Spring cleaning at 36,000 feet
Ever flick that light switch above your airline seat only to discover - Oh no! - you actually pushed the “service” button? You wait a few seconds for the annoyed flight attendant to come over and say, “Yeah, what is it?” Seconds turn to minutes, minutes to hours. No crew member ever shows. It’s happened to me a time or two. Maybe I didn’t press the button hard enough, but nothing happened. That doesn’t surprise Cynthia Kane, a spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants in Washington, who says she’s not familiar with any federal or airline rules that would compel a crew member to respond.
My kid, the travel agent
Still don’t know what to do this summer? High school freshman Mark Huelsman understands. The 15-year-old from Cincinnati wanted to vacation where he could practice his Spanish. His mother, Kathy Huelsman, was looking for a getaway where she wouldn’t have to spend too much on extras like transportation and hotel surcharges. She visited a travel agent. Unfortunately, she didn’t get a good one. “The agent just gave me a brochure but didn’t seem very interested in helping me,” she says. “I went home really disappointed.” That’s when Mark logged on to the Internet. Hoping to find cheap fares, he checked out Delta Air Lines and other airline sites, then tried online agents such as Travelocity.com. But the available itineraries were too expensive or inconvenient.
Will biztravel.com’s warranty work?
Biztravel.com’s decision to guarantee the services offered from its Web site addresses is one of the online travel industry’s oldest problems: its credibility - or lack thereof. To recap, the Philadelphia-based online travel site earlier this week announced that it would offer a de-facto warranty covering everything from a customer’s trip to how the site handles grievances. For instance, if a customer’s e-mail is not responded to within two hours, Biztravel.com pays $10. Ditto if it’s slow answering the phone. And if a traveler receives unprofessional service from an associate, Biztravel.com will pay $50.
The tech view from terminal K
Chicago O’Hare. The very mention of the airport makes the most hardened traveler’s heart skip a beat, makes a travel agent roll his or her eyes in frustration, and makes a veteran flight crew recoil with dread (particularly if they’re employed by United Airlines). The Midwestern hub is widely considered every traveler’s worst nightmare.
Carrying on in the luggage wars
If you think the airline carry-on luggage crisis is over, you should meet Jessimy McKown. The former Marine was flying from Detroit to Portland, Oregon, on Northwest Airlines when a duffel bag fell out of the overhead bin where a passenger was trying to stuff it. The bag’s strap snagged McKown’s 10-week-old daughter, Madeline, and pulled the infant to the floor.
Personal space
Q: I take issue with your article about seat kickers. I am retired and am 6 feet 4 inches tall. I resent some Neanderthal, insensitive clod throwing back his seat into my lap. I also take issue with your placing those of us who protest into the category of bratty kids, drunks and aggressive retirees.
I [...]
Who’s got time for in-flight entertainment?
These are the best of times for bored airline passengers. The latest aircraft interiors feature everything from live television, to dozens of movies and videogames on demand. “Everything you used to do in your living room - from watch a movie to play a game - can now be done on a plane,” says Terry Wiseman, editor of the in-flight entertainment industry newsletter Airfax.com. “It’s like having your own home entertainment system in the sky.”
Avoiding seat kickers
Q: I had a horrendous experience on a Virgin Atlantic flight. A traveler forcefully kicked the back of my chair when I reclined. How could I have prevented that from happening?
– Maura Kayal
A: I’ve only heard of this being a problem in economy class, and it’s a result of the airline seats being installed too [...]
A guide to hotel doublespeak
I had just finished the most expensive lunch of my life at the chichi Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, when I glanced at the clock and noticed I was late for an appointment. An hour late. I sprinted to the lobby and zeroed in on the concierge desk. “Please,” I gasped at the young attendant who looked as if he was dressed for a St. Patrick’s Day parade. “I need the phone number for the observatory in Green Bank. I’m late for a meeting.” The employee slowly bent over and picked up a phone directory from under the desk.
Motorists fume at cell ban proposal
I’m still digging out from under a pile of hostile e-mails after last week’s column about criminalizing cell phone use on the road. To recap, I lashed out at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association for endorsing a USA Today editorial that skewered cities such as Brooklyn, Ohio, for banning cell phone use while driving. The story in question, you’ll recall, says the new no-talk laws are “misguided” and suggests that chatty drivers are statistically just as safe as any other motorists.
Rent-a-cell on the continent
Q: What companies are good for renting cell phones for European travel?
– Loraine Lawson
A: As you probably know, cellular phones in the United States are incompatible with the ones used in Europe. Here in the States we’re on an analog standard called AMPS - that’s shorthand for Advanced Mobile Phone System - while Europe uses [...]
All passengers not created equal
The gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” is widening in the air, and the circumstances are enough to confuse even Karl Marx. Listen to what the carriers are saying, and you’d think the skies are becoming more egalitarian. American Airlines claims its new steerage seats have “more class.” United Airlines insists it’s won a “race for space” in the back of the plane. Startup JetBlue Airways says its larger leather seats will “bring humanity back to air travel.” Yet flying remains a very uncomfortable ordeal for a majority of passengers. What’s going on?
Second-generation site hits Europe first
When EuroVacations.com launches next week - just in time for annual invasion of the continent by American tourists - it will become more than the latest “second generation” travel dot-com that specializes in complex itineraries and packages. The site is also part of a more ambitious plan to combine a series of Web-based applications that will sell vacations globally, according to Bernard Frelat, the White Plains, NY, company’s chairman and chief executive. “Eventually this could be a worldwide market,” he says.
Driving under cell phone influence is a crime
A note from Jeffrey Nelson, the director of communications at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), left me more or less speechless last week. “In perhaps the most thoughtful mass-media editorial in recent memory to date on the important issue of using a wireless phone safely while driving, USA Today’s policy editorial of Thursday, April 27, 2000 cuts through the emotionalism and to the facts,” the representative of the wireless industry trade group writes.
Hooking up on the road
Q: I am going overseas to Ireland in June and I want to bring my laptop to keep in touch with my family here. What is the best online service to use?
– Sylvia Barley
A: You shouldn’t assume that you’re going to have to ditch your current online service in order to connect overseas. Many Internet [...]