Looking at cheap air tickets and passenger protections on airlines

In 2011, the US Department of Transport introduced a series of new regulations to offer greater protection to airline passengers. The intention is to improve the level of service actually delivered at airports and to achieve a better level of transparency on fares before you book. This is a brief summary of the new protections:

1. Lost baggage

If a bag is lost, the airline is required to refund the fee charged for carriage, and to hold that reduced fee on any continuing or return flights. Compensation is also to be paid. Although this is not intended as a substitute for you carrying travel insurance, basic losses should be covered immediately when loss or damage is obvious. Compensation remains payable even if the bag is not lost but merely delayed.

2. Bumping

Airlines continue to overbook, especially when cheap air tickets are held, despite the best efforts of regulators worldwide. The new rules double the amount of compensation payable if you are denied a flight. If you cannot be delivered to your intended destination within two hours of the scheduled time, you're entitled to compensation of double the face value of the ticket up to a maximum $650 per ticket. But if the delay is longer, you're entitled to four times the face value of the ticket up to a maximum of $1,300 per air ticket. These compensation amounts will be adjusted to stay in line with inflation every two years.

3. Transparency

Applicable charges for providing meals, handling bags and so on must be listed by all airlines on their website. All government fees and taxes must be included in the ticket prices collected. Unless the government fees and taxes rise, the prices cannot be increased after you pay.

4. Reservations

If you make a reservation for full-price or cheap air tickets, the quoted prices must be held for at least 24 hours. If you decide to cancel, the airline is not allowed to impose a penalty.

There was no variation of the tarmac delay rules. Secretary LaHood has been satisfied by the improvement in airline's performance although the new rules do require more disclosure on delays and cancellations to improve monitoring of the airlines.

Keeping cheap car rental rates means delaying new purchases

The world sometimes tries to simplify itself when the going gets tough. Reducing everything to the core activities and doing them well is often the way just to survive if prospering is too difficult. Although the US recession is supposed to be over, there's little sign of it in the economy. People are staying home and not spending. It's still thought prudent to pay down the debts. In such circumstances, one of the most obvious savings is to put off replacing the old with new. With a little patching and mending, we can all get by with what we have. As applied to the car rental companies, this means putting off renewing the fleet. It's cheaper to recruit a few extra maintenance staff to keep the existing vehicles running smoothly than to sell off each block of vehicles at fixed dates and replace with new. Indeed, most of the publicly quoted rental companies have been reporting increased profits as a result.

The problem now falls on to the manufacturers. For the last few decades, the US manufacturers have relied on the steady buying of standard models in volume. Although the prices charged were heavily discounted, this is money turned over quickly. If sales have to go through a dealer network and rely on credit from lenders less than excited by lending, sales are always going to be slow. The latest figures from the motor manufacturers show a 40% drop in sales to rental fleet customers.

GM's sales dropped by almost 20% and it's now losing market share to Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and Honda. That's the case even though Ford's sales have also fallen slightly. This leaves the labor market in the manufacturing industry in a worried state. If rental companies do not resume their volume buying soon, there will be lay-offs. Yet, with those rental companies maximizing their return on the capital they have invested in their stock of vehicles, profits are up and, if you are prepared to accept an older model, cheap car rental is within your grasp. Which is more important. Being seen in a brand new fleet car or paying a cheap car rental rate and driving a tidy older vehicle?

How big is the enthusiasm for adopting Cialis among the French?

When it comes to France, it all stems from the CanCan and Paris as a center for artistic nudity on the stage. Names like Moulin Rouge have passed into mythology. And we are used to think about Frech as a sexy natonality. Yet, when it comes to the reality, the French are probably just as boring as the rest of us and rather tired of being typecast as the greatest European lovers - probably preferring to leave that particular label for the Italian stallions. This does not mean, however, that the French are not interested in their own attitudes to sex and so it's interesting to see the publication of a new research report from the University of Paris.

Attitudes to sex in France and Cialis

Like the rest of the world, there was a major population explosion in France immediately following the end of World War II. Their Boomers are rapidly advancing into retirement and the French healthcare services are preparing themselves to deal with the anticipated rise in demand as bodies and minds go into decline. Because France has socialized medical services, the cost to the taxpayer is also an important factor in this research which will help decide where resources are most needed.

The results currently show about 65% of men aged 70 years have some degree of erectile dysfunction. This rises to 78% by the age of 75. This seriously undermines the quality of life for those couples who would prefer to maintain an active sexual life. Yet with the men suffering major psychological problems in the loss of self-esteem, there's little enthusiasm for adopting Cialis even though it has proved highly effective in the treatment of seniors. In other words, the French seem to be involved in what the researchers call pathological aging. There are treatments available both for the erectile dysfunction and associated heart and lower urinary tract problems. But French men seem reluctant to seek help. Presumably American men will take Cialis and have fewer problems on the relationship front. They are prepared to live life to the full and not give up.

Cheap fights and the changes in comfort

Some of you reading this article may be seniors. Remember there can be some very attractive cheap flights on offer to you in your silver and golden years. You will be old enough to remember what it used to be like or, for those of you with richer parents and grandparents, there will be stories from the earliest years of powered flights. Not to put too fine a point on it, the first sixty or seventy years were positively dangerous. We're used to aircraft being the safest form of public transport with the fewest number of fatalities per passenger mile. But when they were just starting out, engines would fail and, in the wrong conditions, there would be damage to the wings or control surfaces. If you were lucky, the landing was a controlled crash. If you were unlucky, the chances of walking away were small. Yet flying was the glamorous way to travel. Mostly, it was the preserve of the rich and the reckless who huddled together in the noisy and vibrating cabins as the plane slowly made its way in the direction of the stated destination.

Only in more recent years have the cabins been pressurized and soundproofed. Now we can look out of the windows and not be frightened by seeing the wings flexing up and down as we might expect in a bird. Yet, for all there's been an improvement in the general level of comfort, the seats remain uncomfortable in the general cabin area, there's very little leg room, and sleeping is difficult on long hauls. Yet this is the price we willingly pay for cheap flights. If we don't want airlines to charge higher rates, we have to tolerate them cramming more seats into the same space to make their profit from passenger volume. And talking of volume, the rise in the number of people who are overweight is making the seats even more uncomfortable for everyone. So here's the big decision for you. Is price so important you will always prefer cheap flights no matter how uncomfortable? Or will there come a point when you will pay a little more to be comfortable?