Travel Blog

He isn’t the first either. There was a woman from Delta airlines and a programmer from Friendster who also lost their jobs for that very reason. And lets not forget the guy who snapped pictures of Apple computers getting hauled into Microsoft. I would have done the same thing, I mean how can you stare irony in the face and not capture it for posterity (and all your web friends)? What ever happened to free speech? The scary thing is, no one has filed a lawsuit. I would venture to guess the only reason they haven’t is because they can’t.

Travelocity.

The folks at Delta cancelled the flight that I purchased. Should be no big deal, right? Right. Riiiight. It was a big deal. At 2:42 yesterday I got an email that said that I needed to call Travelocity right away, my flight reservation had changed. Turns out that my flight from Lansing to Cinncinati had been cancelled. However, I had been booked on a new flight.

So, I call Travelocity. Turns out the flight that I'd been booked on left lansing at 9:06 pm. This was problematic as my scheduled flight from Cinncinati to Atlanta left at 8:45pm. This is called a misconnect. The first gentleman I spoke with was certain that I needed to send my paper tickets back to the main Travelocity office in San Antonio so that I could be issued new tickets. I was assured that nothing could be done until I sent those paper tickets back. To accomplish the information transfer described above took around 20 minutes (most...

Well, I didn't just want a paper ticket that would misconnect me, so I called travelocity back. This time I spoke with a woman named Jennifer. Nice woman. She informed me that the fellow I'd just spoken with for the past 20 minutes was, in fact, dead wrong about sending my paper tickets back. All I needed to do was show up at the airport. Great, I thought, now all we needed to do was deal with the misconnect.

I don't know if any of you have ever been on hold with Travelocity.com, but if you have been, you're probably aware that their hold music is the sort that makes people go postal. It wouldn't have been so bad if I'd been on hold for, oh, say 10 or 15 minutes--but after 35 minutes of hold music I was about ready to start killing things.

I'm very grateful to these two women--Jennifer and the Delta representative. However, their employer, Travelocity, should be ashamed of itself. First of all, they should be properly trained so that they can deal with easy to fix problems--like mine--in something under the hour and a half that it took for them to figure out my minor problem.

I have a lot of sympathy for Jennifer. She was most likely working in India--where Travelocity has outsourced it's call center. That means that she was dealing with ornery Americans for her shift which probably went from something like Midnight to 10am, her time.

I don't really like dealing with pissy Americans ever! Imagine doing that on the night-shift. Regardless of her kind service, I'll probably refrain from working with Travelocity again. Too many stories of nightmares out there for me.

“I love Mexico,” Hilton, star of the TV reality series “The Simple Life,” told reporters in Mexico City Tuesday. “The people are so nice.”

Read more at Paris Hilton promotes wares in Mexico

These days, young women knit during their lunch breaks, on the subway and in cafes. Trendy coffee shops offer knitting classes and sell yarn. Across the country, young women get together to "stitch 'n' bitch," as a best-selling book is aptly titled. Amtrak is offering "Stitch 'n Ride" cars out of Oakland for people who prefer the click of needles to the buzz of cellphones.

Have you ever tried to get a one way flight and noticed that they seldom seem to be any cheaper than return flights ? Searching Expedia this afternoon for an Orlando to London, UK one way for this coming Tuesday gave me the option of a Delta ticket (via Atlanta for $789.60), a US Airways (via Charlotte, North Carolina for $800.10) or an American Airlines flight (via Boston) for the same price, $800.10. That was at the lowest end of the price scale.

I left Dallas on a Thursday. I found a good deal on Yahoo! travel that I couldn’t pass up. I would be flying from Dallas to Atlanta and then on to Dublin. I arrived in Atlanta feeling like Mr. World Traveler. I was ready to relax a bit during my layover and make this a nice trip, even given the fact that Delta Airlines has about half the legroom on their planes than American. So, my opinion about Delta Airlines? You suck. No wonder you’re going bankrupt.

I tend to poo-poo most worries about the erosion of privacy. I certainly don't care much about private databases such as credit agencies keeping track of me. And I really like it when I call Delta Airlines and they already know what flights I want because I'm looking at them on their website at the same time.

This is my first BLOG. It will contain my experience in a corss-country Amtrak ride where I found that Mr. President Bush is planning to cut aid to Amtrak. My experience in Amtrak was great and I wish to express my disaproval of Mr. Bush plans to remove federal aid to Amtrak.

Tops on the list: Arlington, Virginia, where 23% of the city’s workforce uses public transit to get to work (many of them, no doubt, using a transit system paid for by federal tax dollars so they can commute to government jobs. Ironic that the federal government then wants to slash funding for so many other forms of public transportation, like Amtrak). San Francisco, Seattle and Portland (Oregon) round out the cities ranked more walkable than Boston. (Washington, D.C. was 6th; New York ranked 7th).

The Federal Aviation Administration wants operators of the 112 European-made Airbus A310s and A300s registered to U.S. carriers to complete detailed rudder inspections within three months. The planes are flown primarily in the United States by cargo giant FedEx Corp. . American Airlines also operates some A300s. [Link: Reuters]

Using the language of a company with its back against the wall, the airline said that failure to ratify the tentative agreement would mean asking for even more pay and benefit cuts from its workers that could send ripples throughout the industry.

Voting began in mid-March and will end March 30 with results expected Wednesday afternoon. The new 45-month contract would go into effect as of April 1.

The leadership of the Air Line Pilots Association, International Association of Machinists, Teamsters and Transport Workers Union have endorsed the new deals.

Continental Airlines declined to comment ahead of the results.

The parent of American Airlines expects a revenue increase of three and a-half to four and a-half percent for the first three months of the year.

Amtrak sometimes oversells its popular regional trains between Boston and New York and New York and Washington, which permits unreserved ticket purchases but can leave passengers without seats.

The Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives (FWE) in Palo Alto named Travelocity chief executive officer Michelle Peluso its top woman entrepreneur.

United's maintenance and engineering division -- has been recognized as an industry- leader by winning the 2004 Charles B. Ryan Award for Business Innovation. The award will be presented on April 19 at Aviation Week's Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Conference in Dallas, Texas.

"United Services has very successfully taken a market-driven approach to MRO, shedding cost while growing its customer base, making it a deserving recipient of our annual Charles B. Ryan MRO Award," said Kenneth E. Gazzola, executive vice president/publisher-Aviation Week Group. "Challenging times led to innovation and inspired United Services with the courage to examine its MRO business and make significant strategic changes -- even exiting work segments where it could not be competitive and restructuring its collective bargaining agreements -- in order to focus its business and increase revenue."

Mann expects the jet carriers to respond with a fare war, but believes FlyHawaii could survive, just as low-cost Southwest Airlines has in other cities.

When The DHS Chief Privacy Officer requested documents about the Jet Blue/Torch Concepts data leak for a report to the public (issued Feb 20, 2004), the TSA provided some documents but sat on others for six weeks, until Feb. 17th. "The CPO said that... gave the impression that TSA had withheld the documents." Further, the CPO said that she requested information about any other airline data transfer and "TSA responded that the JetBlue matter was unique and suggested that TSA did not have a role in any other airline data transfers." If TSA made this statement, it was both false, and consistent with the false information TSA was retailing elsewhere. However, the report does its best to whitewash the TSA: "We have been unable to find documentation that unequivocally corroborates this account and TSA staff..." of course, deny everything.

Any dish in Mexico that's labeled "suiza" can be attributed to the country's Swiss immigrants. Many of these immigrants gravitated to the dairy country and ended up producing cheeses, yogurt and a version of creme fraiche called crema Mexicana. These enchiladas are some of the richest and most delicate in Mexico. Accompany with a green salad and a small serving of beans or rice.

Air France said yesterday that it plans to replace part of its aging fleet of cargo planes with Boeing's new 777 freighter, but the airline would not say whether it will become the launch customer for the proposed new airplane.

The Travelocity editors sifted through 30,000 customer nominations and picked the top 10 hidden spots for each state.

The on-again, off-again service to Elkhart of Amtrak's Chicago-New York Lake Shore Limited is on again, as of April 25.

As per the promotion, passengers receive an Apple iMac G5(17-inch 1.6 GHZ) upon completion of a paid, qualifying roundtrip flight on Northwest Airlines World Business Class(full J or C fares only) from Singapore to New York (JFK), San Francisco or Los Angeles, or an Apple iPod Mini(4 GB) upon completion of a paid qualifying roundtrip flight on Economy Class (Y or B fares only).

Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel confirmed that Air France is among the airlines interested in the new plane, but he also would not speculate on when the French airline might bring the airplane into its fleet.

•In September 2003, the agency's Freedom of Information Act staff received hundreds of requests from Jet Blue passengers asking if the TSA had their records. After a cursory search, the FOIA staff posted a notice on the TSA Web site that it had no JetBlue passenger data. Though the FOIA staff found JetBlue passenger records in TSA's possession in May, the notice stayed on the Web site for more than a year.

Come July 1, Birmingham travelers will be able to catch another daily non-stop flight to Tampa, Fla. Delta Airlines announced this week it will offer the service through connection carrier Chautauqua Airlines.

United Airlines says it's so happy with the snack boxes it sells on discount sibling Ted that it'll start selling them on some of its own flights starting in about 10 days.

Celebrity Cruises canceled its 10-night Hawaii cruise on March 27 aboard the Infinity.

The concerns expressed by consumers in the Harris Interactive survey about hotel showers are not uncommon and all of those challenges in addition to others were addressed by the Holiday Inn Express brand's upgraded shower experience. The aptly named SimplySmart shower initiative is centered on a proprietary multi-function showerhead by Kohler® which automatically compensates for a variety of water pressure challenges. It also features upgraded 100 percent cotton towels; white, hookless shower curtains with curved rods which add 25 percent more space; cotton loop bath rugs; and a sleek new line of bath amenities, featuring a proprietary cinnamon roll- inspired scent.

Amtrak says only one other train was delayed by the incident and trains are back on schedule.

Jet Blue pilots, too, are very gracious and will, if time permits allow kids to have a good look at the cockpit. Further, they let them flip any switches they wanted to and never yelled, even took time to tell them what each area of the dashboard did.

A court in the Jamaican capital Kingstone on Tuesday sentenced Masataka Ikeya, 20, to nine months in prison and imposed a fine of $1,642, while a court in Montego Bay on Wednesday sentenced Aoi Yamaki, 24, a Tokyo office worker, to eight months in prison and fined her $3,136, they said.

Glenn Tilton, United Airlines chief executive, said Thursday higher fuel prices probably will cause the recent airfare increase to stay in place, MarketWatch reports.

US President George W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, and Mexican President Vicente Fox unveiled the proposal after talks at Baylor University, to be followed by lunch at Bush's nearby ranch.

"Holiday Inn is rooted in innovation and forward thinking, all the way back to the days of Kemmons Wilson's vision for the ideal American hotel brand," said Mark Snyder, senior vice president of brand management for Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts in the Americas. "These self-service kiosks are the next evolution of that vision, providing more customer-enabling technology for increasingly busy families and business travelers."

Air France-KLM, the world's biggest airline after a merger last year of the French and Dutch flag carriers, is to bring together their two frequent-flyer programmes, it said in a statement Wednesday.

"Amtrak is dying, and if we continue down the current track, there is no hope of recovery," Mineta said. "We have a different vision where the Northeast Corridor becomes a world-class example of modern passenger rail travel."

Twenty years ago, she had a string of low-paid jobs selling airline tickets to rich travellers; these days Rita Sharma is among the richest travellers of all.

The NFL is in Hawaii today, and the San Diego Chargers could be here tomorrow.

American Airlines, Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. joined Continental Airlines Inc. in raising some fares for the third time since Feb. 24, bringing the total increase to as much as $50 round trip.

Southwest Airlines - come April first - will begin charging passengers if their suitcases are too heavy.

Counting both American Airlines and American Eagle, the carrier flies between 200,000 and 300,000 people a day, Arpey said. Small increases in fares -- say, $5 or $10 each way -- can have a big impact.

Mar. 19--Late next week, Las Vegas' hottest party will occur inside a massive South Beach mansion located nearly 2,600 miles east of the Strip.

Selina Chan is the new Market Manager for South East Asia, Steven Ler becomes Market Manager for Greater China and India, while Katie Han is the Market Manager for South Korea. They will support current Market Manager, Mark Hillman, who has been with Travelocity�s Asia Pacific team since its establishment in 2004. Hillman will now focus on driving business into the partner hotels in the Pacific market and Japan. Alex Nieuwenhuys has been appointed Market Coordinator Asia Pacific.

"Our pay, benefit, and pension cuts helped to fund the exorbitant Success Sharing bonuses for Tilton and his team," AMFA Local 9 President Joseph Prisco stated. "We do not understand Tilton's view of 'Success.' Neither do we get his concept of 'Sharing.'" AMFA Local 9 members take the news of this pay grab as a sign of arrogance, greed, and a complete lack of respect for the hard working employees that actually deliver the record setting operational excellence for United Airlines."

The airlines marketing gurus are at it again as Seth Godin points out on his blog - Pre-Bankruptcy Marketing.

Also, United is taking American on since American abandoned its "more leg room in coach" policy. American is adding back seats to make customers less comfortable but make more revenue for the airline by having more seats. United is spending 20 million dollars on an ad campaign to point this out to flyers. It must be nice to have your competitor serve up such a nice fat softball. Click here for the article in Advertising Age.

Russell Sears was at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on March 20th when he was trying to decide if he should keep playing a $1 Wheel of Fortune slot machine or should just go to bed. Turns out he made the right decision as he spun a winning combination and won $4.1 Million!

When asked what he would do with the money, the 59 year old New Yorker said he would be looking into moving up his retirement as soon as he got back home. Not bad!

Proving the old maxim that "even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then," the Chronicle’s editorial board is absolutely right about repealing the Wright Amendment. That law prevents Southwest Airlines from operating long-haul flights out of Love Field:

The restrictions might have been justified at the time in order to protect the fledgling Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and regional hub from its much smaller but more convenient inner-city rival. They also gave American Airlines, based at D-FW, an effective monopoly on long range flights from the area. As a result, American was partially protected in its North Texas market from the effects of federal airline deregulation that stimulated competition – and lower air fares – in other parts of the country.

DALLAS Dallas-based Southwest Airlines plans to support a group of pilots who are challenging a federal rule that forces them to retire at age 60.

Winter is here, and the shoe shiners of Las Vegas are savoring snakeskin boots, Italian penny loafers and high-priced dress shoes. Summer flip-flops and sandals, the bane of the shoe shiner's existence, are gone.