Quirky festivals of the Florida Keys
A flotilla of powerboats hovers above a Technicolor reef, tied together like a fleet of mothballed warships. “We’re almost ready,” says Bill Becker, who is in command of the lead pontoon vessel. He turns his radio up a notch. “OK,” he says. “Here we go.” Becker signals to the scuba divers waiting at the stern. One by one they step off the side of the boat, plunging into the transparent Atlantic off Looe Key, Fla.
Got the world on a keychain
I’ve seen the future of travel technology and it’s on a key chain.
Just in time, too. With airline gate agents now holding a measuring tape to each suitcase, and government security screeners giving every carry-on a once over, smaller is better for the jet set.
And cheaper. In an effort to collect more money from us, [...]
TSA slow to pay for laptop damage
One minute, a security screener was pulling Jason Cumberland aside at Denver International Airport to “wand” him with a portable metal detector. The next, his laptop computer lay in pieces on the x-ray machine.
What happened to my ticket?
Take a good look at your airline ticket. Notice anything different?
You should. Thanks to a crisis in the domestic airline industry, the “new” ticket comes with more restrictions than ever. The non-refundable variety really is non-refundable. You may not be able to collect the kind of frequent flier miles you want. It may not be [...]
Cool holiday tech toys
Peter Shankman is scaling down his holiday wish list. In years past, clients lavished expensive tech toys, such as the newest PalmPilot, on him. But, lately, gifts have been more modest: an optical mouse engraved with a company logo. “Business travelers and the people giving them gifts are more price-conscious this year,” says the Manhattan marketing consultant. “They aren’t expecting anything extravagant. They’ll settle for something practical.”
Traveling with a conscience after 9/11
We aren’t the same travelers we were a year ago. How could we be? The September 11, terrorist attacks affected us like nothing else. The changes that have taken place, though subtle, are important. We’ve developed a deeper awareness of ourselves and our role in the world.
Five rules for collecting miles
Lisa Karl did a double-take when she reviewed her car rental bill at Baltimore-Washington International Airport recently.
Buried between the airport concession fee and fuel charge was a 6-cent per day frequent-flier “tax recovery” surcharge. “That’s insane,” says the Elgin, Ill., homemaker and freelance writer. “How can they charge me to collect my miles?”
They can. Under [...]
Will road warriors return?
Don’t ask frequent traveler Andrew deLivron to notice the silver lining around the once-friendly skies that now hang ominously above business travelers. His disillusionment with the travel industry - and especially the airlines - erupted in raw anger recently when the major carriers, led by a bankrupt US Airways, added new restrictions to their tickets and mileage awards. “What the airlines are doing just doesn’t make sense,” said the product manager for a truck parts manufacturer in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Upset by new fees and higher fares, he’s lost confidence in the travel industry. Have the airlines, hotels, car rental companies serving business travelers bothered to noticed the votes of no confidence from people such as deLivron?
It’s your call
Q: I was using my Verizon cellular phone a few months ago on a golf trip in Oregon. I have the national plan, which I assumed meant that no matter where I was, the call would be free, so long as I didn’t go over my allotment of minutes for the month.
When I received my [...]
Airlines make a money grab
Sigmund Freud once said that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Fortunately the good doctor never had to fly, because if he did, he’d discover that sometimes an airline ticket isn’t just an airline ticket. It’s no joke. You can pay good money for a flight, only to get charged extra for everything from a scheduling change to a luggage fee. And thanks to the tailspin that the airline industry finds itself in today, these fees are multiplying with alarming speed.
Try cargo
The nation’s air carriers sure have a strange way of trying to win our business back. With their earnings in a freefall - together, they lost an astounding $3.8 billion in the first half of this year - and customer ratings at a historic low, the ailing airlines recently decided to make flying even more unpleasant. They cut schedules, reduced mileage benefits, imposed new ticketing fees and added onerous restrictions to non-refundable tickets - measures they say will save them money, but which have angered many passengers to the point that they never want to darken the door of an airport again.
Blowing the budget
Q: I rented a midsize car from Budget Rent a Car at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Calif., recently. The reservation was for one day. I went to the airport about 10:50 p.m. and picked up the car at 11:25 p.m.
A reservations agent told me that I had 24 hours plus one for the [...]