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Passport Problems Loom as Top Travel Pitfall

AAA Warns of Big Snags Beginning in January

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

November 1, 2006

Passport Rules • Passport Snarl Finally Ends • Furious Travelers Blame Feds For Passport Mess • Passport Frenzy Forces Further Rule Change • Passport Problems Likely to Worsen by 2008 • Congress Fights Homeland Security Over Passport Snafu • New Passport Rules Temporarily Suspended • Homeland Security Eases Passport Rules for Kids • Passport Frenzy Creates Long Waits • Passport Rules Shift Spring Break Geography • January 23 is D Day for Passports • Passport Deadline Nears, Few Americans Prepared • Passport Problems Loom as Top Travel Pitfall • Passports Required for U.S. Entry by 2008 --- • More Travel News ...

New passport laws may throw a monkey wrench into international travel, according to the national travel manager of the American Automobile Association (AAA).

Michael Pina warns that new rules, effective in January, require passengers to carry passports for all air travel in the Western Hemisphere but notes that only 27 per cent of Americans have them.

Because passports include photographs, Pina predicts they will become official and legal means of identification -- even superseding the drivers license as the primary ID used for voter registration.

Such habitual vacations as winter cruises and spring break may not be possible without passports, Pina points out. On the horizon is something called an ePassport -- a plastic card packed with wifi technology -- that Pina calls "E-Z Pass for people." But that's still on the drawing board.

In the meantime, the Washington-based travel executive says consumers should use his organization to process their travel-related paperwork in advance.

The American Automobile Association has a visa-processing service that features 24-hour turnaround time and can also expedite issuing on passports, which sometimes takes six weeks by mail.

With 50 million members, the 103-year-old AAA is the nation's second-largest membership organization. It is also the biggest leisure travel agency and the largest travel publisher.

Members can take advantage of online mapping services and travel planning through AAA.com.

"You can type in where you're going, the make and model of your car, and it will even tell you how much gas will cost," says Pina, who reports a 1000 per cent increase in usage of that feature since gas prices started rising in the wake of Hurricane Katrina last year.

"More people are going online for internet mapping services so they won't get lost. And people are getting discounts in advance so they won't have any surprises when they get to their destinations."

Traveling Pooches

Pet owners don't want surprises either, which is why AAA has just published the eighth edition of its "Traveling With Your Pet" guidebook. Pina says 70 million Americans have one pet and 45 million have at least two. He also says that 66 per cent of people surveyed after Katrina said they would not undertake an auto trip without their pets.

According to the AAA book, Houston has the most pet-friendly accommodations, closely followed by Austin, Dallas, Albuquerque, Phoenix, and San Antonio. But New York and Orlando are both high on the list.

In fact, 30 five-diamond properties cater to pets.

Other coming trends, according to Pina:

• Hotels that cater to car owners, promising waxes, washes, and tuneups for vehicles;
• More people taking their kids out of school so that they can vacation when prices and crowds are smaller;
• More trips to cultural and historical destinations; and
• More couples taking separate vacations because of conflicting work schedules.

Also coming soon are AAA tour books listing laptop-friendly cities (i.e. hotels with wifi), a transition from travelers' cheques and paper money to plastic cards (including a coming AAA card), and results of an AAA study designed to evaluate the various travel-related taxes and surcharges in 19 different cities.

That study, done with the cooperation of University of Denver Prof. Eugene Dilbeck, will reveal how gasoline tax revenue is being spent, along with other travel tax revenue (city and state taxes, hotel room taxes, etc.).

Already an online travel agency for drivers, AAA.com produces detailed maps - listing such things as scenic byways - and allows users to book hotel properties as they map, using AAA ratings as a guide.

To expedite its travel operations, the association plans to broaden the horizons of its travel agents, getting them to learn about emerging destinations that have not yet been explored or exploited.

According to Mike Pina, that's especially important for retirees with discretionary income who might take 6-7 trips per year but want to avoid the been-there, done-that syndrome.

He admits the negative image of the United States abroad has hampered the flow of foreign visitors -- a void the Discover America partnership is trying to fill by lobbying Congress for promotional funding. With 50 million foreign visitors per year, the U.S. trails only Spain and France but could do better if it publicized its own product.

Pina points out that Hollywood is "America's CNN," publicizing the nation through such shows as West Wing and Commander-in-Chief.

In the immediate future, Pina says the AAA will be watching how much money shoppers save by using AAA discounts for the holidays. That factor will be directly related to how much consumers spend on holiday gifts this year.

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