Looking to get away? 5 summer vacation deals

Video: Expert: Plan summer travel now

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   >>> good. this is great.

   >>> this morning on "today's" travel, summer deals and visions of long lines, airport delays and expensive tickets are dancing in your head , look out. here with a preview of what to expect to make your summer travel a little less painful is more orwell. before we even talk about the summer , we have got to talk about the impact of this volcano and people who are stuck in airports right now do. any of the fliers' rights kick in or is this simply an act of god .

   >> you're pretty much on your own here, in a situation like this an airline in an act of god , but the airlines really don't owe you anything, except a refund if that's what you want. people don't want a refund, but the airlines don't have to give you a hotel voucher, they don't have to give you meals, some of the airlines are going out of their way to help you, but you don't have to.

   >> if you have to get a hotel room , you're not going to get a voucher for that.

   >> a lot of people who are going to be out some money , trip cancellation or trip delay insurance is something you might want to look into as well.

   >> let's look ahead to the summer right now t economy is starting to improve on many levels right now what's the overall outlook for summer travel.

   >> we're already seeing a huge increase in summer travel. leisure travel is going to be on the rise, but with this increased demand and the same level of service out there, you're probably going to start seeing some increase in prices soon.

   >> what are typically airfares, domestic and international .

   >> if you can find a domestic airfare right now for $300, grab it. if you can get from the united states to europe for $600 that's good airfare. you can sign up for e-mail alerts, go on to any of the major online booking agents and tell them what destinations you're interested in.

   >> airline industry is console lating the northwest- delta merger is complete. we're talking about u.s. air and continental about linking it, what does that mean for travelers?

   >> it's going to have little impact if we go by previous mergers. we're not going to see huge significant increases in airfare, you're not decrease in the number of flights.

   >> the airfare don't go up a lot, but the fees continue to add up.

   >> they're charging for as we know for checked baggage , southwest and jetblue do not charge for your first checked bag. they're talking about even -- spirit air says they want to charge for bringing on your own carry on luggage, which i don't think they're going to implement. but you have to find out what rules your airline is using. the department of transportation is implementing a new rule that limits tarmac delays to three hours. after three hours the plane has to go back to the gate and get those passengers off, if they don't do that, they're liable for a fine of as much as $27,500 per passenger. i think we're going to see a lot more cancellations. they have have to starr heading back sta the gate.

   >> that's actually something i think they have to figure out.

   >> i guess the big test is going to be the summer thunderstorms.

   >> we're going to look forward

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