Tips on tipping for travelers
Teresa Morris is the kind of person who always leaves a tip - generous for good service, small if it’s substandard.
But when the Dallas business-development manager and her husband recently split the tab with another couple at an Italian restaurant, and their friends neglected to leave a tip, she was left wondering about the whole [...]
An unconventional deal
Q: I’m attending a convention in Las Vegas, and I found a good package deal on the Southwest Airlines Web site. I’ve always booked a package rather than paying convention rates for a hotel because it’s cheaper.
But when I received my confirmation from Southwest, I noticed a disclaimer that the trip can’t be used [...]
Get good Wi-Fi while you’re away
Before a recent JetBlue Airways transcontinental flight, I sat in the Long Beach, Calif., airport and waited. And waited. And waited.
Not so much for the flight to take me back to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., mind you, but for that reassuring “Wireless Network Connection” message to pop up above the taskbar on my laptop PC.
The posters [...]
Dumbing down travelers
Never underestimate the ignorance of the traveling public. That’s the painful, but inevitable, conclusion I’ve arrived at after more than a decade of solving other people’s travel problems. Simply put, there are more clueless people on the road, at the airport, and staying in our hotels, than ever. Call it the dumbing down of the American traveler.
One room, two bills
Q: I recently booked a roundtrip flight on Emirates Airlines between Birmingham, England, and Johannesburg with a layover in Dubai. Emirates doesn’t fly from the United States to England, so I also bought separate tickets on Virgin Atlantic to fly from Miami to London. I intended to spend a couple of days in England before [...]
Is in-flight Wi-Fi a fancy?
Whether you travel frequently or not, the Holy Grail of Internet connectivity is without a doubt wireless access on a commercial aircraft.
Connecting to a high-speed data network from anywhere onboard - even from inside those closet-sized restrooms - is thought to be so “gee-whiz” cool that it’s probably just a matter of time before every [...]
Burned at the Magic Kingdom
Q: On October 13, 2003, my daughter Mary Kate Cammarata sustained a burn in her right eye as a result of sparks from the new firework display in the Magic Kingdom. The embers burned the area of the lower eyelid and tear duct.
After being treated by Magic Kingdom medical personnel, she was transported out [...]
Home, suite motor home
What do you buy when you already own a house in River Ranch, Fla.; another in Newark, Ohio; and a campground in Ruidoso, N.M.? A luxury motor coach. At least that’s what retired oil engineer Ed McCauley did when he paid $297,000 for his 33-foot-long 2004 Country Coach Allure, which has a living room so spacious “you could have a dance in it,” says his wife, Phyllis.
Defusing a travel tax bomb
By almost any measure, traveling should be a pleasure these days. Air fares, hotel room rates and cruises haven’t been this affordable in years. Complaints against domestic air carriers are at an all-time low. And the travel industry, badly hurt by a double-whammy of a recession and war, is finally recovering. So what’s with all the anger? Why are passengers hurtling insults at their cabin crew with greater frequency? Why are they driving their SUVs into airport ticket counters and setting them on fire, as one man recently did in Maui?
No refund on the Seven Seas
Q: I made a reservation for a 14-day cruise from New York to Copenhagen on Radisson’s “Seven Seas Navigator” two years ago.
In early 2003, Radisson notified us through our travel agent that the June sailing was cancelled and had been rescheduled for July. They gave us new booking numbers and offered us free flights [...]
Kiosk to my room
When John Burrows arrived at the New York Hilton last month and found himself stalled in the long check-in line, his eye wandered to a bank of polished, electronic kiosks. A hotel employee asked the insurance executive from Hartford, Conn., if he wanted to take the new machine for a test spin. “About a minute later I was on my way to my room, while everyone else was still waiting,” he remembers.