"Will American's Layoffs Add to Flier Grief?" (Yes.)

I'm quoted (briefly) in a story today by Jonnelle Marte in Dow Jones' "Smart Money" consumer financial advice blog:

American Airlines said Wednesday it wants to cut 13,000 jobs as part of its bankruptcy filing, a move analysts say could lead to shuffled or canceled flights, longer waits and poorer customer service.... It also plans to terminate employee pension plans....

These changes may result in longer lines for ticketing and checking in and more frequent exchanges with overworked, grumpy employees, experts say. “You could be in a real mess,” says Edward Hasbrouck, author of The Practical Nomad, a travel book series.

By far, however, the biggest risk for most fliers is that American might reschedule or eliminate their flights, analysts say....

For more of my advice on this, see my article about the American Airlines bancruptcy and my FAQ about Airline Bankruptcies.

Is the advertised price too good to be true? No. (Part 2 of 2)

Yersterday I analyzed a deceptive travel deal that was much less of a discount from the regular price than it was advertised to be.

Today I'll look at the flip side of the coin: What happens when you are offered a price that's much more of a deal than the company might have meant to offer?

Should you accept such an offer? Should you feel guilty if you do? Will a travel company honor a "deal" that turns out to be better than they thought it was? And what can you do, politely, to make sure that they will honor such a price?

Here's a case study of what happened to me with a recent hotel/resort reservation:

Is the advertised price too good to be true? Yes. (Part 1 of 2)

Sometimes an advertised "sale" price isn't as much of a deal as it's made out to be. Other times, the price you are offered turns out to be such a good deal that the seller doesn't want to honor it. This week, I have reports on recent examples of both sides of this "too good to be true" coin.

First, the advertisement that exaggerates the "regular" price and the discount being offered:

In December, Groupon advertised a one-day online sale on vouchers, each voucher redeemable for a package including:

• 2 airline tickets around the world;
• 3 excursions along the way with a "value" of up to $500 for each excursion; and
• miscellaneous bells and whistles including a steamer trunk(!), 2 safari hats, in-flight food and drink, and one piece per person of checked baggage on each of the flights.

You might think that the "Groupon" name implies that customers are getting a discount in exchange for a group purchase, but this was anything but a "group" deal: Two coach/economy-class vouchers (each good for a pair of tickets) were offered for US$10,000 per voucher, and one business-class voucher for US$20,000.

All three of the vouchers Groupon offered were sold, including a coach-class voucher bought by Melissa and Trevor, a couple in Santa Fe planning to use them for their honeymoon trip around the world later this year.

Neither the coach nor the business-class price of the Groupon package was a terrible deal compared to the regular prices of its components.

What's problematic are the claims on Groupon's Web site that the $10,000 coach-class voucher had a value of $20,000 and was an "Epic Deal" being offered at a 50% discount.

In fact, as discussed below, this was at best a US$15,000 (not $20,000 as advertised) value in coach class, and at best a 33% (not 50% as advertised) discount from the normal price.

How much would this package have cost without the Groupon?

Review of "The Practical Nomad" by Wayne Bernhardson

Southern Cone expert Wayne Bernhardson is one of the best guidebook writers I know: knowledgeable, observant, thoughtful, and opinionated -- in the fine tradition of personal voices of Moon Handbooks authors -- yet able to communicate enough of the basis for his opinions that I can tell from his description when I might dislike something he likes, or vice versa. (He's also unfailingly friendly and generous, although guidebook readers don't necessarily care about that.) Whenever I travel in, or write about, Argentina or Chile, my starting point is always Wayne's guidebooks, even if to pursue my own tastes I often diverge from his suggested itineraries. I follow his blog, and he follows mine.

I'm honored that Wayne has just posted a review of the new 5th edition of The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World in his Southern Cone Guidebooks and Moon Over South America blogs. Wayne's review is worth reading as a general commentary on spontaneity in travel and the life of a working travel writer, but also has this to say about my book:

One person who’s adapted to the times is my travel-writing colleague Edward Hasbrouck, probably the best-traveled person I know, who’s just released a new fifth edition of The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World.

The Practical Nomad is exactly what it says: a nuts-and-bolts manual on traveling abroad – not necessarily literally "around the world" - for extended periods of time. It is not destination-oriented; rather, it offers suggestions on how to get the best out of whatever destination you choose. I recall that, after renting our apartment in Buenos Aires, he and his companion Ruth Radetsky found plenty to see and do in muggy subtropical Posadas - a city that foreign air travelers rarely even see and most overlanders visit only long enough to change buses for Iguazú Falls. To quote a phrase from the classic People’s Guide to Mexico [one of my favorites as well - EH], "Wherever you go, there you are."

That said, The Practical Nomad offers informed tips that, given Edward’s background as a professional travel agent and right-to-travel activist, are far more reliable that the scuttlebutt rumors I used to get from other travelers whose paths I crossed. They are light years better than any crowd-sourced information on the Internet, even though I might quibble with some of his details....

The Practical Nomad focuses on topics such as getting time off for foreign travel and financing it, flights and other transportation options, the bureaucracy of documents, visas and border crossings, and especially tech suggestions. Edward also writes the informative blog of the same name, "The Practical Nomad", which focuses on freedom-of-travel issues but also provides perspective on topics such as The Amazing Race "reality" TV show.

Thanks, Wayne, and happy travels!

Watch for a check like this in the mail!

If you used a US-issued VISA or MasterCard, or a VISA or MasterCard-branded ATM card, to make purchases or withdraw cash in foreign currency between 1996 and 2006, look for a check like the one below in your mail this week.

Mine was delivered yesterday, so yours might have been delivered a few days ago, or might still be on its way. Check your recent mail. It's easy to mistake these postcards for junk mail. (Click the images below for a larger version.)

[outside of self-mailer postcard (unfolded)]

[inside of self-mailer]

These settlement checks being sent to credit, debit, and ATM cardholders are the final act in a legal drama that I first wrote about in 2008.

First rulings in my lawsuit over DHS travel records

I've been waiting since the oral argument I attended last September 15th for a decision from Federal District Judge Richard Seeborg in my Privacy Act and FOIA lawsuit against the DHS Customs and Border Protection (CBP) division for information about their records of my travels.

By a bizarre coincidence, I spent yesterday in Judge Seeborg's courtroom watching a jury be selected for an entirely unrelated Federal criminal trial in which I might be called as a minor witness for the defense. (One night several years ago, I was awakened by the sound of shots outside. I called 911 in case anyone needed medical treatment. I saw nothing, and that's all I know.)

I haven't, so far as I can tell, been properly served with a subpoena in that case, but I had been told by defense counsel that someone from the US Marshal's office had filed a false (and perhaps fraudulent and/or perjured) return of service.

This sort of sewer service is illegal but common. I showed up in court anyway, in an abundance of caution (as lawyers like to say), to make sure there was a record of my voluntary appearance and to bring the possibility of misconduct by the Marshal to the attention of Judge Seeborg and the U.S. Attorney.

I had to wait around until almost 2 p.m. before I got to tell my story to the judge, after which I came home -- leaving behind an FBI agent who followed me down the courthouse corridor calling out, "Mr. Hasbouck? Mr. Hasbrouck? I just want to ask you a few questions...." Right.

Imagine my pleasure and surprise a little later in the afternoon when one of my lawyers sent me a copy of Judge Seeborg's initial rulings in my own case. This was the decision I'd been waiting for since September, and was filed about an hour after I appeared before Judge Seeborg in the (unrelated) third-party criminal matter. Go figure.

Anyway, Judge Seeborg's order addresses some significant Privacy Act issues of first impression. The order grants some of my motions and some of CBP's, and orders us to confer on next steps including additional searches by CBP for responsive records.

I'm very grateful to the work of my lawyers and to the First Amendment Project interns who also worked on the case.

I've posted an analysis of the ruling and its implications in the Identity Project blog (PapersPlease.org).

Bicycle routes through Brisbane, California

I attended the Brisbane (CA) City Council this week to talk about some of the unintended consequences of the new bike lanes on Bayshore Boulevard. It was a promising discussion, and I hope it has opened the door to addressing some larger regional transportation issues.

These issues aren't limited to San Francisco. Wherever bicycles are banned from the main motor-vehicle highways -- which typically follow the straightest and most level routes -- it becomes even more critical to ensure good conditions and reasonable through routes for bicyclists on those roads that remain accessible to bicycles, especially the "old" highways and the "frontage" roads along Interstate highways, freeways, and railroad lines.

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and/or care about bicycle transportation, read on. (If not, you probably want to skip the rest of this article.)

TSA is expanding its "PreCheck" (pre-crime) traveller registration scheme

I'll be on the Patt Morrison show on KPCC (the main NPR station in greater Los Angeles) from 2-2:30 p.m. to talk about the expansion to LAX and more other airports of the TSA's PreCheck traveller registration program.

Listen (on the air or online) and call in with your questions and comments.

[click arrow icon at left of slider above to stream archived audio, or click here to download as MP3 podcast]

By way of background, the PreCheck (pre-crime?) program, formerly labelled with the ironic acronym "ESP", is the latest incarnation of a concept that just won't die. I've been writing about the registered traveller idea since the TSA and selected airlines rolled out its first predecessor in 2004, most recently when the private franchisee who operated another version of a traveller registration program went bankrupt in 2009.

Before you sign up, you might want to read the TSA's notice of the records it keeps about people in the PreCheck program and the regulations exempting the TSA's files about registered travellers from the requirements of the Privacy Act for accuracy, relevance, rights of access to files about yourself, and accounting for disclosures of these records to other government agencies or third parties.

(You can hear my previous interview with Patt Morrison from the same show on KPCC last year here.)

The Amazing Race 19, Episode 11

Panama City (Panama) - Atlanta (Georgia)

"Reisefreiheit" (Freedom to Travel)

Ironically, the final episode in which The Amazing Race 19 returned home to the USA from Panama was broadcast on the same day that Manuel Noriega, the dictator deposed and kidnapped to imprisonment in Florida during the US invasion of Panama in 1989 (a story perhaps best told by David Harris in Shooting the Moon: The True Story of an American Manhunt Unlike Any Other, Ever) returned home to Panama (and continued imprisonment there) at the end of his 22-year involuntary exile.

"The Amazing Race 20" is being filmed now (let me know if you spot the racers or the production crew!) and will be broadcast in the USA in the spring of 2012.

The US version of the The Amazing Race always starts and ends in the USA, and is open only to US citizens. The concept has been franchised to other countries and regions, for citizens of those places, but most of the other versions of the race, such as "The Amazing Race Asia" and "The Amazing Race Latinoamérica", travel only within those parts of the world.

To be fair to the producers of the TV shows, that's not just because audiences in the USA or elsewhere don't want to see "foreigners" in the cast. Having non-US citizens in the US version of the race would greatly complicate the producers' task, and could lead to audiences being disappointed if a popular team were eliminated because they were denied entry to some country on the route, or delayed at immigration, because of their citizenship.

Even if a non-US citizen made it into one of the final three teams racing back to the finish in the USA, the extra time that it takes for non-US citizens to clear US immigration, at that critical point in the final leg, would almost certainly keep them from the million-dollar first prize.

Immigrants to the US know, but native-born US citizens often don't realize, just how much easier it is to travel with a US passport than as a citizen of almost any other country. (Yes, there are exceptions, but they are few, and include only a small percentage of the world's population.) It's hard for citizens of most countries in Latin America, Asia, or especially Africa to get visas to visit the USA, the Schengen zone in Europe, or other wealthy countries. It's easy for US citizens to take our privileged position as travellers for granted.

Even in some other countries whose citizens can now travel the world fairly easily, memories of past surveillance and control of travel are much closer to the surface than in the USA -- and opposition to current US travel surveillance and control schemes has been much greater.

This has been most obviously true in Germany and Austria, where the control and surveillance of people's movement by the Nazis, the Stasi (East Germany), the Berlin Wall, and the Iron Curtain (with Austria as one of its most important front-line states) have not been forgotten.

Much of my work for the last decade, even before I started working with the Identity Project on travel-related human rights issues, has concerned the use of airline reservations or Passenger Name Record (PNR) data as a tool for government monitoring of travellers, compilation of "travel history" dossiers linked to our identities (and access to the dossiers already compiled by travel companies and other businesses), and control of our movements on the basis of our identities and those linked dossiers.

While the more visible intrusions into our liberties, such as the laying-on-of-hands by TSA checkpoint staff, have been lightning rods for public reaction against the growing homeland security state, there's been no significant outrage or even debate about the US government's less visible, but more fundamental, assumption that they are entitled to record and control where we go.

Neither the Bush nor the Obama Administration has bothered to ask Congress to approve this "domestic Guantanamo" of individualized files about the lawful travels of tens of millions of US citizens; a permission-based regime of travel controls (with a default of, "No"); and no-fly orders issued in secret, by administrative fiat, without possibility of judicial review even when they pertain to US citizens.

But neither has Congress -- happy not to be held responsible for whatever happens, one way or the other -- demanded a chance to debate or vote on any of this.

In Europe, on the other hand, there's more public awareness of US government use of PNR data than there is in the USA. And there was extensive debate in the European Parliament about whether PNR data from the EU should be included in these US schemes, even before the new Lisbon Treaty reorganizing the EU gave the EP formal veto power over the proposed agreement with the US on DHS access to European PNR data.

My visit to Europe this past October began in Brussels, where I was invited to give a briefing to European Parliament staff and advisors hosted by Eva Lichtenberger, Austrian Green Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and member of the EP Transportation Committee (TRAN):

Then it was on to Berlin, where I saw the former Berlin Wall being replaced, on almost exactly the same site, with new US "Homeland Security" perimeter fortifications.

On one side of the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall has come down and there are no armed guards in sight, even with the Reichstag (once again Germany's parliament building) just a block away.

Only a line of bricks in the street and plaza (here making a right-angled turn at the left edge of the bike lane on the street that passes in front of the gate) shows the path of the barrier formerly maintained and patrolled by armed East German border guards:

On the other side of the gate, a new barrier with a new set of armed US guards and sentry boxes closes off the plaza from the area in front of the new US Embassy to Germany. The columns at the right edge of the photo below, where the new US barriers begin, are the end of one wing of the Brandenburg Gate:

Later that afternoon, a few blocks away on the other side of the Reichstag, I had an hour-long meeting with Germany's Minister of Justice, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, and several of her aides and advisors:

With Frau Minister Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger and Austrian independent MEP Martin Ehrenhauser

The Bundesministerium der Justiz is located in what was once East Berlin, on the site of the East German government's international press center. Like much of Berlin, the building was gutted and completely rebuilt after reunification, and only the facade remains original. But it was behind that facade that the government announced, at the end of a press conference on 9 November 1989 (I was in Paris, and arrived in Germany for the first time a few days later) that East Germans would be allowed to cross any of the country's borders -- "effective immediately". That was the end of the restrictions on travel that, I've been told, were for many East Germans the most-hated aspect of the old regime.

As the Ministry's translator was escorting us out of the building after our meeting with the Minister, she walked us through the memorial to "Reisefreiheit" -- freedom to travel -- on the ground floor on the site of that historic announcement. The building isn't open to the general public, but the installation by Ulrich Schröder, "Die Verkündung der Reisefreiheit" ("The Proclamation of Freedom of Travel"), is visible through the windows from the public sidewalk on Mohrenstraße:

The next day -- after an evening event at one of Berlin's foremost hacker-spaces, the c-base -- I accompanied MEP Ehrenhauser to Vienna, where he and his staff organized several briefings for journalists and activists.

At one of those meetings, an older gentleman reminded his fellow Austrians of how innocuous it might have seemed for Jews, for example, with "nothing to hide", to have their then-legal religion identified in government records in the early 1930s.

Which of the PNR data now being mined by the US and other governments as the basis for no-fly decisions -- telephone and credit card numbers, whether you asked for a Kosher or Halal meal, who you shared your hotel room with and whether you asked for one bed or two -- will someday in the unpredictable future, as the limits of what is tolerated change, become the basis for action against you?

In late November, after I returned to the US, the Identity Project published the complete text of the proposed US-EU agreement on DHS access to PNR data, which the European Commission was still keeping secret and allowing MEPs to read only in a sealed room where they weren't allowed to make copies or take notes. That prompted another wave of negative publicity in the European press, especially the German-language press. There was more criticism of the proposed EU-US agreement from European politicians, especially from Germany and Austria, and from a coalition of European (again, especially Austrian and German) and US civil liberties and human rights organizations.

This week the Council of the EU will vote on whether to approve the proposed agreement. If, as expected, the Council approves the proposal (the German and Austrian governments, particularly their Ministries of Justice, reportedly have reservations but probably don't have enough votes to prevent Council approval), it will go to the European Parliament for debate and a vote in January or February on whether to ratify it. How that vote will go, especially in the face of an unprecedented US lobbying campaign in Brussels and Strasbourg, remains unclear.

I'm pleased to have played some role in helping inform European opposition to these attacks on everyone's freedom. I'm glad that European activists and politicians are doing their part to try to keep us free. But these are fundamentally US government initiatives that are being globalized, and what's most needed is for freedom-loving US citizens to exercise the rights that we still have, and demand that Congress and the President put an end to secret dossiers about our travels and secret decisions, each time we want to fly on a common carrier, about whether to give the airline "permission" to let us on board.

Not until we speak out and demand action, here in the USA, will the DHS Automated Targeting System files about us follow the files of the Stasi and the SS into the dustbin of history. And not until they are destroyed will the potential for abuse of these files be ended.

[Update: On 12 December 2011 the Council of the EU voted to approve the proposed PNR agreement with the US. Not having enough votes to block the deal, Germany and Austria abstained from the vote. Now the proposal will go to the European Parliament for a vote in January or February of 2012.]Austria

The Amazing Race 19, Episode 10

Brussels (Belgium) - Amsterdam (Netherlands) - Panama City (Panama)

The outcome of this week's episode of The Amazing Race 19 was determined by yet another challenge in identifying the signal amid the noise: The racers were told that their clue could be found somewhere on the patterned and printed costumes of a troupe of dancers, and had to figure out which of the various words and images held the key.

The Christian snowboarders, who as professional athletes had dominated the race thus far this season, were eliminated after they misread the word "Balboa" on the coins the dancers were wearing as indicating the Balboa district of the Panama City, at the entrance to the Panama Canal. In fact, the word "Balboa" was merely the name of the unit of Panamanian currency, and wasn't the clue at all. The racers' clue was printed elsewhere on the dancers' dresses: the words "Panama Viejo" -- the site of the original colonial settlement of Panama City -- and a picture of one of the structures in those ruins.

Especially if you don't know the language, and sometimes even if you do but are less than fluent, it can be difficult to tell which of the words on a sign are the significant ones. Do the words someone is pointing out to you on a map translate as the name of your desired destination, or as "You are here"? If you can, try to get a local person to write down directions for you, rather than relying on correctly transcribing them in an unknown language.

The more interesting feature of this episode was how the racers got to Panama. To make their way from Brussels, they were instructed first to take a train from Brussels to Amsterdam, and then to fly from Amsterdam to Panama City.

There are many cheap flights between Brussels and other cities in Europe. After my most recent visit to Brussels in October, I flew out on Easyjet to Berlin. But most of the cheaper airlines serve the distant "Brussels South Charleroi Airport" (CRL), not the closer "Brussels National Airport" (BRU) at Zaventem. Even from Zaventem, there are few direct intercontinental flights.

Brussels is, however, near the mid-point of the high-speed rail line between Paris and Amsterdam. From central Brussels, it's less than an hour and a half on a direct train -- faster than flight connections -- northeast to Schiphol Airport (AMS) or southwest to Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), each of which has extensive intercontinental services. So it's actually quite typical for a journey around the world from Brussels to start out on one of these trains.

But why is there a daily nonstop flight between AMS and PTY? It's not like there's a large Panamanian expat or immigrant community in Holland, or an especially large number of Dutch tourists in Panama.

Airline routes normally follow trade routes and the profitable first- and business-class traffic they generate. Maritime business relationships between Rotterdam -- the busiest port in Europe -- and the Panama Canal probably explain why Amsterdam is the only European city with direct airline service to or from Panama.

But that's still not enough of an explanation. With the exception of Brazil-Portugal services -- some of the shortest trans-Atlantic flights -- direct flights between Europe and Latin America or the Caribbean are rare (and Asia-Latin America flights are almost nonexistent). Until a decade ago, most passengers travelling between those regions took for granted the necessity (even if they found it a nuisance) of changing planes in the USA, typically in Miami or New York if travelling to or from Europe (or Los Angeles en route to or from Asia).

The expansion of direct Europe-Latin America flights, including the existence of services like AMS-PTY, has been driven primarily by changes in US visa and immigration practices since 11 September 2001. Costs in money and harassment imposed by the US government have enabled airlines that offer direct services to charge a premium for avoiding the US. And that premium can make the difference in whether it's profitable to fly such a route.

All provisions for transit of the US without a visa have been abolished, and the fee for a US visa of any sort -- even the transit visa required merely to change planes in the US -- has been increased to US$135 (plus the cost of travel to a US embassy or consulate for an in-person visa interview). That means anyone subject to US visa requirements, including almost all Latin Americans, will be willing to pay at least $135 more to fly on any route that avoids the US.

Some people can't get visas to the US at all, while others aren't even allowed in US airspace. A few weeks ago in Brussels, I had lunch in the European Parliament with Paul-Émile Dupret, a policy advisor on the staff of the Parliament whose Air France flight from Paris to Mexico City -- nonstop -- was diverted because the US wouldn't allow any plane carrying M. Dupret to overfly Florida. The Air France pilot told M. Dupret, with an apology, that he's the subject of a US "no-fly" order. But M. Dupret has never seen the order himself, and the airline isn't allowed to show it to him and wasn't told why it was issued. He's been trying to find out why the US thinks he's a terrorist [sorry, the video interview with M. Dupret is in French with Dutch subtitles, having been produced for the Belgian audience of that country's 2010 Big Brother Awards], but more than a year later he's received no official information, and is still just guessing at the reasons.

People like M. Dupret -- innocent foreigners on foreign-flag airlines trying to travel between foreign countries, who were passing through or over the US only out of necessity -- are among those most threatened by current efforts by the US government to extend its surveillance and control of air travel even further, to flights throughout the rest of the world.