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Article / Arthur Frommer Online

A New Website Sells Off Non-Refundable Hotel Reservations at Deep Discounts

Often, if you want the cheapest hotel room price, you have to consent to a non-refundable rate, and that makes it impossible to change plans without eating the cost. But a newly…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

White House Tours Are On Again....For Now. Why You'll Want to Book Sooner Rather Than Later

Though it hasn't been publicly announced, word has leaked out--as tends to happen in Washington, DC--that the White House is now holding tours again. The website has been updated…

Article / Passportable

Virgin America Releases the Grooviest In-Flight Safety Video of All Time

A few weeks ago, Air New Zealand bent the rules of due diligence by bringing out an uproarious in-flight safety video featuring Betty White and Gavin McLeod and set at a retirement…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Sunday Only: Two-For-The-Price-Of-One Airline Seats from Virgin America (Newark Departures Only)

Tricky Virgin Atlantic! It has waited for the weekend to float one of the best deals it has offerred this year, a two-for-the-price-of-one offer from Newark to a whole slew of…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Though Harry Potter Has Garnered All the Raves, The True Hit Attraction of Orlando's Theme Parks is Disney's Soarin'

In the bitter competition between theme parks in Orlando, Florida, the Harry Potter exhibit at Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure has recently scored a public relations…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

To Save the Expense of a Ground-Floor, Central City Office, More and More Travel Agents Are Simply Working From Their Homes

What happened to all those travel agencies that used to operate from behind plate glass windows in ground-floor locations on street corners in your…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Soon You Can Use Electronic Devices During Most of the Flight, the FAA Declares

The FAA has decided it's safe to operate most electronics for the duration of a commercial flight.In a press release issued on Halloween, it said that although mobile phone use…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

A New Online Travel Agency Allows Users To Hold Airfares, Without Full Payment, For Up to 21 Days

It was only a matter of time, it seems, before someone applied the rules that have long governed the “art” of Wall Street trading to the highly unstable airfare market. That…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Low-Cost Carrier Norwegian To Tackle American Market with $584 Round-Trip New York to London

A new player for low-cost airfares from the United States to Europe is materializing.Norwegian Air, already the third-largest low-cost carrier in Europe, will launch 787…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Book Review: National Geographic Issues a Delightful New Coffee Table Tome

Being in the right place at the right time.Some would say that’s the key to a good life, but the editors of National Geographic have a simpler formula: They think choosing the…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

TSA Checkpoint in Dallas Outfitted with Couches, Music, Mood Lighting: Corporate Branding Brings Respect

People who use Terminal E in Dallas have experienced the change. Where the TSA checkpoint was once bleak and gunmetal grey, now there is music streaming from Pandora and lavender…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

In America, It's the Low-Cost, Bargain-Priced Vacations That Continue to Account for the Overwhelming Number of Leisure-Time Trips

Every day in my mail or computer monitor, I receive invitations to purchase luxury-priced travel.  This cruise for $6,000.  That African safari for $8,000.  This or that…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

I Have Just Returned From a Visit to a Unique Peninsula-Island of America, Of Which I Had Never Heard: The "Eastern Shore" of Virginia

Because a young acquaintance of ours was getting married there, my wife and I recently ventured to a place of which I had never heard:  the Eastern Shore of Virginia. …

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Was I Right or Wrong to Recommend That You Leave Your Passport in the Hotel Safe While Traveling Abroad?

No recent bit of travel advice has generated more controversy than my recent suggestion to leave your passport in the hotel safe when you leave to go sightseeing on a…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Eureka! You Can Enjoy a Round-Trip Price of $566 between New York and Paris from November 4 until December 15 on That Reluctant Airline, "XL"

When you call to make a booking (to 877/496-9889), you often speak to a telephone reservationist whose command of French is better than her grasp of English.  And because of…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

At Westin, If You Decline Housekeeping, They'll Give You $5 to Spend

If you're cheap, you will now benefit from being a slob, too.Westin, an upscale-ish branch of the giant Starwood group of hotels, has a new idea. If you do something "great for…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Three Hot New Travel Inventions Coming to You Soon Through Crowdfunding

The entire Internet is now an episode of Shark Tank. Inventors with a good idea no longer have to go the traditional route and sell out to VCs and banks—they can take the product…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Three Hot New Travel Inventions Coming to You Soon Through Crowdfunding

The entire Internet is now an episode of Shark Tank. Inventors with a good idea no longer have to go the traditional route and sell out to VCs and banks—they can take the product…

Article / Passportable

The Trailer for 'Pompeii' Starring Kit Harrington Mistakes Tourist Attraction for History

The cheesy, pectoral-flexing Hollywood treatment of the destruction of Pompeii will arrive in cinemas in February, but the quick teaser trailer is already here.It starts as the…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

A Few Lucrative National Parks Are Reopened, But Most American Treasures Remain Forbidden

To help curb some of the damage cause to income and tourism by the Congressional-led government shutdown, state governments are now permitted to open National Park units they deem…

Article / Passportable

Watch Betty White's New In-Flight Safety Video for Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand, an airline known for its celeb-studded safety videos (which have featured Richard Simmons and, erm, some hobbits, managed to convince TV legend Betty White to do its…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Is the TSA Pulling Aside Travelers at Airport Security to Make Sales Pitches for TSA Pre Check?

Word comes to me today from a traveler who had a strange experience at the airport in Las Vegas today.The traveler, who did not wish to be named, told me that he and several other…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Forget the Phone. Now Twitter is the Place to Get the Fastest Customer Service

"Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain." —Lily TomlinAnd man invented Twitter to make sure everyone had to listen.It's pretty obvious that Twitter is a…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

A Lawsuit By the Attorney General of New York is Threatening to Put an End to the Short-Term Rental of Apartments to Cost-Conscious Tourists

In its impact on the ability of Americans to travel, no legislation could be more misguided or harmful than the ban against the short-term rental of apartments enacted into law…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

If You Dance or Sing, Trade Your Talent for Travel Across Canada or the Atlantic Ocean

Canada's Globe and Mail broke the story open, and now everyone with a guitar may be begging to sign up: Via Rail, Canada's national railway, grants free train tickets and meals to…