My husband, Joe, and I were to visit China, Oct. 26-Nov. 4, 2011, as part of our around-the-world tour. I was apprehensive about booking internal tickets, myself, because Chinese airline websites are confusing, and I was concerned about not knowing about flight time changes because of the language barrier.
Esther Perica with Joan Cockell; Arlington Heights, IL
by Marvin Herman; Delavan, Wi.
In our mid 70s, my wife, Judy, and I continue to travel the world independently. However, as we age, we set the bar ever lower to accommodate deficits in agility, patience and memory.
Dear Globetrotter:
Welcome to the 442nd issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine, the one that prints the reports you send in.
Tell ITN about the funniest thing that ever happened to you while traveling in a foreign country. (ITN prints no info on destinations in the United States.) There are no restrictions on length. The ITN staff will choose each month’s winner, who will receive a free one-year subscription to ITN. Entries not chosen cannot be acknowledged.
This month’s winner is PAUL ROTH of Elizabethtown, PA:
ITN printed the following queries from Susan Jerrick of Portland, Oregon: “I spent 2½ useless hours on the phone with one of the best known of the Web search sites (e.g., Kayak, Travelocity, Expedia, etc.). This made me stop and think, ‘What search sites do NOT favor American airlines but give foreign carriers equal billing with domestic airlines for flights anywhere in the world?
My husband and I were to depart on a trip to England and Scotland on June 13, 2011. The primary goal was to explore the Orkney Islands, home to my ancestors. I personally made all the reservations, mostly via the Internet, including flights, accommodations, Orkney Island ferries and car rental. Some of these reservations were classified as “nonrefundable.”
I saw the subscriber’s letter “On the Tarmac with Qatar Airways” (April ’12, pg. 26), regarding this airline and the long waits she endured on the tarmac. My wife, Margaret, and I have had a generally good experience with Qatar Air, with one exception.
I made reservations through Spiekermann Travel on Sept. 23, 2011, for a special Gulf Air bus to take me, on Dec. 3, from Dammam, Saudi Arabia, over the causeway to Bahrain to catch the airline’s flight 707 that afternoon to Addis Ababa. The cost for the bus and the plane together was $320.
These arrangements were confirmed in November by Spiekermann Travel via e-mail.
Despite the negative news coverage of the area, during the two months that my husband and I enjoyed in the delightful town of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, we felt safer than we probably would have in most US cities comprising 140,000 residents.