Pursuing a web ’slam’
There’s no feeling like scoring a “slam” - hooking a trout, snook and redfish - in the seemingly endless saltwater flats of Florida’s west coast. One minute you’re distracted by an Osprey soaring above the perfectly calm sea as the fishing line floats in the shadows beyond your flat-bottom boat. The next, the water is boiling with an angry game fish fighting to free itself of your rig. Of course, the excitement is somewhat tempered when it’s not you, but your fishing buddy, who pulls in the coveted threesome (within the first few minutes on the water, no less) leaving you to catch a sorry collection of catfish and mangrove snapper the rest of the morning.
Technology I can’t live without
If you were stranded on a desert island, what would you take with you? I’m not asking for the fun of it. Tell me about the technology you can’t live without, and you’ll be able to ditch the superfluous gadgets, programs and accessories that weigh you down on the road. I’ll go first, and then it’s your turn. Ready? The cell phone. The simpler, the better.
Auto taxes plague drivers
Last week’s column about departure taxes drew a strong reaction from readers. Jack Hollis noted that Taiwan no longer charges departure fees at the airport immigration area. “I just flew in and out of Taipei and I was not asked nor required to pay any such levies,” he noted. “Just thought you would like to [...]
Goodbye ByeByeNow?
Is ByeByeNow about to go bye-bye? It depends who you listen to. Insiders and former employees describe a company in disarray, with an out-of-control cash burn rate, low staff morale, and bookings that are “way below” expectations. The numbers - or lack of numbers - suggest the critics may be correct. The Pompano Beach, Fla., vacation travel retailer has laid off nearly half its employees since this summer.
Dot-travel dispute a strategic reminder
To the untrained eye, the recent tiff between the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) over a proposed top-level domain for travel may look like a territorial fight between two industry bullies. But those of us who have been around for a while see more than mudslinging. We see an opportunity to hone our business strategies. How’s that?
End of common sense among travelers?
This column frequently zeroes in on the lack of common sense among software developers, wireless carriers and computer manufacturers, to name just a few of its most recent targets. And deservedly so. There’s a deficit of good judgment among many of our leading technology corporations, and business travelers are often the victims of it. But consider, also, the flip side - road warriors who leave their brains at home.
Orbitz partner finds alternate route
When your most high-profile customer is under siege by government regulators and repeatedly forced to postpone its launch, what do you do? If you’re ITA Software, emerging from the shadow of Orbitz’ latest pullback is as easy as closing a comprehensive software licensing deal with the Airline Tariff Publishing Co., the world’s largest distributor of fare information. The agreement, which was reached today, calls for the Cambridge, Mass., developer of airfare shopping technology to provide its software for Airline Tariff Publishing’s fare construction application suite.
What a charge
Q: I keep getting nailed in Taiwan with a departure tax. Every time I leave, they squeeze me for about $500TD (about $16).
They only accept payment in local money. Problem is, I turn in all of my local money before I check in to the ticket counter and they want payment in local currency, and [...]
Fall sites ready for takeoff
Kalan Clark didn’t want to pay a lot for a plane ticket to visit her sister in Phoenix. She logged on to the Internet but couldn’t find the kind of deal she was seeking. “I visited Travelocity and a couple of airline Web sites to see what I could find,” says the Des Moines, Iowa, marketing manager. “But the best I could get was a fare of about $350. I thought I could do better.” She could.
Trust me, I write for the web
A few days ago I got an e-mail that from a company called eGroups. Its Web site isn’t marketed to travelers, per se, but it manages e-mail discussion lists that are used by a fair number of them. I know of at least 2,000 because I use eGroups to host my weekly newsletter, Elliott’s E-Mail. I’ll get to the content of the note in a second. First, a little context: In my last column, I described some of the Internet’ s limitations when it comes to travel. I claimed the Web would neither reduce nor eliminate our need to travel, and I described the online world’ s inability to improve travel.
Scramble this!
Q: In your last column you made a reference to a 800 MHz jammer that could be built for around $100 in parts. Any idea where I could get a schematic for such a device?
– Jim Klein
A: The scrambler was an afterthought to my commentary about annoying cell phone users. Although I consulted with an [...]
Exploring adventure travel
When it comes to adventure travel, cyberspace is the final frontier. That, to borrow an overused TV cliche, is the premise of the Online Adventurist, a biweekly feature that begins today on this site. The Internet is the last unexplored realm - a place with few guides, maps or navigational tools to help illuminate the way. Sure, you can logon to the likes of Gorp.com or Away.com and read about whitewater rafting in Nepal’s Tsangpo river or a Tanzanian Safari. You can page through National Geographic and Outside magazine, watch the Discovery Channel, or read any of Paul Theroux’s travelogues.
The web has its limits, too
Is there anything the World Wide Web can’t do? I had to wonder about that after my column on synching troubles appeared. In it, I describe the agony of trying to share data between a laptop and a PC. Readers pointed out that in trying to fix this uncooperative hardware, I’d overlooked an obvious solution: the Internet.
No more kids fly free?
Is it time to end one of the travel industry’s longest-running fare sales, kids flying free? Melissa Rosen thinks so. “It’s a pretty good scam,” says the career consultant at the University of Virginia’s graduate school of business administration. “Parents book a ticket for themselves and a child. When they line up to board, the parent will claim the smaller kid is a ‘lap child.’” They may be anything but that, says Rosen. On a recent flight, she reports, “four little legs kicked me and tugged on the tray table attached to the back of my seat for two hours straight.”
Packaging success, the site59.com way
When Site59.com launched last May, some of my colleagues mocked the startup as the latest wannabe on an already crowded field of online travel sites. Then the New York retailer of distressed travel packages signed deals with the likes of Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Bass Hotels & Resorts and Avis. It hired ace publicist Pamela Johnston to raise its profile. And it closed another $10.5 million in financing, adding to the $4 million in first-round funding that it already had secured. Now there isn’t much to make fun of.