Author: mark
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Podcast #77 – Keeping Traveler Data Private, What I Miss When Off The Road
Again in Washington, DC, I’m back on the road after two weeks at home. As my Twitter followers know, this trip didn’t get off to the best start — a 2 hour delay caused by yet another broken United Airlines plane. Listener comments continue the threads on in-flight bans on smartphones and falling prices of in-flight Wi-Fi. The collapse of… Continue Reading →
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Podcast #75 – Can’t I Fly Unplugged, How I Got Here
Recorded in the St Louis Airport Marriott courtesy of a blown connection by Southwest. We clean out the TravelCommons mail bag, going through listener comments on disabling in-flight electronics, eating alone, and finding good non-chain food on the road. We talk about the sudden collapse of the CLEAR registered traveler program and if in-flight WiFi will really improve frequent traveler… Continue Reading →
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Shoehorning In More Plane Seats
A Wall Street Journal Middle Seat column illustrated how airlines can make a good thing bad — flipping the proverb to turn a silk purse into a sow’s ear. In March, American Airlines restarted their program to replace their old gas-guzzling MD-80’s with sparkling new Boeing 737-800’s. As someone who earned 2+ million American AAdvantage miles, I’ve spent a lot… Continue Reading →
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Podcast #74 – Looking Back Over Four Years of TravelCommons
Recorded in the Seattle Marriott Waterfront, this special 4th-year anniversary edition collates the best bits from four years of TravelCommons podcasts. Starting with the “hotel medley” — the roll call of all the hotels that have served as TravelCommons’ recording studios, we move on to excerpts from stories about the TSA, Bose headphones, memories of better airplane food, the hassles… Continue Reading →
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What’s the Value of Business Class… to the Passenger?
The International Air Transport Association reported earlier this month that premium ticket purchases fell 21% globally in February — which follows January’s decline of 16.7%. Part of the drop is due to falling air traffic, but a good bit of it is from tighter corporate travel policies that are pushing mid-level executives to the back of the plane. Not good for… Continue Reading →
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Podcast #73 – Eating Alone on The Road, More Things You Never Want to Hear
Recorded somewhere over the Atlantic in the business class toilet of a South African Airways A340 and the Rosebank Hotel in Johannesburg at the start of a week’s stay in South Africa. We talk about inconsistent rules for mobile devices on planes, the value of renewing my CLEAR registered traveler membership, the three things that make a restaurant a great… Continue Reading →
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Denver TSA Performance Poor Because of Management Harrassment
I travel frequently through Denver International Airport (DEN) to visit family and to ski. From this first-hand experience, I’ve always believed that the DEN TSA crew is among the nation’s worst. According to an internal TSA report, a key reason is the local TSA management. Denver’s NBC affiliate obtained a copy of the report and ran an investigative segment on… Continue Reading →