Credit Cards Provide Emergency Health Services Abroad

We have written about travel insurance and health coverage. You may not know, however, that your credit cards also have international travel and emergency assistance benefits (domestic-if more than 100-150 miles from home). You should examine these benefits, before you leave home and see if it would be wise to make reservations using a particular credit card, and/or to become a member of their loyalty programs.

See if you are entitled to 24 hour concierge services to assist you with restaurant recommendations, reservations, and even vacation-planning assistance. This assistance can give you information on your destination before you leave—information such as ATM locations, currency exchange rates, weather reports, health precautions, immunizations, and required passport visas.

Your credit card may help you rent a car, often at discount prices, and give you car insurance, permitting you to waive auto rental collision damage offers. Paying with your credit card may also provide you with travel accident insurance and lost luggage reimbursement. And, if your rental car breaks down or runs out of gas, your card may also get you a referral dispatch for towing or fuel delivery.

Medical Emergency Assistance Services:

If you become ill and must halt your trip and return home, your card can help make arrangements and assist you with getting your nonrefundable fare back.

The card’s benefit administrators can give you names of English-speaking doctors, dentists, and hospitals; or provide you with a translator. They can contact your physicians at home to speak to the local doctor. They may assign a physician to monitor your condition. They can contact your family and provide continuing liaison. Last, they can help you arrange medical payments.

Emergency transportation assistance may assist you to make all the necessary arrangements for emergency transportation home or to the nearest appropriate medical facility. This usually includes arranging to bring your traveling companion home with you. In the case of a death, the card benefit administrator can make arrangements for returning the remains of the deceased home. You will probably be responsible for many of these costs. Remember, if you have evacuation and medical assistance insurance, these costs will be covered in addition to assistance with making arrangements.

Your credit card may also provide prescription assistance to help you get prescriptions filled or replaced, subject to local laws, and can even arrange pickup and delivery service.

EF

Is Memorial Day Observed Abroad?

On May 30, 1930, The Southeast Missourian newspaper reported that American “Gold Star” mothers went to France to visit the American cemeteries where their sons, who were killed in World War I, were buried. Thousand attended and cheered these brave women who raised their sons with principles of loyalty, courage, truth and vision. Dignitaries spoke of those brave men who gave their lives, so that others might live in dignity and enjoy liberty.

27 May 2012--68th Memorial Day Service

3 PM, Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten

Officers and members of other associations, both American and Dutch, will be present. This is a time to honor our veterans. We take this occasion not only to express how grateful we are to the brave men and women who risked their lives so that we might enjoy our freedom but also to express our gratitude to their families who suffered from their loss.

The Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten is the only American military cemetery in the Netherlands and Europe's third largest cemetery for unidentified soldiers who died in WWII. America's Memorial Day has been observed there since May 1945.

U.S. soldiers abroad mark Memorial Day

The Associated Press reported that U.S. soldiers held candles to mark the Memorial Day at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday, May 29, 2011.

After nearly a decade and more than 1,400 soldiers have been killed in combat, some U.S. troops paused for a moment Sunday to remember what brought America to Afghanistan and to honor the lives that continue to be lost.

Blackhawk helicopters churned through the night sky as a strong wind coming over Kabul's surrounding mountains blew against the flickering candles that cast an orange glow on those gathered for the ceremony at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' headquarters.

Let us pause and think about the true meaning of Memorial Day.

EF

Flash Sale Purchased African Safari Experience

Continued from May 21, 2012 on Flash Sales.

The seconds were ticking toward the midnight deadline as I whipped out my iPhone, opened the app and ended a week of stomach-churning indecision. With less than a minute to spare, Rick Mease and his wife bought a safari trip for two to Kenya from LivingSocial. I have adapted his story for this entry.

The Meases had read Hemingway and idly chatted about visiting Africa someday. But for the most part, the LivingSocial offer simply popped up at the right time: We wanted a vacation; the Internet offered what seemed like a good deal. The price tag was $2,697 per person — discounted $1,800 each — and included airfare, a week of lodging, meals and tours across three Kenyan wildlife reserves.

Several weeks and 19 hours of flight time later, our green van pulled out of a resort in Nairobi and headed west. The Internet offer had attracted all sorts — nearly 275 people bought the deal — and our group of 22 was a mix of families, young couples, mothers and daughters and an 83-year-old widow. Most of the people on our safari had similarly splurged on a sense of adventure and uncertainty.

Our apprehensions dissipated on the road leading to our first night of lodging, as we came across a lion resting in the shade of a tree, a giraffe grabbing an afternoon snack and warthogs ambling across the lush savannah. What followed was a week-long scavenger hunt of fantastic animals that had previously existed only in encyclopedias, images reserved for Animal Planet or National Geographic.

LivingSocial was actually only the middle man for this trip. It was coordinated by Classic Escapes, a New York-based travel company that plotted each stop, carefully selected lodging, planned meals, hired top-notch drivers and guides. Like other travel companies, it had been nearly crippled by the recession, the offer on LivingSocial has made it possible for us not to worry about cash flow, not to worry about making ends meet.

Our safari included three different reserves; we saw more than 50 species of animals. We were all intoxicated by the “Big Five”: the lion, the elephant, the rhino, the leopard and the Cape buffalo. Our eyes couldn’t open wide enough. Our cameras were in constant use to record the zebras rolling in the dirt, baby elephants bathing in the mud, hippos butting heads in the river.
The lodging at each stop was first-rate, and we were treated to buffet meals and long evenings under the stars of the equatorial sky. Just as so often happens on a cruise trip, this is where our group bonded, swigging Tusker beer and swapping tales about how we had each stumbled onto the trip and our varying degrees of expectations.

It was also where we learned that the fine print is worth careful study when it comes to Internet deals. That’s where you find blackout dates, travel restrictions and additional costs. We weren’t the only ones who missed the notice about an additional $1,200 in taxes that awaited each couple. Those who traveled alone also faced a $600 surcharge unless they agreed to bunk with a stranger.

Thank you Rick Maese, a sports reporter for The Washington Post. This article was published in full in the April, 2012 issue of the Washington Post Travel Newsletter.

EF

Flash Sales are Changing Travel Buying

In the April issue of the Washington Post Travel newsletter were several articles about a new travel trend for purchasing travel packages on the computer called “Flash Sales.” I found two articles so fascinating that I have paraphrased them for you.

The number of Flash sale websites is increasing rapidly, with more new companies vying for our vacation days. Unlike the major third-party booking sites, the new flash sale sites vary wildly in inventory and overall character. But they share several characteristics: Sales typically last five to seven days, and discounts can be 50 percent or more.

Flash sales are inducements to capture travel bargains. The booking sites started to show up on our computer screens about five years ago, when such companies as Jetsetter, SniqueAway, Tablet, LivingSocial Escapes and others began trotting out time-sensitive sales on lodgings and vacation packages.

Douglas Quinby, senior research director at PhoCusWright, which recently released a study of flash sale deals. “A key element is the spontaneity factor: ‘I wasn’t planning to go on this trip, but I found a good deal.” People will book a vacation based on a great price to a destination that they may never have even considered.

Travel is one of the largest segments in the e-commerce universe, yet flash sale sites currently supply only constitute a few. According to Quinby, in the U.S. market, these sites generated $71 million in sales during the fourth quarter of 2011, compared with Expedia’s $3.8 billion. “But their modest numbers belie their seismic impact on how we plan and book travel.”

The Web sites often claim discounts of 65 or 70 percent, however the reality is closer to one-half or one-third of the rate quoted by the hotel or third-party sites. The PhoCusWright study, which sampled 100 deals from Groupon, Travelzoo and LivingSocial showed that only about 10 percent of the cases were not as good as advertised.

Experts counsel restraint and research. Call the hotel and inquire about the rates. Check third-party booking sites. And squint your eyes and read the small print before pressing “purchase.” A deal loses its attractiveness when saddled with restrictions and exorbitant fees.

Yet the trend is pointing to more general flash sale sites. Quinby said that strong sales have shot Groupon and LivingSocial into the top 1 percent of U.S. travel agencies. “If the fourth quarter of 2011 is a valid barometer,” he said, “then Groupon and Living Social will be among the largest 50 or so travel agencies in the United States.”

Thanks to Andrea Sachs, author of article in Washington Post Travel newsletter.

Continued on May 24, 2012 with story of an African Safari trip booked with a Flash sale purchase.

EF

Exercises to Strengthen Your Muscles While Abroad

You want to keep yourself pain free while abroad. Most people complain of sore backs and muscle aches, especially if they walk a long time, climb or carry heavy items. Being on and using your legs and backs (to defy gravity) for long periods of time causes muscle weakness. The solution is a regimen of daily stretching and strengthening exercises to recondition your muscles. A muscle strengthening program needs to work areas that pull the back forward and down (flexion exercises) and the muscles that lift your trunk into an upright position (extension exercises).

Stretching and Flexion Exercises

Below are exercises that can be done in your hotel or residence when you begin and/or end your day. Start with stretching and flexion exercises. These exercises increase flexibility and strength in the hip and lower back and in the abdominal and buttock muscles. Start slowly with 3 repetitions and work toward repeating each exercise 10 times.

Knee Pull. Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Bring one knee up toward your chest and clasp the knee with both hands. Hold for 10–15 seconds. Return the leg to the starting position and repeat with the other leg.

Hurdler Stretch. While standing, place a chair or bench about three feet in front of you. Put the heel of one foot on the seat of the chair or the bench. Now bend forward at the waist and move your forehead toward your knee. Hold for 10–15 seconds. Return to the starting position and repeat with the other leg.

Modified Toe-touch With Rotation. Stand with your feet hip-width apart and bend at the waist with your forehead in the direction of your right knee. Hold for 10–15 seconds. Stand up straight again and then lower your forehead toward your left knee. Hold for 10–15 seconds.

Pelvic Tilt. Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Relax your back muscles, tighten your abdominal and buttock muscles, and press your back flat against the floor. This will tilt your pelvis forward. Once you have a totally flat back, hold the position for 10–15 seconds

Abdominal Curl. Lie on your back with knees bent, feet flat on the floor, and your hands clasped lightly behind your head. Without pulling with your hands, slowly curl your shoulder blades up off the floor, leaving your back on the floor. Hold for five seconds and slowly lower your head and shoulders.

Standing Back Extension. Stand up straight with your feet hip-width apart and arms at your sides. Slowly lean your upper body back from the waist. Try to look at the ceiling. Hold for 10 seconds, then relax and straighten up.

EF