Read about Summer Vacation Savings Below
—Hogwarts at Universal Orlando—
Contents
Expedia Travel Bloggers • Airfare Market Broken • Airline Fee Table • Facebook Check-in Data • Kayak-ITA+Amadeus • Save on Summer Travel • Frommer’s Bargains • Travel Dancing
Expedia Travel Blogger Promotion Shifts into High Gear
Last month I wrote about Expedia’s partnering with top travel bloggers for our big summer promotion. With summer upon us, the campaign is heating up.
ASTA: The Market for Airfares has Stopped Working
Paul Ruden, the SVP of Legal and Industry Affairs for the American Society of Travel Agents claims that the marketplace for airfares has stopped working. By unbundling the components of airline flights and obfuscating the component’s prices, airlines have made it nearly impossible for consumers to compare trip costs from different suppliers. Travel agents are unable to help because they can’t get a clear picture of price components either. It’s interesting to read the comments to this article. They all seem to have been written by airline proponents who disagree with Ruden. Some of them make some reasonable-sounding rebuttals to his arguments.
Unbundled: A Comprehensive table of Airline Fees
The Value of Facebook Check-in Data
Analyzing a recent Facebook blog post, Tnooz notes that there is a lot of valuable information in Facebook check-in data, like the demographics of people visiting a particular destination. The original blog post has a couple of nice infographics of world social landmarks and social landmarks by city.
Kayak moves away from Google’s ITA, towards Amadeus?
As recently as November 2011 Kayak used ITA for airfare and availability data for 61% of its results. By May 8, 2012 the proportion had dropped to 39%. After some sleuthing, Tnooz figures that Kayak’s new source is Amadeus. Given that Kayak just re-signed with Amadeus in a multi-year deal, this is likely the case.
Save on Summer Travel
Travel costs are higher this summer. These tips could save you some money. There are lots of pointers to some useful websites. For example PointHub and MileWise help with the potentially complicated calculations of how to best use your travel rewards to maximize your value.
Arthur Frommer’s Personal Picks: 12 Best Bargain Vacations for July
Great bargain suggestions for the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Mexico, China, the Mediterranean, Jamaica, Las Vegas, and Peru.
Travel Aspirations: Matt’s Back!
If you had access to the internet in 2006-07 or 2008-09, you’ll probably remember watching Seattle resident Matt Harding dance his way around the world in his famously-viral videos.
Watching the new 2012 video, I was reminded of what impressed me about the first two videos. First, they show what amazing and beautiful places we can experience through travel. Second, wherever Matt visits, you see commonalities in the way people move and act and relate to others and experience joy. Despite all our conflicts, cultures, religions, and political systems, we are all part of one humanity. I believe travel is important because it is the best way for us to discover the commonality of humanity.
TravelTekker 
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