Recorded in the San Mateo, CA Marriott, we work through a bunch of listener feedback and follow-up items, talk about what seems to be a general increase in the crankiness of frequent travelers — for good cause or the whining of spoiled brats? — and stumbling across what seemed to be the spontaneous break-out of a “Fame” episode in O’Hare. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
Here are the show notes from TravelCommons podcast #37:
- Intro music — Warmth by Makkina
- Recorded at the San Mateo, CA Marriott
- Lots of flying over the past two weeks — triangulating across SF and Atlanta last week; just SF this week
- Ate dinner at Mistral Restaurant in Redwood City, CA — the heart of Oracle land
- Bridge Music — A Rose Among Ruins (Guli Dar Wairaanahaa) by The Afghan Music Project
- Chris Christensen of the Amateur Traveler Podcast comments on the Canadian traveler story in episode #36 — -40° is the same in the in both the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales
- Dan O’Leary of the HotelCoffee podcast gives his thoughts on United Airlines‘ Ted strategy
- Allan Marko relates his recent experience with a business conference at DisneyWorld‘s Swan and Dolphin hotel
- Bridge Music — The Point of Purchase by Harry Manx
- Frequent travelers seem to be breaking out of the “cone of silence” to sound off on poor service
- Lots of niggling problems during my stay at the San Mateo Marriott probably means I won’t stay here again
- United Airlines has named a new VP of Customer Experience to improve how it interacts with travelers
- Bridge Music — Daddy Was A Preacher But Mama Was A Go-Go Girl by Southern Culture On The Skids
- Curt Taylor of the Empty Seat blog pointed to the Office Whisper article about “Slight-Status Travelers”
- A San Jose high school dance band launches into a spontaneous dance routine while waiting to board their flight home
- Direct Link to a Flickr picture of the performance
- Direct Link to a mobile phone video of the performance (in 3gp format; should be viewable with QuickTime)
- Bridge music from IODA PROMONET
- Feedback at comments[at]travelcommons.com, the comment board on podcastalley.com, or right here in the comments section below
- Direct link to the show
2 comments on “Podcast #37 – The Cranky Traveler, Spontaneous Entertainment”
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Congrats on your mileage milestone. I, with my mere 310,000 lifetime Northwest miles and Gold Elite status, bow down before the platinum man.
You hit the nail on the head with the frustrating experience with the San Mateo Marriott. It frustrates because you know they know how to deliver an excellent product, but fail to pay sufficient attention to detail. There’s really no excuse for it, either.
I’d like to take this opportunity for an announcement. You’ve been kind enough to mention my blog “This Blog Title For Sale” and I appreciate the traffic. I have recently acquired the means to pursue something I’ve wanted to do most my whole life, and that is to learn how to fly. I started about 3 weeks ago, and I started along with a blog to record my experience. “Rich’s Quest For Flight” can be found at http://questforflight.blogspot.com. It’s not terribly exciting, but if you’re curious about what it’s like to learn to fly, or might be thinking about learning, maybe it can be of some help.
As always, keep up the great work, Mark!
You worry about how badly visitors are treated by your authorities. No worries, it’s a small price to pay for the laugh we have at the forms we have to fill out – my favourite has to be asking if I had any live snails with me! Who knew you were short of molluscs?
And then there’s the whole questioning of am I a terrorist, planning to overthrow the government or indeed be a drug dealer – come on, who is ever going to answer yes, even if you were a drug dealing revolutionary terrorist! Doh!
I once showed a couple of US citizens one of these forms and they couldn’t believe the stupidity of their government in asking such stuff. But it is hillarious.