Air Travel

The train from Fiumicino Airport to Stazione Termini in central Rome cost €14 (near $20) per person in May ’10.

by Joyce Bruck, Ocean Ridge, FL

Our family of six took a trip to Greece, Jan. 1-12, 2010, after which three members of our family left for home while our daughter, my husband and I extended our stay two more days.

Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) is quite a distance out from both Kowloon and central Hong Kong. It is cheap and easy to take a regular bus to the city. There are several companies that run buses, and you can look them all up at the airport's website.

When I was there in February ’09, I took Citybus No. A21 (senior fare HK16.50, or US$2, and full fare HK33) to Nathan Road, the main drag in Kowloon.

I previously reported about the all-business-class discount airline Maxjet, now defunct (Oct. ’06, pg. 32). When I was invited to take a flight by a similar operation, the British Airways venture Open Skies (866/581-3596, www.flyopenskies.com), I couldn’t refuse.

Open Skies started its combination first- and business-class service between New York and Paris in June ’08, later testing a route between New York and Amsterdam, which was shelved in July ’09. It launched a new route, between Washington, DC, and Paris, in May 2010.

For independent travel in India, I highly recommend Swagatam Tours Pvt. Ltd. (www.swagatam.com), which is based in New Delhi and has offices in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore.

I purchased two round-trip tickets from CheapAir.com on Oct. 10, 2009, for travel from Los Angeles to Pisa via New York and Rome on April 27, 2010. These were Alitalia/Delta code-share tickets.

My husband has COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and uses a personal oxygen concentrator on domestic flights. These concentrators do not involve oxygen tanks but use the surrounding air. For people with disabilities, the FAA approves the devices on flights, and most airlines allow them with an approved doctor’s statement, which must be renewed annually.

(This is not a CPAP machine, which is used to treat sleep apnea and also does not involve an oxygen tank. Several airlines do not allow CPAP machines on flights.)

At Ljubljana, Slovenia, I stayed near the airport at Pension Jagodic (Vopovlje 10, 4207 Cerklje, Slovenia; phone +386 4 25 21 333) on June 1, 2009.

By train from Salzburg, Austria, I arrived at the main depot in Ljubljana, went to the bus terminal and took a bus for the airport. I told the driver I was heading for Pension Jagodic and he said he knew the Burgar family and dropped me off in front of the pension, which is 15 minutes (three kilometers) from the airport.

My friend Mike and I took a trip to Brazil, Oct. 29-Nov. 16, 2009. It was our first experience with TAM Airlines (in the US, phone 888/235-9826).