Five best airports for a stopover
Airport stopovers are as inevitable these days as cramped economy class seats, annoying security checkpoints and nitpicky ticket agents. But unlike the other realities of flying, you’ve often got a choice about the terminal you’re trapped in.
Which airport should you pick? J.D. Power and Associates tried to answer that question a few years ago when [...]
A Southwest solution?
The books just closed on another miserable quarter for the airline industry. American Airlines led the flock with a loss of $924 million, followed by United Airlines, which is $889 million in the red. Delta Air Lines hemorrhaged $326 million, while Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines bled $46 million and $37 million, respectively. The only standout? No-frills Southwest Airlines, which posted a profit of $74.9 million. “Why can’t the other airlines take a hint from Southwest?” wonders Wanda Spataro, a Monterey, Calif., consultant and frequent traveler.
Escape from car rental traps
If you’re like most business travelers, you probably don’t pay much attention to the price of your rental car.
Bad idea. If you’re not careful, your bill could get run up with surcharges, extra fees and other surprises.
That’s what happened to Sylvia Perryman, who rented a car at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Calif., recently. [...]
Bravo, America West
Criticizing the airline industry is almost second nature to us. We repeat disparaging comments like a tired mantra today. Bad service! Onerous ticket restrictions! Undeserving of government subsidies! Southwest Airlines, the no-frills carrier that has defied the industry’s sad decline, is most often mentioned as the only exception among major airlines. Passengers rave about its low fares, on-time performance and irreverent attitude, and rightfully so.
Tech travelers start over
Reformatting a laptop computer’s hard disk drive - erasing all the data on it - is usually the last resort when a portable PC doesn’t work. Not for travelers.
Secret to a good trip?
People frequently ask me about what they can do to have a better trip. One thing I’ve been telling them lately is to carry the right cards.
I’m not talking about credit cards here, but rather the kind of cards that fit in your laptop computer. They’re called PCMCIA cards - that’s shorthand for Personal Computer [...]
Flying the funny skies
The airline industry’s current malaise is no laughing matter. Or is it? Yeah, things are bad. The nation’s carriers could lose more than $8 billion this year. They’re hitting up Congress for billions in aid, and they’re cutting flights and adding onerous new fees to their tickets. At a time like this, the whole industry should feel dejected. So what’s with all the jokes?
Suite steal
Q: We have had no luck in resolving an appalling and deeply disturbing experience at the Radisson Hotel Portland. On April 25, 2002, we traveled to Portland, Ore., so that our two children could participate in a national chess tournament for elementary school children.
Our two connecting rooms were burglarized on April 27. Two laptop computers [...]