Holy Dogpile!

Posted on | December 17, 2010 | 1 Comment

Now here’s something you would never expect in the baggage x-ray line at the airport.

There I was, checking in for an early flight, 5am at Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) airport. Lo and behold! A dog that was being held under the arm of a man collecting his bags up at the exit side of the x-ray machine, dropped a couple of stinky logs right onto the carpeted floor.

Funny thing is, I don’t know how I missed stepping into the doggie doo deposit. However, several people behind me managed to step right into the piles of fresh poop. After all, who is looking at the floor while at the x-ray machine?

The offender’s owner merely offered up a single napkin that he had in his pocket to help clean up the mess. Fortunately, TSA agents came to the rescue with a roll of paper towels which were in fact hardly any help at all. Ultimately the line was then completely closed to clean up the mess. I wonder what kind of delays followed in the queue at security after that?

I did notice one good natured passenger walking in his stocking feet towards the restroom to wash off the mess from the bottom of his shoes. Fortunately the incident didn’t escalate into a heated affair with yelling, screaming, and accusatory remarks, maybe it was the early hour and people were just too sleepy.

Future Hypo Allergenic Hotel Blog Posts

Posted on | September 19, 2010 | 4 Comments

Okay, so I haven’t written anything related to hypo-allergenic lodging and hotel rooms for quite some time. Well, that’s because there aren’t any! Without notice, this blog changed its format several months ago to now include only those hotels that have breathable guest rooms; that is rooms that have no discernible debilitating odors for the breathing challenged to choke on.

I have stayed in dozens of hotels since my last post and believe me when I say that the state of the smell of chain hotels in America is absolutely abysmal as far as available hypo-allergenic rooms go.

If you can find a clean unscented room chances are you will have to run a gauntlet of stink to get there. Like the Ritz-Carlton in Barcelona, Spain to the Hilton Hotel in Stamford, Connecticut you can see the smoke in the lobby emanating from the scent generators located there.

While in the Westin Hotel in Jersey City, New Jersey earlier this year, the hotel chain was featuring a full blown “Breathe Easy” campaign going on to promote their new scent that they so generously

spray into the rooms. YUCK! I’m not even sensitive to these poisons but this was truly offensive.

Even worse, there was a recent advertisement featuring Holiday Inn’s new scent that they developed to make their rooms “simple and clean, open and airy, and warm,” again, YUCK! When will it end? It’s like “natural flavors” as an ingredient in food, it’s fake. There is no scent like no scent.

So, if you know of a hotel that is clean, please, post it here. In the meantime, as my travels take me to different hotels around the globe, if any one of note appears, I will write about it here. I still maintain that the hotels must find it more cost effective to cover up smells with perfume rather than actually clean the rooms.

Good Luck in your travels seeking scent free places. I know that travels with my wife keep getting further and further away as clean hotels vanish before our very noses.

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• Chicago hotel opens hypoallergenic suite (gadling.com)

Boo-Hoo! Bee Line Bus Airlink

Posted on | May 16, 2010 | No Comments

Thanks Nick B for your comments. Just recently Westchester County Bee Line bus service in New York, just outside NYC, canceled it’s AirLink bus service from Westchester County Airport (HPN) to White Plains. This bus was a fifteen minute and $2.25 ride to the train station and bus station where you could make inexpensive connections to NYC for $7.25 on the Harlem Line MTA Metro-North train and elsewhere.

For me, it was like a free ride to my usual destination. I would take the AirLink and connect to the number 60. It would only cost me $2.25 right to my door. I could even get a free transfer in NYC if I made it to the subway or another bus within two hours. Although the ride took more than an hour and -a-half to do what a car could do in thirty minutes, the cost savings was great. A taxi usually cost about sixty dollars to go to the same destination. Boo-Hoo!

The alternative now is the regular bus that goes a round about way and makes the first leg a forty minute journey to do what once took 15 minutes. On the other hand I sort of can’t blame them. Most often, I was the only passenger on the bus along with a smattering of airport employees. On the other hand, they have created even less accessibility to another airport in a busy metropolitan area.

It is also beyond me as to why there has never been a bus to Port Chester, NY. It would make access to and from another MTA Metro-North train line and another busy town near NYC much easier without having to go all the way into Manhattan to catch a train on the New Haven Line of the Metro-North Railroad or take expensive taxis at $25.00 a pop for a fifteen minute ride?

This has been a huge change in bus service and has certainly altered how I arrange my travel plans when flying into and out of NYC. It really is another negative notch downward in accessibility to the area’s main transportation hubs.

HOTEL SECURITY ALERT!

Posted on | April 29, 2010 | 2 Comments

If you check into a hotel and your room has a door to an adjoining room or suite, check to insure that the door is locked and secure.

Two hotels in which I have stayed in this past month, coincidentally in a row, a Hilton in New Jersey and a Westin property in Atlanta, the door on my side to the adjoining room was unlocked.

Failure to insure that the door is properly secured could allow someone to enter your room unannounced. You can’t count on housekeeping to make sure that the door to an adjoining hotel room is properly secure before you arrive. Check the door yourself!

Most doors that lead to adjoining rooms have two locks installed. One is typically a deadbolt and the other is often a security chain or swing lever. Use them both. This will keep unwanted persons out and you and your belongings intact.

It may also behoove you to check the widows too. There was a Hotel in Columbia, South Carolina that I have stayed in several times where the windows did not lock. The windows opened directly out onto the roof. Anyone could have walked right over to my window from another room and climb right in.

The same care should be applied to rooms that also have doors that lead to balconies. Someone could climb over to your balcony from another room and walk right in if the door was unlocked. Check it and make it secure!

If you can’t lock your doors and windows, at the very least call the front desk and have engineering come up and fix the problem. If not, change rooms.

So again, this is a hotel security alert! As soon as you arrive in your room at a hotel, make sure that the first thing you do is check and insure that the door to the adjoining room, if there is one, and other windows and doors that are present are securely locked, your safety and security depends upon it!

Airport Security - corporate espionage or plain bad luck?

Posted on | January 2, 2010 | No Comments

Ok, so I haven’t posted anything for a while. Yes, I have been traveling and I have been generally uninspired to write anything because it’s been pretty much the same innocuous stuff that happens every day out there in the land of travel. However, the events of the past couple of days in ‘travel land’ have incensed me enough to actually write as I begin my new years travel bright and early on the 1^st of January. It’s about the conspiracy, corporate espionage, that is taking place in the airports as we speak and it’s all because one jerkoff tried to blow himself up and a plane full of people.

Read more

TSA The Real Deal On ID

Posted on | August 6, 2009 | 1 Comment

It’s not every day you travel and leave your drivers license at home. And I did just that. Even with my check list and arriving to the airport on time, my plans were Read more

Stickin’ it to the ‘Oil Man’ with Nail Polish Remover!

Posted on | July 14, 2009 | No Comments

Lately, I have been putting nail polish remover in my gas tank. Yes, you heard correctly. Read more

Hot Doggin’ it Through The TSA With Food

Posted on | July 10, 2009 | No Comments

I usually take my chances when flying with TSA and food. I try not to pack food that looks too much like a paste. Bringing my own food is not only a more healthy choice it is, of course, cheaper.

This time when I flew, for the first time that I can remember, I did not check a bag. Read more

Hallelujah for Jet Blue Customer Service

Posted on | May 1, 2009 | 2 Comments

Hallelujah for Jet Blue customer servie! Not only were they one of two airlines to have reported a profit this past quarter, they have the most helpful Read more

Airport Tourism - What does your city look like?

Posted on | April 28, 2009 | No Comments

What does your city look like? The people, I mean, at the airport, airport tourism. I think they represent a pretty good slice of what to expect from a city even before you get there. Read more

Another Airport Food Empty Sandwich

Posted on | April 25, 2009 | No Comments

Mmm, another expensive empty sandwich sold at the airport. The edges of it looked great in the wrapper but when I opened it, the sandwich fell far short of my expectations. Airport food. Read more

Finally, a free flight! Overbooked Flights Are A Good Thing?

Posted on | April 21, 2009 | No Comments

Well, it finally happened. A flight I was booked on was oversold and volunteers were called for to take a later flight. After 30 years of traveling, Read more

NYC Airports and Metronorth - Gripe! Gripe! Gripe!

Posted on | April 12, 2009 | 1 Comment

There I was the other day, rushing to catch a train on MetroNorth to one of NYC airports. I hustled and made it to the train station with two minutes to spare. It was mostly Read more

Safety, Protection, or Hotel Theft - Take Your Pick!

Posted on | March 30, 2009 | No Comments

As I noticed the wacky theft proof hangers in the closet of my hotel room I quietly wondered if the intention of the hotel was to thwart would be occupants from taking them when they leave. Think about that for a second. Read more

“Four Diamond” Hotels - Diamonds Are Four Ever?

Posted on | March 5, 2009 | No Comments

I recently stayed at a hotel in the southern part of the United States. At the check-in desk there were notices that indicated that it was rated a “four diamond” hotel. What makes a hotel so highly rated? Read more

Lowest Airline Fares - Are We Being $Gouged$ For Early Booking?

Posted on | January 28, 2009 | No Comments

I remember seeing a television show a couple of years ago on New Years Day. The journalist spent a week with American Airlines and it was explained that there could be around eight different price categories on any given flight. That means someone that bought an airline ticket at a discount rate in economy at under $100 dollars might be sitting next to someone who paid over $800 for a similar seat in the same class. Read more

“Hotel Stink Factor” - Quest For Allergy Free Hotels

Posted on | January 24, 2009 | 7 Comments

This post is my hotel ranking and comment section for allergy free hotels. Criteria for this ranking is pretty much based upon whether or not a person with reactive airways, allergies, asthma, MCS, etc. could stay at that particular hotel because of the smells. Read more

Ears Flying “Pass the Ear Plugs Please”!

Posted on | January 12, 2009 | No Comments

Ear plugs have been one of my best friends on commercial flights. It’s rare that I do not have a pair of them with me for my ears flying, when I travel. One of the more frequented routes I fly is southeastern Florida to the northeastern United States. Lots of babies and children travel this route, that means Read more

Category: Airline Flying, Airplane Comfort, Ears flying, Travel etiquette, Travel tips for travel
Tags: disposable ear plugs > ear plugs > Earplugs > Ears flying > Flight attendant > Florida > headphones > Hearing protection > Orlando Florida > screaming babies

Do You Know You Are Paying For Extra Legroom?

Posted on | December 31, 2008 | No Comments

Whew! Almost got duped by Spirit Airlines again with another “hidden” charge. They offer seat selection at the time of booking without telling you, right there upfront on that very page, that you will have to pay for that privilege. It’s very likely that Read more

Category: Airlane Seats, Airline Flying, Airplane Comfort, JetBlue, Legroom, Seating, Spiritair, Travel tips for travel
Tags: Aircraft > Airline > Airplane Seating > Interior > JetBlue Airways > Legroom > Seating > spirit airlines > Transportation

“Pulling a Lenny” & Other Parking Stories

Posted on | December 23, 2008 | 3 Comments

Have you ever tried to park your vehicle with your spouse in the car? Well, maybe you know just how consternating and even downright frustrating that can be?

I recently married my Read more

Category: Lot Parking, Parking, Street Parking
Tags: Automobile Protection > Driving > New York > NYC > Parking > Parking Lot > Pulling a Lenny

Overweight Baggage Tips For Flying Delta & United

Posted on | December 15, 2008 | 1 Comment

My experience with checking luggage is as varied as the fees that the airlines charge for this service. Some are reasonable and some are not. Sometimes, the counter clerks are reasonable and some are not. What you pay for baggage also depends upon whether or not you have overweight baggage. Read more

Category: Airline Flying, Overweight baggage, Travel etiquette, Travel tips for travel
Tags: checked bags > checked luggage > Delta Air Lines > LaGuardia Airport > luggage scale > overhead bin space carry on > overweight luggage fee > United Airlines

Spirit Airline Tickets - To Refund Or Not To Refund?

Posted on | December 6, 2008 | No Comments

It was a fairly okay travel day this past Monday. I was initially booked on Spirit Airways but a last minute opportunity presented itself and I changed my airline ticket. I set out to accomplish this without incurring any more ridiculous fees and penalties other than what may already be outrageous…er…obligatory. Read more

Category: Airline Flying, Spirit Airline Tickets, Travel tips for travel
Tags: airline ticket > cancellation fee > change fee > Change ticket > spirit airlines > Spiritair > ticket cancellation

Poor Travel Etiquette - Airline Passengers vs. Flight Attendants

Posted on | December 5, 2008 | 1 Comment

I recently had the opportunity to stay on a plane during a scheduled layover in Charlotte. What a difference. Without the passengers aboard, the flight attendants were actually nice and personable people. What happened? Read more

Category: Airline Flying, Travel etiquette, Travel tips for travel
Tags: Charlotte North Carolina > Flight attendant > flight attendants > model passengers > no travel etiquette

Cheap Parking in Manhattan - Midtown

Posted on | November 24, 2008 | No Comments

My second opportunity to use the aforementioned website came for Manhattan parking came Read more

Category: Cheap parking in Manhattan
Tags: 53rd Street > Coupon > Manhattan > read your coupon

Cheap Parking in Manhattan

Posted on | November 21, 2008 | 3 Comments

So there I was, driving into New York and feeling like not getting soaked again by parking rates in midtown Manhattan where the prices can be, well, Read more

Category: Cheap parking in Manhattan
Tags: Manhattan > New York City > website for cheap parking

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