Travel&Vacation

A Travel Agenda for the Obama Administration What should the incoming Obama administration do about issues that affect travelers? What will it do? Since all the political pundits are trying to outguess the administration’s actions on everything from the economy to same-sex marriage, I can’t resist reviewing the travel outlook.Top Priority: Air Traffic ControlAccelerating air traffic control (ATC) modernization is both a “should do” and a likely “will do.” Current failure to modernize our creaking ATC system is a national disgrace—especially since we have the technology in hand to provide major improvements. Using available satellite-based equipment and systems, the FAA could implement new ATC installations that would reduce fuel consumption, speed flights, and increase the capacity
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The timing of the world's top-ranked amateur golfer was way off when an "inappropriate comment" about the contents of his bags led to him being taken away for questioning by airport authorities and police after the team checked in for a flight to Adelaide last week. The Rotorua 18-year-old had his mobile phone switched off last night and no one was answering at the family home. But New Zealand Golf chief executive Bill MacGowan confirmed yesterday that an incident had taken place. "There was a minor incident at Auckland airport … It was a throw-away comment, but it was said in the wrong place. "They talked to him at the airport, they had a conversation with him about it and it is still being dealt with. . "They haven't served him any papers, they
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The first point of my visit in Japan After 7 hours flight and transit at Ngurah Rai Airport at Denpasar, I arrived at Kansai Airport. I came with other 11 leaders from Islamic schools in Indonesia, 10 men and 2 women (including me). We were invited by MOFA (Ministry of Foreign Affair) for comparison study in education. Before we departed, we had been briefed by 4 attaches from the Embassy of Japan at Soekarno Hatta Airport about our visit. We would stay for 2 weeks and visit some schools and temples. To tell the truth, I was nervous. It was my first time to go abroad (besides going for Hajj). Even I came with 11 other people and one of them was our leader, but I cannot speak, read, and write Japanese. So, I was potentially to be lost. When I proceeded the immigration, I had to
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Off to the airport-Goodbye California We left for the airport and decided that our last meal in California would be a quick bite with Larry’s mom at Jack-in-the-Box, somewhere we rarely eat but thought, what the heck! We’ll be eating god-knows-what for the next three weeks, lets splurge. We made it safely to Dallas for our layover where we witnessed an interesting encounter at the airport bar between an elderly gentlemen (wearing a spotted tie-apparently very offensive to some!) and a younger man who was covered in tattoos (also apparently offensive). Anyway, it helped pass the time. Soon we were on our way to Chicago.  After arriving at 2:30 am at Jeff and Judy’s apartment due to some airport delays, we were relieved to hear Jeff’s voice from
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, which was established in 1829 as the western gateway to Australia, has become a popular destination for history buffs, foodies and art lovers. Here are some recommendations by Reuters correspondents with local knowledge on how to make the most of a weekend in Fremantle. Take a shuttle bus ($A30) from Perth's domestic or international airport for about 19kms to Fremantle but be prepared to tackle the crowds and traffic around the airport. Locals joke that the initials WA are more suited to "Wait A While" rather than "Western Australia" with a mining boom sending the number of visitors to the state soaring. Check into your accommodation and change into walking shoes to head for South Terrace, known as Cappuccino Strip, to get a caffeine fix and pop into the
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LONDON, England (AP) — British Airways canceled 54 more short-haul flights at Heathrow Airport’s problem-plagued new Terminal 5 Monday. Almost 300 flights have been scrapped and at least 28,000 bags have been separated from their owners since the state-of-the-art terminal opened last Thursday. Airport operators have said the problems were triggered by glitches with the terminal’s high-tech baggage-handling system. The chaos has been a major embarrassment for BA and airport operator BAA. They hope the $8.6 billion terminal will transform Heathrow’s reputation as a grubby and overcrowded transport hub. Britain’s Aviation Minister Jim Fitzpatrick told the House of Commons that it may take as long as a week to return a backlog of suitcases and bags to their owners. "We had no
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NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) — An air traffic controller mistakenly gave a passenger jet the frequency for the wrong airport, an error that put that plane and another landing at Newark Liberty International Airport much closer than they should have been, authorities said Thursday. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the near miss, which occurred at 2:10 p.m. Wednesday between a Boeing 737 and an Embraer 145. The Boeing operated as Continental Flight 536 arriving from Phoenix and the Embraer was Continental Express Flight 2614 arriving from Halifax, Nova Scotia. According to FAA spokesman Jim Peters, an air traffic controller at the New York Terminal Radar Approach center on Long Island, which guides planes landing at New York area airports before turning them over to
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Be flexible. Consider alternate airports. That’s pretty standard holiday travel advice from travel writers these days, and I include myself among them. But the question isn’t quite as simple as it sounds: You may have to consider different alternate airports for different reasons. Here’s an overview of the question. What’s an alternative airport? First, let’s get to a definition. An alternate airport is any feasible airport, in either your origin or destination area, other than what you consider to be the primary one. Some alternates are airports offering a wide range of flights but in different parts of the origin or destination metro areas: LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark in the New York area, for example; others are smaller nearby airports with only limited services, such as Long Beach in
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(Tribune Media Services) — Joan Cole’s airport shuttle bus is a no-show. A customer service agent finally tells her to take a cab and promises to pay Cole’s fare. But now Gray Line, the company that was supposed to pick her up, is ignoring her request for a refund. What should she do? Q: On a recent visit to Las Vegas we purchased a round-trip shuttle bus ticket from the airport to our hotel through Gray Line. We followed all their instructions, calling to schedule our return well in advance of our departure as we had done many times before. But this time our shuttle bus didn’t show up. When I called them to say we were about to miss our flight, an agent told us that our bus was running behind schedule, and that we should arrange another ride to the airport. She promised to reimburse us
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LONDON, England — Tougher security measures introduced at UK airports are failing to protect passengers, an industry watchdog said as it criticized the country’s busiest airport for delays that could harm the country’s economy. In a report on half-year air traffic results, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) criticized the UK’s "unique screening policies," which it said "inconvenience passengers with no improvement in security." The report comes after UK ministers said tougher airport security measures were creating longer lines that could become new targets for terrorists. London’s Heathrow Airport has also been criticized for suffering from excessive delays and an ineffective setup. The IATA praised a U.S.-EU agreement on harmonized security
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