Kids on planes!
Kids on planes. Mention it to any traveler — particularly a frequent business traveler — and you’re sure to get a strong reaction. Can’t we just all get along? No, we can’t.
To the islands
I am off to the islands to finish a long-overdue writing assignment on Sanibel and to spend time with my family. I always seem to return to Sanibel at a major turning point, when I am about to make a big change in my professional or personal life. This time is no different.
Swimming pool in tow
I spend most of the year on the road with a pickup truck hauling a 32-foot trailer carrying a portable swimming pool and scuba gear. I visit all kinds of places — food festivals, air shows, trade conventions, anywhere there are people — set up the pool, fill it with 27,000 gallons of water and invite people to try diving.
New schedule, no flight
Her flight to New York has been canceled, but no one bothers to tell Caty Harris about it. Now she has to buy another expensive ticket — and pay for the rescheduled flight she didn’t take. What’s going on? And will Harris ever get her money back?
EmbAArrassed
So American Airlines got a little careless and made its employee-only Web site accessible to the world. And for a few hours, anyone with a Web browser could read everything from its dress-code manual to a tutorial on how to use chopsticks. It’s hardly the first airline to make a similar mistake. A few years ago, archrival Southwest Airlines inadvertently opened a back door to its intranet.
Google travel? Who cares
The hottest rumor making the rounds is that Google plans to build a travel site, probably with online agency Orbitz. It is based on a lone job posting and a little speculation on the part of the reporter, which is hardly a smoking gun.
Socked for a single supplement
When she has to cancel her trip to the Amazon, Linda Enis gets a surprise: her roommate — a woman she does not even know — will now have to pay a single supplement. But Enis has cancellation insurance from TripMate. Shouldn’t the insurance cover the supplement?
Meeting Mr. Hyena
Air travel is the ultimate networking opportunity. I’ve met some of my best clients next to a security checkpoint, at the gate or on the plane.
Phew! Delta strike averted
Looks like that Delta pilots strike is averted - for now. My advice for booking a Delta ticket remains the same: make your reservations with reservations. In other words, book carefully, because this airline still isn’t out of the proverbial woods.
Candycoating Starwood
For months (no years) I’ve been urging travel companies to start their own blogs, such as Randy’s Journal by Boeing’s marketing exec Randy Baseler. Now Starwood has launched The Lobby which I think is among the best travel company blogs to date.
You remind me of a terrorist
Southwest Airlines, which usually makes headlines for its superior customer service, is taking one on the chin. A Texas jury awarded $27.5 million to a woman who says a Southwest Airlines flight attendants had her arrested in 2003 because she reminded them of a terrorist, according to reports.
Damned decimal point
Here we go again! Seems the Residence Inn Times Square incorrectly posted a $24.90 per night room rate for late August, erroneously placing the decimal point after the four instead of after the nine. Now people who have booked this too-good-to-be-true price are afraid the hotel will cancel their reservations.
Bad service, good pay
Two facts. Number one: The latest Airline Quality Rating (PDF download) finds that US Airways ranks dead last, when it comes to customer service. No surprise, considering the tumultuous past year in which it was assimilated into America West as it withered away on life support.
Love field, rats and 9/11
The Business Travel Coalition released a report that recommended Love Field, home of plucky Southwest Airlines, should be shut down. Say what? Did American Airlines commission this “report”?
Driving you crazy
The perpetually strained relationship between corporate travelers and tourists tends to get a lot of attention this time of year, with spring break just wrapping up and Memorial Day, the official start of the summer vacation season, only weeks away.