We have just experienced two of the most difficult and disappointing weeks in the recent history of travel. The sadness began with the debacle of Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport, where British Airways totally bungled the opening of a giant new facility, destroying the trips of thousands, losing the luggage of tens of thousands, and creating a reputation for incompetence that will takes years to dispel. The bad news continued with the bankruptcy in one week of three airlines: ATA (a major source of low-cost air tickets to Hawaii), Aloha Airlines (internal flights within the Hawaiian islands), and Skybus (charging $10 a seat for the first several seats on its flights to and from Columbus, Ohio); and the insolvencies continued the very next week with the Chapter XI filing by Frontier Airlines (which has, however, continued flying). (Various travel pros are currently taking bets on the next carriers to go under, and the list includes some of the best known.)

Then things got worse, with the cancellation of hundreds of American Airlines flights due to the need for long-delayed inspection of aircraft wiring, ruining trips by more than a hundred thousand passengers and causing airports to bulge with stranded travelers. (On my own Delta flight to Atlanta, Georgia, this past Friday, there were 30 stand-bys -- all people attempting to travel onward via the Georgia capital in substitution for the more logical itineraries of their cancelled American Airlines flights.)

And finally, this past Friday, the U.S. dollar resumed its drop against the European Euro, reaching a level of $1.59 per Euro -- which means an actual exchange of more than $1.70 per Euro when the fees and commissions of money-changers are factored in. (Not too long ago, the U.S. dollar sold at par against the Euro.) As is already the case in Britain, where you must double the price in English pounds in order to get the dollar equivalent, we may soon have to do the same with Euros on the continent -- as if European prices weren't high enough already!

So what's to be done? You must always pay for your travel purchases with credit cards, hoping that the credit card company will reimburse you if the trip you have purchased goes down the drain. You might also take out travel insurance (go to www.insuremytrip.com for an analysis of the policies), purchasing only those policies that protect against the default of the supplier. And with respect to the high cost of traveling in Europe? Well, that's another matter.

I can tell you from the experience of my trip over the past two weeks that Europe has not lost its appeal. It is still the classic destination for Americans, a part of our cultural life, a source of our heritage. Your recourse is to radically change your method of traveling in Europe, substituting much cheaper alternative accommodations (apartments, hostels, rooms in private homes, monasteries, schools, free hospitality services like Servas, Couchsurfering, and Globalfreeloaders) for hotels, eating picnic meals once a day, splitting mealtime plates with your companion. Approached in that manner, Europe can even become a more vital and authentic experience.

And finally, you can take that long-delayed trip to Central or South America in place of Europe, traveling where the dollar remains strong. By 2009, and possibly depending on political developments, the dollar may regain some of its strength, and it surely will do so over the long run.

In this blog, we'll be constantly on the lookout for other means of reducing the cost of a European trip. If anything significant occurs, you'll learn it here.

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Labels: airlines, money, tips, travel insurance