Five ways to get to the airport

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Your bags are sitting in the hallway, and you’re ready to go to the airport. How to get there involves a tradeoff between cost and hassle. A sacrifice is always necessary, and it’s significant: you’ll have to give up something important. But, this is the nature of travel, so the best you can do is understand the good and bad associated with each.

1. Drive
Take yourself to the airport, and you don’t have to rely on anyone else’s schedule. You own your time. But, you may have to deal with traffic, and parking can get expensive. Choose a long-term parking lot to trade convenience for savings.

2. Taxi
This is more an urban option. It’s cheaper than a town car but can still become costly, especially with tolls and tip. If it’s early in the morning or raining, you might have trouble finding a cab.

3. Public transportation
Public transportation is generally the cheapest alternative, but leave lots of time (especially if you live in the suburbs); it can take hours. How much is your time worth?

4. Town car/limo
You’ll pay to play with a town car or limousine, which can be the most expensive (unless you drive to an airport that charges a small fortune for parking … and you’re taking a long trip). But, your car should arrive early and be ready to wait for you (no honking or phone calls until you’re a little late), and it will be clean and comfortable.

5. Find a friend
Convince someone to drive you, and you save a fortune and win some convenience. Do this too often, though, and your friends will hate you.

Gadlinks for Monday 7.27.09

by Brenda Yun on


A glorious Monday here in California! I hope you are all enjoying the last month of summer. Live it up — and maybe browse some of these travel reads while you’re at it.

‘Til tomorrow, have a great evening!

More Gadlinks HERE.

TSA fails again – assists illegal immigrants into the airport

by Scott Carmichael on

Every time I think I’ll give the TSA a break, they manage to make it back into the news with something so stupid it makes me shiver.

This time, the TSA escorted 9 workers into a secure area at Orlando airport, and left them behind to do their work. The proper procedure is to escort the workers and stay with them for the duration of their work inside the terminal.

Working off a tip, the US border protection investigated the workers, and discovered that they were all illegal immigrants.

Six of the men will be deported immediately, two will be eligible for a hearing to decide whether they can stay here. The ninth immigrant was wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet, has been deported twice and was busted for a DUI.

As usual, the TSA spin on the story is that this was not a security threat, as the workers went through the normal security checkpoint procedures, so of course, that makes everything A-OK in their eyes.

Airport closed so plane can’t land

by Jamie Rhein on

Yesterday there were two stories out there about rest stop closings. This story is about an airport, an airplane and a more problematic situation than a rest stop being closed when one is desperate to stop. If a rest stop is closed there are options. The side of the road works in a pinch. In the case of the airplane in a decent towards an airport, but the airport turns out to be closed, there’s a bit more involved.

The pilot needs to quit descending asap and head somewhere else, in an ideal case, somewhere close by. Thankfully, that is what happened when US Airways flight 3203 was about to land at the Charleston, South Carolina airport but found the airport closed. The pilot turned the plane around to head back to where it came–Charlotte, North Carolina.

The airport isn’t closed all the time, but just some of the time–after midnight and only until August 9. Usually, it’s open 24-7. Two runways are getting fixed. A lightning strike had delayed the plane from take off after taxing out to the runway and the pilot knew he wouldn’t have enough time to make it to the airport before the witching hour, but thought the tower would stay open a tad longer. Nope.

Once back in Charlotte after state hopping the Carolinas, the passengers were given rooms, meal vouchers and status as being on a flight with an issue that almost never, if ever, happens. [The Post and Courier]

Irony alert – airlines not happy with new airport fee hikes

by Scott Carmichael on

In what I can only describe as “you have to be kidding me”, the Association of European Airlines (AEA) slammed European airports for increasing the fees they charge for the right to use their facilities.

These fees are passed on to passengers in the form of “passenger facility charges”. The airlines claim that increasing these fees is not fair in this current economic climate, and that the fees will only hurt them even more, especially since air travel is at an all time low.

What they really meant to say is that they should be the only ones that are allowed add ridiculous fees to their tickets.

It boggles the mind that the very same airlines that are introducing baggage fees, booking fees, airport check-in fees and other insane charges don’t want to allow airports to recoup some of their investments by raising their prices.

The airport fee hikes are used to improve facilities, add more gates and expand when needed. Unlike the airlines who use these fees as nothing but a new money making scheme. If adding a couple of bucks to my ticket means I get a better airport, I’m 100% for it – I wish the same could be said for the fees the airlines charge – I pay more, but on many carriers I get the same crappy service.