The Best Pet Friendly Airlines in the Country

In general, commercial airlines are not very good to trust the transport of animals to. When pet stores and pet owners use commercial airlines to transport pets, it isn't unusual to see animals die. On most commercial airline flights, your pets don't get to travel in the cabin. They only get to travel in the hold where there is no real protection against pressure changes and temperatures changes. Not to mention, it isn't just the flight time that you need to worry about. From the time you give your pet up at the counter, your pet is on his own. It can take quite a while for them to put your pet on the plane and then bring him back to you at the other end. In other words, most commercial airlines aren't really pet friendly airlines.

Pet Airways is certainly one way to go. This is the only airline out there that's completely designed for pet comfort. It's an airline that only takes pets - not people. When you check your pet in on this airline, they treat your pet like they would a minor child traveling alone on a commercial flight.

The flight attendant takes charge of the pet, personally transports him into the cabin, feeds him and gets him some water every now and then, and keeps him entertained. If you have large dogs like Great Danes to transport, commercial airlines can be torture to them. A dedicated airline like Pet Airways is the only one that will allow him to stand up at full height instead of sitting down all scrunched up in the cage.

But there are other pet friendly airlines out there, even if they are commercial ones that transport people. Since Pet Airways only goes to a dozen cities around the country, if you're going anywhere that this airline doesn't go to, you're completely limited to commercial airlines.

Which are the most pet friendly commercial airline companies in the country?

JetBlue actually has a pet transport program that they call JetPaws. They have all kinds of allowances that allow pets to travel safe and in comfort. They allow pets in the cabin in a special section. Frontier Airlines does the same. In fact, of all the commercial airlines out there that allow pets in the cabin, Frontier allows the most. On each flight out, they allow 10 animals on board for all passengers put together.

Last Minute Flights Don't Always Have to Be More Expensive

When most of us think of last minute flights, we assume that we will be paying an arm and a leg. In many cases this is correct, but it is not always the case, and I have encountered a number of instances where it is not. If one knows how to look and does not mind going a little out of their way, some good last minute flights can be found for a reasonable price that will not leave you wondering if you made the right choice or not.

One of the things that I always love to do when I get to an airline and don't have a ticket is haggle. It may sound silly, but I have actually gotten people to lower their prices when they know they are not carrying enough people because they know that something is better than nothing. Now, I am not saying that this always works, and I have had some airline employees get quite angry when I've tried this, but some will lower the price of their last minute tickets if they know they are about to board and can make a little extra money.

Another thing that I will try to do with last minute tickets is look at all of the travel web sites and see if they still have any of their good deals left. A lot of times, those flights will not fill up, and they have them until a very short time before the flight is about to leave. On more than one occasion, I have looked at one of the travel web sites a few hours before I needed to be in the air and purchased a ticket for a fraction of the price I would have paid if I had waited until I went to the airline itself.

I am a frequent flier because I have to travel for business, and one thing that I try to do to lower the price of last minute deals is ask if the person can get me the best deal they can find. I make it a point to be very polite and inform them that I use their airline all the time. It does not always work, but I have had it happen that an employees says that a ticket would normally go for this amount, but because I am such a good customer, they're going to cut me a break.

Last minute flights don't have to cost an arm and a leg. They can be quite pricey, and sometimes no matter what you try, you will not get airline employees to budge on their price. However, when you find one who will, it will always give you a feeling of great satisfaction!

Last Minute Vacation Deals Sometimes Work Out the Best

We try to take a family vacation once a year. Normally I am very good about planning out things well in advance, and we end up having a great time. I have a perfect formula in place, where we see enough sights and do enough things without filling all of our time with activity. On occasion, however, I have put off planning our vacation and fortunately, on those rare occasions that I do, I have found some last minute vacation deals that end up working out quite well.

One of the last minute vacation deals that will always stand out to me was a trip to Disney World. We had been talking for a while about going to the theme park, and Lord knows both of my children were very eager to go, but I had been putting it off and putting off. This particular year, I had been absolutely slammed at work and it just completely slipped my mind until around May. We usually take our family vacation in early June, right after school gets out, and I had already asked for the time off from work.

I told my wife that I was looking around for some last minute vacation deals and stumbled across the Disney trip, and asked what she thought. She made the point that the kids were still at an age where they would enjoy it, and that before long they would no longer be interested. I went ahead and made the purchase, and the price was not as bad as one might think. Evidently, they were having a hard time trying to sell off this particular package. We got a really good deal on lodging and travel, and most important, everyone had a great time!

Another of my more memorable last minute vacation deals was one that was for New England. It was about a week-long trip and featured hotels and bed and breakfasts throughout the New England states, all for a very reasonable price. My son is a huge history buff, just like his old man, and my wife and daughter loved the idea of getting away from the Texas heat for a week. We went all throughout the region and incorporated several activities that my daughter would like as well, and it was one of our trips that really stood out as being fun!

I am typically the sort of person that likes to have everything planned out, and I hate the whole concept of having to rely on last minute vacation deals. I have to say, however, that I have found some really good trips that way, and just because everything is not planned to the 'T' does not mean that you will not necessarily have a good time.

There are Expensive New Travel Vaccination Requirements in place if you are Traveling to Europe

You've always known about the travel vaccination requirements the government publishes for those who have to travel to exotic locales - the Pacific islands, South Asia, Africa or some parts of Latin America. Most people reluctantly comply with these even if they don't want to; they hardly like the idea of falling ill with malaria or something far from home. But what do you do when the CDC begins to publish health advisories about traveling to Western Europe?

The US is right now seeing more cases of measles than at any time in the past 15 years. And most of these attacks happened to people who came from back after traveling to Western Europe - France, Germany, Britain, Switzerland, and so on. The same applies for summer travel to popular destinations in Mexico like Cancun. It never occurs to anyone that they could need shots to travel a few miles south of the border to Cancun. But travel vaccination requirements these days really are expanding.

Travel anywhere in Central or Latin America, and you need the Hepatitis A vaccination. When it comes to Hepatitis A, almost every case reported in America has been in someone who's come back from a visit to those parts. Basically, the nature of foreign travel has changed. No matter where you're traveling - a developed country or a less-developed one, a bunch of routine immunizations are always a good idea. A tetanus shot once a decade, and the Measles Mumps Rubella or MMR shot, are nearly requirements any time you cross the US borders these days.

So why are these diseases that have for long been thought eradicated turning up all of a sudden even in developed parts of the world? In large part, it's because parents in these parts of the world have bought into the scare that's come up that vaccinations cause autism in children. The CDC today advises that if you're taking any child under one year of age to another country, at least one measles vaccination should be considered mandatory. Children older than a year old should have been administered at least two doses.

There are other travel vaccination requirements that you'll need to comply with depending on where you plan to travel to, too. A travel medicine expert will usually be able to tell you for instance, if you need a yellow fever shot. Usually, you need these if you're traveling to Latin America or Africa. If you're traveling to Africa and then to India for instance, they will stop you at the airport and ask for evidence that you've been vaccinated for yellow fever.

These shots may be expensive at about $100 a pop. But paying for these sure beats falling ill.

Planning to Lose That Airplane Seat?

The airlines are on to a new game to maintain profitability - they are taking planes out of routes, they are cutting capacity. Why should that make them more profitable? Only because that will bring a bit of scarcity into the flying game. On any route, there will perhaps be 95 seats only to every 100 passengers who wants to fly. This is a scenario that will raise prices. Higher prices translate into more profitability. While this might be true, it does place the flying public in a predicament of kinds. Delta plans to cut 25% on flights to Europe; at US Airways, that figure will be something like 1%; for United, it'll be perhaps 5%. They will still be selling as many tickets as before; but now, there will be more people left standing with an airplane ticket but no airplane seat. They will be bumped. What are we going to do?

Airlines overbook flights to help make sure that when some passengers don't show up for a flight, that they won't have to fly empty seats. But if everyone does show up, airlines have no choice but to deny a few people an airplane seat. If you agree to be bumped voluntarily though, you get some kind of a gift like a free ticket or something. Still, about 1% of all passengers get bumped, and not all of them voluntarily.

Thankfully, for some passengers, giving up their airplane seat can be kind of a profitable opportunity. There are some people who kind of look forward to the opportunity, and being bumped has made them thousands of dollars in free flight vouchers. They get these things compensation for the inconvenience they were put to. Theee are people who actually try to book tickets on crowded flights at times that are known to be crowded. They know that the airline will have overbooked some seats and that they are chances of getting bumped for high. When they get to the airport, they place themselves first in line when the airline asks for volunteers who wish to be bumped. And then they collect free vouchers. In a time when airline seat prices seem to keep rising for what appear to be nonexistent facilities, this can be a great way to get back at the system.

If you want to try this kind of thing to earn a few extra rewards, this is what you do. Tell the gate agent or the person who gives you your boarding card that you wish to be considered for any bumping there might be going on. Make sure that you buy a ticket for a flight that goes through some kind of a busy hub. If you buy a ticket on a flight that stops over at Chicago O'Hare for instance, you can pretty certain that the airline will have overbooked a few seats to adjust for the possibility that the international passengers coming to the flight to connect won't show up. If they do all show up (because their flights arrived on time), the airline will be asking for a few volunteers for the bumping process. Buying an airplane seat on the redeye is likely to get you bumped; that's because that's a flight that everyone who was bumped through the day or who had their flights canceled or something, waits to take. Chances are excellent that the airplane will run out of seats.

And then, you need to do this by flying on the right airline. JetBlue almost never bumps anyone. American Eagle always does.

Great Ways to Save on the Prices of Airport Car Rentals

What do travel industry businesses do to compensate for an economic slowdown? Hotels try to keep rooms full by announcing promotions and low prices, airlines cut down on fares (and get all sneaky with their add-on fees), and car-rental companies slash prices. Well, that last bit about car-rental companies would fit right in there if it weren't for one little inconvenient truth - America's car-rental companies responded to the slowdown by doubling their prices (renting a compact car at any airport around the country now will cost you twice what it used to two years ago). What that means is that you’ll need a few inspired ideas to get good prices on airport car rentals these days.

Have you ever taken the time to look at the morass of fees and charges on the bill they hand you for airport car rentals? Buried somewhere in there are fees, taxes and charges to do with the convenience they provide you  giving you a car right in the airport. There is one simple way to relieve yourself of all those charges that they throw at you (that could in fact add up to 12%). All you need to do is step off the airport premises. Car companies like Enterprise help you do this by picking you up anywhere you want in the city to take you to your rental car. Of course, with most car-rental companies, getting to the off-airport lot can be a lot of trouble. You might even have to take a taxi or something that could wipe out your savings. And city car rentals usually close by early evening. But it could work out sometimes.

If you happen to travel to one of the several dozen cities around the country that Zipcar operates in, you could be in luck. You could get one of several desirable cars for no more than six dollars an hour. It works out great for those who need to rent by the hour and not by the day. And gas and insurance happen to be included in the price too. If you happen to visit a Zipcar city often, this could really work out well for you.

RentaWreck happens to be a great service for people who need airport car rentals. While their lots happen to not directly serve airports, they are usually very near them. Now the name, it might occur to you, doesn't exactly inspire confidence. The name though is just a bit of a joke. They happen to be the country's biggest renter of well-used cars – ones with at least 50,000 miles on them. But they happen to be reliable cars and you get them for a mere $25 a day. Even in places where major airport car rentals would set you back by about $100. You do need to work with them when they ask you to return the car to the same location though. But there are those prices.

How to get Cheap International Air Travel

The key to finding truly inexpensive flights is persistence. In order to find the most inexpensive international flights carefully research online until you locate sites where flights are reasonable. The task of finding low-cost flights is not difficult: the challenge is in knowing where to look.

First check airfares as well as discounts that sites offer on inexpensive international flights. Also, travel websites offering the cheaper fares can provide a great deal of information with respect to popular tourist attractions, accommodation, eateries, and shopping areas within the destination city.

There are specialized sites that provide comprehensive information with regard to all the air flights landing in your city along with prices. Within such a site you can compare apples with apples and see precisely what you are getting for the price. The fact you are able to comparison shop for your international air flight simplifies matters enormously.

Booking an international flight at a competitive price is a simple process. You merely enter relevant details such as such as name of destination, point of departure and travel date into the boxes provided and in return you will find a database list of air companies offering flights to the international city of your choosing. You can then compare the price of various airlines and their respective international flights.

In order to get their planes filled to capacity an airline company may work with consolidators. The consolidators will take the seats the airline has failed to fill and offer them at a substantial price reduction. Consolidators are in the business of offering cheap airfare to almost any destination on the planet. If you patiently peruse the Internet you will find consolidators offering inexpensive international flights and this again is another way of attaining the cheaper international rates.

Now you know how to get cheaper flights here are some tips to minimize air travel expenses in other ways. One way to minimize expenses is once you find the cheap travel site and have booked your flight to your destination book your departure ticket while still on the site. This means you will book arrival and departure at the same point and time while on the site. This is the best way to attain the most economical pricing respective of international air service.

Another cost-cutting tip is to not travel directly to your destination. For example, if you are wishing to fly to Paris you might find a direct flight more expensive than indirect plane travel. So you can travel to another destination in Europe before boarding another flight to your destination city.