Travel

While en route Monday from Chicago to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, my husband and I were standing in a long line waiting to go through immigration at the airport in Monterrey, Mexico.

I saw several guys (a couple of whom were very tall and wearing very tight jeans) get in line behind us.

I see the immigration guy approach one of them and quietly ask for his autograph. The guys are clearly in a rock band but I can't figure out who they are.

"The Keelers," the immigration guy says to me. The Killers???? Right here??? In line??? Behind us???

Some older woman in line asks the lead singer to pose for her with a photo. He smiles and does it. She later confesses to me she has no idea who the Killers are. But she's super excited about her photo.

The line isn't budging, so the immigration guy comes back and discreetly motions for one of the Killers to follow him -- he'll let them go through the line reserved for diplomats and crew (and famous rock stars, apparently).

The band slips off the back of the line and moves into the new one. As they're moving into the fast lane, my husband turns to them and says (in a joking manner), "Hey, you guys are killin' us."

One of them turns back, smiles and says, "That's what we do." Another one of them raises his hand in a wave and says, "Sorry, man." And he wasn't saying it in a jerky way.

I'm one of those people that hates it when other people cut in line. But these guys were acting so normal and down to earth as they waited with the rest of us, I'd let them line jump any day. Posing for photos. Signing autographs. Better yet: not using their rock star clout to demand preferential treatment. The immigration guy offered; they didn't demand. And they were really humble about moving into the diplomat line, too.

Rock on, Killers.

Budget carrier Southwest Airlines is spreading its wings to Milwaukee's General International Airport (GMIA).

The first SWA flight to Milwaukee is scheduled for Sunday. Snacks, games and prizes will be offered at the gates. The party then moves to McKinley Park & Marina where SWA will host a Green Bay Packers vs. Minnesota Vikings tailgate party from 1-7p.m.

Check out the details (press release below) of the U.S. Virgin Islands' 25-cent hotel room deal.

Would be curious to know if it's as good as it seems. Any takers out there?

ST. THOMAS, U.S. Virgin Islands, October 9, 2009 - The U.S. Virgin Islands is delighted to announce the minting of its very own United States quarter, introduced into circulation early this month. The quarter is imprinted with the Territory's official symbols and motto, serving simultaneously as a reminder of the Territory's unique identity and proud inclusion as a U.S. Territory.

In honor of this event, the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism is unveiling a Cent-sational vacation package, offering savings for a booking window of 25 days.

The package includes a nightly rate of just 25 cents at participating hotels, for a maximum stay of three nights; a $25 per person dining credit; a $25 per person activities credit; and a Virgin Islands commemorative quarter Scotiabank coin set. The Cent-sational package is valid for bookings made from October 9 through November 2, 2009 for travel between October 9 and December 15, 2009.

"The U.S. Virgin Islands is proud to be a Territory of the United States and is excited to have its own quarter minted as a reminder of our rich heritage and cultural identity. The Cent-sational package allows travelers to explore this history while enjoying the promotion's rare discounts," said Commissioner of Tourism Beverly Nicholson-Doty.

Hotels participating in the promotion include: Bolongo Bay Beach Resort, Carambola Beach Resort & Spa, Club St. Croix, Hibiscus Beach Resort, Hotel Caravelle, Marriott Frenchman's Reef & Morning Star Beach Resort, Point Pleasant Resort, Secret Harbour Beach Resort, Sapphire Beach Resort, Sapphire Village, The Palms at Pelican Cove, Windward Passage, and Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort & Spa.

The Cent-sational package applies to new bookings only. Reservations must be made through BookIt.com .

For more information about the United States Virgin Islands, go to VisitUSVI.com . When traveling to the U.S. Virgin Islands, U.S. citizens enjoy all the conveniences of domestic travel - including on-line check-in - making travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands easier than ever. As a United States Territory, travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands does not require a passport for U.S. citizens arriving from Puerto Rico or the U.S. mainland. Entry requirements for non-U.S. citizens are the same as for entering the United States from any foreign destination. Upon departure, a passport is required for all but U.S. citizens.

You gotta give airlines credit. They can get pretty creative when it comes to squeezing a few extra bucks out of us flyers.

Southwest Airlines recently unveiled its newest product, EarlyBird Check-in, which gives customers the option to score an early boarding position by adding an additional $10 to the price of a one-way fare. The low-cost service automatically reserves a boarding position for customers prior to general check-in, allowing EarlyBird Customers to begin boarding the plane after Southwest's Business Select and Rapid Rewards A-List Customers. EarlyBird Check-in became available last week.

(Customers can purchase EarlyBird Check-in through a link in the Travel Tools section of southwest.com. They also can select EarlyBird Check-in from their southwest.com confirmation page online and from their confirmation e-mail. EarlyBird Check-in can be purchased up to 25 hours prior to the scheduled departure time of the customer's flight.)

What do you think? Would you pay an extra $10 to board early? Let me know your thoughts....

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- It's an age-old traveler's dilemma: You have a long layover in the airport. Do you wait it out or venture into town for some sightseeing?

I chose the latter when my mother and I recently had five hours to kill between flights at Amsterdam's Airport Schiphol, where long layovers are common.

There are plenty of worse places to be stuck. Schiphol ranks No. 8 among the world's best airports, according to Skytrax, a research firm that surveyed nearly 9 million travelers. The airport is packed with amenities (pedicure, anyone?), including a small branch of the world-famous Rijksmuseum, with free admission. But what I appreciated most was how easy and quick it was to escape to the city.

The train ride from the airport to Amsterdam's Central Station, which puts you right downtown, takes about 15 minutes. Hear that, CTA?

We put our carry-on bags in a locker for 5 euros ($7), walked a short distance to the train station in the airport and paid about $10.50 apiece for round-trip train tickets into town. In no time we arrived at Central Station, just a couple of blocks from the myriad canal boats offering hourlong tours -- the perfect way to see the city.

Since we arrived very early Sunday morning, the canal tours hadn't started yet.

"Should we go to one of those coffee shops? Isn't that what you do here?" asked my mom. Mom doesn't drink coffee and, as far as I know, doesn't dabble in Amsterdam's more notorious coffee shop offerings. So we spent the morning walking over the canal bridges, admiring the colorful houseboats and pointing out evidence -- mostly in the form of discarded Heineken bottles -- of what must have been a rowdy Saturday night.

We meandered past Anne Frank's house, where people were lining up before the 9 a.m. opening. Canal cruises also start at 9 a.m., so we squeezed one in ($17) before grabbing one of the frequent trains headed back to the airport.

How have you made the most of an airport layover?

With word of the potential involvement of Congress in setting a maximum size limit for airline carry-on bags, TripAdvisor conducted a poll of 2,890 respondents this week.

The results were pretty evenly split down the middle:
 
Do you think Congress should set a maximum size limit for airline carry-on bags?
 
54% Yes
46% No

What do you think? Good idea or not?

Check out this story about the latest "stranded on the tarmac" saga.....have you ever been stuck on the tarmac?

What should be done to stop this from happening?

Here's the story:

Pilot pleaded to evacuate stranded passengers

WASHINGTON -- The pilot of an airliner stranded overnight on an airport tarmac in Minnesota pleaded unsuccessfully for her 47 passengers to be allowed to get off and go inside a terminal. "We just need to work out some way to get them off ... We can't keep them here any longer," she said.
The Transportation Department on Friday released recordings of the repeated appeals by the pilot and her airline's dispatchers earlier this month while passengers were kept waiting for about six hours in the cramped plane amid crying babies and a smelly toilet before they were allowed to deplane.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said an investigation by his department found that ExpressJet, the regional carrier which operated Continental Express Flight 2816 for Continental Airlines, wasn't at fault in the tarmac stranding.
Instead, blame for the incident, which has revived calls for greater consumer protections for airline passengers, belongs with Mesaba Airlines, whose representative declined to let the ExpressJet passengers deplane, LaHood said in a statement.
A Mesaba representative incorrectly told ExpressJet that the passengers couldn't be allowed inside the terminal because Transportation Security Administration personnel had left for the day, LaHood said.
Actually, security regulations allow for deplaning passengers to be kept in a separate "sterile" area until they are ready to board, he said.
"We have determined that the Express Jet crew was not at fault. In fact, the flight crew repeatedly tried to get permission to deplane the passengers at the airport or obtain a bus for them," LaHood said.
"There was a complete lack of common sense here," the secretary added. "It's no wonder the flying public is so angry and frustrated."
Mesaba was the only airline with staff still at the airport that Friday night.
The plane left Houston at 9:23 p.m. local time on Aug. 7, but was diverted by thunderstorms to Rochester. Passengers were kept waiting on the tarmac only 50 yards from a terminal. In the morning, they were allowed to deplane. They spent about 21/2 hours inside the terminal before reboarding the same plane. They arrived in Minneapolis, their destination, after 11 a.m. CDT.
Mesaba is a subsidiary of Northwest Airlines, which is a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines. A Delta spokeswoman didn't immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
Continental Chairman and CEO Larry Kellner said in a statement that he was gratified the Transportation Department recognized the ExpressJet crew's efforts to resolve the situation.
The department released audio tapes of the captain explaining the situation to an ExpressJet dispatcher, and dispatchers trying to persuade Mesaba officials to allow passengers inside. Passengers from an earlier flight diverted to Rochester had been allowed to deplane and were taken by bus to Minneapolis, about 85 miles away.
However, Mesaba officials said there were no more buses available.
"I can't get her a bus, I can't do anything," said a Mesaba representative.
"You can't do anything for her? OK," asked the ExpressJet dispatcher.
"No."
"Because she was saying nobody was letting her off the airplane, letting the people off the airplane and all that," the dispatcher continued.
"We can't -- I mean we were just able to let these guys off. We can't get them a bus. If I can't secure them a bus, I can't have them in a closed airport," the Mesaba representative replied.
Link Christin, who was on the flight, said the incident was a clear example of why more safeguards are necessary for passengers.
"To me, the critical issue is not who's to blame, but to figure out what happened and how it could be prevented in the future," said Christin, a lecturer at William Mitchell College of Law.
More than a week afterward, Christin said he's started to think about "the fact that so many variables were at play with 47, 48 people, two babies, and the variety of potential catastrophes that could have happened."
"In reflection, I think it's even a more serious matter than I perceived it to be when I was going through it," he said.
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Associated Press Writers Nomaan Merchant in Minneapolis contributed to this report.


I had a message in my inbox this morning from a reader who's turning 30 on Oct. 23 and wants to go somewhere really special -- for a week -- to celebrate. She was looking for ideas, which I supplied below.

If you have any suggestions of your own, post 'em here. We're always looking for great travel ideas.

Here's what I told her:

Happy birthday in advance, and good for you for shunning the staycation :)

One week isn't a lot of time to leave the country, but it's certainly not out of the question. My advice would be head south, as in South America. That way you won't spend your week jet lagging since the time in a lot of S. American countries is very similar to our time zone. Have you been to Buenos Aires? It's a fantastic city -- so European in flavor but with that exciting Latin American vibe. It's also a bargain: the exchange rate is fantastic right now. And at the end of October, it will be their spring, so the weather should be nice. You could spend a few nights in BA (lots of small, boutique hotels there that are really cute) and maybe tack on a couple nights and head to Mendoza, Argentina's wine country.

If you're into wine, don't rule out doing a wine country cycling trip to Napa. At that time of the year, they'll be harvesting the grapes and it should be beautiful. I did a trip like that with Backroads many moons ago around the same time of the year, and it was great. The nice thing about going with a group like Backroads is they'll take care of all the logistics so you can just enjoy the experience and not have to think.

If you have a bit of extra money lying around, Easter Island off the coast of Chile would certainly be an unforgettable experience. In fact, you could spend a few nights in Santiago, Chile -- a fun city -- and then fly to Easter Island for three or four nights. When on Easter Island, stay at Explora. It's a beautiful hotel and they have a bunch of guided activities you can take part in.