Set sail for the Baja Riviera aboard Royal
Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas. Follow the golden sunshine
south of LA and sail to three of the Pacific Coast's most
beautiful hotspots. Sunbathe on San Diego's white-sand
beaches, sport fish on Catalina Island and Ride horseback in
Ensenada's San Miguel Hills. Prices start at just $229.
For more information, visit www.SummitCruiseVacations.com
or call
800-638-0600
Get away to spectacular
Cable Beach with an exclusive vacation to exciting Nassau. Fly
roundtrip to the Bahamas, enjoy four unforgettable nights at
one of three fabulous Cable Beach resorts:
Nassau Beach Hotel from
$549
Wyndham Nassau Resort
& Crystal Palace Casino from $765
Radisson Cable Beach
& Golf Resort (All Inclusive!) from $1089
To plan your Nassau Cable
Beach Getaway, call
800-950-2030
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Soaring temperatures were the order of the day Tuesday, causing
power outages around the country. Power at LaGuardia was down for
most of the day causing headaches for Delta and American. Part of
the subway system was also down during rush hour yesterday. Repairs
were being made to feeder cables but by last afternoon, three of the
eight cables were still down. Some flights were shifted to Newark
and JFK and American cancelled 13 flights. Residents of New York
have been urged to conserve electricity. A power outage at a
regional radar facility halted most air traffic in the Los Angeles
area. Many departing flights at LAX were grounded.
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) now has 3,100
additional covered parking spaces available at a record low rate of
$12 per day in a new long-term parking garage. The garage, located
across from the United Maintenance Center, comes with a list of
amenities that includes shuttle service every five minutes during
peak times and every 10 minutes during off peak. The garage entrance
is via the San Bruno exit from Highway 101 or the South Airport
Boulevard exit from Interstate 380.
United will be upgrading their EasyCheck-in units at SFO this
week to include passport readers. Thereconfigurations will be taking
place after hours to avoid any disruption to passengers. And,
effective September 6, United will launch new daily non-stop
service, via Airbus 319, between San Francisco and Toronto Canada.
On July 29, Los Angeles International Airport will close one
runway for a $333 million project moving the runway 55 feet in order
to improve airport safety and prepare the airport for a new
generation of jumbo jets. Work is starting now in order to make sure
the airport is capable of handling the new 555-seat Airbus A380s
next year. The city's airport agency and federal aviation officials
have long lobbied for the improvements to avoid close calls on the
runway. Delays are expected; the Federal Aviation Administration has
taken the unusual step of suggesting that airlines rework their
schedules to reduce flights at peak times. The runway is scheduled
to reopen in March. (Source: Los Angeles Times). 
Northwest is beginning new special boarding lanes for its premium
and most frequent customers The new service, introduced in Detroit,
Bismark and Fargo, N.D.; Phoenix and Portland, Ore., the first week
of July, is available to members of Northwest's WorldPerks frequent
flyer program who have achieved Elite status, customers flying first
class, World Business Class and customers of the SkyTeam Alliance
who hold Elite status. The lanes will be introduced at all Northwest
loading bridge-equipped gates in U.S. airports within the next two
months. Signs, stanchions and carpeting in departure gate areas mark
the special lanes. (Source: Northwest press release).
Low cost Mexican airline Click is adding a flight to Miami from
Cancun. The airline just celebrated its first year of operation and
doubled in size during the year.
Southwest announced its second quarter profit more than doubled
despite higher fuel costs. The carrier earned $333 million for the
quarter compared to $144 million for the same period last year.
Passenger traffic was up 15.3% on capacity increases of 7.2% and
load factor was 78%. Southwest said bookings for the third quarter
were strong.
Delta and KLM will begin codesharing beyond their hubs, following
approval by the department of Transportation earlier this year. The
Delta codeshare flights on KLM will be available for sale in all
major reservations systems effective July 20. KLM will also begin
its codesharing with Delta on July 20.
Marriott Golf, the world's largest resort golf management
company, has introduces "Kids Golf-4-Free," a program that enables
adults and kids to play and learn the game together. It is available
at 36 of Marriott Golf's top resort destinations, encompassing 52
courses. Children up to 15 years of age golf for free when
accompanied by a full-paying adult after 3 p.m.
Hotel rooms will be harder to find this summer, compared to last
year, and, second, travelers will pay more for these rooms,
according to a recent PKF Hospitality Research Report In fact,
summer travelers are forecast to spend an average of 6.0 percent
more to rent a hotel room this summer compared to the summer of
2005. Hotel occupancy rates are forecast to average 74.1 percent,
the highest level since 1997. This analysis is based on the summer
2006 edition of Hotel Outlook, an econometric forecasting model
developed by PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR) and Torto Wheaton
Research. (Source: PKF press release)
There will be a strike of rail signal operators in Britain this
coming Friday and Saturday. There will probably be widespread
disruption to rail service across the UK Eurostar services will
continue to operate about 85% of its service although schedules have
been amended to earlier or later departure times. Two trains have
been cancelled for Friday and 10 on Saturday. Passengers holding
tickets on cancelled trains will be re-booked on earlier or later
service but you must call Eurostar to have changes made. Refunds
will be made or tickets can be exchanged for travel within 60 days.
The Crown Princess has a steering problem which caused the ship
to unexpectedly roll yesterday injuring many passengers. An adult
and a child were critically injured and another 10 passengers were
seriously injured with about 30 with lesser injuries. The ship had
just left Port Canaveral on its way to New York when it listed to
port and then righted itself. A passenger said several of the upper
decks were flooded and the elevators were inoperable. The Crown
Princess has only been sailing for a month. Now we can expect to see
several lawsuits come out of this incident. According to reports
there were about 3,100 passengers on board and 1,200 crew. The ship
will remain in Port Canaveral for several days. A spokesperson for
the cruise line said "We deeply regret this incident, and are doing
everything we can to make our passengers as comfortable as possible
under these difficult circumstances."
Once again, low-cost carriers out-perform traditional carriers.
The J.D. Power and Associates 2006 North America Airlines
Satisfaction Study found that low-cost carriers won higher ratings
from consumers than traditional carriers, with low-cost carriers
earning an average score of 739 from air passengers compared to 675
for traditional network carriers. Top scoring low-cost carriers were
JetBlue (820), Southwest (735), AirTran (722) and Frontier (716).
Top scoring traditional carriers were Continental (697), Delta
(695), American (675) and Alaska (672). During a period of major
cost-cutting by many carriers, increasing ticket prices and
overbooked flights, airlines focusing on their people and processes
have the highest passenger satisfaction, the study, conducted in
association with Aviation Week, found. The study is based on
responses from 9,334 passengers who flew on a major North American
airline between January and May 2006. The study measured performance
in seven categories (in order of importance): cost and fees; flight
crew; in-flight services; check-in; boarding/deplaning/baggage;
aircraft; and flight reservation. The study finds that "process"
factors, such as check-in, how passengers board the plane and how
baggage is delivered at the destination; and "people" factors, such
as hiring the right people and training and enabling them to be
successful, are what differentiate carriers in the eyes of
passengers.
 Summit
Travel Group is committed to providing you with useful information
on the latest developments in the travel industry. The preceding
information has been compiled from a variety of sources and is
updated monthly.
www.summittravelgroup.com
www.ethanallen.net
www.meridianworldtravel.com
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