The day after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s Christmas Day attempt to set off an explosive device on Northwest Airlines Flight 253, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said any additional security measures the agency planned to implement were “designed to be unpredictable.”

Napolitano was referring to added security measures for people flying from international destinations to the United States. Different airlines reported different potential restrictions stemming from these measures, including limiting fliers to one carry-on, or preventing passengers from either holding personal items in their laps or roaming the cabin during the last hour of the flight. Further, guidelines later posted by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) broadened Napolitano’s statement to include domestic airports. The rules reiterated that “passengers should not expect to see the same thing at every airport.”

Well, the TSA was right about that. Post-Christmas fliers could not have predicted what was in store.

Frequent business traveler Ken Walker flew out of St. Louis on December 27. “I felt pretty sure the new rules would bite me, but they didn’t,” he says. “There was nothing new in the security line at the airport, nothing new to see or do on the plane. We left on time, arrived on time, bags dropped on time, no issues.”
Also on the 27th tour guide Ann Lombardi of The Trip Chicks flew out of Atlanta where “TSA agents were patting down everyone from grandmas to first graders. It took two hours to go through the TSA line vs. the normal ten to twenty minutes.”

Further reports from domestic fliers seemed to mimic Walker’s “business as usual” experience. A friend of mine tempted fate on Dec. 30 by flying with a cat, a banjo, and some home-brewed ginger beer, but encountered no delays or unusual security screening while waiting to fly out of Long Beach. Another flier I know reported on New Year’s Eve that “Terminal 4 at JFK is quiet. Increased security presence visible throughout terminal, but check-in plus security took less than half hour. No unusual requests.”
Another friend flying from Austin to Newark on January 3 said “security was the same as pre-Christmas, nothing on board was different,” leaving Newark less than an hour before a stranger strolled into a “sterile area” in Terminal C, resulting in hours of passenger re-screenings and flight delays.

A new TSA security measure went into effect on January 4: “enhanced screening” – full-body frisking and aggressive luggage checks – for anyone flying into the U.S. who originated from or traveled through at least one of 14 nationsdeemed sponsors of terrorism or “countries of interest.” Though Great Britain falls into neither category, a New-York based flier I know, J.T., traveled from Heathrow to JFK on the 4th and got a taste of this enhanced screening.

Soon after checking her suitcase at Heathrow’s British Airways Terminal 5, J.T. encountered a clerk who checked her boarding pass and directed her to stuff her purse into her carry-on, where she had previously stuck her laptop (her alternative was to check it). After that she moved on to the security line where she had to unpack her overstuffed bag. When she was done she “walked away with three separate pieces of luggage again. I wasn’t sure why I had to do all the stuffing for those 25 feet, between the clerk checking our boarding passes and the security lines,” J.T. says. When she arrived at her gate, she joined two lines that had already formed – one for females, one for males, and security “opened our bags, went through all compartments, pockets, and cosmetic bags. Then they thoroughly frisked us, body part by body part.” The personnel doing the screening were polite and repeatedly pointed out that they were enforcing U.S. homeland security rules. Beyond being told to stay seated for the final 20 minutes of the flight, J.T. detected no new rules on board. By comparison, between Christmas and the 4th she flew round-trip from London to Belgrade and experienced no new security measures.

While much about airport and airline security procedures will remain unpredictable from day-to-day, here are a few things you can expect.

Expect to provide airlines with more information.

President Obama noted on Jan. 5 that the U.S. intelligence community failed to “connect those dots” that would have placed Abdulmutallab on the government’s “no fly” list. Since Christmas, counterterrorism officials have added more names to that list, and to ensure yours isn’t one of them, the TSA’s Secure Flight program requires you to tell the airlines your name as it appears on your government-issued I.D. as well as your date of birth and gender. The airline will then transmit your information to the Secure Flight system, which compares your name to names on government watch lists. A match would place you either on the “no fly” list or a Selectee List making you eligible for enhanced screening. Secure Flight is being phased in airline-by-airline with full implementation by domestic airlines expected by early 2010 and by international airlines by the end of the year.

Expect the possibility of behavior detection.

Current TSA guidelines note that the agency has the “ability to quickly implement” additional screening measures as needed, including “behavior detection.” While the TSA is not explicit about what that detection would entail, the possibility invites a comparison to the psychological questioning used by the Israeli Security Agency.

Travelers who arrive at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport encounter security personnel famous for asking such garden-variety questions as “How are you?” or “What museums did you go to?” The point isn’t what you answer but how you act when you do. While the questioning itself can cause distress, Israeli security is trained to know the difference between their making you nervous versus your being nervous for more sinister reasons.

Most travelers appreciate the point of the interviews, though some find them excessive. Trudy Swafford, questioned at Ben Gurion by security in 2004, notes on airport review site Skytrax that “I understand their concerns but the questions [they] ask a tourist are downright stupid. My 20-year old daughter and myself were asked repeatedly about our ‘relationship’ to each other. Is there something unusual about a mom and daughter with the same last name? We were asked what was the name of our taxi driver. Sorry, I didn’t ask his name, just his price.” Despite these objections as well as detractors who say such interviews amount to profiling, Ben Gurion has not had a security breach since 2002.

Expect even more comparisons to how other nations secure their airports.

Lombardi recalls being pulled out of the pre-departure security line at Zurich’s Kloten Airport about a year ago, when an inspector examining her carry-on found a pocket knife tucked in hiking boots she hadn’t used in years. “I had totally forgotten about the knife. Then he asked me if I would like the knife sent to my home address –I’d need to pay the postage. I was struck by the civil, low-key, professional way in which this incident was handled.”

Lombardi adds that “In Switzerland, I have routinely seen select passengers — often from countries known for “terrorist camps”– discreetly taken out of line for more thorough screening. No one seems to complain or protest. These procedures are considered a regular part of airline screening. There is no worry about ‘political correctness’ or ‘racial bias.’ I remember hearing my Swiss friend say, ‘it makes perfect sense to concentrate our resources on screening travelers fitting a certain profile rather than 85-year-old American grandmothers from London or Los Angeles.’”

 You just got to Disney World. What are you going to do now?

Many of us grab our kids’ hands and race to the rides. Or, if you’re Melissa d’Arabian, who visited the parks last year with her husband and four kids, you grab the coupons you packed and race to the grocery store.

“I had planned out easy meals to make,” says d’Arabian, season five winner of “The Next Food Network Star” and host of the network’s “Ten Dollar Dinners with Melissa d’Arabian.”

Her money-saving vacation strategy had several parts. Aside from basing her family in a condo where she could prepare at least some of their food – “I never leave a place where I have access to inexpensive food without feeding everyone,” she says – her vacation groceries yielded meals denser in calories than what she’d ordinarily serve back home.

“At home I try to get the most water-filled ingredients possible [like] fresh vegetables,” she says, but when traveling, food needs to be dense, portable, and high on long-term energy, and it’s easy enough to hydrate inexpensively with water throughout the day.

 High on d’Arabian’s list of vacation snacks is trail mix she mixes herself, almond butter “dense with protein and calories,” and her favorite go-to snack, whole-grain, high-protein pasta with fiber and flax seeds rich in beneficial Omega 3 fatty acids.

She notes that while whole-grain pasta is often twice the price of white-flour pasta, “you’re getting a lot of value” on the nutrition side as well as a snack that fills you up. As for when to deploy the snacks, that also differs from her home game.

“The whole trick to [your family] enjoying the vacation is making sure that you’re in preventative mode all the time, d’Arabian says,” which may mean that prior to heading out to a restaurant “you step outside your normal mode of ‘no snacks an hour before dinner.’” Bending your usual rules not only helps to avoid public meltdowns, but it can be a lot cheaper than the alternative. “It’s not a money-saving strategy to order everything [on the menu] and see if something hits,” she says.

Your away game for getting more value for your dining dollar doesn’t end there.

Pick lodging that will ease your food budget.

Booking a condo or any lodging with a microwave and fridge is more economical than ever. “People who bought vacation homes thinking they were going to make a buck [renting them] are hurting,” observes Pauline Frommer, creator of the Pauline Frommer guidebooks, adding that condo owners offering deep rental discounts might be willing to bargain further because they’re not making their mortgages.

In addition to condos and other vacation rentals, all-suite hotels might yield the facilities you need to save money on food, says Suzanne Rowan Kelleher, co-founder and editor-in-chief of family travel site WeJustGotBack.com. “Fixing just one meal a day in your vacation digs can save you hundreds of dollars over the course of your getaway,” she says.

Staying where kids eat free is another way to go, Kelleher adds. “This kind of ‘soft’ deal is often promoted in a low-key way. Be sure to check out the hotel’s special offers Web page, and ask about family deals when you reserve your room.”

Frommer advises that if your hotel is in a business district, avoid picking up groceries nearby “because places that are next to the hotel know that they have their clientele trapped” and inflate their prices. You’ll save easily, she says, by driving a few minutes to a residential area and food shopping there.

Have lunch for breakfast, dinner for lunch, and breakfast for dinner.

While at Disney’s, d’Arabian stretched her food dollar by serving her family lunch at breakfast time. “I would cook up pasta or [some other] copious hot lunch dish for breakfast before we went to the theme parks,” she recalls. “My kids thought it was kind of funny and fun and the hot meal triggered them to eat more,” and as a result she spent less on food during the day. And while nutrition is a factor, density is still key. “I don’t really give my kids canned ravioli [at home], but on vacation, you bet,” adding that even the canned stuff “is probably healthier than what you’re going to find at a theme park for lunch.”

“If you can’t resist the urge to ‘splurge’ on a noted nice restaurant, go there for a lunch, not dinner,” advises Jamie Jensen, author of “Road Trip USA.” It’s often a more relaxed, less ostentatious time of day to enjoy a meal, and is usually half the price – plus you’ll be less tempted to drink a bottle of wine.”

Beyond eating a big breakfast, Jensen says try “breakfast three meals a day. It’s always the best value on the menu, and can be pretty healthy so long as you go easy on the hash browns.”

Avoid common restaurant traps.

Restaurant discount coupons might shave a few bucks off your check, but Frommer says that in general “restaurants that put out coupons are terrible, on top of being “in the middle to upper price range.”

Further, Frommer says, bear in mind that these days, many hotels as well as restaurants are hiring marketers to post positive reviews online in the guise of ordinary reader feedback, so it’s “important to look at good newspaper and local reviews by people who are paid to be impartial.”

Another restaurant trap: beverages. Mandating that kids and adults limit themselves to water will take at least fifteen dollars off your bill. “That one habit has saved us a lot of money,” d’Arabian says.

Get off the highway.

Frommer urges road trippers to get off the big highways to discover the clam shacks, barbecue places, and other affordable and good eateries you might otherwise miss. Jensen concurs that avoiding the interstate and freeway fast food chains is both advisable and easy.

“Just follow the ‘business route’ frontage roads toward the old downtown area of almost any town,” he says, “and this is where you’ll find the most popular, longstanding locally run cafes, diners, and restaurants. These local places don’t have the advertising and franchise fees to add to their expenses, so prices can be as low as or lower than the chains. And the meals will stay with you – in a good way.”

Don’t let hunger empty your wallet.

Among the worst situations you can create as a budget traveler, d’Arabian says, is letting yourself or your family get so hungry that you don’t care what you eat or how much it costs. And perhaps most offensive to her, the snack does little to alleviate your hunger.

“What a bummer to eat calories that you don’t even enjoy,” she says. “That just puts me a in a bad space when I’m spending money and my kids are crabby anyway.”

And while she’s often teased about it, she is never without a protein bar or two in her purse, a habit that she says “has saved me more money as a mom and as an adult than any other travel strategy.”

FoxNews
By Paul Eisenberg

 The supplement is meant to compensate your travel provider for the fact that there isn’t a second occupant in your room paying his or her way. So a cruise line charging $1,500 per person may feel it’s losing $1,500 on the empty bed in your room. Your provider also isn’t happy about losing revenue your roommate might have contributed by buying alcohol and other add-ons during the trip.

One U.K. resort told me that the reason it levied a $50 per night single supplement on a nightly $150 room rate was that it was “something they’ve done forever.”

In some cases a supplement might lead to your paying double the per-person rate and often more than what a couple would have paid for the same room.

So how do you avoid the single supplement? Quite simply, ask to have it waived.

If your provider won’t blink, remind them of what some of their competitors are doing in the face of slow business. As of this writing, Cruse West was waiving its single supplement for an extended Antarctica voyage, and Beaches was waiving its supplement at all its resorts on selected dates for stays of three nights or more.

“In this economy there’s a far greater chance of bargaining,” says veteran solo traveler Lea Lane, “and you have to be more assertive because that’s the only way to feel out the situation.”

Even in the best of times, Lane says a solo traveler can try to negotiate simply by saying sweetly about the supplement or the rate itself, “I don’t think I’m able to do this” and see if the reservation agent is willing to help you work it out to your satisfaction.

Eat cheaply and well.

“It’s easy to get a bad taste in your mouth when you spend more than $20 for a small omelet and a piece of fruit” at a hotel breakfast buffet,” says frequent business traveler Ken Walker. “I always check with my host [company] to see if anything is being provided. Quite often, the company I’m there to visit will have a Continental breakfast or bagels available for the meeting or event.”

Since a restaurant’s lunch and dinner menus are often the same, Lane never fails to find bargains at lunchtime. “If you eat there at lunch you have ten dollars more in your hand,” she says.

Though it’s also true that the lunch trick benefits any traveler, not just a solo one. So how can your solo status work in your favor? For Lane, traveling solo is as much an attitude as it is a circumstance.

Recalling trips when she’s dined solo, she notes that it’s beneficial to engage waiters in your quest to dine on a shoestring by saying such things as “I love this food, but I’m on a budget,” and suddenly you’ll find your waiter saying, “Don’t get this, get that,” being very helpful as an ally, Lane says.

Longtime flight attendant Toni Vitanza concurs that being “open and flexible, along with being alone, means that airline employees and servers have an easier job giving you freebies or breaks. If you smile at a waiter, are nicely dressed, and ask, ‘What’s good? What’s your favorite thing on the menu?’ it means that when someone in the kitchen prepares the wrong appetizer by mistake for another table,” it’s quite possible the dish will show up for free at your table for one, she says.

Turn your flexibility into cash.

In her experiences traveling to more than 110 countries, many on her own, Lane points out that the ability to accept last-minute or one-ticket-left opportunities can often save you a bundle. This is especially important for novice solo travelers to keep in mind, she says, as “first-timers tend to be more nervous and do too much in advance.”

For instance, Lane says, there’s often little need for a solo traveler to pay in full ahead of time for one of the hottest tickets in town “when you could have gotten it on site easily. Take advantage of your flexibility and the fact that as a single person it might be easier to get a ticket.” Even for shows that are sold out, she says, she’s had luck. “Always at the last minute someone will return a ticket.”

Tweet and greet.

“Twitter has become a great meeting place for travelers, especially those going solo,” observes travel writer Beth Blair, co-founder of The Vacation Gals. “It’s easy to post a tweet asking if anyone will be catching a cab where you’ll be going — this is especially great for events. I suggest searching and following hotels, airlines, travel companies, restaurants and even locals in the city [where you’re] headed to keep an eye out for killer deals or local specials from the many Convention and Visitors Bureaus on Twitter.”

More old-school than Twitter but surprisingly effective: talking. And if you’re traveling solo, start with the locals, observes Courtney Correll, whose solo journeys have included five months in South America, two months in Europe, five weeks in Thailand, and a month in China.

“The locals not only know the best of what’s on offer in their area, but making friends with them will bring you all kinds of help, discounts, and fun that you wouldn’t otherwise get,” Correll suggests. “Strike up a conversation with a local – anyone who smiles back will work – and see what they have to say. It’s amazing what saying ‘Hi, I was wondering if you could recommend a great place to eat for a traveler on a budget?’ can lead to.”

While you’re at it, talk to fellow travelers, Correll says. “It doesn’t matter where in the world you find yourself, there will always be other solo travelers there. And most likely, they’ll be coming from where you’re headed and full of useful tips. It seems so obvious, but other travelers are the best possible resource.”

FoxNews
By Paul Eisenberg

It’s all the rage to criticize the airlines. But we found some smart, practical initiatives that point the way to a better future.

Driverless pods at airports

Someday, driverless pods may be zipping passengers between an airport and its parking lots. Fully automated, pods are more convenient than shuttle buses driven by humans. Currently, 18 pods are being tested at London Heathrow’s Terminal 5. They let you board when you want to, rather than wait for a bus on a fixed schedule. Punch in your destination, such as a parking lot, on a touch screen. Then leave the driving to the machine, which glides on rails at speeds of 25 mph. A bonus perk: The pods are battery powered, so they don’t spew out environmentally destructive exhaust.

Improved design of coach seats

Hong Kong based Cathay Pacific Airways has reinvented the economy-class seat: As the seat reclines, the bottom slides forward, but the back stays in place. So the passenger sitting behind doesn’t have to endure a seat hovering inches from his or her chin. The new seats are especially welcome on long-distance hauls — which happen to be routes Cathay Pacific flies regularly. American Airlines is among the other carriers reportedly interested in installing similar, slide-forward seats.

In-cabin mood lighting

Poor cabin lighting on a long flight may worsen jet lag. For instance, exposure to bright light at an hour when you are ordinarily asleep can confuse your body’s internal clock. But smart cabin lighting may actually help your body adjust to a new time zone — and beat back jet lag. Virgin America has an in-cabin lighting system that subtly shifts through 12 shades of violet, including a welcoming, bright blue-purple during the day, a softer violet hue after dusk, and a deep, calming near-black on red-eyes when it’s time to sleep. Elsewhere in the world, Air Canada, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and Thai Airways offer mood lighting on many long-haul flights.

Luggage check before you get to the airport

Schlepping your bags isn’t fun. It’s also not necessary — at least not in the many capital cities where you can drop checked luggage at bus or train stations and forget about it until you land at your destination. Many passengers can check bags at London’s Paddington station (for Heathrow flights), Vienna’s Wien Mitte station, Moscow’s Kievsky Station, and Hong Kong Station. In the U.S., the best advance luggage-check option is at Walt Disney World: Guests staying at Disney lodging can check bags at their hotel before hopping on the free Magical Express ride to the Orlando airport.

Paperless boarding passes

Boarding passes printed on flimsy paper seem almost as outdated as paper airline tickets. Now, cell phone check-in is allowed at many airports, such as Chicago O’Hare and Los Angeles’s LAX. Punch in your phone number at check-in and a bar code appears on your phone via e-mail or text message. Security officers and gate agents scan your phone’s screen, making for an entirely paperless process. Some airlines, including American, Continental, and Delta (plus its sister unit, Northwest), plan to adopt the new technology at every airport gate nationwide.

More power –sockets — for the people

Sometimes it’s the simple things that count. Virgin America not only became the first airline to offer Wi-Fi on every flight, but it did so in an especially sensible way, with standard sockets (no adapter necessary) at every seat on the plane. Because while Wi-Fi is nice (even when there’s a fee for it), it’s even nicer to know that you won’t run out of juice in the middle of a flight. Sockets obviously work with portable DVD players and cell phone chargers, too.

Replacements for outmoded radar-tracking systems

Radar is outdated. Locating a plane’s position can take up to half a minute, a long time when planes are traveling at speeds over 500 mph. To play it safe and avoid accidents, planes fly extremely far apart from each other. They also fly routes that zigzag rather than go straight. The reason? Aircraft need to remain within signal range of radar beacons, which are irregularly spaced around the country. To shave flight times — and improve safety — the FAA is rolling out NextGen, a GPS-based air traffic control system that provides real-time plane locations to pilots and air traffic controllers. Using GPS technology (already in trial use by Alaska Airlines), planes will be able to fly straighter, more efficient routes while maintaining a safe distance from other aircraft. But we may have to wait until 2025 to see this technology adopted nationwide. Sigh.

Easier upgrades

With most airlines, upgrading is an esoteric process that may involve loyalty program points, elite status, or just dumb luck. But when you check in at the airport for a Spirit Airlines flight, the kiosk presents a simpler formula. The screen may inform you that one of Spirit’s Big Front Seats (the carrier’s version of business class) is available for as little as $35 extra. The roomy seats are often dispensed on a first-come, first-served basis close to departure time. Depending on how you’re feeling that day, you may very well decide that an upgrade to a more comfortable seat is money well spent.

Copyright 2009. Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Airfares are at their lowest levels in years, so airlines are trying to find new ways to make money. And that means extra fees — more than $1 billion from last year alone, according to the Department of Transportation.

The latest add-on is a $10 surcharge for flying on some of the busiest travel days of the year, most of which fall right around the holidays:

The extra charge applies to three days: Nov. 29, which is the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and Jan. 2 and 3. The carriers have added 10 more peak days through 2010.

Airlines have historically raised their fares during the holiday season, rather than impose additional charges. But experts say that adding a fee is less disruptive than a fare increase.

“It’s interesting that they’re doing it this way,” said Anne Banas, executive editor of travel site SmarterTravel. “I think they’re just easing the consumers into paying more incrementally. They’re inching it up, like they did with baggage.”

The holiday surcharge joins the <span style=”color: #000000;”>slew of fees</span> that many airlines began charging in 2008 for once-free amenities such as checked baggage, curbside check-in, pet travel, ticket re-scheduling and oversized bags, as well as food, soda and juice.
<div>Prepaying for checked baggage</div>
For passengers who are willing to prepay baggage fees in a big lump sum, United recently unveiled a tweaked version of its baggage fees.

Its Premier Baggage Subscription costs $249 a year, and covers the first two checked bags for a single traveler, and up to eight friends or family members included in the ticket purchase, according to United Airlines spokesman Rahsaan Johnson.

“If you’ve got a family of nine going to a family reunion, you could save the $249 [in one flight],” he said.

Normally, United charges $15 for the first bag and $25 for the second. So a single traveler with two checked bags would have to travel seven times in one year to save money with the subscription.

Business travelers who have to foot their own travel bills could benefit, according to said George Hobica, founder of the Airfarewatchdog.com, but he doubted that too many fliers fit the family profile described by Johnson.
<div>Paying more for priority boarding</div>
In another bid to make money, some airlines are selling optional benefits to upgrade service.

United’s Premier Travel program now extends its Premier membership benefits, such as priority boarding and security line access, to passengers who pay $47 for one day.

United passengers can also buy into its Red Carpet Club for a day. For $50 at the door or $39 online, they wait in a luxury lounge with passengers who pay $525 for the annual membership.

The one-day Premier Travel offer could work for travelers who “know they’re going to go through a busy airport with lots of security lines” and want to streamline the process, Hobica said.

He added that the Red Carpet Club could also be useful if you’re suddenly confronted with a canceled or delayed flight. “If the airport is in chaos because of weather, I would definitely do the [Red Carpet,] because it’s much more comfortable waiting.”

Southwest Airlines recently added an optional $10 early-bird priority boarding fee, according to company spokeswoman, Brandy King, who said this will allow passengers to check in 36 hours ahead of the flight, instead of the typical 24.

“I can’t imagine that they’ll make much money from that,” said Banas. For most travelers, she said early boarding fees are just not worth it.

Hobica dismissed the plan as “a timid effort to raise their fees without offending anyone.”
<div>Deals are still out there</div>
One fee that is coming down is pet transport. Hobica said that United reduced the cost to $125 from $175 in August, and Delta lowered its fees to $100 from $150.

“United had some of the highest fees, and that’s why they took them back,” he said, noting that United also eliminated its fee for booking frequent flier tickets 21 days or less ahead of a flight.

Airlines “can’t really charge for much more, to be honest,” according to Rick Seaney, Chief Executive of Farecompare.com.

But 2009 is still a great year to fly, he noted, pointing out that fares are 15% cheaper than they were last year. “Domestic flights are as low as they’ve been since we started tracking them seven or eight years ago,” he said.

Given those low fares, Hobica said the fees have become a necessity for the struggling airline industry.

“What does the public expect?” he said. “Do they want them to go out of business? The airline industry is in crisis right now and I think they need to cut them slack and let them make some money.”

The fees come with an inherent public relations problem, which happens anytime you charge for something that used to be free said Seaney. But those fees can add up to as much as 7% of an airline’s revenue, he said, which is well worth the flack.

By Aaron Smith, CNNMoney.com