Rule No. 1: Travel is no fun. Really. If you think it’s all about smiling stewardesses attending to your every whim, friendly hotels offering fawning service, and romantic sunsets on the beach, it’s time for a reality check.
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Cheryl McClure reserves a room at the Hampton Inn in Asheville, N.C., and is offered an $81-a-night rate. Then the hotel has second thoughts and changes the rate to $149 a night. Can it do that? And what, if anything, does a “confirmed rate” get you? Should McClure cancel her hotel stay, or can the Hampton Inn be persuaded to honor its first rate?
Early December is an ideal time to visit the St. Petersburg and Clearwater area, which calls itself Florida’s Beach. I was fortunate enough to speak at a convention on St. Petersburg Beach last week, and while most of the rest of the country was bracing for snowstorms, the temperatures there were in the mid-80s and we had the place practically to ourselves. Here are four reason to check out Florida’s West Coast now.
In what it admits is a “shameless act of self-promotion,” FareCompare.com will announce today that it is sending its very own Santa on a fun-filled trip to all 48 contiguous states, starting this weekend. Why? “We want to highlight what’s right and what’s wrong with the airline industry through the eyes of a holiday icon,” says FareCompare’s chief executive, Rick Seaney. Isn’t a 12-day, 25,000-mile trek on 66 flights enough to make Santa a little … cranky? Of course. That’s why they’re calling him Grumpy Santa. Here’s an exclusive interview with Michael Federico, who will soon be channeling Kris Kringle’s darker side.
Read the terms of service on your cards carefully. Otherwise you could end up with a couple of $50 charges on your account for no apparent reason. That’s what happened to Paul Shields when he used his AAA debit card to pay for gas in San Diego recently. His story is a cautionary tale for anyone who pays with plastic, and underscores the importance of reading the fine print in your cardmember agreement.
The cruise contract — the legal agreement between you and your cruise line — is always worth reviewing before you set sail. But at least one cruise line is making its passengers sign the contract before they board. And if they don’t? No cruise.
The latest Air Travel Consumer Report suggests passengers are deeply dissatisfied with airline service. In October, the Transportation Department received 1,096 complaints from consumers about airline service — that’s 74 percent more than the 629 complaints received a year earlier, and 22 percent more than the total of 895 filed last month.
Ah, the things travelers must endure! The lies (fraudulent airline schedules). The cheating (a government that’s in the industry’s pocket). The stealing (cruise lines helping themselves to more of your money for “fuel”). But fortunately, I’m here to sort it all out for you. And to bring you brilliant insights on airline food, missed connections and hotel blogs. Details are in this week’s issue.
Travelers have been pelted by a barrage of fees, levies, surcharges and extras for years. But just when you were convinced that the travel industry had thought of it all, it comes up with yet another clever way of separating you from your money.
On her way from Dallas to Kauai, Marlene Kelley lands in Phoenix to find that her connecting flight to Hawaii has already left. But no one notified her about the schedule change, and now she and her husband are sent to Los Angeles to catch another flight to the islands. What does her airline and travel agent owe her for the runaround — specifically for the night she had to spend at an LAX hotel?
If you believe everything you read, you’ll welcome today’s announcement by the U.S. Department of Transportation that it has effectively ended the problem of chronically delayed flights. Following an investigation earlier this year that resulted in 183 frequently-delayed flights being written up by the DOT, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced that “tough scrutiny and a willingness to impose serious penalties have caused the airlines to correct these chronically delayed flights.”
It turns out Spirit Airlines, the “ultra” low fare carrier that bloggers love to hate, is also ultra tasteless. Its latest fare promotion uses a naughty acronym — MILF — to get our attention. And that’s exactly what it’s done.
Here’s a nice shot of the Don in the morning. The kids like to call it the Pink Beach Hotel. Combining three shots at different exposures makes the hotel look almost … orange.
Iden enjoys a stroll on the beach at the Don CeSar in St. Petersburg Beach, Fla. Even though it’s December, it feels a lot like July here.
A just-released government report has found that when it comes to reporting their departure times, some airlines have been cheating. How’s that? If, for some reason, a flight has to return to the gate, carriers have been reporting the second departure — not the first — as their actual departure.
Before you ask — no, I’m not in the business of rating blogs. But I’m a panelist at the Historic Hotels of America annual meeting at the Don CeSar Beach Resort on St. Petersburg Beach, Fla., tomorrow, and have been asked to name some of the hotel bloggers that are worth following.
Ever wonder what airline employees say about us when our backs are turned? Then you probably would have wanted to be a fly on the wall at last month’s Worldwide Airline Customer Relations Association (WACRA) conference in Bahrain. The theme of the conference, “Shifting Sands,” was telling in and of itself. But it gets better. Much, much better.
The latest round of fuel surcharges imposed on cruise passengers who have already paid for their tickets isn’t just morally wrong. It’s probably illegal, too. And at least one passenger has taken the fight against these surprise extras to a new level that could eventually help thousands of passengers get to cruise at the price they deserve.
I admit, we media types were ready to write the apocalyptic headlines about Thanksgiving travel disasters (“Record flight delays signal end of civilization as we know it!”). We wanted to show you long lines and angry customers. Instead, as I point out in this week’s issue, we had … nothing. And as someone who had to board a plane three times last week, no one is happier than yours truly. Also, check out posts on influential travel bloggers, unconventional travel advice and why being a frequent flier can help you get a faster answer from an airline. Read all about it in this week’s issue.
Which of our cities are perpetually clogged with cars and trucks? The government recently announced the winners of a competition for federal funds to fight traffic congestion — yes, cities actually were competing for the honor of having the worst traffic — and here are the results.
