Recorded in the St Louis Airport Marriott courtesy of a blown connection by Southwest. We clean out the TravelCommons mail bag, going through listener comments on disabling in-flight electronics, eating alone, and finding good non-chain food on the road. We talk about the sudden collapse of the CLEAR registered traveler program and if in-flight WiFi will really improve frequent traveler productivity. I also give a little personal history about how I came to travel so much. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
Recorded in the Seattle Marriott Waterfront, this special 4th-year anniversary edition collates the best bits from four years of TravelCommons podcasts. Starting with the “hotel medley” — the roll call of all the hotels that have served as TravelCommons’ recording studios, we move on to excerpts from stories about the TSA, Bose headphones, memories of better airplane food, the hassles of travel, and some of the most entertaining sights I’ve seen in the last four years. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
Recorded somewhere over the Atlantic in the business class toilet of a South African Airways A340 and the Rosebank Hotel in Johannesburg at the start of a week’s stay in South Africa. We talk about inconsistent rules for mobile devices on planes, the value of renewing my CLEAR registered traveler membership, the three things that make a restaurant a great place to eat solo, and listener suggestions on the one thing you never want to hear on a flight. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
Recorded in the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago at the end of a full week home, decompressing after 6 weeks of straight travel. We talk about some “travel rules” violators — the woman whose airport meltdown is a YouTube hit and an Amazing Race couple whose violation got them eliminated. A listener suggests a topic — what is the one thing you never want to hear on a flight? And we close with a couple of suggestions on how to avoid the growing cacophony of flat screen TVs shouting out the depressing state of the world. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
Recorded in the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago, back doing my thing to support the travel industry with lots of travel in January. We talk about some recent TSA observations, good and bad; my latest spin of the “travel roulette” wheel, trading the plane for a train in an East Coast snow storm; a look back at last year’s travel courtesy of Dopplr’s Personal Annual Report; and being saved by duct tape while flying the tatty skies of United. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
Recorded in the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago after finishing up my travel for the year. But there was a good bit of travel before the year-end, including one of the craziest/stupidest(?) itineraries I’ve done in a long time — Chicago-London-Denver in a little more than a day. Many of the subsequent Twitter comments I received asked that perpetual question — Why travel when you can video conference? Traveling to a business-formal office for the first time in 10 years causes me to investigate different methods in packing a suit. And the December storms that have snarled air traffic across the upper two-thirds of the US have me singing the praises of Flightstats. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
Recorded in the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago at the end of yet another busy travel month – Philadelphia, Portland, Denver, Northern Virginia – but am home this week, keeping to one of my cardinal rules of travel – stay out of any airport Thanksgiving week. In this episode, I talk about a successful experiment of going PC-less on a trip to Portland and give the conclusion to last episode’s story about my mother-in-law being stranded by LOT Airlines. We have listener stories on accelerated boarding on international Delta flights and some tidbits of British Airways gossip on the cause of the 777 crash last January and the havoc around the Heathrow Terminal 5 opening. I then give my review of TripChill, one of the new wave of web-based personal travel assistants, and share some travel tips sent in by listeners. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
Recorded in the Philadelphia Marriott after a hectic travel month with two trips to Europe and a bunch of travel up and down the US East Coast. In this episode, I talk about a bit of multi-modal travel — some planes, trains, and automobile trips. We have a trio of stories about playing “travel roulette” to avoid flight delays, and some listeners offer their favorite iPhone apps. I then share some non-obvious, intermediate-skill travel tips — a sort of Road Warrior 201-level class and close with some thoughts about enjoying the fall colors from up above. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
Recorded in the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago after a month of travel to and from the East Coast. In this episode, a spur-of-the-moment train trip bypasses a huge air traffic control problem. A listener story gets us talking about theft after you entrust your luggage to the folks behind the curtain. I have fun saying the word schadenfreude — German for “taking pleasure in other’s misfortunes” — while talking about the need to use iPhones and BlackBerrys to check the status of delayed flights. I also give my thoughs on the iPhone after traveling with it for a month. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
Recorded in the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago after a couple of weeks in Thailand and Singapore. In this episode, I talk about some of my experiences in Asia, including a few travel (mis)adventures. We also talk about losing laptops in airports — comments on a study claiming that 12,000 laptops are lost in airports every week, and thought on one particular lost laptop belonging to the Clear registered traveler program. And a listener gives his in-flight impressions of Singapore Air’s new A380. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
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