Image by Matt Hamm via Flickr

I was trolling through the Twitterers I follow and came upon Michelle Higgins who writes a column, “The Practical Traveler,” for the New York Times. I’m impressed with what I’ve read and I’m going to keep an eye out for her Tweets. First of all, she writes well so it isn’t a struggle to get through the column, or to wonder what she’s trying to say – believe me, I’ve been there with writers, haven’t you? And second, her advice is actually practical and doable. This is travel information that would have taken me many hours of research to find. I can recommend Michele Higins and the “Practical Traveler” without hesitation – and I’m not getting paid to say that!

You can find Michelle on Twitter @michellehiggins; you can access her column from her Twitter page.

Happy Trails,

Susan L Stewart

Vueling Airlines above Lisbon

I wrote this essay while I was working on our plans to visit Italy in the spring of 2011. We had to cancel the trip due to family issues, but we will go someday.

I can’t believe how many decisions have to be made when you are traveling – especially on a long trip. I keep them organized by using only one spiral notebook for all of my research; one folder I’ll take with us with all of our confirmations, vouchers and receipts; and a special folder on Firefox to store all emails. Even so, there are nights when I lie awake and wonder what I’ve missed.

The latest decision was booking a flight from Rome to Barcelona. Sounds easy enough, right? Not exactly. The way to find the best priced airline for this part of the world was to put “Cheapest airfare Rome to Barcelona” in a Google search and then work my way down the list. After spending hours online, I decided on Vueling, a small airline based in Barcelona.

A price of 148 Euros for both of us ($207) was as reasonable as I could find. Kind of ridiculous considering it’s a 1-1/2 hour flight, still, it’s the best I can find. So I start the process of signing up and am relieved when I come to the line “Total Amount Due = 148 Euros.” Then I put in Tom’s name and next to it is a drop down for the number of suitcases.

This airline doesn’t care how many suitcases you check in as long as the total weight per person doesn’t exceed 110 pounds. Since we are going to be gone five weeks and don’t want to do laundry more than twice, we’re planning on taking three. I go to the drop down and discover that each suitcase costs $15. Now I understand why they don’t care how many you check in. I add $45 to the $207 and our new Total Amount Due is $252.

The next screen can be used to choose a seat. I have no idea how full the plane may get so I decide to choose them now. It must not get too crowded because the first option is “Duo” which gives you all three seats so the middle one will be empty. That’s an interesting option and one that I think Americans would love to have. Cost = $42 per person. We don’t need an empty seat between us that bad. Want extra leg room (exit area over the wings)? That will be $18 per person. The next choice is Optimum for $7 and then Basic for $5. Our Total Amount Due is now $262.

I finally reach the last screen where I can enter our credit card information. If you happen to have a Vueling VISA card there’s no cost to use it. If not, you guessed it … For a VISA or MasterCard debit card you’ll pay $8. A VISA, MasterCard or AmEx will cost you $13, and there’s no break for PayPal; that will be $13 as well. I filled in the VISA info and reach the Final Total Amount To Pay of $284.54. Groan. Curse words. I click on “Buy.”

And I am returned to the home page with no tickets. What the ?!@*?

I try it again with MasterCard – back to the home page

I try it again with American Express – back to the home page

I try it again with PayPal – back to the home page

I looked for a phone number to call these people. If you are living in Spain, calling them from your landline will cost you $1.25 a minute. If you call someone or someone calls you on your cell phone, that will be $1.75 a minute. Excuse me? I guess I was under the mistaken impression that any charges associated with calling someone were the responsibility of the caller, not the call-ee. Further, I thought it was free to call someone local. Apparently not in Vueling Land.

There are fifteen phone numbers listed but none for people in the United States so I can’t contact them about the two hours I’ve spent trying to buy tickets. If I were calling from Hungary, Poland, Rumania, Russia or “Rest of the world,” I’d have a phone number. Nothing for the US.

The sad, difficult, frustrating, tearing-my-hair-out part is that there are no other airlines to choose from without paying at least twice what I would pay at Vueling.

I finally find a form to fill out for assistance and do that. The automated response was something like “thanks for contacting us, we’ll be responding very soon.” I’m curious to see how long “soon” is. We’re leaving 4-1/2 weeks from now. I’m hoping to have tickets before then.

Until next time,

Susan L Stewart