Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: November 2008 Archives
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the new Ivy Hotel in San Diego is not an inn that is seeking me as a customer. I'm pretty sure I'm not cool enough. No, strike that, I am absolutely positive I am not chilly enough for the Ivy. I was reminded of this fact after coming across a reference to the Ivy on Hotel Chatter. During our trip to San Diego last year the hotel was still under construction, but there was a lot of buzz about it even then. I was intrigued a bit as high-end buzz
Hands -- anyone else besides me really tired of this catch phrase from a movie I never saw, and probably never will? Whenever you mention
After our first trip to
Apparently
At first I was suspicious how good the deals could be, when I considered that two airlines that used to service the Hawaiian market are no more. ATA and Aloha both went out of business this year and that would normally mean a rise in airline pricing to reflect the reduced amount of competition. However, airline pricing seems to be falling along with hotel rates and fares of $244 from LA and $452 from NY can be had. So it looks like even with fewer seats available, we can certainly find some deals if we look around.
As to hotel rates on the islands, there seems to be a plethora of opportunities for someone who likes to do a bit of checking around and research. I've noticed lots of deals like "third night free" and the like are popping up on hotel websites. We might just have to see if we can snag something. We do have another business trip out to LA this January, so we may just have to see if we can extend a little to the West. Though I suspect that waiting a little longer before making plans might be worthwhile in the long run. And the short run too.
A couple of weeks ago the Wall Street Journal had an article on a luggage shipping option that United Airlines was offering with FedEx. I thought it was kind of interesting in a 'how much money can they extract from a stone' kind of way.
Basically, the concept it this: You call UAL and they'll have FedEx pick up your luggage. Naturally you'll have to do this the day before you need the bags at your destination. FedEx will overnight the bags and you get to pay a nice big juicy fee. For instance the fee for one bag, 50 pounds maximum, transported 1000 miles is $159 each way. The fee jumps to $179 for trips over 1000 miles.
Last week, as we were navigating around the greater
So on our second attempt to use a rental car agency for a sports car we had a little more luck. We got the car we ordered for one thing. For another thing there was actually room in the trunk for something a little more substantial than a thong. Not much more but we managed. Our choice this time was the Nissan 350Z and it came in a nice bright fire engine red, just the thing for attracting the Highway Patrol from miles around. Mary was particularly struck with the plethora of dials, gauges, buttons, switches and other informational displays, most of which caused her to wonder aloud if it really was necessary to know the precise number of volts put out by the alternator. At least I assume it was the alternator. As I've commented before, I don't know anything about cars and it could easily have been the voltage supplied by the on-board nuclear reactor.
Well, the last of the big six legacy carriers, Delta, envious at the torrents of money flowing into their competitors' coffers, has decided to institute bag fees. Looks like $15 a bag each way. Since fuel prices are dropping precipitously one can only assume that baggage fees are needed less for offsetting higher fuel prices and more for lining the corporate bottom line with lucre.
And so it goes. I would really be interested to see if Southwest will follow suit at some point. So far they've held the line but the cash they're losing out on has to hurt just the tiniest bit.
An update on our quest to check out the sports car section of the rent-a-car world: although the original article was all about Hertz we actually ended up going with Avis on our last trip to
First, Mary did the usual exhaustive research and analysis and found what looked like a pretty good deal on a Pontiac Solstice. She sent me the link and although as I mentioned before, I don't know squat about cars, it looked pretty cool, it was a convertible and it looked like with enough lubrication we could probably squeeze ourselves inside. Sold!
