleven-year-old Mineta was hauled from his home in San Jose to a concentration camp in Wyoming for the duration of the war because the government believed that he and all others of Japanese descent posed a security risk to the United States.

When asked by his parents to put on his best clothes for the trip to Wyoming, this son of immigrants donned his Little League uniform and grabbed his glove and bat. When federal agents tried to take the baseball bat from him, future secretary Mineta resisted and a tug of war pursued. He lost, but this kid was more American in attitude than those who decided to lock him up.

I haven’t always agreed with the Secretary. His views on the future of Amtrak border on clock cuckoo land.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I will match my free enterprise credentials with anyone. However, I realize that the framers of the U.S. Constitution correctly believed that the federal government best handled certain activities, such as the implementation of a national road system to move mail and interstate commerce.

Mineta, on the other hand, as well as others in the Bush administration, believes that the individual states, not the federal government, should plan, fund, and operate interstate passenger rail service. Imagine, if you will, the chaos that would result from each state running its portion of the current national air traffic control system.

In the case of rail passenger service, what if Illinois and New York wanted trains between Chicago and New York City, but Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana did not? Refuse to stop in these states? Run the trains via Canada?

This is not an idle concern. Currently, Maine and Massachusetts sponsor popular rail service between Boston and Portland, but New Hampshire, whose most populous region lies between these two points, refuses to pay its share of a service that keeps so many people off its roads.

In my opinion, Amtrak would need little, if any, government subsidy if the federal government did not so heavily subsidize other forms of transportation, especially air transportation. I am not necessarily arguing against these subsidies; I am just suggesting, if we are to have them, sharing them with a transportation mode that is more efficient in so many cases and more environmentally friendly.

Secretary Mineta disagrees, but please join me in thanking him for his long and distinguished service to his country, and wishing him well.

Posted by Don Nadeau at 09:10 AM | Permalink

By May 27, William B. Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport will use a fifth runway, which is expected to significantly ease congestion and cut delays at this busy airport.

More than 40% of Delta Airlines passengers pass through Atlanta, and AirTran also uses Atlanta as its main operations base.

Delta, which is also turning New York's JFK airport into a hub, expects huge benefits from this increase in capacity throughout its system.

Posted by Don Nadeau at 06:02 AM | Permalink

The European Union has prohibited 93 airlines from flying to member states and has banned certain operations of an additional four airlines within the EU. In several cases, all airlines from a specific country were banned.

No barred carriers are based in Canada or the United States.

This pdf file link, which opens in a new window, lists the impacted airlines.

Posted by Don Nadeau at 06:10 AM | Permalink

You’ll find some travel articles I wrote for other sites now posted on BidonTravel, which should increase your savings.

The first—How to save on airfares using open jaw and circle trip tickets—gives tips for setting up multi-destination itineraries without using expensive one-way fares. These hints can also save you lots of travel time.

In another, you’ll learn how to find and use a good bucket shop (airline consolidator), in order to save on international travel. 

Although you have to be very careful when using consolidators or bucket shops, there are advantages, such as the ability to get tickets that allow changes at low prices.

Finally, I give tips for using more than one hotel when you are visiting an area. At times, changing hotel locations during your stay can save both money and time.

Posted by Don Nadeau at 03:58 PM | Permalink

Independence Air plans to cease operations tomorrow evening due to a lack of money. As it heads deeper into bankruptcy, it's asking for court permission to refund fares, but that may not be possible.

Whether you're ticketed on Indy Air or some similar carrier in the future, you should know the following:

U.S. transportation law requires other airlines to offer stand-by transportation to passengers holding valid tickets on airlines, such as Independence Air, that cease operations due to lack of funds. They must permit you to travel as close to your original reservation dates as possible.

If holding a ticket for an airline no longer operating, you need to use an airline serving the same origin and destination (but not necessarily the same airports) as on your original ticket, but you can connect via another airport than what is on your ticket or fly nonstop. Your new airline may charge a ticketing fee of up to $50, and require you to travel within 60 days of your original airline ceasing service.

This law requiring other airlines to help seems rather unfair to airlines that have acted more financially responsibly. We're not complaining, but other airlines certainly have a point that the unrealistic fares charged by carriers on a fast track to bankruptcy foster future bankruptcies. Perhaps it's time to hold consumers more responsible for their airline ticket purchasing decisions.

Posted by Don Nadeau at 04:36 PM | Permalink

Expect Las Vegas’s year long 100th birthday party to end with a bang on New Year's Eve.

First, you’ll experience a five-mile-long fireworks display launched from casino rooftops along the strip called “America's Party: Las Vegas New Year 2006 .” This will be totally awesome!

Then, if you have a ticket and are at least 21, you can join Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman and some 12,000 New Year celebrants at the Fremont Street Experience downtown. At 11:50, they’ll toast in the New Year with fine wine, and enjoy live bands and a spectacular laser light show. Las Vegas hopes to break the Guinness record for the "World's Largest Toast."

Cheap flights into Vegas from your city are probably already sold out. You can also try Hotwire or Priceline into Ontario or Palm Springs, CA airports, if you’re willing to drive some three to four hours.

Less expensive hotels are already sold out. Decide now if you’re willing to pay the rates available, as traditionally all hotels sell out before New Year’s Eve.

Have fun and best of luck!

Posted by Don Nadeau at 11:41 AM | Permalink

With airline fare sales less than robust during this time of high fuel costs, you may find yourself considering Amtrak travel.

On the Amtrak home page, check out "Hot Deals." Especially focus on the weekly specials. Some of these are amazingly cheap.

If you see a $59 fare between Chicago and Washington, for example, you can usually get a similar fare between intermediate points.

BidonTravel.com has a variety of Amtrak and Via Rail Canada travel guides.

Start with Tips and important cautions or Most scenic Amtrak and Via Rail routes I.

Posted by Don Nadeau at 04:25 PM | Permalink

Thank you for visiting the new BidonTravel.com Travel Blog. I am the president of BidonTravel.

This is going to be a lively section, where you'll get very blunt travel advice and commentary.

Don

Posted by Don Nadeau at 01:09 PM | Permalink