Travel in March for Best US Airfare Deals; Do Airline Cleaning Crews Face Security Checks?

If you have any reason to go to the US, this month would be a good time. Fares are at their lowest in recent memory. For example, United Airlines is offering RMB 3,753/USD 573 roundtrip to San Francisco, with dates of March 23 departure and March 30 return. Using the same dates, Beijing to Newark roundtrip, also on United, is RMB 4,441/USD 678. Not bad at all for either destination. 

Those fares come in time for the beginning of a US-China tourism year, which began February 29. Although it's strictly a marketing exercise, it comes on the back of some great improvements in visa conditions for both Chinese visitors to the US, and also US visitors to China. 

I often wonder about the security loophole created by cleaning crews on airplanes. More than once I've left an item of value on an airplane, and at least so far, the electronic item I left on a PEK-SFO flight on Sunday has not been returned. So the question then becomes, are cleaning crews making a killing scooping up lost mobile phones, iPads, and other items? Wouldn't airlines like to know what's being carried off their planes, is there any inspection of cleaning and maintenance crews as they come off? One would think that airlines would want to keep customers happy by finding and returning their lost items, but this does not seem to be the case.

The law of travel came into play again on Sunday: while the food was edible, United Airlines' entertainment offerings were both sparse and poor. Last year I managed to watch three films with major Oscar implications as I landed on the day of the awards. This year I would have been pressed to find any films that had ever won Oscars. Ok, that's an exaggeration, but luckily for me I had loaded up my now-missing iPad prior to take off. 

I'll have some info on spring deals to Southeast Asia in our Thursday edition. Until then, one road flat safe.

More stories by this author here.

Email: stevenschwankert@thebeijinger.com
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Photo: Airline Reporter