Video: Use Google to plan bus and train trips

Name: Budget Travel LLC
Price range: $

By Sean O'Neill

October 3, 2012

Did you know that Google Maps lets you plan a trip using trains and buses? Go to maps.google.com and enter your "start address" and "stop address." If there's a public transit option, a link will appear. Click on it to see how you would make transfers at each point on your journey. (The service is still in the testing phase and only covers major U.S. cities.)

For a full explanation, see this video:

Plan Your Next Getaway

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Cruises

A new kind of cruise ship

Royal Caribbean announced today that the ship currently (and temporarily) known as Project Genesis will have a revolutionary design: Carved into the middle of the ship will be a five-story-tall, football-field-size courtyard called Central Park; it'll be open to the elements, with landscaping (including trees), cabins with interior views, and restaurants with outdoor seating (and not all of those restaurants will require paying extra, which is good news). The ship will start sailing at the end of 2009. It all looks pretty cool: Check it out here. I learned all this at a press luncheon where RCCL chairman and CEO Richard Fain spoke. I had a question, but I couldn't work up the nerve to ask him… Basically, I wonder whether or not RCCL is prepared to deal with passengers being able to look into each others' rooms, or passengers who are noisy (in theory, everyone in Central Park will be able to hear any arguments--or whatever the opposite of arguments are--of passengers in inside-facing staterooms). Most hotels with an atrium might have doors that face inward, but not balconies. It'll be interesting to see if there are any unintended consequences.

Airlines: Alitalia may stop flying within weeks

The Italian airline Alitalia is in trouble. Dozens of articles in the foreign press over several months tell the same story: The risk is very high that Italy's largest airline will be forced to stop flying between now and July. More immediately, the Italian civil aviation authority is threatening to take away the company's license to fly within the next few weeks. Here's my two cents: Do not book future tickets on Alitalia! UPDATE Aug. 6, 2008: Read the latest news, here. If you've already booked your ticket, what can you do? →Don't cash in your ticket yet. It may take so long for Alitalia to process your refund that, in the event the airline collapses in the meantime, your paperwork will get lost. Now that you've made a purchase, you're better off relying on your credit card company as back-up protection. If Alitalia shuts down, file a dispute with your credit card company immediately, to get reimbursed. →Buy a back-up ticket. If you absolutely have to make your trip, book a fully refundable ticket on a rival airline. (You'll need to be able to afford to buy this second ticket, of course, which will be quite expensive.) Then, right before your trip starts, when it's clear that Alitalia is still okay to fly, you should cash-in your refundable ticket. In this situation, you'll do better than you would if you didn't buy a back-up ticket and Alitalia collapsed. Last-minute fares on rival airlines will probably be astronomically high--even higher than the refundable fares available now. →Bring the airline's phone number with you (800/223-5730). If you're at the airport when your flight is canceled, call the number while you're walking to the airline counter (and stay on while in line). This two-pronged strategy increases your chance of getting on the next flight. →If your flight is canceled, be sure to get proof in writing by paper (at the gate) or by email (at home). If you don't have proof of a cancellation, you're facing an uphill battle if the charge eventually shows up on your credit card bill and you need to dispute it. →Sign up for alerts before you depart. Alitalia won't send text messages to your phone, but you can always use Google. Just send a text message to "Google" (466453) from your cell phone and then enter your flight arrival/departure info. (Type the flight number; for example, for Delta Flight 395, type DL395—the code you'll find on your boarding pass.) If you have access to a Web browser, you can also look up this info on Google, as we've blogged about before. Alternatively, if you can receive email on your phone or portable device, you can sign up for alerts from FlightStats.com (or by phone), a company that reports on delays and cancellations. These flight alerts are sometimes more up-to-date than electronic boards at airports. →Be wary of tight connections. Many international flights between the U.S. and Italy involve such connections. If your itinerary requires you to change planes, you risk being unable to make your onward connection because your first flight may be delayed or canceled due to Alitalia's troubles. Be attentive to the layover time between flights and consider paying a fee to re-book an itinerary with additional time to make any connections. If it's tight, consider buying travel insurance from a third-party, such as AIG's Travel Guard. Here's the backstory: Sickly Alitalia has about $270 million in cash, which it is burning through at a rate of between $1 million a day and $6 million a day, depending on which source you believe. A few years ago, the European Union (EU) ruled that member governments cannot directly inject cash into individual airlines. The EU said that such government subsidies are unfair to smaller start-ups and foreign rivals. Without a government subsidy, Alitalia will not be able to balance its books, especially during the many months it would take for the airline to fix its problems. The best solution was a recent offer from Air France-KLM to (essentially) take control of the airline. But on Monday, the Italian people decided to bring back the previously disgraced Silvio Berlusconi, returning him to the prime minister's seat. In reaction, Air France-KLM will call off its proposed offer because Berlusconi does not support it. Milan is part of the problem. Under the proposed deal, Air France-KLM would likely curtail flights out of Milan's Malpensa airport because many of the routes out of that airport are unprofitable. But Milan is Berlusconi's hometown and central political base, and the city opposes any cuts. Money troubles have already led Alitalia to already slash two out of three of Milan flights. Workers have been threatening to go on strike, and one flight attendant has been a hunger strike for four days. Berlusconi said today that Italian investors will step forward and take over the airline. But it's unclear which investors he is talking about, and none has stepped forward so far.

News

Airlines: What the Delta- Northwest merger means for you

Delta and Northwest have agreed to merge, creating the world's largest airline by traffic. The new airline will be called Delta, reports CNN. Here are answers to some key questions. Who loses? First, many travelers will see the cost of flying rise in the next few years because this merger will likely cause United and Continental to merge, too. The result of these mergers will be to reduce competition and allow airlines to raise their prices and cram their planes even fuller than they already are. US News has a handy chart predicting which routes will see fares rise the most. The second group to lose is leisure travelers who collect Northwest frequent flier miles through points-based credit card programs. Many changes will water down the value of your points. For example, the threshold for redeeming tickets will likely rise from 20,000 miles (the current standard for members of Northwest's WorldPerks program) to 25,000 miles (the current standard for Delta's SkyMiles program), according to the Wall Street Journal. On the positive side, if you're a business traveler who flies, say, 100,000 miles a year, you may see more choices and better rewards in these mileage programs. Third, fliers in Memphis will be hurt. They have had, until now, many flight choices on Northwest out of their local airport. The combined new company will likely stop flying many of these routes, encouraging customers to fly out of Atlanta instead. However, in a year's time, Southwest or another airline may move into the Memphis market, as we have blogged about before. Residents of smaller cities will also be hurt, as the mergers result in less service to smaller markets. What's the point of the merger? The combined Delta-Northwest airline will be in a better position to steal away the most profitable fliers from rival airlines, namely, business travelers who fly across oceans often. Delta has a strong network across the Atlantic and a pretty good one in Latin America, while Northwest has a strong network across the Pacific. If you're a corporation with offices worldwide, you are more likely to pay top dollar to the airline that flies to the most number of cities that your employees visit. Even more importantly, Delta and Northwest want business customers from overseas to arrive in the U.S. and fly their domestic routes, as the strength of foreign companies and the weakness of the dollar draws more business travelers to visit the U.S. The international expansion, in other words, may be even more about feeding foreign passengers to domestic routes than the other way around (Note: In a memo to staffers explaining the merger, Delta's chief mentioned international expansion prominently and did mention domestic routes.) Says Delta boss Richard Anderson: "As a combined carrier, we will be the #1 airline in the United States. In addition, we will be the #1 U. S. carrier to Japan; #1 U. S. carrier across Europe; #1 U. S. carrier in Africa; #1 U. S. carrier in the Middle East and India; #2 U. S. carrier in Asia; and the #2 U. S. carrier in Latin America." Will the merger be approved by federal officials? Probably. Delta and Northwest do not compete directly on most routes. And, in general, current administration officials seem willing to allow further airline consolidation. Recently, Department of Transportation officials waived the standard antitrust rules for Delta and Northwest (along with Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Alitalia, and Czech Airlines) on a related issue, allowing the airlines to share some pricing information and otherwise cooperate on transatlantic flights without being accused of rigging prices or competing unfairly. Will the merger be successful? It depends on what you mean by "successful." The merger will probably happen, but there will be many bumps along the way. Delta and Northwest were unable to get their pilots to agree on issues about pay, hours, and seniority. So pilots are likely to have "work slowdowns" for years to come, as a negotiating tactic, which will annoy fliers as well as company bosses. To put this issue in context, when US Airways merged with* America West, the airlines merged without sealing a deal with pilots. The result? The pilots are still fighting among themselves many years later. On the positive side, Delta's CEO has run both companies at different times, and he has made a deal to boost the pay and perks of Delta's pilots, which may "buy" him their cooperation. CORRECTION 3:27p.m.: * This blog post originally said that US Airways bought America West. The correct term is "merged with." (Thanks, Bob!) I regret the error. EARLIER Should you pay more to fly? (more than 50 reader comments)

Inspiration: Science-themed travel

Science and exploration travel is often overlooked by the major magazines. Luckily, Discover magazine has published a roundup of nine science-themed hotels and restaurants. Here are a couple of the spots that caught my eye: Miracle of Science Bar & Grill Boston, Massachusetts It’s as if you’ve walked into a small chemistry lab: The bar and tables are topped with lab-style fireslate, and patrons sit on uncomfortable stools surrounded by old microscopes, scientific equipment, and pictures of Albert Einstein. The best chemistry is on the menu, though, written as a periodic table on a chalkboard: It’s Cb for cheeseburger and Vb for veggie burger, and the prices are written where the atomic weights should be.... Ein-Stein Café and Pub Toronto, Ontario, Canada There are two mottoes here: “Don’t drink and derive” and “Where great minds drink alike.” Just across from the University of Toronto, the Ein-Stein Café; is the best place to enjoy an Ein-Stein lager and pick up engineers. Sometimes when the patrons have had a little too much, they write equations on the walls. For the mathematically talented, there’s a chance to win a free platter of wings and beer—all you have to do is map out the equation of special relativity. [Discover]

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