Travel Safety & Security
Having your ID or wallet stolen is never fun, but it can be an even bigger problem on the road.
OK, so what is going on with American Airlines?
At last count, the company running the world’s largest airline fleet has grounded almost 2,500 flights since Tuesday, leaving tens of thousands of passengers on the ground. The airline canceled 460 flights on Tuesday, 1,094 flights on Wednesday and another 900 today.
According to American, because it voluntarily grounded its planes (as opposed to weather or an act of God), it is offering customers $500 vouchers, hotel accommodations, and reimbursing passengers who are stranded overnight.
The following is an excerpt from Peter’s latest book, The Complete Travel Detective Bible. Check it out …
Since I’m an advocate of purchasing travel insurance, people are always coming up to me and asking, “Why?”
Which is why I’ve come up with my list of the top 10 situations in which travel insurance can come in handy.
Hoping to have your own home stay but don’t want to leave it to chance?
Check out home-stay facilitators such as Servas, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people get to know one another through travel.
After you are vetted by a local Servas interviewer, they will loan you a copy of their list of hosts in any of 130 countries. Program rates are $50 for domestic travelers and $85 for international, and $25 for students.
Once you contact the host family and make your arrangements you may find yourself treated to the kind of reception that Servas members Phyllis and Daryl Chinn experienced on their travels throughout the world.
If you were watching the news last week, there was a story about an American Airlines flight from Haiti to New York in which a woman died. She got onboard and claimed that she had trouble breathing and asked for oxygen. According to her family, she was refused twice by a flight attendant, and she died.
By the way, there are 55,000 flights a day in the United States and guess what? Someone’s going to die and someone’s going to get sick.
The real issue here is what’s onboard the plane, what are your rights, what are the responsibilities of the flight crew and the captain, and what order do they exercise those responsibilities?
The answers might surprise you.
Between bed bugs and blacklight exposés, hotel cleanliness has become a hot topic.
The truth is, it usually doesn’t matter how nice your hotel is, the very nature of hotels makes them susceptible to all manner of germs, dirt, and general grossness.
Fortunately, you don’t have to avoid hotels and public accommodations. There are plenty of rather simple things you can do to make your hotel room cleaner.
Find out what they are in this video–and what to watch out for–after the jump. (click “More Travel” below)
