Hello and happy Sunday, travel friends, both near and far. Here are some articles we’ve read from other bloggers (and other sources) that we think you may like, so we’re passing them along.
- Foreign visitors to the US from one of the 40 visa-waiver nations are required to apply for an ESTA. Like it or not, if you want to visit the US, you need to pay the $21 fee every two years. However, what happens when you get a new passport? Do you have to pay another $21? In comparison, US residents didn’t like it when countries in Europe planned to institute a similar system. I can only imagine the outrage if Americans were asked to pay twice.
- Air Canada’s Aeroplan frequent flyer program is a favorite of many in the points and miles universe. I recently used Aeroplan points to book a short-haul flight for only 8,000 points. Aeroplan has a fair pricing model and allows some things other airlines do not. One of the favorite tricks is adding a stopover on an award ticket for an additional 5,000 points. Until now, stopover award tickets needed to be booked over the phone but Aeroplan just added the ability to book these tickets to its website.
- Remember when it took forever to get a passport with waiting times of several months to process a renewal? Month by month the processing time has gone down and now there are reports that a new, non-expedited passport can only take 4 weeks to arrive. Not too shabby.
- I have a love/hate relationship with the hotel chain’s best rate guarantee promises. When they work, it’s a way to get the best of both worlds. You pay a lower price while still getting the benefits of booking directly with a hotel. While I’ve had a few successes, like this time at the Park Hyatt Washington D.C., I usually don’t bother with them. That’s because hotels will use any difference in terms not to honor a lower price, even if the external site has a more generous cancellation policy than the property itself.
- The lines for airport lounges seem to keep getting longer, with Delta’s SkyClubs and AMEX Centurion Lounges both trying for the top spot. Delta knows there’s an issue but the changes implemented are unpopular and not helping the problem. We wondered if it was even worth trying to get into the SkyClub at LAX during a 4-hour layover. At JFK, the lines have gotten so long that the club employees have resorted to handing out food to people standing in line to enter the club.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
