Listen to the Travel Update in RealAudio.
Can't hear the audio? Get help.
Cabin Depressurization
The investigation of the tragic crash of golfer Payne Stewart's chartered
Learjet continues. The likely cause: a sudden loss of cabin pressure.
I wanted to know if a similar loss of cabin pressure doom a commercial jet.
I asked Bill Waldock, an air crash investigator.
Waldock: "Simply put, the crew is well-trained to deal with the situation.
We have had depressurizations in airliners before and unless some kind of
structural damage were to occur, the crew should be easily able to get the
plane down to a safe altitude."
Bill also teaches engineering at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in
Arizona. He said a few flights do lose pressure each year. At commercial
cruising level--about 35,000 feet--you'd have maybe 45 seconds to get
an air mask on. When a plane does decompress, the pilot's job is to get
down to about 12,000 feet fast. That's where the air's thick enough to
breathe.
New International Direct Flights
Last week, U.S. Airlines unveiled dozens of new flights the Caribbean.
Delta has new flights from Atlanta to the islands of Aruba and Saint
Martin. T.W.A. is adding daily non-stops from Los Angeles, St. Louis and
Orlando to San Juan, Puerto Rico. T.W.A.'s turning San Juan into a regional
hub, with more flights to St. Croix, Grenada and Tortola. United is flying
from Washington D.C. and Chicago to St. Thomas.
Add to all that a new air treaty allowing more direct flights to Chile. Not
to mention new routes in Southeast Asia, like the one planned between
Taiwan and the Philippines. It's enough to make a guy like me crazy just
thinking about all the places we can go.
Getting Your Free Tickets
Did you ever notice collecting free tickets can sometimes be an ordeal?
Those 800 numbers can be a real pain, what with phone mazes and ubiquitous
busy signals.
Well, the frequent flyer magazine called Inside Flyer tested all those
customer service numbers. What'd they find? Don't call on Mondays: that's
when the phones are busiest. Wednesdays are better. Free tickets to Europe
in the summer are the most difficult to snare; some folks start calling for
them a year in advance. If you have no luck, call back a week, a month or
even three months later. You may find airlines have freed up more seats.
Ever get an representative who isn't particularly helpful? Call back later
for a second opinion.
Lewis: "That's a trick we use sometimes if we want to get some information
or verify a bonus. Sometimes you get somebody who's not as trained as you
would like. Just say thank you very much and try calling back again and
maybe you'll get someone who can help you."
That's journalist Pam Lewis. She wrote the article for Inside
Flyer.
Travel Advisory
by Cheryl Glaser
Kidnappings in Yemen
Less than a week after a new State Department warning, kidnappers abducted
three Americans in Yemen. Yemen's become a hot travel spot for people
wanting to see the rough and undeveloped desert country. That, despite
hundreds of tourist kidnappings there since 1991. Most victims are returned
safely, like those three Americans were last Thursday. But the State
Department is worried the violent incidents are on the rise.
Malaria in Cambodia
And if you're going to Cambodia, you better take your own malaria medicine.
Doctors there are warning about counterfeit pills on the streets of Phnom
Penh. The fakes cost a lot less than the real ones...and they don't work at
all.
