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We’d love it if a week or even a few days went by when we didn’t hear about how airlines are going to make our traveling lives even more miserable and more expensive. This week - as usual, it seems - a few more airlines announced some additional fees that passengers will be charged, all to try to make up for the rising cost of fuel that’s crippling their profits. Over a month ago we outlined some of the new fees but this kind of list is quickly outdated these days.

If you’re as confused by all of these additional airline fees as we are, then you might also be pleased to take a look at a useful table produced by Kayak.com, gathering a bunch of information about airline fees in one handy place. Major international carriers are listed, quite a few domestic United States airlines are there too, along with a couple of other low cost carriers such as Europe’s Easyjet, but the list is by no means exhaustive. But for a lot of people, you will find the information you want - or that is to say, the information you’re looking for.

Nobody wants to read about the depressing array of charges we are now subject to when we fly: certainly, checking more than one piece of luggage is quickly becoming an expense item on many airlines, with some even charging for the first. The table also outlines how much meals cost on airlines that don’t include them as a complimentary service, along with extra costs for services like traveling with pets or sending children unaccompanied. Sadly, there’s also a column for those airlines that charge an extra cost to have extra leg room or to choose your own seat.

Combine that with the news that as a result of the endless delays and confusion of security checks, especially in United States airports, passengers are losing track of their belongings, and the picture for flying travelers looks bleak. Apparently around 10,000 laptop computers are lost or stolen each week in airports across the United States, and up to 70% of these laptops are never reclaimed or returned to their owners. So the news this week is this: pay more for your airline travel, but get less and less, and lose stuff that really was yours in the first place. Sometimes these facts make staying home seem like a good alternative.

With the Fourth of July here again, things are looking a little bit different on the travel scene if you compare it to the same holiday season in other years: and our ol’ friend, rising gas prices, can take most of the blame for that. Since the Fourth of July in 2007, the average price of a gallon of gas has risen by 38.5 per cent, a massive rise which is impacting all parts of society, but travel is especially hard hit.

This Fourth of July, more people are staying home rather than traveling to visit family and friends or to take a vacation. The AAA made an estimate that the number of people traveling over this holiday season will fall by 1.3 per cent compared to last year, and that’s the first time in ten years that this figure has gone down.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, the latest figures show that the biggest fall in travelers is among people who usually make their trip by car. Rising costs of fuel have made 12 per cent of people who would ordinarily drive somewhere for a Fourth of July vacation stay home instead. The vast majority of travelers over the Fourth of July weekend do usually travel by car - some surveys put the figure at around 80 per cent - so a fall in the number of people taking the car makes a big dent in the number of holidaymakers going anywhere for the holiday.

There are still plenty of passengers traveling by air but the industry experts are predicting that this is only because many of the airlines’ new charges and fees don’t kick in until after Labor Day, so perhaps it will be next Fourth of July when we also see a large drop in air traffic over the holiday weekend.

As well as canceling holiday plans, another survey showed that a big proportion of Americans have changed their Fourth of July plans to make them cheaper, given the rising costs of travel. A CNN poll found that 31 per cent of Americans have either canceled or shortened their plans for the holiday weekend because of the increase in the price of gas.

The extra sad thing about the holiday celebrations this year is that budgetary limits have also led to some towns canceling or minimizing their fireworks displays, so if you stay home and think you can still get some of the holiday atmosphere, you have to hope that’s not the case where you live.

Airlines across the United States are announcing cuts to flight schedules and redundancies for staff as the rising cost of fuel really throws a spanner in the works of the industry.

Everyone’s already been concerned that fewer people are flying to their vacation this summer - not that driving is much cheaper - and airlines have started adding all kinds of charges to their basic ticket prices to try to regain some of the revenue they’re losing due to rising gas prices. Extra baggage charges, increased fees for carrying pets and oversize cargo and even higher costs for children traveling alone have all been added at one airline or another.

But apparently these extra charges are not enough, so now we’re on to a round of announcements about cuts and reductions. As well as reducing the number of flights to and from various destinations, airlines are also reducing costs by cutting employees, either through voluntary programs or forced redundancies. Some of the reductions include:

• United Airlines is cutting 950 pilots and reducing its capacity. They will retire 100 planes in the near future; they’ve already elimated 1,600 salaried jobs in the past year. There will probably be more jobs still to go.
• American Airlines is also cutting down dramatically. For example, at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, American Airlines is cutting 62 flights. It’s going to retire 85 planes and can’t say yet how many jobs it will eliminate. American Airlines services to some places, such as Providence, Rhode Island, Harrisburg in Pennsylvania and Albany, New York, will cease entirely.
• Continental Airlines is going to cut 3,000 jobs as well as retiring 67 planes and reducing flights and capacity; they’ve been busily negotiating with pilots to give them voluntary redundancy packages including health insurance and travel perks.
• Delta Airlines is also joining in with a reduction of 4,000 staff through voluntary severance payouts. In total, they are currently planning to reduce their services within the United States by about 13 per cent. Curiously, Delta is actually planning to increase their international services by the same amount, but that hasn’t saved the jobs of domestic employees.

All of this has put Thanksgiving travel plans in some doubt, as most of the airline cuts will begin immediately after the summer vacation peak. And who knows what further cuts are just waiting in the wings to be announced.

The big travel destination for Europe this summer should be Spain, because this weekend the Expo Zaragoza 2008 opens up, ready to entertain travelers for the next three months. From now on, Zaragoza should be hitting the headlines with a whole lot more regularity.

World Expos like this are scheduled about four years in advance, so Zaragoza - you might know it as Saragossa, which it’s often named in English, although the version with the Z’s is more correct - has been preparing for a while. The city is almost 200 miles directly west of Barcelona, in north-eastern Spain. It’s easy to reach these days with the Spanish fast train system, called the AVE - it takes one and a half hours from Madrid and less than two hours from Barcelona. Expo Zaragoza is expecting at least seven million visitors during the summer.

What to See at Expo Zaragoza

Spain is already a popular tourist destination for many reasons - the relaxed lifestyle and siestas, the beaches and warm climate, and the tapas bars and delicious foods. There’s no beach at Expo Zaragoza but you’ll probably get a taste of the rest of Spain there, plus there’s the huge advantage of also getting a taste of the life of some one hundred other countries who have set up exhibits at the new pavilions.

If you visit Expo Zaragoza you’ll firstly be able to spend many hours checking out the exhibits from countries that interest you. The rules are that any marketing or promotion of products must take less than 20% of the space which means the emphasis is on entertainment and interest. The Expo also has an overarching theme of “Water and Sustainable Development” so green travelers will find plenty to interest them.

There are also regular parades and shows - a la Disneyland. For example, every evening you can see a multimedia show centered on a (not real) iceberg; there’s a group doing “air bound theater” throughout the Expo and each day at lunch time there will be a parade called the Awakening of the Serpent.

The media’s just starting to saturate the airwaves with hints and tips for Zaragoza. It’s a fast frenzy because the opening day June 14 (and the closing is September 14), but with a three month time span, you still have enough time to plan an Expo trip with all the trappings and see what all the fuss is about. But even if you miss out, the new infrastructure and investment in Zaragoza is going to make it an interesting destination for a long time to come.

Although it’s almost the middle of the year, it’s around this time that a whole lot of official statistics from travel and tourism during the year 2007 seem to be released. Amongst all the figures are a few surprises that don’t necessarily seem to match up with the rising cost of travel, especially of flying. Of course, this year has seen much more extreme increases and the trends could easily reverse, but it’s interesting to take a look at them.

• France was the world’s favorite tourist destination during 2007 - again. Compared to the figures for 2006, the number of people visiting France rose by 4 per cent, going up to 82 million tourists (although the stats do mention that 14 million of these arrivals were only in transit and not staying long in France). It’s interesting to note that despite the currency problems with the falling value of the American dollar against the Euro, the number of American tourists visiting France rose by 7 per cent, and Americans spent an average of eight nights in France.
• Some of the newest figures released have caused re-thinks in tourism strategies, and New York City is a good example of this. NYC attracted 46 million tourists during 2007 and that’s meant that Mayor Michael Bloomberg has now revised the target date for getting 50 million tourists into the city. With visitor numbers rising so rapidly, he now predicts New York can get 50 million visitors a year by 2012 instead of 2015.
• During 2007, there were record numbers of tourists entering Australia. Naturally, these overseas visitors are nearly all coming on long-haul flights, and perhaps the relative cost of long-haul flights hasn’t risen to the same extent as “cheap flights” taken domestically or to nearby countries. In any case, nearly 23 million overseas visitors entered Australia last year, more than the entire population of the country.
• In the Middle East, the numbers of group tourists rose, especially in the popular destination of Jordan. On the whole, though, tourism numbers to this region fell a little when compared to 2006.
• And finally, to look at the least explored continent: in Antarctica, tourist arrivals are constantly increasing by a somewhat alarming rate, at least from an environmental point of view. The figures comparing 2007 with a decade earlier are startling. The number of tourists who have set foot on Antarctica rose by over 700 per cent over the ten year period; those visiting only by boat also increased drastically, by over 400 per cent.

Last week’s news that American Airlines would be adding a US$15 charge for the first checked piece of baggage was bad enough. But it turns out that this was just the tip of the iceberg. Numerous airlines have just announced increases in various fees and charges, and without exception, the airlines are blaming the rising cost of fuel for their need to either introduce or increase these costs. While some consumer groups are pretty mad that some people will end up paying more, other people think this kind of “debundling” of costs is fair - then you only pay for what you use, and if you don’t need to pack a suitcase or bring a pet, then you don’t have to pay for it, or subsidize others who are.

But the list of fees that are being increased “because of fuel prices” is phenomenonally long, and often seemingly a bit randomly selected. For example, Delta Airlines and American Airlines have both increased the fee for unaccompanied minors. If you send your child on a flight on their own, the Delta fee has now doubled from $50 to $100, and on American it’s gone up from $75 to $100.

At the same time, many airlines have raised the costs for bringing your pet on a flight. On Frontier Airlines, they’ve banned them from the cabin so you now have to pay to put them in the cargo hold. At Delta Airlines, bringing your cat or dog on the plane with you will now cost $100 instead of $75, and if they go in the cargo, the price has jumped to $200 from $150; American Airlines have increased their prices to a similar degree.

Even hunters are not exempt from having to pay more. Previously at Frontier Airlines, they would be required to pay $75 to transport a pair of antlers in cargo, but now that’s gone up to $100.

Meanwhile, after American Airlines decided charging for the first piece of checked baggage is all right, US Airlines and United Airlines are said to both be seriously considering doing the same. If you take any oversized baggage, the fees have also increased. At Delta Airlines and American Airlines, oversized bags will now cost $150, up from $100.

With all this extra revenue coming in, airlines should be laughing: but it might not be long until passengers start rebelling against the charges and traveling less.

A fair few budget airlines over in Europe have been doing it, but there’s been a shocked reaction this week in the US after American Airlines announced that they will start charging passengers a $15 fee for checked baggage.

The charge starts from June 15, and will apply to all American Airlines passengers who buy a discounted ticket. Exemptions will be for those traveling on elite levels of frequent flyer programs, those who pay full price (that’s rare), and on overseas flights. American had already announced that anyone checking in two bags would be charged $25 for it, but now the $15 charge applies for the first bag, so it’s either a struggle to pack minimally enough to just use carry-on, or a compulsory $15 fee.

The airline is blaming rising oil prices and the weak economy for the need to add the charge, and that’s not all they’re doing - they’re also going to cut their capacity by retiring at least 75 of their older aircraft (because they’re the ones that use more fuel). This equates to around 12% of their daily flights and means that tickets will be harder to come by. Another result is that they plan to lay off thousands of employees as a result of the reduced capacity - they haven’t mentioned any exact figures at all but analysts have figured out that it could be several thousand.

Scarily, other airlines look like they are at least considering follow American’s example: reports have said that United Airlines are “seriously studying” the idea of charging for the first piece of checked baggage. Some airlines like Delta Air Lines are boldly saying they have no plans to do such a thing, but once charging for baggage because the norm at other large airlines, it mightn’t be long until it’s widespread.

For American Airlines’ economic situation, the first result of these announcements was a falling share price - in fact, it tumbled nearly 25%. But no doubt the accountants are keeping an eye on much scarier figures with rising fuel costs and falling passenger numbers, and the share price is the least of their worries. The reaction from the public - not just stockholders - has been similarly negative and many are talking about reducing the number of flights they take. The airline industry has certainly seen a lot of upheaval in the last few years, but perhaps the most dramatic changes are still to come.

The last week or two have been filled with natural disasters in the Asian region, and even now it’s hard to get really accurate information about the outcomes and effects. But for tourists traveling in China - and to a lesser extent in Burma - these natural catastrophes are definitely not what they planned for on their vacations.

On May 12, an earthquake register 7.9 hit the Sichuan province of China, in the south of the country. It was strong enough that office buildings in far-away Beijing and Shanghai also swayed, and it is easily the most disastrous earthquake to hit China in over thirty years. An aftershock of magnitude 6.0 came five days later. There aren’t any official numbers yet, but tens of thousands of people have died and many are still missing or trapped, and almost 5 million are homeless.

Of course there have been a number of foreign tourists caught up in this earthquake nightmare as well. Groups of American and British tourists visiting remote panda centers were trapped after landslides and although their families thought the worst for most of the week, they were safe and finally rescued from the remote region by helicopter. A missing German tourist was also found alive in a remote village. As if the destruction and lack of utilities doesn’t make life difficult enough for rescuers and carers, problems with communication systems during such a natural disaster make it difficult to find out who is still alive.

Over in Burma, the effects of the Cyclone Nargis are still far-reaching and also difficult to get concrete information about.The most affected area is in the south-west of the country, and the best guess about how many people have been killed puts it at around 100,000. Since the current political situation has led many potential tourists to stay away from Burma, there have been far fewer foreign tourists affected by this disaster but a number of foreigners are still unaccounted for. A lack of information isn’t helped by the resistence to allowing foreigners in to provide aid and assistance.

Traveling anywhere is a risk for tourists. Some who have returned safely from China after being stranded by the earthquake’s affects said that the local people helped them tremendously, but there in remote regions practical assistance was hard to come by. Giving aid to NGOs that are working to restore some kind of normal life to these regions is perhaps the best way to help out.

With the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games drawing ever nearer - and with the Olympic torch already making it into China - the half a million foreign tourists expected to head into China to watch Olympic events should be making their final travel arrangements. With another two million domestic tourists expected t be flooding into Beijing and other Olympic venues like Qingdao, anybody who isn’t well-organized could find themselves in some chaotic situations.

But come August, who knows exactly what the rules for travelers might be. China is making all sorts of changes with the aim of handling this influx of visitors more smoothly, but whether it works out that way remains to be seen. This week the Chinese authorities announced new restrictions for carry on luggage on domestic flights, a ruling that will affect a lot of foreign tourists who will be making internal flights either to get to the Olympic venues or to go sightseeing before or after the games. The new rules are that you can now take strictly only one piece of baggage on board, and it must way less than 5 kilograms (11 pounds). Last month, the Chinese government banned matches and lighters on flights, and back in March, they introduced restrictions for carrying liquids on board. All of these are the kinds of restrictions travelers have already become familiar with, but with the rules changing so often things could get tricky when the Olympics really get close.

If you haven’t yet booked accommodation for your Olympic stay in Beijing, this will only be a problem if you’re hoping to do it on a budget. Cheaper rooms have long since been booked out, but in the area of high-end accommodation, a huge number of new hotel openings have kept the luxury end of the market from being fully booked out. Many hotels have been able to increase their regular rates by a factor of up to ten times, so you’ll need to dig deep to get a bed for the night in Beijing in August. Most hotels also have restrictions on short stays, insisting on a minimum of five nights per booking.

For travelers who want to add a guided tour on to the start or end of the Olympics, it would also pay to finalize your bookings quickly. Although there has been a huge increase in the tours being offered, places are limited because everybody wants to arrive in Beijing just before the games or depart immediately after. With 90 days to go until the opening ceremony, it probably won’t be long before all the best tours are taken.

As airlines try to squeeze more profits out of flights, and gas prices continue to rise, and consumers use internet price comparison services, things are going to get a lot tougher on the airlines with a new DOT Rule. According to the DOT consumers who are bumped because of overbooking are now entitled to a compensation:
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