With Mother's Day tomorrow I want to express my very best wishes to all those mothers, grandmothers, and mothers-to-be who look forward to being treated especially well with gifts, cards, and thoughtful deeds.
With travel agents all over the province in a more restful period after the busy winter season, I am certain they would all welcome you into their offices if you were thinking of giving the mother in your family the best gift of all, the gift of discovering new worlds and experiences with the gift of travel.
Q. I have a son who wants to travel to Europe this summer on his own, and as a mother I am not at all comfortable with the idea. What do you suggest?
A. Your son is likely choosing one of the better areas to visit for his first travel sojourn. Europe is, for the most part, very safe with a well developed hostel program. He will meet others of his age quickly and likely find a travel partner before long. I understand your concerns though. I had to live it a number of years ago with both my children and I never really felt truly at ease until they returned home. I hope your son realizes that Europe, even with staying at hostels, can be an expensive proposition. I travelled with the Europe on $5 a Day bible. Today that may be up to $100, depending upon how he gets around. Many are choosing Australia or New Zealand, which have become the new Europe for young people in many ways.
An option you might suggest to your son is a motor coach tour and specifically any one of the Contiki Tours. They have carved a niche serving young people because they limit it to those 35 years of age or under.
Q. How much are the higher airline ticket costs, with new and increasing surcharges, hurting our travel bookings if at all?
A. On the surface it would appear not at all in Canada. Both Air Canada and Westjet reported high load factors for April. But behind that rosy picture there is serious concern in airline boardrooms.
Westjet, for the first time in 15 months, did not have load factors higher than the previous year. While U.S. airlines are really suffering with their economy, complicated by the recent housing meltdown as well as fuel costs that they are afraid to pass on to the consumer, experts are predicting a significant slowdown, which is the reason you are reading about mergers of giant airline brands to try to weather the storm ahead.
A recent analysis pointed out that with the cutback in routes and frequency of service announced already by airline companies, the sum total of these cutbacks is greater than the total of all of the routes of American Airlines, one of the world's biggest, if they grounded their entire fleet. In a business where profits are measured on nickels and dimes and based on full loads as well, this once again does not portend well for that industry sector.
Q. I understand Air Canada Vacations has followed its parent in charging $25 for a second checked-in bag. Are the other tour operators likely to follow?
A. At the present time the ACV announcement affects Hawaii and other parts of the United States including Las Vegas. They have not made such an announcement for the winter travel season as yet but likely will.
However, I am not anticipating the other tour operators who use charter services to service the sun destinations, like Skyservice or Air Transat, to rush in to do that. While I do stand to be quickly proven wrong, the others already have tighter weight restrictions than Air Canada.
So while you could take two bags each weighing 20 kilograms in the past, the others already had controlled your check-in allowance. With that restriction it was not that easy, considering the fact that even the lightest bag is likely three to five kilos, to use two bags when you could easily pack that limit into just one.
Forward your travel questions to askjourneys@journeystravel.ca.
Ron Pradinuk is president of Journeys Travel & Leisure SuperCentre and can be heard Sundays at noon on CJOB. Previous columns and tips can be found on www.journeystravel.ca.
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