Travel News – , No Frills, JetBlue Limits Unlimited, Pirates, Vending Bikinis, Willing Miles, 1 Cent Hotel, Wrong Sydney

A resort in San Diego is taking “no frills” to the extreme.

California resort offers $19 ‘survivor’ package

For their one-and-only family getaway this year, the Billingtons checked in to an upscale San Diego resort on Sunday with many of the usual vacation accessories — bathing suits, board games and golf clubs.

But they also brought flashlights, sleeping bags and an inflatable mattress because the pool-side room they booked for just $19 comes with a tent where the beds normally would be. They even had to pack their own toilet paper.

While many of Southern California’s luxury hotels are battling a severe slump in business by offering extra services and more amenities, the Rancho Bernardo Inn is luring guests with the exact opposite — no frills and barely any basics.

JetBlue was trying to drum up some business from business. I guess it worked.

JetBlue suspends ‘All You Can Jet’ sale in face of strong demand

JetBlue suspended sales of its unlimited-flight pass Wednesday, saying it had to do so because of strong demand.

JetBlue debuted its $599 “All You Can Jet”promotion Aug. 12, a deal that garnered nationwide attention for offering customers all the flights they could take between the airline’s 56 cities starting Sept. 8 and ending Oct. 8.

Just when Somalia has gotten us used to the idea that there may still be pirates on the high seas we find them on the rivers too.

Pirate attack on Amazon cruise ship

An Australian couple have told The Age in Melbourne about a terrifying encounter with pirates who robbed the luxury cruise ship on which they were travelling in the Amazon.

Christina Ibbotson and Keith Lawson had just started their month-long South American holiday when gunmen stormed their cruise ship on the Ucayali River in the Peruvian Amazon in a dawn raid.

I understand needing a new swimsuit on a trip but I can’t see my wife buying one from a vending machine.

Forgot your swimsuit? Got any quarters?

Packing for vacation you usually forget something; tooth brush, belt, one of your children. (It’s ok, it’s the one you don’t love.) Women tend to forget bathing suits. They either forget, don’t pack enough, or just don’t like the suits they own. They end up buying a new suit on the trip.

Just not from a vending machine.

Your will covers who gets the house and the china, does it cover who gets your frequent flyer miles? Did you even know it could?

To my son, Michael, I bequeath my frequent flyer miles

“Sooner or later, many of us will be faced with the possibility of bequeathing or inheriting frequent flyer miles. We found that policies governing the transfer of miles vary from airline to airline, and some airlines flatly state on their websites that miles cannot be transferred upon death, but that’s actually not true,” said Airfarewatchdog founder George Hobica.

I like the idea of encouraging people to visit National Parks but since Yellowstone is already getting record numbers of visitors this year…

Obama to pay a visit to two national parks

President Obama and family are scheduled to take a whirlwind tour of two Western national parks this weekend, in part to spotlight the National Park Service’s fee-free weekends, and to encourage park visitation.

Not that visitors necessarily need encouragement. This summer has brought record attendance to some public lands, including Yellowstone National Park, where the Obamas are set to visit Saturday after arriving today in Bozeman, Mont. On Sunday, they’re off to the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

Good news for those who wanted to travel to Burma yet still be politically correct.

Burma opposition leader Suu Kyi: ‘Tourism might help’

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader, who was sentenced this week to a further 18 months’ house arrest, has dropped her opposition to tourism to Burma.

She now believes it can be encouraged, provided it is run through private operations and not through the government, and that visitors might help draw attention to the oppression of the people by the military junta.

This sale was such a secret that even the hotel did not realize that they were offering it.

Hotel mistake creates rush for 1 cent weekend

Hundreds of holiday makers struck lucky when they chanced upon a very special offer — a mistake in a hotel booking system which offered a romantic four-star weekend in Italy’s lagoon city of Venice for 1 cent.

In just a few hours, some 1,400 nights had been booked under the tariff, costing an estimated 90,000 euros for the hotel, part of the Intercontinental Hotels Group, the world’s largest chain, media reported.

Oops, Missed it by that much…

No sir, this is not Sydney Australia, this is Sydney in Canada

A Dutchman and his grandson boarded a flight to Sydney, looking forward to visiting Australia, but ended up in a different Sydney — in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Joannes Rutten, 71, and his 15-year-old grandson Nick booked the trip through a Dutch travel agency with plans to visit family living in Wollongong and Tallong, south of Sydney, according to local newspaper the Illawarra Mercury.

They set out from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport with Air Canada on Saturday but instead of arriving to views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House, they touched down at Sydney in Cape Breton Island, off Canada’s north east coast — more than 17,000 kms (10,000 miles) away from their intended destination.

Other stories that caught my eye:

• Impact of Delta-US Airways slot swap will be far-reaching
• Mind the gap year exploitation
• Ugly Indian replaces ugly American

For more travel news check out the This Week in Travel podcast.