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CNN Sunday Morning
Getting Bargains on Summer Travel
Aired May 13, 2001 - 09:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: If your Mother's Day includes any upcoming travel plans, there are some great deals out there from cheap airline fares and hotel rates to great family packages. Of course, it's probably a little late to book all this today.
But anyway, Pauline Frommer is a contributing editor to our Arthur "Frommer's Budget Travel" magazine. She joins us from New York to tell us what's hot this spring and summer.
Are you the daughter of the great Arthur Frommer?
PAULINE FROMMER, "FROMMER'S BUDGET TRAVEL": Yes.
O'BRIEN: All right.
FROMMER: Yes, I'm Arthur Frommer's daughter, the one and only daughter.
O'BRIEN: Well, I'm glad you're in the family business. You're going to carry that on. Let's talk about some deals. I noted that you put London in there. And of course, tourism has been taking a bit of a beating there with the foot and mouth issue.
FROMMER: Right.
O'BRIEN: Is that perhaps an opportunity for bargain-minded tourists?
FROMMER: Absolutely. We have thousands of people right now, canceling their trips to the U.K. What they don't realize is that only travel to the farm areas or to rural footpaths are affected by foot and mouth disease.
If you go to London, if you go to Cambridge, if you go to York, if you go to any of the U.K.'s great cities, your vacation won't be interrupted in any way whatsoever. And -- but people don't realize this, and thousands have been canceling their vacations.
So we're seeing incredible package deals from such companies as Virgin Atlantic Vacations and Gotoday.com, which are lowering the prices in the high season summer months to prices we've never seen before, approximately $100 a night for airfare and hotel from the U.S. It's unheard of in the summer.
O'BRIEN: Wow, that's fantastic. All right, but perhaps don't eat the meat while you're there might be some good advice, huh?
FROMMER: Well, we know that in Europe a lot of Europeans aren't eating the meat.
O'BRIEN: Yeah.
FROMMER: So, you know, it's hard to say.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's move along and -- shifting gears significantly, Hawaii. Bargains in Hawaii? The high season is right about now, isn't it?
FROMMER: Yeah, yeah. People go to Hawaii in the summer because that's when school is out. But we're seeing a lot of bargains there partially because the Asian economy is so soft. And Hawaii sees a lot of tourists from Japan. And those tourists have cut back. So from a company called Pleasant Hawaiian vacations, we're seeing again approximately $100 a day cost for airfare and hotel. And in a lot of cases, children are flying free to Hawaii and staying free. So this is a wonderful family destination...
O'BRIEN: Wow.
FROMMER: ... in terms of costs.
O'BRIEN: Which airlines are offering free kid packages?
FROMMER: Well, actually, it's Pleasant Hawaiian vacations.
O'BRIEN: It is? Oh, that's the same...
FROMMER: That is offering, yeah, that the kids fly free. I believe Sunburst Holidays as well may have a children free promotion going right now.
O'BRIEN: Oh, all right. I suppose a lot of you have put the skis and boots away by now. But nevertheless, it's still not too late to go skiing, is it?
FROMMER: No, it isn't actually. It's been an incredible season in the Northeast for snow. And Whistler Blackcomb Mountain is expecting to have snow way -- all the way into June. Of course, not many people know this and not many people book their vacations. You may find some dry patches, you may have some ice, but it definitely is possible to ski there. And it'll cost about half as much as it would have during the high season, to go to Whistler, to go to Killington, to go even to some Colorado resorts that still have ski, the really tall mountains. That's what you have to remember.
O'BRIEN: Go for those high elevations.
FROMMER: Right.
O'BRIEN: All right, tell me, Pauline, as far as booking these sorts of things in advance, can you do this kind of at the last minute or is now the time to get on the phone? FROMMER: Sure. You can do these things on the last -- at the last minute. One of the biggest segments in the travel industry now is last minute travel. And this has to do with the advent of the Internet. You have sites such as Site59.com, which specialize in last minute bookings. And often, you can save a tremendous amount of money that way because is a time sensitive product. When that airplane seat goes unfilled, when that hotel room is unfilled, somebody's losing money. And so, sometimes by doing it at the last minute, you can actually save more money than planning in advance. Not always, but sometimes.
O'BRIEN: All right, Pauline Frommer with Arthur Frommer's Budget/Travel Magazine. It's her dad's publication. She's running it. Thanks very much for being with us on CNN...
FROMMER: He's running it, but thank you.
O'BRIEN: All right. You just snap there and say, "Yes, man, whatever you say."
FROMMER: Right, right.
O'BRIEN: Thanks for being with us and we'll see you again sometime, we hope.
FROMMER: Thank you.
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