Some travelers love to hate the new discount airlines
It is a love/hate relationship. However, cheap seems to be winning. No matter how bad the service, how tight the seating, how late the flights, the public is flocking to Spirit, Frontier and Allegiant because of the prices. Damn the multitude of fees that they all hate, passengers are looking for the deal.
Fans say the cheap tickets set the ultra-low-cost carriers apart in an industry where discomfort and inconvenience are now expected. But for many travelers, the new discounters take the aggravation to another level.
They charge extra for things that are still standard on bigger airlines like soda and carry-on bags. Need to print a boarding pass at the airport? There’s a fee for that. They fit more passengers on the plane by squeezing seats together, which is easier because the seats don’t recline. They don’t have toll-free phone numbers for customer service.
There are few businesses that consumers love to hate more than airlines, but travelers seem to reserve a special level of vitriol for these no-frills, discount airlines.
What to do if your rental car breaks down
What should you do when your rental car starts acting up? My advice is to find the nearest rental agent and exchange your car. Don’t “gut it out.” That may be a mistake. If there is a real problem, virtually all rental car companies will exchange your vehicle. By all means, don’t wait until checking the car back in to tell the company that you had a problem with the rental.
After about 150 miles of driving, as the sun got higher, we decided to turn on the air conditioner. No luck. It produced nothing but hot air. I called Avis and left a message, which wasn’t returned. Rather than drive all the way back to Cape Town, we decided to roll down our windows and make the best of it. When I returned the car, I informed the lot attendant that the A/C wasn’t working. He made a note of it, and away we went. A couple weeks later, I noticed an $800 charge from Avis on my corporate credit card. I called and asked what it was for. It was a bill for a new air condenser unit on the car.
Best U.S. historic hotels for 2015
Here is a slide show depicting the best historic hotels in the USA. They are evocatively beautiful, have exceptional service and are filled with unparalleled history. These awards are presented every year. These are the best of the moment.
A program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Historic Hotels of America will accept only member hotels that have been designated by the U.S. secretary of the interior as a National Historic Landmark or that are listed in or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The hotels also have to be recognized as having historic significance and be at least 50 years old.
The National Trust founded the group with 32 charter members in 1989, and it now has more than 260 historic hotel members in 44 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
The members are mostly (but not all) independently owned properties.
The 2015 Annual Awards were announced October 8 at an awards ceremony at West Baden Springs Hotel (1902) at French Lick Resort in West Baden Springs, Indiana.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.