TravelCommons

Tag: American Airlines

  • Podcast #199 — Smile for Security: Facial Recognition in Travel

    Podcast #199 — Smile for Security: Facial Recognition in Travel

    Using my face as my boarding pass to get on a flight to Oaxaca, Mexico and then as my passport to get back in the US got me thinking about how facial recognition has permeated the travel experience. To help us understand where this is going, we talk with two travel industry experts, Dr. Sheldon Continue Reading →

  • Podcast #195 — Checking Out Holland’s Tulip Festival

    Podcast #195 — Checking Out Holland’s Tulip Festival

    In this episode, I dive deep into our Dutch tulip-themed trip last April. Before the tulip festival stories, I randomly wander through a potpourri of travel topics — TSA passenger volumes returning to pre-COVID levels, having a surprisingly satisfying customer service experience with American Airlines, Hertz’s EV push, and a bit of a chuckle about Continue Reading →

  • Podcast #182 — More COVID Changes; Words That Mean Adventure

    Podcast #182 — More COVID Changes; Words That Mean Adventure

    Back in front of the microphone after a two-week trip to the UK, getting back home just before the new Omicron travel restrictions hit. We talk about getting to London, surfing the waves of changing travel requirements, a new way to renew Global Entry, moan a bit more about the inexorable advance of the cashless Continue Reading →

  • Podcast #169 — Pandemic Holiday Gift Guide; Year-End Status Offers

    Podcast #169 — Pandemic Holiday Gift Guide; Year-End Status Offers

    No travel since the last episode, so I had some time to think back through my post-lockdown travel and come up with my top 10 gift ideas for your pandemic travelers. We look at the start of the year-end efforts by airlines, hotels, and credit card companies to keep their grounded travelers, unpack the work-from-hotel Continue Reading →

  • Podcast #167 — 6 Months On; Why Keep Travel Cards?

    Podcast #167 — 6 Months On; Why Keep Travel Cards?

    Spent a week in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula hiking, biking, kayaking, and running into a lot of other people getting away to do the same, which got me looking back six months to the start of the pandemic. I talk about a surprisingly good flight cancellation experience with American Airlines, and figuring out how to download Continue Reading →

  • Podcast #166 — What Is The Meaning of Travel?

    Podcast #166 — What Is The Meaning of Travel?

    Reindeer are ruining my cabin porn Trying to plan an August trip amidst dueling state quarantine lists and rapid lockdown changes while writing off my September plans for Barcelona. What’s worse – hotels cutting back on housekeeping or breakfasts? And talking with Emily Thomas about her new book The Meaning of Travel: Philosophers Abroad. All Continue Reading →

  • Podcast #164 — First-Post Lockdown Trips; Travel Credit Cards

    Podcast #164 — First-Post Lockdown Trips; Travel Credit Cards

    Can I leave my house now? I broke Chicago’s containment for my first post-lockdown trip, a fast drive down I-65. We talk about hotels swapping hospitality for sanitation, Hertz’s bankruptcy, and tips for travel credit card usage from Brett Holzhauer, the travel card expert at ValuePenguin.com. All this and more at the direct link to the Continue Reading →

  • Podcast #155 — RJ Delays; Street Food in Poland and Hungary

    Podcast #155 — RJ Delays; Street Food in Poland and Hungary

    Polish health food Didn’t have any problems with the 787’s flying 4,800 miles to Krakow or back from Budapest, but the 560-mile regional jet flights between Chicago and Charlottesville, VA have been causing me no end of hassles. We talk about this, revisit our discussions about iPhone dual SIM capability and American Airlines’ MD-80 retirement. Continue Reading →