AirOptions Blog

If you regularly globe-trot for business, you may be interested in Customs and Border Protection’s new Global Entry program, designed to save you time and minimize lines. So far, it’s only available at Kennedy International Airport in New York, George Bush Intercontinental in Houston and Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. You’ll need to fill out an application, undergo a background check and interview, pay $100, and be willing to be fingerprinted.

The Transportation Security Administration has started using body-scanning machines on passengers chosen at random in Albuquerque, Baltimore, Denver, Los Angeles and at New York’s Kennedy airport. The equipment will be added to airports in Dallas, Miami, Detroit and Las Vegas this month. James Schear, the TSA security director at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, said the technology may eventually replace airport metal detectors.

American Airlines’ new baggage policy, which includes a $15 fee on some passengers’ first checked bag and a $25 fee for the second, does not allow prepayment of the fees. Instead, passengers must pay the fees at check-in with either cash or a credit card. However, while the new policy has garnered much attention, the carrier estimates that it will affect fewer than 20% of its domestic passengers.

International airlines expect demand for travel to remain strong as U.S. carriers take steps to cut capacity amid an economic downturn. However, some observers note that foreign carriers could start to feel the effects of the economic crisis by the end of the summer.

The State Department is urging Americans to avoid traveling to Lebanon because of ongoing security threats and political violence. The department is concerned with Hezbollah militants’ willingness to use violence without warning. Read the official Travel Warning for Lebanon.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff plans to announce a new program today that will require foreign travelers who aren’t required to obtain visas to register with the DHS at least three days before they arrive in the U.S. The program is intended to close security holes in the current system. The program becomes mandatory in January 2009.

Business travelers are getting increasingly fed up with hotel fees that they say are nickel-and-diming them to death. One traveler reports being charged for making a toll-free call to the hotel’s own central reservation service, but a representative of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, said guests always have the option of calling ahead and finding out about the fees before choosing where they stay.

Hotels probably are going to face tough times for the next year and a half as corporations and leisure travelers alike cut back on travel, according to experts speaking at a recent hotel investment conference in New York. Negotiating should be more difficult this year, and most said they believe the softening will continue for at least 18 months.