Filed under: Business, North America, United States, Transportation, News

The cost of travel is expected to rise — but this is the least important thing we need to worry about for 2008 — states expert travel-troubleshooter Chris Elliot in his latest piece on MSNBC. He always seems to be out there warning us of travel-traps so we can avoid them.

So what are some of the travel trends that are going to get the better of us in 2008?

• Shelling out “convenience fees”: Paying that extra dollar or two for using your credit card, renting a car, or booking on the internet. According to Elliot, the disclosure of these fees will be negligible so you should be able to speak your way out of paying them.
• Paying energy surcharges that have nothing to do with your bookings: Hotels and cruise-liners are increasingly seen to charge you for energy costs that have nothing to do with your stay or cruise booking. Should you see such surcharges on your contract that have not been provisioned for from the beginning, ask them to be deleted.
• Higher cost for vehicle rentals: Not only will there be a general price increase (2-4%), you might often be convinced to go for additional features/amenities when making your booking: unnecessary insurance, or succumbing to paying extra for a GPS navigation system. Don’t pay for what you don’t really need.
• Awful traffic congestion: With about 250 million cars on the road in the US, this is inevitable. Take the train for a change?
• Hotels taking customers for granted: Seems like you’ll have to pay a bigger price for being in hotels of choice. With the price of room rates increasing by 6%, and a 63% rate of occupancy — hotels can charge what they like and people will have to pay for it.
• Consolidation of companies: Anticipate more mergers next year. This will mean fewer hotel, airline, or vehicle rental companies; not necessarily the win-win situation they claim to be.

These seem to be trends specifically for the US that warrant more fees, more traffic, more headaches oh my. Have a full read of the piece here.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Activism, Hiking, Books, Transportation

Over at World Hum, Frank Bures has an interesting interview with Will Self, a British novelist, journalist, and ardent defender of the long, meandering walk. Last year, on a journey from London to New York, Self walked the 26 miles from his home in south London to Heathrow Airport, then walked 20 miles from JFK in New York to his hotel in Manhattan.

For this peripatetic author, the urban hikes are about more than fitness; indeed, Self is often seeking puffing on a cigarette during his walks. Self is a student of psychogeography, a very smart-sounding term that is actually relatively simple– it’s about removing city dwellers from their hermetically-sealed modes of transportation– cars, subways, buses– and finding a way for them to really experience the urban landscape.

“People don’t know where they are anymore, ” he stated last year in a story about his lengthy airport walks. “In the post-industrial age, this is the only form of real exploration left. Anyone can go and see the Ituri pygmy, but how many people have walked all the way from the airport to the city?”

In the World Hum interview, Self compares his practice of psychogeography to another of his passions, writing. “Like writing-which is low start-up, all you need is a pen and a piece of paper-psychogeography is bare-bones. You just get out there and experience. It doesn’t require the hypermediated world, it is more akin to a meditational practice.”

Check out Self’s new book Psychogeography right here.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Business, North America, United Says, Transportation, News

The cost of travel is expected to rise — but this is the least important thing we need to worry about for 2008 — says expert travel-troubleshooter Chris Elliot in his latest piece on MSNBC. He always seems to be out there warning us of travel-traps so we can avoid them.

So what are some of the travel trends that are going to get the superior of us in 2008?

• Shelling out “convenience fees”: Paying that extra dollar or two for using your credit card, renting a car, or booking on the internet. According to Elliot, the disclosure of these fees will be negligible so you should be able to speak your way out of paying them.
• Paying energy surcharges that have nothing to do with your bookings: Hotels and cruise-liners are increasingly seen to charge you for energy costs that have nothing to do with your stay or cruise booking. Should you see such surcharges on your contract that have not been provisioned for from the beginning, ask them to be deleted.
• Higher cost for car rentals: Not only will there be a general price increase (2-4%), you might often be convinced to go for additional features/amenities when making your booking: unnecessary insurance, or succumbing to paying extra for a GPS navigation system. Don’t pay for what you don’t really need.
• Awful traffic congestion: With about 250 million automobiles on the road in the US, this is inevitable. Take the train for a change?
• Hotels taking customers for granted: Seems like you will have to pay a larger price for being in hotels of choice. With the price of room rates increasing by 6%, and a 63% rate of occupancy — hotels can charge what they like and people will have to pay for it.
• Consolidation of companies: Expect more mergers next year. This will mean fewer hotel, airline, or automobile rental companies; not necessarily the win-win situation they claim to be.

These seem to be trends specifically for the US that warrant more fees, more traffic, more headaches oh my. Have a full read of the piece here.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Activism, Hiking, Books, Transportation

Over at World Hum, Frank Bures has an interesting interview with Will Self, a British novelist, journalist, and ardent defender of the long, meandering walk. Last year, on a journey from London to New York, Self walked the 26 miles from his home in south London to Heathrow Airport, then walked 20 miles from JFK in New York to his hotel in Manhattan.

For this peripatetic author, the urban hikes are about more than fitness; indeed, Self is often seeking puffing on a cigarette during his walks. Self is a student of psychogeography, a very smart-sounding term that is actually relatively simple– it’s about removing city dwellers from their hermetically-sealed modes of transportation– cars, subways, buses– and finding a way for them to really experience the urban landscape.

“People don’t know where they’re anymore, ” he stated last year in a story about his lengthy airport walks. “In the post-industrial age, this is the only form of real exploration left. Anyone can go and see the Ituri pygmy, but how many people have walked all the way from the airport to the city?”

In the World Hum interview, Self compares his practice of psychogeography to another of his passions, writing. “Like writing-which is low start-up, all you need is a pen and a piece of paper-psychogeography is bare-bones. You just get out there and experience. It doesn’t require the hypermediated world, it is more akin to a meditational practice.”

Check out Self’s new book Psychogeography right here.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Blogs, United Says, Airlines, Transportation, Airports

On December 24th, when I was at the airport in Columbus to send my mom off on Continental Airlines for a trip to see my brother in Manhattan, I heard a few announcements over the loud speaker. One was from an airline about an article of clothing left on the plane. Would the person who left it please return to the gate? Then there was an announcement about a cell phone left in the bin at security.

With travel having a hectic quality about it, leaving belongings behind is general. I hoped whoever was being beckoned heard the come hither notices and thought how nice it was that an effort was being made to reunite people with their belongings even though the loss was due to passenger error. I’ve had my own left behind incidences. Most ended happily.

According to Jaunted, TSA in Newark gets kudos for making more effort than all TSAs to make sure people hook up once more with whatever they’ve left behind. One person left a $30,000 Rolex watch. Can you envision forgetting such a thing? I’d be sad if my Swatch watch with the butterfly on it that I bought in Hsinchu, Taiwan went missing. Come to think of it, where is that thing? The laundry room. I need this TSA in my house.

There are four people with Newark’s TSA who spend their work days helping to make the reunions happen. Most people never get their stuff back because most don’t go looking. If you ever leave anything behind, go find it. Maybe you’ll get lucky. If you’re in Newark, chances are you’ll. There is also a chance that Newark’s TSA methods will be implemented elsewhere since it’s been successful. Hmm, if 15% is successful and they’ve the ideal system, just consider the stockpile of stuff at airports.

Share This

Share This