JULY 2010
London 2012 Olympic Sculpture
We’re not sure what to think, so will reserve judgment about the planned sculpture for
the London 2012 Olympics. See some comments from the BBC about the work here.

Savoy Reopening
A date for the long-awaited (and long-delayed) opening of London’s iconic Savoy Hotel has finally been announced – 10/10/10. Reservation books will open two months prior, with room rates starting “around £350.”

Air to Europe on Sale This Fall
If you live in or near one of Icelandair’s U.S. gateway cities (Boston, New York, Seattle, Orlando, Minneapolis), the airline can be a convenient and inexpensive way to Europe. For example, the airline currently has a fall sale (for flying after Oct. 16) from Seattle to Amsterdam for $650 round trip. (For comparison, the next-cheapest SEA-AMS flight was on British Air for $1,150.) Sale fares to several other Icelandair destinations are also available (all via one stop in Iceland — see their route map).

Art Exhibits Update
An update to an excellent site for Europe (and around-the-world) art exhibitions.

JUNE 2010
Charlie Chaplin Museum, Switzerland
For the last 24 years of his life, Charlie Chaplin lived in Switzerland. In 2012, a Chaplin museum is scheduled to open at the manor where he lived outside Vevey. In addition to the house, a new cinema is planned, as well as other buildings focusing on his career. (Unfortunately, the museum website is still only available in French – and we thought the Swiss were multinational.)

United/Continental Merger
The big recent airline news is the proposed (assuming it clears U.S. regulatory hurdles) merger of Continental and United. Probably nothing much will happen until next year, but expect some changes. Both airlines are members of the Star Alliance, so there shouldn’t be much change in frequent-flyer award levels.

New Travel Reward Credit Card
The Chase Ink Plus Visa credit card might be a viable alternative to a United or Continental credit card (both of which have higher annual fees). The Ink Plus also adds a free annual Priority Pass lounge membership (including 2 free lounge visits) and the ability to transfer points 1:1 into “some of the industry’s leading frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programs.”

MAY 2010
Virgin Atlantic Partners
If you fly Virgin Atlantic from the U.S. to Europe, remember that while it is not part of any airline alliance (see Feb. news, below), it is a codeshare partner with both U.S. Airways and Continental (of course, that could always change with the Continental/United merger), as well as with several other international airlines. Which means you can earn and redeem frequent-flyer miles across carriers. (Of course, you’ll want to credit flying miles to just one airline, and not scatter miles across several programs.) We did some on-line test bookings, and we could enter a VA number on a Continental reservation, but not on a USAir one. Virgin Atlantic allowed us to use either Continental or USAir frequent-flyer numbers (or several others – see screenshot below).

FEBRUARY 2010
Airline Alliances Update (updated June 2010)
With the musical chairs of airlines and their alliances, we thought we’d update the list of current major U.S. airlines, their alliances, and their European airline partners. (Note, of course, that alliance airlines other than U.S. or European also fly to Europe.)
United – Star – alliance Euro partners: Adria (Slovenia), Croatia, LOT Polish, Spanair, TAP Portugal, Lufthansa (Germany), SAS (Norway/Sweden/Denmark), bmi (UK), Austrian, Swiss, Brussels (Note: Air Canada is also in the Star Alliance)
US Airways – Star – partners same as above; plus Virgin Atlantic (not part of Star)
Continental – Star – partners same as above
Delta – SkyTeam – alliance Euro partners: Air France, KLM (Netherlands), Czech, Aeroflot (Russia), Alitalia (Italy; should you ever be foolish enough to fly them)
American – oneworld – alliance Euro partners: British Airways, Finnair, Iberia (Spain), Malev (Hungary)
Alaska – no alliance – but partners with: Delta, American, British Airways, Air France, KLM, Icelandair (we've seen news of this alliance with Icelandair, but have yet to determine if it's just a codeshare or a full alliance)
JetBlue – no alliance – limited partners with: Aer Lingus (Ireland), Lufthansa

Full-Body Scans Mandatory in London
Despite the whining by the civil libertarians, full-body scanners for airport security are here. Of course, to us, the enhanced security measures are mostly political grandstanding. But we have no choice.
Breaking Travel News tells us that all passengers will need to submit to full-body scans at London Heathrow and Manchester airports, with roll-out of the security measure to all UK airports as soon as possible.

JANUARY 2010
"Local" Fast Food in London
There are so many – often too many – dining options in Europe, it sometimes makes one want to just grab a bite of “fast food” and be on your way. Call it the “McDonald’s and Holiday Inn Syndrome” – what you get may not be great, but you usually know what you’re getting. Budget Travel recently ran a short article on decent “local” fast-food chains in London. On their list are Pret-a-Manger, Nandos, Pizza Express, and Masala Zone.
We’ll also add our favorite: Not an actual chain, but try any of the many Cornish Pasties stands around the city – they're ubiquitous (especially around train and tube stations), and offer great and satisfying finger-food.

DECEMBER 2009
New U.S. Tramac-Stranding Rules
The U.S. Dept of Transportation has instituted rules basically requiring airlines to deplane passengers if a tarmac delay lasts more than 3 hours. Of course, there are a few exceptions, but this is a huge step in addressing the 8-hours-trapped-on-a-plane horror stories.
The DOT release also notes: “Carriers are required to provide adequate food and potable drinking water for passengers within two hours of the aircraft being delayed on the tarmac and to maintain operable lavatories....”
According to the DOT, this only applies to “...U.S. airlines operating domestic flights...” Still, this is great news for U.S. airline travellers. The ruling takes effect in 120 days – roughly late April 2010.

London’s South Bank Continues to Thrive
The new Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel is scheduled to open in early February, with room rates at a special introductory rate of £99 for a limited time. Not all of the amenities (spa, pool, gym) will be fully open in the 1,000-room, 6-restaurant hotel during the intro-price period.

Warning: Pay Your Rewards Cards On Time or Lose Points/Miles
We’ve discussed the benefits of frequent flyer and other reward credit cards on this site in the past, always stressing that reward cards only make sense if you always pay in full. Now, you better always pay on-time, too, or you’ll risk losing points/miles earned. An AP/Yahoo News article has details.

Schwab Visa Availability?
Sadly, there are rumors that the Schwab Visa may not be currently offered. It is (was?) one of the best reward credit cards, offering 2% cash back on all purchases, and no foreign transaction fees. We have not received any notice of change in terms of our account, but there is no longer an application page on Schwab’s site. If you’re planning to use your card overseas, confirm with Schwab that the no-fee aspect is still in effect.

NOVEMBER 2009
bmi Offers Frequent Flyer Family Accounts
UK airline bmi has come up with an interesting concept – Family Memberships (beginning Dec. 1) for frequent flyer miles. Many airlines allow you to buy miles; some allow you to transfer to another (family) member for a fee. British Airways has a similar Household Account. It’s worth noting that bmi frequently has excellent sign-up bonuses for new frequent flyer accounts. (The current sign-up bonus is only 1,000 miles, but we signed up a few years ago when there was a 9,000-mile bonus just for setting up an account. bmi’s website can be pretty cranky, so be patient.)

New British Air Credit Card Offers Mega Miles
If you travel to Europe on British Air, you may have already seen the offer for up to 100,000 BA frequent flyer miles for signing up for a Chase Visa. This is the biggest promotional offer we've seen from any airline. Read the fine print, and then get the miles for a couple of trips to Europe. (Note that some commentators have said that BA adds hefty fees, and sometimes award availability is limited. But the miles can also be used on other oneworld airline partners.) UPDATE: This offer appears to have been removed as of Dec. 12. Update AGAIN: On Dec. 21, we received an email from BA saying this offer has been extended until Jan. 21, 2010. We don't know if that email offer is targeted, but it's worth looking into again.

Continental Airlines Joins Star Alliance
Continental Airlines has joined the Star alliance. Other Star members include Air Canada, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana, Austrian, bmi, Lufthansa, SAS, Singapore, SWISS, TAP Portugal, THAI, United, US Airways, and several others.
For some U.S. travelers, Continental may prove to be an excellent alternative to United or US Air for accumulating frequent flyer miles. Remember, generally no matter what airline you fly in an alliance, you can put your flight miles into another airline’s program. Thus, instead of having 10,000 miles in United and 15,000 in bmi and 8,000 in ANA, you could have 33,000 in Continental (or another airline of your choice), a much better proposition for award ticket redemptions.
For international travelers, this dramatically expands your U.S. air connection options, with one of Continental’s significant hubs being in New York (Newark).

PenFed Raises Foreign Transaction Credit Card Fees
The Pentagon Federal Credit Union will raise foreign transaction credit card fees from the current 1% to 2% on November 30. The PenFed credit card has been touted by some commentators as one of the better U.S. credit cards for international travel (you don’t have to work for the Pentagon to acquire it). We’d always thought there were better options (see our Travel Tips page). This change pretty much leaves Schwab and Capital One as far-and-away the best options for international-use credit cards. UPDATE: See our December note, above, about the Schwab card.

OCTOBER 2009
British Air Advance Seat Assignments for $$
It looks like British Airways has its head up its butt again. The airline has begun charging for advance seat assignment, but now that it’s in place one can’t book (or pay for) the seat online. Stupid. We never recommend booking with any airline with which you can’t pre-select your seat. And that goes double if you have to pay for it. BA flyers: buyer beware.

Lufthansa & JetBlue Codeshare Agreement
In better Europe airline news, Lufthansa and JetBlue have formalized their codeshare agreement. You can now book (for example) a flight from Austin to Frankfurt on Lufthansa’s website. The current list of 12 JetBlue cities in the codeshare arrangement can be found here.

SEPTEMBER 2009
SkyEurope Shuts Down
Slovakia-based discount airline SkyEurope has suspended all operations.

Get Ready for the Fall Festival Season
August is typically quiet for Euro travel news (as it was this year), but now's the time to begin planning for the fall festival season in Europe. A few that we've found so far include the many festivals in Germany's historic cities, and Finland's Baltic Herring Fair. There are many more, so check the tourist websites of countries you're interested in visiting.

JULY 2009
Wine Tourism is an International Phenomena
Five wine regions (California, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, South Africa) have joined forces to create the New World Wine Alliance, to better compete against the European countries. We wish them luck, as they don’t even yet have a website.

Euro Phone Roaming Rates Reduced
Mobile phone roaming costs within the European Union (EU) have been coming down for awhile. Now, the EU has standardized roaming costs – if you have a phone from an EU country and are calling within the EU.
The maximum outgoing call cost will now be €0.43 per minute (going down to €0.35 by 2011)
Maximum incoming call cost now €0.19 per minute (going down to €0.11 by 2011)
Maximum text message cost €0.11
Data transmission up to 1 meg €1
We’ve found that – while it may not be the absolute cheapest option (vs. Skype, etc.) – the most convenient option is obtaining a UK SIM chip (or chip from the primary country you’re visiting) and then just calling (roaming) as normal throughout the EU, without worrying about weird call-back systems, phone cards, or internet calling.

Universal Mobile Phone Chargers on the Way
Say goodbye to all those different cell-phone chargers – at least if you have a phone manufactured for the European market. The European Union has gotten 10 mobile manufacturers to agree to produce a universal cell-phone charger for smart phones. On board are Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Apple, Motorola, RIM, Samsung, LG, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and NEC. A micro-USB plug will be used for all phones. Some sources indicate that the implementation could be as early as next year. This is also apparently the same charger standard mandated by China.

London Eye Begins Sprucing Up For The Olympics
The weird, wonderful, and hugely popular London Eye is being refurbished – one cabin at a time. The upgrade is planned to be complete by the opening of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.

London Hotel News
The South Bank of London continues to develop into a London hotspot, and in early 2010 the new Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London hotel will open there. Also in early 2010, the iconic Savoy Hotel is scheduled to reopen after an extensive renovation.

New Multi-Country Cell Phone Chip
We’re still not completely sure about multi-country SIM chips for GSM phones, but a new one has caught our eye. We haven’t tried it yet, but the Global Roaming chip seems to offer excellent world-wide coverage and very competitive rates, especially for calling from Europe back to the U.S.

JUNE 2009
Airlines We Love To Hate
Some day soon on Ryanair, you’ll purchase your ticket online; print your own boarding pass; schlep yourself and your bags through security; scan your boarding pass at an automated turnstile; throw your bags in the belly of an airplane; find a seat by yourself; watch a recorded safety briefing; break out your credit card to go take a pee.... Read the full story.

DON’T FORGET: The TSA is now requiring the name on your travel documents (passport or driver’s license) to exactly match the name on your ticket. So if your passport says John James Smith, you better not buy a ticket for John J. Smith (unless you want even more hassle from the TSA – as if that were actually possible)....
...continue reading full story

MAY 2009
Dual-Number (U.S. and UK) Cell Phones
We’ve long been fans of pay-as-you go international SIM chips for GSM cell phones. The two basic types are single-country chips and multi-country international chips. Our experience has been good with single-country chips, and mixed with international chips.
Now, Telestial (one of the largest U.S. retailers of chips and phones) is offering a dual-number (U.S. and UK) international chip....
...continue reading full story

Capital One Credit Card Updates
Capital One has been one of our two favorite credit cards for international travel (along with the Schwab Visa). Capital One has a few new cards on deck....
...continue reading full story

April 2009
New Airline to St. Petersburg, Russia
We wouldn’t make specific travel plans just yet (besides, you can’t yet buy tickets), but a new airline — Baltia — is scheduled to begin service between New York and St. Petersburg, Russia, in the fall of this year. We really aren’t too sure, though, about the airline’s name for its frequent flyer program — Freeloaders.

The Loch Ness Monster
This month marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of the most famous photograph of the Loch Ness Monster. The so-called “Surgeon’s Photograph,” published in the UK Daily Mail on April 21, 1934, was supposedly taken by London gynecologist Robert Wilson. Sixty years later, the photo was revealed as definitively being a hoax. The photo was of a toy submarine with a sculpted “head and neck” made from plastic-wood modeling material. Rather than revealing a monster, the image showed an object estimated to be no more than three feet long.

Yet the legend of the “monster” began long before the photograph. Where did those stories come from? Humanity needs its myths and legends – real or imagined. The waters of Loch Ness, and the mystery and drama of the Scottish Highlands, lend themselves perfectly to a legend of a monster. Who can say what’s real and imagined, especially in the mists of time.

Scotland in the mists — any legend is possible.

March 2009

More What's New in Europe
Europe travel guru Rick Steves has begun his annual country-by-country updates. Here are some of What's New for various European destinations that he’s posted online so far (see also our January 2009 news post, below):
Rick Steves on what's new in Eastern Europe for 2009
Rick Steves on what's new in Germany and Austria for 2009
Rick Steves on what's new in France for 2009
Rick Steves on what’s new in Amsterdam for 2009
Rick Steves on what’s new in London and the UK for 2009
Rick Steves on what’s new in Italy for 2009

February 2009
Discover Card Changes — and Other Card Updates
Despite the various credit cards we have – and use internationally – we’ve never had a Discover card. The card is still not accepted in Europe, but we mention it because international travelers may wish to use the card elsewhere in the world. Discover cards are currently accepted in Canada, Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and China.
Discover had never added the dreaded “foreign currency exchange fee” to transactions denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. All that is changing. According to Discover’s terms and conditions, the card will begin charging 2% with billing periods ending after May 1, 2009.
We’ve posted a longer update on another of our websites about credit cards and ATM cards for international travel, but a quick summary is:
Schwab Visa and all Capital One credit cards do not charge any foreign-exchange fees. Nearly all other Visas and MasterCards charge 3%, and American Express charges 2.7%. As for ATMs, a few banks have begun reducing foreign-ATM fees, but the best (no fees) seem to be ATM cards tied to online checking accounts with Bank of Internet, Fidelity, Schwab, or State Farm.

January 2009
Rick Steves on What's New in Europe for 2009
We’ve noted before that Rick Steves has some great Europe travel information, and he usually issues a news/update early each year. This year, Rick has echoed some of our thoughts and reinforces some of the tips we’ve discussed on this website. Rick notes that:
• Much of Europe has done away with border controls. You’re going to have fewer stamps in your passport than you did a decade ago.
• Europe continues to become more smoke-free. That is now extending to train travel in many countries.
• Short-term apartment rentals are becoming more competitive with hotel room rates. We second that opinion.
• Cell phones are invaluable, and roaming rates within Europe are declining and may even soon become standardized. And watch out for surprising high costs if you keep your iPhone on – the phone’s constant email checks all add up to very high international roaming costs. (We're planning a more extensive article about international cell phones, chips, and services. Check back soon.)

International Driver's Licenses
According to the Gemütlichkeit travel newsletter, an International Driver’s License is now apparently required in Germany. Few Americans traveling to Europe have ever bothered to obtain one (it’s simply a multi-language translation of your U.S. license). IDLs can be obtained from AAA offices and other locations (although AAA seems the least expensive at $15). The Gemütlichkeit website has several good articles on driving and car rentals in Europe.



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