TravelCommons

After a down-and-back trip to Tampa, this week’s topics include thoughts on the recently announced changes to America West’s and United’s boarding schemes — are they focusing on the right thing? Also, the need to stay home sometimes, and how Microsoft Research‘s personal black box project might change the way we think about travel pictures. Continue Reading →

Recorded in the bathroom of Doubletree Club in Santa Ana, CA, this week we focus on what’s going on with the airlines. A listener story about the trials of getting from Wisconsin to Pittsburgh shows the importance of person-to-person interactions to the travel experience. Does Northwest’s latest cost cutting effort foreshadow the rise of the Continue Reading →

This week’s podcast is recorded in the bathroom of the Marriott Courtyard in East Memphis. I talk about the autumn tree colors coming visible from airports up North and worry about catching avian flu while breathing the same air as 150 other travelers. I talk a bit about some changes in Memphis since my high Continue Reading →

Emptying out my notebook with an odds-‘n-ends podcast. Traveling between Phoenix, Denver and Chicago this week, I manage a 50-degree temperature drop and have the TSA reject a checked chain saw. However, I haven’t had to take my shoes off for two weeks — are we seeing the end of the shoe carnival? We also Continue Reading →

Returning from a quick trip to Austin, TX, this week’s podcast talks about the 15-part Airworld series in AdAge, the behind-the-scenes view of why every airport looks the same. A recent business trip to Detroit breaks through the state tourism propaganda and gets into the city’s true nature. Ignoring WC Fields’ advice, my kids make Continue Reading →

Bouncing around this week, I recorded this podcast in the bathroom of the Stamford, CT Marriott. Visiting St Louis’s Gateway Arch, we talk about wedging a bit of personal tourism into a packed business itinerary, how people keep mistaking physical closeness with personal closeness, and recounting some stories about mistakes even before the trip starts. Continue Reading →

Sorry for the delay in posting a new podcast, but I caught a nasty cold en route to San Francisco this week. This week, a couple of friends and long-time podcast listeners let me buy them beers at the Shearton Fisherman’s Wharf in exchange for their Classic Travel stories. I also talk the change in Continue Reading →

Traveling through the southeast US, I stopped long enough to record a podcast in the bathroom of the Durham, NC Marriott. This week’s podcast talks about two very different travel experiences at the opposite ends of Interstate 40; a special edition of Classic Travel Stories — recollections from September 11, 2001 — and the Scottish Continue Reading →

A hurricane came between me and my meetings in Tampa, so I stayed home for an entire week. This week’s podcast has a bit of local flavor and sound, talking about how to spend rare time off the road, what we’ll do for sleep, and introducing a new poll — what’s your favorite US airline? Continue Reading →

Down in Florida this week, picking up a bit of the local heat and humidity. Recorded in the bathroom of the Marriott Courtyard in Oldsmar, FL, somewhere between Tampa and Clearwater, we talk about how travel skills are passed from parents to children, spotting some famous people in ORD and LAX, rare emotions in the Continue Reading →