Passport fees: 90 readers sound off

Name: Budget Travel LLC
Price range: $

By Budget Travel

October 3, 2012

Many of you expressed strong feelings about the State Department overcharging citizens for passports. Many travelers demanded refunds. Others thought that refunds were a wasteful idea. Still others thought the $97 fee is reasonable, given that a passport is valid for a decade.

Read the comments here.

ELSEWHERE ON THE BLOG About 55 readers expressed strong feelings about Erik Torkells' strong stance against the Cuba embargo.

Thanks to everyone who commented.

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Travel Tips

Google Earth adds weather info

Today, weather info was added to the latest version of Google Earth. You can now see updated info on cloud cover, Doppler radar, temperatures, and weather forecasts for major cities worldwide. Data is updated frequently--from 15 minutes to an hour on average--for most parts of the globe. Sources of data include Weather.com and the Naval Research Labs' Marine Meteorology Division. While you're checking out a travel destination, you can get other information about it, such as info on local hotels, photos of local attractions. Check the layer folder in the Layers panel, and click on the Places of Interest checkbox. Some options include Wikipedia info about destinations worldwide, Panoramio photos uploaded by amateur photographers worldwide, and YouTube videos uploaded by people worldwide. If you like, you can download a file and see an animated version of clouds moving across the Earth's surface in the past day. (More info on that below...) After you've updated to the latest version of Google Earth (info below), you'll find a fresh Layers panel in the bottom, left-hand corner of your screen. Under Primary Database, you'll find new boxes for Weather. Expand the Weather layer folder by clicking the + sign. Click whether you want to see Clouds, Radar, or the other options. Then search on a place where you want to see the weather, by typing its name into the search engine. For example, when you type "Colorado Springs, Co." into the search engine, you'll get a satellite view of the town. Adjust the viewer so that you can view the entire city. You can do this by zooming out or by expanding the size of the viewer itself (use the maximize window control or drag the size of the window using the mouse). You can fly into and navigate very high resolution photos. To do this, in the Layers panel, check Featured Content > Gigapxl, and double click any photo icon in the 3D viewer. In popular destinations, You can easily view 3D models of buildings and more. To do this, check the 3D Buildings layer and tilt to get a better view You can use placemarks to mark any location on the planet. You can then quickly go to the marked location at any time by double clicking the placemark in the Places panel. That way you don't have to redo your search to find a place, when you're doing trip-planning research. Here's how to see animated images of clouds moving across the surface of the Earth, via the Google LatLong blog: Download a time animation of the last 24 hours of clouds data by clicking here. Once you download the file, you'll see a new item in your "Temporary Places" folder in the "Places" panel (either "Clouds Animation"). Make the animation visible by checking its associated checkbox, then click the "Play" button in the animation control at the top right of your screen and wait for the data to load (even though the resolution isn't as high as the static image, it might take a little while). If you load the clouds animation (be sure to turn off the current clouds image), you'll be rewarded with a beautiful animation of clouds dancing and swirling across the Earth's surface. If you already have Google Earth, you may need to upgrade to the latest version. You can download the latest version of Google Earth here. Click yes, save the file to your hard drive, then launch the file (which on a Windows computer will be "C:\My Downloads\Google_Earth_BZXD.exe"). The process takes up to 10 minutes on a broadband Internet connection.

A tip at airport security: Go left

Sometimes the simplest tips are the best. New York's recent cover story "Gridlock at 30,000 Feet" had this gem of a tip for choosing a security line at the airport. GO LEFT Statistically, right-handed people (and Americans specifically) have a tendency to turn right when they enter a room.

Readers lament dumb travel websites

About 50 readers responded to our recent post, Dumb websites are turning off travelers. We noted that there's been a drop in the number of people using the Internet to book travel. Nine percent fewer people booked trips online this year than did a couple of years ago, according to the survey of about 60,000 Internet users by Forrester Research, which is a technology consultancy. Another top consultancy, PhoCusWright noted a similar drop during roughly the same period, reporting a 6 percent jump in the number of people making travel plans without the Internet. The 50 comments from readers split between a majority of people who had been disappointed at one time or another by online travel companies and other travelers who had nothing but good things to say about the Internet. Readers offered several examples of out how travel websites aren't nimble when it comes to special circumstances, such as funerals (Allen's story), or special needs (such as David T.'s story about needing a room for a person with disabilities), and complicated itineraries, (such as Kristin's round-the-world trip). Brian L.'s story is a case in point of how travel websites are generally bad at amending reservations that have already been made--even though travel plans often change prior to departure. (By the way, Brian, I hope you finally got through to someone on the phone to help you.) One well-put comment was from Tony W.: If you are doing something non-trivial, the travel sites aren't very good at finding all of the alternatives, so you either have to be imaginative or persistent. To see what I mean, try searching for flights from SFO to Bangalore with a return from Hyderabad. Some sites send you east, some send you west, and it's nearly impossible to screen by airline or alliance. Another problem is phantom, or "come on," prices that can't actually be booked when you click through. As one commenter discovered, a major meta-search site was recently quoting $175 to Europe, but on further inspection the ticket turned out to be much more expensive: "Then you find that's only one way; that the price may vary depending on the specific departure date; that one must add in various taxes; whatever." Of course, I'm not saying the Internet is a waste. The problem is that some websites are not doing as much as they should to be as useful as they could be. They're losing customers as a result. And other industries have found solutions that online travel companies have been slow to adopt. Read all of the comments, here.

Southwest puts business travelers first

Discount airline Southwest has introduced a new Business Select fare that is $10 to $30 higher each-way than its usual refundable fares but comes with a guarantee that the buyer will be among the first to board the plane. Frequent fliers will also get to jump to the front of the line. Your chances of getting to board first have dropped dramatically—unless you buy this higher fare or you're a frequent flier. The Business Select fare also comes with bonus frequent flier credits and a free cocktail. While Southwest is not introducing a separate business class section, the airline's new program is yet another example in a trend of airlines offering shabbier service to budget-conscious leisure travelers. See the Budget Travel editor's letter, "Maybe We Should Charge Extra to Read This Page." [Note: This post was revised for clarity on 11/9] Update 11/8: More than 50 people have already commented on Southwest's own blog post on the changes. EARLIER Southwest knocked off BoardFirst.com, a company that would get you one of the "A" boarding passes if you paid it $5.

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