Air Travel

A new economy-class seat, Premium Plus, began being offered in June on some international flights of United Airlines (www.united.com). United joins American Airlines, which has been offering premium-economy seats since 2016, and Delta, which introduced them in 2017.

Though located in the economy cabin, the seats have more legroom, and the seating class offers more amenities than regular economy, including free drinks and more comfortable blankets and pillows, for less than the cost of a business-class seat.

New taxes aimed at tourists are being charged in Barbados as of July 1, 2018.

Guests at hotels and resorts will be charged a “room levy” of $2.50 to $10 per night, depending on overall room cost. In addition, a value-added tax (VAT) of 2.5% will be charged on all tourist services, which could include transportation and booked tours. Short-term rentals booked through services such as Airbnb, VRBO and HomeAway will be charged a VAT of 10% per night.

Tourism to the Caribbean in the fall of 2017 took a big hit following the significant damage done by hurricanes Irma and Maria. Cruise ships responded to the situation there by canceling or modifying their itineraries, and passenger bookings dropped.

By early November, the prospect of empty cabins precipitated some great last-minute bargains for frugal travelers like me.

As the southern islands in the Caribbean chain had escaped most of the hurricanes’ impact, a 7-day cruise on the Celebrity Summit (beginning Jan. 6, 2018) to Barbados, Antigua, St. Kitts, Saint Lucia and St. Thomas sounded like a perfect fit for my husband, Lynn, and me. With Celebrity’s sale price, we secured a window-view cabin for a total of $1,160 for the two of us, including taxes and port charges. Except for St. Thomas, all of these were islands we had never seen.

US travelers can get a free one-way internal flight (from Melbourne, Brisbane or Sydney) to Australia’s Outback (Alice Springs, Darwin or Uluru) until Dec. 31, 2018. 

As of May 31, the $10 fee charged to each foreign visitor flying into the Dominican Republic will be added to the airfare instead of being collected at Customs upon arrival. The island nation is hoping this reduces the hassle and time spent at the airport. Visitors arriving on cruise ships each still must pay the $10 in cash on arrival.

No visas are required to enter the Dominican Republic for US and Canadian travelers. 

Three months before a solo trip to Saudi Arabia that I was taking with Spiekermann Travel Service (Eastpoint, MI; 800/645-3233, www.mideasttrvl.com) in January-February 2018, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. She would still be undergoing chemotherapy on the dates of my trip, so I canceled it.

An 85-year-old on a solo trip around the world, I left Dallas on Jan. 4, 2017, and returned Jan. 28. I traveled 30,000 miles, spent 100 hours in airplanes and visited eight new countries.

I took 11 different flights, one of which was with Buddha Air over the Himalayas, including a look at Mount Everest.

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Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 508th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine.

The airport in Skopje, Macedonia, in an act of goodwill toward Greece, removed the moniker “Alexander the Great” from its name on April 3 and is now simply Skopje International Airport. (Its IATA code remains SKP.)

Greece has been at odds with Macedonia over the name it took upon declaring its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Macedonia, the nation, and the historical region of Macedonia in Greece, where Alexander the Great’s empire began, are geographically distinct.

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Dear Globetrotter:Welcome to the 507th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine.