Turbulent Times for Travelers

This year has been hectic for me as I’ve traveled from the cotton fields along Mississippi’s Route 61 to the beaches along Chicago’s lakeshore, from Nob Hill to the Avenue of the Americas and from the Four Seasons outside Dallas to Sheraton’s Four Points outside Toronto. My motivation has been to deliver training in crisis communications, media interviews and presentations to our clients; but my frustration has been in what I’ve learned about the state of travel these days.

How can the powers that be have made things even worse for travelers than they were in past years? Here are a few ways:

• Now when you fly most regional jets (those up-to-50-seaters), as I do most of the time, you can only bring one item on board. That’s one item not one bag. A briefcase or a purse counts as one item, for instance. So when I travel for training, I somehow need to jam my camcorder into my computer case if I don’t want to take a chance on its being demolished in the baggage system. On the other hand, I have lots more legroom now.
• No longer does Northwest provide even those cruddy pretzels with your drink. Cup, ice, cola—that’s pretty much it. On the other hand, some airlines do allow you to buy a decent snack on board—and some even serve free cheese crackers.
• Airports have installed a lot of technology but apparently forgot to build in a maintenance budget. You can enter a parking lot by swiping your credit card in a reader and then, when you return, do the same to exit to avoid lines at the cashier’s booths. But the reader going in is out of order most of the time. Moving sidewalks decide not to move whenever I step into the concourse. Baggage claim has become much more efficient, but the chances of your bags’ tumbling out on the carousel that appears on the electronic board are maybe 50-50. You have to keep watching the board to see where they’ve moved your flight’s cargo.
• It’s crucial to allow at least one hour between flights when making connections. You can count on flights almost never being on time. Fortunately, the connecting flight is usually late, too, so you might make it—even if the bag you were forced to check doesn’t.
• I just rode the Scrambler at the state fair and my stomach did a little better than riding the rental-car shuttle bus from the airport to the lot. Is someone stealing the suspensions from these vans? With no seat belts, no springs and apparently no speed limit, the shuttle may have become the most nauseating part of flying. Bring your own bag.

I enjoy the training sessions with client executives so much that the travel inconveniences are worth the periodic aggravation, but there must be a better way to get from here to there in one piece—with more than one piece. What tricks can you offer to ease the irritations?

--Steve Friedman

Walt Mossberg takes a stand for consumers at local event

I attended the WWJ-AM Newsradio 950 Business Breakfast last week with a few of my colleagues to see Wall Street Journal personal technology reporter Walter Mossberg. Mossberg’s discussion focused on three areas of technology: the Internet, mobile technology and Detroit’s favorite topic, automobiles.

Mossberg said the U.S. cellular phone networks do not operate to meet the demands of their consumers and that the current business model of “locking” the software on their phone is anti-consumer preventing further innovation. He feels that the carriers’ ability to control content is unfair to consumers and that the government should take notice of this issue.

Another subject that Mossberg seemed quite passionate about is his view that the auto industry is not coming out with innovative cars that excite consumers. He said that even the latest technology, such as GPS systems and iPod docking stations, are way behind what is available on PCs and from mobile technologies. He also described visiting an dealership recently and being taken aback that the sales staff could not properly describe some of the most basic technology in the vehicles.

In the Q&A session, I asked Mossberg what he thought about the failures of municipal Wi-Fi projects and what impact that might have on future innovation. Mossberg thought that even though the first round has had a lot of issues, that there would be more initiatives in the future and that ultimately, Wi-Fi (or WiMax) public projects will succeed.

Apparently after the event Mossberg was off to check out the new Ford Sync, which I think might help to change his opinion on innovation from the Big 3 for in-vehicle technology.

-- Allen Arnold

This House doesn’t smell

Here’s a Houseism I take issue with:

“Oh God, I’m tired of hearing that argument. I don’t have to go to Detroit to know it smells.”

During a recent episode of “House,” Hugh Laurie as Dr. House made a blatantly denigrating reference to Detroit.  It was a real slap in the face.

The forums on the Fox site are buzzing about the quote by other viewers who had the same reaction I did. The references to Detroit are tired and overplayed. But this latest jab – that we actually STINK – is really off the wall.   Or is it?

When I think of stinky cities, I think of Manhattan, Chicago, Paris, London; ahhhh, the smell of fresh sewer steam competing with the aroma of curbside trash.

Perhaps in their wisdom, the House writers are actually paying Detroit a high compliment:  We stink, therefore we are (in this case, a great city!).

In any event, this isn’t the first or the last negative reference to the “D”.  Knowing that, perhaps it’s time for Detroiters to stop taking this crap and start to fight back.  A first step would be to ask Hugh Laurie to make a visit to Detroit and take a whiff of what we have to offer.  He may find out that you DO have to go to Detroit to know it smells – and that’s a really good thing.

-- Lisa Vallee-Smith

To respond or not respond

The New York Times has an interesting article today about small businesses that may not know what’s being said about them online or not knowing what to do about when they do find something negative.

The article has good advice and not-as-good advice.

Good advice: Don’t respond to comments or blog posts anonymously. It will only come back to haunt you.

Not-as-good advice: While it’s true that you can register domain names that are variations of your company name, a better defense is a good offense. Take an honest look at your company or service first and see if there’s something you could improve or if the commenter has a valid complaint. If you turn that complainer into a fan, that person can become an asset and promote you via word of mouth. And to small businesses, that can be gold.

-- Tonja Deegan