Travel letters: More on budget airlines and green hotels

Another budget option to Paris

Thank you for “The Costs of Flying Cheap,” by Jenn Harris (Aug. 28), in which she discussed flying five budget carriers.

My husband and I flew round trip on XL Airways (www.xl.com/en) in June nonstop to Paris from LAX. We checked our bags (one bag is free). We paid $900 each for our tickets.

Good food and French attendants, and the plane was clean.

XL deserves a nod.

Debbie Ficarra

La Crescenta

The towel dilemma

With reference to “It’s Not Black and White on Green Hotels” (“On the Spot,” by Catharine Hamm, Aug. 28): I am constantly frustrated in hotel bathrooms when I read the signs that encourage guests to hang up towels they wish to reuse. I would love to reuse my towels, but I want them to be dry when I do so.

And guess what? There is only one towel rack, right by the sink, long enough for a couple of hand towels and a washcloth.

Where do we hang the bath towels to dry out so that we may use them the next time? Over the shower curtain rod?

Sometimes the bathroom features a large hook, but I can tell you from experience that a damp towel hung over a hook will not be dry, ready to reuse, in 12 hours. Not even with a couple of repositionings by the guest.

Am I the only one frustrated by this?

Lucy Breeden

Whittier

Comfy seats? Bah!

One item was left out of Catharine Hamm’s article on airline seating (“Ouch! This Airline Ride Is Hurting Me,”On the Spot, Aug. 21): The human lower spine naturally curves inward toward the belly button. Why in the world is every airline seat designed so that the lower seat back curves backward, giving no back support, and in fact, inviting the lower back of the passenger to unnaturally adapt into that space?

I used to have to put a pillow there, and now that some airlines don’t give out pillows, my sweater goes there for support. If I don’t do that, my back becomes quite sore.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has experienced this.

Miriam Miller

Studio City

Fighting terrorism

In re: “Travelers React to Terrorism,” Cruise News, by Rosemary McClure, Aug. 28: My husband and I just returned from a Rhine River cruise with my sister and her husband. Although the thought of a terrorist attack was in the back of our minds and we were a little more watchful, we did not think of canceling our trip.

Our philosophy is that if we stop living our lives, then these violent radicals have won. Some of the excursions were in remote places. I was a little more nervous in Cologne, Germany, in the cathedral plaza. There we saw armed guards with rifles, and our bags were searched before entering the cathedral.

Diane Dorman

Mission Viejo