http://blogs.e-rockford.com/thepassengerseat Whether you ride, drive or fly, transportation issues affect everyone. Especially when fuel prices are so high. Join Thomas V. Bona as he examines the things that make the world move. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:00:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/thepassengerseat/2009/11/20/thanksgiving-travel-tips/ 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/thepassengerseat/2009/11/18/great-airline-industry-podcast-blog/ 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/thepassengerseat/2009/11/18/more-people-will-travel-for-thanksgiving-will-you/ 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. ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/thepassengerseat/2009/11/17/great-article-on-how-to-tip-at-hotels/ 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, ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/thepassengerseat/2009/11/16/rockford-airport-said-no-thanks-on-melbourne-fla-flights/ 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/thepassengerseat/2009/11/03/todays-fuel-price-musings-as-prices-drop-a-bit-rockford-remains-below-most-of-state/ 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/thepassengerseat/2009/11/02/will-southwest-airlines-at-milwaukee-hurt-rockford/ 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/thepassengerseat/2009/10/21/do-you-care-what-kind-of-plane-you-fly-on/ 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/thepassengerseat/2009/10/16/todays-fuel-price-musings-gas-prices-still-lower-than-most-of-the-state/ 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/thepassengerseat/2009/10/16/link-10-things-gas-stations-wont-tell-you/