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Last week, I had to get from downtown Washington DC to a Northern Virginia suburb for a client dinner. I looked at the Metro map, rang up some car services, but finally gritted my teeth and rented a car. That’s pretty much my attitude toward car rentals these days — the choice of last resort. Continue Reading →
Coming to you today from the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago, Illinois at the start of what’s looking like 6 weeks of straight travel. In this episode, we talk about the need to have a place to blow off steam after a frustrating day of travel, and how the distractions of cell phone calls have Continue Reading →
Again in Washington, DC, I’m back on the road after two weeks at home. As my Twitter followers know, this trip didn’t get off to the best start — a 2 hour delay caused by yet another broken United Airlines plane. Listener comments continue the threads on in-flight bans on smartphones and falling prices of Continue Reading →
Recorded in the St Louis Airport Marriott courtesy of a blown connection by Southwest. We clean out the TravelCommons mail bag, going through listener comments on disabling in-flight electronics, eating alone, and finding good non-chain food on the road. We talk about the sudden collapse of the CLEAR registered traveler program and if in-flight WiFi Continue Reading →
A Wall Street Journal Middle Seat column illustrated how airlines can make a good thing bad — flipping the proverb to turn a silk purse into a sow’s ear. In March, American Airlines restarted their program to replace their old gas-guzzling MD-80’s with sparkling new Boeing 737-800’s. As someone who earned 2+ million American AAdvantage Continue Reading →
Recorded in the Seattle Marriott Waterfront, this special 4th-year anniversary edition collates the best bits from four years of TravelCommons podcasts. Starting with the “hotel medley” — the roll call of all the hotels that have served as TravelCommons’ recording studios, we move on to excerpts from stories about the TSA, Bose headphones, memories of Continue Reading →
The International Air Transport Association reported earlier this month that premium ticket purchases fell 21% globally in February — which follows January’s decline of 16.7%. Part of the drop is due to falling air traffic, but a good bit of it is from tighter corporate travel policies that are pushing mid-level executives to the back of Continue Reading →
Recorded somewhere over the Atlantic in the business class toilet of a South African Airways A340 and the Rosebank Hotel in Johannesburg at the start of a week’s stay in South Africa. We talk about inconsistent rules for mobile devices on planes, the value of renewing my CLEAR registered traveler membership, the three things that Continue Reading →
I travel frequently through Denver International Airport (DEN) to visit family and to ski. From this first-hand experience, I’ve always believed that the DEN TSA crew is among the nation’s worst. According to an internal TSA report, a key reason is the local TSA management. Denver’s NBC affiliate obtained a copy of the report and Continue Reading →