Time to make holiday travel plans

It might be hard to imagine, but now is the time to start making your holiday travel plans.

The holiday season is right around the corner, which means now is the time to be making your travel plans. News 4 has some money-saving tips for trimming those travel costs.

Hoping to head out of town this holiday season? You're not alone. Demand for flights has risen over six percent this year. Unfortunately, airlines have increased their capacity by less than two percent. That's bad news for travelers because it increases fare prices. The good news? You can make travel more affordable.

For starters, if you have to fly over Thanksgiving don't book a flight for Wednesday, the day before the holiday, which is traditionally the busiest travel day of the year. Instead fly out on the first flight on Thanksgiving morning. Not only will you avoid battling crowds, you won't be charged what airlines call "peak travel day fees," a surcharge that can add $20 to $60 to your ticket price.

If your holiday destination is less than 400 miles away, consider taking the bus. You'll pay as little as one dollar to thirty each way. And thanks to the recent boom in bus services, they're much more comfy now, with leather seats and wi-fi.

Finally, it may be hard to cash in your frequent flyer miles for airfare, so try using miles to defray your hotel costs. Hotels are anxious to fill their rooms, and are making it easier to redeem your miles at their properties.

French strike to cause further travel disruption

French workers have already carried out six common strikes since the beginning of September over proposed pension reforms that would increase the minimum retirement age to 62.

Half of flights to Paris Orly airport, and around a third of services to other French airports, face cancellation, according to the country’s aviation right.

Short-haul flights will be hit hardest, with the vast majority of long-haul flights expected to operate as normal.

British Airways, EasyJet and Air France said the strikes are certain to cause delays and some cancellations. All three airlines urged passengers to check the status of their flights before travelling to the airport. Ryanair has already published on its site a list of more than 200 cancelled flights to destinations across Europe.

Train services are also likely to be affected. During previous walkouts, around two thirds of France's high-speed TGV and usual regional services were cancelled, and Paris metro services were also affected.

Google Faces Opposition to Purchase of Flight Search Technology, ITA

In mid-September news broke that Google was in talks to purchase ITA Software Inc, which is the leader in flight records information, for $700 million and it has made a lot of people very unhappy. A set of very popular online travel companies have formed a coalition called FairSearch.org and planning on taking their cause to Capitol Hill and the members of Congress to demonstrate how unfair they feel this agreement will be to them and their businesses. Companies like Kayak.com, Expedia Inc., Farelogix Inc. and Sabre Holdings (which runs Travelocity) feel that if this deal is to go through it could greatly limit their access to the travel software and thus diminish their stakes in online travel arena.

Those against the deal know how important Google’s “opinion” can be on searchers and with control of about 30% of the travel search share already, they are worried that the search giant will use its influence to direct traffic where they want it to go. Thomas Barnett of Expedia said, “Google has tremendous power in the search market, and it gives Google the capability to steer users in directions that are best for Google”. This sentiment seems to the general consensus among those opposed to the deal. Google on the other hand doesn’t’ see their purchase of ITA as a threat to other online travel sites. They simple want to provide Googlers with extra useful information when it comes to flight information. They also say they don’t plan on selling tickets and that they will continue to honor ITA’s existing contacts; though its rivals say they haven’t committed to renewing any contacts as of yet.

Do you think Google is just trying to give users a better travel search knowledge or do you think this could be the way the foray into the world of online travel for themselves?

Travel by Calif bullet train officials questioned

Ethics issues are being raised about abroad trips taken by California bullet train officials who are reportedly unable to detail costs and sponsors of the travel.

The Los Angeles Times says the travel was paid by governments of nations whose companies want contracts to build the proposed $43 billion Soutchernb California-to-San Francisco high-speed rail assignment.

Details of journey gifts to agencies are required by California ethics regulations.

Interviews and records examined by the newspaper show California High-Speed Rail Authority board members and the former executive director took tours of train systems in Spain, France or Germany previous year.

The authority must publicly disclose donated travel information. But high-speed rail officials haven't provided an accounting and information about the trips haven't been posted on the authority's website.

British Airways to restore travel perk to striking cabin crew

In a main concession to its cabin crew, British Airways (BA) has announced that it will restore basic travel concessions to those who went on strike earlier this year.

From Tuesday (26 October) staff will regain the generous perk - as much as 90 per cent off certain fares.

However, confusion remains over who will receive the perk. According to a report on the BBC website, striking cabin crew went "to the back of the queue for travel perks". The restoration of seniority will be conditional upon a worker's "excellent behaviour for the next three years".

Travel concessions have been at the heart of the long-running dispute between the unions and administration. Willie Walsh, BA's Chief Executive, had said previously that he would not reinstate the perk. This move is being greeted by the unions as a softening of management resolve.

This dispute started in November 2009 over staffing levels and working situation. Since March there have been 22 days of strike action, which cost the airline £150m and widespread disruption to passengers' travel plans.

Delta Benefits From Higher Fares, Travel Rebound

Atlanta-based Delta Airlines Inc. swung to a profit in the third quarter as fares for tickets increased and customer demand for travel rebounded after three years of declines.

The world’s second biggest airline said third-quarter earnings were $363 million, or 43 cents per share. Last year it lost $161 million during the same period.

“Delta’s revenue performance exceeded our expectations for the quarter, with particularly strong performance from our international markets,” said President Ed Bastian in a statement.

The company is forecasting strong holiday travel demand this winter. Delta is the initial of major airlines to release quarterly earnings.

Wanderfly, a "Travel Inspiration Site," Opens to the Public this Week

Travel is a beautiful thing but picking the correct destination can be stressful, particularly when vacation days and cost are an issue. Wanderfly.com is the digital version of spinning a globe and throwing out your finger to pick your next goal. The site acts like a Pandora of a travel, analyzing a destination's DNA and mapping it to what user's want.

In late August, we offered our readers personal beta invites to check out Wanderfly first hand. This week, the "travel inspiration site" has launched in public beta and has announced partnerships with 22 brands including Expedia, Foursquare, Yelp, NileGuide, Not for Tourists, Rough Guides, Find.Eat.Drink. and Lonely Planet.

Wanderfly lets users be adventurous. Just leave the "I Want To Explore" box as "Anywhere" or limit your search to a region such as "Asia" or "South America." It's similar to Kayak's Explore feature, but with more useful information like recommended activities (powered by services like Eventful), fast verify out and a simple, beautiful layout. With Wanderfly, users pick a price range, estimated dates and themes such as beach, party, luxury, culture, food, shopping, etc. Wanderfly then searches over 20 trusted sites, including Expedia, Foursquare, Yelp and Lonely Planet, to recommend a trip complete with destination, flight, hotel and activities.

After 7,000 private beta testers over the past few months, Wanderfly has updated their user interface, which includes multiple recommendations, allowing users to flip through trips with the arrows or click on the grid icon on the upper blue bar to view trip ideas from all over the globe at once. According to Wanderfly, their simple flight selector has been a huge hit in beta. The engine suggests just one flight, and allows users to click "more" to check out additional flights in a simple interface.

Additionally, the site offers a Facebook connect so users can see if their friends live in any of the destinations that Wanderfly recommends. The site also gives users the ability to share a trip on Facebook with the talk bubble icon on the upper blue bar.