Boarding Pass

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 383rd issue of your monthly overseas travel magazine.

Flash your cell phone; board your flight.

The International Air Transport Association recently announced a standard agreed upon by major airlines worldwide. By the end of 2010, passengers checking in for flights each will present a bar code to be scanned rather than a document with a magnetic strip.

When buying a ticket, a passenger with a cell phone, personal digital assistant or smart phone can have the bar code (or instructions to download it) sent to him by text message. The bar code can be read directly from the screen of the mobile device. Alternatively, a passenger can have the bar code sent by e-mail and print it out. Both mobile and paper-based versions will be accepted by airlines.

The new IATA standard uses technology that is available globally and can be read by a single scanner type, hurdling previous format restrictions.

Eliminating paper tickets and boarding passes will save the airline industry over $500 million a year.

Personally, I think I’d still want a printout, in case I forgot to recharge my phone.

Ryanair, Europe’s leading low-cost carrier, is employing some negative reinforcement to get passengers to check in online.

In addition to paying fees for any checked luggage, passengers who choose to do their checking in at a desk at the airport now are charged an additional £2, or €3, or about $4. For a round-trip flight, it’s £4.

Here’s another lesson in “Never assume.”

An ITN reader signed up for a tour of India. The group of five started out with a tour escort, but on the third day, as everyone was loading luggage into the car, the leader announced he was not continuing with them. For the next week they traveled with what the reader described as “a local driver who spoke little English.”

At the end of the trip the tour leader joined them again for a city tour and, the next day, transfers to the airport.

ITN wrote to the tour company and was told, “The tour was never advertised or promoted as an escorted tour, and all the communication we had with (the tour member) did not indicate, let alone mention, anything to give that idea. It was a small-group, locally guided tour advertised to operate with a minimum of four persons.”

So, remember, if the tour description does not mention there being a tour escort throughout the tour (in addition to local guides), do not expect one, particularly with a very small group. In fact, sometimes tours advertised as escorted lose the escort if enough people do not sign up.

If having a tour escort is important to you, ask specific questions in advance of purchasing a tour.

We’re starting off the year with something new in ITN. You’ll notice here and there in this issue facts from The Geografile, contributed by Bryan Henry.

Bryan has been a trivia writer for 25 years, drawing on his experience as a proofreader and fact-checker over that same period. He has proofed more than 120 books on Africa and presently works for the University of Miami Office of Publications as well as several cruise/travel publishers, now including ITN.

I hope you enjoy selected bits of geography and history as much as I do. They’re the kind of discovered knowledge that makes other people — perhaps fellow tour members on a long bus trip — say, “Where did you learn that?”

William Anthony, Jr., of Los Angeles recently sent in the names and addresses of 29 travelers each interested in receiving a sample copy of ITN.

David Betanco of Mountain View, California, sent in 17 names of tour members on a China tour, adding, “Could you, please, send them each a copy of ITN, the world’s greatest travel magazine?”

Done and done, and thanks to all of you who have introduced others to this travelers’ forum. Hopefully, they will react to it as did David Riegert of Reno, Nevada:

“We have been subscribers to ITN for several years, ever since a kind lady on a South America cruise gave us a gift subscription. We now look forward to it every month.

“It’s great to get information from other experienced travelers who have actually ‘been there and done that.’ At one time we were getting (another leading travel magazine) and, frankly, got very little information that was of any practical use to us. Keep up the good work.”

Remind potential subscribers that they’ve got nothing to lose by trying out ITN. Not only do we not share our subscribers’ names and addresses with any other firms, we offer a 100% money-back guarantee. It says right on page 9 in every issue, “If at any time you are dissatisfied with your subscription to ITN, we shall refund your subscription price in full.”

Can you name another magazine as reader friendly as that? — David Tykol, Editor