My new book, “Decoding Air Travel: A Guide to Saving on Airfare and Flying in Luxury,” which aims to help travelers master the increasingly complex and frustrating airline system and to work it to their advantage, has just been published.
The premiere is scheduled for June 29 in Washington, and my book tour begins on July 7. Some of the cities I’ll visit are Santa Fe, NM, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Manchester, NH, Fargo, ND, Charlotte, NC, Portland, OR, San Francisco, San Diego, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney.
An updated list, as well a sneak peek at the book’s content, reader comments and other educational materials, can be found on DecodingAirTravel.com, where you can also purchase a copy with a 20 percent discount. Of course, you can also buy it on Amazon, which offers free standard shipping.
“Decoding Air Travel” is the most comprehensive and insightful work to date on the intricacies of the modern air travel system from a customer perspective, and the most effective tool for making travel more affordable, convenient, comfortable and fun. It has two goals: Improving readers’ travel lives and saving them lots of money. It seeks to achieve those goals by helping them become knowledgeable, empowered and sophisticated travelers.
We are all stakeholders in the air travel system — airlines, travelers and government authorities. A more effective and less frustrating system than the one we have today would benefit us all.
Why do I care about this so much? Because I want more people to travel and see the world. I spent the last decade being around diplomats and writing about them almost every day as a newspaper correspondent. Although different countries’ national interests are the main drivers of international relations, the underlying mission of diplomacy is to make the world a better place. One way to do that is to give more ordinary people — not just diplomats — the opportunity to travel to other countries, experience different cultures and try to understand points of view they may not agree with.
Most people cite two main reasons for not traveling abroad: It’s too expensive and too much of a hassle. If only there were ways to eliminate those barriers. As it happens, there are such ways — that’s what this book is all about.
Part I, “Building Your Own Airfare,” explains in detail the fundamentals of fares and flight inventory and offers a highly effective booking process called The Kralev Method. Part II, “Creating a Seamless Journey,” will help you turn your flying into a pleasant and hassle-free experience by deftly handling any problem that may arise, including delays and cancellations. Part III, “Mastering the Frequent-Flier Game,” reveals the secrets of a modern global traveler who benefits from elite airline status, upgrades, award tickets and much more.
If you take at least two plane trips a year, this book will improve your travel life enormously.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) seems semi-serious about false airfare advertising. It fined several airlines this week for violating its rules of disclosing taxes and fees, but it still tolerates the disgraceful “one way based on a required round-trip purchase” manipulation practiced by some carriers.
Continental Airlines was fined $120,000 for failing to include fuel surcharges in fares listed on its website. US Airways and TACA, the Central American company, must pay $45,000 and $55,000, respectively, for the same wrongdoing — indicating that fares didn’t include taxes and surcharges, but not disclosing actual amounts.
“Consumers have a right to know the full price they will be paying for airfares,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “We established airline price advertising rules to protect the consumer, and will take enforcement action when these rules are violated.”
Starting on Oct. 24, DOT will require airlines to include all taxes, surcharges and government fees in advertised fares — not just using asterisks and fine-print explanations.
However, advertising only half of a ticket price will continue. As I’ve written before, I have nothing against listing one-way fares — when they can be truly bought as such. To this day, American Airlines, Delta, British Airways, Lufthansa and others promote only half of mandatory round-trip purchases on their websites.
In fact, Lufthansa doesn’t even bother to spell out the words, using instead “OW based on RT purchase.” The German carrier doesn’t do those gimmicks on its European sites because of strict European Union rules.
In March, I wrote that United Airlines became the first major U.S. carrier to begin advertising predominantly round-trip fares on its site. Continental has since followed suit. US Airways still uses a mixed method.
One would hope this item will be next on DOT’s agenda.
Related stories:
Proper airfare advertising comes to U.S.
Fare sales often lost in translation
When an airfare sale is not quite a sale
Airlines find new way to overcharge fliers
Continue reading about DOT cracks down on airfare advertising
