Podcast #99 — Downgrading Elite Fliers; Finding Time Off the Road
United Airlines’ CFO garnered some less-than-desired attention last month when he said that “certain groups” in the Mileage Plus program were “over-entitled”. United is the most recent airline to work on “realigning benefits” — downgrading their elite fliers, especially those in the lower status tiers. We talk about how that impacts frequent flier strategies. We...
Podcast #98 — Stolen Luggage & Passports; Restaurants Want Your Smartphone
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...
Podcast #97 — 1st Trip to Beijing; Most Important Hotel Technology
Lots of travel has kept me away from the mic — Beijing, London, Vienna, Phoenix, New York, and New Orleans. Big difference in airline load factor between international and domestic flights. The international flights were at 30-50% capacity while the domestic flights were booked solid. These trips allowed me to compare the different treatment US...
Podcast #96 — Eating and Drinking with Social Media; Frequent Flier Alliances
Finishing up my annual 2-week travel sabbatical in an unseasonably warm Chicago. In this episode, a listener asks about if and when to use travel compression socks, we discern the popularity of in-flight Wi-Fi service from Gogo’s IPO filing, and dissect a recent article on the best airports for tech users. We look at the...
Podcast #95 — Holiday Travel Tips; Bad Spirit In The Air
Once again skipping the mayhem of the busiest travel week of the year, though it’s getting more difficult as the Thanksgiving travel crush seems to start earlier each year. Good listener comments about last episode’s story of a rare prop plane flight sitting next to a “passenger of size”; then my own thoughts on USAir‘s...
Podcast #100 — Southern Road Trip; Breaking Up with American Airlines
Back in the TravelCommons studios after a 2,100-mile drive through the Mid-South. We genuflect quickly to the milestone episode number and then move onto the topics at hand — best piece of hardware schwag from Google I/O 2012, a slightly icky subway ride from downtown San Francisco to SFO, a grab bag of observations from...