April 21, 2016: Congratulations to the City by the Bay — once again singled out by Business Travel News as the most expensive US destination for business travelers — 24.6 million visitors in 2015 paid an average of $547 a day to enjoy and or work in the city. Figure your daily hotel rate in SF at $370 a night.
And here’s a shocker — fastest increase in daily hotel rates is Detroit — the booming US auto industry is paying off the city again.
April 20, 2016: You think you’ve experienced a rough landing — take a look at this clip from a recent United Express Jet landing in Oklahoma City — the first 30 seconds a little slow but then hold on!
April 19, 2016: Stephanie Rosenbloom of the New York Times has put together a way to cheat the airlines and earn miles and points without even leaving home. Turns out living like a tourist in your own home town, enjoying all your local shopping, entertainment and restaurant can quickly earn you some extra miles on your rewards card. That, as well as choosing companies and service providers partnered with your favorite airline can really start to stack up the rewards. While it’s a neat idea for finding points you wouldn’t expect, we’re all still waiting for someone to come up with a system that earns us points without emptying our wallet!
April 18, 2016: Disney Parks are considering adding the ever unpopular “resort fees” to guest visits. Initially thoughts are to target these fees on to overnight guests at the various Walt Disney World lodging properties — then spread this easy incremental revenue add-on to California Parks and maybe other family travel resorts they operate in Hawaii.
The City of San Francisco already has something similar in place — they call it a tourism fee or tax that appears on hotel bills, restaurants and other activities. Cruise ship companies are also looking at some type of “daily” resort fee — not sure how that would impact daily staff tips — usually bundled and paid at the end of the cruise? The TC’s take — you charge me a resort fee then that’s what I consider to include any tips!
April 12, 2016: Despite reports that major US airlines have improved over the last year on landing on time, handling baggage and ensuring seats for all ticket holders, consumer satisfaction is still on the decline — with the number of complaints continuing to increase from last year. The airlines probably expect praise for doing the bare minimum of their job requirements — but perhaps landing on time 4% more often isn’t enough to forgive the rising ticket prices, add-on fees, shrinking seats, and nonexistent customer service.
April 11, 2016: By early spring, many airlines will have devaluated some of their more popular frequent flyer mileage awards — requiring more miles to find already hard to find travel awards. Lead by American Airlines (who had the courtesy to provide advance warning) and Alaska (who used an announced back door), many of the changes require more miles for international seats and seats on partner airlines. Frequent flyer programs are costly to administer, require airlines to give up seats they can now sell, and are just a cumbersome benefit that most would like to give up, now that business is so good. The TC’s advice: book on partner airlines, take the time and call to work with a reservations agent who has all the information (pay the fee — it’s worth it) and don’t be surprised if international ticket fee’s exceed $1000 — that’s still a good price for a guaranteed business class seat!
April 8. 2016: The recent TSA incident at LAX — off duty JetBlue flight attendant deadheading back to New York — trying to smuggle 11 packages of cocaine inside one of her carry on bags — street value in excess of $3 million — brought to light that off duty airline flight employees are given a “pass” when it comes to full security screening. The flight attendant dropped the package, kicked off her shoes and ran away out the terminal front door before anyone knew what was going on. The next day, dressed in street clothes, found here way to board another flight from the same airport to New York. TSA says that full screening off duty airlines employees would be expensive and time consuming. Basically, if you’re on the tourist watch list, you get the full screening program; if just a common criminal on the run, welcome aboard!
