I always pack a supply of playthings like hand puppets and puzzles when I’m on the road. They’ve saved the day for me more than a few times. You never know when you’re going to get stuck on a flight next to an inconsolable toddler or a teething baby whose ears start hurting when the [...]
March 2006
Few people are more preoccupied with their health than business travelers. They were a cautious lot even before bird flu began to spread, before talk of a possible influenza pandemic.
It was the kind of itinerary you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. Alaska Airlines flight 9 left Orlando at 8:45 yesterday morning and arrived about 6 hours later in Seattle. After a day of meetings, I returned home on flight 10, leaving Seattle at 11:23 p.m. and landing just after 7 a.m., thanks to favorable tail winds.
Hotel resort fees are making a comeback. With the decline in the lodging industry after 9/11, the fees, which cover everything from the use of a pool to housekeeping tips, began to vanish – if not from hotels’ policies, then from guests’ bills. A polite complaint was usually all it took to have a fee waived.
I’m not sure how I ended up on the New Jersey Office of Travel & Tourism’s mailing list. Maybe they want me to write more Troubleshooter columns about the state’s hotels. Or perhaps they’d like me to show some love to Garden State-based travel businesses such as Cendant or Hertz.
The cruise industry took the unprecedented step of releasing its crime statistics earlier this week in an effort to show Congress how “safe” its product is. That’s a good start.
Of all the annoyances business travelers have to endure while on the road, not one comes close to keeping a mileage log. Airline and hotel troubles come and go, but tracking business miles is a constant. Most business trips are done by car, and the vehicles most often used are personal or company cars in which every mile must be painstakingly recorded for tax purposes.
Not another wheeled carry-on, I thought when this Briggs & Riley luggage landed on my front door step last week. No, it isn’t.
His flight back from Hawaii hits a snag when his luggage is delayed, and now Al Palmer and his wife are forced to spend the night in a terminal at Los Angeles International Airport. Who’s to blame for their inconvenience, and who should compensate them?
The journalism world is shocked – shocked! – at a recent report that a Los Angeles TV station accepted free hotel rooms for its anchors at a Ritz-Carlton property in apparent exchange for airtime and favorable mentions. In a subsequent article, an ethics expert solemnly declared that “taking freebies for coverage is over the line.”
Elliott is consumer advocate 
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