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Traveling in a troubled economy
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Fuel surcharges going down?!
I have to say I am almost astounded — it must be a public relations trick of some kind — but on Thursday Northwest actually announced that the airline is reducing fuel surcharges. North of the border, Air Canada and WestJet have done the same; as these surcharge rollbacks get more publicity and momentum, we can probably expect other airlines to follow suit.
Some airlines could fail
Given who got us into this mess and how they have behaved since, it can be hard to take the word of executives at face value, but I'll bite for now. Several international airline execs have said that we could see upwards of 50 or more airline failures worldwide in the next few months. The current market certainly hasn't treated the airlines well; last Tuesday, three of the five biggest stock drops were airline stocks: United fell over 25 percent, Continental over 19 percent, and American over 18 percent. If the news gets much worse, you will want to book away from airlines that start to look likely to go under, and at the very least purchase ...
Travel insurance
Hoo boy, this is a tough one. Travel insurance seems like the best hedge against airline failures, route cutbacks, flight cancellations, staff cuts and more. However, one of the biggest travel insurers is ... AIG!
While you may want to avoid AIG, I do recommend travel insurance for many reasons, including ...
Staffing uncertainty
Staffing issues at airports, airlines and even hotels may affect bookings just when you least want them to — at the last minute, when you are standing at the counter. Cutbacks are inevitable, if not in the actual staff headcount, then in some of the practices airlines and others rely on to conduct what they call business as usual — including overtime. Be careful particularly when booking flights at the end of the month, when pilots may have piled up their maximum flight hours; either they may be unwilling to fly more, or the airlines may be unable to pay them to do so.
Staffing shortages could affect every aspect of getting through the airport, from long lines at check-in and gates to late and canceled flights.
News of the odd
Without question, we have seen some unexpected stories in the news in recent weeks, whew; the severe gas shortage in the southeastern United States caused by the passage of Hurricane Ike a couple of weeks ago is just one of them. The problem was bad enough that television anchors could not get to work and were doing live spots from their neighborhoods; bicycle stores were completely sold out of bikes of any size and type; and people were walking miles to work like they were in some old-fashioned old wives tale.
Why bring this up? Contrast this to the AIG guys getting pampered out in Dana Point, and things can't get much more odd. I would say we are living in the most uncertain times in the United States in nearly a century, so any and all of the above may change at any minute, and dramatically — to the point where one guy is walking to work just to keep his job, while the other guy is getting a pedicure with an ocean view at the same time ... on the first guy's dime.
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