Travel Industry Archive

Cruise ships are scrambling to change their Mexican ports of call, including canceling all stops or substituting American destinations like San Diego and Catalina Island. Cruise companies like Carnival Cruise Lines, are offering alternate destinations or refund credits for future cruises for all trips through May 4.  Royal Caribbean International is offering some kind of refund or...

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Delta put out an odd little piece of news on Tuesday when it was announced that it was bringing back a 500 mile bonus for everyone who books on delta.com (or Worldperks members who book on nwa.com). Every airline had slowly gotten rid of the bonus because they found they didn’t need to offer the incentive to get people online anymore. So why is it back? There are a couple of theories on...

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Cruise lines halt stops in Mexico– Five cruise lines have halted all stops to Mexico because of the swine flu outbreak. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Carnival Corp., Norwegian Cruise Line Corp. and Holland America Line Inc. have all joined in the boycott. Princess Cruises, a division of Carnival, also stopped cruises to Mexico. The cruise lines said they would instead travel to alternate...

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It didn’t get nearly as much play in the US as it probably should have, but about a month ago, 350 people got together in Geneva for the Aviation & Environment Summit 2009. This topic has been front and center over in Europe, but it has yet to reach such status here in the US. Still, it’s a topic that will continue to grow in importance, so we should all be paying attention....

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First it was high fuel prices. Then it was the sagging economy. Now we have swine flu. While the impact on air travel has yet to be felt, this could get very ugly very quickly if things escalate. Anyone remember SARS? If you’re living in the US, SARS may not have impacted you that much because we never saw an outbreak. But for those in Asia and in Toronto, this was absolutely...

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The U.S. Department of State issued a travel alert for citizens heading to Mexico, cautioning against nonessential travel and citing health risks because of the swine flu outbreak. (The U.S. Center for Disease Control also issued a travel health warning for Mexico, asking those citizens already in Mexico to wash their hands, seek medical help if sick and check if insurance covers medical care...

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Alaska Airlines announced last week it will start charging each passenger $15 for their first checked bag, a move that’s not sitting well with frequent passengers of the Seattle-based airline. Alaska was slow to adopt checked-bag fees, and it announced the move after reporting a quarterly loss of $19.2 million to start the year — a loss that would have been even worse but for a...

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European Union health ministers issue swine flu travel advisory — The European Union’s health chief advised travelers today not to head to Mexico and the United States, both places where swine flu has been discovered. Swine flu, a strain of influenza spread from pigs, has killed 103 people in Mexico and has a handful of cases in the United States. However, Spain has reported one...

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The Boston to Baltimore route appears to be getting pretty crowded these days. Just a week after Southwest announced it would serve Baltimore as one of its first destinations from Boston, JetBlue responded that it would do the same. This could get ugly. Starting August 16, Southwest will start five daily flights from Boston to Baltimore and another five to Chicago/Midway. This is their first...

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U.S. District Court places temporary injunction on Hilton’s Denizen brand — Judge Stephen C. Robinson, U.S. District judge for the Southern District of New York, placed a preliminary injunction on any further work on the Hilton Hotels Corp.’s Denizen brand and using any of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.’s documents or electronic information. Hilton was...

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