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Lloyd's Travel Letter April 1995, Issue 6 Serving the Very Frequent Traveler $2.50 In This Issue: Page 1....Passport Tips Page 1....Flying with your Kids Page 2....Editorial Musings Page 2....Currency Exchange Rates Page 4....Travel Vendor Partnerships Page 7....Tidbits Passport Tips Passports are needed for travel in most foreign countries. And even where they are not required, having a passport can simplify identification. To receive a first time passport or to renew an old one, you must get an application form. Many courthouses and post offices have these applications forms or they can be picked up at a passport agency. To renew a valid or expired passport, you must submit the application form, along with the old passport, two photos, and $55 payable to Passport Services. You may apply by mail by sending these items to: National Passport Center, PO Box 371971, Pittsburgh PA 15250. To get a first time passport, you will have to apply in person. You will need proof of U.S. citizenship and a Social Security number, 2 photos, proof of identity such as a driver's license, and $65 for a 10 year passport or $40 for a five year. Expedited passports are available for an additional $30 if you will be traveling in the next ten days. A plane ticket or confirmed reservations are required as proof. You will receive an expedited passport in 3-10 days. Normal passport applications should be fulfilled within a month. Photos must be identical and 2 inches by 2 inches. An estimated 5.5 million people apply for new or renew passports a year, so the earlier you apply the better. Flying with your Kids As companies seek to entice business flyers to stay over a Saturday night and business people look for ways to spend more time with family, more travelers are putting their children on airplanes. If you are flying with a younger child, here are some hints: Choose less crowded flights so the kid has some extra room. Explain the flying process to the child well before the actual flight. How to behave, safety issues, how the aircraft works, and where you will going should be covered. Bring along favorite toys, books and games. Video games should have the volume's turned down so as not to bother other passengers. If a child must fly alone, on domestic flights, children ages 1-4 must be accompanied by an adult. Kids 5-8 are generally allowed to take direct flights, but aren't allowed to make connections on their own. Children 9-11 are allowed to make flights involving connections and will be escorted by airline personnel. Young people over 12 will not be escorted unless a special request is made. Youngsters under 17 will require a note from the parents on international flights if they are flying alone. Editorial Musings General Motors has agreed to sell National Car Rental to an investor group. Unfortunately, part of the agreement insures that National will still offer customers mostly GM cars. Many automobile manufactures own rental agencies as a way to unload slow moving inventory. However, such relationships make it difficult for the rental agencies to offer the customers the best cars. The chart below shows the ownership of some of the larger rental car companies: Company Fleet Size Ownership ------- ---------- --------- Hertz 215,000 Ford Avis 165,000 25% owned by GM Alamo 150,000 Budget 135,000 Ford owns a portion National 111,000 Pending sale by GM Dollar 62,500 Chrysler Thrifty 42,000 Chrysler Value 25,000 Mitsubishi Letters to the Editor Lloyd's Travel Letter welcomes editorials and letters to the editor. Letters may be edited for brevity, clarity, etc. Address correspondence to LTL, Editorials, PO Box 13842, Research Triangle Park NC 27709. You can also reach us on the Internet at max@isscad.com, on American Online at L L Max and on CompuServe at 74710,1177. Currency Exchange Rates The following table lists the exchange rates per US Dollar on April 18, 1995. The yen has risen to a modern high against the dollar and other currencies. This will make Japan, an already pricey destination, even more expensive. The strong mark has also made Germany a costly place to travel. Currency Per US $ -------- -------- Australian Dollar 1.3483 Austrian Schilling 9.63 Belgian Franc 28.01 British Pound .6186 Canadian Dollar 1.3698 Dutch Guilder 1.5148 French Franc 4.770 German Mark 1.3530 Greek Drachma 220.05 Hong Kong Dollar 7.7309 Irish Punt .6019 Israeli Shekel 2.9324 Italian Lira 1693.5 Japanese Yen 80.63 Mexican Peso 6.1750 Norwegian Krone 6.0915 Singapore Dollar 1.3918 South Korean Won 766.85 Spanish Peseta 121.43 Swedish Krona 7.2570 Swiss Franc 1.1160 Taiwan Dollar 25.34 Staff: Editor - Max Lloyd Managing Editor - Denise Wilson Lloyd's Travel Letter is published by Lloyd's Travel, PO Box 13842, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709. Contents copyrighted * 1995 by Lloyd's Travel. All rights reserved. Small quotations allowed if reference to Lloyd's Travel Letter is included. For advertising information and address changes, write to the above address. Subscription rates: Single issue price: $2.75. Yearly subscription: $10. Canadian yearly subscription: $14 in US funds. All others: $20 in US funds. Travel Vendor Partnerships Starting April 3, Virgin Atlantic has partnered with Delta on flights to London. Thai Airways became a partner in the United program on February 1. Radisson Hotels International has also joined the United program. Midway Airlines joined the American AAdvantage program on March 2. Doubletree Hotels will be leaving the TWA FFB program on May 31. TRAVEL VENDOR PARTNERSHIPS TABLE AVAILABLE IN THE SUBSCRIPTION VERSION OF LLOYD'S TRAVEL LETTER Tidbits... In the coming year look for hotel rates to rise and car rental rates to hold steady or drop slightly. Occupancy rates have continued to rise as the number of travelers has grown versus the number of hotel rooms. You may have to make reservations early to get in a popular property. Rental car companies will be increasing their supply of cars. Hertz and National plan double digit increases in their fleet. Other rental car agencies also plan large increases. The demand for rentals is expected to grow only 5 %. Stouffer hotels, recently purchased by Renaissance Hotels International, will take the Stouffer Renaissance name for the next year and become Renaissance Hotels in 1996. This transition period will help customers become familiarized with the Renaissance name without alienating long time Stouffer customers. SAS buys new airplanes. The sale of 35 Boeing 737-600's to the Scandinavian airline at a cost of $1.18 billion was a boon for Boeing and a bust for McDonnell Douglas's MD-95 and Airbus' A-319. Deliveries are slated for 1998. Holiday Inn will give Priority Club points on a wider range of rate categories starting March 27. Previously, many leisure and local corporate rate were excluded. The third Boston Harbor Tunnel, the Ted Williams Tunnel, is slated to open in December. Some traffic may start using the new tunnel as soon as October. Plans call for the tunnel to carry about 17,000 limos, buses, trucks, and taxis a day. New service in Minneapolis. Northwest has two new international destinations. On May 6 the carrier starts flights to Frankfurt and on June 3 to Tokyo. Commuter carrier Mesaba, whose stock is 30% owned by Northwest, will start a daily 19 seat Metroliner flight to Ely on May 26. Loose change benefits charities. On March 22, Virgin Atlantic gave $75,000 to the CJ Foundation. The money comes from donations and the loose change that has fallen out of passenger's pockets and is found in the seat of Virgin's aircraft when they are cleaned. TWA also donates $1200 a month to UNICEF from gifts of foreign change donated by its international travelers. Terrible Travel Taxes are slated to increase on October 1, 1995 when a 4.3 cents per gallon fuel tax is scheduled to take effect for airlines. The new tax will cost passengers $527 million dollars a year in higher ticket prices. This is in additon to the approximately $6 billion already paid by the airline industry. On March 26 Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain dismantled their border check points with each other, allowing free, no-hassle travel between the countries. Austria, Greece, and Italy may join this group later in the year. Alaska air announces new service to Russia. On June 10 Alaska plans to start flying a 140 seat MD-80 to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski in Eastern Russia on the Kamchatka Peninusla. This will be the fourth Russian city served by Alaska from Anchorage which also flies to Magadan, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok. Earn double miles from Best Western through April 30 by paying your bill with a Visa card. Offer good at participating properties and for double miles are available for the first night only. Best Westerns in California, Hawaii, and Nevada are offering awards over and above the normal Gold Crown earnings through November 30. If you earn 2000 points you will receive one hour of long-distance and with 5,800 points you receive luggage. Double Miles on TWA for flying Transcontinental or Transatlantic on a purchased Business or First Class ticket. You can also earn double miles when flying between St. Louis and either Louisville, Pittsburgh, San Jose, or Shreveport. Both offers are good from April 1 till May 31. United Airlines at Denver International (DIA) accounts for two-thirds of the available flights. Continental which had 139 departures at the old Stapleton airport is down to 20 daily flights at the new airport. Delta Air Lines and its pilots union still have not come up with a new contract. The previous labor contract expired January 1. New aircraft scheduled to go into service over the next few months include the McDonnell- Douglas MD90 and the Boeing 777. Delta will introduce the ultra quiet, fuel efficient 150 passenger MD90. The spacious 777 wide-body will be placed into service by United in June. According to the FAA, there were an estimated 555 million passenger flights on U.S. carriers in 1994. That's an 8% increase over 1993. In Upcoming Issues: -Rating the Airline Clubs -The Real Value of Miles and Points -Comparing Frequent Stayer Programs -Business Travelers Guide to Major Cities -Travel Vendors on the Internet Get the most from life on the road Subscribe to Lloyd's Travel Letter 1 year (4 issues) $10 ! 2 years (8 issues) for only $19 ! Let LTL's advice and valuable tips save you money and show you how to earn those extra miles. To get your subscription, send a check along with your name and address to: Lloyd's Travel PO Box 13842 Drawer N1 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 Ever been on the road: -and tried to figure out what time it is in another time zone, -or wondered if the wake-up call you left with the sixteen year old at the hotel front desk would actually happen. Introducing Lloyd's Travel Clock for Windows For only $15 you can turn your laptop computer into a travel alarm clock and a world time zone calculator. Requires Windows 3.1 or higher. 3.5" diskettes will be shipped Add $4 for shipping and handling. Send a check for $19 to along with your name and address to: Lloyd's Travel PO Box 13842 Drawer N1 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Money back if not satisfied.