7 Days; 7 Travel Stories
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1. Air Tix On The Cheap

http://www.cfares.com/, which has been selling cheap airline seats since 2005, has just updated its user interface after securing $4.5 million of venture funding. cfares charges $50 a year for the privilege of buying travel wholesale. Wholesale fares represent about 20 percent of the market in the U.S. cfares’ president says his company can offer lower fares by kicking back a portion of its customer membership fees to participating airlines. He says it's appealing to the airlines because it's the opposite of the typical business model in which airlines pay travel agencies (including online agencies such as Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity) for selling tickets.

Cfares isn't a travel agency nor does it sell tickets. Instead, it refers visitors to the websites of companies that do sell tickets, including airlines and travel services such as Expedia. cFares also works with travel consolidators – also known as "bucket shops" – who can sometimes offer lower prices by booking large numbers of seats on selected flights. Consolidators can sometimes offer tickets for 20 to 40% below retail.

[Visit www.itinarod.com to see where the real air bargains can be found for free!]


2. Card Carriers

The airlines spend $3 billion each year on credit card merchant fees, $1 billion of which is just on corporate air sales processed by ARC. After having already cut labor, commissions and GDS costs, air carriers now see credit card fees as the next opportunity for meaningful savings. Credit card companies charge as much as 3% for a transaction. Historically, the average has been between 2.2% and 2.5%. Airline officials report there is no negotiating with credit card companies, which leaves two options-- finding lower-cost alternatives to credit card payments or foisting off credit card fees on someone else. In this case, the customer, which could violate contracts with credit card companies and might even be illegal in several states. Against this backdrop, ARC devised a plan to persuade corporations or their agents to convert larger accounts to cash payments.

This month, Southwest and Northwest introduced the PayPal service on their Web sites. The 140 million consumers with PayPal accounts can pay with credit cards, debit cards or cash in the form of bank drafts. PayPal averages out its costs, enabling it to charge a lower fee than credit cards. Southwest predicted its savings on PayPal would be less than half a point.


3. Where In The World

American Express will drop its prepaid Travelers Cheque card after years of prodding consumers to use it in place of paper checks. Amex began phasing out the card in late June and will end the program Oct. 31, when it will refund customers any balances remaining on their cards. The card, introduced in 2003 as the TravelFunds card, was designed to be preloaded with cash and used to make purchases with merchants who accept the American Express card or for withdrawals from ATMs, but it failed to catch on with those used to using paper traveler's checks.

Use of traveler's checks has been on the wane as people have turned toward accessing cash at ATMs, but Amex says there's still a market for the paper checks. It’s still a big business in the United States and Western Europe, and in countries such as India, Mexico and Russia, where customers use them as an alternative to keeping cash at home. The Seattle Times


4. Silk Roadies

For centuries the ancient Silk Road route was the only land trade route between Asia and Europe. Alas, dotted with historic and cultural attractions, the 2,100-year-old route linking Asia and Europe needs better transport links to develop tourism, say officials. Delegates at a recently-held United Nations Development Program (UNDP) forum were informed that the biggest obstacle to development of tourism along the centuries old Silk Road route was “insufficient capacity” to handle large amounts of traffic. Nations along the route have agreed to jointly apply for 48 UN Heritage sites.


5. Online

Gender-based trip planning at http://www.imin.com/, features a date decider that enables users to put in their free days to better coordinate travel plans.

A survey by leading online accommodation booking agency HotelClub has revealed that Asians are turning more and more to the Internet when making travel purchases. Respondents indicate (51.1 percent) use the Internet to research their travel purchases, followed by word of mouth (26.2 percent), and magazines (7.1 percent), further breaking it down to flights (50.3 percent) and accommodation (35.1 percent). ETN

The latest hot destination for travel is a new application on Facebook. “Where I’ve Been” allows members to download a global map and then share their travel history. Users are asked to highlight the places they have lived, visited or would like to visit. The map contains tidbits of information about each place. Users can then compare their maps againsts those of their friends to see who has traveled the most. NY Times


6. Tour Packaging Pricing

Pricing for European tour packages are expected to increase up to 12% next year because of the diminished value of the US dollar against the Euro. This month the euro hit 1.38 against the dollar, higher than it has been since the European currency started trading in 1999. And there's little hope of any relief. A combination of inflation and the dollar's continuing woes in the currency markets will continue to make travel to Europe the most expensive it has been for American tourists in anyone's memory.

Europe operators have different methods for establishing their package prices. Most are finalizing the high-season prices right now and will release their brochures in September and October. Brochures for specialty products, such as river cruises, and for the low winter season have already been printed and distributed. In times of large currency swings, tour operators historically have employed two methods to ensure that they can survive most fluctuations: negotiate with suppliers for a fixed price regardless of the exchange rate or negotiate a fixed exchange rate with a bank. Travel Weekly


7. Stay in touch (for less) when abroad

The new National Geographic Talk Abroad Travel Phone lets users receive incoming phone calls without charge in 65 countries, including all of Europe. Rates begin at 90 cents a minute for outgoing calls. So far, 300 National Geographic phones have been sold since mid-June, when the program started, and users of the service have tripled to about 3,000. NY Times


Odd&Ends

The Back to the Future Ride at Universal Studios in Calfornia is history. The 14 year old ride will make way for a new “The Simpsons” ride to open in Spring 2008...The last Back to the Future ride will be this September 3. LA Times


Rich’s Weekend Reader is published by AndTyler222. All rights reserved. Information from various sources and mostly rewritten. andtyler222@verizon.net