Airline fees: Please don’t lie, don’t be moronic

by Tom Johansmeyer on

As much as you may hate ancillary fees on airlines, they’re clearly making a difference. The nickel-and-diming of the average passenger was good for a whopping $7.8 billion last year … up 42 percent from 2008. Airlines are making serious cash on inconvenient fees, which means they aren’t going away. The coming travel market recovery (look for it in 2011) will put more asses in seats and, of course, more bucks in the airline industry till. What was $7.8 billion last year only has the potential to become much, much larger.

And that could be the problem.

It might not be easy to sympathize with the airlines, companies with well-entrenched reputations for being among the most poorly run enterprises since the dawn of capitalism. But, at least when they were on the ropes (for real this time … right?), we could stomach that the ancillary fees were a survival mechanism. When revenue per available seat-mile starts to come back, passengers will become increasingly offended by the price tags popped on blankets and baggage and everything in between.Fortunately, there is a silver lining in all this: anything we feel is totally irrelevant. Airlines will charge what they can charge. Since ancillary fees are a market-wide trend, we’ll have to get used to them. Some airlines aren’t heading down this road with zeal, but they may not go to your desired destination, making the offer of goodwill moot.

And, if the extra charges were slashed, ticket prices would just increase for no apparent underlying reason, and we’d all have to share in the cost of the blanket that the gump in seat 11D feels he needs to stay warm.

The real issue, it seems, isn’t prices – they are what they are. Instead, passengers would be happier less pissed if the airlines were a bit more transparent. Notes Tim Winship of SmartTraveler.com:

The word “sneaky” appears prominently and often in consumers’ grumbling about fee-for-all pricing. And more substantively, adding injury to insult, consumers can’t make meaningful price comparisons if they don’t have ready access to all-inclusive prices from all airlines, whether it’s on the carriers’ own websites or on the site of an online travel agent.

Full fee disclosure is something the airlines should have done proactively, from the beginning. Soon, they may have no choice-as mentioned above, the DOT has included language in its proposed passenger-protection legislation that would mandate up-front disclosure of all fees associated with a particular ticket price.

The winning (or at least non-losing) formula for airline pricing seems to be simple: don’t be stupid, don’t lie and don’t charge people for the lav.

Woman begins canoe trip from Seattle to San Diego

by Kraig Becker on

Margo Pellagrino describes herself as “a stay-at-home mom who doesn’t do a very good job at staying home.” That seems an apt description considering she has just set off on a epic canoe trip that will see her paddling from Seattle to San Diego over the next couple of months, while raising awareness about the health of the world’s oceans.

Margo started her journey on July 3rd, and over the past few days she has paddled across Puget Sound, down the Juan De Fuca Strait, and out into the Pacific Ocean. From there, she’ll turn south, with the intention of paddling her outrigger canoe all the way to San Diego, a distance of more than 2500 miles. Along the way, she’ll make planned stops in a number of cities and towns, where she hopes to spread the word about the importance of the oceans to the overall health of the planet, and how we can all do small things on a day-to-day basis that will help protect them.

This isn’t the first long distance paddle for Margo. Back in 2007 she made the journey from Miami, Florida to Camden, Maine, a distance of over 2000 miles, by canoe. She followed up that adventure in 2008 with another journey, this time along the Gulf Coast, going from Miami to New Orleans. Those trips helped to reinforce her love of the oceans, and her desire to help raise awareness about how their health can effect the rest of the planet.

You can follow Margo’s progress by reading her latest entries to her blog and tracking her via GPS. She’ll be making regular updates along the way, sharing her adventure, and message, with the rest of us.

[Photo credit: Margo Pellagrino]

Five Manhattan cafes with free Wi-Fi

by Alex Robertson Textor on

On Tuesday, I looked at Brooklyn cafés with free Wi-Fi. Here I turn to a few Manhattan cafés that have come to the obvious conclusion that free Wi-Fi translates into happier and more loyal customers.

Anyone interested exclusively in free Wi-Fi and less in small, locally run cafés with tons of ambiance (no judgments here) should know that Starbucks now offers free Wi-Fi in all its stores.

Kinski, 128 Rivington. Lower East Side.

This little Austrian café, which opened earlier this year, really does feel as if it has been teleported ready-made from Vienna’s supercool Leopoldstadt neighborhood to the Lower East Side. The aesthetic is austere and fresh. Think plywood walls, communal tables, and dangling light bulbs. And after your delicious Marillenknödel and bracing Einspänner, you can whip your laptop out and enjoy the free Wi-Fi.

Ace Hotel, 20 W. 29th Street. Madison Square North.

A welcome blast of Pacific Northwest cool saturates the Ace Hotel. You know it. Everyone knows it. The Ace is one of the most exciting newish hotels in the city. And with the purchase of an item from the hotel’s café or restaurant, you can sit in the lobby and absorb all that West Coast energy while trying out different Tumblr themes.

Birch Coffee, 7 E. 27th Street. Madison Square North.

Then again, if the Ace is too crowded with design magazine editors or visiting musicians, you can always decamp to the Gershwin Hotel a few blocks away. On the Gershwin’s ground floor is the absolutely lovely Birch Coffee. Birch’s eco-credentials are solid. Menu items are sourced locally and wines and beers on offer are organic. The atmosphere is friendly, even folksy. There are Friday events on the calendar at Birch, as well.

McNally Jackson, 52 Prince. Nolita.

One of Manhattan’s best bookstores, McNally Jackson is a fabulous place to simply hang out and get lost in the stacks. Its café takes up a tiny piece of the store, and is typically crowded with patrons ordering off the small but appealing menu. Happily, there is free Wi-Fi throughout the bookstore here, so even if the café area is terribly crowded you’ll be able to perch on a chair and type away.

AQ Kafe, 1800 Broadway. Columbus Circle.

Since September 2008, Marcus Samuelsson’s impressive empire has included this low-key café on Columbus Circle. AQ Kafe introduces a certain Swedish élan to Columbus Circle. Pale wood features, well-spaced tables offering better-than-average privacy, and expansive floor space make for an agreeable place to hunker down and take advantage of the free Wi-Fi.

Image: Flickr/aturkus)

No guidebook required: the joys of ditching an itinerary

by Laurel Miller on

Itineraries and guidebooks can be both a blessing and a curse, when it comes to travel. If you’re the free-spirited, adventurous sort, it sucks to lug a book around, but it’s a good idea-especially if you’re a woman-so you don’t have to leave accommodations to chance should you arrive late at night in a strange town.

I once ended up sleeping in a spider-infested trailer, after spontaneously arriving in a downpour in a Tuscan hill town devoid of rooms for rent. After politely declining the hostal owner’s offer of sharing a bed, I paid ten euros for the trailer, and spent a long, twitchy night imagining things (including the owner) crawling up my legs. Now, I book ahead if I think I may end up stranded.

If you’re a little on the Type-A side, or traveling with someone, a planned itinerary can be helpful, if not relationship-saving. But what happens when you decide to just wing it? Journalist Catherine Price, a contributor to O, the Oprah magazine, recently found out, on a four-day impulse trip to Tokyo. Price decided to let strangers plan every detail of the trip for her, starting with taking the suggestion of a random woman in a San Francisco book store to visit Tokyo. The resulting trip enabled former micro-manager Price to “experience the joy of letting go.” Read more about her fascinating experience.

[Via CNN]
[Photo credit: Flickr user Jaymis]

New management, no sexy skin at Mandalay Bay

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The peaks will now be capped, so to speak, at the Moorea Beach Club at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Once one of the adults-only pools in Sin City where ladies could sunbathe sans top, a new sheriff in town has forced some modesty on the facility.

Across the country, frat boys and men married more than five years groaned. There are no reports of a letter-writing campaign, though.

The use of celebrity hosts for special events, has forced the club to make a decision, since local ordinances prohibit (certain) uncovered skin at big parties. Ironically, Kendra Wilkinson is among the hosts. She’s known for frolicking with Hugh Hefner The Girls Next Door. So, of course, she should be kept as far as possible from the scandalous sights of topless pools.