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Travel Log

• Monday Rave: Rental Car Save
  There was some kind of computer glitch, I suppose, that cancelled my last-minute car rental at Logan Airport in Boston. I certainly didn't call to cancel the car I would need to get to Cape Cod for my friends' wedding. If you were reading last week, you'd know that rental got mysteriously keyed at the end of the weekend, but that's not what I'm writing about today. I'm writing about Hertz's customer service. It was a dark and stormy night in East Boston, and the line at the rental car counter was long. When I finally got to the front of the line, I gave the agent my name, hoping the reservation would pop up and she'd hand me my contract so I could hit the road. When she started making faces, I started worrying. Somehow, my reservation, which I'd made that morning on Hotwire.com, got cancelled between booking (and
• Southwest Security Line Changes
  Southwest is apparently trying to make itself even more attractive to business travelers by offering priority security lines for its best customers. Travelers holding business select tickets, or those with "A-List" designations (must fly at least 18 round-trip flights per year) will get access to the fast lanes, which will start later this month at seven airports, including BWI. The airline plans to add additional airports to its "Fly By" system in November. In a press release, Kevin Krone, Southwest's VP of marking, sales and distribution said, "Expediting passengers through security is just one example of how Southwest is enhancing the customer experience by offering added convenience for seasoned travelers." That's a different tune than the one sung back in 2006 when the legacy airlines all started creating high-speed lanes for their frequent flyers. "All of our passengers are elite," a Southwest spokesman told USA Today at the time in
• Forbes Rates the Airlines
  On Wednesday, Forbes.com published the results of a study it conducted to determine which American airlines are the most reliable -- and unreliable. Ten major airlines were judged in six categories based on five years' worth of stats provided by the Aviation Consumer Protection Division of the Department of Transportation. Categories included on-time arrival percentages, cancellations, complaints and mishandled baggage. According to Forbes, delays and cancellations were counted twice, and the study also incorporated consumer satisfaction rankings by the survey group J.D. Power and Associates. Then, because financial solvency isn't a guarantee these days (and this is a Forbes study, after all), the authors looked at the airlines' asset-to-liability ratio for the latest quarter. So, let's cut to the chase. Who's #1? Southwest, hands down. The discount carrier ranked highest in on-time arrival (more than 80 percent of the time, compared to the industry-wide average, 76.8 percent) and flight cancellations
• New Car-Sharing Options
  Enterprise and U-Haul have recently launched car-sharing programs -- rent a car by the hour, gas and insurance included. Our fair city has hosted car-sharing programs -- first Flexcar and Zipcar, then just Zipcar -- for years, but Enterprise and U-Haul are joining the party now too. Let's look at the new kids on the block: U-Haul's program, called U Car Share, allows members to rent a car (not just a moving van) by the day or hour, picking it up and returning it to U Haul locations only. (By contrast, Zipcars are sprinkled throughout the city and suburbs.) U-Haul is now operating in twelve metro areas: Ann Arbor, Mich.; Austin, Tex.; Berkeley, Calif.; Boston; Chicago; College Station, Penn.; Madison, Wis.; Philadelphia; Portland, Ore.; San Francisco; Seattle and Washington, DC. There are five U Car Share locations near Washington, all of them in Maryland and some Metro-accessible: in Hyattsville (near
• A Prius, a Keying and the Cape
  Last Thursday night, my beau and I went to Cape Cod for my good friends' wedding. We flew into Boston on AirTran - only a few minutes delayed! - and made our way to Hertz to pick up the car I'd rented through Hotwire. Unfortunately, the agents at the counter said that my reservation was in the system, but it had been cancelled earlier that day. Whaaa? After a futile call to Hotwire (I'd stupidly forgotten to bring my reservation number, so the Hotwire agent couldn't find me in the system), I finally gave up and decided to re-book, since it was past 9 p.m. and we still had a two-hour drive ahead of us. Fortunately, the woman at the Hertz counter didn't just re-book me; she went above and beyond to find us hidden discounts -- through AAA, through my credit card -- and even got us a deal
• The Monday Rant: Overrated? Really?
  Everyone knows that there are a thousand places everyone must see before they die (uh-huh), but isn't there an equal number of places that you must avoid before you die? In other words, what are the world's most overrated travel destinations? That's the question we put to readers of our weekly online chat recently, and suffice it to say that places like Disney's Epcot came in for their share of abuse ("It was like visiting the Smithsonian while riding bumper cars"), as did Key West ("The restaurants are 'meh' and really, I can make margaritas at home that are just as good"). But no place was safe, not even such venerable landmarks as Stonehenge ("At the end of the day ... it's a bunch of rocks - behind a fence!) and the Taj Mahal ("Look at a photo. You're getting just as much out of it as anyone who's ever
• Friday Photo: Look Out Below!
  When you're used to seeing cranes spanning the horizon and construction workers scaling scaffolding wearing safety harnesses and helmets, seeing a construction site like this can be a little jarring. That was the reaction of this week's Friday Photo winner, Jean Gratz of Charlottesville, who snapped this picture earlier this week in Tanzania. Gratz writes: This photo was taken on Sunday Sept 21 2008 in Stonetown, Zanzibar. My travel partner and I arrived and planned to wander around. We saw two guys with a long slim pole and were very curious what it was to be used for. When we returned a couple of hours later, this scaffolding was being erected, lashed together with rope. Having worked in the safety field I can imagine what OSHA would have to say. I guess risk is relative. Have a travel photo you want to share? Here's how to submit it to our
• Turbulence: Alitalia's Future in Trouble
  UPDATE: 1:30 p.m. Monday...The last of the airline's nine labor unions today signed on to a rescue plan, which means that the airline will continue flying for now. An investor group has made an offer, but it must find a foreign airline partner to make the plan work. Negotiations with Air France-KLM and Lufthansa are being conducted. Next deadline in the process is Oct. 15. Stay tuned. UPDATE: 11:30 a.m. Thursday...Alitalia's chances of staying alive look brighter today as one of the key unions that had earlier rejected a rescue plan said it will sign on. Several other unions, including pilots and flight attendants, must also agree, and decisions are expected by 8 a.m. EDT tomorrow (Fri., Sept.26). Investors may include Air France-KLM. If you have tickets on Alitalia, start making alternate plans. The airline took out ads in several newspapers in Italy and England yesterday soliciting offers to buy
• Travel Deals and News
  A few travel deals to check out: 1) The Curacao Hospitality and Tourism Association is holding an auction on travel lodging, meals, tours, etc. Bidding ends on Friday, Sept. 26 at noon. Current bids are low. As always, before bidding, make sure you're getting a real deal by checking the price on the supplier's Web site. 2) AirTran is holding a sale that ends Thurs., Sept. 25. Fares range from $64 to $169 each way from Reagan National, Dulles or BWI. Travel through Jan. 30. Ten-day advance purchase required. Lowest sale fares for Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday flights. 3) JetBlue plans to start nonstop service from Dulles to Cancun beginning Dec. 20. No fares have been set yet, but keep checking, as new service often meets cheap introductory fares.
• What Not to Pack
  If you think you've heard it all, wait till you hear what someone packed while traveling through a New York airport: Yesterday morning, JetBlue had to evacuate a terminal at JFK because officials found suspicious items in someone's checked luggage. What were they? According to Reuters, they were "a couple of World War Two replica grenade paperweights." Whaaa? Who packs grenades in their suitcase? Whether or not they were actually live, wouldn't grenades seem like something to, I don't know, not pack? I for one would be pretty upset if my flight were delayed because of someone's dopey packing decisio