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TRAVEL IN BRIEF

Sun, 20 May 2012 02:19:54 +0000

Airline offers flights from Oregon to Hawaii for $199

HONOLULU (AP) — Alaska Airlines will offer seasonal service between Portland, Ore., and the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

The airline announced that the four flights a week will start Nov. 5. The seasonal flights are in addition to flights Alaska offers between Portland International Airport and Honolulu, Maui and Kona.

Introductory fares starting from $199 each way must be purchased by May 24.

Grand Canyon shuttle back in business, get into park faster

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. (AP) — Free shuttle service between the Grand Canyon and the neighbouring town of Tusayan has resumed.

More than 92,000 people boarded the shuttles last year as a way to cut down on vehicle congestion inside the national park. The more popular South Rim can see as many as 10,000 vehicles a day.

Visitors can park in any of three areas in nearby Tusayan. Those who take advantage of the service will get into the park quicker than other motorists.

The buses will run every 15 minutes from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. through Sept. 7.

Airlines collect less revenue from checked bag fees in 2011

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. airlines’ revenue from bag fees fell last year for the first time since they started collecting them, signalling that more passengers are packing light to save cash when they fly.

The Transportation Department said that the 17 largest airlines made $3.36 billion in bag fees last year, down slightly from $3.4 billion in 2010.

The total number of passengers last year on those airlines rose by about 2.4 per cent.

Fees for first and second checked bags began four years ago, when fuel prices soared to all-time highs. But many airlines charged extra for extra heavy or oversized bags before then.

The revenue airlines collect has been climbing ever since. Between 2008 and 2009, money from bag fees jumped by 42 per cent. From 2009 to 2010, it increased by 24 per cent.

Delta Air Lines Inc. made more than any of its peers last year with $863.6 million in bag fees. That was more than the $854 million in net income that the world’s second largest carrier posted, highlighting how vital the fees have become.

Travel Picks: Top 10 graduate destinations

Sun, 20 May 2012 02:19:52 +0000

Reuters

9:48 a.m. CDT, May 18, 2012

With new competition on way, some Austin-area hotels stepping up their games – Austin American

Sun, 20 May 2012 02:19:48 +0000

By Gary Dinges

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Updated: 8:13 p.m. Saturday, May 19, 2012

Published: 7:14 p.m. Saturday, May 19, 2012

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As Austin gets set for an influx of new hotels, some of the area’s existing hotel properties are stepping up their games with remodeling projects to stay competitive.

Among the projects in the works are a massive, 1,012-room convention hotel at East Second Street and Congress Avenue. Also on the way are a 296-room Hyatt Place at East Third Street and San Jacinto Boulevard and a 137-room Hampton Inn and Suites at West 17th and Lavaca streets.

Against that backdrop, renovations happening at several Central Texas hotels involve a whole lot more than just slapping a fresh coat of paint on the walls.

Operators are spending wads of cash on things such as trendy furniture, fresh linens, new flooring and wall coverings, and technology upgrades.

Soon-to-be-completed work on the top five floors of downtown’s Omni Austin Hotel, 700 San Jacinto Blvd., cost more than $1 million per floor, General Manager Gene McMenami said. That works out to about $78,000 per room.

“Really, this was more than a renovation,” McMenami said. “It was a reconstruction. It was almost like building a new five-story hotel on top of an existing hotel.”

The upgrades include granite countertops, beds with leather headboards, faux cowhide bathroom walls and, in some cases, in-room fitness equipment.

McMenami said the incoming competition prompted the Omni to rethink its renovation project.

“With all the new condos coming into town and the prospect of new hotels, we took another look and went from urban chic to urban luxury, while keeping the flavor of Austin,” he said.

Downtown isn’t the only area renovations are happening. In the Arboretum area, Inland American Lodging Advisors, the new owner of the 25-year-old Renaissance Austin Hotel, 9721 Arboretum Blvd., is set to kick off a round of upgrades in October.

The Renaissance Austin’s restaurant will be redesigned, the patio bar will triple in size and all 492 guest rooms will be refreshed, General Manager Rob Gillette said.

“We’re going to reinvent everything, everywhere you turn,” Gillette said. “It’ll be more modern, more chic, more comfortable.”

The goal is to offer guests a “pure Austin” experience, he said, through careful selection of items such as artwork, furnishings and linens.

“With many hotels, you could pick them up and put them in another city, no problem,” Gillette said. “We’re going to try to reflect the appeal of Austin in every element of the design.”

Many upgrades are dictated by hotel franchisors, such as Marriott, said Kevin Grandin, regional vice president for White Lodging, which operates about 20 Austin-area hotels.

Properties affiliated with Marriott’s Courtyard Inn and Residence Inn brands are typically required to replace “soft goods” such as carpeting and drapes about every six years, he said, while dressers and furniture are replaced after about 12 years.

“Most people don’t do it more often than that, but ownership can decide if they want to do something earlier based on the market,” Grandin said. “Austin’s a great market, and owners love to invest in Austin because it’s so strong.”

White Lodging has renovations under way or planned at seven Central Texas Courtyard and Residence Inn locations. Planning starts about a year before crews get to work, Grandin said.

“Guests can definitely tell the difference, and they love it,” he said. “It’s like you’re the first person to stay in the room. No one’s ever walked on the carpet, sat in the chair … things like that.”

Construction takes place in phases, he said, so the hotels won’t have to close, and it’s typically scheduled to happen during times of the year when business slows down, such as early January, summertime and late December.

“You won’t see us doing this during South by Southwest,” he said. Hotels citywide are typically booked solid during the music, film and interactive festival, which happens each March.

In addition to sprucing up rooms, lobby upgrades are popular with many chains right now, Grandin said. Though costly, the work helps pay for itself when impressed visitors post glowing reviews on popular travel sites such as TripAdvisor.com, he said.

“Whether you’ve just renovated or give good service, people want to talk about it,” he said.

Contact Gary Dinges at 912-5987; Twitter: @gdinges

Wrath all around in wake of collapse

Sat, 19 May 2012 20:19:25 +0000

INSIDER

Illustration: michaelmucci.com

The demise of Air Australia has highlighted the failures in the system for consumer protection of travellers, with agents sharing the brunt.

AS ADMINISTRATORS continue sorting out the mess left behind by Air Australia, the travel industry is fuming that governments have still done nothing to fix consumer protection for travellers.

Australia’s consumer protection scheme for travel does not cover against the collapse of airlines and many other suppliers, leaving travellers out of pocket and travel agents in the firing line of public wrath. Australian governments have been working collaboratively on a review of the scheme, known as the Travel Compensation Fund (TCF), for several years but progress has been painstakingly slow and there is still no date for an announcement.

In the meantime, the industry is left trying to educate consumers on how the TCF works and what it does and doesn’t cover.

Travel agents say they are also putting in hours of unpaid time trying to rescue passengers who are stranded by business collapses or by rogue operators who are selling via the internet.

“We’re putting out a lot of fires for consumers,” says the veteran travel agent and chairman of Axis Travel Centre, Max Najar.

“With Air Australia, travel agents did so much after-hours work, at no cost, to help consumers [who were stranded by the airline].”

The question is: whose responsibility is it to protect travellers against the collapses that inevitably occur? Should taxpayers bear the brunt, should the industry be made to cover itself (with the scheme expanded to include airlines and all other suppliers) or is it our responsibility as consumers to protect our own investments?

Consumer Affairs Victoria, which is taking a lead on the review of consumer protection for travellers, says state ministers for consumer affairs have acknowledged the need for reform but there is no time frame for the announcement of a “transition plan”.

“Most jurisdictions agree that regulation of this important sector needs to be modernised, particularly with regard to the national Travel Compensation Fund,” says a spokeswoman for Consumer Affairs Victoria.

“Consumers’ inability to claim on the fund after the recent collapse of Air Australia revealed its limitations,” she says.

The Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) says the only solution that will work is putting the onus on consumers to protect themselves by taking out insolvency insurance at the time of booking.

The chief executive of AFTA, Jayson Westbury, says there is simply no way to cover all types of travel bookings in a global market.

About a third of travel is now booked outside the realm of the protection provided by the TCF and this will only grow.

“I think inevitably we will see the removal of the TCF,” he says. “Globally, everywhere that there has been an attempt to create schemes, they’re either broke or they don’t work. Every time a government gets their hands on these sorts of things, it’s messy, sticky, complicated. Consumers need to protect themselves as they do with every other commercial consumer product.”

Najar also argues for a consumer-pays approach. “I still cannot work out why we as travel agents or retailers have to pay millions of dollars into a travel compensation fund to protect consumers,” he says.

Najar believes consumers should be given the option to purchase protection at the time of buying their travel and those who refuse it should have to sign a disclaimer declaring that they opted out.

“If the consumer wants to protect their investment, they should be purchasing an insurance policy,” he says. “If I drive my car without insurance on the road and it [damages] something, I’m stuffed.”

However, Najar does not share AFTA’s optimism for governments adopting a buyer-beware, consumer-pays approach.

“I think they [governments] are pretty gutless most of the time,” he says. “I think they will say ‘we need to be nicey-nice to consumers’.”

AFTA’s Westbury says the other issue is doing more to prevent collapses along the lines of Air Australia.

AFTA has proposed a toughening up of the regulatory framework for start-up airlines, with more checks and balances in their first five years, when they are most likely to fail.

“CASA [the Civil Aviation Safety Authority] can ground an airline for having flat tyres but they can’t ground an airline for not having any money in the bank,” Westbury says.

Play it safe

The Australian Federation of Travel Agents says the most effective way for consumers to protect themselves is to pay by credit card, so they can reverse the transaction if they do not get what they paid for.

While many travel companies now charge a surcharge for credit card payments, the chief executive of AFTA, Jayson Westbury, says travellers should consider this “very cost effective protection”.

As well as paying by credit card, Westbury advises travellers to take out an insurance policy that covers insolvency and to check that their airline is covered. “If you can’t get insurance, don’t book,” he says.

jane@janeefraser.com.au