Travels With Jane

Good to be a Floridian

Sure, it's a summer of presidential election controversy in Florida. But it's also a summer of great travel deals for Floridians.

Nearly every day my in-box is hit with a dozen new Florida Resident hotel specials good this summer. Many of those are for  hotels close to home, right here in South Florida (think, save that gas!) You can learn more about the best-of-the-best of those in our Travel section on June 8.

Meanwhile, here are a few that hit today.

Many Marriott hotels throughout the state are offering specials that, in some cases, begin at rates as low as $99 per night. Our faves include

• The Key Largo Marriott Beach, with rates starting at $139 (At the top of Key Largo, which makes it easy to access)
• Marco Island Marriott, with rates starting at $159 (This one is right on the beach)
• South Beach Marriott, starting at $209 (it's South of Fifth so you get beach and party access but without the uproar)
• JW Marriott Grande Lakes in Orlando, from $149 (this is paired with the Ritz-Carlton and has a spectacular spa)
• Sawgrass Marriott Ponte Vedra, from $119 (close to St. Augustine, outlet shopping and golf)</ul>

The tony Starwood Resorts are offering Florida residents of 15 percent off their lowest rates. (Mention code SET 351186.) The collection includes

• The chic urban-meets-beach Atlantic Resort in Fort Lauderdale (upwards of $400)
• The Diplomat Resort in Hallandale Beach (from $225)

Wherever you travel in-state this summer, be sure to ask about Florida resident rates. But also ask about resort fees and parking charges...they can add big bucks to your bill.

Flying AA? Bring money

If airfares weren't already torturous enough, get ready: American is cutting back on capacity and raising add-on fares.

Yes, barely has AA instituted its new policy charging $25 for the second checked bag  when along comes today's announcement that it will charge $15 for the first bag for tickets booked as of June 15. Fees for bringing pets, checking oversized bags and sending an unaccompanied minor all go up as of today, as follows:

• Phone reservations, from $15 to $20
• Change fee for a domestic flight, from $100 to $150
• Fee for a pet inside the cabin, from $80 to $100

When it comes to the checked bag fees, AA isn't the first. Most airlines charge for a second checked bag, and Spirit and several European carrriers charge for each bag.

And there are some exceptions: If you're an American frequent flier with Gold or other premium status, your regularly-sized bags still fly for free.

The culprit for higher prices, says AA: Fuel charges. Oil is now trading above $130 per barrell.

Is all this fair? You tell us. Comment below.

Flying: Nobody likes it

That's pretty much the deal, according to the latest airline statisfaction survey from the University of Michigan.  Customers gave airlines the worst grades since 2001, reported the Associated Press, calling it "dismal.''

Southwest got the best ratings; United and U.S. Airways got the two lowest scores.

If you fly frequently, you already know that delays, tight seats and lost luggage are issues. But what irritates you the most? Take our survey, and click here to comment.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Gas relief

With gas prices headed toward $4 … and in some neighborhoods, already there … you'll want to keep an eye out on hotels offering gas promotions.

Both Hotels.com and Expedia have announced promotions that include a card good for $50 worth of gas if you book three consecutive nights hotel. On Hotels.com, book by July 6 and travel through Sept. 1; gas cards are mailed to you at the end of your stay.

At Expedia, book anytime Monday-Friday through the end of June for travel any three consecutive days of the week through Sept. 30 at hundreds of participating properties (including 10 in Miami).

That $50 card can come in handy. At $4 per gallon, figuring 25 miles to the gallon, gasoline costs rack up like this:

• Miami-Orlando (Disney area) roundtrip 460 miles, $73.60
• Miami-Naples, roundtrip 210 miles, $33.60
• Fort Lauderdale-Key West, roundtrip 376 miles, $60.16
• Fort Lauderdale-Boone, N.C., roundtrip 1610 miles, $257.60

Of course, those estimates don't include the cost of running around once you get to your destination.

For calculations based on your trip and car model, see AAA's fuel cost calculator.

Blow out for Bali: Here's a bargain

A few years ago, a friend of mine and her husband landed an unexpected windfall: an over-market price for their house that wasn't even on the market at the time. (A neighbor simply showed up with an incredible offer. ) Suddenly flush, they said "what's next?'' He moved to Miami Beach. She moved to Bali.

At the time I thought she was nuts. But years and countless visits later, I think she was incredibly smart.

Bali is sweet, beautiful, lush, peaceful, artsy, restful. The distinctive culture permeates every moment; in the morning you'll find a rice-and-flower offering to the Hindu gods at your door, and in the evening traffic may stop for a parade of men carrying spirit houses and women whose heads are topped with platters of fruit and flowers. The food is good, the hotels fabulous at every price range, from $10 per night (OK, without air con) to $1,000.

And -- Bali's on sale. Cathay Pacific Airways has announced its May special: $865 roundtrip from New York or LA to Bali, if you purchase by May 31, good for travel Sept. 1 - Nov. 30.

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Photos: Copyright Jane Wooldridge

No babies at sea

The cruise blog world is adither with the news that Royal Caribbean Cruise Line is no longer allowing babies under six months old. (Prior to this time, they were the only major line without a minimum age limit.)

What do you think about this? Click below to comment

Check out our Miami Herald story about cruising with tots.

• Other posts on this subject: USA Today, Cruise Critic.

Cruise deal, for Florida residents

This summer, NCL is bringing it's Norwegian Sky -- formerly the Pride of Aloha -- from Hawaii to Miami for a series of 3 and 4-night cruises to the Bahamas, beginning in mid-July. This means deals.

Book by May 31, and kids ages 6 months to 17 sail free from July 14-Sept. 26. You still have to pay those pesky government taxes and fees, and the cruise lines' own fuel surcharge.

Travelzoo has this offer: Book by May 15 and prices start at $179 per person, double occupancy, on the ship's three-night sailings for Sept. 5, 12 and 26.

Beware: Air sales may not fly

The e-mail box is filled with the latest sales and deals for airfares. But when is a sale not a sale? When it comes with a rasher of pricey ifs, ands, buts.

The costliest is the one that's easier to understand: Fuel surcharges.

The rest seem to be a way for airlines to recoup losses due to fuel surcharges. They're the extra fees that have suddenly cropped up just before you go to hit the "Purchase'' button. If they were disclosed before, they were in that tiny, tiny print visible only to eyes too young to qualify for a credit card.

Take those fees for checking your bags. Spirit and other lowcost carriers charge for every bag, while the Big Boys now charge $25-$50 for the second bag up to 50 pounds, and truly whopping fees for oversized and overweight bags. (Some airlines waive those fees for frequent fliers.)

More costly news: Most airlines have also upped the cost of changing a ticket and reintroduced the dreaded Saturday-night stay requirement for the lowest fares.  American is charging $20 to book a flight in person at the airport.

If all that isn't enough, there are a host of taxes levied by local, regional, state and federal governments here and abroad...which means that $400 fare to Europe might really cost upwards of $750 after the extras are tossed in.

Word to the wise: Ask about those golf clubs before you get to the airport. You might want to send them by UPS instead. Too bad you can't send yourself.

Theme parks: What's new

Got kids in your life? Chances are good you'll be heading to the theme parks this summer. Catch the latest news, tips and pricing on our Miami Herald Travel webpage. This weekend we'll have articles, a radio story and slideshows.

The absolute latest news: a baby white rhino at Busch Gardens Africa in Tampa. The yet-unnamed male was born to Mlelani and Tombo. He weighs in at 100 pounds.

He'll be neighbors with the Bengal tigers at Jungala, Busch's newest area. Yes, the tigers swim, and thanks to an underwater viewing area, you can see the tigers in the tank.

(Photo, right, by JANE WOOLDRIDGE / THE MIAMI HERALD)

Travel freebies: How to use your miles

My response: Yes you can. In the past decade, I’ve used miles to go to Africa (thrice), Bali, Bangkok and Europe (that's Ireland to the right) – even in Prime Time seasons like mid-summer and at Christmas.

I hear it all the time: I can never use my frequent flier miles. A colleague said it to me just yesterday.

And it's not because I'm the Travel Editor at the Miami Herald, but because The Husband and I are persistent. Dogged. Obsessed.

Is it worth it investing an hour or two on the phone to save thousands of dollars? At my house, the answer is, absolutely yes.

Here's how we do it:

• 1 – Plan as early as you can. Each airline allows a different window for advance award bookings; at American, where I’m a member, you can book free tickets up to 330 days in advance of travel.

• 2 - Can’t book early? Give it a shot anyway. Some people snag award tickets, then cancel them…and the seats come open. Or bookings aren’t as strong as the airline had hoped, and they release extra seats. (This is more likely to happen when it’s low season in your destination.)
  
  A couple of cases in point: Last fall, I sent The Husband to Ireland on a free ticket that we booked just 60 days in advance. Another year, we snagged two free tickets to Calgary, Canada, by traveling on Christmas day.
  
  
• 3 – Use your miles for the most expensive flights.
  
  If you fly only on the least-expensive economy tickets, you’re probably paying less than 10 cents for every mile you earn. If you use your miles for a ticket you can buy for the same price – say, my Miami-to-LA ticket today for $302 – you’re just getting an even trade. But if you use them for a ticket to Asia or Africa that costs thousands of dollars, you’re getting a deal.
  
  Steve Becker, a government chemist in Washington, D.C., doesn’t travel at all for work. But each year he makes “mileage runs,’’ searching out cheap flights that will rack up lots of miles. His average price per mile earned was 1 cent last year, and 1.61 cents this year. This fall, he used miles to snag a business class ticket that enabled him to visit multiple cities in Asia and Australia for 150,000 miles – or a cost of around $1,500, given the price he’d paid to fly his mileage runs. If he’d purchased his Asia/Australia ticket, he would have paid more than $10,000. Now that’s a bargain.
  
  
• 4 – Don’t book award tickets online. Yes, you’ll pay an additional $15 fee for using a phone agent. But a good airline agent can find you routings that will never show up if you’re booking online.
  
  
• 5 – Call back often. This can be a pain – but worth it.
  
  In July, we’re going with a group of friends on a Baltic cruise. All are from Miami, so the competition for the free seats is tough. And because cruises begin and end on set dates, we’re facing competition from the thousands of other Americans sailing on our ship.
  
  The Husband called last December. We were able to secure two free tickets to Copenhagen a day earlier than we really wanted to go, but we couldn’t find a return flight. So we asked the agent to hold the outgoing seats for the period allowed – in this case, two weeks – while we hunted for return seats. Sure enough, a few days later, another agent found us a way back.
  
  Becker told me that to get his free Asia/Australia ticket, he called back almost every day for six weeks. The last four weeks, he spent two hours every night on the phone with his airline’s award desk.
  
  OK, that’s pretty extreme (though Becker’s was an extremely complex itinerary.) People with less time and patience can get a travel agent to do the work for them … for a fee. At TraveLeaders in Coral Gables, for instance, clients are often happy to pay $150 to get their office to handle the hassles of snagging a frequent flier ticket, I was told recently by Nina Meyer, the firm’s leisure travel manager.
  
  
• 6 – Find an experienced airline agent to help you.
  
  How? One method is to call back until you get someone on the phone who really likes doing this. It doesn’t take but a minute of chat to figure out that the agent you’re talking with thinks finding you a free seat is a big snore. We end the call by saying, “thank you very much for your help,’’ hang up and call right back (you nearly always get a different agent.) By the second or third call, we’ve got a winner.
  
  Other tips: When The Husband snagged the Europe ticket, he was told that the best time to call is on a weekday morning. More experienced agents get first choice of work shifts, he was told, and those agents are more likely to find you that free routing.
  
  Becker, an American Airlines flier, says he’s been told to call in early afternoons, when the company’s Tucson office opens. That office, he says, is supposed to be the best at finding free seats.
  
  
• 7 – Be flexible. We’ve often paid for a hotel room to make a free ticket routing work. For instance, our last trip to Bali was possible with miles only if we stayed overnight in Tokyo. A hotel room near the airport cost us $100 – far, far less than two tickets to Bali at Christmas time.
  
  
• 8 – Be prepared. Becker checks out every conceivable routing through all of his airline’s partners and puts them on a spreadsheet. When he calls the award agent, he suggests various options instead of expecting the agent to know them all.
  
  For his Asia trip, for instance, he decided he wanted to fly on American’s partner British. But British doesn’t fly west toward Asia from the U.S., and ticket rules wouldn’t let him fly first to Europe, then to Asia. So he routed first to Toronto, which offers a BA flight to Asia.

The Husband and I aren’t quite that organized, but we do try to figure out basic possibilities for partner airlines and routings before we call the awards desk.

Still, we never came up with the routing we finally got: Copenhagen to London, then to Nassau – and then to Miami. For that, we needed an agent.