TravelCommons

TravelCommons

It’s As Much About the Journey as the Destination

  • Podcast #63 – The 733-Mile Stare; TSA Can’t Help Themselves

    Recorded in the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago after a week of skiing in Colorado. In this episode, we talk about some of the difficulties faced by today’s frequent travelers. A listener gives a blow-by-blow account of the myriad of lines he faced trying to get home from Newark. Another listener relates about the challenges Continue Reading →


  • A Head-Hanging Day

    It wasn’t that bad a day — for LaGuardia. Some strong gusts of winds in the morning resulted in two-hour departure delays by the end of the day. I had snagged a rare first-class upgrade on the 7pm flight back to O’Hare, but when I got to LaGuardia at 6:15pm and found the 5pm flight Continue Reading →


  • Podcast #62 – Flying Green; Evolution of Connectivity; Return of the Travel Agent?

    Recorded in the Newark Liberty Airport Marriott in scenic Newark, NJ. We cover a lot of ground in this episode — why business travel and Disney resorts don’t mix, some choices that can make our personal air travel a bit greener, my experience with Southwest Airline’s new Business Select program, and the reason I’ve finally Continue Reading →


  • Mating Dance of the Dinosaurs

    A spate of recent news articles point to the growing inevitability of a domino set of mergers — Northwest and Delta, immediately followed by United and Continental. The only thing that seems to be holding up the first domino is who gets to be CEO of the new DeltaNorWest. While these deals may or may Continue Reading →


  • Podcast #61 – Zen of Delays; Sneaking in a Vacation

    Recorded in the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago on a rare full week in town after trips to Amsterdam and Kansas City. In this episode, an unusual flight delay makes us think about embracing the delay rather than fighting it, and snatching a couple hour vacation in Amsterdam allows us to explore some high and Continue Reading →


  • What Was He Thinking?

    Every once in a while you read something that makes you say out loud “What was that person thinking”? Indeed, after reading more and more of these articles, I stopped commenting on them. Passenger stupidity was no longer novel. However, on my recent flight to Amsterdam, I did experience a novel level of stupidity — Continue Reading →


  • Cut Us Some Slack

    Watching United Airlines cancel more than 600 flights at the beginning of Christmas week, I was glad that I was flying Frontier Airlines to Denver later in the week for a holiday ski vacation. The US Dept of Transportation’s latest Air Travel Consumer Report supported this feeling, showing Frontier with the lowest rate of canceled Continue Reading →


  • Podcast #60 – Tips for Holiday Travel; GPS as the Hot Travel Gift

    Recorded in the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago after I’ve finished up my business travel for the year. Since a number of listeners aren’t frequent travelers, we provide some tips on how to blend in, look like a pro, and generally reduce a little of the hassle of holiday travel. Also, GPS devices are hot Continue Reading →


  • Podcast #59 – Trains to Planes; Renting a Rambling Wreck

    Recorded in the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago in the middle of the one week a year I refuse to travel — Thanksgiving Day week. With environmental and economic reasons to reduce unneeded car trips, how easy is it to take a train to and from the airport? The answer is mixed and it doesn’t Continue Reading →


  • Recalling When It Was A Movable Feast

    Northwestern University Library just launched web access to their Transportation Library Menu Collection, which includes “more than 400 menus from 54 national and international airline carriers, cruise ships, and railroad companies, with coverage from 1929 to the present.” Most of the menus are from George Foster, a Northwestern alum, who appears to have mostly flown Continue Reading →