Recorded in Marriott Courtyard in San Francisco‘s SoMa district, I confess to some base emotions — my inner child has been throwing tantrums now that American and United Airlines have taken away some of the special treatment they used to give their mid-tier status fliers. I also had a bit of an awakening while on vacation with my family in South Africa — the number of electronic devices they carry has mushroomed and they suffer from bad Internet withdrawal. We have a few stories about how diapers make for some “smelly skies”, a listener finds great free bandwidth in Denver, and we feature some listener music. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.

Here are the show notes from TravelCommons podcast #53:

• Intro music — Warmth by Makkina
• Recorded in Marriott Courtyard in San Francisco’s SoMa district
• Bridge Music — Jazz Suite for Saxophone Quartet #1 by Vierung
• Ed Vawter wrote in with about a young couple in the row behind him who stuffed their baby’s dirty diaper in the seat-back pocket on a flight from Chicago to Portland
• My breakfast on a South Africa Airways flight to Cape Town was spoiled by a young couple changing their baby’s dirty diaper in the row in front of me
• A listener staying at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Denver found their Internet service scored a smokin’ 4800 kbps down and 4100 kbps up on the Speakeasy.net bandwidth test
• Bridge Music — Solen by Marc Löhrwald
• In past episodes, we’ve talked about how many airlines are devaluing their mid-tier status levels
• United has literally put out a red carpet for first class, and the top tier fliers – 1K and Global Services – and left the plain old tile line for everyone else
• Direct link to IT Conversations podcast on Creating Customer Loyalty
• What started as a nice gesture from the manager of the JFK Courtyard backfired when they didn’t live up to the expectations they created
• Bridge Music — Hola Cape Town by the Sivukile Marimba Band. Here’s a picture I took of the band right before my daughter bought their CD
• Most frequent travelers have a pretty finely tuned travel routine and are, for the most part, solitary figures, sort of throwbacks to the hunter-gatherers of pre-history
• Traveling with their family requires some significant attitude adjustment
• During our vacation to South Africa, I was completely taken aback by the number of electronic devices my family carried that needed recharging
• The other think that struck me was my family coming almost unglued when deprived of their Internet access
• Closing music — iTunes link to Pictures of You by Evangeline
• 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