Car Rental Companies: Really Highway Robbers

Airlines aren't alone in digging deep into customers' wallets

Airlines have been getting a lot of static for unbundled air fares that make a bargain ticket no bargain at all when all the add-ons are, well, added on. This is especially irritating because many of them used to be included. But the arlines are pikers compared with car-rental companies, and it appears that locations at some airports are worse than others. My friend and fellow travel writer and blogger Hilary Nangle, with New England frugality running through her veins, got quite a travel shock when she rented a car in the Phoenix. She wrote on her Facebook page:

"Welcome to Phoenix: one-week car rental, $179 for a Toyota Camry PLUS taxes and fees, $195 (concession fee recovery 11.10%; county surcharge, $17.44; Customer facility charge, $42; Op/Maint/Bus/Recv and energ Srchg: $8.02; Tax-15.30, $82.10). By the time I added insurance, my $179 rental was $636.10."

Nangle is not an inexperienced traveler, but car rental companies are cagy unbundlers and have been for quite some time.SmarterTravel.com warned of hidden fees back in 2004, well before airlines were affilicted with raging unbundling fever. And last year Chris Elliott, travel consumer advocate, wrote "Broadsided: 5 New Car Rental Fees to Avoid"  on his award-winning site.

The truth is that travelers are often in a rush, especially at airport locations, and don't have time to read contracts or bills carefully -- or are a bit embarrassed to do so. Additionally, since many car renters are business travelers who expense their vehicles, companies can institute policies that are not generally questioned by those who don't pay the bill. But more and more, it pays to slow down, taking time to read and question suspicious add-ons to those lengthy contracts when picking up a car invoices when returning it.

Couple On Display in Free "Hotel Room"

Hotel room set-up in corner storefront promotes hotel -- and displays guests

Duncan Malcolm and Katherine Lewis of London are spending five nights in a luxurious New York hotel room. The BBC reported that the tradeoff is that they any passerby can look in on them as they relax, watch television and do what people generally do in hotel rooms -- except that the bed is screened from view and there is a private bathroom. This is part of the promotion of a hotel that the BBC did not identify, and the couple view it as an extension of their Facebook presence. Would a free, glass-front micro-tel be the equivalent of Twitter?

Colorado Summer Destinations

High-country escapes for Coloradans and visitors alike

"Colorado warm-weather getaways" has been on my to-do list for several weeks, but Denver Post travel editor Kyle Wagner beat me to it. Today's Travel Section is headlined "Where to bike, climb, fish, raft, hike, drive, golf and more in Colorado." She wrote, "Staycation, statecation, playcation, mancation, spacation, nakation, babymoon, girlfriend getaway. Who cares what it's called? We have just four words for you: Get out of town."

 Below are links to her suggestions in some of Colorado's terrific mountain towns (plus Colorado Springs at the foot of the mountains), so thank you, Kyle.

• Aspen/Roaring Fork Valley
• Colorado Springs
• Crested Butte
• Durango
• Grand County
• Gunnison
• Leadville
• Summit County
• Telluride
• Vail

What's missing? Off the top, perhaps Grand Junction/Palisade/Wine Country, Ouray, Pagosa Springs, Redfeather Lakes, but including any or all of them would have required more pages than were available.

Great Wildlife Viewing in Spring

At and near Rocky Mountain National, the critters are close to the road

Seeing wild animals in their natural habitat always gladdens my heart. Over the weekend, we took a friend from Maine for a drive to Rocky Mountain National Park. As we approached the park from the east (Estes Park) side via US 34, left via US 36 and on Trail Ridge Road as far as we could go to the winter road closure, we saw three of the park's big species: two groups of bighorn sheep (Colorado's official state animal), deer and elk.

We frequently see deer, even in our backyard, and watchable elk abound anytime other than summer, but bighorns are always a treat in the park. The Empire herd and the Georgetown herd sometimes graze close to Interstate 70 in the winter and are easy to spot, especially in the morning. But a national park provides a better backdrop than vehicles whizzing by on pavement.

Epic Snows 'Round the World

Heavy snows in the Alps, the Rockies, the Sierra and totally unexpected places around the world too

Scotland-based Patrick “Snowhunter" Thorne, who keeps track of such things, has reported "once in a generation” snowfalls on Mau Son Mountain in Vietnam, a meteorological curiosity but not necessarily germane for skiers. In the United Arab Emirates, In the United Arab Emirates, snow also fell on the northern emirate of Ras al Khaimah's Jebel Jais range. Thorne noted that the “situation [is] so rare that the local dialect doesn't even have a word for it.” Crown Prince Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, who is planning an indoor snow center larger than the highly publicized Ski Dubai facility, visited the area to see real snow.

Closer to home, Mammoth Mountain, Calif., was inundated with five feet of snow over four days, and Steamboat reports has been slammed with powder-bearing storm after powder-bearing storm (42 inches out of the latest for a season total of 119 inches) and currently has an 80-plus-inch base. Steamboat (right) recorded 42 inches from this storm, bringing their season total to 229 inches (just over 19 feet). Crested Butte snagged inches for a season total to 202 inches. In this same late-January storm cycle, Aspen Highlands got 39 inches of new snow, Winter Park 35 inches, Silverton Mountain and Snowmass each 30 inches, Aspen Mountain 27 inches and Copper Mountain, Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort, and Loveland are each welcomed 26 inches of new snow. Even Eldora, just 22 miles from Boulder, got a rare 19 inches of fresh powder. New England is expecting such heavy snowfall out of a storm today (Wednesday) that schools in Main pre-emptorily closed.

But wait, there's more! Snowhunter reported epic snows in the Alps. Austria's powder champ was Nassfeld, with about four feet of snow in a week. The Axamer - Lizum above Innsbruck, far better known to American skiers, snared 14 inches. The report that the Mölltaler Glacier has the greatest snow depth in the country with just under 11 feet on upper slopes and German's Zugspitz Glacier in the Bavarian Alps got 11 inches, which is encouraging in light of the world's shrinking glaciers. Zermatt is Switzerland's seasonal snowfall leader with 18 inches from the most recent storm and a seasonal snow accumulation of 33 feet on the glacier. "Snowhunter" further reported that in northern Italy, Cortina d'Ampezzo got nearly three feet of snow, and Limone Piemonte 20 inches. Arabba Marmolada has the most snow Italy with 16 feet on the upper slopes. In France, where the World Alpine Ski Championships begin next week in Val d'Isère, Jean-Claude Killy's hometown, conditions are splendid -- though racers prefer hard, hard snow to powder.

The Pyrenees have also enjoyed abundant snow, including more than three feet at Baqueira/ Beret, Spain, and 20 inches in Andorra just this week, but as elsewhere, it comes with significant avalanche risk. “The snow depth and quality is excellent, but the risk of avalanche is high, and we are strongly advising our customers to stay on the marked pistes,” Vincent Doutres, lift company manager at Cauteret-Lys, told Snowhunter. Andorra expects to offer lift service until the first of May. In Scandinavia, Sweden received recent major winter storms, including something like 25 inches at Kungsberget. Ski Kungsberget! In Scotland, as unlikely a ski destination for North Americans as Scandinavia, all five ski areas are operation -- a rare occurance.

And if you are interested in conditions in places like Cauteret-Lys or Kungsberget, either because you like to ski places no other kid on your block has, or you just like to know about offbeat things, check out Snowhunter's site (www.skiinfo.com), which tracks conditions at something like 1,500 large and small ski areas.

Hotel Accessibility a Requirement, Not a Request

Consolidators must now change the way they handle reservations for disabled guests

It should not have taken a lawsuit to require hotel consolidators to accommodate disabled travelers who ask for accessible rooms. But it did. Candy Harrington, author of several books on handicap travel, calls this settlement agreed to by those third-party reservations services that book discounted hotel rooms and other travel components "a huge victory for disabled travelers."

She posted an informative report on her Barrier Free Travel blog applauding the settlement in the case of Smith v. Hotels.com L.P, in which the consolidator "has agreed to alter their way of doing business." By September of this year, details about accessible rooms are supposed to appear on the searchable websites of Hotels.com and Expedia.com.

Harrington continued that "travelers will actually be able to search for an accessible room with specific access features. So, for example, you'll be able to search for a room at a three-star hotel with a roll-in shower in Cleveland. That's a huge improvement in the whole system, as currently you can't determine a room's accessibility features when you search their database....And, in many cases you will actually be able to reserve that specific accessible room. It won't exactly be a point, click and book option, but a trained customer service representative will work with each disabled customer to make sure an accessible room that meets their needs is reserved. The representative will have to contact the property directly to make these arrangements, as hotels.com buys blocks of rooms, not specific rooms."

Harrington speculated that "this settlement may very well influence the Department of Justice as they revise the ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) for hotels (also called transient lodging). Revisions under consideration include making hotels responsible for third party reservation systems that don't adequately reserve accessible rooms; and requiring properties to block accessible rooms upon reservation."

Harrington also noted that the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) such those proposed revisions, though it is mysterious to me why they would not want to do everything possible to encourage hotel and motel occupancy by a large and growing segment of the traveling public. Boomers with wanderlust in their aging bones are beginning to have mobility issues, and I would the hotel trade association have applauded not opposed the settlement.

Cracks in the Checked-Bag Fee Policies?

Delta waives fee for some AmEx cardholders

Beginning on June 1, Delta Air Lines is waiving the fee immensely unpopular fee for the first piece of checked luggage checked for most people who carry the Delta-affiliated American Express Gold, Platinum and Reserve SkyMiles cards. Delta and other major airlines have these co-branded card arrangements, meaning that cardholders typically earn one frequent flier mile for each dollar they spend using it, not only for air travel but for other purchases as well. Most airlines airlines do not charge their premium frequent fliers for first checked-bag. Delta reportedly earned $215 million in baggage fees in the first quarter of this year, leading some people in the industry to speculate that American Express paid Delta to waive the fee for cardholders.

Other possible "cracks"?

• JetBlue's current one-day 10th-anniversary promotion charges $10 for all remaining seats on flights tomorrow (May 11) and Wednesdays (May 12). I've never flown JetBlue and don't know whether they customarily charged for checked bags
• Frontier's present Whole Enchilada sale is a fully refundable Classic Plus fare that includes two free checked bags and other extras.
• Southwest does not charge for the first two checked bags, No way. No how. At least not yet.