8.30.08 VENICE BREAKS $1,000 PER NIGHT CEILING

We have finally seen evidence that the better hotels in Venice, Italy are now priced at over $1,000 USD per night for a deluxe double.

In its 2008 listing of the World's Best Hotels, Travel + Leisure Magazine lists the following room rates for the 2008 summer-fall season:

Westin Europe and Regina $1,155 (double)

Hotel Gritti Palace $1,342 (double)

Bauer II Palazzo $1,175 (double)

Hotel Cipriani $1,240 (double w breakfast)

The best deal in Venice is the Ca' 'Pisani, a real find in the Dorsoduro neighborhood. But its 29 rooms still start at $500 USD per night with additional taxes including 18% VAT.

Venice is now Italy's most expensive city for accommodations. The inability to build new properties despite an ever-growing demand is the primary reason.

For top quality at a better price, we recommend the San Celemente Palace, which sits on its own 17-acre island just minutes from San Marco Square. Room rates here begin at just under $800.

Even the top properties along Italy's gorgeous and expensive Amalfi Coast are coming in at $200 per night less then crowded canal hotels in overcrowded Venice.

8.28.08 - REAL DEALS

There is a beautiful island in the Grenadines called Palm Island. Right now, they are offering room rates of $299 per couple. Think five perfect beaches and Jimmy Buffet perfection. What makes this price so spectacular? Palm Island is an all-inclusive resort.

Oceania continues to offer Free Air to Europe and Two-For-One pricing on some ideal; fall 2009 dates on some of Europe's strongest cruise itineraries. These offers are capacity controlled and are automatically withdrawn a sailing reaches a specified occupancy.

GRAB GOURMET

Every once in a blue moon a magazine comes out with a special edition that achieves instant "collectors Item" status before the ink has fully dried.

The September issue of Gourmet Magazine, devoted in its entirety to Paris, is one such example.

CAUTION; LUXURY CRUISE LINES AND THE GREAT CREDIT CARD RIP-OFF

Traveltruth.com has previously reported that Oceania Cruise Lines has been running US bank-issued credit cards through a financial institution based in Dublin, Ireland. This has resulted in scores of Oceania passengers, many of them unaware, being charged an additional fee of up to 3 percent on their cruise deposits and final payments.

In the last year, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas were both sold to the cash-rich Apollo Investment Group.

Now, there are reports that Regent Seven Seas guests are also being charged additional fees on payments made on some Visa, Mastercard, and American Express Cards. Visa and Mastercard banks normally charge 3 percent. One major exception is Capital One which charges nothing additional for foreign purchases. But the largest bank groups such as J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America have been consistent in charging cardholders penalties on all charges originating outside the United States. American Express charges 2% for most of its cards.

Understand, these fees are penalties charged to cardholders who spend money outside the United States. Guests, for example, who spend upwards of $80,000 - $90,000 on one of the January Around-The-World sailings are looking at unanticipated extra fees of $2,500 or more. They are generally unaware of this as they give their travel consultant their credit card for processing.

Now, we have learned that Sea Dream Yacht Club has just started running some credit card payments through a bank in Norway. (Sea Dream has Norwegian owners).

Oceania and Regent respond that this is happening to very few of their guests and that when they are made aware of the credit card penalty charges, they will issue an onboard credit in the amount of the extra charge. But this has been handled on a "need-to-know" basis and we can find no example of guests being warned about these unanticipated credit card charges by the cruise lines involved.

The consumer rarely knows abbot these charges prior to their cruise. This is unlikely because the 3% will usually not turn up as final payment with the extra percent tacked on until the ship has already sailed - so to speak.

Sea Dream, one of the top-scoring lines in the Traveltruth Ratings, has not indicated that they would issue an onboard credit to all guests hit with the extra charges as a result of the company's international monetary policies.

These extra fees are in addition to the money made by credit card issuing banks whenever they convert foreign currency spending back to cardholders accounts at US Dollar rates.

Sadly, many of those paying 3% more for their vacation than anticpated, will never notice the additional percentage tacked on to their credit card statement by some of the world's very best luxury cruise lines.

LOST LUGGAGE AND CONNECTING FLIGHTS; THE WORST OFFENDERS

We've been trying to gauge how prevalent lost baggage is these days with connections in Europe. We got some answers by talking with he purser's staff on a number of popular cruise lines. Speaking off the record, they identified the following air lines as most likely to lose your bags in transit.

U.S. AIRWAYS -- Not only do they currently enjoy an abnormally high rate of lost baggage, this airline carries the insult a step further by returning bags home instead of the ongoing destination. As one cruise ship purser tells, "when it is US Airways, we have no expectation that the bags will be delivered to the ship the next day. We just start processing a shopping voucher for the guests."

BRITISH AIRWAYS - Changing planes at Heath row still carries some risk but they are quite good about trying to find you in Europe.

AIR FRANCE - Few things in the airline industry are consistent. But Air France's ability to misplace your luggage may be one of them.

So what to do if you are on one of these airlines?

The best current strategy is to design very clear baggage tags that indicate where you will be staying during your first and second nights abroad, along with local contact numbers.

CONDE NAST TRAVELER NAMES WORLD'S TOP TRAVEL SPECIALISTS IN AUGUST ISSUE

For the 8th consecutive year, Churchill and Turen Ltd. has been named to the travel industry's most coveted list - Conde Nast Traveler's annual " World's Top Travel Specialists"Awards.. This year, Churchill and Turen received accolades for "World's Best Culinary Programs", "World's Top Spa Specialist, "World's Best Small, Luxury Cruise Specialists" and "Top Travel Generalists" Worldwide.

These are the most prestigious awards in the travel industry. C&T has won thirty-one awards, more then any other travel firm in the U.S.

THE 18% DONATION TO THE NATIONS OF EUROPE AND HOW TO GET IT BACK

Europe-Bound travelers would surely have second thoughts if the government suddenly announced that their dollar had dropped another 18% in value. Yet, in terms of overseas purchases, that is exactly what happens when Value-Added Tax exemptions are not claimed by travelers. And the fact is, that fewer then 10% of those who purchase goods from Duty-Free exempt shops in Europe, actually make claims to get their money together. We have, collectively, agreed to let the Europeans keep another 18-20% on all of our qualified purchases. How generous of us. Or, how stupid.

Other current value-added taxes, which American tourists can get back, amount to just under 8% in Switzerland. But travel to next-door neighbor Austria and you are up to 20%. It's the same in Belgium, and Italy. The sad fact is that most Americans just don;t know how to claim their refunds.

Here is a quick primer:

01 - If you are buying something that is too large to carry and is being shipped home by the store, ask that the VAT be refunded in the purchase price. Most stores will do this.

02 - The way it normally whorls is that the store will give you a Tax refund check. You get it stamped at the airport and then you take the stamped check to the VAT Refund Desk. That's two stops and there could be lines. Allow three hours for check-in if you are flying home from Europe and you have collect your tax.

03 - One way to facilitate all of this is to use a company called Global Refund. They are among the largest and are associated with many fine shops throughout Europe. Global Refund has its own refund desks in major European airports. To plan in advance use www.globalrefund.com

04 - If you don;t have time to do get your refund at the airport, make certain not to board your plane without first securing the mail-in VAT application.On the application, we recommend that you have the amount of your refund credited to your credit card. (You will need to supply the number) This will avoid the hassle of having to wait several weeks and then to receive a check in Euros.

05 - The general rukle of thumb is to try to claim a VAT refund for any eligible purchases from a single Global Refund approved store of over 200 Euros. Do be careful. "Duty-Free Store" is not a term you can ttrust.

CHARGING THE OVERWEIGHT FOR AN EXTRA SEAT

The nation's airlines, reaching the desperation point when it comes to the search for non-ticket revenue sources, has long felt that charging the obese for an extra seat is worth careful scrutiny. Making such charges difficult to enforce is a little-known Canadian Law passed in March that prohibits Canadian Airlines from charging the disabled or the obese for a second seat. This is seen as a kind of international precedent, although even US airlines that fly to canada are not bound by the new rules.

Southwest Airlines has been the most aggressive in this area. Despite the protests of rights for the overweight groups, Southwest has maintained its right to charge those passengers for whom even a seat extender is not sufficient.

Delta and American have generally tried to handle the issue with diplomacy by placing seriously overweight passengers in an otherwise empty row. But with the number of planes currently being taken out of service to save on fuel costs, empty second seats are as hard to find as a belt buckle.