Looks like British Airways may be shut down by a strike — just in time for the holidays. I’ll let the beat reporters dissect this story, but there’s one angle that appears to be getting overlooked: What’s going to happen to passengers with “codeshare” reservations?
December 2009
Here’s a problem travelers are running into more frequently: Months after a trip, they get a bill from their rental company charging them for an unknown traffic violation, plus a handling fee. Often, there’s little recourse.
Maybe it was the appearance of the fabled Google Phone — also called the Nexus One — over the weekend. Then again, maybe it’s all this recent talk about cloud computing, and the potentially game-changing Chrome operating system.
I’m not sure how a fully inflated beach ball got in my hotel room. The ornamental blue vase next to the flat-screen TV? Not entirely certain about that, either. But shortly after we checked in for the weekend, the two met. My four-year-old son couldn’t wait to get to the beach so he could play [...]
Go on, ask your airline for a favor — maybe an upgrade to business class or a waiver on a ticket change fee. While you’re at it, see whether your hotel will offer you a suite for the price of a standard room.
Nancy Giese books an overnight tour to Chichen Itza, but when she arrives in Cancun, she’s told she only has reservations for a day trip. Now her tour operator is refusing to refund the difference between the tours. Is there anything she can do?
Is the Transportation Security Administration protecting the nation’s transportation systems? Or is it a hopelessly incompetent federal agency that harasses innocent air travelers and should be privatized as soon as possible? I brought up the subject in November and after the accidental release of an unredacted TSA manual earlier this week, it seems everyone is [...]
TSA’s failures. Plus, Delta’s customer service VP speaks, and the latest tarmac delay hall of shame.
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Perry Cantarutti is the vice president for sales and customer care at Delta Air Lines, the airline’s top customer-service position. I wanted to find out his tips for getting better customer service from an airline — particularly his. So I asked.
Chuck Thompson is the author of the just-released book, To Hellholes And Back: Bribes, Lies, and the Art of Extreme Tourism, a follow-up to his wickedly funny Smile When You’re Lying, a takedown of the travel writing business. So where are the hellholes? Congo, India, Mexico City and — “most feared of all,” Disney World. I asked him to explain.
Les Schrenk is not a rock star. He’s a law-abiding, 86-year-old World War II hero who is a model hotel guest.
The October tarmac delay numbers have just been released by the Transportation Department, and there’s good news: No one had to wait on a parked plane for more than four hours.
Sara Jensen had such an awful stay at the Hotel Toshi in New York that she decided to write about it on TripAdvisor. Little did she know that a hotel representative pretending to be a satisfied guest would promptly post a positive review to counter her comments. Or that TripAdvisor would allow it.
How to travel in 2010. Plus, what trade groups want from travel and another fake review from TripAdvisor.
The Transportation Security Administration is promising a “full review” after the release of an unredacted version of its Screening Management Standard Operating Procedures over the weekend.
Here’s a rather macabre reason for being a Delta Air Lines frequent flier: access to bereavement fares.
Virgin Galactic, the commercial space tourism venture by Sir Richard Branson, is scheduled to unveil SpaceShipTwo to the public today. It’s the first spacecraft designed with the sole purpose of carrying paying passengers into suborbital space. Among the first astronauts will be Matthew Upchurch, chief executive officer of the travel agency consortium Virtuoso. Virgin Galactic has trained more than 70 Virtuoso travel agents as Accredited Space Agents. I asked Upchurch to tell me more about space travel — and space travel agents.
Ask Suzy Bennett how she’s approaching the 2009 holiday travel season, and she’ll tell you she isn’t.
