DOT releases updated guide for consumer air travelers
Hotel key cards - ever wonder what is on your magnetic key card?
Why the airline fee issue is so important NOW
No planes, no jetways, no maintenance facilities … is it an airline?
5 foreign travel mistakes no one thinks they’ll make – but they do
Top 10 tips to protect your laptop and data while traveling
“Clocked” by jet lag
Check your home from anywhere, fast and cheap
Travel complaints that fail
A History of US Airline Regulation 1911 – 1979
Italian firm unveils a saddle seat for airlines – giddyup

DOT releases updated guide for consumer air travelers
The Department of Transportation has released its updated version of “Fly Rights: A Consumer Guide to air Travel,” a handbook that outlines how to make official complaints, choose a loyalty program and other tips. The guide also includes information on new consumer protections such as the tarmac-delay rule. “We take the rights of airline passengers very seriously,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. “Ensuring that the flying public has access to the best possible resources and consumer information is an important part of our mission, and this new version of ‘Fly Rights’ will help air travelers better understand their rights as consumers.”  (CNN)  Read more

Hotel key cards - ever wonder what is on your magnetic key card? 
Answer: 
A.  Customer’s name 
B.  Customer’s partial home address 
C.  Hotel room number 
D.  Check-in date and out dates 
E. Customer’s  credit card number and expiration date! 

When you turn them in to the front desk, your personal information is there for any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the hotel scanner.  An employee can take a hand full of cards home or using a scanning device, access the information onto a laptop computer and go shopping at your expense. 

Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an employee reissues the card to the next hotel guest.  At that time, the new guest’s information is electronically ‘overwritten’ on the card and the previous guest’s information is erased in the overwriting process.  But until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in a drawer at the front desk with your information on it! 

The bottom line is this: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy them.  NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and NEVER turn them in to the front desk when you check out of a room.  They will not charge you for the card and you’ll be sure you are not leaving a lot of valuable personal information on it that could be easily lifted off with any simple scanning device card reader. 

For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash basket.  Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the electronic information strip! 

If you have a small magnet, simply pass it across the magnetic strip several times.  Then try it in the door, it should not work and everything has been erased on the card. 

Why the airline fee issue is so important NOW
Timing is everything. Right now for the first time in decades, the Department of Transportation (DOT) is rewriting the rules about how airlines sell airline tickets. This time getting the voice of the consumers heard Congress and at the DOT will actually result in change. The deadline for comments about this rulemaking is September 23.  (Consumer Traveler)  Read more

No planes, no jetways, no maintenance facilities … is it an airline?
There are a lot of pieces to the airline puzzle, but almost none of them are now owned by airlines. The modern “airline” is more of a management company that owns as few assets (such as planes) as possible.  (Consumer Traveler)  Read more

5 foreign travel mistakes no one thinks they’ll make – but they do
He knew about being careful with the water, except that he forgot about brushing his teeth. Suffice it to say, a week of the trip was not as pleasant as he had hoped.  (Consumer Traveler)  Read more

Top 10 tips to protect your laptop and data while traveling
There are more problems for travelers with laptops than just passing through Customs and Border Protection, including when traveling within the US. Ned Levi gives you his Top 10 tips (plus 2 special tips) to protect your laptop and data while traveling.  (Consumer Traveler)  Read more

“Clocked” by jet lag
After having suffered from prolonged jet lag since returning recently from a trip to the Baltic Sea region of Europe, Ned Levi discusses jet lag; its causes and what can be done to mitigate its effects.  (Consumer Traveler)  Read more

Check your home from anywhere, fast and cheap
What if there was a cheap, simple-to-install system to monitor your house from the road. Now there is. The Vue package costs less than $300 and $20 a month and is no more difficult to install than a printer. And it lets you monitor your home from your laptop or your smartphone.  (Phil Baker)  Read more

Travel complaints that fail
5 kinds of e-mails you should never ever write.  (MSNBC)  Read more

A History of US Airline Regulation 1911 – 1979
The future is often defined by the past, and so to help us all better formulate a view on what the future of airline regulation should be, here’s a history of what it used to be and why/how it evolved as it did.  (The Travel Insider)  Read more

Italian firm unveils a saddle seat for airlines – giddyup
Aviointeriors, an Italian company, has developed the SkyRider seat for airlines to trim legroom and squeeze more passengers into a plane. The Federal Aviation Administration has not approved the SkyRider, and some industry insiders say that regulatory hurdles and other issues will prevent this type of seating to be adopted by carriers in the U.S.  (CNN)  Read more