Last week we featured a website (WhichBudget.com) that specializes in finding fares and routes on low-fare carriers around the world. Well,
Wegolo.com might be even better as they focus strictly on Europe. I just did a test run for a trip I made a couple of summers ago from Nice to Rome.
And the results are the same. You would think it would be rather inexpensive since the two cities are only 286 miles away from each other.
But surprisingly, flights can be pricey if you don't know where to look. Using the big online travel web sites
(Expedia,
Orbitz,
Kayak ... ),
the only search results I got were for the major carriers like Alitalia and Air France. Can you believe that these turkeys are charging
$850 USD for a one-way ticket?! I entered in an alternate return date (a week later) and the price dropped to $255USD. Not bad, but it still
wasn't good enough. So I logged on to Wegolo.com (which you'll find on, yes ... JohnnyJet.com).
This site offers access to 75 budget airlines that serve 700 destinations in one, easy-to-use place online. I was able to save BIG TIME
when I found a one-way ticket on Blu-Panorama for $78 USD. What’s great is that Wegolo is not
only available in five languages and offers 12 currencies (including USD) but they apply the rules of the European Commission, by displaying
the fares including all taxes and fees, unlike some low cost airlines, who deliberately hide their extra fees creating a false perception of
offering cheaper fares.
I received an email this week from a guy named Rich Pantone in Oregon. He thanked me for my Fear of
Flying resources and suggested I add his
site: FearofFlyingPhobia.com to the site. I checked out his basic site, which had the fact that one in every three adult Americans has a fear of flying (I used to be one of them). I signed up for his free guide, which promptly arrived in my mailbox (it actually went my SPAM folder). The guide is a 34-page PDF with questions and answers designed for fearful fliers and answered by actual flight crew. He interviewed a number of pilots on subjects like turbulence, engine failure, how do planes stay in the air …There were questions to air traffic controllers, airline mechanics and flight attendants. It’s a quick read and I learned some facts. I knew, for example, that English is the international aviation language but I didn’t know that France was the exception. French controllers will speak English to everyone except Air France flights.
I’m guessing you’ve probably already seen this fact-filled, eye-opening video that’s making its way around the Internet.
It’s not really travel-related but it is really interesting and supposedly Sony played it at their executive conference this year.
TRAVEL BOOK OF THE WEEK Roadside Baseball
Instead of featuring a travel product this week, I thought we would feature a travel book – especially one that’s based on my two favorite things: traveling and baseball. Roadside Baseball by Chris Epting is about the locations of America's baseball landmarks and it chronicles more than 500 important events in baseball history with detailed descriptions of the event and information on each location. The book is packed with historical data, trivia, photographs and baseball lore. Entries include the birthplaces of baseball legends, ballparks, museums and halls of fame, final resting places and many locations that are no longer standing. From out-of-the-way spots to the most popular stadiums in the U.S. and Canada, no site is too small or insignificant to be included in this comprehensive directory. Entries include the site of Babe Ruth's first home run; the location of the Field of Dreams; the Buckminster Hotel in Boston, where the Black Sox planned their fix of the 1919 World Series; the original little league field and museum in Williamsport, Pennsylvania; the birthplace of Jackie Robinson; the place where Mickey Mantle was discovered by a scout from the New York Yankees; and the site of the original Wrigley Field, erected in Los Angeles in 1925. Ken Burns, filmmaker and baseball historian said, "I can imagine this book in the glove compartment of every true fan's car, a handy reference to this beloved game no matter where in the country you are.”
