Just when I’d reset my body clock after a trip to Beijing, I headed off for an 8-day around-the-world itinerary. It was 44 hours of flight time, setting a new personal record for stupid travel. I learned a few new things along the way — Singapore Air flight attendants get grumpy when you don’t let them…
Read More
Doing a bit more travel since the last episode, so have more to talk about. First business trip of the year started out great, but quickly deteriorated as weather delays forced me to make quick changes. I update my trip management app recommendations after TripCase released the latest rev of their app, and talk about…
Read More
In the last podcast, I did a side-by-side comparison of the free versions of the leading trip management apps. In an article on the Tnooz website, I dug deeper, expanding my comparison to the free and paid versions of TripIt, TripCase, and WorldMate. My conclusions didn’t change much. THE TCRITIC TAKE: TripCase for smartphone only;…
Read More
Traveling to New York earlier this month, I missed Hurricane Sandy but took the full brunt of the follow-up nor’easter that the Weather Channel helpfully named Athena. The travel havoc wreaked by the wind and snow was a perfect setting for a side-by-side comparison of the free versions of the leading trip management apps —…
Read MoreBack in the TravelCommons studios after a couple months of summer break. We open up with thoughts about skipping rental cars, sharing listener comments on the Chicago Layover Excursion video, and the current state of American Airlines — great new airplanes, deteriorating on-time stats. Michael Komarnitsky, the founder and CEO of GoMiles, talks about why…
Read More
I’ve been planning a solo road trip to see some old friends. Driving south on I-65 from Chicago to Louisville, Nashville, and Mobile, and then across Alabama and Mississippi Gulf coasts — the western half of the Redneck Riviera – then up I-55 to Memphis, and then back home to Chicago. It’s a 2,000-mile loop…
Read More
A backpack stolen from the train to the airport — or more specifically, passports inside the stolen backpack — unexpectedly extends a beer-tasting weekend in Brussels. During my recent international trips, I find that Apple’s FaceTime and iMessage aren’t working reliably — could be because of hotel WiFi bandwidth constraints. TSA’s PreCheck expedited security screening…
Read More