Monday, February 28, 2011

Rental Cars

Time for the Car Rental post.

Yet again another industry that's suffering from consolidation, but overall that consolidation hasn't hurt the service as much as it has the airlines. At least not so far, and not from my perspective.

All I want from a rental car company is a clean, functioning vehicle that doesn't take me too long to pick up and return.

I've used the big 2, Hertz and Avis. I also use National quite a bit, and have experience with Enterprise, Alamo, Budget, and Dollar. But the majority of my experience has been with Avis and National.

If I'm correct (I could check to be sure, but don't care that much), Enterprise owns National and Alamo. Budget and Dollar have faded substantially, and seem to be disappearing from many airports.

Recent news reports about shoddy maintenance at some of the companies notwithstanding, I have never been stranded by a rental car breakdown.

Only once did I show up at my destination to find out Avis was out of cars; they'd had a weather event that slowed returns and stopped deliveries. I was pretty unhappy at first, but just had to hang out in the airport for a couple of hours until a delivery of cars arrived, then they gave me a premium vehicle for my trouble. So in the end, it wasn't too terrible.

The best experiences with rental cars are at airports where the cars can be picked up in the parking garage right across from the terminal. Smaller airports where they're parked in a lot right outside baggage claim are preferred as well.

But many big airports, especially those with an offsite rental car facility that can only be reached by bus, make the rental car pickup painful. Chalk up another reason I don't like the northeast - Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC are the worst places in the country to have to pick up a rental car. In those airports, buses might not show up for 20 minutes, while renters crowd the sidewalk and fight for a space on the bus when it finally arrives.

In those cold-weather cities, returns often have to be made outside in the rain and snow, where returning rental customers shiver in the cold while waiting for the agent to finally get you checked in. Just my luck, when I've had to wait to be checked in the longest, the agent's likely to run out of paper on his little portable receipt printer or the battery will die. It's unspeakably irritating to have to go inside to check your car in after you've already been waiting in the cold for the agent.

The best situation I've found when on a longer-term project, where the rental agents get to know me. It seems that once they recognize me and begin to call me by name, I notice I get checked in a bit quicker, and they're more likely to give me a better upgrade. Another advantage of the smaller airports over the giant ones.

Like hotels but perhaps worse, government's favorite place to collect outrageous taxes and fees is the rental car. Just last week I was in Minneapolis, renting from the MSP airport. I got a pretty good deal on a full-size car for the week, only $205.

But wait, $205 is just the rental rate. When I returned the car, I was actually charged almost $290. The extra 80-plus dollars? Taxes and fees. Assessments from the state, the city, the airport authority, and I suppose everybody else who has a palm that needs greased. Legalized theft is the only way to describe a 40 percent tax rate. Because most of us renters are from out of state, so we can complain all we want, but we don't vote for the officials who dreamed up all those taxes and fees.

The best rental car experiences can be found at a limited number of airports around the country. In those places, you walk out of the terminal and into the garage, where you see your name on the board and walk up to your car, hop in and drive to the exit, show your drivers license to the guard, and you're off. The company automatically upgraded you to a nice vehicle that's clean, has no strong odors (neither cigarette smoke nor disgusting air fresheners), has some power on the interstate, and gets you around nicely and in relatively decent style. Then when you return to the garage, the agent's there at your door as soon as you park, scanning the bar code and giving you the receipt just as you've pulled your bags out of the trunk and are ready to walk into the terminal.

The best thing about renting cars is that best experience actually does happen now and then.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Union Wars

Looking at the mess in Wisconsin is interesting. One of the things I discovered that seems pretty typical is that it took a couple of days before I could find out what the actual proposed Wisconsin law included. Instead, everywhere I turned in the news I was hammered with messaging, mostly from the union/left making it sound like Wisconsin's governor wants to destroy teachers' lives.

Now that I know what it's about, I'll leave it to others who are already arguing about whether it's fair or unfair. Instead, I'd like to focus on the longer view ramifications of the events.

The Wisconsin Democrat Senators have run away to shut down the ability of that house to vote on the new law, because they have no way of stopping it. It would seem that their hope is to delay the vote long enough while using out-of-state protesters to shout loudly enough that just maybe they can change the minds of Wisconsin's general population. Because, whatever any of us think of the merits of the law itself, my best understanding right now is that Wisconsin's people support it by a fairly large margin.

I'm hearing today that Indiana is trying to repeat Wisconsin's walkout. If true that Indiana's Democrat lawmakers have fled to stop a vote on my own state's law (I don't know yet if they're running from Mitch's Education Reform package or the newly introduced Right to Work Bill).

It seems to me to be outrageous that all these Wisconsin teachers skipped out of school for a week (did the schools re-0pen there this week? I haven't heard). Regardless of the reason, were I a governor in a state where teachers shut down the schools for a week, I wouldn't have allowed it. After 2 days, I would have announced that the teachers have to be back in their classrooms the next day, or will be terminated for cause. I'm not sure whether a governor has the authority to do so, but if he doesn't, I think he should.

Right to Work laws like what was proposed this week in Indiana weaken the union, because lots of folks will decide to keep their dues, which I heard range between $800 and $1200 per year. If somebody doesn't think all that money buys them much, or objects to the way it is spent, they're going to opt out.

Some are arguing whether or not there's even a need to have union representation for public employees. Why do teachers need a union at all these days? I suppose to answer that, we'd have to have some idea of what teachers would face in terms of salary and benefits were it not for their union.

There are those who suggest there's a sort of soft corruption at work here. When Democrats get to run state and local governments, they have the incentive to give lots of goodies to teachers, because teachers unions give millions of dollars to Democrat candidates.

I heard one of the MSNBC talkers suggest that if Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and other states succeed in passing their union-weakening legislation, the ultimate result will be a weakening or destruction of the Democrat party. It will certainly weaken the party in terms of fundraising if unions become weaker and less able to fund their candidates, but I don't think for a second it will destroy liberalism.

The numbers haven't changed. A third of the population is liberal, a third is conservative, and the remaining third are somewhere in between. The left and right aren't fighting over their own voters, they're fighting over the impressionable middle. Obama and the Dems won in 08 because the folks in the middle were tired of W and the folks on the right weren't impressed with McCain.

Now we find out what the Obama and the Democrats really want, and two-thirds of us ran away from that agenda as fast as our legs can carry us. We went back to the right with the hope they could bring some sanity back to government, and the new guys are doing exactly what they promised.

If it works, they'll stay. If it doesn't work, they'll get replaced. I don't think we'll get the Left back in charge anytime soon, though.

I wonder if the states have anything in their constitutions that provides for action against lawmakers who purposely deny a quorum during legislative sessions to try to hold up legislation? Maybe it's time for such action: Arrest, impeachment, some sort of action that makes them think twice next time.

It will be interesting to see this play out. My fear is we're sliding rapidly into chaos, and am worried about what will happen or is already happening in the Muslim world while we're fighting with each other.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Hotels

Today's road warrior post is about hotels.

Unlike airlines, hotels generally must compete for our business. As a business traveler, I am very experienced with the various hotels that exist in the market space known as "business class" lodging.

My two favorite families are Hilton and Marriott. Both are fairly consistent and predictable in quality, cleanliness, and service. Others are pretty good as well, but no matter where you're going, you're likely to find a decent option nearby that's part of one of these two families.

Something I find interesting lately is that the old traditional "premium" hotels, including the big Hiltons and Marriotts, are not my first choice.

For example, I was recently in a DoubleTree, which is a relatively high-priced Hilton hotel that's more traditional, sort of upscale. I didn't like it much.

Marble and brass fixtures don't impress me much, especially when there's mildew on the shower curtain. Add in the limited channel selection on the flat screen TV that doesn't have any HD, and I'd prefer to get a room in the La Quinta down the street.

My favorite hotels that I'll take whenever it's even remotely an option are the Homewood Suites from Hilton and the Residence Inn from Marriott. I like the apartment-style hotels with the full kitchen, and wish it was an option more often.

After those, I like the Embassy Suites.

Where I am most likely to be these days is the Hampton Inn. Country Inns are pretty common. And I often have to suffer with Quality and Comfort Inns, which are cheap and favored by my clients but mostly blue-collar places.

This is another of those things that changed over the years. In the 90's I stayed in lots of suite hotels, Holiday Inn's Crown Plaza, JW Marriott, and a variety of resort and luxury hotels. These days I hardly ever get to stay in those places, while the clients save money.

The things I hope for in a hotel and am happiest when I find them include these:

1. Clean room (especially bathroom) and comfortable bed
2. A good breakfast buffet or restaurant with fast service and good food
3. Either a decent restaurant in the hotel or 2-3 good restaurants nearby (preferably in walking distance). Room service available for those nights I'm working late.
4. Decent selection of channels, HD, and flat-panel TV
5. Reliable internet access without extra charges
6. A decent work desk with plenty of power outlets and a comfortable office chair
7. USA Today under the door in the morning (although I'm getting more of my news online and this is becoming less important)
8. Fast, friendly check-in
9. If not a kitchen in the room, at least a fridge and microwave
10. Comfortable chair - I really like rooms with a recliner.

Hilton and Marriott both have pretty good frequent stay programs. Lately I've been mostly using Hilton for vacations, and they're pretty good about availability (unlike the airlines).

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Temporary Sidetrack on Budget

The news on the federal budget arguments got me too disgusted, so I feel the urge to break into my road warrior series to expound a bit.

We're way past due for a conversation about the appropriate role of government. And getting the federal budget mess to some sort of reasonableness is the place for that conversation.

Let's put this into a series of questions.

Homeland Security & the TSA: Can anyone prove that building this massive new bureaucracy has made us more safe from terrorists than we were before 9/11? Is there any evidence that this new organization has been a positive addition over the existing law enforcement and intelligence organizations it has duplicated?

Education Department: What is one single federal initiative from the Department of Education that has improved education for any kid in America?

EPA and Energy Departments: What have these bloated bureaucracies favored by Obama done to improve anyone's ability to get and use energy? Is there any positive program out of these massive agencies that have made any of our lives better in any way? Why are we quietly accepting their massive handouts to Democrat-friendly corporations (ie General Electric) using our tax money?

Public Broadcasting: If this organization is truly by and for the people, why are we forced to support them through federal taxation? To be truly "Public", shouldn't it be up to the public to support and maintain?

Healthcare: Who decided citizen healthcare was the business of the federal government? Why have we allowed the government to take 3.5 percent of every bit of all our earned income to give to the healthcare industry to pay for medical care and drugs for our retirees after skimming a very large percentage off the top to pay the bureaucrats? Why does the federal government have a Medicaid program for the "poor" that is duplicative and and unfunded mandate that is bankrupting every state in the union? Why did we allow the corrupt bureaucrats in DC to create this mess?

Fannie & Freddie: Why do these federal government poster children for massive corruption still exist at all?

Foreign Aid: Why do we keep giving billions to countries that hate us?

Can the budget be balanced? Sure, but only if we can invent a sanity drug that we can put in aerosol form and spray over Washington DC, suddenly curing everyone in the district of their mental and ethical diseases.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Airlines

My perspective as a frequent traveler on airlines and air travel is admittedly a bit jaded. Beginning in the late 80's, I was flying on a fairly regular basis, which became a constant from '93 through today.

Much has changed over those decades, as I have the experience to attest.

In the beginning, I found the experience of air travel reasonably pleasant. From the gate agents who checked me in to the flight crews on the plane, once upon a time I was made to feel like a valued customer. Service was generally pretty good, airline employees were friendly, security screenings were much less intrusive, and we received actual meals during most flights.

Now the ground agents are more likely to be surly and put-upon, security is a personal violation, seating is more cramped and uncomfortable, flight attendants are less attentive, and you're lucky to get a watered-down Coke and a half-dozen peanuts even on the longer flights.

From my perspective, I'd also have to point out there also more misbehaving passengers.

The obvious change happened after 9/11. Now the government owns the security screening franchise, and does what is very predictable whenever they are in charge. They can't use smart screening methods that identify and screen folks more likely to have evil intentions; instead they choose to expose literally everyone and their grandmothers to intrusive high-radiation scanning and/or embarrassing pat-downs.

The long lines and requirements to strip off shoes and jackets and belts combine to make the security screening process a major disincentive to flying. Trips I would have taken in the air before I now choose to drive - I'll get a rental car and drive up to 8 hours away before I'll subject myself to the TSA.

We can't really blame the airlines for TSA. But I can blame the airlines for many other sins, some of which have been committed with full knowledge and cooperation with that same over-intrusive federal government.

First and foremost, consolidation of the airlines has led to virtual monopolies and practically no competition in the industry. For many destinations, there's only one airline that can get you there. And that airline can charge whatever they like for the trip.

Name another industry in the world (except maybe the oil industry), where the companies in the industry employ practices designed to gouge and mistreat their best customers. Airlines mistreat their best customers, the business travelers, through multiple policies that, were there any competition available, would have frequent travelers flocking to the upstart airline that simply chose to stop gouging them.

Change fees is one of the most unfriendly policies to the business traveler. Say you're in a city for meetings, and things wrap up a day early. Only a few years ago, you simply call the airline and ask for a seat on an earlier flight. If there's a seat available, you're on the flight, no problem.

No longer. Same scenario, including the fact there are plenty of seats available on the earlier flight. But to get on the flight, you have to pay the Change Fee, which could be a couple hundred dollars, but that's not all: In addition to the Change Fee, you also have to pay the "Fare Difference".

Say when you booked the flight, the fare was $500. Now you're calling to move your return trip up a day, and you agree to pay the Change Fee. Then the agent tells you that the fare for that same flight is now $1,000. So you have to pay the additional fare on top of the change fee. In many cases, the change in your flight plans has cost you more than the original ticket.

Which brings me back to the monopoly issue. The few airlines left that control the marketplace are American and Delta. Beyond those two behemoths, there's United (merging with Continental) and US Airways. Then there are the regional and economy carriers, most notable among them Southwest.

The airline I've been flying pretty much exclusively is Delta. I'm not a fan of Delta, but was a Gold level flyer with Northwest before the merger, so it pretty much locked me in unless I wanted to start over with one of the other big boys. American's frequent flyer program is the poorest among the carriers and United is a horrible airline all-around, so there's no reason to switch.

Southwest is only a good alternative on certain routes. If you can get a direct flight on Southwest to the city you need to visit, it is a good alternative. Although they have no first class, their coach seats are roomier and more comfortable than the other airlines. They've partially improved their open seating by boarding group, but I still don't really like not having an assigned seat. Unless you check in extremely early, you're going to board last and probably have to squeeze into a middle seat.

Otherwise, Southwest doesn't play the games with fees and other hated practices of the others. Their staff is more friendly, but the amatuer comedian flight attendants can take their act a bit beyond appropriate levels.

US Airways is the only choice for many northeastern destinations. Since I don't particularly like the northeast (as I've written about in the previous post), I don't fly them often. The experience I do have with them rates about even with Delta.

I actually sort of liked Northwest until Delta gobbled them up. Even though everyone was angry with management for the past few years before the merger, their gate agents and flight attendants I found to be very friendly and helpful. Their frequent flyer program was also very good for me, contrasted with Delta's.

Frequent flyer programs are judged on how many miles it takes to get a free flight, then how easy (or difficult) it is to actually redeem that flight. Northwest was the best program on these counts. When Delta took over, those benefits were lost almost immediately.

Here's what Northwest typically didn't do to me, but Delta does (and I understand American and United also do to their frequent flyers): You want to take a family vacation, and have planned ahead a few months. The base miles you need for a coach ticket anywhere in North America is 25,000. So you try to redeem 50,000 miles for two coach tickets, say to Florida.

You find out there are no seats available for frequent flyer miles. So you try alternate dates around the general time period you want to take the trip. Still no luck. But if you will give up 50,000 miles per seat, you can get on a flight. So it ends up requiring 100,000 frequent flyer miles instead of 50,000 miles for the two of you to take that vacation.

Why do they do that? Because they can. Here's how to find out just how abusive their system is: Sign on and start the process of booking that vacation flight without trying to use miles. Don't purchase the flight of course, but go far enough to pull up the seating chart for the flight you're looking to book. You'll see the seating is wide open - there might be no more than 8 or 10 seats reserved so far.

What Delta has done is set a super-secret limit on the number of 25,000 mile seats they will make available on each flight. When those seats are gone, it goes up to 50,000 miles per seat, also a super-secret number. When those seats are gone, just forget using miles for that flight.

Makes me angry just writing it.

I'd like to start a new airline. On my airline, every seat is a first class seat. Pricing for every flight is clearly published. Discounts and specials will be available, but clearly published with easy-to-understand deadlines and requirements. Meals are served on all flights over 800 miles. Our non-union employees will be given an incentive-based pay structure that guarantees them a share in profitability for helping make and keep the airline in the black. The frequent flyer program allows redemption on any flight that's not sold out 14 days before departure. Frequent flyer miles do not expire. Flight attendants are friendly, luggage delivery is the most reliable in the industry, nobody ever gets bumped from a confirmed flight, check-in is easy and fast. A free priority screening program would be provided (got to figure out how to get that through the TSA) that lets our passengers bypass the long lines and allows them to obtain a card exempting them from the radiation or pat-down.

Business travelers, and probably lots of other folks, would flock to my airline.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Characterizing America

The beginning of my travel theme is a discussion of the character of different regions of America. I've been to every state in the union, except Alaska, Idaho, and Vermont. I've met and worked with people from the remaining 47 states, or I might suggest 48 if one considers DC.

First I should make clear that these are general impressions and observations based on personal experiences. This post should not be taken as an indictment of everyone in a given region, nor a blanket hug to everyone in another. There are always exceptions, and many times I've encountered some of those exceptions to the general characterization I've assigned to various parts of the country.

Now where should I start? I'll begin with the places I find most hospitable and friendly.

Although I choose to live in Indiana and it has been my home for the vast majority of my life, unfortunately it doesn't make the cut for hospitality and friendliness.

The place I've found most friendly? Texas.

Texans are terrific hosts, very friendly, and overall wonderful folks at work. When in Texas, I've been invited to social events and parties and even to family homes for dinner after work. That happens pretty much nowhere else.

Texans seem sincerely interested in getting to know me and making me comfortable while visiting their communities to a degree I've found nowhere else in my travels. At work, they tend to be rather laid back, in many ways like most of the folks in the South. But unlike folks in the southeast, Texans are focused on getting the job done on time - they just choose not to get stressed over meeting those deadlines.

The rest of the "Old South", that is all the states east of Texas and below the Mason-Dixon line, also are friendly and laid back. In hospitality terms, they may not measure up to Texas' standards, but definitely come in second.

Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas are filled with polite and pleasant folks. They're taught civility and respect, and still refer to each other with "sir" or "ma'am". I don't hear much course language in those states, and they're also more likely than other regions of the country to be considerate and hospitable to out-of-state visitors like my, even though I am a "yankee".

I actually believe I can pick out the various southern dialects. Naturally I can easily differentiate a Texan from a Carolinian or Georgian. I also believe I can pick out the Cajun drawl from the Louisiana bayous over their southern neighbors.

Oklahoma is sort of like Texas, and Arkansas seems to straddle the line between the OK/TX personality and LA/MS.

Florida doesn't really fit with the rest of the southeast. So many in Florida are transplants that I can't characterize the sunshine state as a whole. The panhandle is more Alabama, the interior seems sort of midwestern, Miami is Cuban, and Palm Beach to Lauderdale are sort of like New York City South.

The southwest, Arizona and New Mexico, I group into a separate category from the hospitable Old South. Phoenix is full of transplants from everywhere else, therefore I can't really assign it a specific character. I've encountered folks from California and Utah, the midwest, Mexico, and miscellaneous other places who've settled in Phoenix, although the proportion of hispanic immigrants seems to have exploded in recent years. Perhaps part of the reason for the recent immigration controversies there.

I've enjoyed my time in New Mexico, where I've worked with many native folks, or American Indians to be more descriptive. They're generally friendly enough I suppose, but seem a bit wary of outsiders.

Working my way up the West Coast, I have to start with California. Southern California is to me like visiting a different country. Their economy, overcrowding, smog, and "diversity" sets southern California apart from everywhere else in America. I wouldn't consider Southern California a hospitable place, having few experiences where folks were anything more than focused on the business at hand.

Once in Los Angeles, I received this unsolicited statement from one of the managers of the company I was consulting with:

"We (hispanics) have taken control of Los Angeles. This city belongs to us."

I hadn't made any statements or asked any questions to prompt her statement, but apparently she had a message she felt she needed to share with the white guy from out of state.

Northern California is very different from Southern California. Getting away from San Francisco, I feel like I could be back home in the midwest, albeit with mountains and better weather.

I can't characterize San Fransisco any differently than this: "strange". Not everyone is strange there, of course, but I have to say I've met more folks in San Fran than anywhere else that leave me a bit dumbfounded. They're so different from me in nearly every respect that it's easy to suspect they may have dropped into SFO via some other planet.

Oregon, and to a somewhat lesser degree Washington, are places I would describe as Yuppie Paradise. They're full of trendy folks who look like second-generation hippies. People in Oregon especially seem very much into the latest fads, gave birth to exotic designer coffees via Starbucks, eat strange vegan stuff, and are rabid environmentalists.

Otherwise I find them a bit aloof and elitist.

Let's move onto the midwest. There are certainly differences between Chicago and Detroit, between Indianapolis and Kansas City, between St Louis and Columbus (Ohio). It could take a book to go into those finer points, but I still will generally lump the midwest together.

The midwest is still largely farm country, and I may be most comfortable with the farmers. They plant and harvest crops, raise livestock, love meat and potatoes, and are common-sense, no-nonsense folks.

Midwesterners tend to be taciturn and not very gregarious. They're focused on the job at hand, and don't really spend much time thinking about being hospitable to their out-of-town visitors. They're not inhospitable necessarily, just very practical.

I'll wrap up with my least favorite part of the country - the NorthEast. The one place I will only go if there isn't work anywhere else is New York City.

The people that have given me the most grief over my years consulting? New Yorkers.

New Yorkers are rude, use foul language, and have made a sport out of figuring out ways to cheat. The ones I've worked with in the past are most likely to dispute an invoice, making up reasons that range from irrelevant to completely false.

Where people in most of the rest of the country are essentially fair and will back up their word or honestly do business on a handshake, those characteristics do not apply in New York. I have learned to never deliver anything to a New Yorker that hasn't been specifically contracted in writing ahead of time, even if he "gives his word" that he'll honor the verbal agreement. When the bill comes, he'll deny ever having the conversation.

Not all the Northeast is as bad as NYC. I generally like the folks in Upstate New York, places like Buffalo and Niagara Falls. There are some folks in New Jersey that are pretty good to work with as well, once you get away from the greater New York area. I've enjoyed Maine and New Hampshire, but would prefer to avoid Boston. Cape Cod is a place I always enjoyed visiting.

I haven't dealth with Virginia (which I like) or DC (which is a mixed bag). There's lots more I could get into about the regions of the country, like the differences and rivalries between the Wisconsin cheeseheads and Chicagoans. But I've been typing on this post too long already.

Right now, I'd just like an assignment somewhere warm to get away from this awful winter weather!