Are you falling victim to exorbitant airline name change fees?

Next time you book a flight you might want to double or even triple check that all your personal info is correct. Carriers policies’ on name changes for tickets can be very strict and can lead to very costly fees to change them.

In the past, minor errors could be corrected (although not always very easily) but the industry standard has been that major alterations require a fee or even an entirely new ticket (big bucks for the airlines!).

 Earlier this year, a new rule was passed by the U.S. Transportation Department that allows customers to cancel their airline reservation within 24 hours of making it. This rule has allowed for most ticketing errors to be fixed and has taken away a big revenue source from the airlines.

However, outside of that 24 hour span, airline rules on changes are still vague and/or restrictive. Some airlines say no name changes are permitted while others advise travelers to go to the ticket counter at the airport to try to have their ticket changed. Allegiant is the only domestic airline that clearly allows for name changes, albeit for a $50 fee.

A simple way to make sure you do not encounter this problem is to use a U.S. travel agency like POTHOS. We do not outsource our call centers to foreign countries. This provides our customers with a much better communication platform. We also email drafts to catch any misspellings or other errors. Lastly, we can provide far better service than online ticketing agencies, where it might be very difficult to contact an agent to help with any issues.

Regardless of how your airline tickets are booked, you should always verify that all of your info is correct on your ticket. If you don’t, there is a good chance the airlines will be profiting on this mistake.

Wheeling and Dealing

Looking for ways to cut to the front of airport security lines? Apparently you’re not the only one.

Airport workers say they are seeing an increased amount of travelers abusing the complimentary wheelchairs provided at airports. It has even gotten to the point that airport workers expect increased wheelchair requests whenever they see security lines that are especially long.

Wheelchair passengers go through an expedited security screening and get to board the plane first, so maybe it should be of no surprise that there are a few unsavory characters who try to take advantage of this.

Airports are required by law to accommodate disabled travelers free of charge. However, there is no requirement for passengers to prove their disability when requesting a wheelchair. Which begs the question, should airports start to charge or require proof of disability for wheelchairs?

I think it is safe to say that requiring proof of disability (much like a handicap parking placard) would weed out most of the abusers of this service and leave the wheelchairs for those who are truly in need of them!

Only 1 in 5 American Small Businesses Plan To Hire in 2013

A recent survey by the US Chamber of Commerce shows that 82% of small business owners feel that the economy is not going in the right direction, and that only 20% of small businesses plan to hire any employees over the next year.

Dr. Martin Regalia, the Chief Economist of the Chamber, feels that Washington’s decision making and policies are keeping small business owners unsure of the economic future. 72% of participants felt that the health care law effects ability to grow and potentially hire new employees. 78% of participants simply feel that Washington should stop making policies that effect small businesses and “get out of the way”.

The general sentiment seems to be that there needs to be either less involvement by the government or a change in Washington in order to instill policies that will benefit small businesses. Until those changes come, the job market will remain dry for those seeking employment in small businesses.

Michael Patton, CEO of POTHOS and small business owner, sees things a bit differently. “I tend to believe that government policies need to continue to support small business, which, as stated by President Obama, is the engine of the economy,” Mr. Patton says. “I support increased legislation to spend a larger amount of public monies with SDVOSB & SB as well as revision of tax code”.

The US Chamber of Commerce represents 3 million small businesses in the United States, making it the largest federation of small businesses in the world. The poll was conducted through an online survey involving both US Chamber members and non-US Chamber members, making a sample size of 1,225 participants. The US Chamber of Commerce defined small businesses as companies with less than 25 million dollars in revenue and fewer than 500 employees. The participants were tailored to represent the small business market of the United States. 

In Developing Countries, Tourists Using Up to 16 Times More Water than Locals

It has been widely and somewhat naively accepted by the general public that tourism is nothing but beneficial for developing countries. As many of us have come to see firsthand, some of the most beautiful places in the world are also the setting of some of the world’s worst poverty. The notion that “tourism brings money” to poor countries seems to scratch that little itch of guilt that tourists have about enjoying a lavish getaway mere meters away from a thatch-roof hut.

While it all sounds neat and tidy on paper, it has become apparent that the devil is in the details. Hotels and resorts have only very little figurative trickle-down effect for money flow, and even less literal trickle-down when it comes to ample fresh water.

While tourists are enjoying swimming pools, multiple showers per day, fresh drinking water and green golf courses maintained by complex sprinkler systems, locals are surviving off the bare dregs of the water supply.

In resort towns in Bali, Indonesia and Nungwi , Zanzibar, research has shown that tourists are running up to 16 times more water than locals, and the water that actually does get to the mouths of destitute locals is often contaminated.

3 locals died in a Zanzibar resort town after an outbreak of cholera. Many attributed the spread of the disease to the poor quality of local water.

Resorts have shown little sympathy to the local thirst, as many hotels have employed security guards to protect and monitor fresh water tanks to prevent theft or sabotage.

This is an issue for the governments of countries that are extremely dependant on their tourism industry. Many elected officials lobby for resorts as a way to bring revenue to developing countries, but the local sentiment seems to be that distribution of revenue and facilities is extremely unfair and puts the community in the backseat to the money-making juggernaut that is the tourism industry. 

While it’s natural to feel that you deserve to live in excess when you travel to an all-inclusive resort, it’s also important to be aware of how these resort towns are affecting the local lifestyle, for better or for worse, before choosing a getaway location. 

United Purchases 150 New Aircraft from Boeing

United Continental Holdings, Inc. seem to be setting the precedent for an environmentally friendly and technologically savvy revamp of their entire United Airlines fleet.

We posted earlier in this blog about the highly anticipated 787 Boeing Dreamliner, which will provide a new standard in the travel experience while reducing fuel costs by nearly 20%. Boeing plans to add 50 new Dreamliners to their fleet, being the first American carrier to fly the aircraft. The first Dreamliner will arrive in September of this year.

In addition to the 50 Dreamliners, United Airlines ordered 150 smaller, one-aisle 737s from Boeing, continuing the overhaul of the company’s flying equipment and boasting greater travel efficiency with lower fuel costs per seat.  Compared to the current 737s in use, United claims that the new models will reduce emissions by 13%. Coupled with modern travel technologies and flight efficiency, United Airlines’ reduction of the carbon footprint makes them one of the world’s most enticing air travel options.

Unfortunately, the planes take quite a while to build.

In 2013, deliveries will begin for the 737-900ER. These models will replace old and outdated domestic United aircraft and plan to burn 15% less fuel per seat. 50 of these planes are expected to be delivered between 2013 and 2022.

We’ll have to wait until 2018 for the next model 737, the MAX 9.

The future is bright for United frequent fliers, as we have a large amount of fancy new aircraft to look forward to. CEO of POTHOS, Michael Patton, is a United 1k Million Mile Frequent Flier and encourages travelers to book with United and experience their efficient service and, soon, their cutting edge aircraft.

On a recent trip to Seattle, we had the pleasure of grabbing a sneak peak of the 787 Dreamliner at the Boeing Factory. We can’t wait to see the new 737s! 

Airline Passengers Willing to Pay to Exit Planes Faster

Travelling can get pretty stressful if you let the little things get to you: losing luggage, an intoxicated passenger in the adjacent seat, and said adjacent passenger getting “motion sickness” halfway through the flight.

We here at POTHOS encourage travelers to relax and take all of annoying little nuances of air travel in stride.

For example, be thankful for when your plane lands safely. When the seatbelt light goes off, enjoy the fact that you can turn on your smart phone and check your emails. As the plane finishes taxiing, gleefully watch as the uptight passengers frantically jockey for position in line for exiting the plane.

Alas, we are not here to judge, and the 2 minutes or so that a frequent flier gains by exiting the plane before everyone else could be potentially valuable to that person. How valuable, you ask?

Roughly $20 dollars. 

In polls by Airfarewatchdog.com, some fliers were willing to pay extra to not only board the plane before everyone else, but also exit the plane with priority. The polls declared about 10 percent of passengers were willing to pay $10 while 3 percent would pay up to $20.

This might seem fairly bizarre to some. Interestingly enough, the same travelers that are willing to pay extra to get into those cramped seating quarters before everyone else are the same ones that are willing to pay even more to get out of them before everyone else. 

“To each their own,” we suppose. We do not doubt that there are frequent fliers with deep pockets who have strict deadlines to meet that exiting the plane as soon as possible can give them a competitive business advantage. Besides, the poll only showed that %3 percent were willing to pay that extra $20 dollars.

Surely this would not benefit airlines enough to institute a new fare. Surely. 

Zesty Condiment Creations for your Summertime BBQs

We here at POTHOS are sure that many of you spent your 4^th of July outside in the sun, grilling up something delicious.

However, in addition to your Independence Day delicacies, we’ve decided that this blog will be dedicated to continuing your culinary adventures with a couple recipes from our residential foodie, CEO of POTHOS, Michael Patton.

Always keep cooking and always try something new. Remember, we’ve got a whole summer of sunshine and great food ahead of us!

Try these homemade variations on common condiments to spice up any barbeque or dinner party.

Homemade Ketchup

Ingredients

4 pints ripe grape tomatoes, cut in half

2 cups red wine vinegar

2/3 cup brown sugar

4 teaspoon sea salt

2 teaspoons black pepper

¾ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

(remember, quality of ingredients make a big difference in final product so use the best quality)

Preparation

In skillet, simmer tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, salt & pepper until thick (20 – 25 minutes)

Puree until smooth, strain, stir in Worcestershire sauce, chill completely overnight

Yields about 2 cups of your own brand of ketchup!

Homemade grainy mustard

Ingredients

¼ cup brown mustard seeds

¼ cup yellow mustard seeds

½ cup white wine

1 teaspoon sea salt

Preparation

Please seeds in medium bowl, stir in wine and ½ cold water. Cover and let stand overnight

Puree mixture until you reach desired consistency and refrigerate again for 24 hours.

Yields 1 ½ cups

So the next time your wise guy uncle asks if anyone remembered to bring the condiments for his 4^th of July frankfurter, break out these lip smacking flavor enhancers and impress the family!

Travelling During a Potential Strike: How to Prepare

When travelling abroad, especially bouncing about through multiple European countries, each country has their own carriers, all of which have different histories of labor disruptions. Before booking your flights, do your research to which carriers are least likely to strike during the time of your trip. Historically, northern European countries like England are much less likely to have issues as opposed to countries like France or Italy.

It’s also important to check if the airline you are booking with is affiliated with any other airlines. Partnerships are common amongst airlines, so be sure to choose one that can potentially rebook you on a partner’s flight if something goes wrong, and spending a little extra and buying travel insurance certainly couldn’t hurt if you feel at risk.

Enlisting a travel agent will ensure that even the most complicated trip schedules will be booked and rebooked appropriately to accommodate you. POTHOS ensures any flights that are lost due to labor disputes will be rebooked as quickly and conveniently as possible. 

If the unthinkable happens and a labor dispute occurs during your time of travels, fret not, you still have some options. If you haven’t purchased a fully refundable ticket with a different carrier as a backup plan, get on the phone and call until you speak to someone that can help. Often, one airline carrier agent will be more lenient than another, allowing you to adjust your flights accordingly.

For up to the minute information, make sure that you are following all of the airlines you are travelling with on Twitter.  

Air France Plans to Cut 5,100 Jobs By Decemeber 2013

 Air France, in hopes of returning to era of break-even profit margins, have undertaken in an investment involving a multi-million dollar refurbishment of cabin facilities on the airlines with a focus on the premium classes.

The massive financial business project will require “restructuring” on short- and medium-haul operations for Air France. The carrier plans to complete the job cuts by December of 2013 and has claimed to only use “forced departures” as a last resort, and rely heavily on voluntary retirements.

Air France claims that talks with ground staff, cabin crew and pilot unions are already underway.

The enormous size of the cutback and the idea that over 5,000 jobs can be lost and the airline can continue to operate raises a litany of questions for the carrier’s human relations and task management divisions. 

Michael Patton, CEO of POTHOS, asks “How can businesses (airlines) continue to cut people? At what point do you not have any staff anymore? How can a business staff so far excessively? Were those people doing any work? How can that work be absorbed?”

The recovery plan was introduced in January and further announcements can be expected over the coming months.

USA’s Biggest Hotel Chains Considering Pulling Free WiFi

Massive usage in internet bandwidth is leading some of the biggest hotels in the US to ponder whether they should keep offering completely free WiFi.

Currently, all hotels are still offering WiFi, but many large hotel chains like Marriott International and Carlson Hotels are now giving guests a choice of an upgraded connection that offers faster speeds and more bandwidth, for an additional cost, of course.

The demand is growing out of control with free internet access being the most highly requested amenity offered during a hotel stay. With the increase smart phone and laptop presence for travelers, hotels are seeing bandwidth demand rise.  Dave Garrison, the CEO of iBahn, references data acquired in the months of March 2011 to December 2011, saying they have seen a 50% increase in data usage from hotel internet connections.

The increase of bandwidth usage increases the costs for the hotel to provide smooth internet service. Hotels have been beefing up their connections, and with the additional costs on their end, they are open to the idea of offering different speeds of internet with different cost brackets.

IBahn recently stated that 40% of their guests have 2 different WiFi devices, while a 1 in 4 of their guests are carrying 3 or more.

This battle for bandwidth could spell additional fees for travelers.

Michael Patton, CEO of POTHOS, believes this is the wrong decision to make. "When more than 70% of travelers saying internet is the single most important service offering. Just like TV, this service should be for free as it is a business and life requirement for us to stay connected." 

AirAsia Discussing Use of Travel Consultants in Burgeoning Markets

The highly successful B2C sales model may be slightly altered by AirAsia with the emergence of travel consultants in the airline’s distribution network. The agents will be mainly focused in smaller markets like the Philippines and Indonesia.

“(Travel consultants) are a very important growth (channel) for AirAsia. They should not consider us as the enemy” said Tony Fernandes, AirAsia group CEO.

They plan to increase cooperation with travel trade and will be making announcements in the coming months. They are also discussing the introduction of a new structure of commission based business for travel consultants.

AirAsia’s home country of Malaysia remains perfectly satisfied with the current state of distribution, which shows 95% of the country’s business comes solely from AirAsia’s website.

“I wonder when all airlines will realize that travel agents are their external sales force;” says Michael Patton, CEO of POTHOS, “servicing their customers, driving business and deserve the commission compensation that was taken from us so long ago.”

Major Airlines Increase Passenger Flights on Regional Partners, Confuse and Frustrate Fliers

 With the vast emptiness of the sky, it seems almost impossible to imagine that traffic jams and overcrowding can exist in the same way that it does on the ground in the busiest of American metropolitan areas. However, increases in flights with regional airline companies are doing just that – clogging everything up.

USA today researched that about 53 percent of all commercial airline flights in the United States are flown by regional carriers. This is a result of major airline companies establishing affiliations with smaller regional airlines and allowing flyers who book with major airlines to have their tickets be passed down to regional carriers.

Besides the deception that comes with thinking that you’re going to be flying with a major airline when you’re really flying with a company you’ve never heard of, what’s the problem? They’re affiliated with the majors, so isn’t it the same thing?

Not exactly.

As far as safety standards are concerned, the United States boasts a strong air travel safety record. There is a disparity, however, in the flight safety records between “major” airlines and regional aircraft. While there hasn’t been a fatal “major” airline accident in the United States since 2001, there have been 5 different regional airline accidents operating in affiliation with major airline companies since then, leading to 135 deaths.

In addition to general flight safety, being passed off to a regional aircraft has other small, but annoying setbacks. Cabins are generally smaller, leading smaller and more cramped seating arrangements.

You’d be happy to deal with the uncomfortable seats if the regional airline even takes off in the first place. Regional flights ranked last in amount of cancelled flights and involuntary bumping of passengers. Regional carriers also had the most mishandled baggage, adding to an already poor reputation.

Smaller regional carriers began as a way to fly to more rural areas, but now every morning regional airlines fly 30 to 35 nonstop flights between New York and Washington, DC, creating overcrowding on the airfield, in the air, and at check in stations for passengers.

Even frequent fliers are finding themselves getting duped by major airlines into thinking they’re flying with one carrier when they’re really on another. The best way to be sure a flight is with a reputable major airline is to find out explicitly what airline is operating the flight, because booking with a major doesn’t necessarily mean you’re flying with a major. 

Michael Patton, CEO of POTHOS, had this to say on the quality of service from regional carrier SkyWest and Republic Airlines:

"It is from personal experience that I can tell you SkyWest (United's regional carrier from San Diego to LAX) cares absolutely NOTHING for its passengers. The Skywest staff will lie when it is to their advantage and they have no honor. I do realize the significance of this broad generalization, but over the last 8 years, I can tell you this to be absolutely the rule, not the exception from this personal experience. Republic airlines, on the other hand, does an exceptional job."

If you are booking your flights with a travel agency such as POTHOS, we always list explicitly on the itinerary the name of the actual carrier.