May 2007

Beat The Airlines At Their Own Game

By Jennie Lay

Getting the seats you want

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Use Your Computer. Airline web sites as well as booking engines like Expedia.com, Travelocity.com and Orbitz.com, usually offer interactive seating maps that allow you to request your preferred seats from the start.

Arrive at the airport early. Or call the airline on the day of your flight to see when they'll release seats for assignment. At the check-in counter, turn on the charm and ask nicely for the seats you want. Another option: Self-service check-in kiosks often display a diagram of available seats and let you pick your favorites.

Consult a Guru. Need some deep seat analysis before you travel half way around the world? Visit SeatGuru.com, an exhaustive source of amenity lists and seating maps, including seat-specific notes about limited recline, reduced legroom and misaligned windows, plus galley, bathroom and exit row locations.

Avoid baggage hassles

Know the Rules. Verify your airline's baggage rules and restrictions before you pack. The rules vary from airline to airline and can even vary from passenger to passenger on the same flight. First-class ticket holders, for example, may be allowed more, larger or even heavier checked baggage allowances. Coach passengers may be charged additional fees for the same bags. Sometimes it's cheaper to pay for first class instead of hefty fees to check your extra dive gear and camera equipment.

Pack with your last flight in mind. If you'll be transferring to a small island commuter craft, the first airline's more generous rules may no longer apply. Be sure your bags meet the restrictions of the last airline that will be handling them.

Know the Code. At check-in, verify the airport codes on checked luggage tags to make sure your bags are headed for your final destination.

Maximize your carry-on allowance. Most airlines allow you one carry-on bag and one ambiguous "personal item" so make use of both to carry must-have items, whether its prescription medications, your regulator or your camera. For more information on turning your carry-on bags into a complete Save-a-Trip kit, see "Pack Your Rolling Carry-on Bags," p. 46.

Using Frequent Flyer Miles

Reserve award travel in advance. Airlines release only a limited number of frequent flyer award seats per flight, but they do it up to 331 days in advance. Plan at least six to nine months ahead. If you don't get the free seats on your first attempt, keep trying. Award seats get reserved, canceled and put back in the system all the time. Be a Team Player. Most major airlines are part of frequent flyer alliance programs like Oneworld, Skyteam or Star Alliance, which allow you to spend miles from one airline for seats on the others in the alliance. If your main frequent flyer airline is full, try alliance partners to book the trip you want. upgrade your experience. If free award seats are in short supply, use miles to bump up a paid economy ticket to business or first class.

Finding the Best Airfares

Know the Ground Rules. Late bookings during peak travel times are almost always more expensive. Ticket prices typically rise 14 or 21 days before travel, so the standard advice to book early still applies.

Shop Around. Survey your ticket options by searching the major online travel providers: Travelocity.com, Expedia.com, Orbitz.com and Hotwire.com. Make sure to check the "nearby airport" box to include fares to and from alternate airports favored by discount airlines. When you're comparing prices, be sure you're looking at each site's total price, including all taxes, surcharges and fees. Need more options? Aggregators like Kayak.com, Sidestep.com, Mobissimo.com and Yahoo's FareChase can give you a broader look at the market for fares because they often include smaller airlines along with the big carriers. Aggregators electronically "scrape" airline and other booking sites, then link you directly to the best deal for booking. When you find a great deal, don't forget to check directly with the airline. In-house specials, internet-booking discounts or bonus frequent flyer miles may trump other offers. Still wondering if you got a great deal? Check FareCompare.com to see your route's price history for the past year.

Call an Expert. Reputable dive travel specialists who book airfares to paradise on a daily basis can usually meet your best Caribbean airfare, and thanks to volume buying power, probably beat your best Pacific one--if you book one of their dive vacation packages. For more on this one-stop shopping option see, "Q&A: Using a Dive Travel Specialist," p. 45.

Living Large On A Live-Aboard

By Jennie Lay

Name Your Adventure

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For divers seeking maximum bottom time, live-aboard dive boats are a great hassle-free option. Fly to paradise, board your boat and dive as many as five times a day. No logistics, no dinner reservations, no hauling dive gear. The crew does all the work; you have all the fun. Just make sure you're booking a trip that's appropriate for your dive skills and interests. Leading live-aboard companies including Peter Hughes Diving, the Aggressor Fleet and Explorer Ventures, gladly provide detailed information on currents, water temperatures, wildlife and diving skills required on each itinerary.

Get the best cabin

Check out boat schematics and choose your quarters as carefully as your destination. Cabins near the centerline experience less rocking and rooms away from the stern typically offer less machinery noise. Check out each cabin's amenities as well as proximity to bathrooms, stairs and other facilities to choose the most comfortable room before you ever leave home. Traveling solo? You'll be assigned a same-sex cabin mate, or you can opt to pay a single supplement (typically 35 to 65 percent of the charter fee) to have a cabin to yourself.

Make special requests in advance

Because live-aboards are often based in remote foreign locations, special food and beverage requests need to be made far in advance. Remember, brand name requests can be tough to accommodate in Third World destinations. Expect local beers, not Budweiser - and no Evian in Sulawesi. If there's something you can't live without, bring it with you.

Know what you're buying

Live-aboard prices cover your cabin, all your diving, air fills, three solid meals a day served family or buffet style, plenty of snacks and often all-inclusive beverages. They usually don't include your airfare, extra dive courses, nitrox fills, souvenirs from the on-board boutique, equipment rental, crew tip, fuel surcharges or marine park fees. Most boats will allow you to run a tab and pay for these extras by credit card at the end of the cruise, but it's also a good idea to have cash on hand, especially for crew tips (see below).

Avoid seasickness

Live-aboards usually move to the calm side of the island for the night and make long or rough crossings while you're sleeping, but you're going to be on the water 24/7. If you're prone to seasickness (and even if you're not) come prepared. If you have a remedy that works for you, bring plenty along. If you don't need it, someone else might.

What to pack

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Stowage space is at a premium on even on the largest and most luxurious live-aboards, so use soft luggage that you can stuff in a corner. Pack light--extra swimsuits, plus a few T-shirts and shorts are all you need onboard. Even if you want to dress up for the final night on the town, an Aloha shirt will do. Use the extra space to carry what you might really need for a week away from land, like a save-a-dive kit, surface signaling devices, a spare mask and extra batteries. There are no drugstores at sea, so bring lots of sunscreen and any medications you might need.

Bring your best people skills

Shared cabins, shared dive skiffs, family-style dining, limited salon space--your entire vacation will be closely intertwined with other passengers and the crew. The bad news: In confined spaces little quirks and small conflicts can get blown out of proportion. The good news: You're in the company of fellow divers. Common courtesy, a sense of humor, and old-fashioned respect go a long way to making the shared camaraderie one of the highlights of the cruise.

Tip generously

Live-aboard crews multi-task around the clock so you can relax. During the cruise, your divemaster will also probably take a turn at serving dinner, working the bar and maintaining the boat. Tip generously for good service and do it in cash. Standard crew tips (10 to 20 percent of cruise price depending on the level of service) are split among the entire crew, so if someone has been especially helpful to you (a chef who cooked you special vegan meals, for example) give them something extra.

How To Pack Your Rolling Carry-On Bags

By John Brumm

Photography by Joseph Byrd

Pack any of these bags with ScubaLab's Save-a-Trip kit and you'll always walk off the plane ready to dive.

As any seasoned traveler will attest, airlines can--and often do--lose luggage. No dive gear, no clean underwear and no deodorant can quickly add up to trouble in paradise, but lost luggage doesn't have to spoil your trip. Now that Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regulations once again allow small liquid and gel containers in carry-on bags, savvy dive travelers are turning their carry-on luggage into virtual Save-a-Trip kits, packing just enough toiletry products, clothing and their most personal dive gear to stay happy, healthy and hygienic above and below water until the lost bags arrive.

All of these carry-ons have ample room for everything in our Save-a-Trip kit, yet fall within the airline industry's standard size and weight restrictions for carry-on luggage--30 to 40 pounds maximum weight and 45 to 51 linear inches in size (length + width + depth). Unless otherwise noted, these bags also feature rigid backs and bases, standard smooth-surface roller wheels and locking two-position metal pull handles.

AKONA: AKB176

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| AKONA: AKB176|
Hits: Built-in laptop sleeve; dedicated regulator compartment; easy-to-load main compartment.
Miss: The bag stands upright when fully loaded, but isn't quite as stable as the others.
Price: $120.
Contact: www.akona.com.

Built for the new realities of air travel, this versatile carry-on has easy-access stowage compartments for everything you'll need to produce for TSA inspection--laptop, your clear baggie of toiletries and your boarding pass--so you can breeze through security. The large padded laptop sleeve is found inside the main compartment, yet provides easy access via a zippered slit on the side of the bag. The main compartment lid folds back for easy packing, and the Akona easily swallowed our entire Save-a-Trip kit. Nice touches include a big round-shouldered lid compartment for your regulators (a custom-fit reg bag is a $30 option) and a smaller lid compartment with a passport wallet and cell phone pouch, which easily holds your TSA toiletries bag.

DEEP SEE: Excursion Carry-on

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| DEEP SEE: Excursion Carry-on|
Hits: Stable wheelbase; mesh compartment for wet items; compression straps to cinch down the load.
Miss: Main compartment zipper runs just two-thirds of the way down the bag, making it difficult to load laying down.
Price: $109.
Contact: www.deepseeinc.com.

The Excursion is a clever rolling backpack useful for both air travel and as a boat bag. The well-ventilated front pouch is perfect for stashing your stinky sandals or soggy swimsuit and the middle compartment has an expanding fin pouch large enough to accommodate a standard set of full-foots. For use as an airline carry-on, we tucked the contoured shoulder straps in their zippered sleeve, then folded the fin pocket inside the middle compartment to make a home for our reading material. We stashed our passport and tickets inside a zippered sleeve on back of the bag for easy access, and everything else fit nicely in the main compartment. If you carry a separate bag, the Excursion will accommodate an entire set of warm-water dive gear.

OCEANIC: At-Pak 4

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| OCEANIC: At-Pak 4|
Hits: Rock-steady wheelbase; main compartment lid folds back for easy loading; comfortable top lift handle.
Miss: Non-locking extension handle felt a bit flimsy.
Price: $94.95.
Contact: www.oceanicworldwide.com.

This rolling backpack was also designed to carry a full set of tropical dive gear (including a pair of full-foot fins strapped to the sides), and still meet most airline carry-on size and weight restrictions. When tested with our emergency Save-a-Trip kit, the main compartment held the entire inventory of gear and clothes with room to spare. The larger lid compartment easily handles books and magazines, the smaller lid compartment offers pouches for cell phone, keys and pens and is a good place to stow your TSA toiletries bag. A small zippered sleeve on the front compartment works well for tickets and your passport. A super-wide wheelbase and pair of plastic feet help the bag stand rock steady when fully loaded.

STAHLSAC: Cayman Brac

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| STAHLSAC: Cayman Brac|
Hit: Tons of room; curved pull handle balances load.
Miss: This bag holds so much you may exceed weight limits.
Price: $239.95.
Contact: www.stahlsac.com.

For durability and pure cargo capacity you can't beat the Cayman Brac. The main compartment on this well-built bag is huge, the two internal zippered pouches are huge, and the same goes for the two external lid compartments. We packed all our Save-a-Trip clothes and the bulk of our dive gear in the main internal compartment. Mask, dive computer and camera went in the upper internal pouch. That left the easy-access upper external compartment for a cell phone, passport and tickets, TSA toiletries bag and miscellaneous small items. Need more cargo room? There's a two-inch expansion panel between main compartment and lid to let you cram in last-minute items. Built to last, there's reinforcing armor on the high-wear corners and base of the bag.

XS SCUBA: BG750

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| XS SCUBA: BG750|
Hits: Heavy-duty zippers and wheels; stable wheelbase; rigid handle on the bottom makes it easy to lift onto inspection tables.
Miss: Spring-loaded t-handle is sometimes reluctant to pop out of its recessed nook.
Price: $80.
Contact: www.xsscuba.com.

This compact bag rolls on a pair of rugged all-terrain wheels. The main compartment took the bulk of our clothes and dive gear, with internal tie-down straps to keep the load from shifting and a pair of mesh pouches for stashing sandals. While not specifically designed for it, the padded sleeve on the inside of the lid is a perfect place for stowing a small laptop. On the outside lid, the larger of the two compartments is gusseted so when the lid unzips it stays in place, making it easy to add or remove gear when the bag is standing upright. This is a good place to stow lighter gear, a hat and maybe a few T-shirts. The smaller external pouch is a good place for your TSA toiletries bag, tickets, books and magazines.

Scubalab's Save-A-Trip Kit

To see if these bags had the right capacity and features, we packed each one with the following items, on the theory that if our checked bags were lost, all we'd need to keep our dive schedule on track would be a rental BC and fins. The contents of your personal save a trip kit will no doubt vary.

CLOTHES

• 3 pair shorts
• 1 swimsuit
• 7 pair T-shirts
• 1 pair sandals
• 1 hat

• 1 TSA toiletries bag (pictured below)
  GEAR

• Regulator, octopus reg and gauges

• Wrist-mount dive computer
• Mask

• 3mm fullsuit
  OTHER ITEMS

• Laptop computer.

• Digital land camera.
• 1 paperback novel
• 2 recent issues of Scuba Diving

Carrying On

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Current TSA Rules for Liquids
Fliers traveling from the U.S. are now allowed to bring limited quantities of liquids, gels and aerosols, including shampoo, suntan lotion, creams, toothpaste, hair gel and hair spray on board in their carry-on luggage, with the following caveats:

• Liquids must be carried in individual containers no larger than 3.4 ounces or 100 ml.

• All liquid containers must be carried together in a single, quart-sized, zip-seal bag which can be completely closed.

• At the security checkpoint, the plastic bag must be removed from the carry-on bag and submitted for inspection or passed through the scanner.
  For more information visit www.tsa.gov/311/index.shtm.

Passport Required

By Jennie Lay

There are two documents no traveling diver should ever leave home without: a C-card and a valid passport. A passport has always been the easiest way to avoid hassles when crossing international borders, but heightened airport and border security now make that little blue book mandatory.

The New Rules. No exceptions. As of January 2007, all international travelers arriving in the United States must have a valid passport - including travelers from Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. Everyone. Including infants. Show up at America's border without it and expect long delays while Homeland Security scrutinizes your right to re-entry.

Sign Up Here. If you've never had a passport before, apply in person at one of about 9,000 passport agencies around the country, places like post offices, county offices and courts. Bring two identical 2x2-inch color passport photos, proof of U.S. citizenship, photo I.D., a completed application, your social security number and $97. Allow six weeks for processing.

Keep It Current. Many foreign countries require passports to be valid for a full six months after your arrival. You can renew your soon-to-be expired passport by mail for $67. Two-week expedited service costs an additional $60, plus overnight delivery costs.

For more information and to download applications, visit the U.S. State Department Web site at www.travel.state.gov or call the National Passport Information Center at (877) 487-2778.

Q&A

Using a Dive Travel Specialist

Q: What is a dive travel specialist?
A: A dive travel specialist is a full-service retail travel agency--such as the travel department at your local dive shop--that focuses exclusively on scuba vacations. They offer convenient one-stop shopping on complete travel packages for groups and individuals to the leading dive destinations. Most work in conjunction with a dive travel wholesaler or broker to offer discounted rates with international airlines, hotels, dive operators, transfer companies and even topside tour operators.

Q: Why would I use a dive travel specialist?
A: For the same reason you use any professional service--they can do the job better and faster than you can. Shopping for airfare alone can mean spending hours scouring the internet. Now add the task of comparing room rates and availability at different resorts, then negotiating with dive operators. Specialists do all the legwork for you and give you a menu of clearly defined options, each with easy-to-compare total prices. Compared to online package vendors, dive travel specialists have another big advantage--they're staffed by divers with first-hand knowledge of each of the destinations and resorts they sell. They can help you pick a destination that best suits your travel window, interests, skills and budget.

Q: Are dive travel specialists a better value than doing it yourself?
A: That depends on the itinerary and the value of the time you'll save. Chances are you'll find their rates competitive on relatively simple Caribbean itineraries. On exotic or complicated Pacific trips, however, specialists often arrange discounted airfares that individuals can't get, lowering the total price. These packages may also include meet-and-greet services to help jet-lagged travelers with flight connections, transfers and baggage. When you compare prices, be sure it's an apples-to-apples comparison that includes all the services as well as taxes and fees.

Q: What happens if something goes wrong on my trip?
A: That's when a specialist and their wholesaler partner really come in handy. If you can't resolve problems on the ground you have someone to call who can change and rebook tickets, transfer you to a different hotel and generally get your vacation back on track.

Bonus Tip

Plan Ahead You should generally plan on booking with a dive travel specialist at least 90 days in advance of departure. You will be asked to put down a deposit for your trip at the time of booking, with the full balance typically due 60 days before departure. The specialist will prepay all vendors, and mail you tickets, confirmations and vouchers for each of the services you've paid for.