It’s been a while since an airport loo was voted America’s Best Restroom, but among this year’s finalists are restrooms in hotels, restaurant and museums you may encounter in your travels.
Raddison Blue Aqua Hotel – Chicago. A 2012 finalist for America’s Best Restroom
The restrooms at The Radisson Blue Aqua Hotel (above) in Chicago are on the list, as are those at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Buc-ee’s in New Braunfels, TX and the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, CA.
Wine has become a big deal in Washington State, especially in the Yakima Valley, Tri-Cities and Walla Wall Valley regions. And, come September, anyone planning a wine-tasting trip will be happy to know that Alaska Airlines, Enterprise Rent-a-Car and the area tourism bureaus are expanding the Washington Wine Country Taste and Tote program that makes it easier to get to Washington wine country and take the wine home.
Since 2011, Alaska Airlines has allowed passengers flying home from the Walla Walla Valley to check their first case of wine free. In September, that policy will expand to include the Yakima and Pasco/Tri-Cities airports.
In addition, Enterprise Rent-A-Car will waive car drop-off fees for anyone flying on Alaska Airlines into Yakima, Pasco or Walla Walla regional airports who wishes to fly out of one of the other two airports.
The new program also allows travelers to sample wines at participating wineries and pay no tasting fees by showing a current Alaska Airlines boarding pass from one of the three airports.
Not interested in Washington wines? Alaska Airlines will also accept one box of up to 12 bottles of wine per passenger at no extra charge from customers on flights departing Sonoma County at Santa Rose Airport.
Here’s more information about the Washington Wine Country Taste and Tote program.
This seems like a win-win wine program for travelers and for wine-makers, so drink up!
My Alaska Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Seattle Tuesday afternoon provided a great refresher course on what’s great – and what’s not – about modern day air travel.
The great part: the people you end up talking to.
The not so great part: crying babies.
On this very full flight there was one inconsolable child who cried and screamed pretty much the entire flight. I was sitting a row behind the family and I could see that they were trying to remain calm and solve the problem, but nothing seemed to work.
I thought I was a hero there for a second when the crying stopped after I passed the little girl the frog-shaped flashlight I travel with. But after a few seconds, she went right back to weeping and everyone on the plane went back to rolling their eyes and plugging their ears.
That’s the not so great part.
The great part: meeting people who aren’t bored (yet) with flying.
In my row, there was a 15 year-old girl going home to Seattle who apologized for making me and Mr. Middle Seat get up so she could take her seat by the window. She told us she’d insisted her mother get her that seat because she was nervous about flying alone.
Mr. Middle Seat chatted her up during the flight and as we all got up to leave he asked her if she was still nervous. She was, she admitted, because now she was afraid she wouldn’t find her mother in the airport.
I offered to walk out with her and on the way she told me that on the first leg of the trip, she couldn’t find her friend for at least a half hour when she landed in Las Vegas.
After asking assorted – unhelpful – people for help, she ended up crying and calling her mother, who said “Do I have to fly to Las Vegas to get you?”
So we walked off the plane together, down the concourse, down two sets of escalators, past the baggage carousels and out to the curb. A second-nature trek for me, but definitely daunting and confusing when seen through the eyes of a newbie traveler.
My new buddy called her mom, who said she’d be pulling up momentarily. And I said good-bye to what I hope is now a more confident traveler already planning her next great adventure.
Who is faster? Usain Bolt or a speeding airplane?
Athletes, their families, their coaches and many Olympics fans will be heading home after the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Heathrow Airport says it’s ready to handle all those departures.
August 13, 14, 15 are expected to be the busiest in Heathrow history, and on Monday (the 13th) alone, 5,000 Olympic participants are expected to be processed at the special, temporary terminal the airport has built just for athletes. When the games are over that terminal will be demolished and the land returned to its previous use as a parking lot.
Although the athletes and all their baggage will be processed in that special terminal, everyone still has to go through the “regular” terminals to catch their flights. So travelers may end up mingling with gold medal winners at the gates.
On Monday, Heathrow is expecting to see about 15,000 members of the “Olympic family” and a total of 116,000 passengers. The record for departing passengers is 123,000 set on 29th July 2011.
A small gesture is getting big raves from flight attendants who now work for the company created by the merger of United and Continental Airlines but who continue to fly separately—in their traditional United or Continental uniforms—while final union and contract issues are were being worked out.
Flight attendants who came from the old Continental Airlines recently ratified a new contract, which means attendants can now negotiate a joint contract to cover the combined group of about 24,000 flight attendants – including about 9,000 U.S. flight attendants who came from Continental.
“We have to two diverse cultures with completely different work rules, wants and needs,” said Sara Keagle, a Continental flight attendant who blogs as the Flying Pinto.
The two teams will eventually be blended and issued new matching uniforms. But as a symbol of friendship and bridge-building, flight attendants from each airline have been swapping their regulation neckwear for the scarves and ties worn by the other team.
The informal program was started by Kathe Hull, a United flight attendant who was reading through messages on a flight attendant Facebook page on June 29th. “It’s sort of been like the first day of school; we’ve all been eyeing each other, wondering if we were going to be friends. I was checking in on the page and I thought that instead of just posting a comment here and there I would make a gesture to my peers at my sister airline,” Hull said.
She asked if a Continental flight attendant would be willing to trade scarves. “I wanted it to foster a friendship beyond Facebook,” said Hull, who has been a flight attendant for United since Valentine’s Day 1991.
Hull kicked off the program by putting two of her United scarves in a small plastic bag with her name, base city and a note to a potential “scarf-sister” from Continental. She left the bag in a swap box she set up in the Newark domicile, one of the briefing rooms where flight attendants check-in before their flights.
“I have no idea who got my scarves,” said Hull. But she does know that the idea has spread like wildfire.
With the help of an enthusiastic “scarf squad,” swap boxes with plastic bags of scarves, ties and some wings have been set up in domiciles all over the United States. And through a new Facebook page set up for what has been now been dubbed “The Sisterhood and Brotherhood of the Traveling Scarves and Ties,” Hull has learned that swap boxes have been set up at the airline’s bases in Guam, Narita, Japan and Frankfurt, Germany.
“It’s like pen pals meet The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” said Hull, referring to the popular young adult books and movies about a group of friends who must be apart but stay in touch by sharing a magical pair of blue jeans.
“It’s an uncertain time. Bases are opening and closing. People are shifting around,” said Hull. “This is a good way to begin feeling like a family.”
The uniforms worn by both United and Continental flight attendants are navy blue, but passengers who look closely should be able to spot the swappers, who have cleared the non-regulation accessories with United management.
“Hull’s idea is about camaraderie and the bonding as one team,” said Sam Risoli, United Airlines senior vice president of inflight services. “It a terrific idea that’s simple, personal and very genuine. A perfect example of being positive and doing the right things.”
(My story “United, Continental flight attendants swap scarves, ties for friendship,” first appeared on NBCNEWS.com.
(courtesy Museum of the Modern Snow Globe)
A lot of souvenir hunters were delighted when the Transportation Security Administration announced that, by mid-August, snow globes would once again be permitted in carry-on bags at all airport security checkpoints.
“Snow globes that appear to contain less than 3.4 ounces (approximately tennis ball size) will be permitted if the entire snow globe, including the base, is able to fit in the same one clear, plastic, quart-sized, resealable bag, as the passenger’s other liquids, such as shampoo, toothpaste and cosmetics.”
The news had the folks at Kansas City International Airport wondering if the rule change meant they’d soon be able to once again stock Pet Tornadoes in the airport shops, which at KCI are all located pre-security. Airport spokesperson Joe McBride said the tornado toys – which are small, liquid-filled cylinders that create a little tornado or water spout inside when shaken- used to be big sellers at the airport.
I asked the TSA if pet tornadoes will now be allowed past airport security along with snow globes. And, after a bit of back and forth with a spokesperson about the definition of a snow globe, I got this response:
“Pet Tornadoes are not specifically listed on the prohibited
items list. With that said, if you have a liquid of 3.4 ounces or
smaller and you put it into your 3-1-1 bag with your other 3-1-1 items,
then it should be permitted. As long as it’s in that one sealed clear
quart-sized bag and nothing in the bag is larger than 3.4 ounces-whether
it is in a shampoo bottle, a snow globe, or a tornado souvenir novelty.”
So it seems like the answer is “Yes!”.
What makes an airport scary?
For some, it’s those full-body scanners and long lines at security checkpoints. Others dread a flight cancellation that leaves them stranded and trying to get some shut-eye on an airport floor.
For its Scariest U.S. Airports list, travel website Airfarewatchdog.com defined scary as an airport where landings and take-offs may be quite tricky.
John Wayne Airport, in Santa Ana, Calif., made the list because “due to strict noise reduction requirements, pilots must ascend at full throttle and then abruptly cut back their engines.” Chicago’s Midway International Airport was added because it has runways that are “close to 2,000 feet shorter than the ones at new airports.” And Colorado’s Telluride Regional Airport, which Airfarewatchdog notes is higher than any other commercial airport in North America, is considered scary because pilots are not allowed to make touch-and-go landings, and so “only have one shot to land on the runway, which dips in the middle.”
The other “scary airports” on this list include:
Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. was added to the list because it is between overlapping no-fly zones that offer pilots a narrow path to steer clear of CIA headquarters, the Pentagon and the White House.
“If you stray too far to the left of the Potomac, you’ll risk a significant fine and potential violation,” said Kent Wien, a pilot who writes the Cockpit Chronicles feature for Gadling.com. “Too far to the right and you can’t successfully negotiate the last turn before the runway.”
It all does sound a bit scary. But should passengers with tickets into or out of any of these airports be very concerned?
“Lists like this seem to make me want to throw my coffee cup at the computer screen,” said Patrick Smith an airline pilot and author who blogs at AskThePilot.com. “They give people an idea that there really are unsafe or dangerous airports. But if any of these airports was really unsafe,” Smith said, “no airline would go anywhere near it.”
Smith said New York’s LaGuardia Airport is an example of an older airport with shorter runways and a “spaghetti snarl of runways and taxiways.” But he said “certain airports from a pilot’s perspective are just more challenging than others.”
And Smith said some of those challenging features can offer rewards for passengers. “Coming from Boston to LaGuardia Airport, you sometimes come right down the Hudson River and get a gorgeous view of Manhattan. There’s nothing harrowing about it,” he said.
“These places aren’t really ‘scary,'” said Wien, “They just offer pilots an opportunity to do something slightly out of the ordinary.”
Even Airfarewatchdog founder George Hobica admits that the airports on the “Scariest U.S. Airports” list may not really be so scary. “Let’s face it; flying is the safest way to travel other than on your own two feet. So some might prefer to call these airports ‘thrilling’ rather than scary.”
My story about “scary airports” first appeared on NBCNEWS.com.
Travelers are a studied bunch. No doubt that’s why all these infographics are popping up. Or maybe it’s just fun to rustle these up. Here are two that showed up in my inbox this week:
The first one is from Rasmussen College and highlights how travelers use social media when on vacation.
The other was put together by Travelex and, way down at the bottom, shows that only 5% of traverers get their travel cash at the airport before they leave on a trip, 26% get cash at the airport in their destination city (-presumably at a money exchange booth?) and 24% seek out an ATM in town.
I’m working on a few articles about this weekend’s grand opening LeMay-America’s Car Museum, in Tacoma, Washington and running through the list of treasures in their collection: a 1916 Pierce-Arrow Brougham, a 1930 Dusenberg Model J, a 1942 Chevrolet Blackout, and a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray to name just a few.
1942 Chevrolet Blackou from the LeMay Museum
The list of cars reminds me of one my favorite cars – the Taylor Areocar III, one of the sassy two-passenger cars, first made by Moulton Taylor in 1949, that was a commuter’s dream machine: it has a rear propeller and a tow-able set of wings so that drivers could easily escape a highway backup.
Early flying car - the Aerocar
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The car is now on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
Taking an international flight this summer? You won’t be alone.
In its annual summer forecast, Airlines for America (A4A), the industry trade association for most U.S. airlines, noted that airline ticket prices are not keeping pace with the inflation rate and predicted full flights on international routes this summer.
“Customers are benefiting from record airline operational performance and greater access to the global economy while fares continue to trail the price of other services,” said A4A President and CEO Nicholas E. Calio.
In its forecast, A4A predicted that from June through August, U.S. airlines will carry an average of 2.24 million travelers globally every day.
“Of the 206.2 million total passengers expected to travel on U.S. airlines this summer, 26.8 million will be traveling on international flights. This estimate surpasses last summer’s record of 26.3 million passengers flown on international flights. Domestically, 179.4 million passengers are expected to fly this summer, comparable to summer 2011.”
Wherever you go, you’ll have to eat. And the folks at Hotels.com were nice enough to put together this infographic showing the price of a club sandwich around the world.
