Months after the infamous “poop cruise,” in which Carnival Triumph passengers were stranded at sea for five days without working toilets, Carnival Cruise Lines is still struggling to convince travelers to come back aboard its ships. Perhaps rock-bottom pricing and a new cruise passenger bill of rights will help the cause. But the fire …
Travel
Theme Park Inflation: Universal Orlando Becomes First to Cross $90 Admission Mark
Each year around Memorial Day, some theme park—likely in central Florida—jacks up ticket prices by a few bucks, prompting the competition to follow suit with their own price hikes. This year, like last, it’s Universal Studios Orlando leading the charge.
JetBlue Proves There’s a Reasonable Way to Hit Us With Fees
You know the drill: An airline hikes its fees, and within seconds travelers vent their outrage in response. JetBlue shows that it doesn’t have to be this way.
Car Sharing: Future Looks Bright, Even With Some Cloudy Legal Issues
There’s just no stopping the sharing. Despite recent legal challenges to certain “peer to peer” car-sharing services, the range of sharing options keeps on expanding, making it easier and easier for consumers to skip taxis, traditional car rentals — and car ownership in general.
Airline Baggage Fees: On the Rise — Yet More Passengers Deem Them ‘Reasonable’
Even as overall baggage fees have increased, some of the nation’s biggest airlines aren’t collecting as much as they did a couple of years ago. Perhaps even more surprisingly, there’s been a sharp rise in travelers who aren’t …
One Airline That Stubbornly Refuses to Pile on the Fees (For Now)
Most airlines view fees for baggage and ticket changes as easy, highly lucrative revenue streams. Southwest Airlines views them quite differently: If it added baggage fees on par with other carriers, Southwest says it would lose …
Oof! Airline Fees Rise Yet Again: At Least $200 to Change a Flight
This week, United Airlines jacked up fees on passengers who need to adjust travel plans. For flights within the U.S., customers must fork over at least $200 (up from $150) for changing tickets.
What the Boston Bombing Means for the Economy and the Stock Market
Unless the Boston Marathon bombings are part of a much larger plot, it seems unlikely that their effects on the stock market will last more than another day.
Caribbean Cruises for Less Than $50 a Day? Fire Sales (Quite Literally) from Carnival
In the weeks after the Carnival Triumph debacle, cruise analysts and agents were quick to report that cruise sales remained strong, and that cruise lines felt no need to resort to “panic pricing” to fill ship cabins. Lately, however, it looks like Carnival is panicking.
Air Travel by the Pound and Other Odd Airline Pricing Schemes
After tiny upstart carrier Samoa Air announced it would start charging passengers based on how much they weigh, travelers reacted by calling the pricing model wacky, impractical, even discriminatory. But it’s only one of several weird, possibly unwelcomed ways that flights might be priced down the line.
Strange Bedfellows: 4 Companies Surprisingly Getting into the Hotel Business
What do a toy company, a supermarket, a low-cost furniture chain, and a movie studio have in common? They’re all trying to extend their brands—perhaps in embarrassingly awkward fashion—into the hotel business.
Southwest Airlines: We’re Not Really About Cheap Flights Anymore
The U.S.’s biggest “low fare” airline appears to be experiencing an identity crisis. In Southwest’s new ad campaign, there’s no silly humor and no mention of “bags fly free” or cheap flight prices. The message is that this is a …