Higher Car Rental Prices From Artificial Shortage

Click above to read more information from the Consumerist:

Car rental firms have cut their fleets by almost 15% in the last year, creating an artificial shortage that has helped to raise prices. Inside, a few tips that can help lower the cost of your next car rental...

We noticed the increase when we rented a car in Las Vegas last month. Traditionally Las Vegas had the most competitive rental car rates in the nation. Not any more. And despite the tip to check out Priceline or Hotwire, we found both sites prices to be the same as renting from any major car rental site. The lesson learned is to shop and shop earlier rather than later.

Las Vegas Downton Hotel Room Rates Under $20.00

Doing a little search on room rates for the week of July 5th we found hotel room rates at several downtown properties for as little as $20.00 a night.

The El Cortez is posting $17 a night rates that week.

Binons $18.00 a night.

The Golden Gate is $20.00.

Even the Golden Nugget, a four star property is getting in the low room rate action with $49.00 a night. That is really a deal.

All rates are available from Orbitz . Click on the package links at our 1lasvegasconnection.com site.

Think flight times are being padded? They are

From the USA Today:

The Earth hasn't expanded significantly. The seismic plates under North America haven't shifted dramatically. And quite a few commercial aircraft are faster than ever. But it's still taking longer to fly on many domestic routes — and flight times are growing longer, not shorter.

Don't believe it? Check out the chart below and see just how much scheduled flight times have been stretched since 1995. For airline executives facing chronic delays on certain routes, the answer has been to pad those flights' "block times" by lengthening the total number of minutes the aircraft is expected to operate, all the way from the gate at Airport A to the gate at Airport B.

As one airline operations manager said to me a few years ago: "The airlines are no more on-time than they used to be, but they're better at covering it up."

Click above link to read the entire article

When Blogs Fall In an Empty Forrest

Yes we did disappear for a while. We have been traveling a bit and bit busy. Not paying attention to our blog knitting. This New York Times piece did catch our attention. We have not been posting regularly and we are not alone.

According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned, left to lie fallow on the Web, where they become public remnants of a dream — or at least an ambition — unfulfilled.

We just hit the magic 120 days and promise to do better. Watch this space.

Umm...do I get my free cruise now?

From the Consumerist:

"Meet the "Royal Caribbean Champions," a group of fifty prolific posters to popular online communities that Royal Caribbean rewards with special access and free cruises in exchange for their frequent and positive commentary.... Members of the popular reviewing site Cruise Critic, one of the main targets of the program, are understandably pissed."

Royal Caribbean has a reputation among the travel agency community as being the toughest to do business with. As the Consumerist points out their arrogance knows no bounds. Failing to mention their affiliation with these cruise review "shills" without disclosing their bias, appears to be nothing more than standard operating procedure for this cruise line. Or perhaps a concern that their product is not up to the standards of their competitors. It certainly points in the direction that the very popular travel review sites are certainly not what they appear to be and are no substitute for the professional travel agent.

Air Travel Is Getting Cheaper Because No One Is Flying

From the Consumerist, "Prices are coming down as demand weakens, so if you were thinking of taking a flight — now might be a good time to start shopping for tickets."

Confessions of a casino pit boss

From the February 2008 Budget Travel magazine an anonymous pit boss shares his/her observations including why there are dozens of places to buy chips and so few to redeem them.

Ginger Creek Valor is its own reward cruise update

Just updated our Ginger Creek Valor is its own reward blog to include the latest news release. Just a few weeks left to book this cruise. We still have cabins.