The APEC Business Travel Card will allow qualified, pre-screened business travelers access to fast-track immigration lanes at airports, and it eliminates the need to apply for visas or entry permits. The card itself serves as the visa. The cards are accepted in 21 nations belonging to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and are valid for three years. Learn more about how the card works here.

The new card for U.S travelers is not yet available, but you can find progress updates here.

Frequent travelers know the headaches — and the risks — associated with being at the mercy of the airlines, Mother Nature, even political instability. Humanitarian Travel now offers a tool to keep you and your fellow travelers apprised of any change that could affect itineraries, helping you manage costs and exercise your duty of care.

SafeToGo is a mobile app for your smartphone that monitors media, flight schedule data, web services and government postings for up-to-the-minute information that could impact travel. You and your travel manager will be notified of any transportation delays or cancellations, extreme weather affecting travel, health hazards and security concerns at your destination.

To learn more about how SafeToGo saves you time and money and enhances safe travel, watch this video.

Your safety and security are our top priority, and SafeToGo provides the peace of mind that comes from having critical, timely information at your fingertips. Contact our Client Services team to learn more about traveling with SafeTo Go.

Safety
Review safety recommendations and discuss any concerns. Now that you are actually there, you may notice things that could become issues. Deal with these right away. Also, remind your team to stick together and not venture out alone.
 
The team field orientation is one of the most important things to do upon arriving at your project destination. Work through a checklist that covers the items mentioned above as well as any other issues relevant to your location. Even though you probably discussed all of these before leaving home, your team needs the reminders. They’re listening now!

On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City issued an emergency message to U.S. citizens advising against all in-country travel until the weather improves and landslides are cleared. “The recent heavy rains mean that water saturation in the mountains is high and more landslides could occur,” said the advisory.

Honduras has issued a “state of red alert” according to the British Foreign Office. The situation there is similar to Guatemala with travel also disrupted by landslides and flooding. Reuters is reporting 81 people dead and thousands of people have abandoned their homes across Central America. In El Salvador, more than 13,000 people were forced to flee the rising waters. Humanitarian groups there are concerned about long-term food supplies as the floods have wiped out much of this season’s harvest.

What should you do if you are on a short term volunteer trip and your humanitarian team faces natural or other disasters? First, make sure that you get good information. That starts before you go by registering your team with the U.S. State Department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at http://bit.ly/ptDdL9. This will enable the local U.S. embassy to get in touch with you in case of an emergency or advisory condition. Also, monitor local news and stay in touch with local authorities for information about road closings.

Second, don’t take chances. Roads in developing countries can be treacherous under normal conditions let alone during severe storms. Also, many of these nations do not have the resources to quickly respond to multiple emergencies and road closures. It often is better to extend your trip a couple days and allow for the situation to stabilize. If you do that, however, be sure to contact your Humanitarian Travel agent so that we can notify the airlines and work on rebooking you. Failure to do so may result in losing the entire value of your ticket.

Finally, look for ways to serve in the midst of the crisis. In the case of the Guatemalan medical team, a hospital near where they were stranded asked for their assistance. Flexibility is always important for these trips, especially when hit by unforeseen events such as severe weather.

USAToday reported that airfares rose in the U.S. nearly 10% for the 12 months ending in August compared to the previous 12 months, and the major U.S. airlines will cut capacity 2%-4% next year. This means 2012 airfares could go up even more. Baggage and miscellaneous airline fees are also on the rise.

In addition to fare increases, travelers can expect tax increases in 2012, especially on international trips. The White House has proposed travel tax increases, the UK is threatening increases, and various individual countries have already raised their taxes. Bulgaria, for example, just raised one of their travel taxes by 8%.

What does all of this mean to the humanitarian traveler? Here are four things to keep in mind:

You can’t use last year’s trip budget. If you base your 2012 trips on what you paid for your 2011 trips you can expect to be greatly disappointed. Instead of guessing, call us and let us give you a no-obligation quote so that you can work with realistic numbers.

You may need to alter your trip dates. It is always true that flexible travel dates often lead to substantial savings; this is especially the case for 2012.

Consider alternate airlines. Some frequent humanitarian travelers have their favorite airlines and will stick with them even if they have to pay a little more. In 2012, however, you could be paying a lot more. Be open to considering other airlines. Your Humanitarian Travel agent can give you all the details and let you make an apples to apples comparison of airlines.

Watch the luggage weight. It is reported that some airlines are charging as much as $450 for overweight bags on international flights. Pay attention to the airline weight rules and know that if your trip involves different airlines, there may be different weight restrictions. This is especially true if you are transferring to smaller regional or national airlines. For example, with certain tickets a team traveling to Tanzania from the U.S. can have three 50-pound bags, but if they take an in-country flight the national airline limits them to one 44-pound bag. Again, contact us for details on luggage rules and for information on our special tickets that allow for free extra bags.

As always, the earlier you can plan your trips and purchase your tickets the better off you will be, especially going into a volatile 2012. Contact Humanitarian Travel today at 1-866-429-1325 or www.humanitariantravel.net and find out about our airfare discounts for your 2012 international volunteer trips.

App:

Trip Journal

What it does:

Let’s you journal your trip through video (on video equipped phones), pictures and writing; track your travel; and share everything through Facebook. It also exports to YouTube, Flickr, Google Earth and Picasa.

Why we like it:

The app has a beautiful interface and neatly organizes trips around waypoints. Once you have identified a waypoint you can shoot video, take pictures, make notes, or locate yourself on a map. Trip Journal tags these with the waypoint name which makes it easy to view your trip. You can jump back and forth between waypoints, media and your notes. When you later review your photos you know right where they were taken—no need to tag the photo as Trip Journal does that for you.

The app includes an interactive map and uses both GPS and cell tower triangulation to locate your position. It even provides your elevation. Trip Journal’s statistics feature shows the total distance traveled, elapsed time, high and low elevations, and average speed. The Facebook connectivity is excellent. With one tap of the screen it not only uploads all of your pictures and videos, but it also organize them with your notes and maps before placing the entire trip into a complete online journal.

How we use it on humanitarian trips:

One of the biggest challenges on volunteer service trips is keeping a journal. Every day is filled with interesting and exciting experiences and you want to capture as many of those experiences as you can. With the fast-paced nature of these trips, however, there is little time to sit down and write. Plus if you wait until the end of the day to journal, chances are you will forget a lot. With Travel Journal you can make notes on the fly quickly and easily with just a few taps on your cell phone.

We’ve used the app to find our coordinates at remote locations in Africa that are not on any maps. Once we got home we plugged those coordinates into Google Earth and had a nice visual for our post-trip presentations.

Cost:

Trip Journal is currently on sale for $0.99.

At Humanitarian Travel we are always looking for ways to not only help missionary travelers and humanitarians save on their international airfare, but also provide tips and resources to help them have more productive trips. When you need help with humanitarian travel arrangements, we are just a phone call (1-866-429-1325) or mouse click away.

Group Discounts

The London subway system offers discounts on unlimited day-use tickets for groups. The savings are significant, about a 75% discount off peak tickets. You can purchase tickets right outside of the arrivals hall of Heathrow’s Terminal 5. You will need to have one person pay on behalf of the group. The tickets provide unlimited travel at any time of the day within the zones that you pay for. Most likely you will want to get tickets for zones 1-6 as those include the airport and central tourist area.

The Original London Sightseeing Tour—the tour with the double-decker red buses–offers group discounts (www.theoriginaltour.com). To get the best discount, you need to purchase tickets online prior to your travel to London. The challenge with this, however, is that you have to buy tickets for a specific departure time, which is difficult to do when you don’t know if your fight will be on time or how long it will take to clear customs, etc.

A better alternative, although not quite as much of a discount, is to buy tickets as a group at the bus itself. Again, you will need one person to actually pay for the tickets, but the savings is worth it. The best place to start the tour is near the Piccadilly Underground Station, which is about a 45 minute subway ride from London Heathrow. The tour departs from the McDonald’s about two blocks from the station. This is also a great area to eat as there are several fast-food restaurants there.

Luggage

For eight British Pounds you can securely store your carry-on bag at the Left Luggage center near the rail station entrance at Heathrow airport. It is well worth the money to not have to lug your bag all over London.

Change for Restrooms

Some restrooms charge to use the facilities, so be sure to have some British coins with you as you tour the city.

Hopefully these tips will help your international volunteer team the next time you find yourself traveling through London. As a reminder, Humanitarian Travel offers discounted airfare for missionary and humanitarian teams on most major carriers to just about every place in the world. Contact us today at 1-866-429-1325
or www.humanitariantravel.net for a no-obligation quote and see how much money we can save your humanitarian team trip.

As we all know, Irene landed a real blow to the East Coast. But travelers also had to deal with Tropical Storm Maria in the Caribbean, Typhoon Talus impacting Japan and Hong Kong, Tropical Storm Lee in the Gulf Coast, Tropical Storm Nanmadol hitting Taiwan, and so on.

We often note in our updates that airlines have issued “travel waivers.” What this means is that airlines have relaxed their rules for cancelling or changing tickets if you are flying to or through cities affected by severe weather. We’ve noticed that since the storm-related travel fiascos of last year, airlines seem to be a little quicker to issue those waivers–which makes sense since they don’t want to deal with thousands of stranded passengers.

Note, however, that every airline’s “waiver” is different. Some will only allow you to postpone your flight for a couple days, some will let you fly early ahead of the storm, while others will let you cancel altogether without penalty. So always check the website of the particular airline that you are flying for their specific waiver details. And of course, keep watching our social media feeds for updates.

One article that we mentioned in our feeds this month was from the U.S. State Department on preparing for hurricane and typhoon season. They gave an 11 point “checklist” for travelers that bears mention here:

1. Enroll your trip with the State Dept., (travelregistration.state.gov)
2. Check with the airlines about travel services (the “waivers” that we mentioned earlier)
3. Carry an international cell phone that can be used to stay in touch with family in the States
4. Research the region so that you are familiar with local emergency procedures
5. Pack an emergency supply kit
6. Secure extra bottled water and non-perishable food
7. Know local emergency phone numbers as well as the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate
8. Have a water-proof container for your passport and other travel documents
9. Get travel insurance prior to your trip
10. Leave with family back in the States your detailed itinerary with local contact numbers
11. Keep with you a photocopy of your passport, driver’s license and any credit cards that you take, and leave a photocopy with someone in the States

At Humanitarian Travel, we not only care about saving you money on airfare for your missions and humanitarian trips, but we also want you to have a safe trip and effective outreach. So continue to watch our blog and social media sites for all the latest information and tools to help you as you help others.

Big train stations, big entertainment areas, big markets, even big hotels can pose safety risks. If these places can’t be avoided, then special precautions should be taken. The most common safety issue in crowded places is pick-pocketing. It is important to be alert in these places, keep valuables out of site, wallets in front pockets, and handbags close and in front of you.

Back packs are easy targets for thieves working crowds. They either get their hands inside the back pack through a zipper or use a razor blade to slit the bottom.

A special concern is anytime crowds gather for political or protest purposes. These can quickly become violent and should be avoided. If your hotel is near where crowds like this gather, consider moving. There was a volunteer team in Panama staying at a hotel where protests were occurring outside. The word was that the protests would happen daily for the next week and the crowds were expected to grow. The team leader secured another hotel across town and quickly moved his team. They were able to continue their work without interruption or concern for their safety. A smart move and good example for others!

Regardless of whether you are in crowded places or not, make sure you have a plan to communicate back home in the event of an emergency. There should be a designated point person in the States who can disseminate information to team member families.

Also be sure your team knows where to meet or what to do if something causes them to get separated. For starters, make sure every team member carries the address of where you are staying and a local contact number to call if needed. 

At Humanitarian Travel we not only save you money on your international volunteer trips, but we also provide tools, tips and information to help make those trips safe and successful. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and catch all of our daily updates.

When assessing the current situation, it is important to consider what events will happen when your team is actually there. For example, will there be national elections held during your stay? Many countries see large protests and even violence in the days leading up to elections.

Will there be a large sporting match—like an international soccer game—near where you will be staying? There once was a volunteer team staying in Moscow during a big international soccer tournament. A number of fans from the different soccer teams stayed at the same hotel as the humanitarian team. One night the “action” on the field spilled over into the hotel as rival fans got into altercations with each other. Fortunately security was nearby, but it was a little scary for some of the team who were walking in the area. 

The micro-blogging site Twitter (www.Twitter.com) can also be helpful in getting real time information on a country. After the Haiti earthquake, for example, Twitter updates by teams working there gave a fuller picture of the situation on the ground. Twitter also is helpful in times of crisis. During the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, eyewitnesses used Twitter to relay information as it happened. While some of the information was erroneous, there was information that proved helpful to those trapped in some of the affected locations. 

Having good current events information on your travel destination can help you plan the timing of your trips, find the safest places to stay, and be better prepared for potential risks. Follow Humanitarian Travel on Twitter and Facebook for our daily travel updates and tips.