TSA PreCheck Not So Easy if You Enroll Yourself
Posted on 01/03/2014, 11:45 AM
Recruitment ad from the TSA website In the first phase of the TSA's PreCheck program, the airlines invited their elite members to enroll. That process worked well, since the airlines mostly facilitated the integration of passengers' membership numbers into their reservations, and the TSA requires number and ticket to me married before it allows passengers to use the service. But if you a...
Cooking with a Hotel Room Hair Dryer
Posted on 12/30/2013, 10:00 AM
Slow news week! Here's a little offbeat hotel room cooking tip that has been making the rounds. Both NPR and ABC have aired discussions about how to cook simple foods with a hair dryer. Apparently—did you know this?—the concept was introduced in the 1970s by a chef who discovered it helped make perfectly crispy duck skin. GMA went so far as to point one of the hair care appliances at a r...
Delta, JetBlue, and Southwest Will Not Allow In-Flight Phone Calls
Posted on 12/20/2013, 11:45 AM
The people are speaking—and the people don't want the people to speak. Both Delta and JetBlue have stepped forward to tell customers they despite loosened federal restrictions, they will not permit video or voice calling while in the air. "Our customer research and direct feedback tell us that our frequent fliers believe that voice calls in the cabin would be a disruption to the travel exp...
Best Western is Discounting until February 2, and That Includes the Holidays
Posted on 12/15/2013, 1:45 PM
Best Western has announced a sale that lasts until February 2, 2014, and surprisingly it includes rooms over the busy holiday period. A 20 percent sale in the middle of Christmas and New Year's would be a very useful promotion, but like so many publicized sales, it's a bit squirmy about the specifics. "Guests can save up to 20 percent off at participating hotels," it claims. Wording like t...
Every Passenger To Get Fast, Free Wi-Fi on JetBlue
Posted on 12/11/2013, 3:30 PM
Although JetBlue put its free Wi-Fi in place a few weeks ago, giving it time to work out the kinks, today it launched it officially in a big way by loading a group of persnickety tech and travel reporters onto one of its planes for a round-trip flight to nowhere. Once altitude was reached, the Wi-Fi service was switched on, and JetBlue let the critics have at it. The verdict: It works. JetBlu...
Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort Now Generating Power From Rooftop Wind Turbines
Posted on 12/06/2013, 4:30 PM
On top of the 26th floor of the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort, barely visible from A1A and the beach on its doorstep, six wind turbines have just been installed. I checked them out on a recent visit to the city. For now, they bow down like modernist sculpture, held horizontal by their hydraulic lifts, but this month, they will be unfurled to a height of 35 feet above the roof line a...
New York City's Newest Tourist Attraction: Monthly Concerts By Billy Joel
Posted on 12/04/2013, 12:30 PM
Las Vegas casino-hotels long ago carved out a healthy tourist industry from installing popular artists in long runs. Elvis will always be the King, of course, but in recent years, residencies by artists such as Celine Dion, Motley Crue, Britney Spears, and Carrot Top have been an incentive for tourists to pack up and fly to town. (Okay, maybe not Carrot Top.) Now New York City's esteemed Madi...
Handy Discount App HotelTonight Now Offers Discounts from 9am Daily Instead of Noon
Posted on 11/26/2013, 12:45 PM
The same-day hotel discount app HotelTonight has grown by leaps and bounds since its debut in 2011, going from a coverage of just a few cities to now around 200 locations around the globe. If you're not familiar with it, the app works like this: On the same day that you need a hotel reservation, you check the app to see which handful of hotels need to unload last-minute rooms for cheap. Some ...
AppleCare+ Now Lets You Repair Your Apple Products Where You Travel
Posted on 11/21/2013, 12:00 PM
AppleCare+, and its similar product AppleCare Protection Plan, are like insurance policies for your Apple product—iPhone, iPad, iPod, laptop, and the like. If you crack your screen on your iPhone, for example, having purchased its $79 AppleCare policy, the company will fix it for a nominal fee, saving you from having to purchase a whole new phone. Until recently, you could only get your Ap...
Virgin America Releases the Grooviest In-Flight Safety Video of All Time
Posted on 11/04/2013, 4:15 PM
A few weeks ago, Air New Zealand bent the rules of due diligence by bringing out an uproarious in-flight safety video featuring Betty White and Gavin McLeod and set at a retirement village. (Click here to see that hilariously daring segment.) Now Virgin America has upped the game with its own entrant that'll appeal to the other end of the age scale. It may be the grooviest, sassiest, pop-and-...
