A’s Travel Musings

American Airlines AAdvantage program has announced new flex awards which allow you to redeem one-way and open-jaw awards as well as awards that use a different class of service in each direction. This is a significant change should make redeeming awards a bit easier. It isn’t clear of American did this to increase paid traffic on their flights with people seeking to earn miles for rewards that are easier to claim, or as a means to reduce the huge overhang they have of unredeemed miles. With many flights flying with low load factors, it might be a big benefit at nearly no cost for American to remove some of those outstanding miles. Either way this should be a benefit to AAdvantage members.

In a related change, American also updated their online booking tool with many new features. In addition to supporting the new flexible awards, you can use the at-a-glance calendar to select different award types (MileSAAver or AAnytime) or classes of service for each portion of your trip. You can see a demo of the new tool here.

In NOLA in January, we rented a car one day took a trip to visit the Barataria Preserve which is part of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, a US National Park. It’s a great place to take a walk through some of bayou and swamp country. The under-visited park gets a few hundred people on a busy day and when we were there likely had fewer than a dozen visitors.

What’s nice about this park is the variety of terrains it offers from true swamp to wetlands to dry areas. In addition to walking on your own - there are many trails and even some accessible boardwalks - the park also offers guided ranger walks. The one we took was very interesting and informative and was effectively a personal tour since the only other person was a park volunteer in training.

On the dry side of the park you will also find a lot of armadillos. At first they look interesting and cute and then you realize how many there are. They really aren’t afraid of you and couldn’t care less that you are walking near them like this one. You can see some additional photos from the park here.

After walking in the park, we drove down to the town of Lafitte. There isn’t much there, but we had an amazing meal at Jan’s Cajun Restaurant (4831 Jean Lafitte Boulevard, Lafitte, LA 70076 phone: 504-689-2748). This is a local place that probably doesn’t get too many tourists, but if you are in the area it is well worth it. The shrimp po’ boy was outstanding - we went with the waitress’s off menu recommendation for shrimp fried in a light garlic, oil and spices sauce - and much better than in NOLA. The home made onion rings were also a winner and the waitress serving us was almost ridiculously friendly. I’m not sure that I’d drive out there just for the meal, but if you are anywhere near there make sure to stop in.

Immigration authorities at some airports are now screening arriving passengers for illness. In the US, this is mostly being done by immigration officials using a human “visual check” method to assess signs of illness. While in Canada Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said farm workers from Mexico will be checked for fever by two doctors and required to fill out a questionnaire and undergo a medical check-up before entering Canada.

In Asia though more scientific methods are being used. In Tokyo’s Narita airport officials are conducting health checks of each airliner before passengers could entered the terminal. Each passenger has to fill out a questioner and the health authorities then board the plane and perform a temperature check (non-invasive) on each passenger. Once completed, the entire plane load of passengers is “released”. Processing takes 30-45 minutes, though passengers with short connections are being given priority.

Singapore is also measuring body-temperature, but doing it when entering the immigration area. This reportedly has had no noticeable impact on passenger throughput since people are tested while waiting in line for the next immigration officer.

Citing concerns about swine flu Alaska Airlines said it has removed pillows and blankets from all its planes. In addition staff are cleaning aircrafts overnight using disinfectant and sanitizer that contain what it called a “virus-killing” cleaner. “Aircraft arriving from Mexico are also receiving an additional, thorough interior surface cleaning before boarding for the next flight begins,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement.

It will be interesting to see if they reinstate the pillows and blankets once the threat has passed, or if they will determine that this is also a cost savings measure as other airlines have done.

I often get asked what the best way is to pay for things when traveling internationally. In the old days people used to use travelers checks, but those are dying out. Today people use credit cards for most major purchases and cash for smaller ones, just like we do on a daily basis at home.

But what card you use and how you get that foreign cash can result in cost differences of up to 10%. Why? Because of the different exchange rates and fees that companies charge you.

First let’s look at credit cards. Most US issued cards today use an inter-bank exchange rate, charge a 2-3% foreign transaction fee and may add on a 1% foreign exchange fee. The inter-bank exchange rate is a good thing, because that is the rate that big banks charge each other to exchange currencies. The official Visa and MasterCard rates are pretty similar to that inter-bank rate, so if your card uses that don’t worry too much about the difference.

The foreign transaction fee is an altogether rip off though. That fee is assessed for your card company to handle a transaction outside the US. Note that it doesn’t say foreign currency fee, so even if the vendor charges you in US Dollars if the vendor’s bank is outside the US you’ll be slapped with this charge. It really doesn’t cost your card issuer much more to handle a charge outside the US than inside of it, so this fee is really something that just feeds their bottom line.

Oh yes, look out for currency conversion at the point of sale too. This one will get you on top of the other fees. Say you are in Spain and the vendor will bill you 100 euros.  When you hand him your credit card, at merchants equipped with dynamic conversion terminals, they will give you a charge slip back to sign where your Euro charge has been converted to the home currency of the credit card presented (USD).  If the market rate for EUR/USD is 1.35, the slip you’ll be asked to sign could be for $139 or even $142, because you are paying a 3-5% fee, bundled into the rate, to convert your charge into your home currency. However when you get home your bank will still have charged you the foreign transaction fee on that $139-142 charge. That’s a double hit. Make sure you insist that your charge be in the local currency whenever you travel.

The foreign exchange (currency) fee is assessed if the transaction is processed in another currency regardless of where the vendor is located. Although rare, you might have to pay this fee even for some items sold in the US if the transaction isn’t in dollars. Again this is a real rip off fee since the card issuer really doesn’t incur much in the way of fees to transact in foreign currencies given the shear volume they handle. Plus if they use the standard Visa or MasterCard rate, those processing charges are already included.

What you need to do is select a card that has no foreign transaction or currency fees. My current choice is a Capital One card. In part because in addition to not having those fees I get a better rebate on travel and entertainment charges, which is all I tend to use any card for when traveling.

Now the most cost effective way to get foreign cash is with an ATM card. Any exchange shop, especially those at the airport, will generally charge you a fee (stated or hidden in the exchange rate). Most ATM cards use a standard inter-bank rate plus maybe 1% for the currency exchange. Watch out for “out of network” transaction costs though. My Bank of America card charges me 1.5% or $5 whichever is more per foreign ATM transaction. That’s a lot, so I have another ATM card just for use when I travel abroad. I move money into that account before I go and take it back out when I return. Plus that limits my risk in case the card is lost or stolen, even if the thief does figure out my PIN code.

In conclusion, make sure you read all your card agreements and get the best credit card and ATM card for your travel habits. There are a lot out there, but some quick comparisons can save you a lot of cash.