Yeah, but where’s the beach?
They call this place North Beach, but all I see are Italian restaurants and this big tower. I was expecting surfers and women in bikinis. Daddy, San Francisco is sooooo confusing.
Sunshine state
Whoa, that was too much snow. We flew out to California to visit Carlos, Tina and Cookie in Southern California. It’s just like Key Largo - without the humidity. Cookie has two dogs, Rascal and Maggie, and they like to play with me.
Let foreign airlines fly in U.S.
Whenever business takes him overseas, Seung Oh prefers to fly on carriers such as Korean Air or Singapore Airlines. “The service is much better than you find on an American airline,” says Oh, the vice president for a technology investment company in Fairfield, Conn. “Too bad they don’t fly domestic routes.” Well, why not? The short answer: The government won’t let them.
Wireless hopes fizzle
As soon as his flight lands, Addison Schonland powers up his wireless personal digital assistant. When his Samsung SPH-I300 finds a signal, it automatically downloads information from his airline’s Web site, alerting him to any flight delays and giving him his gate numbers.
Your new travel ‘to-do’ list
Boy Scouts are taught to be prepared. What about business travelers? They must learn about safety and survival on their own - today, more so than ever.
But many haven’t. About 70% of travelers are not insured for medical or safety problems that may stop a trip, according to industry estimates. And only a fraction of [...]
High times in winter
Edyth Schoenrich scales the Swiss Alps almost every winter. She takes in the same bird’s-eye view that backcountry skiers and mountain climbers do - steep, dangerous rock formations covered in deep powder snow. But the 83-year-old medical professor from Baltimore never breaks a sweat - and gets to enjoy crackers and warm brie with a glass of Burgundy, served en route. “It’s so serene,” she enthuses, “so spiritual.”
Delta’s senior shuffle
Q: For years, Delta Air Lines issued a booklet of senior coupons that allowed people on a fixed income to travel. Last summer they ended the program. My husband and I each had one coupon remaining coupon, good for one leg of a domestic flight.
I thought Delta would then let us apply the coupons toward [...]
Take the cautious road in ‘03
As I gaze into my crystal ball, here’s what I see in 2003:
– Airline ticket prices will head back up again.
– Car rental rates will edge slightly higher.
– Hotel prices will stay about the same.
– I’ll be named the CEO of a major airline.
Yeah, right.
I know better than to write a column that predicts [...]
Help, my seat won’t recline
Q: We booked a flight from Raleigh/Durham to Manchester, England via Toronto on Air Canada recently. On the flight from Toronto to England we were given two seats across from the toilets.
When it came time to put the seats back so we could sleep, they wouldn’t recline. We spent more than seven hours sitting straight [...]
Rx for holiday travelers
Thanksgiving. Labor Day. The Fourth of July.
Leisure travelers look forward to these holidays with anticipation - it’s a time when Mom, Dad and junior pack up their suitcases and board a plane, minivan or cruise ship for some well-deserved time off.
Not so for business travelers. For them, it’s those three holidays in particular - but [...]
Avoiding fly traps
Gayle Miller suspected she was in trouble when a ticket agent at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport dangled a measuring tape in front of her luggage. Sure enough, her big bag exceeded the new limit. “No one has ever looked at that bag twice when I’ve checked it in,” complains the Ann Arbor, Mich., pharmacist.
TSA needs your help
You can leave your hat on at the airport. But as Phil Doherty discovered, you should also expect a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent to pull you aside when you do. “It happens without fail whenever I wear my straw hat,” says the contract engineer from Mechanicsville, N.Y. “When the hat’s on, they give me the once-over. When it’s not, they leave me alone.” Since its creation last year, the TSA has refused to answer specific questions about its screening criteria, arguing that if it told the traveling public what made someone look suspicious, it would tip off the terrorists. Fair enough.
How to fly for free
This column regularly dispenses advice about how to cut costs when you travel by air — an important public service during these cash-strapped times. But wouldn’t you really rather travel for free?
Below are some strategies on how to do this, as well as tips from people who make a career of it.
First, meet Mark Talbot, [...]
Apple a day keeps United away
Q: I spent 30 minutes trying to book a ticket on United Airlines’ Web site only to have the site freeze repeatedly at the “pay for ticket” stage (I kept getting a “document contains no data” message). So I called United’s Premier desk to book the ticket. I had all the needed information at hand [...]
Terror fears boost insurance
The terrorist bombing on the island of Bali last month that claimed the lives of nearly 200 people, many of them tourists, made Alicia Nieva-Woodgate reconsider her planned trip to the Far East. “I thought: What if something like that happens again?” the San Francisco sportswriter says. “I just wanted to be prepared for the worst.” So before she leaves for a three-month adventure to Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Thailand and Burma in December, Nieva-Woodgate is buying a $199 travel insurance policy that covers medical expenses, lost luggage and the cost of returning home if a terrorist incident interrupts her trip.