The rest of Q&A

Q – My girlfriend and I are vegetarians, world travelers I suppose, fans of modern art, foodies to a degree, and, of late, folks who enjoy nudist activities. We are in our mid- 60’s and keen to take a day or two of our upcoming Parisian vacation to get naked in public without upsetting the gendarmes. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

A –  Actually, nudists in Paris  have been in a snit over the lack of availability of  proper facilities and gathering places for naturalists. The government has now set aside a reserved space, a grassy space, in a nudist “zone” opened in the city’s Bois de Vincennes park. The government tourist board has been promoting holidays for naturalists and they hope to ensure naked tranquility by placing several warning signs about the designated area so the unsuspecting family might not just wander in to their skin wrinkled encampment. We think you will have a lovely time and the people you will meet in the park will advise of other areas of the city where nudism has the blessings of the authorities.  There are a reported 2.6 million naturism practitioners in France.

Q –  As a rather frequent business traveler who is not, admittedly, tuned in to the latest apps and services, I was surprised when a colleague described her  extremely positive experiences with Uber. Wondering what you think of the service generally and whether or not it is true, as she has told me, that they are half the price of normal taxis to and from the airport? Really enjoy this site but wish there was much more information that would be helpful to business travelers.Are you planning on increasing your business travel coverage?

A – There are a few variables here that make your question difficult to answer with any degree of precision. Some of these have to do with the specific airport, whether or not you are using regular Uber or Uber Black, and the time of day you will be traveling. (Uber gets really expensive about 1:00am.)  Money Magazine did a survey of comparative fares and found that taxis are actually less expensive than Uber at Boston’s Logan, and New York’s JFK and LaGuardia airports. But in all other cases, silver service taxi beats taxi fares and you have a 17% better chance that your driver showered that morning. The knowledgeable drivers show you all that the city of Heraklion has to offer with a heraklion airport taxi.

A professional vehicle wrap agency will have the ability to design your wrap as well as install it. If they do not, many advertising agencies will be happy to design a wrap for you. Most vehicle wrap designers will have access to vehicle outline templates. Vehicle outline templates are detailed architectural renderings of the body of the vehicle you wish to wrap. If they do not have access to vehicle outline templates, keep looking until you find a wrap company who does.

Ask to see the portfolio of your vehicle wrap provider. Many vehicle wrap shops have a portfolio on their website. This way you can determine if they adhere to the KISS principle. Be careful if you find yourself considering price above quality. The more you look the more apt you will be to find a firm willing to do your wrap for less than market rates. Ultimately, you get what you pay for, with a wrap that may start to peel off around wheel wells or fades within a year of application. If you are looking for the commercial vehicle wrap company houston texas, visit us today.

The best wrap shops will warranty their wraps for 2-3 years when using genuine 3M Scotchprint wrap material. By staying out of fender-benders and regular maintaince of your wrap, a quality vehicle wrap can last the life of your car for 4-5 years.

So now you know that when investing money to promote your business and bring back a strong financial return vehicle wraps (vehicle graphics and vehicle advertising) is the most cost-effective way to spend your advertising dollars. Compared to other advertising mediums, vehicle advertising garners more exposures over a longer period of time resulting in the lowest cost per exposure than any other ad media available today. Invest wisely.

Uber, and their competitor Lyft, are fine if saving money is your goal. We think that people who use these services do so because they are unaware of just how dangerous a ride tot he airport is statistically. It is considerably more likely to cause your death than a terrorist attack abroad. Placing your life in the hands of a driver who has “online likes” is ridiculous and only those who don;t understand how much online likes and reviews can be manipulated would place any faith in them. The Uber Black program is more expensive but it has the better vehicles and the more professional drivers. Because they are using their own vehicles, we place more faith in Uber than the average big-city taxi driver, although they use newer and safer cars, and also use cheap uber insurance quotes online to make sure the trip is covered. That would be our last choice. You will find some comparative pricing in the chart above. If the travel industry and the travel press really wanted to save lives we would shout this from the highest rooftop “Driving in some strangers car or taxi, here or overseas,  is the most dangerous thing you do when you travel”. Choose carefully.Meanwhile there are many of incidents where passenger or any other resources also try to make some false claims on driving agencies that is why they also use to prepare with protection of Insurance for Driving Agencies.

Similarly, Car insurance comparisons can be a big help if you need to make sure your car is taken care of. After all, the prices and quotes you get from the various insurers can be all over the board. That’s why it’s such a good idea to collect several quotes and make good car insurance comparisons before you sign up for anything. While insurance agents don’t like you to know it, shopping around is the smartest thing you can do when you’re looking for a new policy. It gives you the ability to see what’s being offered and choose from a multitude of options – the educated way. Remember that you need to pay attention not just to price, but to what you’re comparing, as well. If the quotes you’ve gotten don’t have all the same liability limits and other conditions, you won’t get any good out of your car insurance comparisons. Check over the policy carefully to make sure that your potential insurer hasn’t “helpfully” offered you a plan with lower coverage than you originally requested. These plans look like a great deal at first, but a careful car insurance comparison will show that they’re not what you wanted to buy. No one should be tricked into buying the wrong insurance. Look carefully, and make sure that what you’ve been quoted for is really what you were interested in buying. You can see this post here if you want to know more about car insurance camparisons.

Remember to check deductibles, special rules, and the requirements for where you live. Most quotes are just fine, and will turn up with what you requested. It’s just important to keep an eye out for the ones that don’t. Get at least five quotes for your car insurance comparisons. Fewer than that will lower your chances of being able to make a smart decision. The more quotes you get, the better your options are of getting a good deal. Of course, too many could leave you with more choices than you’re comfortable with. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Keep it reasonable, but give yourself plenty of options. Online services make this process much easier than it used to be – you don’t even have to leave your chair in most cases. Remember to consider your credit rating. It may not seem like it’s fair, but your insurer is doing a few car insurance comparisons of their own. They’re looking at your driving record and your financial history, and deciding how risky it is to offer you a good price. Your history of accidents and timely payment can have a big effect on your ability to get a nice deal on insurance.

Finally, I am afraid that we have little interest in business travelers. If you are late for your meeting in Omaha, you will survive. Warren will see you another time. But if someone screws up your vacation, the time of the year you worked those other fifty weeks to enjoy, well then we take that personally. There are some wonderful web sites dedicated to business flyers. Our favorite is “View from the Wing”. But we will continue to devote all of our attention in our media group and our travel planning consultancy  to the upscale and discriminating worldwide vacation traveler.

Q – Our cruise on Royal Caribbean has been changed from an Eastern to a Western Caribbean itinerary. I am not really thrilled with the ports and wonder if we are entitled to some sort of major discount for this change in itinerary. It wasn’t what we signed on for and we didn’t cause the hurricane. Don’t you think we are entitled to an “Inconvenience Refund”?  I can;t believe how these cruise lines hide behind Irma to make all sorts of changes.

A – Yes, it really seems unfair. Why weren’t you given the choice of sailing to islands that were unaffected by the devastation when you could have kept to your original itinerary. Of course if you had, you would not find any port tours operating and your only option ashore would have been to help with the rescue plans in some way. In fact, Royal Caribbean sent ships to San Juan and rescued thousands.

But here’s the thing. Since you didn’t cause Hurricane Irma and you will admit that Royal Caribbean didn’t cause it, we think you should find the person responsible and have them assist you with some “inconvenience money.”

Q –   Wow – what a site. Really appreciate the opportunity to learn all this stuff in such a neat way with no sales pressure. My question has to do with the summer just past and all of the heat issues. As we will be flying out of New Orleans next July, we are wondering how heat can affect flights and if they cancel them when it gets near or over 100 degrees?

A – High temps make it necessary for planes to reach a higher than normal speed to take off in extremely hot weather.  This has to be accomplished even though their thrust performance is limited by the light air. So the thing to understand is that a plane’s ability to take off is a combination of several things which must be measured by the pilot mathematically. These include air density, the design of the particular aircraft being flown, the length of the runway and the flight’s weight at take-off. If you look at these factors you will see that only only can be controlled and that is weight. So in really hot weather, either fuel, cargo, or passengers must be removed from the plane. The first is a safety issue, the second is highly profitable, which leaves fewer passengers as the only viable alternative.  The number of flights that have been “heat restricted” has been steadily climbing at busy airports like LaGuardia in New York and Washington D.C.’s Reagan National. Both airports have rather short runways, a safety issue that should have been corrected years ago.

The airport with some of the most serious heat-related take-off issues are Phoenix and Denver in the States and Dubai, Hong Kong, and Bangkok overseas. Projections into the future see weight restrictions increasing by as much as 30% in the next two decades. Long distance aircraft like the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner will see the greatest number of passengers bumped for weight issues because the Dreamliner is used on longer routes requiring full fuel tanks. The single-aisle jets like the Boeing 737 or the Airbus A320 will be impacted less with the exception of the short runway airports mentioned above.

Q –  Good Morning – while searching Airline fares I came across your website – it looks like it contains a wealth of information.  I’ll be sure to refer to it in the future.  I have a question concerning  the proper identification for a trip my wife and I are planning this fall from CT to San Antonio.

When I renewed my  Connecticut driver’s license in May of this year, I was informed of a new regulation that required me to bring my birth certificate in order to obtain a license that could serve as a proper ID.   I was not aware of this. This did not prevent me from renewing my license, complete with photo and all – but because I did not have my birth certificate with me and I didn’t want to return another day (and wait in line for another 1.5 hours) I opted to renew my license that contains the line: ” NOT FOR FEDERAL IDENTIFICATION”. Here’s my question.  Will the license as it now  reads prevent me from boarding a plane?  If so, I do have the option of going back to the DMV before my trip to obtain a new license-  What is your advice?    Thank you for your help.

A –  TSA rules are getting stricter by the week. By all means pay another visit to the funsters at the DMV. Since they are explicitly stating that the license you have may not be used as a photo ID, it is essentially worthless in terms of  getting you past security. Our recommendation is that you bring some bocce balls with you. We like to organize a game while waiting to hear our number called.

Q – Our travel agent here in northern Virginia, has fixed us up with a really nice tour program created by a company called WildChina. I wonder if you know anything about this company? We’ve kind of put our faith in this agent but we are paying close to $1000 per day  for a 16-Day program and we want to make sure we are in the best hands.

Our primary reason for contacting you has to do with some advice we received from friends who have just returned from a tour of China’s most famous cities. They have told us that their guide told them in Beijing that they should have brought cans of face cream – that the Chinese really like it  as a gift from travelers. Tourists are said to give out red tins to all the guides, policemen, baggage handlers etc. they meet. What exactly should we bring along – our TA knows nothing about this. 

Finally, a personal question. We’ve just paid a refundable deposit and we are wondering how much our agent really knows about Chinese culture etc. Would you consider taking over this booking if that could be arranged?

A – If we thought your travel agent was misleading you or not up to the task, we might help you. But we suspect you have an excellent agent and it would be inappropriate for us to get involved at this point. We think that WildChina is an excellent choice for private touring in China for those who want an insider’s view, They are particularly strong in some of the rural regions of the country that have, only recently, opened up to tourists. The founder, Mei Zheng, is a native of Yunnan Province and is a Harvard MBA. Her new book is called “In Search of Dali with a Bag of Ham”. The case study  of her company’s success is required reading at Harvard.  We think you are in excellent hands and your agent will direct the kind of guides and touring WildChina will provide. They have won numerous industry awards and they work with Virtuoso and several other well-known premier agency groups. A cost of $1000 per day strikes us as about right as long as it does not also include accommodations. For top-tier private guides and arrangements travelers should expect to pay between $1500-$2000 per day per couple.

Your friends are a bit confused about the skin cream advice. You don;t need to bring face cream to China to distribute. They have plenty and, you will note, the Chinese take great pride in their complexions. This story may have originated in a Wall Street Journal story that talked about the habit of Chinese tourists, particularly those traveling in Egypt, who bring dozens of small gifts of Tiger Balm and other soothing lotions to give out in Lieu of tips. But this is not recommended for American tourists. The best way to show your appreciation in China in a short, sealed, handwritten note with cash inside and, perhaps, a photo of your family.

Q – We have tried to travel to many of the countries on the “Not Advised” list over the past decade including Iran and Iraq. I am thinking I would like to visit North Korea just to get my passport stamped and to stay for a few days. How can I best do this?

A-  It is against current US State Department current regulations and it is a bad idea on every level. If we knew we would, quite honestly, never share the information.

Q –  I have a somewhat perverse interest in long flight statistics. I can tell you who has the longest flights currently (Singapore) and I pretty much know the schedules. I’ve flown two previous “longest routes” but I am anxious to start planning for something new. Is there a longest ever route coming out soon that you can discuss? 

A – This is all a part of current airline planning and most of it is kept quite confidential for competitive reasons. We can tell you that Boeing is working on a longer range 777x  and the Airbus 35OULR.

The airline really pushing this development is Qantas which wants to initiate the longest flight ever, from Sydney to London in a projected 20 hours and 20 minutes, according to USA Today. The goal is to achieve this distance capability in new aircraft by 2022. If the planes can be delivered with the capabilities Qantas is requesting, the aircraft would be able to fly non-stop New York to Sydney in just about 18 hours. At Qantas, by the way, management refers to this endeavor as “Project Sunrise.”

If you want to buy a ticket before these planes are built, look to Qantas’ upcoming service from Perth to London. This 17-hour flight will cover more than 9,000 miles. You should add it to your list. 

Q –  As I read your various sites and the great industry information you all provide, one nagging question seems to keep popping up for this rather frequent flyer (business and a minimum of three overseas vacations per year). Which airline should we be flying to eliminate hassles, lousy service, and awful connection percentages like JFK and O’Hare? I have the feeling that you have a favorite airline that you fly and wonder if you might share this information with your readers?  Which airline are the “cool” people choosing when they fly to Europe? As a general comment, we would like to see much more on this site about airline quality and policies.

A – There is a certain percentage of fliers who will choose Air France for the quality of their croissants in the morning. But the savvy flier’s choice these days is Air Canada, perhaps the biggest turn-around success story in the industry. Their three international hubs, Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal allow Americans to clear US customs in the airport before entering the United States. And fliers from the US do not need to have their checked luggage with them to go through passport control. Changing planes in Canada is just a more convenient process. Talk to one of the frequent flyers who has discovered this secret and they will rave on about the fact that Air Canada has some of the newest aircraft in the sly, that they have invested heavily in high-speed moving sidewalks and baggage belts, and, joy of all joys, extremely nice airport clubs with shower facilities.

Some of Air Canada’s biggest fans tout its fleet of new 777 and 787 Boeing aircraft. Others are really impressed with the airline’s improved Premium Economy section and pricing, a reflection of the dollar’s current strength against the Canadian Dollar. But what we like most about Air Canada is the fact that in all three of its international gateways, arriving and departing flights from the US arrive in the same terminal. This, say the most savvy flyers, can often save a half hour or more off the connection time.

Then there is this …………these Canadians are some of the nicest people on earth and you might run into Justin at the airport.