A Briggs Passport & Visa Expeditors

Chicago is the winner (er, loser) and Newark and La Guardia are right on its tail when it comes to airports to avoid. Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago are the worst roads. The California Zephyr from San Francisco to Chicago is on time only 4.6% of the time. Whew! That’s late. Read the article if you want tips on how to avoid the worst places.

————————————————

Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

By James Brown

Some people simply can not afford to invest a lot of money in heavy duty plastic budget travel accessories that separate the various items that they place in their luggage when they are ready to travel. In the real world, it should not matter how things are packed or how orderly they are arranged in the luggage. Some people do not realize the importance of being neat, but still want to pack what they want when they travel.

The important things that people try to remember when they are packing their luggage is that all clothing articles should arrive dry and ready to wear. If they use some budget travel accessories to pack their clothes in, they the clothing items will be ready to wear after they are ironed a bit to knock the wrinkles out. Some people have never realized that the budget travel accessories will keep things safe until a traveler reaches their final destination.

Some budget travel accessories are very cheap and can be disposed of at any time during a trip. These disposable containers would be absolutely perfect for a traveler to store small items in. These budget travel accessories are available in several sizes too and would be perfect to place any type of lotion, shampoo or other liquid in.

The budget travel accessories that are most commonly used for this purpose are plastic storage bags. People use them all of the time for many chores and they are easy to replace because they can be found in discount stores and supermarkets. Plastic storage bags are equipped with zippered tops on them that perform exactly like the more expensive travel bags that someone might pick if they wanted to color coordinate their wardrobe right down to the travel accessories that they choose to keep their garments nice and dry and ready to wear.

New parents choose to use these budget travel accessories in a diaper bag. They learned from friends how these plastic bags would simplify their life. They found out quickly how these plastic bags would allow them to gain quick access to wipes and clothing and a teething cookie if they needed it. The plastic bags were used quite often by the new parents to keep the talcum powder under control.

Parents realize that traveling can get expensive and they have become comfortable with using these plastic bags all over their house. So, it seemed only natural for them to adapt the plastic storage bags to uses such as separating wet items from dry items in their luggage when they travel. When travelers choose to use these budget travel accessories they have more options. They can carry dental care items from their luggage to the sink and return them to the luggage without worrying about the wetness of the items.

These budget travel accessories have also been used to separate the dirty laundry from the clean inside the luggage. People use them to keep their glove compartment organized and to store spare change in for use on toll roads and ferries that they may come in contract with when they are traveling in their own automobile.

————————————————

Planning a trip overseas? You might need a visa. Click here to check the visa requirements for your destination.

About The Author:

James Brown writes about UK Travel Deals and Discounts.

The strikes in France continue and the future is uncertain, so even if it ends, it may start again without any advance notice.

We recommend staying away from France all together.

————————————————

Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

Airports are installing services to reduce flight-related stress.

XpresSpa has day spas in 11 departure terminals, including DFW, Philly, and JFK. McCarran Las Vegas has a 24-Hour Fitness center where flyers can take classes. The Absolute Spa in Vancouver has yoga classes and a lap pool. Hotels at terminals in Detroit and Chicago O’Hare also have gyms for about $15 a day. Austin features local musicians weekday afternoons and a number of local restaurants have airport concessions. Vino Volo operates has wine bars in five airports and will add as many as 10 more in 2008.

The American Airlines Admirals Club at DFW has a kid’s room with computer games and cartoons. O’Hare has a play zone in Terminal Two operated by the Chicago Children’s Museum. San Francisco has Kids’ Spot in Terminal Three. Vancouver’s international terminal has a man-made stream that leads to an aquarium filled with 850 sea creatures and a 1,000-gallon jellyfish tank. Singapore’s Airport was named best airport in the world for the past two decades by Business Traveler magazine. It has exotic gardens, a two-hour tour of nearby Singapore, napping rooms, and a movie theater.

So, if you are stuck in a big airport with nothing to do or time on your hands, talk to folks in the know in the airport and ask them what’s available there for flyers who are going to be there for hours. You might find a pleasant surprise. And remember that if you are in one terminal, there may be something in another terminal.

If you travel domestically and have Southwest service in your city, there is lots of news going on with Southwest. We think Southwest is a great company that has kept customer service at the top of its priorities. They have been consistent and stayed out trouble, unlike most other U.S. airlines.

Southwest is facing more competition and like all the airlines, they are being hurt by record high oil prices. First of all, it is changing its A, B, C “cattle call” boarding. It has been testing in San Antonio a system where if you get an A boarding pass, it is broken down into four number groupings and you line up in the A line depending on your number. We used it in San Antonio and it is less stressful and a big improvement .

The company this week is rolling out the new boarding process nationwide, so you don’t have to line up long before boarding and just stand in line and add to your travel fatigue. It’s much easier. You’ll like it. It is to your advantage to get your boarding pass as soon as possible to get the lowest number in your A, B, or C line.

Southwest is also preparing to give preferred treatment to customers who pay more for their tickets. Southwest will furnish its waiting areas with plush leather chairs with electrical outlets for computers and cell phones.

Southwest is also planning to intiatiate flights to Mexico and the Caribbean.

Many of the airlines that came out of bankruptcy (Delta, United, etc.) cut their labor cost, got rid of unprofitable gate fees and unwanted plane leases. This caused Southwest’s cost advantage to go away, and its crews are now the highest paid in the industry.

Southwest Airlines has reorganized its fare classes into three categories, including a new Business Select “product” that encompasses refundable fares and guarantees those customers would be among the first to board. Business Select also provides bonus loyalty program credits and a free in-flight cocktail. Southwest also changed the way it shows fares on its Web site and added a new category to its frequent flyer program.

Named the A-List, the new top level recognizes the carrier’s frequent customers and automatically checks them in 24 hours before departure, giving them the best seats in the first boarding group.

Southwest’s CEO Gary Kelly fielded questions yesterday, November 8th, regarding Business Select fares, corporate travel sales efforts and business travel demand. Here is a quote from his comments.

Are these Business Select fares higher than any fares you currently have?

Yes they are. We have taken our existing fare structure and we are adding to that for the added value that is being offered through the Business Select product. It is not a fee. It is important to make that distinction. It is a fare, and of course, fares will vary. Arguably, they can vary based on day of week and time of day, and certainly they vary market to market. At least for now, we have some introductory Business Select fares that are as little as $10 more than our full fares, and range up to $25 and $30 higher, roughly. It is not a static fee across the board in every market. That is not the idea.
————————————————

Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

French public transport will stop in France at midnight tonight. In addition, utility unions will probably limit electricity production and theaters will close. This is the second strike in a month.

The protest against President Sarkozy’s plan to reduce pensions will include teachers and civil servants starting next week.

This will not be a pleasant time to visit France. Unions there like to inconvenience as many people as possible, so they can get what they want quicker.

Seven unions called for a strike of unknown duration at the operator of Paris’s metros, buses and tramways, so be ready for this if you are traveling to Paris. Although he said, “We want to keep this strike as short as possible,” Christian Mahieux, a union leader at SNCF, the national rail company, is not someone who really cares based on our past impression of his actions, especially since Xavier Bertrand, the Labor Minister was quoted as saying “The government has no other choice but to give in.”

Strikers will demonstrate tomorrow in the afternoon in Paris, the local Paris authorities reported. Civil servants, teachers and public workers have set a strike for Nov. 20

————————————————

Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

The Libyan government denied entry to tourists because they didn’t have an Arabic translation of their passport — even though they had valid visas.
The sudden unannounced change in entry rules was revealed after planeloads of European tourists were forced to return home after touchdown in Libya. The government in Tripoli has still not officially announced the change and government officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

The development is a reflection of a government that lives in terror of its “leader,” who is an impetuous, pathological killer trying to get in good graces with the West, even as he continues to follow his whims and murderous ways

Eighteen French nationals were stranded at Tripoli airport since Sunday night, and France’s ambassador to Libya intervened in their behalf and they were then allowed to leave.

172 French citizens who arrived Sunday were not allowed to get off their charter flight run by Air Mediterranee which returned to Paris. Then 83 French citizens in Libya were not able to leave because of the rule change applies to tourists exiting Libya.

37 passengers were sent back to Zurich Sunday on a Swiss flight, also because they were not carrying Arabic-language translation of their passports.

He said the airline’s office in Libya was caught unaware of the new rules, which came into force just hours before the Swiss plane landed Sunday.

We suggest that persons planning to travel to Libya postpone their trip until this situation is cleared up.

Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

Twenty-eight shows on Broadway in New York City have closed because of a stagehands strike. No negotiations have been planned, so it could last a while.

If you are planning to travel to NYC to see shows, check beforehand to make sure the strike is over. A few shows like Xanadu are still open, but most are closed.

————————————————

Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

A recent study of business travelers shows definitively there is a risk of dangerous blod clots for persons traveling on long flights and frequent flyers who travel for longer periods of time.

Sitting still for long periods can cause a condition called deep vein thrombosis (D.V.T.). The study found that people who fly four hours or more have three times the risk of developing clots compared with periods when they did not travel.

D.V.T. occurs when a blood clot forms within the large deep veins of the body, usually in the leg. President Nixon had this condition during the time he was president. The NBC reporter David Bloom died of this condition during the U.S. invasion of Iraq because he had been standing for several days in a vehicle. In the condition, part of the clot can break off and travel to the lungs and cause a pulmonary embolism, a serious and potentially fatal condition.

The researchers, Frits R. Rosendaal and Suzanne C. Cannegieter of Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, tracked over 8,000 employees of large international organizations over a multi-year period. The results were published in the online journal PLoS Medicine; preliminary findings were reported in late June by the World Health Organization.

“We now know out of 4,500 people who fly, one will get a D.V.T. within eight weeks after travel,” Dr. Cannegieter said. The risk increases with the length and number of a flights in a short period.

Michael G. Reiff, a U.S. executive with Royal Dutch Shell, was hospitalized with D.V.T. after a flight from Houston to Amsterdam. Mr. Reiff, 53, took long flights almost 50 percent of the time and flew first or business class. He has since cut his flying time almost in half and no longer sleeps on planes. “Now I literally walk up and down the aisles.” At work, “I walk the halls every two hours, even at meetings,” Mr. Reiff said.

Rochelle Broome, corporate medical director for primary care at CHD Meridian Healthcare, recommends employees do frequent seat exercises to ensure increased blood circulation. “You don’t have to take a pill. There’s no shot. It’s easy,” said Dr. Broome, who experienced D.V.T.’s herself.

D.V.T. typically includes unexplained pain, tenderness, redness and swelling, often in the leg. Once a clot has traveled to the lung, common symptoms include chest pain and breathing difficulties. Some cases are asymptomatic or mirror other illnesses. For example, leg pain can be mistaken for a strained muscle and chest pain is often misdiagnosed as a heart attack or the flu.

Aspirin, which is effective in preventing heart attacks and strokes, does not lessen the danger of D.V.T. The researchers warned against wearing commercial compression stockings, which are effective only if custom fit; otherwise, they can have a negative effect by blocking blood flow. Also discouraged is the excessive intake of alcohol and use of sleeping pills because they promote immobility.

————————————————

Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

Now the news media is ganging up on the State Department saying it overcharged citizens more than $100,000,000. It’s a long story, as they say, but the essence is that the $30 applicants pay to the acceptance agent at a post office or court house at the time they apply is twice as much as the actual cost of the process of accepting an application according to a government study.

Talking about the passport acceptance process Senator Byron Dorgan said, “This is not supposed to be a profit-making venture. They charge 30 bucks just for passing something across the counter.”

Well, we know what is involved in the process of accepting passport applications by the acceptance agent, and it can be very complex depending on the quality of the identifying documents presented by applicants when they apply.

Our passport expediting company belongs to an association, the National Association of Passport and Visa Services, and it made a statement in response to a question about this issue from a reporter. It’s statement sums up our feeling on the matter and is quoted in part in the following:
“Our firms work closely with all but two of the passport agencies that are open to the public. In the past year, our firms have submitted hundreds of thousands of applications in behalf of citizens, so we know Passport Services very well. The people that work there are dedicated, hard working public servants, and we have never seen any evidence of waste on their part.

“Acceptance agents provide a critical role by correctly identifying passport applicants. Sometimes that is relatively easy and other times it can be complex depending on the quality of identifying documents presented by the applicant when they appear before an acceptance agent to apply for a passport.

“We have never seen nor heard anything to suggest anyone in the passport issuance process is in any way intentionally overcharging applicants. We do not have access to any authoritative studies of internal operations of Passaport Services or acceptance agent opertions, so we cannot comment on the studies being quoted.

“However, it is ironic that this year in the face of skyrocketing demand, passport expediting firms turned away tens of thousands of Americans wanting to use their services because Pasport Services reduced the number of applications individual firms can submit. Our firms’ passport expediting services start at $65 and go up depending on how quickly the passport is needed. Our firms serve almost all of the major corporations in the U.S and all of the major travel companies and online booking agencies; and through their trade associations, they have collectively urged Passport Services to allow our individual companies to submit more applications.

“With the passport card coming on line soon, it is critical that Passport Services utilize the services of private passport service firms to help citizens who needs a passport or a passport card quickly.”

————————————————

Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.