The Savvy Boomer

French are classified as world's "rudest" tourists

No surprise to me that the French came out at the top of the world's rudest tourist poll because I have found that French people in general are rude.  I guess that comes from living in a country that has a French province whose French speaking residents mostly despise English speaking Canadians.  On a trip to Quebec a few years ago, I found I was much better received when I said I was from the U.S. rather than from Canada-kind of like how some Americans say they are Canadians when they travel abroad.

A trip to France produced the opposite results, where most French in the area of Bordeaux responded positively when they found out I was a Canadian.  Of course, the exception was Paris. Parisians are rude to everyone, even other Parisians.

Anyway, nice to see the French finally win some kind of award.  I'm sure most of them will be proud of it.  In case you are wondering, here are the best tourists.

Carry-on and weight baggage limits for 65 airlines.

Every so often, a site comes up with some information that I think may be very useful for boomers, so click on the link to the Flying with Fish blog to see the limitations most airlines have for your carry-on baggage.

Offbeat guides-a start up to avoid

Offbeat Guides offers you a guide ($9.95) to wherever you are traveling but god forbid if you change your dates-they can't accommodate you.  I got a guide and then changed my dates by a week and through a 3rd party support site (how lame is that?) someone called Eric Willis said they couldn't do that but if I emailed him, he would do it.  I did and he didn't.   FAILURE!!

UPDATE:  The company's President, David Sifry, contacted me and fixed things up.  Outside of their inablity to let users make date changes, the guide information is useful.

America's dirtiest hotels.

I have used the TripAdvisor site a few times when looking for hotel accommodation.  I like the fact that hotels are rated by order of popularity based on travelers opinions of their stays.  Reading the comments on some of the hotels that made their "10 dirtiest hotels in America" article is downright disgusting but at the same time comical.

It reminded me of my experience several years ago, before the internet and smartphones, when I had to make a quick trip to L.A. and all my travel agent could find me was a motel -nowhere near where I had to be but all I needed was a bed and shower for the night.

As I pulled into the obviously in need of repair property, there were 3 police cars parked in front of the office and a few uniformed officers standing around the courtyard.  I walked in and waited listening to the conversation.  Someone had been found in the pool early in the morning with stab wounds and was expected to die in hospital.  Two detectives were giving the clerk a hard time about inadequate records on the guests, apparently all of whom had to stay in their rooms until they were questioned, and even though it was early evening some were still there, unable to leave yet.

Finally, an older detective turned around and looked at me standing there in my suit.  He said "Who you with?"  I told him my name and the name of the company I worked for but that I had just arrived and was checking in.  He replied that he thought I was a cop coming to help with the interviews and then asked me why I would ever consider staying at that motel.  He said unless I was a pimp, a drug dealer or just looking for trouble, this was a place to avoid.  When I told him it was the only place with a vacancy, he said I would be better off having to drive a couple of hours than staying there.  As I quickly agreed and turned to leave, the room clerk who had pulled my reservation card said that since I had a guaranteed reservation that I'd be charged.  The cop looked at me and gave me his card.  He glared at the room clerk and said to me "If this #$%^^@ charges you, call me.  I get called here a couple of times a month and I'll discuss your charges personally with him."

I ended up driving almost 2 hours North to Santa Barbara before I found something decent, but there were no cop cars in the parking lot.  And oh, I was never charged for the guaranteed room and told my travel agent to remove the motel from their list of accommodation.

Vacation home rentals-an alternative to hotels

Next time you go on a vacation, why not consider renting a home or condo?  Hotels are great because they basically look after your every need while traveling, but the extra costs add up such as parking, taxes, food and beverages, resort facility fees etc.  The upside is that if you stay at a brand hotel, you know the kind of facilities and service to expect. 

If you stay at a vacation home, you have to rely on photos and previous customer comments and even then you never really know until you get there whether or not you have made a good choice.  But if you find the right spot, it is usually cheaper than a hotel with more space and often more amenities.  Just to be able to cook your own meals (not only cheaper but healthier) and have a supply of cold adult beverages on hand that didn't cost you 500% over retail, makes a vacation home an attractive proposition.  It gets even more economical if you have a large family or a few friends traveling together, because you can also find a home with several bedrooms.

We went to Phoenix about a year ago and found a great spot that was well located, large and had many amenities for about 1/2 the price of a comparable hotel room.  But it did take a lot of searching through various sites to find it.  While I love Craigslist, I found that properties advertised on it were often hinky when I got replies back.  One wanted the full amount up front by money order.  Yeah-right.

A new site, Otalo, not only combines several sites into one search but it is incredibly easy to use.  So far, they claim to have over 200,000 properties around the world. 

A couple words of caution in a vacation home rental is to make sure you understand all charges eg:taxes, cleaning charges, deposit etc.  Try to put the transaction on a credit card and only put a minimal deposit up front and don't charge the rest until you see the property.  That way, if there any problems you can get the Card provider involved.  Ask for references and follow up on them.   Also, don't be afraid to bargain.  When the owner of the Phoenix property asked me to sign a 4 page contract, and I told him to forget it and then asked for an even lower rate, he agreed immediately.

You can check out Otalo by clicking on the graphic.

Air Canada is the dinosaur of airlines

The first airline I ever flew on was Air Canada in about 1960 when I went to visit my grandparents in Florida.  It was a thrilling experience that I'll never forget because we landed in a thunderstorm and I was pretty certain we were all going to die.  Since then I have flown perhaps another 1,000 flights, 1/2 of them on Air Canada.  Thank goodness I can use points I got with them on other Star Alliance members so I now fly ABAC (Anyone but Air Canada.)

I can say that over those 48 years that Air Canada has gone from a darling to a dinosaur.  The most recent media statement by Air Canada about its epic fail screw-ups over the Christmas holidays in Canada shows just how condescending this company can be in the face of adversity.  I just love the final line: " I trust this will put things in perspective." 

You want perspective Air Canada?  How about how you deal with pets, the disabled, weather,  baggage and pilots suffering a nervous breakdown in the cockpit (how the hell did that happen?) for starters?  How about the hundreds of complaints posted on my3cents.com.  A friend who just returned from Toronto and was one of the happier travelers because her flights actually left although hours late, called your employees the surliest people she has ever encountered anywhere, never mind a service industry.

You have over 50 years experience flying in winter conditions and you still manage to blow it every time there are more than a few centimetres of snow.  Having no communications with your customers who have stood in line for almost 24 hours is just plain negligence.  The airports were open and other airlines kept flying as you kept posting "canceled" on many of your flights particularly in Vancouver.

Here is a typical example of a comment about Air Chaos:

Ed
"Every year we hear of how WestJet does it's utmost to help it's passengers and how Air Canada doesn't. We also hear of how Air Canada is scared of the competition that WestJet is bringing to the air travel market while reducing "non-profitable routes".

To Air Canada... "Grow up and take a leaf from WestJet's manual. You are only getting what you deserve. For too long you were a Crown Corporation suckling at the public teat. You need a massive culture change."

They need more than a culture change Ed, they need to go the way of the dinosaur.  This is one company that most Canadians would not mind seeing go down the tubes.  If you're an Air Canada employee, perhaps you could get a job with whatever company took over the airline's operations.  Actually, probably not, because outside of the pilots, I doubt most of you have enough people skills to be hired by another airline.

After restructuring Air Canada in 2003, President Robert Milton said that airlines clinging to business models conceived in the 1970s or earlier would become the industry's "walking dead."   The stock market already has AC close to dead as it went from $12 a share a year ago to close at $1.80 Dec 31st.  In that same period WestJet stock went from $22 to $13. You're almost there Robert-you just don't know it yet but your ex-customers will ensure it.

Airlines considering making everything optional?

Westjet which is roughly the Canadian equivalent of Southwest has a great ad on TV where a flight check in agent for a rival fictitious airline is offering to sell upgrades to a passenger.  When he asks about one of the offers-the cost of a seat with an armrest, she replies "1 or 2 armrests?"  This may not be far from the truth anymore if you look at the survey below that Consumerist posted about Westjet sending out to customers which is somewhat ironic because of the TV ad.  At least they didn't have a question about armrests and they have already dropped their fuel surcharge.

FEE - $10 more for:

• Priority boarding (getting on the plane first)
• Priority disembarking (getting off the plane first)
• Expedited baggage delivery
• Priority rebooking in case of flight cancellation
• Complimentary meals/hotel accommodations when a flight is either canceled or substantially delayed
• In-flight Internet access
• Guaranteed space in the overhead bin
• In-seat power
• Premium snack/meal offering
• A freshly laundered pillow/blanket set that you may keep after the flight
• An amenity kit with earplugs, eyeshades and toiletries to keep you refreshed on the plane
• A wait of 10 minutes or less to clear security checkpoints
• Sitting away from parents traveling with babies/small children

SAVINGS - $10 off for

• Savings for not checking bags
• Savings for not earning frequent flier miles
• Savings for only bringing aboard one small piece of carry-on baggage (e.g., only a purse or computer bag)
• Savings for being the last to board
• Savings for using online check-in instead of a kiosk
• Savings for using either a kiosk or online check-in instead of a human agent
• Savings for having my checked luggage to be among the last to be delivered
• Savings for sitting in a middle seat
• Savings for making no changes to your ticket prior to departure
• Savings for not getting free water, coffee/tea, juices or soft drinks in flight
• Savings for having a seat that does not recline
• Savings to sit close to parents traveling with babies/small children

Ebay used for airline travel

Jet Blue is doing something that I always thought was a natural for an internet auction-offering seats on some selected flights.

Click on the logo to go to the site.