10 Most Expensive Places to Rent a Car: Is it Worth the Cost?

by Jess Moss on

Travelers who rented cars in U.S. cities shelled out quite a bit of money this summer. Skift reports on a study by CheapCarRental.net that lists the most expensive cities to rent a car in the past two months. While New York and Boston came in at number 2 and 3, the winner, Portland, Oregon, was a bit more surprising.

The results beg the question: why bother getting a car when you’re visiting a city?

We’ve rounded up the top 10 most expensive car rental cities in the U.S., and found a reason in each that might make it worthwhile. Some of these places can be reached by taxi or public transportation, but most visitors drive themselves. Check out the slideshow below and be the judge: is this place worth renting a car?

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Chinese Tourists: An International Love-Hate Relationship

by Elizabeth Seward on

Dan Levin wrote a compelling piece for the New York Times about Chinese tourists. The reports are in and it’s now official: the Chinese spend the most on tourism in the world. They outspent both Americans and Germans last year when they collectively dished out $102 billion abroad. Americans have long been one of the most wooed and simultaneously resented (as worded in Levin’s title) tourists internationally. While businesses abroad want American money, they haven’t always wanted some of the American etiquette that so stereotypically accompanies that American money. Now that very same problem has shifted over to China and Chinese tourists seem to be the ones who international businesses both love and hate.The ire stems from what is perceived to be a lack of basic cultural etiquette, according to the article. Like the unfortunate reputation of American travelers, Chinese tourists are gaining a reputation of rudeness for behaviors that seem to recur -– like ignoring line formations, spitting or speaking loudly while indoors.

But no matter how much locals disagree, it’s difficult to argue with the kind of money Chinese tourists are spending.

[Thanks, New York Times]

Fuel Costs Aren’t Making Airlines Eco-Friendly

by Elizabeth Seward on

As discussed in an article in The Economist today, airlines should theoretically be becoming more and more “green.” Fuel costs are normally the largest single cost for airlines and rising fuel costs aren’t good for the airline or the customer. One might assume that airlines would pursue fuel efficiency with their bottom line in mind, but that doesn’t appear to be the case, at least not with the most profitable domestic Airline (2009-2011), Allegiant Air. Allegiant was found to actually be the least fuel efficient airline for the year of 2010 in a report recently released by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).
While it is certainly counter-intuitive that the most profitable airline can also be the least fuel efficient, there are other factors that play into the sometimes ambiguous cost/profit setup of airlines.

Still, The Economist asks the question that I have to echo: “If the bottom line cannot force airlines to be more fuel efficient, what can?” One of the many possible answers to that question is fleet, since almost one-third of the efficiency gap between airlines can be attributed to differences in fleet. Here’s to hoping for the employment of greener planes down the road.

[Thanks, The Economist]

Southwest Airlines Now Has A ‘No-Show’ Policy

by Elizabeth Seward on

Southwest Airlines’ leniency with “no-shows” has been a popular attractor for many customers. The airline has long boasted that their customers get to keep the total value of their flight purchase, even when they simply don’t show up.

While the idea of not losing money in the case of an emergency might seem appealing to the masses, only a small minority of Southwest customers have been taking advantage of this deal and they’ve been doing it habitually. For that reason, Southwest will now be enforcing its own version of a “no-show” policy. Passengers will still receive the full value of their flight purchase if they cancel, but they have to cancel no later than 10 minutes before the flight takes off. This updated policy is still sensible and comparatively customer-oriented.[Thanks, USA Today]

World’s Largest Lunch Box Museum

by Elizabeth Seward on

Cool Hunting Video: The World’s Largest Lunchbox Museum from Cool Hunting on Vimeo.

Allen Woodall is the owner of the world’s largest lunch box museum. The museum, which is situated in Columbus, Georgia, is now home to thousands of lunch boxes and related items. The title of “world’s largest lunch box museum” appears to be self-appointed, but convincing enough. In the video above by Cool Hunting, Woodall gives a tour of his prized lunch box museum, offering nuggets of lunch box history along the way.