Recorded in the Marriott Courtyard in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the current “blogstorm” about United Airlines’ poor customer service provides the data to calculate the true cost of connecting flights. A recent combined business and family trip to New York City makes me realize that my family isn’t a burden in my travels, but instead an eyeopener. Listeners comment on my recent blog posts; one uses Twitter to report his hotel broadband speed test results. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.

Here are the show notes from TravelCommons podcast #55:

• Intro music — Warmth by Makkina
• Recorded in Marriott Courtyard in Chapel Hill, NC
• Been on a weekly commute to San Francisco, though did get in a combo business/family trip to New York the week before last
• Have had very few problems flying to the Bay Area, but this last flight back from LaGuardia had us sitting on the runway for 3 hours
• Bridge Music — Did We Make It by Casey Desmond
• Drew Leifheit of the Budacast podcast recounts a fond childhood memory of eating pecan pie while flying Delta with his grandmother
• John F corrects Barbara Higgins’ (United Airlines’ VP of customer experience) confusion between proactive and reactive customer service
• Daniel Perez of the Gamer Traveler Podcast is surprised to see US TSA agents in Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport
• Mika Pyyhkala has been twittering his Speakeasy broadband speed tests
• Steve Frick of the Frick’s World blog has inspired me to take pictures out my hotel room window and add them to Flickr’s View From Here collection
• Bridge Music — Throwing up on the plane by Electromagnetic Impulses
• Recent TravelCommons blog posts on United Airlines customer service got looped into the edge of a growing “blogstorm”
• Articles in the Chicago Tribune and USAToday have fueled the storm
• The May 14th entry in the Briana’s Random Access Babble blog gives a detailed account of her efforts to fly from New York to Las Vegas to visit her family for the weekend; also a detailed accounting of her out-of-pocket costs caused by missed flight connections in Denver
• We use Briana’s cash outlay figures to calculate the true cost of a connecting flight
• Leo Vegoda’s recent missed connection experience in Washington’s Dulles airport validates the findings reported in an International Herald Tribune article that says FAA flight delay statistics grossly understate the actual passenger delays
• Bridge Music — Ghost by Hollow Horse
• I don’t seem to have to “downshift” as much anymore when traveling with my family
• Traveling with my daughter has bumped me out of my usual rut
• Closing music — iTunes link to Pictures of You by Evangeline
• Bridge music from the Podsafe Music Network
• 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