Kevin's Weblog

I’ve been traveling a bit more often the last couple months. Here’s who’s in my doghouse.

Avis — Why on earth do you feel like I need to have two keys for my rental car, permanently tethered to each other by an un-openable ring? My pockets are cluttered enough while traveling without a completely useless duplicate key. For that matter, why haven’t American car companies figured out how to combine the remote entry fob with the key, like everyone else in the world?

Car Rental Companies - How do you get away with an advertised $40 rate that actually costs nearly $60? This list of fees and taxes is a little absurd: “11.11% Fee”, “VLF Fee”, “Tax 8.250%”, “2.5% TAF”, “$5/Rental”. I understand that this is all various governmental or quasi-governmental agencies trying to get their piece, but when the add-ons are 50% of the base cost, there really ought to be some sort of truth in advertising that applies.

“Luxury” hotels — I understand a huge pile of fluffy pillows is supposed to be a mark of luxury, but it’s gotten out of hand. I’m a side-sleeper, and your ridiculous pillows are still too big. I can’t imagine how sore the necks of back-sleepers must be. Moreover, when I request, and you deliver, a smaller pillow on one night, housekeeping shouldn’t steal the pillow back the next day, nor should you claim the smaller pillows don’t exist when I call down the next evening.

Yahoo — why is it that every time I come into an office I have to spend the first half a day with Help Desk figuring out why I can’t get on the network this time? Yesterday I never managed to get on the internal network and had to borrow someone else’s laptop to give the presentation I flew down to present.

San Jose — Coming down 101/87, I can practically reach out the window and touch the rental car area, but I have to drive another 2 miles down the road, then back through the whole length of the airport. Can we just get a freeway exit right there?

Southwest Passengers — Southwest is experimenting with a new boarding procedure where everyone has an assigned boarding number, like A-29. This seems like a good idea, since you no longer have people camping out on the ground. However, the concept seems to be a little too difficult for many people. Despite the assistance of signs marking off each set of 5 numbers, people still seem to have trouble with the concept of ordering themselves according to the numbers on their boarding pass. This might just be a problem of people not listening to the instructions, and lack of familiarity, as the folks in San Jose seemed to get it much better than those in Portland. (Alternatively, people flying out of San Jose are probably more intelligent on average that those in Portland, or pretty much anywhere else.)

Southwest (#1) — Let me explain a couple things about bulkhead seats. First, they don’t have underseat storage, so it would be oh-so-much more convenient for everyone if the overhead storage wasn’t already full of supplies. Second, there’s no back-of-the-seat tray available, so you’re suppose to either use the seats with a swing-up tray, or attach trays to the bulkhead. I understand you’re probably saving something like $2 by using the same seats in the bulkhead row as the rest of the plane, but knock it off. Seriously.

Southwest (#2) — Alaska / Horizon gives me complimentary Mirror Pond when I fly with them. The least you could do for my dollars / coupons is produce something better than Bud Light or Heineken.

TSA — It’s been 6 years. Could we maybe think about a return to sensibility sometime soon? Have you seen how many plastic bins people need these days? Personally I usually need 3: for my laptop, my jacket, and my shoes and bag of liquid toiletries; sometimes four if I’ve grabbed food before security. I’d really like to be able to have a water bottle again. I’d really like it if you’d stop stealing my toiletries because they’re 0.2oz too big. It would be nice if I could carry a modest pocketknife again, particularly as I tend to run into more frequent use for one when traveling. If would be nice if I could keep my shoes on. Are we really going to have to do this forever?

Finally, I promised one rave. So here’s a shout-out to one of the few businesses who manage to reliably make my travel a little more pleasant: the Larkspur Landing. For only slightly more than most of the low-end hotels and less than the high-end ones, they manage to give me a mini-suite, complementary bottled water, free internet, sensible pillows, a DVD player in the room, cookies in the evening, and a decent breakfast in the morning. Thanks guys!