Shift in cyber-promotion in the air as United discontinues E-Fare alerts
Even if no one else loves me enough to send me an E-mail, I have been able to count on fare alerts from United and Frontier, which between them operate a lion's share of the flights at Denver International Airport. Now comes word that United is dropping its weekly E-Fare updates for special weekend fares and other offers. United's E-Fares will still be posted twice a week on united.com (Tuesday and Friday) in the websites News and Deals section or Special E-Fare Deals page. To make them easier to find, United's websters show these fares in blue and highlight them with stars. I'm not sure whether or not I'll miss United's E-Fare blasts, but at least I'll know that Frontier still loves me enough to write.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Palestine: Day 4, Part 1, Sebastia, Checkpoint Hassles and Nazareth
Excursion into antiquity marred by arbitrary stop at Israeli checkpoint
What should have an easy trip from Nablus to Nazareth via modern highway was marred by a one-hour delay at a sizable checkpoint and an unexpected detour.
Sebastia
Sebastia, now a sleepy rural town in the hills above Nablus, traces six cultures spanning some 10,000 years: Canaanite, Israelite, Hellenistic, Herodian, Roman and Byzantine plus "modern." It was destroyed and rebuilt several times. Herod the Great -- a great builder but a cruel and blood-thirsty ruler in other respects -- created the city of Sebaste on the site. On the outskirts are drive-to ruins of a grand public building with a shuttered cafe next to it. So many ancient sites are understandably roped off to protect them from crowds, visitors can roam freely among the remnants of walls and columns. A short loop trail leads up a hill past a Roman amphitheater, a small Crusader chapel and other ruins.
In the small village itself are the remains of a Crusader church , where John the Baptist was supposedly beheaded. The grotto is currently being stabilized.
Checkpoint Hassles
As we were heading to Nazareth in Galilee, we were held up for an hour at a highway barrier checkpoint near the settlement of Ari'el, one of the hundreds of Israeli checkpoints that erupt from the Palestinian landscape like festering wounds. I often have been critical of the US Transportation Security Agency, but TSA screeners are amateur hasslers compared with the Israeli Army.,Often young, always armed soldiers are empowered to make arbitrary decisions about who may pass and who may not, who is searched and who is not. At small checkpoints, there are often only two soldiers, immediately answerable to no one. At larger checkpoints, there may be more soldiers and some kind of chain of command.
At the checkpoint near Air'el, our bus -- 14 American visitors, one Canadian, three Israeli Palestinians (including the driver) and one West Bank Palestinian with a permit to enter -- was diverted to a special screening area. We were asked to get off the bus and bring all our luggage -- the bigger pieces under the bus and all of our carryons -- to be X-rayed. Laptops were checked twice. We had to open our suitcases, and one of the guards poked around every one, riffling through the pages of books and generally wasting time by looking for things that were not there. We had to walk through a metal detector. In the end, our West Bank friend, who I repeat has a permit to enter enter Israel, was denied admittance through that checkpoint. We were ordered around politely. I suspect that Palestinians are not treated politely at all.
Our friend waited at the checkpoint while the driver continued to the next exit, turned around to pick him up and then took a long detour to another smaller checkpoint where the soldiers glanced at our assorted passports and IDs and let us through. The detour through stark and arid Bedouin country reminded me of Navajo Nation land. It was interesting to see, but it was not because the Army wanted us visitors to go sightseeing in an area we would have missed. It was simply to harass the Palestinians.
Nazareth
When we finally arrived in Nazareth in time for a late lunch and truncated tour at the Nazareth Village, an excellent living-history recreation of life in the this area at the time of Christ. It is the brainchild of the Herschend family, key developers in Branson, Missouri, and therefore is done very well. We sat on rough benches and ate food from that time brought by servers in period dress. There was soft round, chewy unleavened bread similar to a tortilla, delicious, lentil soup, chicken and vegetables all served rough pottery vessels.
More later on the Church of the Annunciation, lodging and dinner in Nazareth.
What should have an easy trip from Nablus to Nazareth via modern highway was marred by a one-hour delay at a sizable checkpoint and an unexpected detour.
Sebastia
Sebastia, now a sleepy rural town in the hills above Nablus, traces six cultures spanning some 10,000 years: Canaanite, Israelite, Hellenistic, Herodian, Roman and Byzantine plus "modern." It was destroyed and rebuilt several times. Herod the Great -- a great builder but a cruel and blood-thirsty ruler in other respects -- created the city of Sebaste on the site. On the outskirts are drive-to ruins of a grand public building with a shuttered cafe next to it. So many ancient sites are understandably roped off to protect them from crowds, visitors can roam freely among the remnants of walls and columns. A short loop trail leads up a hill past a Roman amphitheater, a small Crusader chapel and other ruins.
In the small village itself are the remains of a Crusader church , where John the Baptist was supposedly beheaded. The grotto is currently being stabilized.
A deep excavation shows an ancient Roman cemetery (below). The wooden frame remains from a pulley system used to hoist up artifacts that now reside in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. We did not have time to descend the stairs to see the cemetery more closely.
Checkpoint Hassles
As we were heading to Nazareth in Galilee, we were held up for an hour at a highway barrier checkpoint near the settlement of Ari'el, one of the hundreds of Israeli checkpoints that erupt from the Palestinian landscape like festering wounds. I often have been critical of the US Transportation Security Agency, but TSA screeners are amateur hasslers compared with the Israeli Army.,Often young, always armed soldiers are empowered to make arbitrary decisions about who may pass and who may not, who is searched and who is not. At small checkpoints, there are often only two soldiers, immediately answerable to no one. At larger checkpoints, there may be more soldiers and some kind of chain of command.
At the checkpoint near Air'el, our bus -- 14 American visitors, one Canadian, three Israeli Palestinians (including the driver) and one West Bank Palestinian with a permit to enter -- was diverted to a special screening area. We were asked to get off the bus and bring all our luggage -- the bigger pieces under the bus and all of our carryons -- to be X-rayed. Laptops were checked twice. We had to open our suitcases, and one of the guards poked around every one, riffling through the pages of books and generally wasting time by looking for things that were not there. We had to walk through a metal detector. In the end, our West Bank friend, who I repeat has a permit to enter enter Israel, was denied admittance through that checkpoint. We were ordered around politely. I suspect that Palestinians are not treated politely at all.
Our friend waited at the checkpoint while the driver continued to the next exit, turned around to pick him up and then took a long detour to another smaller checkpoint where the soldiers glanced at our assorted passports and IDs and let us through. The detour through stark and arid Bedouin country reminded me of Navajo Nation land. It was interesting to see, but it was not because the Army wanted us visitors to go sightseeing in an area we would have missed. It was simply to harass the Palestinians.
Nazareth
When we finally arrived in Nazareth in time for a late lunch and truncated tour at the Nazareth Village, an excellent living-history recreation of life in the this area at the time of Christ. It is the brainchild of the Herschend family, key developers in Branson, Missouri, and therefore is done very well. We sat on rough benches and ate food from that time brought by servers in period dress. There was soft round, chewy unleavened bread similar to a tortilla, delicious, lentil soup, chicken and vegetables all served rough pottery vessels.
The interpretive tour was guided by a young theology student from California, who was not in period garb. He took us through the recreated home, meeting house that served as a community gathering place and synagogue, workshop and showed how olives were pressed back then. We were so late that we didn't have time to visit the agricultural area.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Links to 100 Great Travel Sites
Online resources for travel writers summarized on one long blog post
My friend Josh Berman's The Tranquilo Traveler made the Graduate Degree Blog's post called "The Art of Travel Writing: Tips, Tools and to Get Paid and Get Published." Although Travel Babel sadly didn't made the unidentified blogger's list, it's really worth checking out for anyone who writes about travel or wants to. The categories are Advice for Travel Writers, Writing Tips, Tips for Breaking into the Business, Travel Writing Blogs, Travel Blogs (where Josh's was listed and I wish this one had been t00), Meet Travel Writers, Travel Websites, Groups and Organizations, Travel Made Easy and the all-important Find Writing Gigs.
My friend Josh Berman's The Tranquilo Traveler made the Graduate Degree Blog's post called "The Art of Travel Writing: Tips, Tools and to Get Paid and Get Published." Although Travel Babel sadly didn't made the unidentified blogger's list, it's really worth checking out for anyone who writes about travel or wants to. The categories are Advice for Travel Writers, Writing Tips, Tips for Breaking into the Business, Travel Writing Blogs, Travel Blogs (where Josh's was listed and I wish this one had been t00), Meet Travel Writers, Travel Websites, Groups and Organizations, Travel Made Easy and the all-important Find Writing Gigs.
"Lifetime Trips" Reads Like a Tour Brochure Anthology
Travel anthology is a surprising yawner
I love to take anthologies on my own travels. If I put a book down and don't pick it up again for six months, I haven't lost my place. Houghton Mifflin's Best American Travel Writing of Fill-in-the-Year and its companion series, the now-suspended Best American Food Writing...., are my favorites. Travelers' Tales anthologies, each of which follows single destination or subject as seen by many writers, are a close runnerup. These collections are filled with gorgeous prose by some of the best writers in the land who make their topics spring from the pages.
Therefore, I was looking forward to Once in a Lifetime Trips, subtitled "The World's 50 Most Adventurous, Luxurious, and Memorable Travel Experiences." The author, Chris Santella, certainly comes with impressive credentials. His byline has appeared in top publications (including The New Yorker for which he wrote a "Talk of the Town" piece back in 1995). His numerous books include Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die (and also ...to Play Golf, ...to Dive and ... to Sail Before You Die) and spinoffs from several of them.
My hopes for a great travel read were dashed when I actually plowed through the review copy. Santella's writing is curiously devoid of passion or insight. In fact, the book reads like a compendium of 50 tour brochures. The opening sentences to many of these adventures are real snoozers. But he does know how to craft a run-on sentence.
I wouldn't travel to Cape Town, South Africa, to fly a fighter jet based on the lead for that chapter: "There are no exact figures that speak to the increase in the number of U.S. Air Force and Navy recruits after the 1986 release of the Hollywood blockbuster Top Gun, through the military acknowledges that there was a significant bump and even staffed recruiting booths in select theaters where the picture was showing." Yawn.
Nor would I feel motivated to spend $20 million, if I had $20 million, to visit the International Space Station based on this book. Santella starts his description this remarkable adventure with, "In 2001, American multimillionaire Dennis Tito became the first civilian to travel in orbital flight, thanks to the Russian Federal Space Agency and a U.S. Company called Space Adventures, which has a partnership to purchase a seat on the Soyuz spacecraft and a ten-day spot on the International Space Station (ISS) every six months." Yawn.
The occasional lead sentence reads like a term paper rather than a tour brochure. Consider, "While the number of Bengal tigers is dwindling worldwide, populations in north-central Nepal are stable." Yawn.
The occasional lead sentence reads like a term paper rather than a tour brochure. Consider, "While the number of Bengal tigers is dwindling worldwide, populations in north-central Nepal are stable." Yawn.
Have I bored you enough? The press release accompanying the review copy boasts that the "vacations...are so unusual that you can't just search for them on the web or find them in travel magazines," and that the author's "detective work" has unearthed them for us. In truth, most of the them on the web (no surprise), and Santella's own "If You Go" appendix lists outfitters, their phone numbers and/or websites. However, unless the list was fact-checked between the printing of the review copy and the May 12 publication date, there are errors. For example, the review copy gives Abercrombie & Kent Space Travel for the Capetown fighter jet flight, when in fact, A&K handles reservations the Soyuz. If you want to fly a jet in South Africa, contact Incredible Adventures. The hardcover book will cost $24.95. Save your money -- unless you're in need of a good sleep.
Palestine: Day 3, Part 2: Taybeh, Mt. Gerizim and Nablus
Visits with two priests who loom large in their small West Bank towns
Taybeh
Tiny Taybeh is so much more than beer and antiquity. It is the location of St. George Church (below, top photo) and its remarkable, admirable, energetic parish priest, Father Raed Abu Sahlieh (bottom photo). He exemplifies the best of Christ's teachings, walking the walk but also talking the talk to explain to anyone who will listen why peace, social justice and the brotherhood of man are so important to humankind. He runs the church of course, but also a school for area children of all faiths, a 50-voice children's choir, the only care facility around for the elderly and the inspiring Peace Lamp project. His fund-raising idea was to put olive-oil-burning dove-shaped Peace Lamps in all the world's churches. Ambitious and admirable. The church grounds also feature the recreation of a Holy Land dwelling from the time of Christ.
Photos: Mac Lacy, Group Travel Leader
They say if you can't say something good, say nothing at all, so I'm not cyber-saying anything about lunch at the Asffoura Restaurant in Nablus.
Mt. Gerizim and the Last of the Samaritans
We drove to the top of Mt. Gerizim overlooking Nablus. On the windy summit is a small Samaritan village presided over by Kahen Husni, the priest of this tiny, ancient sect that in Biblical times counted millions of believers and now has fewer than 1,000. The Samaritans, who trace their unbroken lineage back to the ancient Israeli tribe of Levi, maintain practices from two millennia ago, including ritual sheep sacrifice that is so authentic that several thousand Israeli Jews visit annually to see how it was done in the really old days. The Samaritans' practices are similar the Jewish rituals (Saturday sabbath, reading from the Torah in Hebrew, etc.) but Arabic is their everyday language. They don't eschew modern life. They have televisions and cell phones, and a group of boys was energetically kick a soccer ball around on the area used for the sacrifice. Perhaps some of the children harbored dreams of some day playing on a Palestinian team in the World Cup.
Nablus
Back down the mountain to Nablus and a quick run through the ancient market, which is not under threat from Jewish settlers as Hebron is. I could have spent hours there, but we were directed to be on the fast track. Our only detour was to an olive factory that still has traditional hand-operated soap-making apparatus on display but now makes the soap elsewhere.
The simple, well-worn Yasmeen Hotel is our lodging for the night. The location on the fringes of the souk is fantastic, especially for those with time to meander through the market. Sadly, the exterior still bears the scars of bullet hits. My room resembles a monastic cell, but there is free WiFi, without which I'd be even father along than I am. Dinner at the nearby Saraya Restaurant is a traditional progression of small salads, spreads, dips, condiments and of course, pita, followed by roasted lamb and fragrant rice and then knafa, a local dessert made of sweet melted goat cheese, honey and a crunchy topping that might have been small piece of crumbled dough or something else that I couldn't identify.
Most of my traveling companions went to a Turkish bath, but I opted to return to the hotel and check on E-mail, write a blog post and get some sleep. I was still at it when they returned from the Turkish bath.
Taybeh
Tiny Taybeh is so much more than beer and antiquity. It is the location of St. George Church (below, top photo) and its remarkable, admirable, energetic parish priest, Father Raed Abu Sahlieh (bottom photo). He exemplifies the best of Christ's teachings, walking the walk but also talking the talk to explain to anyone who will listen why peace, social justice and the brotherhood of man are so important to humankind. He runs the church of course, but also a school for area children of all faiths, a 50-voice children's choir, the only care facility around for the elderly and the inspiring Peace Lamp project. His fund-raising idea was to put olive-oil-burning dove-shaped Peace Lamps in all the world's churches. Ambitious and admirable. The church grounds also feature the recreation of a Holy Land dwelling from the time of Christ.
They say if you can't say something good, say nothing at all, so I'm not cyber-saying anything about lunch at the Asffoura Restaurant in Nablus.
Mt. Gerizim and the Last of the Samaritans
We drove to the top of Mt. Gerizim overlooking Nablus. On the windy summit is a small Samaritan village presided over by Kahen Husni, the priest of this tiny, ancient sect that in Biblical times counted millions of believers and now has fewer than 1,000. The Samaritans, who trace their unbroken lineage back to the ancient Israeli tribe of Levi, maintain practices from two millennia ago, including ritual sheep sacrifice that is so authentic that several thousand Israeli Jews visit annually to see how it was done in the really old days. The Samaritans' practices are similar the Jewish rituals (Saturday sabbath, reading from the Torah in Hebrew, etc.) but Arabic is their everyday language. They don't eschew modern life. They have televisions and cell phones, and a group of boys was energetically kick a soccer ball around on the area used for the sacrifice. Perhaps some of the children harbored dreams of some day playing on a Palestinian team in the World Cup.
Nablus
Back down the mountain to Nablus and a quick run through the ancient market, which is not under threat from Jewish settlers as Hebron is. I could have spent hours there, but we were directed to be on the fast track. Our only detour was to an olive factory that still has traditional hand-operated soap-making apparatus on display but now makes the soap elsewhere.
The simple, well-worn Yasmeen Hotel is our lodging for the night. The location on the fringes of the souk is fantastic, especially for those with time to meander through the market. Sadly, the exterior still bears the scars of bullet hits. My room resembles a monastic cell, but there is free WiFi, without which I'd be even father along than I am. Dinner at the nearby Saraya Restaurant is a traditional progression of small salads, spreads, dips, condiments and of course, pita, followed by roasted lamb and fragrant rice and then knafa, a local dessert made of sweet melted goat cheese, honey and a crunchy topping that might have been small piece of crumbled dough or something else that I couldn't identify.
Most of my traveling companions went to a Turkish bath, but I opted to return to the hotel and check on E-mail, write a blog post and get some sleep. I was still at it when they returned from the Turkish bath.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Palestine: Day 3, Part 1: On the Road to Taybeh
In Taybeh and Nablus, rough history but non-violent peace activists
We left Bethlehem after breakfast, passing through the main security checkpoint in what is now a walled city -- not a pictursque medieval wall but an ugly concrete scar across the ancient landscape. We passed the outskirts of Jerusalem, the troubled holy city for three faiths that is a political pawn in an ongoing political tussle between the Palestinians who want their own state and the Israeli government which doesn't want to give up anything. The implementation of the two-state solution -- one Jewish and one Palestinian nation -- that came out of the 2007 Annapolis Conference remains stalemated, and meanwhile, Israel continues building settlements, maintaining checkpoints and extended the walls that in many places are higher than East Germany's Berlin Wall during the Cold War.
Photo: Odyssei Travel Community
The landscape noth of the city reminded me somewhat of the Southwest: golden hills with stone outcroppings (limestone here), bushes that from a distance resemble but darker, arroyos, deep valleys and occasional dirt tracks leading somewhere. Instead of grazing cattle, however,there are occasional flocks of sheep or goats watched over by a shepherd or goatherder, and here and there camels. The scene has existed since the land was settled and humans began domesticating animals. Also, the US Southwest has no olive trees or small villages on hillsides and hilltops, and thankfully no walls or military watchtowers every few miles to control civilians. The closest we get is the occasional penetentiary or prison where convicts are incarcerated.
The main West Bank roads built are well-constructed, immaculately paved highways that are very much of the 21st century -- built by the Israeli government to provide quick, smooth access to and from settlements plunked here and there on the Palestinian landscape, often in places where they can control the water to old Palestinian communities. It is yet another affront.
TaybehOn the outskirts of tiny Taybeh, said to be the only all-Christian village in this Arab country, the Taybeh Brewing Company is practicing peace through beer. Established by Nadeem Khoury, a Palestinian homebrewer, in 1994 when the Oslo Peace Accords had brought optimism to Palestine, it is the only microbrewery in the Middle East and the only Palestinian-owned brewery anywhere. It turns spring water, barley from France and Belgium, hops from Bavaria and the Czech Republic and yeast into four beers. They have won awards, are the first Middle Eastern brwery to license in Germany and export to France. The brewery also started bottling olive oil for St George's Church school and began developing an alcohol-free beer in case a more Islamist fundamentalist party wins a Palestinian election and alcohol is banned. The brewery owners are nothing if not practical.
We visited the ruins of a Byzantine church called El Khader/St. George. It is the site of baptisms in an ancient font, and townsfolk still come there to sacrifice a sheep for various festivals. The church dates from the fourth century and was destroyed by the Samarians in the sixth century. It is one of manymanifestations of the violence and religious conflict that tragically are nothing new to the Holy Land, but you'd think that humankind would have learned something in 15 centuries.
More to come. Stay tuned.
We left Bethlehem after breakfast, passing through the main security checkpoint in what is now a walled city -- not a pictursque medieval wall but an ugly concrete scar across the ancient landscape. We passed the outskirts of Jerusalem, the troubled holy city for three faiths that is a political pawn in an ongoing political tussle between the Palestinians who want their own state and the Israeli government which doesn't want to give up anything. The implementation of the two-state solution -- one Jewish and one Palestinian nation -- that came out of the 2007 Annapolis Conference remains stalemated, and meanwhile, Israel continues building settlements, maintaining checkpoints and extended the walls that in many places are higher than East Germany's Berlin Wall during the Cold War.
The landscape noth of the city reminded me somewhat of the Southwest: golden hills with stone outcroppings (limestone here), bushes that from a distance resemble but darker, arroyos, deep valleys and occasional dirt tracks leading somewhere. Instead of grazing cattle, however,there are occasional flocks of sheep or goats watched over by a shepherd or goatherder, and here and there camels. The scene has existed since the land was settled and humans began domesticating animals. Also, the US Southwest has no olive trees or small villages on hillsides and hilltops, and thankfully no walls or military watchtowers every few miles to control civilians. The closest we get is the occasional penetentiary or prison where convicts are incarcerated.
The main West Bank roads built are well-constructed, immaculately paved highways that are very much of the 21st century -- built by the Israeli government to provide quick, smooth access to and from settlements plunked here and there on the Palestinian landscape, often in places where they can control the water to old Palestinian communities. It is yet another affront.
TaybehOn the outskirts of tiny Taybeh, said to be the only all-Christian village in this Arab country, the Taybeh Brewing Company is practicing peace through beer. Established by Nadeem Khoury, a Palestinian homebrewer, in 1994 when the Oslo Peace Accords had brought optimism to Palestine, it is the only microbrewery in the Middle East and the only Palestinian-owned brewery anywhere. It turns spring water, barley from France and Belgium, hops from Bavaria and the Czech Republic and yeast into four beers. They have won awards, are the first Middle Eastern brwery to license in Germany and export to France. The brewery also started bottling olive oil for St George's Church school and began developing an alcohol-free beer in case a more Islamist fundamentalist party wins a Palestinian election and alcohol is banned. The brewery owners are nothing if not practical.
We visited the ruins of a Byzantine church called El Khader/St. George. It is the site of baptisms in an ancient font, and townsfolk still come there to sacrifice a sheep for various festivals. The church dates from the fourth century and was destroyed by the Samarians in the sixth century. It is one of manymanifestations of the violence and religious conflict that tragically are nothing new to the Holy Land, but you'd think that humankind would have learned something in 15 centuries.
More to come. Stay tuned.
Airlines Reinvent International Travel -- Again
Fewer transoceanic flights, but improved front-cabin amenities
In the heady years that are now over, profit jets and, of course, first and business class cabins on commercial airliners were cash cows for carriers. Then fuel prices sored, air fares went through the roof and the whole airline picture changed. Fuel prices are down now, but so is the global economy, and airlines are still trying to tinker their way to profitability.
According to Associated Press and other reports, US carriers are cutting flights on their transatlantic and transpacific routes but some are upgrading seats and other amenities. Delta is cutting its international service by 10 percent, restructuring some routes to seasonal service and upping flights to Latin America while eliminating unprofitable routes across the Atlantic and Pacific. United has already shaved its international schedule by 15 percent -- but happily is reviving its Denver-London nonstop for spring and summer tourist season. American is cutting international services by 2 1/2 percent, and Continental is decreasing its international capacity by 7 percent.
Some airlines including United and Air France are among the carriers that are trying to retain what premium business there is by installing more comfortable seats, better inflight entertainment and sometimes enhanced ground services. Air France, especially, has raised the bar. It introduced curb-to-plane airport concierge service to ease the first-class passengers' departure. Its phenomenal inflight entertainment choices include 55 films, on-demand television and 116 hours of recorded music. The reopened Terminal 2E at Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG) is dedicated to all US flights. In all classes of service, the carrier has introduced flexible business/leisure fares ("bleisure," the call it) with no Paris stopover penalties and enhanced what it calls "the French touch" in food and beverage service. Et finalement, Air France has introduced a premium-economy-style class that combines the comfortable seating of business class and the service found in economy -- which of course, includes complimentary French champagne and wine.
In the heady years that are now over, profit jets and, of course, first and business class cabins on commercial airliners were cash cows for carriers. Then fuel prices sored, air fares went through the roof and the whole airline picture changed. Fuel prices are down now, but so is the global economy, and airlines are still trying to tinker their way to profitability.
According to Associated Press and other reports, US carriers are cutting flights on their transatlantic and transpacific routes but some are upgrading seats and other amenities. Delta is cutting its international service by 10 percent, restructuring some routes to seasonal service and upping flights to Latin America while eliminating unprofitable routes across the Atlantic and Pacific. United has already shaved its international schedule by 15 percent -- but happily is reviving its Denver-London nonstop for spring and summer tourist season. American is cutting international services by 2 1/2 percent, and Continental is decreasing its international capacity by 7 percent.
Some airlines including United and Air France are among the carriers that are trying to retain what premium business there is by installing more comfortable seats, better inflight entertainment and sometimes enhanced ground services. Air France, especially, has raised the bar. It introduced curb-to-plane airport concierge service to ease the first-class passengers' departure. Its phenomenal inflight entertainment choices include 55 films, on-demand television and 116 hours of recorded music. The reopened Terminal 2E at Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG) is dedicated to all US flights. In all classes of service, the carrier has introduced flexible business/leisure fares ("bleisure," the call it) with no Paris stopover penalties and enhanced what it calls "the French touch" in food and beverage service. Et finalement, Air France has introduced a premium-economy-style class that combines the comfortable seating of business class and the service found in economy -- which of course, includes complimentary French champagne and wine.
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