Major airlines agree on cell phone check-in
Major airlines have agreed on a standard that will allow travelers to check in using a bar code sent to their cell phones, the International Air Transport Association said at a meeting in Geneva.
Passengers will register their cell phone number when buying a ticket and receive a bar code by text message, the group representing most commercial carriers said.
Check-in staff will scan the bar code directly from cell phones, doing away with the need for a boarding pass. Alternatively, passengers can also received the code by e-mail and print it out. The association said the move will help the industry phase out paper tickets by 2010 and save over $500 million annually.
Choosing the right time to book an ocean cruise
When is the right time to book a cruise? Should you reserve way ahead, or wait until the last minute?
There are benefits to both, according to Bob Levinstein, chief executive of CruiseCompete.com, the online cruise-booking service based in Des Moines, Iowa.
Travelers who know where and when they want to go and on what ship “typically book their trips six to 24 months in advance so they can travel on the exact cruise they want,” he said.
If you can only travel on specific dates such as school breaks, holidays or for a wedding or family reunion, you’ll also want to book ahead. Advance reservations also make sense if you’re picky about your cabin, or you want to go on the inaugural sailing of a new ship. Family suites, triples and quads sell out fast, too.
On the other hand, if your plans are flexible, you may want to see what’s on sale at the last minute. If a cruise doesn’t fill up, rooms are often discounted close to the sail date.
Whether you book early or late also depends on your destination. For example, there are numerous Caribbean and Mexico cruises to choose from year-round, and departures are available from numerous U.S. homeports. Last-minute deals are not hard to find.
For travelers starting to plan a future cruise now, there are some last-minute deals for Christmas and New Year’s, but this is the best time to secure your first-choice cruise for next summer, according to CruiseCompete spokeswoman Heidi Allison. Spring-break cruises are heavily booked already, she added, so reserve those now if you haven’t already. The company’s Web site is www.cruisecompete.com.
Old mansion to reopen on Cumberland Island, Ga.
After a $3 million, 18-month facelift, the 22,000 square-foot Plum Orchard mansion built by the Carnegie family in 1898 is expected to reopen to the public.
Julie Meeks, the National Park Service’s acting superintendent for the island, said the mansion should be open later this fall.
The mansion’s basement will feature the old hand-cranked Koehler generator that supplied electricity to the mansion until the 1960s.
Cumberland Island National Seashore, accessible by ferry from St. Marys, includes designated wilderness areas, undeveloped beaches, historic sites, cultural ruins, critical habitat and nesting areas.
For details on visiting Cumberland Island, go to www.nps.gov/cuis.
From Herald news services
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