November 20th, 2009 03:00pm
Thomas V. Bona
With AAA projecting a slight increase in travel this Thanksgiving, I rounded up some travel tips for the busy weekend.
First, some road-trip tips from AAA:
- Plan trip in advance to find most direct route. Use AAA Trip Tik travel planner to bypass construction and find gas prices at 100,000 gas stations across the country. Budget for how much gas will cost at www.fuelcostcalculator.com
- Make sure kids’ car seats are properly installed and used before your trip. Parents can go to www.seatcheck.net to find local certified child passenger safety technicians or go to their local AAA branch.
- Avoid distractions while driving – let passengers do the texting/talking on the phone and deal with navigation and children in the back seat. Don’t eat, change clothes, put on makeup, etc., while driving.
- Make sure your headlights are spotless so you can see everything on the road and every other driver can see you better
- If hosting a Thanksgiving gathering, make sure each group has a designated driver
And for flying:
- Take the number of the travel agent with you in case there are any difficulties.
- Check your flight status online before you leave for the airport, know the rules and limitations of your ticket, carry cash with you to purchase necessities.
- Pack entertainment and necessities in your carry on so you have them with you in case there are flight delays or other problems.
- While airline travel will be down this year, travelers still need to get to the airport well ahead of time as airports will still be much more crowded than usual.
- Air travelers should review the latest travel guidelines set forth by the TSA on what they can/cannot bring on carry on – this will save them time and hassle at the airport.
Speaking of air travel, my new favorite blogger Heather Poole, has some tips for getting through airport security. She gives some good ideas on how to move quickly and not hold up the line, while reducing your hassle.
Safe travels!
November 18th, 2009 12:16pm
Thomas V. Bona
Two recent airline industry discoveries that are quite entertaining.
First off, just listened to my first edition of the Airplane Geeks podcast and was blown away. I do a lot of podcast listening, mostly sports and NPR shows … but have found the quality out there to be a wide range (some podcasts I’ve tried have great concepts but are totally unlistenable). This one, though, is one of the good ones. It’s what its name implies - a bunch of airline industry geeks sitting around talking about industry news, trends, etc. But they do it with a lot of love, knowledge, insight and, perhaps most importantly, chemistry so it’s highly entertaining. A must-listen for other geeks out there.
Plus, they have a shirt that is so ridiculously made for me:
A recent guest was the wonderfully engaging Heather Poole, whose blog is Another Flight Attendant Writing. She has a witty, informative style as she shares her experience as a flight attendant. She was also very good on the podcast, with the kind of outgoing personality that’s made her a success in her industry. It’s always a nice reminder that flight attendants have gone from being considered “eye candy” to being valued for their smarts, flexibility and resiliency. I hope to never be a bad passenger under her watch!
What airline industry blogs, podcasts and other things do you recommend?
November 18th, 2009 11:28am
Thomas V. Bona
AAA Chicago just came out with its Thanksgiving travel projections, and expects slightly more people will hit the roads and skies over the holiday weekend. It cites increased consumer confidence as a reason travel will be a bit up despite higher gas prices.
“Although far too many Americans remain unemployed or under other financial stress, AAA’s projected increase in Thanksgiving travel from one year ago is another hopeful sign that economic conditions are stabilizing and improving in some areas. We can also be thankful the gradual recovery we have been seeing in the U.S. travel industry since the start of the summer is continuing,” said Brad Roeber, AAA Chicago regional president.
I’ll be doing the same thing I did last year - driving a bit over an hour to my in-laws for a festive meal (I didn’t marry into money, but I sure married into food!). Since we don’t have to go too far, it’s never an issue what the economy or gas prices are. But for those who travel farther, I can imagine every year is a different calculation.
Are you doing anything different travel-wise for Thanksgiving? Why or why not? Do the economy and gas prices affect your decision?
November 17th, 2009 03:46pm
Thomas V. Bona
USA TODAY has a great primer on when, who and how much to tip at hotels.
As an infrequent traveler, I find this helpful. Especially when my wife and I get a wonderful room at a bargain via Priceline, we feel we ought to tip well if we get good service. We don’t often carry a lot of bags, so it’s mainly the housekeeping staff we tip (and the rare occasion we valet park). They work very hard and even if we haven’t left the room in bad shape, I feel a good tip makes up for those who probably trash their room and barely tip.
Of course, one time in Cincinnati, I accidentally left a $20 bill instead of one of the ones … that housekeeper had a good day…
Thoughts on hotel tipping?
November 16th, 2009 05:15pm
Thomas V. Bona
Direct Air recently announced new service from Melbourne, Fla., on the state’s east coast. It’ll be flying to Niagara Falls (makes sense), Washington DC (bold) and Punta Gorda, Fla. (huh?). More on those later.
What I’m most interested in is where they’re not flying to, which is Rockford.
Talked to Bob O’Brien, executive director at Chicago Rockford International Airport about this. He said he talked with airline officials about Rockford-Melbourne flights but told them he’d rather they focus on making the Rockford-Punta Gorda route (returning Wednesday for the winter) a success before adding other routes. That’s one of the reasons the less-than-successful Myrtle Beach service isn’t coming back for the foreseeable future.
O’Brien’s logic makes sense … especially given that Rockford already has three Florida destinations. Does it really need a fourth, especially one that’s about an hour from an existing destination (Orlando/Sanford)? And how would Allegiant Air respond to route from Rockford to within an hour of its most popular route here?
Now, about the general idea of Direct Air serving Melbourne. It seems … odd … mainly because they already offer flights to Sanford. Wondering if this is a sign that they don’t see as much of a ceiling in Sanford, where Allegiant is dominant. Or maybe they’re just trying to serve as many Florida markets as possible.
The flights from Punta Gorda to Melbourne are interesting, but it appears to just be Direct Air offering seats on flights where it’s shuttling a plane between those two destinations. If they’re going there anyway, might as well offer passengers a chance to fly with them. But I can’t imagine many will use it.
Obviously, Rockford hopes Direct Air does well and grows into a strong airline. It’ll be interesting to watch what happens.
November 3rd, 2009 02:42pm
Thomas V. Bona
Gas prices started to ebb a bit over the weekend, after a weird autumn uptick (then again, what’s normal economically this year?). Had a reader chide me for my story a few weeks ago where analysts predicted prices were going to fall, but then they rose. Well, predicting gas prices canoften be a fool’s game. So let’s try again!
Here’s AAA’s take, from manager of regulatory affairs Andrew Delmege:
The ongoing plight of the dollar has been, and will continue to be in the short term, the driving factor behind any major movement in market oil prices. Dollar weakness, which can be loosely defined to mean when the US dollar loses purchasing power or value against a competitor currency like the euro or a basket of currencies, can be caused by a myriad of factors. The major reasons for the current spate of dollar weakness include rapid growth in the national debt, the questionable health of the US financial system and the lingering effects of the recent recession. As the dollar weakens, oil and other commodities become cheaper for foreign investors to buy, which then drives up the market price. Also, oil is a physical good that can be used by investors to protect their portfolios from declines in the dollar’s value.Perhaps what is most surprising to consumers and analysts alike is how crude oil prices have managed to defy traditional supply and demand fundamentals. If one were to take the plight of the US dollar out of the oil price equation entirely, it would be difficult to justify logically why oil prices now hover above $77 per barrel. Huge existing oil supplies and demand for oil and gasoline that is only now slightly improving would likely have been enough to keep prices in the $65-$75 range absent the continued struggles of the dollar.
Here’s the good news, locally. Rockford’s prices are in the middle of the road nationally - 137th of the country’s 280 metro areas. Our prices are lower than most of the metro areas in Illinois, and all of Indiana and Wisconsin. Weird. Just like I can’t explain why we’re well above average, I can’t explain this
Here are the prices from this morning (courtesy of AAA’s fuelgaugereport.com):
Gasoline: Rockford dropped two cents to $2.69 a gallon today, up almost 26 cents in the past month. We’re ninth in the state. The Illinois average dropped a cent to $2.80 a gallon, up 33 cents in the past month. The national average dropped less than a cent to remain at $2.69 a gallon, up almost 23 cents in the past month. Illinois has the seventh-highest gas prices in the nation.
Diesel: Rockford remained at $2.86 a gallon, up 23 cents in the past month. We have the third-highest diesel prices in the state. The state average dropped a cent to $2.89, a 23-cent increase in the past month. The national average dropped slightly to $2.83, an almost a 21-cent increase in the past month. Illinois has the 14th-highest diesel prices in the country, including the District of Columbia.
November 2nd, 2009 01:39pm
Thomas V. Bona
Southwest Airlines started service out of Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport Sunday, with 12 daily nonstops to five destinations.
What’s interesting is that three of those destinations - Phoenix, Orlando and Tampa - directly compete with routes out of Chicago Rockford International Airport. Could those routes hurt RFD?
Dane County Regional Airport in Madison seems to think so A spokeswoman said Rockford would be affected more than Madison.
“I think we have loyal passengers here and, secondly, Madison tends to support the business market better and Southwest tends to be more of a leisure destination airline,” said Sharon Wisniewski, spokeswoman for the Dane County Regional Airport.
Not sure I really agree with her logic. Southwest primarily a leisure airline? Perhaps in the past, but it’s been moving aggressively to grab business travels, and the airline claimed last year it had more business travelers than any airline. While only one of its current Milwaukee routes competes with a Madison route (Milwaukee-Baltimore vs. Madison-DC), eventually it could add more competing routes to New York, Denver, Dallas, St. Louis … several low-hanging fruit on Madison’s tree. Add to that the “Southwest effect” of lowering fares … with AirTran’s ramp up in Milwaukee, too, that airport is going see some real deals that will nab passengers. I don’t think Madison is so safe.
But what about Rockford? Airport Executive Director Bob O’Brien’s oft-stated goal is to create “Midway 2, northwest of O’Hare.” But with Southwest and AirTran - two airlines O’Brien has targeted - Milwaukee seems to have beaten them to the punch. Can Rockford become “Midway 3″?
Personally, I’ll check out Southwest whenever going to a city they fly to out of Milwaukee, but if it’s a choice between MKE and RFD, I’ll stay here if the price is even remotely close. What about you? Going to feel the LUV?
October 21st, 2009 01:29pm
Thomas V. Bona
Just wrote a story about the turbulent first year of Direct Air at Chicago Rockford International Airport, and their hopeful plans for the future.
One big change is the type of airplane they use here. When they started service from Rockford to Punta Gorda, Fla., they used these planes:
“Like walking into a nightclub”
This time, they’ll be using these planes:
Like walking into an airplane
(more…)
October 16th, 2009 02:58pm
Thomas V. Bona
Haven’t done this in a while, but some interesting stuff out there. Gasoline prices nationally are in a slight uptick because of a drop in supply, as refiners aren’t seeing margins high enough to make it worth the effort.
Just discovered the GasBuddy Blog, and Patrick had some interesting thoughts yesterday:
To stop oil prices from a sustained rally we need a few things:
1) A stronger U.S. dollar
2) An acceptable profit margin for refiners to encourage production
3) Goldman Sachs to refrain from “investing” billions of dollars into oil
4) Traders who look at numbers vs. last year. Oil inventories are still extremely healthy and things aren’t improving as fast as some believe
Gasoline prices are still well cheaper than they were a year ago, but that will change by year’s end. While 2008 saw prices fall off a cliff, 2009 will just see some ebbing.
Here are the prices from this morning (courtesy of AAA’s fuelgaugereport.com):
Gasoline: Rockford rose two cents to $2.52 a gallon today, up almost six cents in the past week but down a cent in the past month and down 61 cents in the past year. We’re ninth in the state and tied at 102nd of the country’s 280 metro area. The Illinois average rose almost three cents to $2.58 a gallon, up eight cents in the past week and one cent in the past month, but down 66 cents in the past year. The national average rost more than a cent to $2.50 a gallon, up three cents in the past week, but down almost six cents in the past month and down 58 cents in the past year. Illinois has the 11th-highest gas prices in the nation, including the District of Columbia.
Diesel: Rockford rose a cent to $2.66 a gallon, up more than three cents in the past week, but down almost two cents in the past month and down but almost $1.06 in the past year. We have the third-highest diesel prices in the state. The state average rose a cent to $2.69, a three-cent increase in the past week, but a slight drop in the past month and a $1.19 drop in the past year. The national average rose a cent to $2.65, a three-cent increase in the past week, but a one-cent drop in the past month and a $1.11 drop in the past year. Illinois is tied with the 19th-highest diesel prices in the country, including the District of Columbia.
October 16th, 2009 10:25am
Thomas V. Bona
Found a great article this week while researching my Road Ranger story.
It’s called “10 Things Gas Stations Won’t Tell You” and is pretty enlightening on some issues of pricing, gasoline quality, credit cards and the price of soda vs. coffee.
My favorite is “I hate it when gas prices are going up”:
Stations earn on average between 10 and 15 cents on a gallon?of?gas. Ironically, they earn the least when prices are highest. When fuel climbs, gas stations must shrink their profit margin to remain competitive, meaning they earn less per gallon than usual. But another big cost during tough times is something they can’t do anything about—credit?card?fees, which add up to about 2.5 percent of all purchases. When gas is at, say, $2 a gallon, the station pays credit?card?companies 5 cents a gallon; when gas hits $3, that fee becomes 7.5 cents—more than half the station’s entire average profit. “Those credit card fees are miserable for the gas station business,” says Mohsen Arabshahi, who owns five Southern California gas stations.
How do station?owners make up for lost revenue? “Prices go up like a rocket and come down like a feather,” says Richard Gilbert, a professor of economics at UC?Berkeley. For several weeks after wholesale prices drop, stations can earn as much as 20 cents a gallon before retail prices are lowered to reflect the change.
What catches your eye?
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