Gadling Take FIVE: Week of October 12- October 17

by Jamie Rhein on

This week Gadling picked up another blogger Mike Barish who considers Lunchables unusual food.

When I browsed the week’s offerings, money popped out as one of the prevailing themes. With the stock markets doing a roller coaster act, forgetting that the ups give riders a reprieve, it’s no wonder.

  • Scott’s post on American Airlines possible plan to do àla carte pricing offers great suggestions for getting the most umph out of the dollars you fork over for flying.
  • In another managing your travel money venture, Grant outlined how a person can take a short cut to Gold status for Hilton Hotels. Gold status offers more perks and deals.
  • When it comes to traveling in Europe, Jeffery delved into how the current financial crisis might be making European jaunts a cheaper venture for Americans. Considering that I’m heading to Denmark in December, that’s happy news.
  • Aaron wondered just how rich he is and found out that he’s the 730 millionth richest person in the world. His post points out how you can find out your own financial standing in the world. Perhaps the news will give you the feeling that you can afford at least a mini vacation to the next town over.
  • And to round it off, although there is more, Jerry is on the quest for cheap travel in Iceland. He’s already scored a $400 RT ticket. Not bad, Jerry.

Also, for anyone who is looking for some Gadling glory, check out our series Catching the Travel Bug. We’re looking for your stories and will publish our reader submitted favorites.

The cheapest gas ever. How about less than 50 cents a gallon?

by Jamie Rhein on

The gas station sign might have touted $3.43 a gallon for premium, but the pump had other ideas.

According to this msnbc article, customers at a Citgo station in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin hit pay dirt when they put the nozzle in place and depressed the lever to let the gas flow.

Instead of the pricey amount they were expecting, customers were treated to a $.349 cents a gallon. That’s right. Less than one quarter and one dime.

One customer, who usually spends $100 to fill her gas tank, drove away after only spending $8.85 for 25.36 gallons.

At first, the gas station attendant had no idea why there was the sudden interest in the gas station. The party ended after 90 minutes of a pumping flurry.

At least the economy worked in some people’s favor this week, although, I’m sure the gas station owner is not too happy. I’m wondering, though, why no one told the attendant that something was amiss–or is it that people became confused and thought that gas prices were behaving just like the Dow Jones?

Taking Greyhound: a Gadling bloggers experience in the Twighlight Zone

by Jamie Rhein on

As much as I liked being on a Greyhound bus riding the open highway with my son, who stretched and balled up Silly Putty between new York City and Columbus, Ohio, finding out how to actually take the bus was not the easiest.
Mind you, I’m a seriously traveled traveler. The process that led to our bus ride almost did me in.

Here’s how you play the game, “Getting on a Greyhound, and Welcome to the Twighlight Zone.”

Round One: Who is On First and What your Ticket Says Doesn’t Matter: At the Adirondack Trailways bus station in Kingston, New York after searching out bus schedules online.

Me: “I’d like to buy one adult one way bus ticket and one child’s ticket from New Paltz, New York to Columbus, Ohio. I think there is a bus that leaves New Paltz at 8:20 a.m. It arrives in Columbus about 11:30 p.m.”

Ticket Person, clicking away with her snazzy polished fake nails at the computer keyboard. Cheerful: “Sure. But, I’d take a later bus so you’re not in New York City as long.

Me, happy that she’s on the ball: “That sounds fine.”

Ticket Person, handing me tickets-still perky: “You’ll go through Cleveland and get to Columbus at 3:00 a.m.” (This is a paraphrase.)

Me, now, a bit irate: “Three in the morning?! No. I don’t want to go through Cleveland. I want to go through Pittsburgh. There’s a direct bus that leaves New York City at 11:30 a.m. I saw the schedule online.”

Ticket Person: “The online schedule is wrong.”

Me, attempting to hand back the tickets: “But, I don’t want this schedule. I want a direct route. I don’t want to go through Cleveland.”

Ticket Person, clicking away again: “There’s a 5:50 a.m. bus from New Paltz that gets you to the city in time to take a bus to Pittsburgh.”

Me: “But, I don’t want to leave that early. And what do I do now that our tickets say we are going through Cleveland and not Pittsburgh?”

Ticket Person, off-handedly.: “What the ticket says doesn’t really matter. Your ticket is from New Paltz to Columbus, so you can take any bus there. You don’t have to go through Cleveland.”

I leave the bus station, tickets in hand, confused, not sure at all which bus to take.

Round Two: Someone Knows What’s What.

Later at my dad’s standing in his kitchen. I call Adirondack Trailways to see what’s what. I don’t trust the ticket person in Kingston at all.

Me: “I’m calling to check on a bus schedule between New Paltz, New York and Columbus, Ohio. I just bought tickets in Kingston and they are not what I wanted. Is there a bus that leaves New Paltz at 8:20 in the morning with a change in NYC and a direct route to Columbus that stops in Pittsburgh for an hour? We would get to Columbus about 11:30 at night.”

Phone Ticket Person, after checking the schedule: “Yes, there is.”

Me: “The person in Kingston told me that bus didn’t exist and the online schedule is wrong. She said it’s often wrong.”

Phone Ticket Person: “The schedule is updated regularly.”

Me: “Here’s the problem. The tickets I have say we’re going through Cleveland and leaving New Paltz after 9 a.m. Plus, I have Trailways tickets. What about the switch to Greyhound?”

Phone Ticket Person: “That doesn’t matter. The tickets are good for any time and Trailways is the same company as Greyhound. The bus driver will let you on the bus to Pittsburgh. Ignore the Cleveland portion.”

Me: “Great!” Not one hundred percent confident, but willing to go with it.

We took the 8:00 a.m. bus out of New Paltz without a hitch. Problems not over yet. New Paltz busses to the city are frequent in the morning.

Round Three: At the Port Authority information booth you get misinformation.

Me, after snaking around through throngs of people and a stop to two separate bathrooms on two different floors. That’s another story:

“Where is the gate for the bus to Columbus, Ohio?”

Information Person: “Which city are you going through?”

Me: “My ticket says Cleveland, but I want to go through Pittsburgh.”

Information Person: “You need to change your ticket, otherwise you need to go through Cleveland.” (She directs me to the Greyhound ticket office.)

Round Four: When You Eventually Get Ahead

Me, trying not to get frustrated: “I have a ticket to Columbus that goes through Cleveland but I want the bus that goes through Pittsburgh. I was told I need to change tickets.

Counter Ticket Person: “No. That ticket is fine.”

Me, relieved, but not confident: “Great! Where do I catch the bus?”

Counter Ticket Person: Gate 70

Me: “Great! I want to purchase preboarding passes.” (Preboarding passes allow you to get on a bus before others.)

Counter Ticket Person: “I don’t sell those. I just give information. You need to stand in the next line. “(She is sitting next to the person who can sell me the preboarding passes.)

I move over two steps to the next line.

Me, showing my tickets: “I’d like to buy two preboarding passes for the bus to Columbus.”

Other Counter Person: “I can’t sell you preboarding for Trailways tickets. Those aren’t our tickets.”

The first Counter Person, leaning over: “Yes, you can. Trailways is Greyhound.”

Other Counter Person: “Oh. It is?” She’s stumped and really doesn’t know how to sell the prebarding passes so the other person shows her what to do and then hands me two of them.

Round Five: When Signage is Clear as Mud
The sign above the door to Gate 70 doesn’t list Columbus as a destination. Cleveland is on the sign, but Pittsburgh is not. None of the other signs say Columbus either.

Panicked, thinking that we are destined for travel hell after all, I quiz passengers waiting in line to find out the scoop. After deductive reasoning, and after chatting with a woman standing in line who works for Greyhound, I decided that the bus would be going through Pittsburgh and the people going to Cleveland would change buses in Pittsburgh. Why the sign didn’t say Columbus since that was where the bus was heading, I have no idea.

Also, there isn’t a special place to stand for passengers with preboarding passes. We hang near the front, but not in line. When the driver opens the gate doors to take our tickets, I tell him about the preboarding passes and we cut to the front. There is only one other woman with children in line with preboarding passes.

Because there isn’t a designated spot for preboarders, I feel as if we look like we are cutting in line, but once we are on the bus with our pick of seats, I don’t care. I earned them.

*Sure enough, the Cleveland portion of the ticket was ignored. We were allowed to go to Pittsburgh and arrived in Columbus at 11:40, about 20 minutes late. (see post on how the trip went.)

Jebb’s shot is of the Trailways bus to New Paltz.

Are Americans scared to travel abroad?

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Over at Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site, Matt takes Americans to task for their well-known reluctance to travel abroad, citing the oft-repeated statistic that only 15% of Americans own passports. He attributes the dearth of US travel abroad to a number of factors, including American fear and ignorance of the rest of the world, but I’m not sure these go very far in explaining the real reasons behind the phenomenon. So why don’t Americans travel more?

For starters, Americans only receive (or demand) about two weeks off in vacation time per year, compared to a month or more in many European countries. Now, perhaps this is the fault of the American worker, who doesn’t value his or her leisure time enough to demand more vacation time, or maybe it all goes back to the famous Puritan work ethic. Either way, I simply don’t think it’s true that Americans are afraid to travel to, say, Australia or China.

But Matt disagrees: “Americans are just scared of the world. I mean really scared. Maybe even petrified. In this post 9/11 world (even before it), Americans have been taught the world is a big scary place. There are terrorists outside every hotel waiting to kidnap you. People don’t like you because you are American. The world is violent. It’s poor. It’s dirty. It’s savage. Only Canada and Europe are O.K. but, if you go there, they will still be rude to you because you are American.” This is course the stereotype, but do lots of Americans still feel this way?

So if Americans aren’t scared, why don’t they travel abroad more? Well, America is also one of the most varied, multi-cultured countries in the world, so perhaps Americans don’t feel the need to travel beyond their borders. From natural wonders like the Grand Canyon, the Florida Everglades, and Denali National Park, to vibrant, multi-ethnic cities like New York, Miami, Chicago, and San Francisco, Americans can see a wide range of people and places without ever crossing a national border.

It’s entirely natural and expected that Americans don’t travel as much as, say, Germans, because (and I hope I’m not stepping on any toes here) America is a larger and more varied place. Add to that the extra cost and time it takes Americans to travel abroad, and I’d say we’re getting close to an answer.

Matt also points to cultural ignorance as one of the reasons behind the relative lack of overseas travel. This explanation has special appeal to any American traveler (like myself) who’s ever been to Prague only to return and hear the question, “So, did you learn any German?”

Matt calls it cultural ignorance, and he may well be right. But I prefer to think that Americans are simply comfortable with their lives as they are and don’t feel the need to travel abroad. And perhaps they’ve (okay, we’ve) been chanting “We’re number 1!” for so long that they’ve forgotten what else is out there. Admittedly, my preferred explanations– comfort and incuriousness– may not show Americans in the best light, but it’s a lot better than calling them scared and culturally ignorant.

Bottom line: I wish my fellow Americans would travel abroad more, but only for the same reasons I wish more Moroccans and Russians and Indians would travel abroad more: because the world is an endlessly interesting, stimulating, and eye-opening place, and seeing more of it only makes us better.

Zimride Makes Ride Sharing Safe & Easy

by Mike Barish on

Gas prices are rising. The economy is tanking (no pun intended). You want to share a ride somewhere to split costs. You could try Craigslist but that seems like a crap-shoot. I mean, you want to find someone to share gas and toll expenses, not a casual encounter. Well, now there’s a more reliable resource for drivers looking for hop-ons or travelers in need of a ride: Zimride.

Zimride combines the technology of Google Maps, the growing power of social networking sites like Facebook and their own matchmaking algorithm to match drivers. The site offers rideshares for one-way trips, roundtrips and even daily commutes. And the social networking aspect of the service encourages people to learn about their potential travel companions before they buckle up and hurl themselves down the asphalt together.

In fact, upon registering, Zimride immediately asks you if you have a Facebook account. If you do, it will ask you for permission to access your Facebook profile. It populates your Zimride profile with information from your Facebook account. You then have the option to edit that information and add details about your vehicle, your preferred driving speed and even your favorite travel music.

Not sure I’d go cross-country using Zimride (though the founder, John Zimmer, did just that when traveling from New York to Palo Alto, CA to prove the site’s usefulness), but it might be a better alternative to taking the bus or train for short trips. And who knows? You may also find a casual encounter out of it.

Have you shared rides? Used Zimride? Have better ideas for finding travel companions? Share your thoughts in the comments.