Boarding Pass

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 464th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine. If you’re reading ITN for the first time, here’s what it’s about. 

Subscribers share with other travelers what they have discovered, learned or felt on trips outside of the US. In the back of each issue are a few recurring columns by Contributing Editors, and we try to keep readers abreast of pertinent news. In addition, the advertisements you see in ITN not only are travel related but mostly focus on foreign destinations. 

ITN serves as a resource for travel planning and a forum for discussions on travel issues. We also hope that it’s entertaining and, now and then, spurs a desire to travel someplace.

If you like what you see, you’re invited to subscribe. See page 9 and read the guarantees that we make to our subscribers. You’re unlikely to find them made by other publications.

Now here’s an example of how our readers keep their fellow subscribers informed.

Jane B. Holt of Hinesburg, Vermont, who, along with her husband, has some impressive photos of India in this issue, wrote in to share the following: “The Indian government has hired a new visa-outsourcing company for travelers in the US. After too many complaints, slow or no responses and lost passports, they replaced BLS with Cox & Kings.”

BLS International Services, a Delhi-based company, terminated their contract with the Indian Embassy in the US less than a year into their 3-year contract. The company’s brief tenure was plagued with mishandled and unprocessed applications and poor customer service. In fact, an investigation by India’s Ministry of External Affairs found that BLS had lost at least 45 passports between July 2013 and January 2014, something a Ministry spokesman described as “unprecedented.”

BLS had taken over for Travisa Visa Service, an American company, in July 2013. Travisa had been processing Indian visa applications for travelers in the US since 2007. Prior to that, Indian visas and passports were processed at the Indian Embassy and consulates. (BLS is still responsible for Indian visa applications in several other countries.)

On May 21, 2014, Cox & Kings Global Services became the third company in three years contracted to be the sole provider of Indian visas within the US. At first, it seemed that it was more of the same with Cox & Kings. Faced with an enormous backlog, a stuttering customer service department and lines out the doors of their local branches, the company struggled to meet expectations. 

Recently, however, things appear to have turned around. Cox & Kings now reports that most applicants can expect to receive their visas within five days, and emergency visas (for an additional $100) can be made available the same day. 

(In the US, applications for Indian visas can be completed on location at Cox & Kings offices in Washington DC, New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston and San Francisco, cities they share with Indian consulates. Forms for applying by post can be downloaded online at the company’s website, www.in.ckgs.us. US citizens have a choice of 6-month, 5-year and 10-year multiple-entry tourist visas. The cost, including Cox & Kings’ $17 service fee, is $80 for a 6-month visa or $170 for a 5- or 10-year visa.)

If you’re looking for the most pleasant flying experience, this may be of interest.

Winners of the World Airline Awards were announced on July 15 by Skytrax, an independent consulting company that works with airlines and airports to improve customer service.

The 2014 awards were based on online surveys filled out between the months of August 2013 and May 2014 by more than 18 million people of 105 nationalities. They ranked more than 245 airlines on each of 41 “services” and “products.”

Among the services and products were Online Booking, Waiting Times at Check-In, Baggage Delivery, Cabin Cleanliness, Quality of Meals, Presence of Cabin Staff through the Flight, etc. For each, respondents each picked a single airline as providing the best, adding comments as desired. SkyTrax notes, “Data weighting is applied to provide nomination equity when evaluating airlines of different sizes.”

The votes were tallied and used to determine which airlines were the best, overall, as well as the airline rankings in the following subject categories: Best in… Cabins, Seats, Lounges, Catering, Staff, Low-Cost Airlines, Regional Airlines and (world) Region. 

Finally, each subject category was broken into cabin classes. This means that, for any of the categories, you can find — in First Class, Business Class, Premium Economy Class or Economy Class — the 10 top-ranking airlines (examples below).

Let’s get to it. According to the latest survey, the Airline of the Year, ranking highest when considering all votes in all categories, was Cathay Pacific Airways, based in Hong Kong. Among the other top-10 Best Airlines, Qatar Airways was in the number-two position, followed by Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Turkish Airlines, ANA All Nippon Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Asiana Airlines, Etihad Airways (of the UAE) and Lufthansa. 

Among airlines in North America, none made the top-20 Best Airlines list, with Air Canada ranking the highest, in 24th place. The highest-ranking airline in America was Virgin America, at 46.

The World’s Best Airline in Business Class was Qatar Airways, with Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Oman Air, Turkish Airlines, Qantas, Etihad, Garuda, Emirates and Hainan Airlines (based in China’s Hainan Province in the South China Sea) following.

The stack-up for World’s Best Airline in Economy Class included Asiana, Garuda, Turkish Airlines, Qatar, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, EVA Air, Oman Air, Emirates and Thai Airways.

Garuda Indonesia was found to have the World’s Best Cabin Crews overall, with Cathay Pacific in second place, then Singapore Airlines, Asiana Airlines and Malaysia Airlines. 

Here’s an example of the furthest you can drill down in the results by cabin class and category. Under the heading World’s Best Economy Class Airline Seats were Saudi Arabian Airlines, Korean Air, Garuda, Oman Air, Japan Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Asiana and ANA All Nippon Airways.

For SkyTrax’s complete results, visit www.worldairlineawards.com. When the airline survey is open, you can fill it out at www.worldairlinesurvey.com. In addition, the Skytrax World’s Best Airport survey, when open, can be filled out at www.worldairportsurvey.com.

In ITN, readers’ submissions are fact-checked and edited, and the reporting of corrections or extra info is encouraged.

• In the letter “Copa Flight Oversold” by Linda Huetinck in the August 2014 issue, page 28, she noted, “Copa Airlines allows printing of boarding passes 36 hours before departure.”

Edna R.S. Alvarez of Los Angeles, California, pointed out that the airline’s website (www.copa.com) states, “You can print your boarding pass between 1 and 36 hours before your flight’s departure. For flights from/to the United States, you can print it between 1 and 24 hours before departure.”

The Huetincks made several flights on Copa, but, since none of them connected to the US, they were able to get their boarding passes 36 hours ahead of each flight instead of only 24 hours ahead.

• For the record, Fred Steinberg meant to type “1939,” not “1929,” when he wrote, regarding a visit to the town square in Cienfuegos, Cuba, “I spotted a beautifully maintained (and still running) 1929 Pontiac” (Aug. ’14, pg. 30). Still, a nice image.

• And we have Stanley Mui of Woodland Hills, California, to thank for catching an error in the item “Cabin on a Raft” (Aug. ’14, pg. 61), about tiny cabins available for rent in remote areas of the Netherlands and Belgium. The price noted for three nights was €199.50, and that price converted to dollars should have been shown as $272.

In checking on that, we noticed another oversight. The website states that upon booking a raft package, a €10 “transaction-and-administration fee” will be charged.

ITN subscriber Patricia Bunyard of Cambria, California, wrote, “I especially enjoyed Randy Keck’s article ‘Your Travel Legacy — Leaving a Trail to Follow,’ in his June “Far Horizons” column. I couldn’t agree more with sharing our expertise with up-and-coming travelers. 

“I am taking my 17-year-old niece to Italy in April 2015, and I’m looking forward to the planning stages and the sharing of experiences as we travel. In the meantime, I send her little ‘assignments’ that give her experience in how to plan independent travel. (Her first assignment was to make sure her passport was in order.)

“I can send her a selection of websites for booking hotels, trains and places to visit so that she may learn what a wealth of choices are open to her. I want to stay at a variety of accommodations — a hostel, a B&B, a convent — and use a variety of transportation modes, exposing her to the local culture. 

“Hopefully, with a bit of training, she will be less intimidated by travel, learn how to plan her own trips for the future, and develop her own travel style and a desire for lifelong learning through travel. I can’t think of a better gift to give to my niece.”

John L. Thompson of Yorba Linda, California, wrote, “Recently, the Orange County Register added the columnist Marla Jo Fisher to their Sunday ‘Travel’ section. She asked for readers’ suggestions, and I sent her the following, which she printed: ‘I suggest you look up and even subscribe to a travel magazine to which I have been a subscriber for a number of years. It’s called International Travel News, based out of Sacramento (800/486-4968 or intltravelnews.com). 

“‘This is a monthly publication that really dials in on actual trips subscribers have taken as well as some special subjects by very knowledgeable contributors.’”

Thanks for thinking of ITN, John. And what a great “grassroots” way to spread the word about the magazine. Maybe other subscribers will write to their local papers too. Some travelers are sure to appreciate being made aware of ITN.

Eleanore Allanson-Donoh of Elgin, Illinois, sent us this note: “The sample copy of ITN I received is truly well done. I am subscribing for two years! Thank you.”

A free sample copy of the next-printed issue of ITN will be sent to any and all of your traveling friends. Just tell us where to mail them.

Thomas Hernly of Wickenburg, Arizona, wrote, “Thanks for the two sample issues. They made the difference in my decision to subscribe and to gift a subscription.”

And Charles E. McGannon of New Orleans, Louisiana, in renewing his subscription for another two years, wrote, “Thanks for helping me travel to 210 countries over the last 42 years.”

It’s your fellow subscribers who you have to thank, Charles. They’re the ones who keep this magazine traveling.    — DT