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Travel Savvy: The Big Travel Picture regarding Passports Travel Documents

Written by: Anne Garber

Article Overview: Can Canadians and Americans still travel as carefree as in the past?

Travel Savvy: The Big Travel Picture regarding Passports Travel Documents

Passports

Passport Canada is asking those who don't need one immediately to apply by mail, use a Canada Post or Service Canada receiving office or put off getting one until next spring.

Canadians without passports who need to worry immediately are those hoping to enter the U.S. by air on or after Jan. 23, 2007. The U.S. has not yet said when Canadians will need a passport to be admitted by land or sea, but the office of Homeland Security says the start-up date won't be later than June, 2009, and could be as early as January, 2008.

The regular passport fee is $87 for an adult, $37 for a child 3 to 15 and $22 for children under 3. Every child, even an infant, must have an individual passport. Passports with extra pages cost more.

Requirements: You will need two passport photos, proper identification and a guarantor's signature on your completed application form. Allow 10 working days plus return mailing time if you take your completed form to a passport office; 20 working days plus mailing time if you submit by mail. For emergency or compassionate reasons, passports can be issued in 24 hours for a $70 fee or in two to nine days for $30. For details on applying for a passport, visit www.ppt.gc.ca.

Carry-ons

The exposure of a terrorist plot in London in August brought a near-ban on liquids and gels in carry-on luggage. The rules for most major carriers have been loosened to allow for toiletries and duty-free items under certain conditions. Any other liquids or gels must go in checked baggage. We found out just how harrowing the process can be when we flew back to Paris from London in October, 2006.

Our wine-merchant-friend in Paris, Michel Moulherat told us that liquid restrictions are playing havoc with the purchase of fine wines. After all, no one wants to trust their expensive imports to surviving the checked luggage experience.

You must follow the rules if you want to avoid having your $100 bottle of Scotch seized by a security agent. Here's the carry-on advice of Montreal-based Georgina Graham, head of security and facilitation at the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Buy travel cosmetics and toiletries in sizes of 100 millilitres or less and put them in a one-litre clear-plastic re-sealable bag, which you will be asked to show at security checks.

Most airports now allow passengers to carry duty-free alcohol or perfume purchased at their own shops. But if you have to change planes at an intermediate airport during your journey, the items will probably be confiscated. Amazing, isn't it?

Many airlines still allow two carry-on items if the second one is a purse, duty-free bag or suit bag (check ahead to be sure), but British airports strictly enforce a one-item rule, so you will be cramming everything into your laptop bag, as we did from London. Remember to put your computer lock into your checked luggage, as ours was almost confiscated!

For more information on Canadian rules, visit the Canadian Air Transport Safety Authority site, (www.catsa-acsta.gc.ca). The U.S. rules are at www.tsa.gov.

Aeroplan changes

That reward trip you're dreaming of taking with Air Canada's Aeroplan program could evaporate if you don't pay close attention to recent changes to the plan's rules. As of July 1, 2007, and at any time thereafter, Air Canada can confiscate all your miles if your account has been inactive for a 12-month period. To keep the miles you've accumulated, you must claim a reward or earn new points in each 12-month period. Note also that starting Jan. 1, all new miles earned will have a maximum shelf life of seven years. All miles earned before that date will disappear if not used before Dec. 31, 2013. The fee to restore expired miles will be $30 plus one cent for each mile.

On a more positive note, Aeroplan recently introduced ClassicPlus flight rewards, which for the first time open up every available seat on every Air Canada or Air Canada Jazz flight for reward travel. The catch is that you will have to fork over additional Aeroplan miles to claim a seat not included in the basic reward allotment. The number of extra miles required will vary according to date, routing and class of service. Aeroplan continues to make 8 per cent of the monthly seat capacity on each route available at the ClassicFlight reward level, which has not changed. So, if you book early and are flexible about dates, you can still use the same number of miles as in the past for your chosen destination.

Customs

Nexus has gone through a successful trial at Vancouver International. Now, the Nexus Air card will be extended next year to seven additional Canadian airports, allowing travellers to zip through customs lines for a fee paid for the identity card in advance.

Issued jointly by U.S. and Canadian authorities, the card allows U.S.-bound passengers speedy passage through American pre-clearance facilities, and lets travellers move quickly through Canadian customs after arrival on inbound flights. The card will be made available some time in 2007 at airports in Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax, says Jim Facette, president of the Canadian Airports Council. The cost is $80.

Participants, who must go through a screening process, will be identified through biometric iris images of both eyes.

Note: Inexplicably, separate Nexus pass-cards are required for airport and car-through-border crossing points. Why they don't combine them into one pass is a mystery. Or a "cash grab."

Meanwhile, Jim Facette says, Vancouver airport officials and the Canadian Border Services Agency hope to start trials this year of a system that will allow returning Canadians to bypass the preliminary customs inspection line simply by presenting their passport at an electronic reader. Some form of biometric information will also be involved, he said.

Air ticket prices

Airlines will be reluctant to raise prices in 2007 because they expect the economy to weaken, says Brian Pearce, IATA's chief economist. And fuel surcharges, currently being added to the price of many international tickets, could be reduced if the cost of fuel continues to drop as predicted.

Even without raising fares, the world's airlines are expected to report a profit in 2007 for the first time in six years, he says.

But airline officials remain concerned that fares could rise because of the two aspects of their costs they can't control: government taxes and airport service fees. Worldwide, taxes on air travel rose by $2.9-billion last year. Much of this was because of air travel taxes introduced by France, Brazil, Chile and Gabon to fund medicine for Third World countries. A number of other countries are expected to bring in the tax this year.

IATA also argues that fares are higher than necessary because of fees at airports in Toronto, London, Paris, Argentina, Bangkok and Auckland, among other locations. Pearson International, for example, already the world's most expensive airport, increased landing fees by 1.45 per cent for this year.

Anyone for train-and-freighter packages across the ocean?

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