Travel briefs: Average airfare for a domestic flight rises

Average airfare for a domestic flight rises

Anyone who has flown in the last few months has probably noticed that the cost of flying in the U.S. has climbed beyond pre-recession levels. Blame higher fuel costs, increasing demand for air travel and tight controls on capacity by the airlines.

The average domestic airfare grew to $247 in the first three months of 2011, a 10 percent increase over the same period last year, according to data from American Express Global Business Travel, a division of the credit card company.

Before the recession sent airline ticket prices plummeting, the average domestic airline ticket peaked at $233 in the first quarter of 2008, according to the report released last week.

But there is some good news for travelers: Hotel rates have not increased as fast in the same period, and they remained slightly below pre-recession prices.

The average room rate nationwide rose to $150 in the first three months of 2011, a 3 percent increase over the same period in 2010.

A separate report by the business travel branch of the travel website Expedia found that average car rental rates fell to $32.16 per day in the first three months of 2011, a 5 percent drop from the same period last year.

But expect travel costs to continue to rise.

“If I shook my magic eight ball to the question, ‘Are the prices business travelers are expected to pay this summer going up?’ the answer would be, ‘All signs point to yes,”‘ said Christa Degnan Manning, a research director for American Express Global Business Travel. “It will likely be true compared to the prices they paid last year and the year before that.”

American to hand out computer tablet

If you board an American Airlines flight and the flight attendant hands you a Samsung tablet computer, it’s not a freebie to take home.

Beginning later this year, the hand-held tablet will be offered as an entertainment device for business- and first-class passengers on several transcontinental routes and some international flights to Europe and South America.

American announced last week that it was teaming up with Samsung to hand out 6,000 tablets, preloaded with in-flight movies and other entertainment. The device, with a 10-inch touch screen, will replace the airline’s current personal entertainment devices in premium cabins. Flight attendants will hand out the tablets after takeoff and collect them before landing.

American is not the first airline to introduce tablet computers in the cabin. Last summer, Australia’s low-fare airline Jetstar started offering iPads to passengers for rent for $10.

Hotel guests favor cleanliness

Cleanliness trumps personal safety, at least from hotel guests’ perspective.

According to a survey conducted on behalf of the Chubb Group of Insurance Cos., 43 percent of Americans said cleanliness was a top priority when choosing a hotel, compared with 23 percent who said price and 19 percent who ranked location at the top.

Only 11 percent chose security as one of the most important factors, according to the phone survey of 1,000 Americans in June.

“Travelers should take safety precautions more seriously, and hotel security should be higher on their checklist than cleanliness,” said Jim Villa, a Chubb senior vice president. “It seems that more people are concerned about bedbugs than security.”

Sing for a hotel room upgrade

If you are not shy about singing in public, Joie de Vivre hotels in Southern California are willing to give you a free room upgrade.

Until the end of September, guests who check into one of four hotels — Shorebreak Hotel in Huntington Beach, Pacific Edge Hotel in Laguna Beach, Hotel Erwin near Venice Beach and Hotel Angeleno in Brentwood — can get a free upgrade by performing live at check-in.

The hotels are offering one upgrade per hotel per day. The first guest to belt out one of the selected songs gets the upgrade.

The hotels will videotape and post the performances on YouTube and Facebook. The top vote getter wins a two-night stay at each of the chain’s Southern California hotels.

Coltrane house, called endangered

WASHINGTON — Jazz musician John Coltrane’s home on Long Island, N.Y., a cloverleaf-shaped Chicago hospital building and a Pillsbury plant in Minneapolis that once was the world’s most advanced flour mill are among America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation also made the unusual move of listing an entire city — Charleston, S.C. — on “watch status.” The group says expanding cruise ship tourism could harm the city’s historic character.

Specific sites in Alabama, California, Minnesota, New Mexico, South Dakota, Virginia and Wisconsin also made the list, including a historic Chinatown called China Alley in California’s San Joaquin Valley that began when immigrants arrived in 1877. There are no local historic preservation officials to enforce laws protecting such sites, according to the National Trust.

The final listing this year is devoted to historic sites imperiled by state actions as legislatures across the country consider cuts to preservation funding. Michigan eliminated historic preservation tax credits, and Texas has considered deep cuts with one proposal to eliminate its state historic preservation agency.

Fear of wildfires may hit tourism

SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico’s tourism secretary is hoping for a modest rebound in tourism this summer. And although fires have burned near three of the state’s four borders, Monique Jacobson says she is trying to stay optimistic and reassure people that New Mexico is open for business.

Jacobson says much of the department’s focus for building tourism has been on keeping New Mexicans in New Mexico. She says the department now is also trying to be proactive to keep travelers from being scared off by the fires.

And Taos officials say tourism there is up 9 percent and they haven’t seen any signs of fire-related cancellations.

‘Welcome America’ fest rings in July 4

PHILADELPHIA — The city’s annual Independence Day celebration will include three fireworks shows, a parade, a concert series, movies, music and a talent contest over an 11-day period.

The “Welcome America!” festival, sponsored by regional convenience store chain Wawa, started June 24 and runs until July 4. Organizers call it the biggest event in the nation celebrating the Fourth of July, with more than a million people attending each year.

A 4 -ton Wawa hoagie will be assembled and then served Wednesday at Independence National Historical Park, with a screening of “Rocky” outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art that evening.

A Chinatown block party and open-air market of food and crafts — followed by the second of the festival’s fireworks shows on the Delaware River — happens July 2, and Peter Nero and the Philly Pops perform a free concert at Independence Hall on July 3.

Fourth of July events begin with a ceremony at Independence Hall featuring music and a reading of excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, followed by a parade with more than 4,000 participants from 12 states — including nine floats, 16 marching bands, representatives from all five military branches and others marching past Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.

A daylong party on Benjamin Franklin Parkway starts at noon and features three musical stages with offerings from pop vocalists to a steel drum band. Hometown favorites The Roots, four-time Grammy winners and the house band for “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” will headline the July 4 concert on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway that culminates with a huge fireworks show over The Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Wire services

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