Air Travel

Steve, I am an 81-year-old, longtime subscriber to ITN, and you and ITN are my last resort for a problem that I have never seen addressed in print.

To characterize our trip to Cambodia and Vietnam from Journeys Within Tour Company and Bed & Breakfast (Box 93155, GPO Siem Reap, Kingdom of Cambodia; call toll-free 877/454-3672, fax 855 63 964748 or visit www.journeys-within.com) as a “tour” would be a major understatement. Our experience would be better described as a personal invitation from a Western couple living in Cambodia to share their home, staff of 15 and their experiences in Southeast Asia over the past three years.

A reader recently complained about a screaming child on a flight. I can certainly empathize and offer the following tips.

Regarding the “screaming infant on a flight” (Nov. ’06, pg. 30), the problem should have been referred to a pediatric physician, not an airline customer relations executive or legal officer.

I read the letter “Screaming Infant on a Flight” (Nov. ’06, pg. 30), regarding a reader’s ordeal on a Virgin Atlantic flight. I had a similar experience in May ’06.

My wife, Margaret, and I spent 3½ weeks in Greece in September ’05, and for the first two weeks we were based in Nafplio, less than two hours west of Athens by car. We had arranged to rent an apartment through Untours (Box 405, Media, PA 19063; 888/868-6871). The cost of our Nafplio Untour apartment plus a rental car was $1,299 per person.

In September ’05, my traveling companion, Lynn Drake, and I, contacted PNG Holidays and arranged to take an 11-day “Goroka Festival” tour in Papua New Guinea a year later, Sept. 11-21, 2006. Including three internal flights in PNG, the cost was to have been $3,100 for each of us.

Many years ago, my husband and I acquired a United Airlines MasterCard for which we paid $60 per year and which accumulated many frequent-flyer miles, which we used as needed. We each had a credit card, but all charges, no matter which credit card was used, went to just one bill, so it was basically just one account and we paid just one $60 charge per year.

In January ’06 my husband, sadly, passed away, and in March I contacted United to have the 116,048 miles remaining in my husband’s frequent-flyer account transferred to the more than 33,000 miles in my account.

NICARAGUA When I was able to get about a week off of work, I decided to take a quick trip to one of the Central or South American countries I had not yet traveled to. After doing some research on the Web, I settled on Nicaragua, since it is relatively close and has a fascinating combination of natural beauty (volcanoes) and colonial cities.

Steve, this is about the letter on “Chip & PIN” credit/debit cards on page 15 of the July ’06 issue of ITN (the best travel magazine in the world!). What’s the answer for a pair of Yanks going to London in January? What can we do? — T. Harrison Stanton, Jackson, MI

Dear Harrison, first of all, I don’t want you to worry. You are doing the right thing by arming yourself against any problems. Knowledge is power.