Bud Travel breaks weird foreign laws

Name: Budget Travel LLC
Price range: $

By Budget Travel

October 3, 2012

Illustration by Mark Zingarelli

Some foreign laws catch even travel junkies off guard. Our intrepid correspondent Bud Travel is back to demonstrate how to stay out of trouble—by getting into a heap himself. Watch the slide show!

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Hotel deals in the Caribbean remain hard to find

The Hotels Price Index has been tracking rates worldwide since 2004. It's based on bookings on Hotels.com, which competes with its sister site Expedia.com as the largest online travel agency. In other words, more than 78,000 independent and chains hotels worldwide are covered, making it a pretty comprehensive look at pricing. There's a surprise in the latest report: The Caribbean hasn't seen the sharp price falls that every other major region in the world has in the past year. Hotel rates in the Caribbean only dropped 2 percent in the first half of this year versus the previous year. (Compare that to a 17 percent drop in the U.S. and Canada during the same period.) The Caribbean felt more of a dip at the end of 2008, when prices plunged 12 percent year-over-year. But things stabilized earlier this year, partly as many travelers switched from visiting Mexico (which was wrenched by swine flu) to alternatives in the Caribbean. (Rates in top Mexican cities were down up to 24 percent earlier this year.) Which of the more affordable Caribbean islands had the biggest price drops? Punta Cana, Dominican Republic an average $215 a night (down 14 percent) Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic $142 (down 7 percent) Ocho Rios, Jamaica $167 (down 16 percent) Palm Beach. Aruba $236 (down 8 percent) St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands $207 (down 8 percent) St. Johns, Antigua & Barbuda $209 (down 5 percent) EARLIER Deal alert: If it's Tuesday, this must be a hotel deal

London-NYC, $442 roundtrip, late fall

British Airways has put tickets on sale for fall travel to London and a few other European cities. Roundtrip airfares start at $442 between New York (JFK or Newark) and London. Comparable fares are can be found via other British Airways' gateways to London. (Add $56 roundtrip for Boston and Philadelphia departures, for example.) When Oct. 1–Dec. 20, 2009; Oct. 24–Mar. 28, 2010. Book by Thursday Sept. 24 by Midnight ET. Book at BritishAirways.com. October is a great time to visit London, as we pointed out in our "Welcome to Shoulder Season" article. As leaves fall in London's parks, so do hotel prices citywide. Tourist sites are less crowded in October, so you'll have some breathing room in museums such as the Tate Modern. Temperatures tend to hover in the upper 50s; as always, pack a brolly in case of rain. EARLIER Where to eat and sleep in London? Tips from 50+ blog readers

Travel Tips

Airfares: Book your holiday travel now rather than wait for sales

There will be fewer flights this fall than in any season since late 2001, reports the AP. The airlines have been trimming flights, and they haven't finished. American, United, and Delta plan to cancel even more service. What does this mean for you? It means that, despite the recession, planes will usually be full. And if the economy does strengthen a bit, it means that airfares aren't going to get any cheaper by the holidays. As the WSJ's travel editor Scott McCartney puts it, "Buying early means you typically pay a high price (higher than you would during non-holiday periods) and buying closer to the holidays usually means you pay even higher prices." You can book in confidence if you rely on money-back, price tracking websites to "watch your back." As I recently reported in this month's Budget Travel: Most fliers don't know that major U.S. airlines have policies that qualify you for a refund if the fare goes down after you book. Of course, they don't tell you when your fare changes—and who actually keeps track of these things?—so travelers rarely see the money. Enter Yapta. Two years ago, the site introduced its free airfare-tracking service, which e-mails you the moment your fare dips. For $15, Yapta will file the pesky money-back paperwork with your airline. Last summer, Orbitz got in on the business, with its Price Assurance program. If another Orbitz customer books the exact same flight in the same fare class for less than what you paid, you automatically get a check for the difference (up to $250 per ticket). No paperwork required. So don't hesitate to book your tickets now. If the price drops later, you can get some money back in most cases. Another tip: Do your shopping for tickets during the middle of the week, when travel websites often charge lower prices for the same flights than they do on weekends, when they know more people are visiting their websites.

A reader proposes a better way to check-in for a flight

An anonymous reader has posted the following system for streamlining the check-in process at the airport. Inside the terminal, you proceed along a queue line to the counter as usual. Here, you check in and surrender any checked bags you may have. The bags get the standard destination tag that also has a "match-me" barcode on it. The bags go on a belt, through a scanner and are sealed with a set of tamper-proof straps on which the same barcode is printed before being sent to the staging area (the system is identical to how UPS/FedEx/USPS scan parcels, but with the scan-and-strap step added in). Once the bag is strapped, the check-in agent gets an electronic all-clear and you can move on. You get a magnetically encoded gate pass that has the same "match-me" identifier associated to it, as well as boarding pass (if it wasn't printed beforehand). Now it is off to the Security checkpoint and, because it is right after the check-in point, congestion is removed as the flow through matches that of the check-in area. Meanwhile, the high-res bag scan images are computer screened. Anything suspicious is forwarded to a human for review. All the human sees is the "match-me" code. If a manual inspection is required, the reviewer hits a button to divert the bag for inspection and also flags the matching gate pass. You swipe your gate pass at the checkpoint, show your ID, and go through the routine you normally do in this area. On the other side of the checkpoint are lounges, shops, and so forth. Finally, it is off to the boarding lounge, which you enter and exit (if you want to go to a shop or something else) by swiping the gate pass. When you board, you drop it in a slot. This system not only scans it, but also lets the airline know you are on the plane. As your gate-pass is scanned, the system looks to see if the "match-me" has been tagged in any way. If it has, it allows security to get hold of you should a manual bag inspection be necessary, as it cannot happen till you are accounted for. It also lets the airline know you're at the gate and on the plane you're supposed to be on (no more flights to Springfield, MO when you intend to go to Springfield, MA *grin*) because it will let you know. As for the cards: They're erased, sterilized (necessary in this day and age), and sent back to the check-in area for re-use. If the system fails entirely, traditional manual screens go into effect. Passengers who misplace the gate-pass have to undergo manual verification screening. Because documents are still verified at the security checkpoint, hand-offs become difficult since the travel record is attached to the "match-me" code. These are but some of the built-in redundancies. It sounds complex, but it is really a smooth, self-contained system. EARLIER How do you use a cell phone boarding pass at the metal detector? A reader proposes smart new routes for river cruises

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