Iranian Hostages: Old Story, Same Ending
With the news that Iran has released the last two of its latest American hostages, I conducted a little test yesterday. I went to the U.S. website for Air France (www.airfrance.us) to price a round...
View ArticleWhat To Do About Crammed Overhead Bins
During the 21 days leading up to the start of the New Year, about 43.3 million Americans were expected to take airline flights, according to Airlines for America, an industry trade group. Most of those...
View ArticleAberrations Underscore Flight Crews’ Usual Excellence
JetBlue Flight 191 was supposed to fly from New York to Las Vegas. Instead, the copilot was forced to lock the pilot out of the cockpit, take control of the plane and land in Amarillo, Texas. Since...
View ArticleCashless Tolling Makes The Road Truly Open
We Floridians love our beaches, which often stretch for miles without a break. Now drivers in the state can enjoy another welcome vista: highways unbroken by tollbooths. Florida might be paradise, but...
View ArticleHow Am I Doing? I Really, Really Want To Know
How do you like this commentary so far? Is it exceeding your expectations? Granted, it might be a bit soon to say. But judging from my email inbox, the question isn’t unusual. In the past few weeks,...
View ArticleCongressional Influence Peddling In Exotic Locales
On a 2011 trip to Thailand, a group of visitors sunbathed at a popular beach, lunched at a winery, and went to an elephant preserve. But these were not typical tourists: They were all American...
View ArticleSuspicious Behavior: Coming Home From Abroad
We learned in school that the Bill of Rights applies everywhere that is under the jurisdiction of the Stars and Stripes. The folks who run Customs and Border Protection seem to have missed class that...
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Choosing A Travel Rewards Credit Card
photo by Kristopha Hohn Regular readers of this column know I do a lot of traveling. When I can, I like to share whatever benefits my experience might offer. So it wasn’t surprising when my daughter...
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Small Courtesies
photo by Flickr user jiuliano During a recent visit to Brazil with two colleagues, we noticed something interesting: Each time we entered a Sao Paulo taxi, the driver quickly tuned the radio to 101.7...
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Checkpoint Charlie In The North Woods
photo by Flickr user Axizor At New Hampshire’s northern tip, a ridge cloaked in fir and spruce forms the border with Canada. Rain falling on the south side flows into the Connecticut River headwaters...
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Luxury Bus Travel No Longer An Oxymoron
LimoLiner interior. Photo by Flickr user ChrisDag Travelers planning a trip from one city to another typically stick to planes, trains and automobiles, though not in that order. But increasingly, buses...
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Crabs That Fly
photo by Billy Wilt Last month, my wife and I flew from New York to Milan, Italy, on Emirates. We booked our shoulder-season tickets back in April, paying less than $1,400 combined for our...
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No Lifeguards On Cruise Ship Duty
photo by Gary Bembridge Family cruise lines do their best to create the impression that passengers don’t have to worry about anything on board. Lodging, transport, food and entertainment will all be...
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If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Lobby Against ‘Em
photo by Flickr user Simon_sees In order to illustrate why U.S. carriers really hate Persian Gulf competition, I ran some fare searches last Saturday, Feb. 7. I planned a hypothetical trip from New...
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A Florida Guide For Winter-Weary Yankees
photo by Flickr user johpan New Englanders are not flocking to Florida’s sunny shores right now. This is probably because they are trapped by snow up to the dormers on their Capes and Colonials....
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Giving Back To Fellow Travelers
photo by Franklin Heijnen I was on a trip to Salt Lake City with several colleagues and my older daughter last year, and we needed to find a place to eat dinner. My daughter has a system for these...
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Banning Reclining Seats In Coach
photo by Matthew Hurst If I go to a Broadway show, my seat does not recline. More important, at least to me, is that neither does the seat in front of me. I don’t get a reclining seat at the baseball...
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Where Are The Missing Holiday Travelers?
photo by Flickr user vxla During a long drive with a new Toyota from Florida to New York last week, I paid less than $2 a gallon of regular grade gasoline on most of route. Even buying “top tier” gas –...
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JetBlue Kicks Me To The Curb
photo by Anthony Quintano On the final Monday in December I booked - or rather, I had my assistant book - 15 flights on JetBlue, extending through April 1. Those flights were not all for me, thank...
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A Customer Complaint That Got Results
photo by Anthony Quintano Sometimes a customer complaint is heard and addressed in a way that not only satisfies that particular customer, but also spares many others similar grief. It is a nice...
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