Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Recent Comments:
Autistic child kicked off flight {Gadling}
Jun 25th 2008 7:39PM Apologies for the double (triple, quadruple?) response. My Gmail account apparently had too much for lunch. I confirmed the post and the whole page started to flash and I suddenly received four requests from Gadling for confirmations. No idea what's going on there. Sorry.
Autistic child kicked off flight {Gadling}
Jun 25th 2008 7:33PM If the four questions at the bottom of your post were an attempt at generating reader comments, engaging debate or soliciting responses, my guess is you didn't get what you bargained for.
My comment is a very simple one, and it has nothing to do with an autistic child, but since you brought it up... An airline pilot's chief concern from the minute he or she gets on the plane until the minute they leave at the other end is the safety of the passengers - all of them. Period. It seems to me that it's likely the pilot did the right thing.
Regardless, my comment is this: what is this 'story' doing on Gadling? What's happened to Gadling? I realize, as the editors of Gadling undoubtedly have, that readership has dropped off significantly. I'm betting your 'uniques' are few and far between when compared with a year ago. All you have to do is look at the number of comments on the posts. Where'd everybody go...? That's not a rhetorical question.
Oh, and this is for Jack... no, it's not 1954, it's 1962. Do your research pal! Bwa ha ha!
Autistic child kicked off flight {Gadling}
Jun 25th 2008 7:30PM If the four questions at the bottom of your post were an attempt at generating reader comments, engaging debate or soliciting responses, my guess is you didn't get what you bargained for.
My comment is a very simple one, and it has nothing to do with an autistic child, but since you brought it up... An airline pilot's chief concern from the minute he or she gets on the plane until the minute they leave at the other end is the safety of the passengers - all of them. Period. It seems to me that it's likely the pilot did the right thing.
Regardless, my comment is this: what is this 'story' doing on Gadling? What's happened to Gadling? I realize, as the editors of Gadling undoubtedly have, that readership has dropped off significantly. I'm betting your 'uniques' are few and far between when compared with a year ago. All you have to do is look at the number of comments on the posts. Where'd everybody go...? That's not a rhetorical question.
Oh, and this is for Jack... no, it's not 1954, it's 1962. Do your research pal! Bwa ha ha!
Top ten signs you have a bad travel agent {Gadling}
Jun 24th 2008 2:40PM Saw it. Very funny, and WAAAYYYY too close to being accurate, at least some of the time.
My favourite travel agent horror story is one about an aspect of travel and tourism I had never encountered before (nor since, come to think of it). This happened back in December 2001 on a trip to Fiji (I'll keep it short).
Has anyone ever heard of a 'waiting hotel'...?
Apparently it's a 'scheme' dreamed up by travel agents and (likely) hotels/motels for air passengers who arrive in the middle of the night at their penultimate destination. They have four to six hours to kill between flights, but it's already 2AM (in my case) and the next flight leaves promptly at 7AM. Not much point in getting a room, but still - you need a place to hang out. Welcome to the 'waiting hotel'.
The idea is that you can hang around the lobby, drink the free juice and coffee, use the restroom, read a book, whatever. The problem in my case was that the hotel that was assigned to me had signs posted saying, 'No Loitering'. In other words, 'waiting' was not allowed - nothing to see here Johnny, move along!
When I showed the night manager my 'hotel confirmation', I was told that if I wanted to stay I had to pay for a room. I pointed out that I had already pre-paid $20 for this 'waiting' privilege. Not enough for a room, I was told.
I explained the situation a little more succinctly and the truth came out... albeit in bits and pieces. Apparently travel agents had been doing this for some time with various hotels in the area (in and around Nadi Airport). However, these same agents had stopped checking with the hotels to see if they still allowed the practice. This one didn't.
They had stopped six months prior because one evening 106 passengers showed up, all with their 'confirmations', requesting permission to 'wait' in the lobby! This particular hotel had only forty rooms.
Subsequent investigation on my part discovered that this specific travel agent -- the first and last time I engaged their services! -- was well aware that the hotel I was sent to had indeed ceased honoring the practice. She told me she thought I would just 'fend for myself' for a few hours. What about the $20, I said... among other choice bits of language!
Perhaps there needs to be a top ELEVEN list!
From the New Europe: About skinning children and feeding the raw flesh to relatives... {Gadling}
Jun 24th 2008 12:50PM Are you completely insane?! How in the name of all that is holy does this lurid piece of sensationalist trash end up on a travel website such as Gadling?
I'm guessing that has to be the ultimate rhetorical question, and that there really is no reasonable answer.
Your posts have always been weak, badly written, poorly edited, mean spirited diatribes, but this takes the cake. Do the Gadling readership a favor and give it up.
You missed your calling, truly. You would have fit right in writing captions for Ogrish.com!
Photo of the Day (06.20.08) {Gadling}
Jun 20th 2008 12:25PM Actually, Nick, I know for a fact there's no Photoshop involved in this picture at all - Gastown really does look like that. In fact, most of Vancouver looks like that.
As a Vancouverite I feel it necessary to state that we're all colorful and yet understated (sometimes unreal - too true!) And by the way, we invented insouciance!
Continental Airlines to join Star Alliance {Gadling}
Jun 19th 2008 9:18PM This is especially good news to Canadians living on the West Coast who are tired of paying top dollar through Air Canada and such for flights to desired sun spots.
This now means that us 'West Coasters' can short hop on AirCan (appropriately named!) to Seattle, and then take Continental (just named Best North American airline by OAG fifth year running) from Seattle to places like Belize (through Houston). Trust me - the price difference is about half, and time in the air is reduced significantly.
I have to say, the best economy class service I've ever received on an airplane was on a Continental flight to Ixtapa. So good, it remains one of the highlights of the trip. And no, I don't work for the airline!
Is four days too short for a trip to Shanghai? {Gadling}
Jun 5th 2008 10:14AM Of course four days is too short - four days is too short to visit anywhere (except maybe Gitmo!).
However, I spent a day and and a half there a few years back and it was brilliant! Go, you must - yes.
Four ways to join the Mile High Club {Gadling}
Jun 1st 2008 11:18AM Well, it's certainly NOT a myth, as I (and many, MANY others) could testify to. But why limit it to the lav, which as 'ME' suggests above is nasty and stinky (not to mention requires the skills of a contortionist!)
An overnight flight in a blacked-out cabin with a strategically placed blanket and a little -- how shall I say... sleight of hand -- can make that transcontinental / transoceanic flight quite memorable (the complimentary packet of salted nuts notwithstanding).
And if I may offer the following observation... since most flights cruise at 35,000 to 37,000 feet, it really should be referred to as the SEVEN Mile High Club. Fact check, dammit!
'Unethical' Lonely Planet author not really that unethical after all, though he wants us to think so for the sake of promoting his own book {Gadling}
Apr 14th 2008 12:37PM I've been following this discussion since it broke like most interested readers. I've been travelling incessantly for the better part of 30 years and have my likes and dislikes about guide books from all sources, not just LP. I've also been privy to some of the comments from within the publishing circle - some harsh, some -- surprisingly -- taking a 'so what' approach. Ethics aside for the moment, my question is a relaively simple one, and one I haven't seen addressed anywhere else: Was Kohnstamm's take on Colombia accurate? Did it differ demonstrably from what went before, or in other guide books on the subject? As for the comment above about Kohnstamm being a "...self-aggrandizing shill/hack...", it's called PR - Kohnstamm knows it and apparently so does his publisher. This entire situation will play out over the coming days and weeks, and, while not as 'pressing' as, say, Hillary v. Obama, it will have an impact on the industry. I, for one, believe it needs a bit of shake.
