http://imblacknitravel.com

That’s where you’ll find us — sporting a new look, adding new features, but with the same old irreverent, fun-loving, take-no-prisoners spirit as always.

This was our first stop. It was good to be here. The journey continues. And you’re more than welcome to come along!

But don’t worry. This isn’t the end of anything. We’re just moving ahead to the next phase.

If you’re a regular, please switch your bookmarks or favorites to the new address:

http://imblacknitravel.com

You’ll find everything there, with a fresh look, but the content is just the way you remember it. So just follow the bouncing URL to the new location. And to make sure you don’t miss any future blog entries, please be sure to subscribe to the blog once you get there!

See you down the line…

From time to time, we’ll also be experimenting with different looks, different themes. So if you see one you like — or really can’t stand — let me know! But don’t worry. You’ll still get all the travel tips, tales and rants for which nearly 1,000 unique viewers have come to know this blog.

You also will be seeing new features like multimedia — audio, slideshows and videos — embedded into the blog. No more having to follow links to YouTube and the like.

When you get to the new address, please go ahead and subscribe. It really gives me a good idea of how the blog is doing, and helps me plan for adding new features and making this blog even better.

To all of you who’ve enjoyed this blog and helped me get it off the ground, thank you. This is the first of many improvements to come. If you’re a newbie, welcome aboard. I hope you find my blog just as useful — and just as much fun — as our regular readers.

So ease your seat back, feel free to move about the cabin…and let’s get started!

© Andrea Presazzi | Dreamstime.com

By now, you know that you need to shop around on the Web to get the best possible airfares. (If you didn’t realize that, just go ahead and act like you knew it all along. Your secret is safe!)

The problem is that what you save in money, you lose in time and sanity.

Searching websites one by one is tedium defined. Even using so-called “aggregator” sites like Kayak, which search multiple airlines and even multiple sites simultaneously, can become a real time vampire.

Why not let the sites do the searching for you?

That’s what fare alerts do. And these days, there are few travel sites that don’t offer some form of alerts for which you can sign up. Some will let you track the price of a specific flight on a specific airline on specific days, one-way or round-trip.

Many also will let you determine how often you want to receive such alerts — daily, weekly, monthly and so — to keep your mailbox from getting overly cluttered.

When it comes to travel, “cheap” is a relative term. A $9,600 First Class fare from LAX to Paris may be chump change to Warren Buffett, but you and I may have a different opinion.

There were travel experts at this year’s Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show telling people that today’s airfares are, in fact, ridiculously cheap — and that may be true. But they’re not buying your tickets for you, are they?

It’s only “cheap” if it’s cheap to me.

–G. Gross

Still others, like Yapta, will let you track the fare price not only before you buy it, but after you’ve paid for it. What’s the point of that, you ask? Some airlines or travel agencies guarantee you the lowest fare, promising to refund the difference if someone else booked the same flight and seat class for a lower fare than yours. Having that information will enable to go back to airline for a rebate.

Sign up for fare alerts on every travel site you use that offers them.

You can use alerts in conjunction with sites that track the price trends for a given flight on a given date. When you think it’s dropped as low as it’s going to go, be ready to pull the trigger and make the purchase. Or if you suspect it’s going to drop lower, you might want to hold off.

These price tracking sites, coupled with the fare alerts, can give you the knowledge you need to make intelligent decisions — and save yourself a lot of cash.

By week’s end, you’ll find a list of travel sites offering fare alerts, as well as fare tracking websites, on our Cool Travel Sites page. A check of your favorite search engine should yield still more. They’re there for your use, so make the make the most of them — and stretch your travel budget.

NEXT TIME: Promo codes!

Arthur Frommer, speaking, and daughter, Pauline

The Godfather of Travel, Arthur Frommer, just finished speaking, along with his daughter, Pauline. They spoke of the good and bad trends this year in travel. Among the highlights:

GOOD
There are non-U.S. reservation sites available to you that can give you not only better, but much better deals on airfares, in no small measure because they’re not getting commissions from a certain select few air carriers. I’ll get you the names of some of those later.

The recession has hit smaller hotels hard in Europe and else, hard enough to prompt some of them convert to hostels offering hotel-like accommodations at backpacker prices. As a fringe benefit, according to Arthur Frommer, “you meet a better class of people.” By better, he meant non-pretentious looking to see and learn, rather than show off the number of stars in their hotel rating.

There are big bargains and major perks to be had when booking cruises these days, provided you DON’T go through the individual cruise lines. Look instead for a cruise broker.

The recession has hit hard at the vacation home-stay business, leaving home owners ready and willing to bargain, if you are.

In high-cost destinations like New York or London, look for sites offering rented rooms in people’s homes, Per night stays can often be at at or even lower than hostel rates.

BAD
Cruises converting themselves into floating Disneylands or Las Vegas casinos (Arthur Frommer REALLY hates this, and I don’t blame him.)

Speaking of cruises, as the ships get bigger and gltizier and more like the Venetian than a vessel, they’re going to destinations that are more crowded, more commercial and offer a less authentic experience. If you want to “get real” at sea, you’ll probably have to pay more for the privilege.

There’s visa war of sorts going on between the United States and other countries. Washington has been raising the fees on visas to enter the United States, and other countries have been following suit in retaliation, to the detriment of travelers on all sides.

Car rental rates are up a whopping 40 percent from a year ago, as Detroit has decided that exposing potential buyers to its new cars via the likes of Hertz, Avis and Budget aren’t worth the cost. To save money in car rentals, look for local agencies or bargain on sites like Priceline.

More later. Rick Steves just walked in.

The kid in the candy store has got NOTHING on me!

Coming up: Arthur Frommer and his daughter, Pauline.

American Airlines flight landing at Lindbergh Field, San Diego

The buzz in the airline industry this week focuses on a pair of new fees being charged by American Airlines.

Want to fly standby on American? That’ll be $50, thank you.

Mind you, these fees don’t apply to people flying First or Business Class or who’ve put in enough miles (and money) with American to earn elite passenger status. Nor will they be applied against military personnel. Just regular folks flying in Coach.

In fact, it doesn’t even apply to everybody in Coach — just those who buy the cheapest class of Coach ticket. You know, the ones you can’t change without being charged somewhere between $75 and $150?

(When it comes to airfares in general, believe me, class counts.)

American says they’re doing this to improve their operations. Don’t like having all those would-be standby passengers crowding around the gates, you see.

What an eye-opener. I had no idea that having people around your gate who wanted to fly on your airline was actually a bad thing. Who’d have thought!

The other fee has to do with your comfort once you’ve found your way onto the plane. The airline now plans to charge you $8 for a blanket and a pillow on its flights within North and Central America, as well as the Caribbean.

To be fair, they weren’t the first ones to come up with this. They’re merely following the example set by JetBlue and US Airways.

Eight bucks for the privilege of using a scratchy and quite possibly germ-laden airline pillow and blanket? Oh, be joyful!

All this merely follows a trend established over the last few years once the Great Recession took hold. Rather than be honest and raise their fares, airlines are playing a new game, tacking on extra charges for everything they can think of. This enables them to say “See, we’re not raising your ticket prices!”

And you thought “plausible deniability” was strictly the realm of government.

You really have to hand it to the airlines. Anybody could raise their prices, but to dig deeper into your pockets while insulting your intelligence at the same time? That takes real talent.

Instead of Pin the Tail on the Donkey, it’s Pin the Fee on the Public.

Then too, American may shortly be facing an added expense — a $10 million fine from the Federal Aviation Administration for safety violations in nearly 300 of its airplanes. It may well be the largest such fine in the history of U.S. aviation.

This is the same American Airlines that was fined $7 million by the FAA two years ago for knowingly — let me repeat that, KNOWINGLY! — letting two planes fly with a malfunctioning autopilot.

Not once, not twice, but 58 times.

That was the same year the FAA also fined Southwest Airlines $10 million for letting their maintenance slide. The buzz out of Washington is that there’s some sentiment within the FAA that American deserves a hit even bigger than that.

Surely, you don’t expect them to pay that out of their own pockets, do you?

We’ll be talking about all things travel, including my reasons for starting my blog in the first place. Wonder where the blog is going in 2010? Wonder where YOU should be going in 2010? Wonder why travel matters now more than ever? Bring your questions, comments, whatever. If it has to do with travel, it’s fair game!

After it’s over, come back and check out Anne’s site. You’ll enjoy her keen insight and five-bladed sense of humor long after we’re done chatting.

Here’s the code to automatically bring you into the chat.

See you there!

DATE: Thursday, 11 Feb 2010.

TIME: 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific

SITE: Here’s Why.

DIRECT CHAT LINK: CoverItLive

In the spring, the fancy of a lot of folks turns to baseball…and well it should.

Football is finally over, and winter is laying siege to much of the country. For denizens of the mid-Atlantic states especially, a little March getaway to Florida or Arizona could justly be viewed as an act of self-preservation.

Think about it. No temperatures in their 20s, their teens or even “younger.” The salt goes on your French fries, or around the rim of your margarita glass, instead of on the roads. And snow is not viewed as one of the four major food groups.

Like I said, think about it.

If you’re willing to do more than just think about it, there are plenty of vacation packages designed around the schedules of the two spring training leagues, the Grapefruit League in Florida and the Cactus League in Arizona. Decide whether you’re more a tropics or a desert person, pick your package, then start packing.

Check first with Major League Baseball, or with your favorite major-league team. Many offer packages for their fans.

Contact your favorite airline, especially if you’re enrolled in their frequent-flier program, to see if they have such packages. Check too with the usual online suspects — Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Kayak.

IF YOU GO
Some packages are already selling out, so if you’re hoping to thaw out down south or out west, best get a move on. He who hesitates gets frozen out. Literally.

Spring Training Tours…Offers tour packages for both the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues, which an emphasis on weekend trips.

Expedia…Hotel deals in the spring training venues, both leagues, starting at $70 a night.

Budget Travel…Arthur Frommer’s indispensible info source on all things travel, steps up to the spring training plate again this year. Tips on tickets and how to get up close and personal with the diamond’s stars of today and tomorrow.

In recognition that this is not prime vacation time for most folks, a lot of these packages are designed as weekend getaways.

While the packages can be a pretty good deal, don’t be afraid to price out a spring training trip — or any trip — if you think you can beat the package price. Spend a little time, shop carefully and you might be able to put together the best package entirely on your own.

Here’s an idea: Check with your favorite cruise lines. They’ve been known to do specialty cruises around spring training time, featuring Hall of Famers and other past baseball greats. Baseball without the baseball, and a cruise to boot!

Which brings up the one edge that Florida’s Grapefruit League has over their cactus counterparts. Unlike the Arizona desert, Florida sands come with oceans attached. When you or your significant other weary of baseball, you can always hit the beach.

Not the worst fringe benefit in the world.

Spring training this year begins Mar. 2 in Florida and Mar. 3 in Arizona. It lasts about a month. PLAY BALL!

And I don’t mean snowballs!

Officially, Mardi Gras Day this year falls on Feb. 16.

The New Orleans Saints just changed the calendar. This year, Mardi Gras starts NOW!

Congratulations to the Saints, Super Bowl champions on their very first appearance. As an original Saints fans who recalls this team’s bedraggled beginnings four decades ago, tonight is sweet vindication. And props to team owner Tom Benson for keeping the team in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, even if he did do it reluctantly. It all worked out in the end.

The fleur-de-lis never looked so good.

Congratulations even more to the city of New Orleans. My birthplace. Birthplace of jazz. Birthplace of Mardi Gras. You who have endured so much, suffered so much, been neglected, disparaged and disrespected so much by so many for so long.

But NOT tonight, jack! Uptown, Downtown, Back ‘o Town. Third Ward, Ninth Ward. Canal Street, Bourbon Street, South Claiborne. New Orleans East. Lakeshore, Gentilly, Kenner, Metairie. St. Bernard, Algiers. The night, the nation, are yours tonight!

And all those folks who came pouring into the city from everywhere, just to watch the game on TV, are getting their reward now — what is sure to be the longest, loudest and (hopefully) most joyous citywide street celebration the city, maybe the country, has ever seen.

This may be the first time in New Orleans history that Mardi Gras Day becomes an afterthought.

And don’t you wish you were there right now?! God knows I do!

Psst! just try to hold it down around the cemeteries, y’all. The spirits need their rest, you know, and…aww, to Hell with it! Wake them up, too!