The threat of rising airfares

In the future, you may be able to look up the names of most of the strangers in your hotel lobby, thanks to the Internet. Other hotel guests may be able to look up your name online, too, if you decide to let them. Is this a good thing? Many people already have profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other networking sites, opting to allow total strangers see some information and photos about themselves—with more details available to an approved network of friends. Add to that the craze for geo-location devices, like the iPhone, that pinpoint your location on a map, and "check-in" services, like FourSquare, that let you publicly post where you are right now—or where you plan to be soon. Eventually, travelers may walk into a hotel lobby and choose to post online, via their portable Web-enabled device, who they are and where they are. They may also look to see information that other guests staying at the hotel have posted about themselves. Using a Facebook-integrated app, you can learn the names and interests of many of those other people in advance of speaking with them. This information may make it easier for you to strike up conversations. GoMio.com is aimed at the youth hostel market with its "Who Else Will Be There?" feature, which allows users to view the Facebook profiles of other users who will be at the same place at the same time. Grindr, the controversial gay mobile dating app, is debuting a version for heterosexual GPS-powered dating tool within a few weeks. Women walking into a hotel lounge, for instance, will be able to see photos and personal information about male users nearby, arranged by how physically close to those other users are. (Don't want someone to see your Grindr profile? Push a button to block your details from appearing on that user's device.) On the bright side, if you ever stayed in a hostel or hotel, you may recall feeling nervous when you walked into the common area and saw other guests who are roughly your own age. Which of them speak English? Where are they from? Do you have a mutual friend in common somewhere in the world? But looked at another way, is it risky to share this much information to strangers? After all, most people traveling are relatively isolated (from family, friends, and co-workers) and somewhat vulnerable. Do you really want to advertise the details of how far you've traveled and how long you're going to be around to any stranger that's signed up for a service? Let us know by posting a comment: Would you like to share your online profile with other guests at your hotel during a trip? MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL What's the best social network for travel? (25+ comments) Where are you going in 2011? (200+ comments) New travel stress: Facebook oversharing (10+ comments)

Airlines keep hiking fees on baggage, as fuel costs rise. In fact, airlines never got rid of the baggage fees they tacked on to cover rising gas prices ages ago. When fuel prices dropped, those baggage fees stayed high. So why do airlines need to raise fees again? Airlines have been hiking fees in response to the rise in oil prices in recent weeks. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that average oil prices will be $14 higher per barrel this year than the average last year, affecting jet fuel prices. Spirit Airlines's unique fee for carry-on bags—much criticized by Budget Travel readers—just worsened. This week, the airline announced that it would charge $25 for bags that weigh between 41 and 50 pounds. Its previous weight allowance was 50 pounds. US Airways is hiking fees on overweight checked baggage, starting March 1. Bags weighing 51 to 70 pounds will cost $90, up from $50. Those airlines are just the latest in a series to hike fees. Hipmunk, the metasearch site, created a striking visual graphic showing the explosion in bag fees (shown here). Interestingly, only Alaska Airlines delivers a customer service in exchange for its hiked fees. Alaska offers a Baggage Service Guarantee, promising you a $20 travel credit or a mileage bonus if your bag isn't at the carousel within 20 minutes of your arrival, as reported by CNN.com. For a full list of fees, check out this just-updated AirfareWatchdog Fees Chart. Besides airlines have never reduced their baggage fees from the last oil-price run-up. So what do you think? Is it fair for airlines to raise fees again? MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL Spirit to charge $20 for carry-on, yes, carry-on bags Sick of airline baggage fees? Get your Holiday Inn and Kimpton hotel to pay for them Will United add more baggage fees?

On March 1, Southwest Airlines will change the rules for its Rapid Rewards program (newrapidrewards.com). What's the upshot? The new rules are more complicated. They make points dependent on the price of the tickets you buy and the types of tickets you buy (such as refundable or non-refundable). Up until now, travelers earned a free ticket simply after buying eight round-trips. Under the new rules, if you always buy tickets with the same class of service, Southwest is giving you $1 back for every $100 you spend. In other words, you'll earn a free ticket after buying ten round-trips, assuming each ticket costs the same. What's changing: Earning points Fliers will earn points for every dollar spent. You'll earn 6 points per dollar for cheap, nonrefundable "Wanna Get Away" tickets, 10 points per dollar for fully refundable "Anytime" tickets, and 12 points per dollar for expensive Business Select tickets, which comes with perks like free WiFi and drinks. You'll also earn bonus points for buying tickets in the nicest classes of service, which means that business class tickets are much more rewarding than before. What's changing: Redeeming points There is a different calculation for each class of service. For a free "Wanna Get Away" ticket, you need to earn 60 points per dollar of fare to have enough for a free ticket. Case in point: If the fare for a specific flight is $100, you need to earn 6,000 points for a free ticket (60 times 100).For a free "Anytime" ticket, you need to earn 100 points per dollar of fare. For a free "Business Select" ticket, you need to earn 120 points per dollar of fare. What about expiration dates and blackout dates? You can keep all of your points alive if you have some "account activity" every two years. "Account activity" can mean opening a Southwest Chase credit card, redeeming miles, or buying a ticket. Under the old system, each flight is worth one "credit," and credits expired after two years. The airline says there are getting rid of blackout dates and dropping limits on how many reward seats are set aside on any given flight. What if you don't have enough points? You can buy points. It costs $50 for 2,000 points, and then $25 for every additional set of 1,000 points. How does you do under the new rules as a budget-conscious traveler? Not as well under the old system on average, though it depends on the type of flights you take and how often you fly Southwest. In general, the change favors high-spending travelers. If you are someone who mostly flies short-haul flights at the dirt cheapest prices, you're going to have to work harder now—spending about 20 percent more, roughly speaking -- to earn the valuable long-distance or last-minute flight. What's the best deal under the new rules? Buy lots of "Anytime" tickets and then redeem for a cheap "Wanna Get Away" ticket. What about the credits you've already earned but haven't used yet? Each old credit is worth 1,200 new points each. For a short time, if you have a bunch of credits and just need a little more to get a free round trip you can convert points from the new system to earn the last gasp of credits for one last award. What do you think about the new Rapid Rewards program? Sound off in the comments! MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL Are you less likely to fly in 2011? (90+ comments) Delta drops fees for booking reward seats at the last minute JetBlue revamps its rewards program

Most avid travelers know a thing or two about UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites. If you've spent any time traveling, you've probably seen the phrase "UNESCO World Heritage Site" in guidebooks and tourism brochures, on plaques, or even in the news. For over 30 years, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has celebrated locations like cities, buildings, monuments, or natural wonders that have been deemed culturally or physically significant. As of 2010, the list includes 911 iconic spots like the Grand Canyon, Stonehenge, the Statue of Liberty, and the Great Wall of China. Sure, buildings can be culturally significant, but what about "intangible" aspects of culture like performing arts, festivals, customs, rituals, or crafts? You may not have known this, but UNESCO has them covered too! Since 2008, UNESCO has been inscribing such items on a Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (see the complete list here). As the name suggests, this list celebrates everything from folk dances to distinct regional cuisines, handicrafts to opera, martial arts to oral epic poetry. This November, during a convention in Nairobi, UNESCO released the list for 2010. It runs the gamut from the classic (Spanish flamenco, French gastronomy, and Chinese opera) to the obscure (a hopping procession from the Luxembourg town of Echternach, Azerbaijani carpet weaving, and northern Croatian gingerbread making). I scoured the list and was disappointed to see that the United States has never been represented! So I decided to make a decidedly unofficial list of my own: -Baseball -Pacific Northwest totem poles -The Halloween tradition—trick-or-treating and pumpkin carving -Jazz and/or blues music -The Thanksgiving feast—turkey and all the fixings -Break dancing -Amish barn raising -Outlandish Christmas light displays -Cowboy poetry -Cajun cuisine Which intangible aspects of American culture would you add to the list? MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL Check out the world's newest natural wonders The world's most beautiful castles The world's most beautiful lakes