airports

Is the Travel Industry Taking Self-Service Too Far?

Christopher Elliot

Annette Johnson thinks the travel industry is taking self-service too far. She's watched airlines drop their phone support and add fees for airport check-ins that use a human agent. Some air carriers are even tearing out their kiosks and prodding passengers into using a phone app at the airport. "It feels like you're being punished if you need a little help," says Johnson, a travel advisor.

The Best and Worst Airlines of 2022 for Customer Service

Christopher Elliot

Dennis Shirshikov recalls a recent American Airlines flight from Mexico City to New York with his wife and three young children. As they boarded, a crew member ordered him to gate-check their stroller. Shirshikov, who runs a real estate investment firm in New York, says he balked because the stroller was regulation-size and he needed it to transport his kids. "They were very confrontational," he says. When he arrived at JFK, the stroller was gone. He finally found it in the lost and found.

Moving Forward: The Future of Travel in 2021 and Beyond

Jessica Larson

Even though it comes with its own constraints and challenges, road trips and short flights within the U.S. are how many people will ease into traveling again. The emphasis for airlines and accommodation providers will be on cleanliness and social distancing. In many cases, these enhanced health and safety measures will stick around as a way to prevent future outbreaks and bolster consumer confidence.

How Mid-Century Airline Travel Came to Symbolize Glamour and Adventure

M.C. Hühne

The airline industry was highly regulated until the late 1970s, when deregulation in the United States started a trend to liberalize air traffic around the world. Until then, ticket prices and the destinations an airline was allowed to serve were the main subjects of regulation. Airlines were regarded as important agents for economic growth as well as ambassadors of their home countries abroad, and regulation was to provide stable economic conditions for this promising new industry.

How to Rescue Your Vacation From the Coronavirus

Christopher Elliot

Jacqueline Lambert and her husband were just about to wrap up a vacation in Italy when the borders locked down. They decided to stay, renting an apartment in the Aosta Valley in Northern Italy. "We're going to enjoy the weather and beautiful scenery, which we have all to ourselves," says Lambert, a guide book author. Others are changing their itineraries before they leave. That's what happened to me last week. I had planned to spend a month in Italy, with stops in Bologna, Venice, Rome and Südtirol. Then the entire country turned into a red zone. 

 

The Era of the ‘Ego Tourist’

Christopher Elliot

Frequent travelers expect traffic jams and long lines. But holiday travel brings out the novices, says Jacqueline Whitmore, a former flight attendant and director of the Protocol School of Palm Beach. "They don't know what to expect. They get very frustrated, very quickly," she says. Whitmore has seen it herself. She worked on flights where inconsiderate newbies brought strollers the size of a Mercedes and then ordered a flight attendant to stow them.

Flight MH370 and the Reality of Human Helplessness

Sandip Roy

We expect tragedy, whether its man-made or natural, to come fully illustrated - collapsed buildings, mangled limbs, charred bogies of trains, airplanes crashing into skyscrapers in front of our horrified eyes. Flight MH370 has none of that. Days after the tragedy we heard about a "yellow object" floating in the sea. Perhaps an oil slick. But all we have seen on 24-hour television is the footage of anxious families huddled in Beijing airport, glued to cellphones.

 

 

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