No, the dreaded "staycation" hasn't made a comeback.

But according to three surveys released this week, Americans remain fiscally cautious about their summer travel plans.

In a new PhoCusWright poll of more than 2,000 U.S. travelers, nearly four in 10 Americans (38 percent) didn't buy a vacation trip within the past year. Particularly hard hit were early boomers (ages 45-54), whose average trip expenditure dropped by more than 10 percent.

Hitting the road this summer? Better get booking.

As the busy summer car-rental season begins, prices are expected to climb. “In early June through the end of August, these rates will spike,” said Neil Abrams, president of Abrams Consulting Group, which tracks the car rental industry. Last July, for example, the average rate for a weekly airport rental of a compact car booked seven days ahead was $369.62, or 56 percent more than the $236.73 charged in March, according to the Abrams Travel Data Index. Here are some tips to keep costs down.

On some Virgin Atlantic planes, you'll be able to phone home from 35,000 feet in the air.

The airline has announced that it will become the first British airline to provide passengers the capability to make and receive phone calls during flights. Passengers also will be able to send and receive text messages, emails and have web access via GPRS.

The new service will be available in all cabins of the airline's new Airbus A330-300 aircraft and refitted Boeing 747s.

Even Nobel Peace Prize winners aren't guaranteed immunity from the TSA pat-down.

According to The Washington Post, the former secretary of state who helped bring an end to America's involvement in the Vietnam War had to go through a full pat-down while going through security to catch a flight to Toronto at New York's LaGuardia Airport on Friday.

You probably already know that traveling can be hazardous to your health, particularly when it comes to picking up those nasty little respiratory and gastrointestinal viruses that are spread via shared surfaces on planes, hotels and restaurants. (If you don't know this, you're either hopelessly out of touch, or blissfully unaware.)

But it gets worse: Now there's evidence that it's not just colds and flu that business travelers have to fear.

No sooner had the captain turned off the “fasten seat belt” sign than the flight attendant on Air Pacific Flight 411, headed from Fiji to New Zealand, performed the same dispiriting act I’ve seen dozens of times around the world: He drew together and Velcroed the flimsy gray curtains, separating the coach cabin from business class.

This time, though, I smiled. In a few days, I’d be on the other side of that polyester divide, finding out what really goes on among the business consultants, rock stars and — I’m guessing — bejeweled countesses that sit up there.

There's more bad press today for British airports, which already have endured nearly a month of critical reports as the Olympics loom this summer.

The latest comes today from The Times of London, which reports:

White airline passengers are being discriminated against by border officials fearful of being accused of race discrimination when they question black travelers.

Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Melanie Marken was headed to her hotel to rest up for a business meeting in Bloomington, Ind., last month when she made a discovery.

She was in the wrong Bloomington.

Marken's travel agent had mistakenly booked her on a flight to Bloomington, Ill. And she had to drive nearly five hours to make her meeting in the Indiana city with the same name.

"Remember when you were a little kid and got lost at the mall?" she says. "That's what I felt like. … 'Now what do I do?' "

Even the most veteran of business travelers can inadvertently end up on the wrong flight — and in the wrong city. It's embarrassing, and even worse, it can foul up business meetings and potentially cost a company money.

More than six decades ago, when the federal standards on the strength of airplane seats and seat belts were written, government regulations specified that seats be designed for a passenger weight of 170 pounds. But now the average American man weighs nearly 194 pounds and the average woman 165.

Now, some engineers and scientists have raised questions about whether airplane seats, tested with crash dummies that reflect the 170-pound rule, are strong enough to protect heavy travelers .

“If a heavier person completely fills a seat, the seat is not likely to behave as intended during a crash,” said Robert Salzar, the principal scientist at the Center for Applied Biomechanics at the University of Virginia. “The energy absorption that is built into the aircraft seat is likely to be overwhelmed and the occupants will not be protected optimally.”

Nor would the injury necessarily be confined to that passenger, Dr. Salzar said. If seats collapse or belts fail, he said, those seated nearby could be endangered from “the unrestrained motion of the passenger.”

A new consumer protection committee that will advise the secretary of Transportation may give hope to fliers frustrated by airline customer service.

The four-seat committee — established by a law passed in February that re-authorized the Federal Aviation Administration — will evaluate existing programs to protect consumers and recommend improvements.

The law directs Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to report the committee's recommendations to Congress by February. He's to explain how each recommendation was implemented or why it wasn't.

The Transportation Department last year received 11,545 complaints from air travelers — 557 more than in 2010. Nearly 1,300 complaints last year were classified as complaints about customer service.

Transportation Department spokesman Bill Mosley says LaHood plans "to move as quickly as possible to appoint committee members and schedule the first meeting."

But because airlines and airports will be represented, there are doubts about how effective the committee will be.